Trump Wants Apple To Manufacture In US

Trump wants Apple along with other tech giants to house their manufacturing plants in the US

As per a recent speech by Donald Trump, the Republican Presidential Candidate has talked about pushing the tech behemoths like Apple Inc. to house their manufacturing and production plants back in the United States. If the business giant gets elected as the President of United States, then the tech fraternity might just have to alter its course and start operation as per the likes of Trump.

Gizmodo, the tech blogging platform was extremely fast in reporting the comments made by Donald Trump while he addressed the Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. During this speech, he seized the opportunity to criticize Ms. Hillary Clinton, another Presidential Candidate regarding ways to combat the present immigrant and defense issues in the US. He wishes that these tech giants create employment opportunities for the locals instead of getting labor from foreign countries.

“We are going to do what’s good for the country,” Mr. Trump stated. “We’re going to get things coming. We’re going to get Apple to build its damn computers in this country instead of other countries.” According to the present data, United States has lost 50,000 manufacturing plants and 10 million jobs due to the labor outsourcing trend. However, no particular statistics were presented regarding the iPhone maker.

Mr. Trump believes that the Americans are getting killed. He also suggested that big companies like Ford need to be taxes for outsourcing services. If such an initiative is taken then companies will operate their plants in the United States. “Free trade is good. But we have to do it. Or we won’t have a country left,” claimed Trump.

Ironically, Mr. Trump is certainly not aware of the fact that his promises sound quite vague, ridiculous and implausible. The Apple iPhone giant relies on mass production plants and cheap labor to function. This makes countries like China the best possible choice to get maximum margins. Moreover, another reason why the company has partnered with China is not just minimizing costs but because it has tied the know with the best manufacturer in the form of Foxconn.

Hence, the idea put forward Mr. Trump is not wrong since it will benefit the US economy tremendously. However, it needs to be noted that the tech companies are also operating on margins which cannot be met with operating in the United States. Most tech companies in the world operate in Asia since the cost is relatively minimal in these regions. Tech giants might not just like Mr. trump getting elected now.

Chinese Citizens Want Google To Make A Come Back

Chinese masses have vowed to ban using Baidu for its ill activities

China has finally come up with its answer for Google where Baidu is now more than a search engine. The China based Internet giant is the owner of several other services that are similar to Spotify, Google Maps, Netflix, Groupon etc. most of the company’s offering are readily being used in the region where its search engine reigned over the Chinese market even before Alphabet Inc. decided to bid farewell to the land due to the censorship issues.

Recently, there were tens of thousands of Chinese locals that have vowed to stop using Baidu completely. It was observed that the Beijing based company has been churning in profits by fooling chronically ill users by providing them biased information through its “post bar” service via the chat rooms.

The service was launched in 2003. Tieba or Baidu Post Bar is basically a big online fraternity that has almost 19 million discussion platforms that cater to various sectors such as lifestyle, entertainment and current affairs. There are several illness related post bars on Tieba that cater to masses as an online support group. Patients are given the opportunity to discuss their experience, talk about their medical history and share their experiences.

The post bar groups by Tieba are governed by administrators who are called bar owners who are responsible to manage the comments and delete the ones that are not appropriate. In most cases, these people are the ones who have founded the particular group, or who have immense knowledge of the subject and are several people assigned for a particular group.

What caused disruption recently was when the Chinese users deduced that at least one of the administrators of these groups which was for people suffering with serious illness was being governed by an individual who had bought the position. He used the platform to market wrong medical facilities and in case e got criticism, he used to delete that.

A bar owner that belonged to a hemophilia group recently stated that on the Zhihu platform, the Chinese Q&A platform that the owners were removed without confrontation. This caused immense hatred from the locals who have vowed to bid farewell to Baidu.

The search engine giant left the region due to the strict Chinese laws but no with the controversy regarding Baidu, the masses want GOOG back in the reach which did not have any evil intention like Baidu. In no way anyone is allowed to fool around with human life like the Chinese giant did.

Nike Signs $10 Million Partnership With The Portland Bureau of Transportation

The multinational sportswear company signs a deal worth $10 million to sponsor a bike sharing system in Portland.

Nike, Inc. and the Portland Bureau of Transportation, worth $10 million, have signed a 5-year partnership. This is a sponsorship for the latest bike sharing system established by the city, which is expected to launch in July 2016.

The program was to be launched with 600 bikes for the sharing system, but thanks to Nike, 400 more bikes will be added to the program that would bring the total number of bikes to 1000 along with over 100 bike stations. Through the partnership with the sportswear apparel manufacturer, more Portlanders will be able to avail the service all over the city. It is likely to be carried through winter and spring.

The vice president of global community impact at Nike, Jorge Casimiro, said that at the company, the management believes that (any) sport has the power to move the world and ‘unleash the human potential’. He added, “It’s who we are, it’s been in our DNA from day one, and we share the city’s commitment to a vibrant, active and innovative community.”

However, the Bureau of Transportation stated that this new program is super easy and fun to use – it is an excellent way of attracting new visitors and tourists, simply to get around the city. It also says that this package will shed some light on the city itself.

The pricing put on the package is $2.50 for the first hour and then it varies with the increase in the number of hours. These bikes have GPS installed in them in case someone tries to steal them. Furthermore, it puts a hold on the customers’ credit card when they use it. The multinational sports apparel giant also plans to introduce limited edition bike designs, which will be made available later, according to PBOT officials.

In other news, Nike stock has been down by 2.67% as the market declined on Thursday. The shares are being traded at a stock price of $59.85, while the current market capitalization of the multinational development corporation is 104.80 billion. At the trading session on Thursday, the stock was seen hitting a high of $61.26 and a low of $59.78; it was seen fluctuating between these two prices.

The one-year high and low of share price of the business was seen at $68.19 and $45.35 per share respectively. The earnings per share reported were 1.84 with the price to earnings ratio of 32.61. Institutional investors own over 167% of the shares.

McDonalds Is Coming Up With A Futuristic Restaurant

McDonald's Next will be a unique concept changing the future of burger joints

Hong Kong is coming up with a new restaurant that will be one of a kind. This restaurant will be very different in comparison to the other conventional burger outlets. McDonald’s Corporation comes up with McDonalds Next will serve unique items like crayfish, quinoa, and asparagus.

This will be a way to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the fast food giant in Hong Kong, the company has come up with an outlet that is extremely modern known as McDonald’s Next as reported by BrandChannel.

The new outlet will be situated at Admiralty – the shopping hub which will take the Create Your Taste initiative to a whole new level where customization will be given extreme importance. There will be touchscreens kiosks where the Create Your Taste menu will be offered allowing the consumers to make their chicken sandwiches and burgers on their own.  Apart from that at McDonald’s Next there will be a salad option that is customizable that will be asparagus, couscous, crayfish and quinoa.

Apart from this, the menu will comprise of a Belgian waffles with loads of coffee beans along with berries as an add on. The restaurant will offer service on table to clients after 6 p.m and service will continue till 1 a.m.

McDonald Next is an inspiration taken from other modern fast food chains that are evolving at a rampant pace. The restaurant will have ample space that will be illuminated using chic lighting and a metallic surface. The company considers its kitchen theatrical and has a glass counter boasting of all ingredients making the McDonalds menu glamorous.

The restaurant will also cater to connectivity since the Hong Kong based restaurant will have WiFi connectivity along with charging stations for smartphones. The customers who visit the outlet have been asked to post their creations on the social media with a hashtag #createyourtastehk.

Over the past couple of years, the company has been trying its best to test new concepts and menu offerings which will nullify the company’s previous perception of being cheap and a simple burgers and chips joint. This is a smart move as now the company can attract a whole new consumer base that has a better spending power.

According to Business Insider, “McDonald’s Canada is opening a McCafe concept shop serving items such as a quinoa edamame mandarin salad, a kale and Brussels sprouts salad, and an apple and brie croissant with honey. Even at traditional McDonald’s locations, the company is testing offerings such as sweet potato fries in Texas and table service in Southern California.  “

Apple Asks U.S. Court For $180 Million In On-Going Battle With Samsung Electronics

The Silicon Valley giant has asked the court of the United Stated another $180 million for the damages and interest by Samsung Electronics.

The ongoing battle between Apple, Inc. and Samsung Electronics has become furious as recently the Silicon Valley giant has asked a court in United States to be awarded $180 million for the ongoing litigation. According to the multinational technology corporation, the said amount has the total worth of the devices that the Korean giant sold which infringed patents.

On Wednesday, according to the court papers that were filed, the Korean tech organization owes Apple $180 million in supplemental damages as well as interest. Earlier this month, a decision was made in the court as per which, the Korean company was supposed to give $548 million in damages to the tech company. The new claim was followed by this judgment. On this decision, the South Korean smartphone manufacturer made an appeal to the Supreme Court of United States in hopes of reversing this claim.

The Galaxy manufacturer is evidently challenging the decision of the Court and is requesting it to revise the claims made by Apple, and check the specifications of the patents. Furthermore, it asked the court to review the process of accessing the damages as well.

This fight has been going on for a long time and ended in 2012, after the court made the final decision of announcing Samsung as the culprit, suggesting that it did infringed on a number of devices of the Californian technology business. For this complaint, the damages, which the Korean company was supposed to pay, were worth $1 billion that were later brought down to $548 million.

Both tech giants have been major competitors in the industry and have been constantly aiming at the top stop in the smartphone market. Even with all the competition, both companies support each other as well. For instance, Samsung, over the years, has provided Apple with a number of device components. Despite of being supportive to each other, in light of the recent events, it can be concluded that both companies have been falling apart more quickly than ever.

However, on the other hand, the current year has been a good year for the Californian organization as its revenues went up by 27% as of September. The profits of the smartphone business were up by 35% to $53.5 billion. The dividend also witnessed a hike and was seen at $1.98 per share indicating an increase of 9%.

As of December 23, 2015, Apple Stock was down by 2% but still holds a majority rating of “Buy” by analysts.

GoPro Intends To Lead Drone Market By Building Future Drone Platform Foundations

The action camera manufacturer will be releasing GoPro Hero 5 early in 2016.

GoPro could be ‘the next big thing’ in the emerging drones market, according to TechCrunch.com. The camera manufacturer started working on drones a few months ago, merely because it does not want to lose a multibillion-market opportunity. It even claimed to provide the best levitating camera in the market, emphasizing the fact that it would run entirely without a pilot.

GoPro bought a 360-degree video software merchant in France by the name of Kolor, as it was developing a 360-degree video platform. After the acquisition of the France-based company, the chief executive officer became the Senior Director of Immersive Media Solutions at the action camera manufacturers.

Along with this change, it officially entered the market for 360-degree drone images and videos. Currently, the companies already working on such a device are Bublcam, Panono, Giroptic, but GoPro would be the only one that will provide perfect stabilization and image quality.

According to TechCrunch, immersive videos and images are the next most-demanded feature coming to the market. This allows a person to have a panoramic and spherical view. Along with this acquisition, it is entering the GPS-denied navigation space as well, since it acquired a company in Zurich, Switzerland, called Skybotix in September. This company has a five-year experience in the drone technology.

On the other hand, GoPro Hero 5 will not be releasing until early in 2016 and is said to release along with Karma Drone, as per reports by Bidnessetc.com. As stated by the website, the much-anticipated product will make its debut alongside the novel drone. The late release of the product comes as a disappointment as initially it was supposed to roll out in October 2015.

The reason for the delay was the company’s busy schedule while working on the camera of the device as it wants it to be a better product than its predecessor Hero 4. The reports on the device suggest that the new action camera device will be capable of shooting videos in high definition, 60 meters underwater. Currently, waterproofing is major seller point for devices.

As per news, it will be able to shoot 8k videos but a number of people said that it might become an issue for the organization as it is a feature which has not yet been supported by YouTube. The best fact about the product is that it has excellent battery capacity that, according to reports, will be able to work for 24 hours while recording videos.

Alibaba Makes An Investment Of $1.25 Billion In Ele.me

Chinese food delivery service is awarded with $1.25 billion of investment by Alibaba Group holding Ltd.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has made a $1.25 billion huge investment in another food delivery business, Ele.me. This shows that the E-commerce business is making its foothold even stronger in the food delivery services market. The online shopping business will now own almost 27.7% shares in Ele.me through this recent investment.

Alibaba Group’s 27.5% shares in the Ele.me make it the biggest shareholder in the starting service. Ele.me’s shares were reported to go up by $1.09 billion to date; it achieved its major fund of $630 million earlier in August. Most of the companies that invested in this food delivery service were the rival of the e-commerce giant including JD.com and Tencent Holdings.

Alibaba Company is turning to make investments in such businesses mainly because of the growing popularity and demand of the internet and the conveyance it provides to users enabling them place order online, booking and even shop thanks to such e-commerce companies. The Chinese giant is evidently very well aware of this development and is taking the necessary actions to attract more users to its platform instead of its rivals. This investment also helps the business stand head to head with its major rivals, and since the organization has a huge share in the startup business, it will automatically have a certain amount of authority and say in the food delivery business.

The e-commerce giant also has its own food delivery service but it is small, named Koubei, it is a joint venture with another, Ant Financial. Koubei might stand a chance to become bigger in the future if the e-commerce giant’s shares in Ele.me help it merge these two businesses of the same market together as one.

This deal is beneficial for the e-commerce giant’s O2O strategy, which is online to offline and offline to online and attracting more customers to online platforms rather than the physical stores. Its O2O investments as such include Alipay, which is China’s major mobile payments service. Ele.me, when translated means Hungry Now, is online to offline based. It consists of restaurant reviews and many other facilities. The e-commerce organization has so far invested almost $8 billion the previous year in businesses of this category, this aids the organization in having part I many of the application we have in our smartphones we use on a day-today basis.

BABA stock closed at $83.78 after going red by 1.20% on Thursday, December 24.