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GST structure for airlines: What's in store for economy, business class and lease rentals
GST tax slabs have turn out to lower in economic class tickets, while higher in business class tickets. However, analysts feels migration to GST would be largely neutral for airline sectors.
- Economic class tickets under GST tax slab of 5%
- Business class tickets under GST tax slab of 12%
- Airlines will pay GST of 5% for lease rentals
With airlines in India doing brisk business over the past few years on the back of rising incomes and cheaper air tickets due to low oil prices, Goods and Services Tax (GST) is likely to impact air travel.
If you are a frequent flier, you will witness effects of GST tax rates on your airfares henceforth.
GST tax structure in airlines
GST council has lowered the tax rate in economy class flight ticket to 5% from previous service tax of 6%.
However, it increased business class tickets at a GST tax slab of 12% versus previous service tax of 9%.
Moreover, airlines can only claim input tax credit (ITC) on input services for the economy class, while in case of business class they can claim ITC for spare parts, food items and other inputs excluding cost on aviation fuel turbine (ATF) as it falls under purview of GST.
The government has also levied a GST of 5% on lease rentals paid by airlines.
A major portion of the airline's revenue is generated from economy class as this segment offers higher amount of seats.
In India, airlines like Jet Airways, SpiceJet, Vistara and state-owned Air India offer business class seats.
Ashish Shah and Jiten Rushi, analysts at IDFC Securities believe that migration to the GST regime would be largely neutral for the airline sector.
In ICRA's view, these rates changes are not material, and should not have any major impact on the air passenger growth. However, the lowering of tax rate on economy class travel is line with the focus of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to make flying affordable for masses.
Ashutosh Somani and Nitin Agarwala, analysts at JM Financial expect economy tickets to benefit by 1% (6% to 5%). However, tickets other than economy to be costlier by 3% (9% to 12%).”
As per ClearTax, increase in business fare would be minimum and will probably not enough to deter business travellers from their travel plans.
While these airlines can use input credits to offset the tax liability - which arises from procurement of goods and service.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (pwc), in its earlier report said, “The carrier would need to have invoice-wise details of services rendered to passengers so as to pass the input tax credit of the GST charged to such business entities. Given the ecosystem of the GST Network for passing credit, carriers would need to upload details of tickets sold to B2B customers on the GST Network."
Airlines like Air India, Vistara and Jet Airways have already sent out communications informing their passengers that GSTIN details need to be submitted in order to avail the benefits.
Jet Airways said, “All guests traveling for business and who wish to claim the GST benefit for their travel will be required to complete a one-time registration on our website and enter the relevant details at the time of booking.”
It added, “Guests who have provided their GST details will receive an invoice, which will allow them to claim the GST paid for the ticket.”
One of the key concern could be higher cost the airlines would pay in lease rentals. For airlines operating in India, ATF, lease rentals, maintenance and employee benefit expenses account for over 70% of their cost.
Before GST, cross border aircraft leases carried out by scheduled airlines were not required to pay customs duty, central excise and VAT.
Airlines are already showing fare uptick in the first quarter of financial year 2017-18 (Q1FY18) supported by sequentially lower ATF prices and strong Indian Rupee.
In 1QFY18, ATF price declined by 5% on quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) (from Rs 55.4 per litre in 4QFY17) and increased 16% YoY (from Rs 45.4 per litre in 1QFY17) to Rs 52.7 per litre.
Motilal Oswal in its report said, “INR appreciation along with lower ATF prices and increased air ticket fares should result in sequentially higher profitability for airlines."
Get Latest Business News, Stock Market Updates and Videos; Check your tax outgo through Income Tax Calculator and save money through our Personal Finance coverage. Check Business Breaking News Live on Zee Business Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe on YouTube.


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Apple is Getting Ready for the iPhone 5 Launch
One of the biggest Chinese newspapers, China Times, reported this week that Apple has received a shipment of 400,000 iPhone 5 smartphones, that are to be tested before the release of 4,000,000 units this September. This article suggests that the big launch will take place in the second week of September.
Rumors from other iPhone publications and websites, like iPhone Italia, who heard this from an undisclosed executive at Swisscom, point towards a more exact release date, it being September 5, which is also Labor Day in the U.S. this year. A major product launch on a holiday is very unlikely and Apple hasn’t confirmed, denied or announced anything official.
More info from this report indicate that Apple will also launch the new iPad 3 around Thanksgiving this year and that it will be a big improvement over the current iPad. The device is being released later than it was initially thought due to component problems. Most analysts are skeptical that Apple will launch an upgrade to one of their best sellers, the iPad 2, only 9 months after it was introduced, while other analysts say we will see a new iPad this year in the form of an “iPad 2 Plus”, which will be a slightly improved iPad 2.
Apple has previously launched new iPhones at the Worldwide Developers Conference(WWDC), which is held in June, and most people were expecting the iPhone 5 back then. Attention now turns to September, when Apple normally holds its iPod focused event. Also, because the new operating system is scheduled to be released this Fall, it is expected that the iPhone 5 will be introduced at the same time as the iOS 5.
Apple and AT&T Preparing Staff for the iPhone 5 Release
According to Boy Genius Report(BGR), AT&T is expecting a large influx of customer in September. They have asked managers in locations all over the country to finish employee training so that they can be ready and available for the big number of people that will want to purchase an iPhone 5 immediately after its introduction.
Other reports show that Apple is increasing its staff in store locations around the United States and United Kingdom. Job listings have been posted on UK websites, looking for iPhone sales persons and specialists, and US Apple stores are asking former employees to return as part time employees for “new product launches”.
Whether these rumors are true or not, we will find out shortly. Apple is expected to announce something officially about the iPhone 5 any day now and they will most likely do that by the end of August.

domain: news


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(Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg vowed Wednesday to ban all flavored e-cigarettes and move to reduce tobacco use and nicotine exposure.
The former New York mayor said the move was necessary to protect children who he says are targeted by tobacco companies with products designed to attract them.
“Today one in four high school students are addicted to vaping and it’s a brand new thing. It’s so bad,” he said on ABC’s “The View.”
President Donald Trump made a similar pledge after a wave of respiratory illnesses and deaths linked to vaping, but later stepped back from the move, allowing menthol flavored e-cigarettes and any liquid flavorings that are not in a cartridge to remain on the market.
”President Trump promised to remove flavored e-cigarettes from the market back in September, but instead he has bent over backwards to protect the tobacco lobby’s profits,” Bloomberg said in a statement released by his campaign. “We need a leader who will stand up to the industry and protect our children’s health.”
Bloomberg released a new television ad faulting the Trump administration’s e-cigarette policy. He said he would direct the Food and Drug Administration to prohibit the sale of all flavored e-cigarettes and all menthol-flavored tobacco products, raise the federal cigarette tax by $1 per pack and increase taxes on other products like cigars and chewing tobacco.
Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
(Updates with quote in third paragraph)
To contact the reporter on this story: Magan Crane in Washington at firstname.lastname@example.org
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Wendy Benjaminson at email@example.com, Michael Shepard
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.


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Foxconn shares hit by bribery claims
Shares of Foxconn Technology Group, a main manufacturing contractor for Apple products like the iPhone, fell 1.6 per cent yesterday after the firm said some of its employees accepted bribes from suppliers and were under investigation by authorities.
The Taiwan-based and listed company said "a number of employees" were under investigation over allegations of taking bribes on a long-term basis from more than 30 suppliers, including mainland agents of Samsung, Panasonic and Sony.
The company received reports several months ago that its senior employees at the surface mount technology (SMT) procurement/sourcing department had asked for illegal payments. The report came with accounts information that illustrated the problem, and Foxconn then asked law enforcement officials to work with its own internal audit team in investigating the allegations, the company said.
Most of the suppliers are located on the mainland, and the probe will be conducted mainly by mainland authorities. Police in Shenzhen had arrested a manager at the SMT department, according to Taiwan media.
"Clearly the sourcing party is in a good position [to say] I can buy from you or I can buy from others," said Xiang Ligang, an independent market commentator. The sums involved could be substantial, he added, since a company such as Foxconn would spend several billion yuan a year on purchases.
Foxconn is now reviewing its policies to prevent employees from becoming involved in illegal payments. It said in a Taiwan stock exchange filing yesterday that it was still waiting for the results of authorities' investigations and in the meantime its supply chain was operating normally.
Foxconn is the trade name under which Hon Hai Precision Industry owns and operates dozens of electronics manufacturing subsidiaries. Foxconn International, a subsidiary listed in Hong Kong, dropped 2.9 per cent in yesterday's trading, while the benchmark Hang Seng Index inched up 0.6 per cent.
"Though Foxconn International is not directly involved in the scandal, bad news always travels fast," said Francis Lun Sheung-nim, managing director of Lyncean Securities.


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The nationwide hotel chain Travelodge has removed Bibles from all of its rooms, in a move criticised by the Church of England.
Bibles provided free by the Gideons have been taken away to avoid discriminating against any other religion.
The removals reportedly took place after refurbishment work across the hotel chain, which replaced the drawers where Bibles were being kept.
In response, a spokesman for the Church of England said: “It seems both tragic and bizarre that hotels would remove the word of God for the sake of ergonomic design” or “economic incentive”.
Writing on the Telegraph website, commentator Tim Stanley described Travelodge’s decision as “an act of cultural vandalism upon a tradition that goes back 126 years”.
In an official statement Travelodge said: “Travelodge made the decision to move copies of the Bible from its hotel rooms and place them at reception for customers to borrow in 2007.
“This decision was based on customer research and the fact that we live in a multicultural society. Therefore in order not to discriminate against any religion, customers who would like a Bible can pick a copy from any one of Travelodge’s 500 hotel reception desks across the country, whilst staying at the hotel”.
Travelodge is the only hotel chain in the country to have removed the Bibles, despite having never received a complaint from a guest.
Both Premier Inn and InterContinental Hotels, who own the Holiday Inn chain, say that Bibles are being retained in their hotels.
A spokesman for Premier Inn said: “On the rare occasion that a customer does not wish to have a Bible in their room, they can request this to be removed ahead of their stay”.
The practice of placing Bibles in hotel rooms dates back over 120 years, originating with the work of the Commercial Travellers’ Christian Association.
In recent times, the work of distributing Bibles in hotels has been taken up by The Gideons International, which provides this service to over 190 countries worldwide.


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LMF's imported milk business was hit by state price controls and import duties but it also has liquid milk and other products including two dairy farms which had made profits.
While the liquid milk sector was helped by protectionism, imported milk powder sector was hit by both price controls and higher tariffs.
"In fact, there were situations where the selling price was less than the price of importation, which badly affected the industry," LMF chairman Harry Jayewardene told shareholders in the firm's annual report.
"Even though global milk powder prices rose considerably, we were unable to increase prices locally in accordance with these increases as the Consumer Affairs Authority did not give us permission to make a price increase for a long time.
"This led to many milk powder brands curbing their advertising and promotional spend, as the returns generated did not justify the investments."
"Your company has been fortunate that the falls in the powdered milk segment have been offset by our other product categories, given the strategic diversification of our product portfolio."
Analysts say the situation with milk powder was a classic display of state interventionism and nationalism clashing head on.
Days after the consumer affairs ministry refused to relax price controls on imported milk following a weakening of the exchange rate, the finance ministry jacked up import taxes to give profits to rent seeking dairy farmers at the expense of the poorest consumers.
Imported powdered milk had given a affordable alternative to expensive liquid milk - especially for poorer people who do not have refrigerators.
But Sri Lanka's ruling class as well as 'self sufficiency' nationalists have long tried to suppress freedom of the people to consumer powdered milk using legislative power and taxation by midnight gazette, while citizens were literally asleep.
The efforts at making dairy products more expensive, including mandating higher prices to be paid to farmers effectively making daiy products a 'luxury good' are ostensibly aimed at improving 'food security'.
Meanwhile Jayewardene said the state has launched an 'effective' marketing drive to push liquid milk consumption. Taxes on imported high yielding cows and diary equipment have been relaxed.
"This will undoubtedly benefit the local dairy industry as an attitudinal change among consumers is needed to realise the nation’s vision of being self sufficient in milk," Jayewardene said.
Self-sufficiency or autarky was a goal pursued by national-socialist Germany. 'Food security' itself, analysts say, gained ground in nationalist Germany after Britain and other allies blockaded the country and its allies during World War I, threatening global free trade.
Jayewardene said the firm's Ambewela Farm made profits of 23.3 million rupees and the Pattipola Farm made 32.3 million rupees in the year to March 2012.
In former war zones in the north and east the dairy industry was now developing. It also had market potential.
"In terms of market penetration locally, I see further potential in the Northern and Eastern markets which we will pursue intensely during the coming year," Jayewardene said.
LMF's sells powdered milk under its 'Lakspray' brand, 'My Juicee' fruit drinks, and 'Ambewela' branded liquid milk, cheese and yoghurt. A malted drink 'Daily Active' and an energy drink had also been launched in 2012.
"We will make continued efforts to penetrate export markets with our juice and milk packs. Already, our Daily brand has become a leading dairy product in the Maldivian market," Jayewardene said.
The firm was planning to expand it liquid milk segment with health based products and was developing new cheese to "to better suit the local palate."
"Such niche value-added products will enable us to combat imported options which retail at higher prices," Jayewardene said.
"We have also planned to re-launch our Ambewela Ball cheese range with an international design, during the year."


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The final Potter: Just a year away?
Fans hope that 7/7/07 will be the magical release date for the last Harry Potter book. And it can't come too soon for Scholastic.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- 7/7/07. A year from Friday is the day when many Harry Potter fans hope to get their hands on the next book in J.K. Rowling's popular series about the boy wizard.
After all, next July 7 will fall on a Saturday and the previous three Potter books have all come out on Saturdays. Plus, many numerologists see 7/7/07 as a fitting day for the seventh (and final) Potter book to be released.
Having millions of Potter books flying off the shelves like Firebolt brooms is just what the struggling publisher needs.
Shares of Scholastic have fallen more than 6 percent this year and are hovering near their 52-week low.
Last month, credit rating agency Moody's downgraded Scholastic's debt to a below investment grade level, or so-called "junk" bond status, which makes it more expensive for the company to borrow money.
Harry Potter and the rising stock price?
But anticipation is growing for the final book, which does not have an official title. (Well, at least not a title that Rowling wants to share with the world just yet.)
Liz Calder, the publishing director of Bloomsbury, the firm which has the rights to publish the Potter books outside of the U.S., said at a conference in India in May that the final book is likely to come out in 2007.
And last week, Rowling made comments on a British television station about how at least two characters (possibly even Harry...gasp!) will die in the book.
Drew Crum, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus who follows Scholastic, said that once an official publication date is announced, that should be good news for the stock, even though this will mark the end of an amazing run of huge book sales for Scholastic.
Overall, there are more than 120 million Potter books in print in the U.S., according to Scholastic. (The series has also generated four hit movies for Warner Bros., the studio owned by Time Warner (Charts), which is also the parent company of CNNMoney.com. A film based on the fifth Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" will be released next summer.)
"In the past, Potter has provided a catalyst to the stock ahead of the publication date," he said. "Yes, bears would say, 'Why pay up for non-recurring revenue?' But we don't think the stock is going to flat-line. There will be a lot of euphoria and speculation."
Analysts expect earnings for the current fiscal year, which will end in May 2007 and is therefore most likely not have the benefit of a new Potter book, to decline by about 3 percent and that sales will fall 6 percent.
But analysts expect a comeback in fiscal 2008, the year when the final Potter book will probably be out. Consensus estimates call for a 3 percent jump in sales and 38 percent surge in profits.
Life after Potter may not be so magical
Longer-term though, there are concerns about what will happen to Scholastic, which publishes the "Clifford the Big Red Dog" series, educational books and also runs book fairs, once it can no longer count on new tales about Hogwarts from Rowling.
In a report, Moody's cited "the absence of a visible replacement for the successful Harry Potter book franchise once the final installment in the series is published" as one reason for the credit downgrade.
Still, Crum said investors may be underestimating the possibility of Rowling creating a new series that could be a big boost for Scholastic.
"Post Potter, Rowling is on record saying she'll continue to publish books. Given Scholastic's relationship with her, they should be in good position to work with her," he said. "Of course, it will be nearly impossible to duplicate Potter but anything she writes will create some demand."
But Moody's also pointed out in another report from last month that Potter alone can't save Scholastic, since the children's book publishing business is a mature industry.
Moody's noted that operating margins in fiscal 2006 have deteriorated despite the fact that the sixth Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," was released during that fiscal year.
The book, released on July 15, 2005, sold 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours and 11 million copies in its first nine weeks, according to Scholastic. The paperback version of "Half-Blood Prince" will be released July 25.
And Crum, who is the only Wall Street analyst recommending Scholastic, concedes the company is in a tough business and that management is also suffering from a bit of a credibility problem.
"The company has overpromised and underdelivered," he said, referring to the fact that Scholastic has missed analysts' earnings targets three of the past four quarters.
Related: Time Warner needs a "Super" hit
Related: The Fox, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Related: There's something about Harry
Stifel Nicolaus' Crum does not own shares of Scholastic and his firm does not have banking ties to the company.


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Winvesta will offer US stock market access via a mobile app to investors across India.
UK-based global investment platform Winvesta partnered with US-based digital trading technology DriveWealth to facilitate access for investors in India.
The company will offer US stock market access via a mobile app to Indian investors, enabling them to invest in some of the best-known global companies. The clients of Winvesta will also have access to real-time fractional shares in familiar US brands, an offering that DriveWealth has pioneered.
Swastik Nigam, Founder and CEO, Winvesta, stated: “It's astonishing that less than 0.1 per cent of Indian wealth is invested beyond its border. The impact of COVID-19 has had on Indian portfolios and the quick resurgence of the US markets has demonstrated the trouble of maintaining a home bias. Partnering with DriveWealth is an important first step in making global investment access easier for resident Indians.”
The investment platform launched its app on Android, and it plans to roll out its technology, supported by the partnership, in the UK later this year. It aims to be the most economical way for Indians to access foreign investments.


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Earlier this year, Verizon did a study to illustrate the evolution of cyber-attacks from 2008 to the present. The study shows who these attackers are, their motivation, and how they are getting away with your personal information. By learning what these cyber-attacks are doing and how they can impact your business, can provide you with the proper insight into areas in which your cyber security might not measure up.
Well, in 2008:
In 2012, a new brand of internet attacker was introduced. In a year of social uprising in the Arab and Occupy movements, individuals began hacking as an activist statement. These types of hacking stood for approximately:
These 9 types of events included:
Similar findings of 2014 were found with the 9 different data breach event types.
These findings show the evidence that although cyber-attacks and hackers are a real problem, untrained employees and human error are just as responsible for your data breaches.
Discover the power of how our Managed IT services not only help you control data breaches and the access to valuable information, but how secure our services protect your company too! Contact Pro Group Networks today at [email protected] or (888) 625-0062.
Pro Group Networks has provided consistent, creative and very satisfying service as our IT expert at our Lunch at Piero’s press events during the trade shows such as the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Pro Group Networks always finds a solution to even the most confounding technical challenges and always goes beyond the call of duty when providing services.
Receive a no-obligation call from our Solutions Consultants. Understand the benefits. Advance your network security.


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An Oklahoma man was charged a whopping $4,000 in tips for two cups of coffee at a Tusla Starbucks, compelling him to cancel his "once-in-a-lifetime trip" as he and his wife struggled to get their money back. Jesse O'Dell says he and his wife Deedee were charged nearly $4,500 for two cups of coffee after they visited the Starbucks store on January 7.
The couple said that the coffee should have cost $11.83 but they ended up paying almost $4,500. Starbucks later acknowledged that the inflated bill was a result of a system error but by that time it was already a bit late for the couple who had to cancel their trip.
The Shock of Their Life
Jesse O'Dell claimed that on January 7, when he went on his routine coffee run, he spent roughly $10 on a venti caramel frappuccino for himself and an iced Americano for his wife. The two coffees should have cost $11.83, but the charge for them came to almost $4,500, according to a receipt image shared with local media.
If not for a strange $4,444.44 tip, it would have been the final sum.
The father of four didn't immediately check his receipt, so he was unaware of what had transpired. But when his wife Deedee attempted to use her credit card at a mall and it was refused, she discovered that a 4-digit charge had been made for the drinks, according to WNEM.
The O'Dells were informed by officials of the well-known java franchise that checks would be sent to cover the expenses.
Jesse claimed to have chosen the "no tip" option at the drive-thru checkout counter at the time. "I know how to press buttons. I didn't press that button," he said.
"If it wasn't the barista then it's definitely your network, which is a really big issue," Jesse told McClatchy News.
Jesse O'Dell claims he and his wife Deedee contacted Starbucks after realizing the mistake. When they contacted Starbucks, the company said that a system error was to blame for the incorrect and inflated receipt.
Deedee told KOKI that she failed to see the charge until the card was refused when she was out shopping with her four kids.
Deedee and Jesse immediately started frantically grabbing for Starbucks. Although Starbucks agreed to refund the amount by sending them checks, the Tulsa couple claims that once the cheques bounced, they called customer service "30 to 40 times" in a day.
"We contacted their customer service helpline probably 30 to 40 times that day," Jesse said, claiming that they were compelled to cancel a trip while they awaited a refund and that they reported the incident to the Tulsa Police Department.
The first checks bounced due to a misspelling, a Starbucks representative told the New York Post, adding that a fresh batch of checks had been delivered and cashed. The official claimed that Jesse had submitted the enormous tip himself when placing the order, which contributed to the mix-up.
Jesse disputes the charge, claiming that a district manager informed him there was a network problem.
The couple had reported the incident to the Tulsa police, but after the good checks were presented, the matter was closed.
In case what occurred to Jesse was not a one-time mistake, he also warned other clients to keep an eye out for unexpected costs on their own invoices.
The family was particularly upset because the incident compelled the family to cancel a family vacation for which they had purchased "non-refundable" tickets to Deedee's native Thailand.
"This is something that has caused duress in our family and hopefully others don't have to go through something like this," he said.
It is not known if the family finally managed to go on their planned vacation after the checks were cashed.


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Verizon Wireless will offer smartphones that run only on its 4G LTE network by the end of next year, according to the carrier's network chief.
A 4G-only device could potentially be cheaper and sleeker because it doesn't need multiple cellular radios that current smartphones require. But that can't happen until Verizon gets its voice service to run on the 4G network, which currently handles only data traffic.
But with Verizon, the carrier already has an eye on voice over LTE. Verizon is hoping to offer what's known as VoLTE next year, Verizon Chief Network Officer Nicki Palmer said during a conference call with reporters.
Verizon had teased the prospect of the service launching later this year, but Palmer said the carrier was working to ensure that the service is reliable. She added that it was working to ensure that the right VoLTE-compatible phones are available when the service launches.
"We will get this right," she said. "Our brand is built on reliability."
Unlike the market-by-market rollout of LTE, the VoLTE launch will happen all at once, allowing people to take advantage of better quality calls and additional data services that can be paired with voice, she said.
"We will want to go big with this," Palmer said. "We're working aggressively now."
With VoLTE, Verizon customers will finally be able to talk and browse the Web at the same time, an advantage AT&T has long touted over its rival.
Palmer noted that the costs of LTE radios are coming down, leading to more-affordable phones. She declined to talk about specific pricing.
She also added that Verizon already offers an LTE-only device, the
Verizon is also hoping that the migration to its 4G LTE network will allow it to take the (eventual) unused spectrum in the 3G network and repurpose it for 4G, Palmer said, though she noted that was a longer-term option. Verizon's 4G network already handles 57 percent of its total data and is available to 99 percent of its 3G footprint.
To further combat network congestion, Verizon will also deploy, or small boxes that work as tiny cell towers. Palmer said the carrier is waiting for LTE-only versions of the small cells, and plans to deploy them toward the end of the year. She stressed that the small cells weren't a panacea for potential traffic woes, but just one part of the network strategy.
"We view small cells as one tool in the toolbox in order to address capacity demands from customers," she said.
Palmer also weighed in on LTE Advanced, the next iteration of LTE, days after South Korea'salongside the LTE Advanced-enabled Samsung Galaxy S4. She said Verizon would be a leader in LTE Advanced, but noted it was more a collection of enhancements, features, and standards.
Verizon, she said, would deploy these enhancements when they are needed. She added there was still a lot of "hype" around LTE Advanced, but noted the carrier would be aggressive at looking at the upgrade.


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AMC, the US cinema brand that owns Odeon Cinemas, has confirmed that it will accept payments for film tickets and concessions in Bitcoin by the end of 2021.
Adam Aron, CEO of AMC, said the company has been looking into Bitcoin and ‘how else AMC can participate in this new burgeoning cryptocurrency universe’. The chain has not yet made it clear if the cinemas that it operates in Europe will offer customers the option to pay with Bitcoin.
Despite being a highly speculative currency with erratic price swings, Bitcoin has increasingly come into the mainstream fold as an accepted form of payment, with US mobile operator AT&T, Microsoft and Wikipedia all accepting the cryptocurrency.
In a conference call with journalists, Aron said ‘I've had to learn more in the past six months about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned about it in the entire decade before that’.
He went on to declare: ‘This increased knowledge has given me the confidence to tell you all today that AMC is hereby formally announcing... that by year's end we will have the information technology systems in place to accept Bitcoin’.
It has been suggested that AMC is attempting to appeal to young amateur traders who have invested heavily into the company’s shares over the past six months, consequently turning it into ‘meme stock’.
Organised on the social media platform Reddit, such investors have driven the price of AMC’s stock up by approximately 1,500% in 2021, though this has had little impact on the company’s actual financial performance.


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HRD Antwerp has just graded what seems to be the first fully produced lab-grown all-diamond ring.
The Project D ring, fashioned from a single 155 ct. plate of lab-grown diamond, was created by Dutch Diamond Technologies (DDT). The ring is not the same as the (RED) Diamond, designed by Apple’s Jony Ive and Marc Newson, which was announced last year and is currently in production.
The fact that two lab-created rings with the same concept were announced in such a short time seems to be a coincidence, says Ton Janssen, general manager of DDT, which grows diamonds with the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, primarily for the industrial market. But he adds that his company has been working on the idea for more than a year.
“For our 10th anniversary, we wanted to do something special. Someone suggested this originally as a joke, to make a ring of this material. But in the end I found it a very good idea.”
It took a while to make it real. The 155 ct. plate took between four and five weeks to grow. Then it took another few weeks to figure out how to create the ring, as the company calculated optimal angles for fire and brilliance. Polishing took another 1,300 hours.
The final Project D ring sports 133 facets and weighs 3.865 cts. It was designed for a size-five finger, unlike the (RED), which is being customized for the purchaser’s individual digits. And while DDT employees have modeled it, Janssen doesn’t consider it all that wearable.
“It’s very brittle,” he says. “This is something that could be worn only on special occasions, not for daily use.”
Still, as a piece of jewelry, it’s striking and different, says Katrien De Corte, vice president of business development of HRD, which graded it E VS1, with very good polish and excellent symmetry.
“When the ring was in the lab, all the graders and the staff came around and looked at it and were very excited,” she says. “No one said it was ugly, everyone loved it. It really is beautiful. When you see it for the first time you never forget it. The facets are really well-placed to get the light refraction.”
It even feels a little different, she says.
“Diamond has thermal conductivity. It immediately absorbs your body temperature. It’s very comfortable to have the ring around your finger. You forget it’s on.”
Janssen says that he didn’t think that either lab or natural diamonds would be better suited for this ring, but his company works only with lab-growns. (In 2011, Shawish created a natural all-diamond ring. ) Until recently it was difficult to grow plates big enough for this kind of object, he says, and that remains a challenge.
“[Producing] this kind of big, better-quality material is not easy,” he says. “We are the only company with access to it.”
For the future, DDT is looking into similar objects—De Corte jokes that she’d love to see an all-diamond earring—though this will probably be DDT’s only ring. DDT plans to sell it, just not yet.
“This started as a joke, but it’s gotten a lot of attention,” says Janssen. “We have a lot of ideas how to proceed.”
As for the (RED) ring, which fetched $256,250 at a Sotheby’s charity auction in December, it is due to be finished in June, says Ye-Hui Goldenson, spokesperson for Diamond Foundry, the material’s grower. It’s not clear whether the currently anonymous purchaser will wear it, but Goldenson says “the buyer purchased this for personal wear, so I am sure it will be seen.”
And while Goldenson doesn’t know if the (RED) ring will be graded, De Corte says that HRD is willing to do it for free.
(Image courtesy of Dutch Diamond Technologies)


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The Chinese smartphone company Oppo today expanded its A-Series portfolio with the launch of the Oppo A57e in India. The smartphone is a follow-up Oppo A57 which arrived in India this year. The newly launched handset is powered by MediaTek Helio G35 SoC and it runs on ColorOS 12.1. In addition to this, the phone packs a 5,000mAh battery and 33W SuperVOOC charging support. Moreover, there is a dual rear camera set up onboard.
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Oppo A57e price in India and sale details
Oppo A57e price in India has been launched in India with a price tag of Rs 13,999 for the single 4GB RAM with 128GB storage option. The device will be offered in two colour options of Green and Black. In terms of availability, the newly launched smartphone will be available for purchase via the e-commerce platform Flipkart in the country.
Oppo A57e specifications
The Oppo A57e has a 6.56-inch HD+ IPS LCD screen with 1,612×720 pixels of resolution. The display comes with up to 600 nits of screen brightness. The smartphone runs ColorOS 12.1 based on Android 12 out of the box. An octa-core MediaTek Helio G35 SoC with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage powers the smartphone. The device has 64GB of built-in storage that can be increased to 1TB with a certain microSD card.
With a 13-megapixel primary sensor and a 2-megapixel depth sensor, it has a dual back camera arrangement. It has an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with an f/2.0 aperture lens for taking selfies and making video calls. Additionally, the front camera has a Nightscape Selfie mode for crystal-clear photos in dim lighting.
The 5,000mAh battery on the Oppo A57e supports 33W SuperVOOC charging. Ultra Linear stereo speakers are included with the smartphone. For biometric security, the phone has a fingerprint sensor and face recognition.
The smartphone has gravity, accelerometer, light, and proximity sensors. There are a few different ways to connect, including 4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v5.2, a USB Type-C connection, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel. You can also stay up to date using the Gadget Bridge Android App. You can find the latest car and bike news here.


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Space Infrastructure: The Final Frontier – how the space economy can offer a solution to energy and resource challenges on Earth
Mark Thomas – Chief Executive Officer, Reaction Engines Ltd.
If we are to continue thriving as a connected, energy-hungry planet, we will eventually need to look beyond our own atmosphere.
Space – if we can access it economically – offers a tantalising solution to global energy and resource challenges, and a raft of opportunities in manufacturing, communications, […]
The future of cars is electric. The UK Government will ban the sales of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in 2030, making it one of fourteen countries that have announced ICE restrictions. Most automotive manufacturers have pivoted to electric vehicles (EVs), with Audi expecting to be completely electric by the 2030s. According to […]


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LED lighting has many benefits compared to other sources—but only if it is used correctly. Using the wrong Kelvin temperature can cause an unattractive glow, while incorrect placement of the luminaires can lead to light trespass. Richard Smith of Tonawanda, New York is experiencing both issues. According to WIVB.com, he claims that bright lights across from his home are harming his quality of life. The light that is meant to illuminate an apartment complex is also shining into his windows.
What happened is the management of Newall Avenue Apartments replaced existing outdoor lighting with new LED lighting. While the new LED lighting saves energy and reduces maintenance, it emits a harsh light and has caused a significant light trespass issue. Light trespass occurs when artificial lighting reaches areas where it is not intended or wanted, like a neighbor’s backyard or living room. Since LED lighting is a directional light source, it is generally used to avoid light trespass, not make it worse.
Town of Tonawanda officials claim the new lighting was installed for security purposes, but as the image suggests, it appears the lighting is not pointed towards the ground where it would serve the greatest purpose. Instead, it is pointed across the street toward Smith’s property.
Another problem seems to be the Kelvin color temperature. While a higher color temperature can be less costly, it creates an unattractive blue light that contributes to light pollution and light trespass. Even more so than traditional light sources, like metal halide or high pressure sodium. The harsh blue light is also criticized for harming humans and animals and disrupting circadian rhythms.
The article states that town officials are working to fix the issue. I, Dr. Bulb, know one way to fix the issue would be to use dark sky compliant fixtures. Dark Sky compliant fixtures emit light down towards the ground, limiting light pollution and most light trespass issues. In this case, using full cut off LED luminaires would direct the light down as opposed to everywhere. It would also eliminate the light source being visible from anywhere other than from directly below the luminaire. No light would be visible on the property across the street, let alone in the Mr. Smith’s home. Management should also consider using a lower Kelvin temperature, to maintain acceptable aesthetics.


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As expected, Microsoft has revealed its next generation Xbox console, dubbed Project Scarlett, during its E3 conference.
Slated for a holiday 2020 release, Project Scarlett is four times more powerful than its predecessor, the Xbox One X. Here are some additional specs for you to chew on.
Sony’s next-generation console, which we'll call the PlayStation 5 for argument’s sake, is believed to feature specs, such as 8K graphics and 120Hz refresh rate support, similar to, if not more powerful than Project Scarlett. We will ultimately find out about those finer details when the PS5 is unveiled.
The holiday 2020 launch of Project Scarlett will be coupled with the release of Halo Infinite. "This story will mark the beginning of a new chapter and challenge for the Chief, but it will also respect and continue threads that led to this point," Chris Lee, studio head of FPS Game Development said, per The Verge. "If you’ve never played a Halo game before, this will be a great place to jump into the story."
In the nearly six-minute trailer for the latest installment in the Halo franchise, Microsoft shied away from including actual gameplay in its presentation.
Microsoft copied the same playbook they used for the announcement of the Xbox One X during E3 2017 for Project Scarlett. Before the previous console was unveiled, the system was referred to as Project Scorpio, so expect a name change soon.


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In Q1 2022, the Italian eyewear group recorded net sales of €282.6 million, up by 8.4% at constant rates. Gross income was on the rise too, up by 23%, as were gross margin, at 55%, and adjusted EBITDA, at 11.3%.
Eyewear giant Safilo confirmed this week that its 2021 results were “well above” 2019’s figures. Sales were €969.6 million, up 7.5% on a currency-neutral basis, while adjusted EBITDA surged 25.7% to €81.5 million.
Mytheresa, which reported sterling quarterly figures this week, stands apart from its major rivals in the elite world of luxury e-tailing. Most of them post rapid rates of growth, but Mytheresa actually makes a profit.
Friday in Paris Menswear was a tour of the city from an evangelical cathedral, cut-stone mansion, Marais showroom and Place des Victoires townhouse. We caught up with Jil Sander, Paul Smith, Isabel Marant and Jeanerica.
Mexico has blasted major clothing brands Zara, Anthropologie and Patowl for using patterns and other elements of Mexican indigenous textiles in their collections without permission, the ministry of culture said Friday.
With production company Division, FashionNetwork.com has analysed the way digital tech and the pandemic have forced labels to rethink how they express themselves, many using virtual catwalk shows as a novel tool.


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Google ads to carry user names, photos
Google Inc plans to launch new product-endorsement ads incorporating photos, comments and names of its users, in a move to match the "social" ads pioneered by rival Facebook Inc that is raising some privacy concerns.
The changes, which Google announced in a revised terms of service policy on Friday, set the stage for Google to introduce "shared endorsements" ads on its sites as well as millions of other websites that are part of Google's display advertising network.
The new types of ads would use personal information of the members of Google+, the social network launched by the company in 2011.
If a Google+ user has publicly endorsed a particular brand or product by clicking on the +1 button, that person's image might appear in an ad. Reviews and ratings of restaurants or music that Google+ users share on other Google services, such as in the Google Play online store, would also become fair game for advertisers.
The ads are similar to the social ads on Facebook, the world's No. 1 social network, which has 1.15 billion users. Those ads are attractive to marketers, but they unfairly commercialize Internet users' images, said Marc Rotenberg, the director of online privacy group EPIC.
"It's a huge privacy problem," said Rotenberg. He said the U.S. Federal Trade Commission should review the policy change to determine whether it violates a 2011 consent order Google entered into which prohibits the company from retroactively changing users' privacy settings.
Users under 18 will be exempt from the ads and Google+ users will have the ability to opt out. But Rotenberg said users "shouldn't have to go back and restore their privacy defaults every time Google makes a change."
Information Google+ users have previously shared with a limited "circle" of friends will remain viewable only to that group, as will any shared endorsement ads that incorporate the information, Google said in a posting on its website explaining the new terms of service.
Google, which makes the vast majority of its revenue from advertising, operates the world's most popular Web search engine as well as other online services such as maps, email and video website YouTube.


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The worldwide market for hand-held devices* declined in the first quarter of 2004 due to seasonally sluggish demand and vendor re-focusing, according to market research firm IDC. Device shipments decreased 11.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2004 and dropped sequentially 33.1 percent to 2.2 million units, the firm reported.
While vendor commitment to entry-level devices at lower price points has helped to grow the hand-held user base, IDC reported that many would-be hand-held purchasers obtained their devices during the holiday shopping season in the fourth quarter of last year. As a result, despite growth in the European market, the seasonal slump hit vendors particularly hard during the first quarter of this year. The market was also strongly impacted by a number of vendors focusing on trimming down their product offerings and clearing their channels in preparation for spring product launches, IDC said.
"Despite increasingly powerful hand-held devices reaching market, the consumer uptake of entry-level devices available from nearly every vendor calls into question the upgrade path and value posed by the high-end devices," said David Linsalata, analyst in IDC's Mobile Devices program. "If entry-level devices prove to be the most successful products adopted by consumers, the long-term impact could be acceleration away from hardware differentiation and a further loss of value in the hand-held industry."
Mr. Linsalata also said that hand-held device vendors must continue their search for consumer and enterprise solutions for their products that utilize the range of capabilities contained in a hand-held device.
palmOne - Hit particularly hard by the seasonality of the hand-held market, palmOne posted a sequential decline of 38.7 percent and a corresponding decrease in market share from 39.4 percent to 36.1 percent. However, palmOne will announce two Zire hand-helds this quarter and, given the fact that the Zire family has surpassed 3 million units in fewer than 18 months, palmOne's shipments are expected to increase in the near future.
Hewlett Packard (HP) - Despite the declining hand-held market and a 32.9 percent sequential drop, HP posted the strongest year-over-year increase among the top 5 vendors with a rise of 24.8 percent. This increase, based on the strength of an array of devices hitting the entire spectrum of price points, enabled HP to maintain its market share position of 25.7 percent.
Sony - Caught in the middle of a strategy shift to a streamlined set of products and a focus on improved PIM and other core hand-held applications, Sony's market share dropped to single digits on a sequential drop of 57.2 percent and year-over-year drop of 49.6 percent.
Dell - Riding the benefit of a fiscal year-end sales push in January as well as Dell's direct sales model, Dell experienced a 1.1 percent sequential decline in shipments, the lowest drop among the top 5 vendors. Seasonality did take its toll, however, as the company only increased 2.2 percent year-over-year, bringing its market share up 4.7 percent to 7 percent.
Toshiba - Despite a relatively lackluster first quarter with a year-over-year shipment decrease of 34.1 percent and a sequential decrease of 48.4 percent, Toshiba reentered the top 5 vendor list this quarter. Toshiba, a constant member of the top 5 vendors since Q302, was knocked out of the top 5 vendor list last quarter by newcomer Medion's strong sales. Medion did not, however, repeat last quarter's performance.
*Hand-held devices are pocket-sized, either pen or keypad-centric, and are capable of synchronizing with desktop or laptop computers. Hand-held devices are designed to access and manage data including office documents, multimedia, and games.
to Daily News


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Peter Schiff, owner of Euro Pacific Capital, a broker/dealer based in Darien, Conn., has been called “un-American,” and essentially likened to a traitor. His treason? Schiff believes that the very foundations of the American economy are rotten and unhealthy — that a painful recession looms over the not-so-distant horizon. The dollar, he predicts, is poised to continue its free fall — even though the Greenback is already at 26-year lows against the pound sterling and near record lows against the euro.
Schiff's answer? Get away from dollar assets and take your clients' money overseas. Specifically, put it in high-yielding, nondollar assets in Australia, Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore and China. He likes commodities plays, such as gold and oil, emerging markets and even real estate and bonds. But he just doesn't like them in the U.S. — or held in dollars. In his new book, Crash Proof: How To Profit From The Coming Economic Collapse (Wiley; $27.95), Schiff says, “The economy of the United States, long the world's dominant creditor, now the world's largest debtor, is fighting a losing battle against trade and financial imbalances that are growing daily and are caused by dislocations too fundamental to reverse.” In short, a painful correction is on its way, one that will make Americans poorer.
Schiff is the owner of a b/d, employing about 15 reps who help him run 7,000 accounts worth about $1 billion in assets. He has offices in Darien, Phoenix and Newport Beach, Calif. Isn't it odd to run a b/d and be so negative about the U.S. economy? Does he advocate shorting the U.S.? “No,” he says. “Because there's a bull market somewhere.” Neither does he tell clients to go only to cash. “All I tell them is, invest abroad instead. I say, ‘Look. The U.S. is in trouble. The dollar is going to lose value. The opportunities are better abroad. The valuations are better, the growth's better. Just invest abroad.’” Oh, and if you agree with him, give him a call. He's looking for more reps to spread the word.
Registered Rep.: In your book you say there is an impending economic crisis that is going to wreak havoc on the United States. What's wrong with the U.S. economy?
PETER SCHIFF: The biggest flaw with our economy is that we're not a viable economy anymore. We don't save and we don't produce anything. What we're doing is we are living off of the charity of the rest of the world by selling them government bonds.
RR: Our economy isn't viable? Yet, you're bullish on Europe. They have socialist economies that are, except for perhaps Germany, slow-growing and bogged down with high unemployment.
SCHIFF: Most countries have the problem of government being too big and too expensive. And the result of having too much government is that your standard of living is lower than it otherwise would have been with less government and fewer regulatory burdens. All that socialism has, in fact, diminished their standard of living. Okay, fine. But Europe, as an economic union, still has a viable economic system. Sure, the people of Europe would be more prosperous if they had less government, if they had less regulation and fewer taxes and all that. The average European's lot in life would be improved. The Europeans are, nevertheless, living within their means. And their system is still viable. We're not. That's the problem.
RR: Wait, Europeans have a bloated public sector, they are welfare states and …
SCHIFF: But they're still saving money. European economies still have current account surpluses, and they have a trade surplus, meaning that whatever goods they're importing from the rest of the world, they're paying for them. They're exporting enough to the rest of the world to cover the cost of what they import. And they're still a net creditor. They're earning income on foreign investments; they're not paying interest on foreign liabilities. So their economy is still viable. They don't depend on the rest of the world for financing. They're fine; they could be better off if they didn't have all this government, no question about it.
Then there is Asia. The cost of government is way lower in Asia than it is here, pretty much hands down. So there's a lot more economic freedom, in general, in Asia than there is in America or Europe.
RR: How did this happen? How did the United States, a country synonymous with free enterprise and hard-working people, get into this mess?
SCHIFF: Our economy has evolved in a way that no other economy in the free market was able to evolve, because we were the only country that was issuing the world's reserve currency, the dollar that everybody just had confidence in no matter what. Whereas a normal country would have to export products to import products, we've been able to print money and import products. So we can import the services and goods produced by other people, but not export goods that we produce ourselves. So that means the world is willing to accept our IOUs in exchange for the stuff that they make.
RR: Why does a country have to be manufacturing-based to be viable? That seems to be what you're saying.
SCHIFF: It doesn't have to be manufacturing-based. It can be information-based or whatever. It just has to produce enough of that product to pay for all the products that it imports — it can be an album or a DVD, whatever. We have to sell something in return. Right now we are giving nothing.
RR: How are we doing that?
SCHIFF: Because we have a trade deficit of about $60 billion a month.
RR: There are some smart guys, such as Greenspan, who aren't worried about trade deficits, saying that a weaker dollar will cause our exports to increase.
SCHIFF: The people who aren't worried about it are wrong. These are the same people who weren't worried about the lack of earnings in the dot-com stocks in 1999. Or the same people who weren't worried about adjustable rate mortgages. They weren't worried about what was going to happen when the payments were reset. There are a lot of things that people didn't worry about that they should have worried about. The trade deficit is, in fact, something that we should be worried about. And we're not. I mean, it's a huge, huge problem.
RR: So what do you do about it?
SCHIFF: We have to build a viable economy again, which means Americans have to consume a lot less and produce a lot more. It means we have to borrow a lot less and save a lot more. We can't get from where we are now to where we need to be without a huge recession; it's just not even possible.
RR: What will be the catalyst, the trigger?
SCHIFF: I don't know. But it should happen pretty soon. I think that you can already see that it is happening. For the last six or seven years the out-performance of foreign assets versus American assets is so staggering that it's almost unbelievable. It's unprecedented in history that people are doing so much better investing abroad than they are investing here.
Just in the last four years I think the European markets are up about 160 percent [in dollar terms]. And they're now more valuable than the U.S. market for the first time since before World War I. So for 90 years our market has always been worth more than all the European markets combined. Now that's not the case. And I think three years from now the European markets could be one-and-a-half to two times bigger than our market. And that's just Europe. Wait until you see what China does. I mean, I don't think it'll be that much longer before the Chinese market alone is worth more than the United States. So we're going to be dramatically shrinking.
I think as more and more people around the world are waking up to that, they won't want to take that big $60 billion a month in IOUs that we give them and funnel it back into our market. It doesn't make any sense when every other market in the world is running circles around us.
RR: So, we're in deep trouble in the U.S.
SCHIFF: What's going to happen is you're going to see a big drop in the American standard of living, a rise in foreign living standards and we're going to start consuming a lot less as a nation. Americans are going to be substantially poorer, and many, many more Americans are going to go without things. We're not going to be going to the malls and shopping. I mean, there's going to be a lot of people handing down things. A lot more people are gong to learn how to sew. People are going to get by. People are going to have cars that are ten and fifteen years old, they're not going to be driving a new car every few years. And if they drive a car, it will be much more fuel-efficient. People are not going to be heating every room in their house.
RR: What about real estate?
SCHIFF: Real estate is going to lose a lot of value. It's going to lose a lot of value, certainly in real terms relative to the price of coal or relative to foreign currencies or a bushel of wheat or a barrel of oil. Real estate is going to get killed. Even in nominal terms, real-estate prices might actually decline sharply.
RR: As for China, it has an authoritarian government, does it not? How can that be good for business?
SCHIFF: Look, no governments are choir boys. Neither is the American government. The American government is one of the first ones to try to slap a windfall profit tax on a company that starts making money like an oil company. That's confiscation. And we have high taxes. Our taxes are already higher on a corporate level than they are in most of the foreign countries in which we invest. So our government isn't very friendly to capital, either.
RR: So, you sound like an ideologue.
SCHIFF: No. It's economics. If a potential client is too brainwashed to understand there's a problem here, if he thinks everything's okay, if he thinks the U.S. economy is the greatest in the world and we're the rulers and we rule the world, I don't even want to talk to him. Because — and I tell our brokers — there's no point in having political arguments, because we're not going to make any money. You know? It's like arguing with somebody about religion, or politics. You're not going to win. You're just going to have an argument.
So what I'm trying to do is, I'm trying to reach out, in the broadest way that I can — through television, through radio, through print media, through my book, through the Internet — and I am trying to explain what the problems are in the U.S. and why there are problems, and why this is significant and why it's particularly significant with financial assets. And then I want those people to seek me out, the people who understand that.


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United Polaris: The Story Behind the Airline’s New Business-Class Seat
United Airlines’ first Boeing 777-300ER made its inaugural flight yesterday, carrying press to experience the Polaris seat in flight for the first time. The seat will officially launch this Thursday, on the airline’s Newark–San Francisco route, with the first international flight scheduled for March 25. The United Polaris seat is based on a product concept by Acumen Design Associates and is the result of collaboration between the design consultancy, United, PriestmanGoode and Zodiac Aerospace. “Normally when you go from a step-over product to an all-out access product, something’s got to give,” said Anthony Harcup, associate director at Acumen. “But this is such an efficient preservation of living spaces, and access to the seat, that it made the decision very easy for [United].”
Qantas Announces In-Flight Streaming Partnerships With Netflix, Spotify and Foxtel
Qantas has announced it will offer complimentary access to Netflix, Spotify and Foxtel on Wi-Fi-equipped flights. The in-flight partnerships aim to persuade passengers into signing up to the on-demand entertainment services, with Netflix and Spotify promising free 30-day trials and Foxtel offering three days of complimentary streaming. Passengers will need to use their own devices to access the streaming services, which will be available later this month on one of the airline’s Boeing 737s, before a fleet-wide rollout in June. “What a lot of people relish about flying is being able to catch up on their favorite TV shows or watch movies they didn’t get to see at the cinema,” said Qantas group executive Olivia Wirth.
XL Airways Becomes First Airline to Offer wIFE From Immfly on Long-Haul
XL Airways has become the first airline to offer Immfly’s wireless in-flight entertainment platform on long-haul flights. Branded as XL Cloud, the hardware was installed at the beginning of the year and lets passengers stream a wide selection of content to their personal devices. “Making our product ready for long-distance aircraft has encouraged a significant growth opportunity,” said Pablo Linz, cofounder of Immfly. “We are now exposed to a higher volume of passengers who have an average of 10 hours to enjoy our content, and as part of our ambition to continuously improve the passenger experience, we have developed new product features such as a games channel and an onboard chat.”
Czech-Based Inter-Informatics Unveils Cabin Class Divider for Narrow-Body Aircraft
Inter-Informatics Group, a Czech Republic-based design engineering company, has developed a class divider for Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft. Called C-spacer, the Crystal Cabin Award-nominated component attaches to seat tracks without affecting the recline of seats directly in front. Airlines also have the option of including in-flight entertainment screens, USB ports and power outlets to the divider, and can chose between a variety of colors and surfaces. “[We want] to help airlines to be more flexible without compromising passenger comfort,” said Radek Rezny, executive director at Inter-Informatics.
Air France-KLM to Invest $213 Million in Big Data by 2020
Air France-KLM is planning to invest more than $213 million on digital and data development by 2020. The airline group launched an internal big data platform in 2015, and is now one of a few companies in the world that collects and makes use of online and offline customer data to make personalized offers, according to Air France-KLM CEO Jean-Marc Janaillac. “It’s going to be our priority and quite important in terms of revenues because we do think that this possibility to have a personal link with customers will enable us to get €200 million [$213 million] in additional revenue,” explained Janaillac during Air France-KLM’s 2016 results presentation to analysts.
Delta Brings Back Free Economy-Class Meals to 12 Domestic Routes
Delta Air Lines announced yesterday that it will be bringing back free in-flight meals for coach passengers on 12 transcontinental domestic routes. Starting on March 1, the carrier will offer complimentary meals in economy class on flights from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Los Angeles and San Francisco, followed by 11 additional routes as of April 24. The new menu will include options like cheese and fruit plates, veggie wraps and smoked turkey sandwiches. “When we tested this concept, our customers loved it and appreciated it so we decided to implement it in our most strategic markets,” said Allison Ausband, Delta’s SVP for In-Flight Service.


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The New York Post recently reported that a judge in Indiana has temporarily barred Starbucks from closing 77 Teavana stores that were failing because “the very profitable Starbucks could absorb the financial hit”. Industry experts said the ruling will send a chill down the spines of distressed retailers, and with good reason! The prospect of not being able to shut down an outlet that is bleeding the rest of the business may have countless unintended consequences that will affect not just owners but consumers in general. Firms are likely to take this as a signal to be more cautious about opening up new stores, and become reluctant to invest, take risks, and employ people in the first place. Customers stand to lose.
Amidst the debate upon the justice of the justice in question, I heard a voice clamour, “The question is not of profit, but whether a business should be run for society or society should be run for business!” and to be quite frank the claim struck me at first as vacuous; professing much while saying very little. Yet we must admit that throughout history many governments have believed they were “serving society” (rather than the business community) by forcing companies to fix prices, continue operations at a loss, or even subsidising or bailing them out with public funds. Many have believed this is in the interest of “the greater good.”
Could it be that government forcing Starbucks to maintain unprofitable stores – in some circumstances – would be good for society?
First we should examine the use of the word “society” itself. Rather than bring clarity, it obscures the issue, making it more difficult to apprehend the facts of the matter. Who exactly is society and how do we measure what is and isn’t good for it? Society is made of a whole bunch of different individuals and groups with different interests, and what is good for one might not necessarily be good for another.
It’s not that keeping a Teavana open despite the owner’s desire to close it won’t be good for anyone; clearly the proprietor of the shopping centres is willing to fight hard for what they stand to gain, and certainly regular patrons will be happy to be able to get their regular cup of chai before leaving a hard-days-shop. However, the point is the move privilege a few individuals who want to continue going to those outlets at the expense of everyone else in the area who has demonstrated that they would rather something else opens up in that space instead. Starbucks then will need to recuperate the loss somehow or other, perhaps by increasing prices slightly at all other locations. If the locality can only sustain the demand for three tea houses and the unprofitable Teavana happens to be the forth then they are also bleeding demand away from the other three, and so on. We can continue counting negative consequences to other parties.
If Starbucks are deprived of however many millions it costs to operate 77 unprofitable stores that is less money they have to invest in stores that are wanted by enough people to keep them afloat. It’s less cash for shareholders who will take it out to the shops to spend it or reinvest it in other businesses, it’s less for Starbucks customers who have to pay slightly more for a cup of coffee and therefore don’t have to spend on something else, it’s less for Starbucks employees who might have to forego a raise because there is less to go around..
Clearly the effect of this policy is not something that can be broken down into whether it ‘benefits society’ or not. All we can say is that it benefits some groups and harms others.
It seems ironic to me that most of those who will cheer on the judges ruling, forcing Starbucks to run 77 tea outlets – against their own interests – for the interests of others are probably the most likely to complain when a Teavana opens up that it will “drive out” locally owned tea houses (which are probably actually collapsing under the strain of the regulations they have to comply with, not being able to afford Starbucks team of expensive lawyers and accountants.) If anything you’d think this crowd would be cheering on the closures! As they carry with them a certain prejudice that whatever vexes big business is necessarily good for the rest of us, we can only conclude that supporting the ruling is less about what is good for society and more about what is bad for Starbucks.


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, the line will be LEGO Wear’s first range for adults and will be released via a partnership with Kabooki, the Danish company that produces LEGO Wear apparel.
Shoppers can use a Snapcode, Snapchat’s version of a QR code, to shop for exclusive products in a virtual shop that features a DJ booth, arcade machine and a LEGO bouncer.
"As a brand, we are exploring a multitude of digital platforms and technologies to connect with fans in fun and engaging ways,” says Lea Sandell, global social media innovation lead, LEGO.
"Snapchatters engage with AR naturally; on average 70 percent of them play with an AR lens every day," says Will Scougal, director EMEA creative strategy, Snapchat. "So with the addition of e-commerce to an exciting experience like this one, we’re able to drive sales, too."
Products include LEGO streetwear including, t-shirts, sweatshirts and caps that display the LEGO logo in a muted grey, white and black color palette.
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On Jan 2, 2021, the Kenyan government began the implementation of its digital service tax (DST) which it proposed in 2020. According to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), “The Digital Service Tax (DST) is tax payable on income derived or accrued in Kenya from services offered through a digital marketplace.” The Income Tax Act (ITA) defines a “digital marketplace” as a “platform that enables the direct interaction between buyers and sellers of
goods and services through electronic means.” The tax is charged at the rate of 1.5% on the gross transaction value.
As KRA projects, the digital service tax is expected to generate a revenue of $45.5 million by the first half of this year. The introduction of this tax will affect all businesses that operate within Kenya’s digital economy, including crypto exchanges, e-commerce platforms and many more, inclusive of non-resident companies that render digital services to Kenyan residents. However, through a shocking revelation by KRA, the tax would also be applicable to social media influencers. “Social media influencers will be liable to pay digital service tax since their income is derived from or accrued from the provision of services through a digital marketplace or by providing digital advertising services in Kenya,” KRA declared.
The Kenyan government believes that the digital economy in Kenya has experienced immense growth, yet all the growth has not impacted the country’s revenue. Joe Mucheru, Cabinet Secretary, Kenyan Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, says, “We cannot give up everything as a country and attract people, and then there’s nothing that we are necessarily benefitting as a country.” According to KRA, the DST is being implemented to “Address the changing business models, and expand the tax base and ensure equity, fairness and neutrality in taxation between traditional methods of doing business and the new ways of transacting over digital platforms.”
Emphasizing the importance of introducing this tax, commissioner of the domestic taxes department at the Kenya Revenue Authority, Rispah Simiyu, says, “The increasingly digital marketplace] is a promising platform for revenue generation, and realignment of tax collection mechanisms is of urgent necessity. It provides an avenue for multinationals to contribute to the growth of the country where they derive their income. This will strengthen the moral business case for international commerce as practiced in Kenya.”
However, many people believe that the Kenyan digital economy is still in its nascent phase, hence, the introduction of the new tax could impede its growth. According to a report by Citizen TV Kenya, several industry players express warnings that the new tax may thwart the growth of e-commerce in the country. The report indicates that many traders are requesting for more time because the industry is still in its infancy. A Kenyan digital marketer also took to Twitter to express her view on the DST, opposing the improper timing of introducing the tax. According to her, “No one is opposing DST as a policy in itself, but we will get there. Kenya is still navigating the digital tech world. Given that technology is undisputably our new normal, there will be time to properly allocate tax for big players in this industry. Not now.”
A major cause for concern on the DST is the existence of digital-driven businesses, especially e-commerce companies, who have very thin margins, and may be unable to adhere to the DST policy without increasing the prices of their services or risk collapsing. Forcing such businesses to increase the prices of their services to accordingly adjust their financial model will have negative effects on their Kenyan customers who will have to pay more to access these services. Considering that not every Kenyan will be willing to pay more to access these digital services, in the case of a price increase, the digital economy in Kenya may lose a lot of users, just like Uganda lost nearly 30% of its internet users between March and September, in 2018, due to the introduction of a digital service tax that required Ugandans to pay a daily duty tax of Ush 200 ($0.05) to access social media sites.
In a 2020 Tax Alert publication by Deloitte, the respected professional services firm suggests another cause for concern in Kenya’s DST policy. “Our view is that the GoK should have considered setting a minimum threshold for applicability of DST and exempting some businesses with low margins. Imposing DST on all digital services irrespective of the threshold is likely to result in undesirable implications especially for persons under the Turnover Tax Regime and minimum tax, and whose primary income is derived from provision of digital services,” the publication stated. Making references to foreign governments that have also implemented a digital service tax, Deloitte added that “In the UK, for example, only large businesses are liable to DST, that is businesses with in-scope annual global revenue of more than £500m, of which more than £25m are attributable to sales from the UK. For France, the thresholds are €750m and €25m for global and local sales, respectively while for Italy the threshold is €750m and €5.5m for global and local sales, respectively. In Kenya, the threshold could be aligned to the turnover tax threshold or other reasonable threshold.”
There is no doubt that the DST policy is received with mixed feelings amongst observers and industry players. With Kenya’s DST in place, one cannot help but wonder if this is the right time for the government to tax the country’s digital economy in order to increase revenue, which could help in servicing the country’s heavy debt burden and effectively running its economy. On the flip side, there is a concern about whether the implementation of the digital service tax is a step that is too soon to be taken. It would be difficult to come up with an absolute answer to these questions now. However, the turnout of events in the course of the year may likely indicate if Kenya has taken a progressive step.


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So many stakeholders need a cohesive message
Steve’s breakdown: DoorDash is going public and we’re sure that will help but there are so many sides to this business that a steady hand in marketing should step in.
We’re talking about messaging being in lockstep with the DoorDash employees, the restaurants, the management and now shareholders. Not a small task.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA:
- DoorDash filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to a proposed initial public offering of Class A stock, according to a press release.
- The amount of shares to be offered and the price range have not been determined. The company expects to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol DASH.
- The company, which is worth $16 billion as of June, initially submitted a confidential draft registration statement in February, and would become the fourth company offering restaurant delivery to go public, after Grubhub, Waitr and Uber.
- While DoorDash has come under scrutiny for its lack of profitability, its S-1 filing shows that its financials have been improving this year, likely thanks to increased demand for food delivery from the pandemic. Total orders increased to 543 million during the first nine months of 2020 compared to 181 million during the year ago period, according to the filing.
DoorDash increased its revenue to $1.9 billion during the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2020, a 226% increase compared to the $587 million in revenue during the year ago period. Net loss also improved to a negative $149 million during the first nine months of the year compared to negative $533 million during the year ago period. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin also improved to a positive 5% during the first nine months of 2019 compared to a negative 63% during the year ago period.
Despite posting more positive numbers this year, the company noted that it has a “history of net losses.” Even though it generated $23 million in net income during the quarter ending June 30, 2020, the company has incurred losses each year since its founding in 2013. In the filing, DoorDash said it expects to increase spending, especially to grow its business and operate as a public company, and says it may not be able to maintain or increase profitability in the future.
The company expects to use funds to expand its platform, develop or acquire new platform features, grow into new markets and increase its sales and marketing efforts. DoorDash said it also faces considerable competition in the segment not just from other food delivery aggregators, but the likes of pizza delivery companies like Domino’s and other merchants that operate their own delivery fleets.
“Fifty-eight percent of all adults and 70% of millennials say that they are more likely to have restaurant food delivered than they were two years ago, and we believe the COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated these trends,” the company said in its S-1 filing. “We believe the improving value proposition of local logistics platforms, including DoorDash, with wider selection than ever before, increasing convenience, and lower consumer fees has contributed to increasing off-premise consumption, and we expect this trend to accelerate, particularly in today’s convenience economy.”
The company also had a meteoric rise over the last two years, going from 17% market share in the U.S. in January 2018 to 50% in October 2020, according to the filing. In particular, it grew its market share in suburban markets 35% during the same time period, according to data it cited from Edison Trends. Suburbs are a large key to growth for third-party delivery companies, drawing in new consumers, restaurant partners and expanding its reach outside urban cores.
That growth, boosted by the pandemic, could stall however. “The circumstances that have accelerated the growth of our business stemming from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic may not continue in the future, and we expect the growth rates in revenue, Total Orders, and Marketplace [gross order value] to decline in future periods,” it said in the filing.


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Article by Toronto Sun
Pot tourism could be the next big thing in the Big Smoke.
But the budding bud-based tourism industry in here has barely caused a blip yet.
Less than a year after cannabis was legalized in Canada, growth in new weed-based tourism in a largely smoke-free city once dubbed Toronto the Good is expected to come in fits and starts, according to some local entrepreneurs who have already dipped their toes into what is essentially a niche business.
“As with all new things, we suspect the uptake will be steady and slow to begin with,” said Matt Cronin, the founder and CEO of Canada High Tours. “Normalization needs to take place and stigmas removed. That will take time. Until retail outlets in Toronto become established — we are talking more than the (five) or so initially planned, ‘functioning’ cannabis tourism in volumes will be slow.”
Cannabis tourism is well established in Washington state, where it became legal in 2012, and reportedly shown massive growth in Colorado in the five years since the state legalized cannabis in early 2014. That’s to say nothing of the coffee shops of Amsterdam that have been drawing pot aficionados for decades, despite marijuana technically not being legal.
In Toronto, though, the pot tourism industry hasn’t exactly sprinted out of the gate. the slow start is something Ed Kim of Toronto Toke Tours has seen before south of the border and expected, to the point where he expects to lose money for the first two years of operation.
“The first year of legalization in Colorado was a s*** show,” said Kim. “No one knew what was what, there were no hotels, no support companies. Everyone was kind of winging it. I figure the first year (here) is going to be terrible.


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BERLIN’S WE LOVE TRAVEL! EVENT OFFERS VITAL NETWORKING POSSIBILITIES
From 16 to 18 October, 90 exhibitors and more than 75 speakers appeared before an online audience of travel industry professionals and the general public in a live event centred in the German capital.
Presentations and discussion rounds were live-streamed from Arena Berlin. Selected presentations for B2B visitors are available for free replay at itb.com/virtualcovention.
The show, jointly organised by ITB Berlin and the Berlin Travel Festival demonstrated that it is already possible to hold events attracting widespread public interest. However, concepts have to be adapted to the new situation. We Love Travel! was originally planned as a hybrid event with exhibitors and in-person visitor attendance. However, due to the latest coronavirus developments in Germany, the organisers decided to change the concept from a hybrid to an entirely virtual event at short notice.
“Ever since the first ITB in Berlin in 1966, our mission has not changed. ITB has been gathering the international travel industry and with it, people from all over the world for over 50 years. That continues to be our mission, whether at in-person, hybrid or virtual events. Despite the industry now finding itself in probably its worst ever crisis, We Love Travel! showed the importance of exchanging information and good networking, especially now”, said David Ruetz, head of ITB Berlin.
Bernd Neff, the founder and director of the Berlin Travel Festival, noted how important is was to keep looking ahead: “One could say that We Love Travel! was therapeutic. It recognised the symptoms, diagnosed the problem and prescribed a treatment. We saw that the industry was longing for an opportunity to talk to one another – so we established a networking platform for exchanging information. We invited professional experts to diagnose the problems. And ultimately, we provided inspiration and motivation to help both the industry and travel enthusiasts keep looking ahead.”
The We Love Travel! platform provided an opportunity for AI-based, virtual networking with industry representatives and invited the participants to a total of three online networking sessions. With the networking platform attracting more than 650 users, the event, jointly organised by ITB Berlin and the Berlin Travel Festival, has been a veritable success. Exhibitors, buyers, speakers, trade visitors and representatives of the media arranged some 1,000 individual meetings with each other. Overall, more than 700 new business ties were established between participants, with over 98% giving positive feedback.
Martina von Münchhausen, a tourism expert at WWF Germany, who took part as an exhibitor and in the programme, reporting on the state of the planet and the challenges facing tourism in the future at the virtual event: “As a tourism expert, I was able to respond to the questions from the audience. The networking platform provided an additional opportunity to make direct contact with important industry players. Many thanks to the We Love Travel! team for a successful event.”
Olaf Lieberwirth from TMB Tourismus Marketing Brandenburg GmbH said he liked the new approach to targeting travellers and said, “For us, the virtual We Love Travel! Festival offered an exciting and fascinating alternative for addressing our future guests and visitors. The amount of technology involved was impressive.”
On the weekend alone, more than 40 speakers told their stories about stormy seas in South Africa, the bars in Tehran and coast of South America. High points included a multivision show by Ulla Lohmann, a photojournalist and filmmaker, who gave a passionate account of how she had fulfilled her life’s dream to be the first woman to explore an active volcano. Hitchhiker and globetrotter Stefan Korn’s stories about crossing 56 countries in two years also kept viewers glued to their screens. The lecture given by Anselm Pahnke, who travelled 3,000 kilometres by bicycle across the Kalahari Desert on his own, was also one of the best-attended weekend events for the public.
The 12 most important takeaways from the Friday events for B2B visitors at We Love Travel!:
1. The main problem is uncertainty
From 1950 to 2019 overnights increased sixty-fold globally, said Peter Kautz from Statista. “But then the coronavirus arrived.” With tourism activities having suffered a 55 per cent loss in turnover worldwide (as things stood), the pandemic had eclipsed all other crises to date, he said. Roland Gassner from Travel Data & Analytics added that although the collapse was similar to 9/11 or the financial crisis, its duration and prospects for recovery were not. This would take longer and no one could say how long.
2. The situation is not hopeless
“Stop whining”, said many of those at the discussions. Pointing to the most recent surveys, Michael Buller from Verband Internet Reisevertrieb (VIR) said “people want to travel”, all the more so if they had been unable to for a long time. What was more they had “the money, time and desire to travel again”, said Ulf Sonntag, a market researcher at the Kieler Institut für Tourismusforschung. Even if they could not necessarily choose the destinations they wanted they were “booking trips like mad”, said Roland Gassner, director of Business Development, Travel Data + Analytics.
3. Transparency builds trust
With people now making new travel choices, maintaining trust has become more important. “Trust has become the new currency for successful tourism marketing. The crisis has impacted on all stakeholders to a greater or lesser degree. None were prepared, nor were the customers. Greater cooperation was necessary to overcome the situation”, said Christian Tänzler, press spokesman for Visit Berlin.
4. Successes achieved by compliance and diversity must be maintained after the crisis
“Travelling must not stop”, said Rika Jean-Francois, CSR commissioner for ITB Berlin. It broadened travellers’ minds and promoted understanding that ensured the survival of this unique planet, its natural beauty and ethical values. “That is the only way the successes achieved by compliance and diversity can be maintained and built upon after the crisis.”
5. Socially responsible awareness is increasing
The loss of tourism revenues has had a serious impact on livelihoods and human rights at travel destinations in some cases. “We also need to consider what it means for local residents”, said Dirk Inger from Deutscher Reiseverband.
6. Customers are eager for more information and want to feel secure
Exchanging information and a sense of security have become more important than ever. Both organisers and people at destinations have recognised that. Detlef Schroer from Schauinsland Reisen was certain customers would not give up their demands after the crisis. That was precisely the challenge for providers.
7. Geographically, the coronavirus has spread tourism apart
As a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, in addition to traditional mass tourism destinations other more exclusive ones are becoming popular too. This could have a positive impact on destinations’ sustainability, by putting an end to mass tourism and overtourism for instance, but only if stakeholders identify with that goal. Harald Pechlaner, professor of Tourism Studies at Universität Eichstätt, said “Newly discovered travel trends, staycationing for example, need to be consolidated.” Even if it was hard to imagine every German taking their holidays in Germany in the future, the destinations that had experienced an economic upturn needed to do everything to maintain this trend.
8. Online bookings are here to stay
Between every offline booking and a departure there is a delay. Particularly at a time when coronavirus restrictions were changing daily that meant there were risks, said Peter Kautz from Statista. Uwe Frers from ADAC Camping said that Germany’s overflowing campsites in the summer had made that clear to even the most stubborn traditionalists.
9. Pricing wars are brief and unsuccessful
The tourism industry’s traditionally slim margins meant that pricing wars in order to win back customers were really out of the question. Nor would they make any sense, said Detlef Schroers from Schauinsland Reisen. One argument against them was that the crisis had triggered customer demand for various extra services. Nevertheless, one could not rule out the intentions of some providers.
10. Premium travel is on the rise
Premium travel, which gives customers a greater sense of security and is associated with better hygiene, is on the rise, as evidenced by the latest bookings. Generally speaking, there will be new services available to travellers, private airport shuttles to the hotel for example.
11. Package tours are alive and well
With their promise of better security, hygiene and flexibility for the customer, package tours will survive the coronavirus crisis. According to Detlef Schroer from Schauinsland Reisen, their strong point is that they offer customers a greater sense of security in very uncertain times. However, customers would have to pay corresponding prices, otherwise it would not make economic sense.
12. The market needs new products
For Boris Raoul from the Invia Group, focusing completely on the customer was the key to handling the situation and its consequences. Travel agencies had to accompany the consumer on the customer journey with tailor-made products.


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1) Hold on to your yarmulkes, folks — Sotheby’s is set to hold an auction of biblical proportions this week with the private sale of the Codex Sassoon, considered the earliest, most-complete Hebrew Bible in existence. Owning it will be a testament to one’s wealth, with the ~1.1k-year-old, 26-pound bible expected to go for
2) Taco ‘bout riding trends — with Mexican food sales projected to grow by $113.8B through 2026, hot sauce aficionado Cholula is, quite literally, turning up the heat on competition. The company, bought by McCormick & Co.
3) During Google’s I/O developer conference, the company amped up the volume on its AI love song 143x — in the form of mentions of the word “AI.” CEO Sundar Pichai led the charge by saying “AI”
4) Looks like job satisfaction is reaching new heights, leaving employees on cloud nine-to-five. According to the Conference Board’s latest survey,
[yuzo id=820442 ]


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A year ago, when the stock market crashed and Tesla was still a new brand, investors were looking for something different.
Now, the company is looking to the future, a new approach to business that could be a boon for its shareholders.
The stock market is about to hit record highs again and investors are expecting a repeat performance.
So far, Tesla has done well.
The company’s shares are up about 50% year to date and analysts are expecting to hit new records this year.
But it’s not clear how the stock will rebound in the future.
Tesla’s shares have gained more than 300% in 2017, but investors are skeptical that the company will continue to grow.
Tesla wants to turn its focus back to building cars and not selling them.
Tesla has made no secret of its ambitions to make electric vehicles that will compete with conventional cars.
In the past, the Tesla Model S and Model X have been the hottest selling electric cars.
The Model 3 is expected to launch later this year, and the company expects to sell around 400,000 Model 3s this year alone.
But analysts are skeptical about how fast the Model 3 will be able to make its mark.
Tesla currently offers the Model S, Model X, and Model 3 at different prices.
The most expensive model is the Model X with a starting price of $63,500.
The priciest Model 3 starts at $68,000.
But there are some important differences between the two models.
The price difference is due to a few different parts, such as the battery pack and a roof rack.
The battery pack has been improved to offer more capacity, while the roof rack is more durable.
Tesla also has a few new features that help customers save money and improve efficiency.
For example, it now uses solar panels to produce power and reduces energy consumption.
There’s also a new electric-vehicle charging station in China that will eventually replace the traditional gas stations.
For some Tesla customers, the Model Y will be the first electric vehicle they can afford.
The new car comes with a range of 100 miles (160 kilometers) and can go up to 300 miles (480 kilometers) on the highway.
But that is still a long way from the speed of a normal car, which can go from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 100 kilometers/h).
The Model Y is also expected to be cheaper than other electric vehicles in the next year.
The car can go $50,000 (€39,000) without a driver, but it has a price tag of $90,000 before taxes and fees.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said the company hopes to eventually sell 500,000 cars this year and 300,000 vehicles in 2020.
But if the Model Z, which was announced last month, is a good indicator of how fast Tesla is growing, the stock could rise to new heights.
It has a projected annual sales of 4 million, up from 3 million last year.
Tesla is already profitable.
It generates about 70% of its revenue from selling cars and its stock price has climbed more than 200% in the past year.
That has fueled the company’s earnings.
However, the sales growth has not translated into more sales of electric vehicles.
Sales of cars and trucks are already more than 50% below the sales of hybrids and battery electric vehicles, according to the Automotive News website.
And Tesla has struggled to sell its electric cars in the U.S. Because the company doesn’t sell vehicles in China, many analysts expect that sales of its electric vehicles will be low.
The electric-car market is dominated by smaller companies, such a Nissan and Toyota.
Tesla isn’t the only company trying to find new markets.
Ford Motor Company is also making electric vehicles and it has been doing well, too.
It already has about 1 million electric vehicles on the road, up about 70,000 from last year, according the company.
But its sales have been shrinking.
Ford’s electric vehicles are more expensive than hybrids and batteries.
And because electric vehicles have a high range, they are expected to make up a bigger portion of the company over time.
Tesla hopes to take advantage of the electric-cars market, too, by offering low-priced, high-range cars.
Tesla will offer the Model 4, a smaller, smaller, lower-cost version of its Model S sedan, at $35,000 ($36,900) for the base model and $35k ($37,900).
It will be offered in a range from $50k to $70k for the most expensive models.
Tesla aims to get more people to buy the Model 6, a bigger, more expensive version of the Model 7.
It will start at $80,000 and go up by about $3,000 for the priciest models.
Musk has also said he wants to sell as many electric cars as possible in a few years.
But Tesla is also


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June 20, 2018
Fake hotels becoming a massive issue for OTAs
The rise of fake hotels is a phenomenon that has left both consumers and OTAs frustrated and out of pocket.Read more
June 16, 2010
According to Hitwise's latest travel report, 40.23% of all visits to the online 'Travel' industry went to the top 10 websites for the month of May, 2010. 49.48% went to the top 20 websites and 69.81% went to the top 100 websites.
The monthly report provides Hitwise data on:
- Top 20 websites for the past month based on visits
- Percentage of traffic to the Travel industry online
- Most popular search terms typed into a search engine that resulted in traffic to websites classified by Hitwise within the 'Travel' industry.
- Fast Movers - indicating websites which have witnessed substantial increases in rank in the online Travel industry
Download the full report "Hitwise Monthly Category Report - Travel, May, 2010" (PDF 244KB)
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