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The Help to Buy schemes, launched by the government last year, have enabled nearly 40,000 people to buy their first home, according to official statistics.
Help to Buy consists of two schemes which enable people to buy a property even if they only have 5% of the purchase cost.
More than 48,000 people in total have taken advantage of Help to Buy in the scheme’s first year. The government has released a statement revealing some of the key figures:
more than 80% of house purchases made using the scheme were made by first-time buyers
the average price of houses sold was £187,800, which is significantly less than the national average of £265,000
94% of Help to Buy purchases were on houses outside of London.
One concern about the scheme is that it will make getting a mortgage too easy, and push house prices up too high – there was a 10% rise from June 2013 to June 2014.
The mortgage guarantee loans are restricted to 4.5 times the borrower’s income to try and keep a natural balance in the market, and also prevent buyers borrowing more than they can afford.
We will keep our clients informed of any developments.
Please contact us at email@example.com if you would like information about the legal aspects of buying or selling a home.


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China's JD sold $15.6 million of iPhone 13 in first two seconds of sales event
AppleInsider may earn an affiliate commission on purchases made through links on our site.
China's JD.com and Alibaba have reported record-breaking earnings from the country's "Singles Day" sales event, chiefly from luxury goods and the iPhone.
Apple's launch of iPhone 13 preorders in September 2021 was so popular that it Chinese retail websites went down under the demand. Subsequently, it was estimated that over five million preorders were placed, and JD.com alone took over three million preorders.
Now it seems that was far from the end of demand for the iPhone. November 11, 2021, was this year's "Singles Day" sales event in China, also known as "Double 11" because of the 11/11 date.
According to CNBC, retailers JD and Alibaba together took around $139 billion in sales, setting a new record.
JD.com's share was $54.6 billion, which the company reported was 28% higher than for 2020's event. The company said it saw a surge in luxury items, and also pet-related goods.
The company said that it sold 100 million yuan ($15.64 million) of iPhones in the first two seconds of the event. It did not break down which models were sold.

domain: news


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Sao Paulo - Brazil
Futurecom is the largest Telecommunications event in Latin America. 15000 attendees from 40+ countries participate at Futurecom Brazil. It has a 25.000sqm exhibition area and an outstanding International Congress. Most of worldwide ICT companies participate at Futurecom, as well as all Brazilian Fixed and Mobile Carriers.
Sprint (Overland Park, Kan.) announced Tuesday it has formally requested the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to block AT&T's (Dallas, Texas) proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA, noting the Commission’s responsibility to protect consumers and the industry against anti-competitive market control. Sprint made the request in a “Petition to Deny” filed at the FCC this afternoon.
In its filing, Sprint concluded the proposed acquisition cannot be remedied through divestitures or conditions, and urged the FCC to block the proposed transaction on the following grounds:
CEM is a strategic approach to monitoring, measuring and managing all of a customer's interactions with the service provider. This whitepaper describes the need for operators to focus on their subscribers QoE to reduce churn and sustain revenue. Register here for White Paper Download
Struggling Irish telecoms group Eircom said on Friday it must accelerate talks on restructuring its debt with shareholders and lenders ahead of a likely breach in its financial covenants within the next three months.
Eircom, majority-owned by Temasek unit Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT), in March warned of a significant risk of a covenant breach within three to six months and said it would talk to shareholders about possibly injecting new equity.
Aeroflex Incorporated, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aeroflex Holding Corp. (Plainview, N.Y.) and the leading supplier of test instruments for the Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) market, presented its new Auto-Test II technology for testing TETRA mobile stations on the 3920 Digital Radio Test Set to the visitors of TETRA World Congress in Budapest. The new test option allows testing of TETRA terminals—independent of the network and encryption settings—by just pushing a button. Performing regular maintenance testing is an important issue for users of TETRA terminals.
Google Inc (Mountain View CA) and four bank and telecommunications partners on Thursday unveiled "Google Wallet," taking U.S. shoppers a step closer to paying by waving their mobile phones at the checkout counter.
The Internet search company's system that lets people pay with phones instead of cards, hoping to win a race against major rivals including Visa, top U.S. banks and mobile network operators.
Mobile VAS World Summit 2011 has newer and freshly minted materials! Listen to many key case studies from operators and mobile content providers and device manufacturers. Mobile VAS World Summit 2011 held on 12 - 13 September in Singapore will feature NEW and FRESH updates from our speakers who are the industry’s innovative thinkers and MVAS practitioners who have developed exciting offerings to their markets.
Neuralitic Systems (Canada), a provider of mobile data intelligence solutions for mobile operators, has expanded its presence in Asia with the signing of a new deal with StarHub (Singapore), a fully-integrated info-communication company. The mobile operator will utilize Neuralitic’s SevenFlow software suite to understand the data usage profile of its customers and monetize data traffic.
Charles Schwab (San Francisco, Calif.) today launches mobile deposit capabilities for iPhone users, enabling brokerage and Schwab Bank clients to deposit checks remotely by taking a picture of a check with their iPhone camera. Schwab is one of the only financial services firms to provide its clients with mobile deposit capabilities and integrated banking and brokerage mobile services, including money transfer.
The Alipay system affiliated with Jack Ma's Alibaba Group has received a license from China's central bank to operate an electronic payment system in the country, the company said on Thursday.
The license would allow Alipay to handle foreign exchange transactions, Internet payments, mobile payments and debit card services, Alipay said in a statement.
Alibaba Group restructured Alipay's ownership structure, giving Ma full ownership control of the payment business.


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The Classmate 3s no-frills laptops will have a new look and feel. What Intel has done to upgrade the Classmate 2
Intel will announce details of the next generation of Classmate PCs soon, with new hardware and software that will make the laptops more user-friendly, the company said.
Intel declined to provide specific details on the updated hardware and software features, but the new laptops will be announced in “a month or so,” said Agnes Kwan, an Intel spokeswoman. The company also declined to provide more specific shipping or pricing information.
Overhauling of the laptop includes a design update. The third generation of Classmate laptops will have a new look and feel, Kwan said. The changes are based on feedback Intel got from educators and students using Classmate PCs, Kwan said.
The Classmate PC was originally designed as an educational laptop for kids in developing countries. The laptop’s new version, Classmate 2, was announced earlier this year, and Intel expanded its availability to the general market through PC makers.
For general users, the Classmate PC is designed as a no-frills laptop that can be used for basic applications like surfing the Web and checking e-mail. Today the Classmate PC is available in 35 countries through 30 PC makers, Kwan said. HCL Infosystems in India is selling a MiLeap X laptop based on the Classmate design for US$356. Actronix is selling the JumPC in the U.K., also based on the Classmate PC design, for 239 Pounds (US$476).
A user interface for the new Classmate laptop could be a version of Sugar, originally developed for One Laptop Per Child’s XO laptop, an educational laptop for kids in developing countries. Intel is pushing for the development of Sugar for Classmate PCs through Sugar Labs Foundation, which has assigned a community volunteer to work with Intel on Sugar.
Though not official, the Sugar interface has already been shown to work on the Classmate PC on OLPC News, an enthusiast Web site.
The chip maker also announced on Wednesday that it is shipping the current Classmate 2 with updated hardware, adding speed and memory capabilities.
The laptop now has Atom processors running at 1.6Ghz and supports up to 1G byte of RAM. Earlier versions of Classmate included an Intel Celeron processor running at 900MHz and supported up to 256M bytes of RAM. Intel originally talked about the inclusion of the Atom processor earlier this year. Other hardware features for the new Classmate 2 include an 8.9-inch screen and hard drive storage of up to 30G bytes.
Intel is working with the Portuguese government to ship some of the new Classmate 2 PCs with Atom processors to around 500,000 basic-level education students for the upcoming school year, Kwan said.


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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Automobile Dealers Association wants to rebrand Voluntary Protection Products (VPP) to change the way consumers view the product offering, according to a panel of automobile dealers at CBA Live on Tuesday. To coincide with the panel, the NADA released a VPP policy template to its members the same day. “These […]
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The generation that often gets a bad rap for being careless with their finances and overly impulsive when it comes to spending actually don't put a hefty paycheck at the top of their priority list when it comes to their jobs.
A new study from Gallup shows that one out of two millennials would leave their current job if it meant getting a new one for a raise of 20 percent or less.
And though the fact that half of those polled answered that way, the poll also showed that there are other facets to a job that millennials rank as more important that income.
These include quality management, job roles that they feel genuinely interested in and opportunities for growth and advancement.
For millennials, feeling engaged, important and motivated in their careers is prioritized.
The flip side of this, of course, is that money isn't comfortably abundant among most working millennials.
The study found that 69 percent of millennials have enough money to buy the bare necessities of what they need, and that only 38 percent have a comfortable enough cushion to buy the things that they want.
But so long as millennials feel engaged and challenged, it seems that they'll find a way to make it work with what they're earning. The study found that millennials who felt engaged at their current jobs were 26 percent less likely to leave for a raise.
And when millennials do have enough money to spend it on what they want, here are the brands that they can't get enough of:
More on AOL.com:
Think you "get" millennials? Get paid $20,000 an hour to instill your knowledge
More millennials are living in their moms' basements than at any other time in the past decade
Here's how much millennials are earning annually across the US


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Fitness wearables are great for broad, generalized activity tracking — they count your steps and measure your heart rate just fine — but when it comes to more specialized forms of fitness, they sometimes fall flat. Take vertical jumping, for instance. It’s hard to measure for a wearable strapped to your wrist or waist, and even harder for said wearable measure precisely. That’s where the Vert Jump Bluetooth monitor comes in: It’s a fitness tracker that accurately records jump metrics.
The Jump’s quite small (roughly the size of a matchbox, give or tack), and clips either onto a waistband or into a “VertBelt” strap accessory. It’s unobtrusive, but manages to pack an impressive range of sensors and chip: three high-precision gyroscopes and an onboard processor dedicated to calculating directional movement.
Just what jump metrics does the Jump measure, exactly? Plenty: the degree of vertical motion in any given direction, maximum vertical height, highest vertical jump, average vertical jump over a session, and total jump count. The Jump’s able to collect that data in real time, the company said, thanks to proprietary algorithms that process 50 simulations simultaneously. Readings are displayed on the Jump’s inbuilt OLED monitor, plus optionally relayed to a companion app. Soon, it’ll be viewable on smartwatches such as the Apple Watch, Pebble smartwatches, and Android Wear devices, a feature that Vert says will be of particular benefit to watchful coaches.
“As athletes … continue to intensify their training on a year-round basis, coaches, parents and players alike have come to understand the importance of safe practices,” Vert said in a statement. “For those who participate in sports that require explosive jumping movements like volleyball, basketball, and track and field, there was previously no efficient way to monitor the frequency or intensity of those jumps to ensure safe injury preventative practice habits.”
The Jump may be a relatively new fitness tracker, but its got street cred. It’s been used to show jump statistics on stadium Jumbotrons, and was showcased at a nationally-televised NCAA volleyball match earlier this year.
“We are looking forward to incorporating the data that Vert aggregates into our coverage of the NCAA championship in order to better educate the volleyball fandom on the true athleticism of these student athletes along with the incredible stamina it takes to play this beautiful game,” said Meg Aronowitz, coordinating producer at ESPN & SEC Network, in a press release.
The Jump retails for $125, and is available now at Vert’s website. The companion app’s only on iOS for now, but the company says an Android-compatible version’s set for launch later this year.
- The Galaxy Watch 5 doesn’t fix my biggest problem with Samsung wearables
- How many folds can the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 survive? Spoiler — it’s a lot
- Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 buying guide: everything you need to know
- Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 buying guide: everything you need to know
- Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 buying guide: everything you need to know


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There’s no shortage of quirky, fun mobile apps out there—even one that promises to brighten your teeth by throwing off electromagnetic signals through a white screen. While fun apps and games have fueled dramatic market growth, there’s some work to be done on the business side of the market.
Chevrolet’s Volt hybrid electric car contains more than 10 million lines of software code that run on almost 100 microprocessors. Owners can even use their smart phones to lock or unlock the door, ask for the battery’s state of charge or turn on the air conditioning.
A quick online search for news about the “consumerization of IT,” is a little dizzying in its repetitiveness.
Headlines often try to get our attention with a stark picture: “Consumerization of IT taking its toll on IT Managers,” or “Consumerization and the BYOD Trend Heighten Data Leakage Fears.”
Between the buzz around the “Google Glass” project and the overnight success of the Bluetooth-powered watch, “Pebble,” the world is alight with the idea of wearable technology. Why would one want to wear technology when we have smartphones? Because the way we interact with the world changes based on where the technology lives.
There are encouraging improvements in several areas of Internet security. At the same time, cyber thieves are adapting tactics and targeting more niche loopholes and emerging technologies such as cloud computing, social networks and mobile devices.
Can you believe it? After 244 years, the venerable Encyclopedia Britannica is out of print. You probably already know why. A singular culprit with a funny name: Wikipedia. But what can we learn from the rise of Wikipedia and how it relates to crowd sourcing, social enterprise and learning? You’d be surprised.
Chances are, there’s a mobile phone in your pocket, if not on your desk. And chances are you rely on that phone to get a considerable amount of work done — or at the very least — keep it under control. The mobile revolution is in full swing and its impact on the market will be indelible. But what can we learn from the latest trends? And more importantly, what is mobility, really?
Retailers are still tallying up the take from this year’s holiday shopping season. While the malls were jammed between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, so too were the Web-ways as more people took to the Internet to gather their holiday gifts. The big jump: shopping using mobile apps.
Fortune published a profile of Microsoft founder Bill Gates about a decade ago that included a photo of his pristinely clean office. His desk had three monitors, a keyboard, a mouse and not a scrap of paper. He was the proverbial pioneer of the paperless office.


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Monday, February 22, 2016
Trends & Predictions;
Ericsson ConsumerLab published a report in December 2015: 10 Hot Consumer Trends 2016. From the methodology section one can see that an unusual amount of
effort went into this report: for example, just the online survey of smartphone users took place in 13 major cities across the world and comprised 6,649
urban iOS/Android smartphone users.


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On August 23, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) unveiled their findings in a report detailing the implications of a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Notably, this investigation involved the RBA issuing a pilot CBDC to selected industry participants within a secure environment, marking a departure from previous theoretical experiments. This CBDC was not just a concept but a legitimate claim on the central bank, enabling a deep dive into the legal, regulatory, technical, and operational facets of CBDC issuance, thus guiding future policy decisions.
The report outlined a multitude of submissions from industry participants, each presenting unique CBDC use cases that may offer substantial benefits to Australian households and businesses.
Among the key themes that emerged in the submissions was the potential of CBDCs to streamline payments. The report found that programmable, tokenized CBDCs could facilitate intricate payment arrangements that conventional systems struggle to support. For instance, leveraging smart contracts could trigger automatic payments using the CBDC whenever predefined conditions are met. This would eliminate costly reconciliation processes and reduce failed transaction risks.
Moreover, the research underscored the CBDC’s potential to spur innovation in financial and other markets. Industry representatives expressed considerable interest in utilizing distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms for asset tokenization, with the pilot CBDC employed in the ‘atomic’ settlement of transactions. This exploration extended to traditional debt securities markets, which typically experience settlement times measured in days and less liquid assets such as Australian carbon credit units and NSW biodiversity credits.
The CBDC could also catalyze innovation in private digital money by promoting new forms of interoperable, uniform private digital money, such as tokenized bank deposits and high-quality asset-backed stablecoins. CBDCs could provide an alternative to central bank-held settlement balances used in commercial bank transactions, fostering competition in the digital money market.
Lastly, the findings suggested that CBDCs could reinforce resilience and inclusivity in the digital economy. Some submissions indicated that CBDCs could bolster the system’s robustness by offering alternate payment methods, like offline electronic payments, especially during power or internet outages. Such a feature could be particularly beneficial to specific community sectors that may find it difficult to access traditional banking services, including travelers, foreign students, and victims of domestic violence.
The project revealed heightened interest from the industry in the development of tokenized asset markets facilitated by a CBDC, which could serve as a catalyst for private sector innovation, including the development of new forms of privately-issued payment instruments and infrastructure.
However, the exploration of CBDCs has also raised a myriad of questions, spotlighting the need for further understanding of a range of legal, regulatory, technical, and operational issues. For instance, the project demonstrated the need for a deeper analysis of the legal foundation of a CBDC, including the legal grounds for its issuance and legal status. Additionally, the project highlighted potential challenges related to the technical design of CBDCs and their integration with use case applications.


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Wednesday, May 19, 2010
GSM and mobile VoIP operator Truphone has just appointed Chris Moss as Global Chief Marketing Officer.
Chris was previously CEO of 118118, launched the Orange brand, transformed Virgin Atlantic and merged Lloyds Bank with TSB.
Categories: Networks and operators, NewsNumber of views: 2313
James Rosewell offers his opinion on the current state of mobile and contactless payments.
The banking and mobile industries have big plans for Near Field Communication (NFC) as the mobile payment mechanism of the future. Barclaycard has been leading the way from the credit card sector forming a partnership with Orange, having previously worked with O2, and running a catchy TV advert prompting contactless cards using VISA’s paywave system.
However the reality of NFC payments appears a lot further away. The Point of Sale (POS) technology appears to be badly deployed by some of the first-phase retailers mainly made up of low-value high-volume businesses like coffee shops, fast food outlets and newsagents.
James Rosewell writes: I note with interest Barclays mobile on-line banking home page extolling the safety of mobile banking whilst claiming it’s as secure as their non-mobile equivalent. This is on the same page that recommends customers use Opera Mini to access Barclays mobile on-line banking.
Yet following the link to the operamini.com web site and looking at the help section we can read Opera’s answer to the question “Is there any end-to-end security between my handset and — for example — paypal.com or my bank?” and the answer is “No. If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full Web browser such as Opera Mobile.”
Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?
Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.
Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.
They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.
We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.
We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.
In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.
They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.
We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?
We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.
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Fortnite Adds Sword Weapons in Latest Patch—Specifically the Infinity Blade
Infinity Blade may be technically gone, but it will live on through Fortnite, as the weapon from the game will be featured in the battle royale game.
Epic Games doesn’t seem to want to focus on anything other than their newly-launched games store and their main moneymaker Fortnite, with Infinity Blade being the latest casualty. Infinity Blade was the company’s attempt to bring something new to mobile games, but those titles are being removed from online marketplaces. Even so, those nostalgic for those games can have some solace in using the Infinity Blade as a new weapon in Fortnite Battle Royale.
The weapon comes in the v7.01 patch, which comes shortly after season 7 began, alongside “The Block” area for community-created content. The Infinity Blade is the first proper melee weapon that players can use in Battle Royale, with the blade dealing heavy damage and having the ability to destroy structures. Players can find the Infinity Blade in the new Polar Peak area of the updated map.
Along with the blade is the returning “Ralphie’s Revenge” weapon for Save the World and a Creative Mode giving players access to “Islands” to play around with starting December 13. This patch also adds a new Limited Time Mode called “Close Encounters,” which focuses on shotguns and jetpacks.
While I was never a fan of Infinity Blade or Paragon, which was one of the earlier fallen titles from Epic, it seems interesting to me that Fortnite is basically eating these previous games alive. It comes across as a tribute to a series that was meant to be innovative in pushing graphical power on mobile games—Infinity Blade may be gone, but Fortnite, which is also playable on mobile, won’t forget it.


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When the news broke about Amazon's Whole Foods acquisition, companies in every industry stood up and paid attention. Both are huge brand names, sure. But their business models seem antithetical at every cultural level.
Even beyond the obvious brick-and-mortar differences from Amazon, Whole Foods has a reputation for its employee generosity, its lackadaisical attitude toward tech and its expectations for high-quality but high-priced products. How Amazon expects to absorb such a company is anyone’s guess at the moment, but in this age of M&A, it’ll likely be more than the merger story du jour. It could provide a powerful example for how two seemingly disparate but business-aligned companies create a successful marriage — or it could be a primer on how companies may bite off more than they can chew.
Cultural awareness during mergers may not be a business’ first consideration, Dawn Conrad, EVP at Aon Strategic Advisory, told HR Dive. But as legacy giants try to heal their wounds by buying the very companies that disrupted their business models in the first place, culture ought to be an early focal point for company leaders. It defines how a company does the most basic aspects of its work — and forgetting about it could spell doom for any M&A.
Communication matters immediately
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey isn’t exactly known for subtlety, but during a stressful time like a merger, a leader must balance honesty with a strategic approach. Anything the CEO says will be watched carefully by employees fearing the prospect of change.
Mackey telling his employees that Whole Foods will become “more customer-centric” could easily be interpreted poorly, since their entire model of employee generosity posits that treating employees well leads to better customer service overall.
If I was an employee, I would be wondering what that means for my job. We have this great employee atmosphere, how do we keep that?
Principal, A.T. Kearney
“I wouldn’t state that without clarifying what that means,” Micah Alpern, a principal at A. T. Kearney, said. An example Alpern provided of how to approach that message: "‘We are going to push further and focus on customers, and that will continue by expanding a great employee experience.’"
Amazon has almost the opposite reputation, being a results-oriented workplace that demands innovation at breakneck speeds. Generally, if one company is merging with another, employees will be paying careful attention to how the culture they’ve likely come to enjoy will shift.
“If I was an employee, I would be wondering what that means for my job,” Alpern said. “We have this great employee atmosphere, how do we keep that?”
Leaders should be carefully assessing the kinds of cultural issues that could spring up before any employees know about the merger.
“Prior to the deal being announced, do due diligence,” Conrad said. “Consider high-level cultural differences and similarities. What’s the strategy and how are they going to align? Integration planning should be a key part of the assessment, to understand what those issues might be.”
Exactly how two companies opt to integrate can vary wildly, from total absorption to a more hands-off approach. Either way, a company must position the culture as improving, not disappearing, Alpern noted. Getting influencers in an organization on board with any changes is an imperative part of that process.
“Retention will be a key issue,” he said. “There are influencers throughout the organization. You can’t lose these people. Let them be involved, out there talking to employees as a more informal communicator.”
Transparency and honesty (to a point) matter to employees. They may feel lost and will need to have some sense of how the company arrived at the M&A decision. A map provided by the employer about how certain issues will be navigated could help.
Employees understand how the organization functions. If an important aspect of the organization will be shifting in response to the merger, employees will need to be told upfront how and why it will change, Conrad said.
Why cultures clash at the most important level
One important element to reiterate: Culture is not just perks. Culture is the actualization of the way a company handles its basic workings, such as governance, decision-making, the work environment and employee communication. The ways employees interact with each other and the business reflect those basic building blocks.
Unfortunately, HR doesn’t own culture. But it can affect the factors that ultimately create culture.
“I think being able to go in and understand what are going to be such strong cultural barriers that will immediately impact the business is key,” Conrad said. “Have a plan for overcoming them.”
Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, sent a letter to his employees when Microsoft acquired them that is considered a strong example of communicating clearly and honestly in the face of a merger. It noted the company’s strengths, what they did well and how they would continue to harness those strengths.
“No culture is perfect,” Alpern said. “But what is working? How can we leverage them and propagate any kind of change we make around them?”
To get employees on board, make them feel more explicitly a part of the change process. How can each individual or department align with the new company order? How can employees participate and have their say in how you modify your company model?
In other words, give people the chance to own it. It motivates employees when they can say they had the opportunity to make decisions, Alpern said.
Be sure to address changes upfront and early, Conrad said. But also be aware that it won’t happen overnight. Changes like this can take years, especially when the two cultures may be disparate. Invest in the change and keep culture in forefront to make the transition as painless as possible.
“It’s a matter of getting and understanding what it takes to transform,” Conrad said. “Every organization is different. Every organization is trying to create something new.”


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Although the first Red Dead Redemption game was never released for the PC, PC fans were hoping that they would get the second game but so far, there has not been any indication that the game would be released on the PC.
To be fair, Rockstar has been very secretive about the sequel. There have not revealed much about the game although they did confirm that a sequel was being developed. The good news is that we might learn more about the game this week.
Rockstar posted an image on twitter suggesting that they will have something to announce on the 28th of September this week. The background of the image suggests that the announcement will be related to Red Dead Redemption but that is all we got from it.
Some fans are hoping that Rockstar would announce the platform that the game will be released on while others are hoping for a release date or maybe a new trailer.


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by Amy Goodrich, Natural News:
Big Food is at it again, fooling us with false advertisements to make us buy food we don’t want to consume. Most of today’s consumers are increasingly health conscious and want to avoid products that contain health-damaging ingredients. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is one of the substances that has made a bad name for itself.
This questionable sweetener – which is much cheaper than regular sugar, and extends the shelf life of processed products – has been linked to many health problems such as heart disease, obesity, dementia, diabetes, cancer and liver failure. For this reason, many consumers have begun to check food labels and steer away from foods containing HFCS.
But manufacturers have come up with a sneaky way to fool their customers so that they don’t have to change their money-making ways. Instead of removing this cheap, harmful ingredient, they have just changed its name on packaging to conceal it within their products.
For years, the corn industry has tried to mislead us. In 2010, the Corn Refiners Association sought to improve the image of HFCS. Thankfully, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stepped up and turned down their request to rename HFCS to the more natural sounding term “corn sugar.”
Nonetheless, they succeeded in changing the name of a form of HFCS called HFCS-90 to fructose or fructose syrup. Since fructose makes up the sugar content in fresh fruits, it sounds much healthier than HFCS, however, when we consume fructose in fruits, we consume it along with fiber, enzymes, minerals and vitamins.
The toxic ingredient now called fructose, or fructose syrup, contains even higher concentrations of harmful HFCS, making it more of a health risk than regular HFCS. Regular HFCS (HFCS-42 or HFCS-55) contains either 42 or 55 percent fructose, while HFCS-90 contains 90 percent.
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SweepSouth, a company specialising in on-demand home cleaning services on the African continent, has that announced it has secured R10m in new funding.
The funding comes from the Vumela Fund, as well as from its existing investor, Vinny Lingham and Llew Claasen’s firm, Newtown Partners. The Vumela Fund is capitalised by the First Rand Group and the Jobs Fund and managed by FNB in an alliance relationship with Edge Growth.
SweepSouth had an impressive 2015, coming off of a winning pitch at the SiMODiSA Startup SA conference in October 2014. This was followed by an April 2015 Series Seed funding round from a team of top tech investors, led by Vinny Lingham and Llew Claasen’s firm Newtown Partners and including Pule Taukobong’s Africa Angels Network (AAN) and Polo Leteka Radebe’s Identity Development Fund (IDF). The startup finished the year as the first South African startup selected to participate in the 500 Startups accelerator in Silicon Valley, between July and November 2015.
“The start of 2016 suggests a year that will be no less exciting for us,” says Aisha R. Pandor, CEO of SweepSouth. “With this major new cash injection from the Vumela Fund, we can further expand our rapidly growing national footprint.”
SweepSouth was founded on the belief that the home cleaning industry needed modernisation through technology as well as a change in mindset towards the belief that everyone deserves access to dignified work at decent pay. “As we expand we can offer so many more work opportunities,” says Pandor. SweepSouth has created thousands of job opportunities in the last few months for women, the vast majority of whom were unemployed, resulting in over 100 000 hours of cleaning being completed over this time.
“Edge Growth is an experienced and respected investor who shares our passion for job creation and social transformation. We’ve loved interacting with their team and are excited about utilising this investment to continue our rapid growth and create sustainable work for thousands of cleaners in the next year” said Pandor.
Speaking about the deal, lead investor Janice Johnston of Edge Growth says, “We think SweepSouth is one of the leading tech startups in SA. The on-demand economy is a huge growth area because a lot of consumers’ needs can be far better served with tech-enabled, on-demand services. Uber is a great example of such innovation and we think SweepSouth is the Uber of cleaning in SA. The exciting job creation opportunities which the SweepSouth platform provides professional cleaners, is an important attribute of the investment for the Vumela Fund. SweepSouth has one of the most dynamic and creative teams in the startup space and we think they’ll take on-demand service adoption to another level in SA.”
Pandor has a PhD in Genetics and is a former management consultant with experience in HR management, strategy and operations. Alen Ribic, SweepSouth’s co-founder and CTO has over a decade of experience in software engineering, particularly in developing highly scalable systems.
CES: Most useless gadgets of all
Choosing the best of show is a popular pastime, but the worst gadgets of CES also deserve their moment of infamy, writes ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK.
It’s fairly easy to choose the best new gadgets launched at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week. Most lists – and there are many – highlight the LG roll-up TV, the Samsung modular TV, the Royole foldable phone, the impossible burger, and the walking car.
But what about the voice assisted bed, the smart baby dining table, the self-driving suitcase and the robot that does nothing? In their current renditions, they sum up what is not only bad about technology, but how technology for its own sake quickly leads us down the rabbit hole of waste and futility.
The following pick of the worst of CES may well be a thinly veneered attempt at mockery, but it is also intended as a caution against getting caught up in hype and justification of pointless technology.
1. DUX voice-assisted bed
The single most useless product launched at CES this year must surely be a bed with Alexa voice control built in. No, not to control the bed itself, but to manage the smart home features with which Alexa and other smart speakers are associated. Or that any smartphone with Siri or Google Assistant could handle. Swedish luxury bedmaker DUX thinks it’s a good idea to manage smart lights, TV, security and air conditioning through the bed itself. Just don’t say Alexa’s “wake word” in your sleep.
2. Smart Baby Dining Table
Ironically, the runner-up comes from a brand that also makes smart beds: China’s 37 Degree Smart Home. Self-described as “the world’s first smart furniture brand that is transforming technology into furniture”, it outdid itself with a Smart Baby Dining Table. This isa baby feeding table with a removable dining chair that contains a weight detector and adjustable camera, to make children’s weight and temperature visible to parents via the brand’s app. Score one for hands-off parenting.
Click here to read about smart diapers, self-driving suitcases, laundry folders, and bad robot companions.
CES: Tech means no more “lost in translation”
Talking to strangers in foreign countries just got a lot easier with recent advancements in translation technology. Last week, major companies and small startups alike showed the CES technology expo in Las Vegas how well their translation worked at live translation.
Most existing translation apps, like Bixby and Siri Translate, are still in their infancy with live speech translation, which brings about the need for dedicated solutions like these technologies:
Babel’s AIcorrect pocket translator
The AIcorrect Translator, developed by Beijing-based Babel Technology, attracted attention as the linguistic king of the show. As an advanced application of AI technology in consumer technology, the pocket translator deals with problems in cross-linguistic communication.
It supports real-time mutual translation in multiple situations between Chinese/English and 30 other languages, including Japanese, Korean, Thai, French, Russian and Spanish. A significant differentiator is that major languages like English being further divided into accents. The translation quality reaches as high as 96%.
It has a touch screen, where transcription and audio translation are shown at the same time. Lei Guan, CEO of Babel Technology, said: “As a Chinese pathfinder in the field of AI, we designed the device in hoping that hundreds of millions of people can have access to it and carry out cross-linguistic communication all barrier-free.”
Click here to read about the Pilot, Travis, Pocketalk, Google and Zoi translators.


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Microsoft could introduce a cheaper, ad-supported Game Pass tier
Microsoft may be considering a lower-priced tier of their Game Pass service, with a few adjustments from the current standard options. A Spanish-language survey shared on ResetEra has allegedly shown the company asking current subscribers whether they’d be up for cheaper Game Pass for PC and console, if that reduction came with a delay for first-party games or running ads. It’s worth taking this with a heavy pinch of salt though, as there’s no confirmed source to the survey.
Along with mentioning the Game Pass family plan that was rumoured for some time before being confirmed in September, the survey also talks of advertising and a six-month delay on games that come to the service. The pricing for the lower cost tier is given as €2.99. That’s very cheap, considering PC Game Pass costs £8/$10/€10. For the moment though, PC Game Pass includes launch day access to Microsoft’s first-party games and no advertising. According to the survey, the new tier would also not include access to cloud streaming for PC, console and mobile devices.
The possibility of cheaper, ad-supported Game Pass memberships has cropped up at the same time as rumblings that Microsoft are brainstorming the technology to add personalized in-game ads into their streaming service. A patent filing uncovered by Gamesual shows a couple of different options for where the technology might be applied. Along with the potential for future video ads streamed to locations in a game, the patent also mentions ads slapped onto parts of characters such as their “chest, arms, shorts, and socks”. You can check the patent out here.
Would you be comfortable sitting through a bunch of ads if it meant cheaper PC Game Pass? Let us know in the comments.


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For three years running, the Eivissa Council has put Ibizan fine-dining and produce at the centre of its presence at Madrid Fusión, an international gastronomy gathering that stretches 22-24 January.
Now the Eivissa Council is taking things even further. This year, a multipurpose space at administration’s usual stall became the scene for a report aimed at putting Ibiza in the spotlight as a sustainability-driven destination for travellers and gastronomy-lovers alike.
The Eivissa Council’s president and tourism chief, Vicent Torres, hailed Madrid Fusión as “critical to how we promote gastronomy and local products”. “This time around we’ve been especially focused on the importance of preserving our island’s natural resources as we invest in a sustainable future”.
Seizing the occasion of what is truly a blockbuster encounter for industry insiders both in Spain and further afield, the Eivissa Council chief gave thanks for support from local fishermen’s guilds for the Peix Nostrum brand, a pioneer initiative in the Mediterranean in terms of sustainability. … For his part, tourism chief Vicente Torres Ferrer heralded “the role some of Ibiza’s biggest chefs have played, not only in promoting our culture and traditional cuisine, but also in remaining fresh and innovating”. Says Torres Ferrer: “Now more than ever, both current trends and studies confirm that travellers choose their destination based on its gastronomy”.


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Brexit forces U.K. space company to expand U.S. presence
Brexit could open new doors for the U.S. space industry as British companies look to build relationships with the American supply chain to replace those it had to cut with European partners. Already the U.K.'s plan to withdraw from the European Union is playing a role in at least one British company’s decision to expand its U.S. presence in 2020.
Spacebit, a space robotics and data analytics company planning to launch a small lander to the lunar surface in 2021, announced Thursday that it will open an office in Lansing, Mich., in January as Brexit gets closer to becoming a reality.
“In the past, having the supply chain in Europe made sense. But now as we’re having a Brexit, it might be more realistic ... for us to concentrate on overseas partners such as U.S. and it actually might be cheaper in the future to have parts of our supply chain in the U.S. rather than in Europe,” said Spacebit CEO Pavlo Tanasyuk, who founded the company in 2014.
The company is working on developing tools to lower the cost and boost the accuracy of collecting data in space and is pursuing innovative robotics, including its lunar lander that has legs instead of wheels, enabling it to jump. It’s big-picture goal is to reduce the barrier of entry to space so much so that people and organizations beyond traditional government players can take part in commercial space missions.
Locating the new office in Michigan will allow Spacebit to take advantage of technology and manufacturing skills from the automotive industry, explained Tanasyuk.
“We’re trying to develop the region by trying to tap into the declining automobile industry in the region and offering them new contracts in aerospace,” he said.
Tanasyuk, who previously led online payment company Monexy, also spoke about the company’s new accelerator in Luxembourg and its plans to explore the lunar surface in partnership with Astrobotic, an American space robotics company working on landers to visit the moon and other planets.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
What is driving your decision to open a U.S. office now?
We are opening our investment arm and we really want to have a hands-on approach here in the U.S. and be able to invest in local ventures. … Chuck Laue [Spacebit’s chief business development officer] will be here making those decisions and being able to critically assess those deals. It’s difficult to make decisions in terms of investments from the U.K. as we are not covered by [International Traffic in Arms Regulations, which control the export of national security technologies.] … We really want to be able to see what’s here and invest in early stage startups in the U.S.
The second reason is because we’re making preparations for a [lunar] rover launch … in 2021 with Astrobotic. We are already looking at the U.S. supply chain. Even though integration is happening in the U.K., we still want to see what part of the supply chain can be built in the U.S. There may be some final assembly here in the US as well.
What capabilities are you looking for in companies you’ll invest in?
We’re talking about early stage investment -- angel or seed investment. We are actually considering companies that are working in what we can call a future lunar economy. … We have a few pain points within our own business. We see what technology we are missing and see future potential for markets. We would like to select very early stage companies in these markets and help them to grow. … We’re obviously looking into software, but also hardware … that can help us as a company to be successful with our moon mission. As we develop our lunar mission, we have already identified a few areas where we don’t have expertise ... but we know there are a few spinoffs from universities that are already working on the technology.
Especially with Brexit, the U.S.-U.K. relationship becomes even more important to us. In the past, having the supply chain in Europe made sense. But now as we’re having a Brexit, it might be more realistic ... for us to concentrate on overseas partners such as U.S. and it actually might be cheaper in the future to have parts of our supply chain in the U.S. rather than in Europe. … On one side, it’s unfortunate. But on the other side, it opens up new opportunities for collaboration.
Why put your U.S. office in Michigan?
There is already a heritage in the automobile industry in the Detroit area. We would like to assess if we can tap into the automobile industry and see if they can manufacture products that we need for aerospace but at a lower price. We’re trying to develop the region by trying to tap into the declining automobile industry in the region and offering them new contracts in aerospace.
Will US companies be able to participate in your accelerator in Luxembourg announced last week?
They’re welcome to participate. The accelerator in Luxembourg will be an international undertaking … so U.S. citizens or residents are more than welcome to apply. Applications open in January.
Is Spacebit looking to play any role in crewed lunar missions?
We’re not involved in any crew missions. That’s a different level of undertaking. We are only focusing on robotic mission so far. It would be interesting to see if we can supply some technologies for future human missions, but it’s not something we’re doing right now.


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Coffee chain Starbucks is to close more than 8,000 company-owned branches in the US for an afternoon next month to carry out "racial bias" training.
The aim is to prevent discrimination in Starbucks stores.
The move comes after the firm had to apologise over last week's arrest of two black men who were waiting to meet someone in a Starbucks in Philadelphia.
Following the incident, protesters converged on the store and there were calls for a boycott of Starbucks.
Starbucks' chief executive Kevin Johnson said he had been "learning what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it".
Mr Johnson said he had spent the last few days in Philadelphia. He has also met the two men who were arrested.
In a joint statement, the men's lawyer and Starbucks said their discussions had been "constructive".
Mr Johnson had apologised on behalf of the company and the conversation was continuing about how this "painful incident can become a vehicle for positive social change", the statement added.
All Starbucks company-owned branches and corporate offices will be closed on the afternoon of Tuesday 29 May.
Nearly 175,000 staff will receive the training, as will all future recruits.
The closure could cost an estimated $20m in lost sales.
Days after the coffee company was forced to apologise to the Philadelphia men, footage emerged of an apparent race-related incident in a Starbucks store in California.
Brandon Ward, a black Starbucks customer in Torrance in southern California, posted a video on social media purporting to show an incident in January, in which he was barred from using a toilet - despite being a paying customer - while a white man who hadn't bought anything was allowed to use the facilities.
Mr Ward's video provoked a strong reaction on social media, with some criticising the coffee giant for its actions.
Here we go again.— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) April 16, 2018
Meet Brandon Ward. He was @Starbucks - about to make a purchase - and needed to use the restroom.
They denied him the code.
He then finds a white man, Weston, who came out of the restroom.
He had not made a purchase but they gave HIM the code.
Others said they had undergone similar experiences to Mr Ward at the company's stores.
@Starbucks Dear Kevin Johnson, Brandon Ward is not the only one that is owed an apology. Same thing happened to me, Orange CA February 2018. Me: denied (told to get from cashier), White Sheriff immediately given code. I also confronted the barista. pic.twitter.com/xB3IpFHF6Z— Leeli Conley (@TEAMWWLD) April 17, 2018
As part of its damage-limitation effort, the company has asked civil rights leaders and officials including former US Attorney General Eric Holder for help in developing a "curriculum" for staff, which it will make available to other companies.
The training will "address implicit bias, promote conscious inclusion, prevent discrimination and ensure everyone inside a Starbucks store feels safe and welcome", the company statement said.
"Closing our stores for racial bias training is just one step in a journey that requires dedication from every level of our company and partnerships in our local communities," said Mr Johnson.
In last Thursday's incident, two black men were waiting in a Philadelphia Starbucks to meet someone and had not bought anything when the store manager called police.
Amateur video showed police placing the pair, who were accused by shop staff of trespassing, in handcuffs.
"All the other white people are wondering why it's never happened to us when we do the same thing," tweeted customer Melissa DePino, who posted a video of the incident.
Mr Johnson said the video was "hard to watch" and that the actions taken were "wrong" and "reprehensible".
In an interview on Monday, Mr Johnson said the Philadelphia branch manager who called police about the two men had now left the company.
In 2015 a Starbucks public relations campaign to encourage customers to discuss issues of race backfired, when the company's big roll-out was widely mocked.
Launching the "Race Together" campaign, Starbucks had said it wanted to engage customers in a conversation about race amid protests about policing of African-American communities.
It involved baristas scribbling the words "Race Together" on cups and attempting to "engage customers in conversation through Race Together stickers available in select stores", Starbucks said.
But instead the hashtag #racetogether was hijacked on social media and the campaign became the subject of widespread criticism.


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Hungary's government has decided to roll back prices for some staples to October levels from February 1, Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced in a video message on January 12.
The price of granulated sugar, flour, sunflower seed oil, pork leg, chicken breast and cow's milk with 2.8% fat content will be rolled back to October 15 levels. Details are still sketchy and will be regulated in a decree.
It is still unknown how prices will be set back, whether it will be the official price monitored by the statistics office KSH or prices charged by individual shops on that day. Online cash register data allows the tax office to provide precise data on prices broken down by stores.
There are also discrepancies in the regulation, as one kilogram of chicken breast cost more three months ago than today, analysts pointed out.
"Hungary's regulated system of retail energy prices had shielded households from the kind of energy price increases driving up inflation in the rest of Europe", Viktor Orban said in his video message, adding that "the prices of other important products are rising meanwhile".
He argued that the measure is needed to bring down inflation and ease the burden on people.
Inflation spiked at 7.4% y/y in November, but the prices of some basic foodstuffs rose at double digits and were widely expected to rise at the same pace in 2022. The National Bank in its latest report forecast a gradual fall in prices from December.
Instead of reducing VAT on these products, the government decided to pass on the costs of the regulated prices shared by producers and traders, analysts noted. Hungary has the highest VAT rates in Europe at 27%. It is 5% on milk, fish, chicken and pork.
The latest measure comes just 12 weeks before a high-stakes election that could see the end of Viktor Orban’s 12-year rule. The ruling Fidesz party unleashed an unprecedented money transfer. Families with children will be refunded with the entire personal income tax payment capped at HUF809,000, which will set the budget back by HUF600,000. The government was to pay two weeks of pension premium in January, with the promise of paying out the entire 13th month of entitlement by 2024.
The cabinet decided to bring this forward by two years and more than 2mn people will receive the entire monthly entitlement eight weeks before the election. Orban announced the reintroduction of the 13th month pension during the height of the pandemic, a smart political move as his predecessors, the former social-liberal government, was forced to phase it out in 2009 after the economic crisis.
The government offered PIT exemption for under-25s, and public sector salary increases in 2022. The minimum wage will also rise by 19% and with salary scale-up the average gross wage is expected to rise 14-15% this year.
The government has also interfered in the market, capping fuel prices in November and freezing mortgage loans for variable interest-rate loans. At the end of the year, a decision was made to allow cardholders of the SZEP voucher cards to use them for purchasing foodstuff from February 1. The hotel and catering sector said the measure will set back their turnover as the voucher card, the most popular fringe benefit, could originally only be used for leisure, hotel services and for hot meals.
Opposition parties said the government’s latest move scheduled before the election is a clear admission that the Hungarian economy is in a tragic state. Their joint prime minister candidate Peter Marki-Zay promised to reduce VAT on basic foodstuffs to 5% if the opposition alliance takes power.


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No doubt many netizens of cyberspace were surprised to hear this week that the World Wide Web is on death's doorstep while the Internet is alive and well and ready to be the platform for an electronic Camelot. That's because for many folks the Web an...
A network of hundreds of thousands of home computer users recently discovered a rare celestial object by donating their computers' downtime to a worthy cause.
Let's pause for a moment of silence to remember Google Wave, a service that has gone off to greener pastures. Google confirmed the news late yesterday, saying the service hadn't seen the type of user adoption it had been hoping for.
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Hi-tech magazine publisher Future Network today admitted it over-extended itself during the dotcom boom years, with its losses doubling to £121m in the last year.
In its full year results to the end of 2001, the chief executive, Greg Ingham, said the company, which publishes the Official Playstation 2 Magazine, had emerged smaller and more focused.
"We have emerged from the most difficult year in Future's history as a more robust and mature business, with a strong management team determined to restore our performance," said Mr Ingham.
During 2001 Future almost collapsed under the twin onslaught of the advertising downturn and the dotcom slump.
It was forced to close or sell 45 magazines, slim down its internet operations and shut businesses in Germany and the Netherlands.
Shares in the company now hover around the 55p mark, a far cry from 2000 when they soared to over 900p thanks to Future's international expansion and the early success of its Business 2.0 title, which along with the Industry Standard was considered the standard bearer of the new economy.
"Future's unacceptably high level of debt resulted from a period of over-ambitious investment and expansion," admitted the company's chairman, Roger Parry, the European boss of US media giant Clear Channel, who took over from founder Chris Anderson last year.
But Future has been able to get its debt under control over the past year thanks to vigorous cost cutting, a £33.5m rights issue and the £47.3m received from AOL Time Warner for Business 2.0 last year.
Future's overall debt now totals £8m, down from £78m at the height of its troubles.
As it relies heavily on the success of its games magazines, the fortunes of a new breed of games consoles, including Sony's Playstation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox, will be crucial to the company's success.
Mr Ingham said he hoped increased sales of magazines based on the consoles would more than offset the continuing softness in the advertising market.
He added that internationally the company had learned its lesson and would focus on licensing its magazines abroad rather than expanding into new markets.


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Sunoco Fires Up Northerly Expansion for Laredo Taco Co.
GREENSBURG, Pa. — Sunoco LP is bringing the Laredo Taco Co. foodservice program to its first APlus convenience store in Pennsylvania, reported the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. The Mt. Pleasant Street store recently began offering breakfast, lunch and dinner and will hold a grand opening for the new menu on Feb. 12.
"The Mexican cuisine is a big hit," said Christie Bloom, store manager. "We are getting a lot of compliments."
The new addition is part of Sunoco's plan to expand Laredo Taco northward. The foodservice concept originated at Texas-based Stripes c-stores, which Sunoco purchased in July 2015.
Sunoco plans to add Laredo Taco to another store in Sunbury, Pa., and to five stores in the Philadelphia region. It is also looking to add Laredo Taco to stores in Virginia and Nashville, Tenn., along with new properties it acquires in the future, according to company spokesman Jeff Shields.
"Sunoco is looking to invest a lot of money" into the foodservice program, Shields said.
In November, Sunoco listed Laredo Taco as a strength of the Stripes brand, as CSNews Online previously reported. Its fresh, handmade tacos draw in hungry customers and drive sales of other high-margin items such as beverages.
Sunoco LP has 158 Sunoco- and APlus-branded c-stores in Pennsylvania.


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The smartphone OS market is incredibly competitive, made up of just 3 main players. In the UK Android is in the lead with 51.9%, iOS in second with 39.5% and Windows in third with 8.2%, leaving just 0.4% for the rest of the market.
Firefox OS by Mozilla is one of these other OS’s, however this week Mozilla announced it is now throwing in the towel after just a few years of pushing FireFox OS on Smartphones. These were aimed at the low-end without great success. The OS will live on as an open source project but will cease to support smartphones as they were not able to offer “the best user experience possible”.
Firefox OS is not the first in exiting the smartphone market with other examples in smartphone history including: Symbian, Bada, MeeGo, Palm OS and WebOS.
There are also other current OS’s making up the ‘other’ category with Blackberry, Sailfish OS, Tizen and Ubuntu Touch.
Android was the latest introduced platform that has found large success, overtaking at-the-time most popular OS Symbian, back in 2010.
So why have we not seen any companies make a significant impact in the mobile market since Google’s entry with Android?
We’re seeing both a maturation of the smartphone landscape and costs of entry skyrocketing, even with these two large factors it is possible that the ‘other’ category could increase in market share instead of diminish over the next few years as we see more informed consumers looking elsewhere amongst the mature and arguably creatively stagnant platforms.
Smart phones have been a phenomenal success world-wide, with many manufacturers around the world fighting for a slice of the smart devices pie.
The newest participant is British-based WileyFox with the launch of 2 new smart phones. The first is the cheaper WileyFox Swift at £129 with a 5.0” display, 13MP camera and 2GB memory. The second is the WileyFox Storm priced at £199 with a bigger 5.5” display, better 20MP camera and larger 3GB memory. Both of these phones also support dual SIM, expandable memory, 4G LTE and are powered by the open, Cyanogen OS, which is itself built on Google’s Android.
The WileyFox phones offer good value for money for those seeking to buy their phone outright instead of facing carrier subsidies or for UK buyers looking for a dual SIM phone as they rarely make it to our shores.
Of course good value for money doesn’t equal success, with many of the established smart phone giants failing to find profitability in the field including both Sony and LG who’s Q3 fiscal reports showed declining smartphone shipments.
WileyFox could find more success in the UK compared to markets with similarly position phones such as the US where consumers are tied to pricey monthly plans and do not have the flexibility to choose any network of their choosing, due to a lack of phone signal overlap between network providers. In the UK not only can the average consumer choose from any network of their own preference, but many are becoming more savvy with their smart phone purchases, either buying phones outright and using either pay-as-you-go SIMs or cheap SIM-only plans. All of which plays well into Wileyfox’s new affordable and flexible dual SIM options.
Blackberry’s much rumoured android venture has finally become official with the announcement of the companies first Google powered smart phone called the Priv due to be released later this year.
Priv stands for privacy which has been the cornerstone of BlackBerry’s business over the last 20 years.
Both the phone and the strategy announcement of a non-BlackBerry OS phone came out from a simple press release from the company after many rumours and substantial leaks showing much of the device. The announcement also confirmed that BlackBerry is not yet cancelling development of its own BlackBerry OS but will be developing both Android and BlackBerry OS handsets in the future to give consumer the choice of which they prefer.
The dual development approach however may not be a long term strategy and it is very possible that this time next year BlackBerry, if their Android phones are more successful than their own developed counterparts, could announce plans to drop their own OS in favour of providing additional development resources into their Android security layer that will be their unique selling point going forwards.
Many have been calling doom and gloom for the Canadian company and its easy to see why with BlackBerry currently holding less than 1% of the smart phone market, however with the Priv and future business and security focused smart phones they could start to carve back a market from both corporate users and smart phone fans that still long for the days of durable, long lasting battery phones with a physical keyboard but don’t want to compromise with an unsupported OS that won’t run the many applications the modern mobile user would want to use.
BlackBerry going Android could actually provide a breath of fresh air from smartphone slabs that mostly all look and act the same today.
In December 2014 Microsoft acquired mobile software developer Acompli for $200 million who had developed very popular and critically acclaimed email clients for iOS and Android. Shortly after the purchase Microsoft rebranded these to “Outlook” keeping the functionality and compatibility to other mail providers that critics originally praised.
The rebranded Outlook app has also seen critical success under Microsoft and Microsoft own Windows 10 mobile app currently in development shows signs of its inspiration.
Microsoft announced this week that Javier Soltero the founder of Acompli has been officially but in charge of Outlook on all platforms, including the web, smart phone, tablets and most importantly PCs.
Before Microsoft purchase Acompli Javier was used to a team of less than 75 so being put in charge of one of Microsoft most used applications must be a daunting task.
With the great critical praise and innovative design shown thus far, Javier lead versions of Outlook in the future is definitely one to watch. We are likely to see mobile only features such as the focused inbox make the jump to desktops and we are likely to see new innovations that only make sense with the larger screen real estate on the PC.
As interesting as this is for the future of Outlook, it is as interesting for Microsoft itself, Microsoft is showing they recognise great, unique talent, even if from outside the company until recently and letting them lead large and established products that may otherwise face complacency. Of course with any leadership shift this does introduce new risks but taking the opportunity to crucial to grow in a hugely competitive field.
It’s no secret that Canadian based Telecoms Company BlackBerry has been struggling over the last five years to sell its own smart phones against fierce competition from Google and Apple.
During this time the company has turned its primary focus on its enterprise mobile security plans, opening up its proprietary BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) to additionally support competing platforms such as Android and iPhone.
On the 4th September 2015, BlackBerry surprised many by announcing its largest acquisition in the company’s 31 year history by purchasing MDM (Mobile Device Management) company Good Technology for $425 million.
Most news out of BlackBerry of recent years has been on the negative side, mass job cuts and a huge decrease in marketshare, which has seen Blackberry trimming down to form a smaller, leaner company. So few would have predicted it was preparing itself for a large acquisition to re-position itself in the highly competitive mobile security sector.
Over half of the Fortune 100 are using Good Technology to secure mobile devices so the purchase is a great fit, BlackBerry bolsters its security capabilities as well as opening doors to many high profile business opportunities to sell both hardware and services.
In relation to BlackBerry’s ongoing hardware, Good Technology could also prove very useful in both the ongoing development of their own BlackBerry OS and the much rumoured Android-powered smart devices. Good Technology could provide a similar security layer similar to Samsung does with Knox on future devices.
In conclusion, the future for BlackBerry is now a lot more interesting than it was hitherto. The company, despite shrinking marketshare is not afraid to take big risks to shake things up – and the one they have chosen here makes a lot of sense. With a big bet like this, it will truly be feast or famine for BlackBerry as they try and conquer enterprise mobile security.
3D scanning, used to make models which could be manipulated on a PC or printed on a 3D printer, requiring sophisticated depth-sensing cameras. These 3D cameras can be both very expensive and much larger than a regular camera sensor, both traditionally being barriers to bringing the technology to mobile in a more mainstream way.
Microsoft, no stranger to 3D camera technology, has developed multiple commercial versions of its Xbox Kinect 3D motion camera and has shown off several prototypes on miniaturized, mobile versions of 3D cameras. They have now announced a new, software driven approach to bringing 3D scanning to the mass market called “MobileFusion”.
MobileFusion doesn’t rely on any special 3D hardware but is entirely driven by an app being developed for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. The main focus for the app is to create digital versions of real life objects that can be then printed on a 3D printer.
The trick to using a single camera to capture depth is that it needs to be slowly moved around the object, so it does take longer to capture, however the cost and availability bonuses of the app should make this an exciting addition to the phone’s feature set.
The reason why this is a major step forward is that currently 3D scanners are very limited and conversely, most people own a smartphone. This remarkable technology will let anyone capture digital copies of real world objects be it at a museum, outside, in home or in the office.
With many more 3D objects available and the power to create them at ease, 3D printing may get its shot at mainstream success beyond the current niches that have adopted the technology so far.
It’s no secret that smartphones are getting bigger and bigger. Apple was last to the party with the 5.5” screen ‘iPhone 6 Plus’ last September, but extra-large sized phones have been available for both Android and Windows phones beforehand. There has been a substantial increase in consumption patterns for this size of phone. Extra-large phones now make up 20% of the market in 2015 up from just 6% at the beginning of 2014. This number is likely to increase even further as more phone manufactures decide to make these ‘larger than life’ phones their flagship devices, instead of being an interesting niche side offering.
With both consumers and business users doing even more with the content of their larger smart phones, the need for small to medium sized tablets has also decreased. Why carry around a 7” tablet when you have a 5.5” phone in your pocket? As applications, services and support becomes even more universal across the competing mobile platforms, almost any modern smart phone could be used for business, so with all the competing platforms and devices – which makes most sense for your business?
The primary consideration for business will be to strike a good balance of cost, functionality and administration effort required.
• Price is the most obvious point here and multiplying this by the size of your workforce is critical. What could seem a reasonable price difference between handsets at face value will balloon in size if it is to become the new company standard when you do your rollout.
• Functionality between different devices used to vary far more greatly than it does today but is still a very important consideration. How great does the camera quality need to be? Will wireless charging be utilised? How big is ‘big enough’ for the screen to view ever increasing content application to help workflow on the move? And the perpetual question of how long will the battery last in ‘real world’ use time?
• Administration effort may not come up in conversation much on picking the perfect phone but is potentially the biggest pain area if not considered thoroughly. Some Smartphones are very much consumer focused and can be used as great business phones – but only after deleting bloat apps, changing settings, disabling features, downloading essential tools and compliance procedures. Many of these tasks can be assisted with MDM but even with an MDM layer, some phones are simply quicker and thus more preferable to select and setup than others.
If your office runs Microsoft software then the overlooked Windows Phones could be perfect for you. The system is quick and battery efficient and comes with Microsoft Office pre-installed, which saves time downloading the de facto tool every time you roll out a new device. They are also very price competitive: for example the new 5” Lumia 640 can picked up £129 which makes it cheaper than the 5” Motorola G at £149 and a staggering difference to the 4.7” iPhone 6 starting at £539 unlocked.
There’s no perfect phone for all businesses, so your choice will be tailored to your own business needs, the support lifespan from the manufacturers and new technical innovations that could help improve your worker’s business performance.
What makes you decide which phone your business has chosen this year or is planning to purchase this year? Let us know which you think is right for your business and what the deciding factor was?
Kind regards and thanks


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To commemorate the beginning of Responsible Gaming Education Week (RGEW), the American Gaming Association (AGA) has activated the enforcement process associated with its Responsible Marketing Code for Sports Wagering.
The Responsible Marketing Code for Sports Wagering includes self-imposed restrictions on target audiences, outlets, and materials branding, while mandating responsible gaming inclusion. The tenets of the code apply to traditional and digital media marketing activity for AGA members and non-members. Through the process, industry stakeholders and consumers can flag perceived non-compliance with the code via AmericanGaming.org.
“Responsible Gaming Education Week provides a perfect opportunity to launch this important initiative, holding everyone accountable to a standard set by responsible operators,” said AGA President and CEO Bill Miller.
“By adhering to this code, U.S. sports betting operators are putting consumers first, and I’m thankful to the distinguished industry representatives on the compliance review board who will help raise the bar for the marketing of sports betting activity in the United States.”
The self-regulated, industry-wide programme will be overseen by a Code Compliance Review Board, consisting of two independent co-chairs and five AGA member representatives:
Joe Bertolone, Executive Director, UNLV International Center for Gaming Regulation (co-chair)
Becky Harris, Distinguished Fellow in Gaming, UNLV International Gaming Institute (co-chair)
Laura McAllister Cox, Vice President of Regulatory Compliance & Legal Counsel, Rush Street Gaming
Stephen Martino, Senior Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer, MGM Resorts International
Sharon Otterman, Chief Marketing Officer, William Hill
Paul Pellizzari, Vice President, Global Social Responsibility, Hard Rock
Chris Soriano, Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer, Penn National Gaming
AGA’s Responsible Marketing Code for Sports Wagering supplements individual companies’ existing responsible marketing activities and those adhered to by all AGA members through the Responsible Gaming Code of Conduct, which includes limitations on frequency of advertisements.


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President BianZhenhu and vice president RongWeidong met with Mr. Tabar¨¦Aguerre,Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries for Uruguay and Mr. Fernando Lugris, Ambassador of Uruguay in China on May 15 at CFNA during the opening of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. The two sides had in-depth communications on the bilateral trade development of agriculture and food industry.
Aguerre pointed out that China is Uruguay¡¯s major trade partner and they has just signed relevant inspection and quarantine certification agreements on beef with China Certification and Inspection Group before the opening of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Uruguay will contribute more to China¡¯s Belt and Road development and Chinese customers will have access to more high quality beef and meat products from Uruguay
President BianZhenhu and vice president RongWeidong welcomed the Uruguayan delegation and said that CFNA is willing to strengthen cooperation and promote the bilateral trade with the Uruguayan side.


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A lot has changed since the onset of the pandemic, but businesses are still following a weekly emailing cadence in 2022 with a 1% increase
CHICAGO, May 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — UpCity has announced the results of a survey that reviews perspectives from both small business owners and email marketing experts to provide insight on how their email campaign initiatives have shifted for a post-COVID world.
The 2022 Email Marketing Study gathers data from more than 600 business owners and email marketing professionals throughout the United States and Canada to find out what small businesses are trying to accomplish with email marketing campaigns in 2022.
Statistical highlights include:
17% of U.S. businesses focused most heavily on both product/company updates and promotional emails pre-COVID. Now in 2022, U.S. businesses focus most heavily on promotional emails at 18%.
Similarly, 19% of Canadian businesses prioritized promotional email campaigns pre-COVID, with a 1% increase for 2022.
34% of respondents noted a monthly email marketing budget of $100-$500 pre-COVID. A majority of respondents still have a $100-$500 monthly budget, though that percentage has dropped to 27%.
49% of businesses handled email marketing in-house before the pandemic. A majority of businesses still leverage in-house teams, now at 51%.
Heidi Sullivan, SVP of Product & Marketing at UpCity, says that SMBs should not forget that email marketing still holds value.
“Marketing professionals are still struggling to stabilize their businesses and clients against the devastating impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has brought on,” Sullivan said. “While a lot has changed, one thing that still holds is that businesses must utilize the full scope of their marketing tools to stay connected to customers and prospects.
“Retention is just as important as generating new leads,” Sullivan continued. “Our survey revealed that businesses who mostly focused on retaining existing customers feel that their email marketing strategy needs work. Email is a great way to convey value and provide resources for your existing customers.”
Visit UpCity for more information about this survey and other topics relevant to small and medium B2B service providers, their leaders, and their employees.
UpCity is a resource that helps connect businesses to service providers they can trust. With more than 70,000 listed providers—from marketing agencies to accounting firms to HR consultants to IT specialists, and many more—2 million businesses (and counting) have visited UpCity to research and identify the best partner for their needs.
For interview requests or other inquiries, please contact UpCity SVP of Product & Marketing Heidi Sullivan at [email protected].
180 North LaSalle Street, Suite 2100,
Chicago, IL 60601


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A distillery in the Orkney has been granted nearly quarter of a million pounds to produce a new batch of locally-grown whisky.
Deerness Distillery, which specialises in gin, vodka and coffee liqueur, has been awarded £246,000 from the Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) for a £820,000 development of the distillery.
Run by husband and wife duo Stuart and Adelle Brown since 2016, the distillery on the east end of the mainland is best known for its award winning Sea Glass Gin.
Deerness has been granted the six-figure sum to begin production of a new whisky using Scottish barley and speciality locally-grown grains from Orkney.
The distillery is to be upgraded to include a new café, visitor centre and larger retail shop that allows visual access to the production process, with a view to opening in the summer.
Additional buildings as part of the redevelopment will house whisky malting and distilling equipment and whisky casks.
Graeme Harrison, area manager for HIE’s Orkney team, said: “Whisky and gin production is a key part of our food and drink sector in Orkney.
“It provides valuable employment and contributes to community resilience.
“The development will help grow the business to a size where it can have a sustainable future.
“Orkney continues to experience a steady growth in volume tourism and this will be a valuable addition to our range of visitor attractions, particularly outwith Kirkwall, so we are very pleased to support this venture.”
Stuart Brown said: “We’re delighted to be embarking on this development, which would not have been possible without the support of HIE.
“Building on our success with gin and vodka production is an important step in our journey, allowing us to increase sales both nationally and internationally while creating employment in the islands, attracting more visitors and having a greener footprint.”
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Egypt to buy 500,000 tonnes of wheat from India: Minister
- India announced a ban on wheat exports on Saturday
Egypt's government has agreed to buy half a million tonnes of wheat from India, Egyptian Supply Minister Aly Moselhy told Reuters on Sunday.
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Japan’s tallest ‘hina doll’ tower rises 7 meters high in Saitama
The Asahi Shimbun by SHIRO NISHIHATA/ Staff Writer February 17, 2017
KONOSU, Saitama Prefecture--“Hina” doll fans will be in seventh heaven at the sight of a 7-meter-high “hinadan” pyramid--Japan’s tallest--set up at a mall here for Hina Matsuri, the traditional Girls' Day festival.
About 1,800 hina dolls from all over the country were carefully placed on each of the hinadan’s 31 red-carpeted tiers at the Elumi Konosu Shopping Mall on Feb. 16.
Nineteen carpenters, tethered for safety, were in charge of placing the dolls on the upper shelves, while about 60 volunteers placed dolls one by one on the lower levels at the festival’s main venue.
The city launched the festival, which is celebrating its 13th anniversary this year, to raise its profile as a traditional hina doll producer with a history stretching back about 380 years.
Around 10,000 hina dolls will be showcased at six venues in the city altogether.
Konosu’s Hina-matsuri festival runs from Feb. 17 through March 12, with the main event taking place on March 3.
A 7-meter-tall “hinadan” pyramid of “hina” dolls at the Elumi Konosu Shopping Mall in Konosu, Saitama Prefecture, on Feb. 16 (Shiro Nishihata)


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Women’s Brew “the Matilda Effect” launch on International Women’s Day
January 30 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
We are women, hear us roar!
Happy to participate in the launch of the 2018 Women’s Brew “the Matilda Effect”.
There will be free sampling of the women’s brew and fantastic food specials with proceeds going to the Lethbridge Women’s Shelter.


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Nippon Express, a Japanese logistics company, is going to diversify its product line. The company aims to develop its own medicines in early 2021. As the development of drugs requires intense care, the company needs to carefully track its products at each step of the development. To record the data, the company is going to design a blockchain-based pharmaceutical transportation network.
According to the news report of Nikki, the Tokyo based company is going to invest almost $1 billion in the blockchain-based transportation network.
How The Nippon Network Plans to Use Blockchain
To develop the network, Nippon Express will collaborate with different companies. Two major companies have shown their interest. Intel Japan is going to provide RFID tags to check the location and statue of the product and Accenture will design new sensors to check the temperature of the product inside the warehouse and vehicles.
Nippon network plans to provide complete information to its consumers. To record data at every step, RFID tags and sensors will be installed inside the factory. These devices will upload information to the blockchain.


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SANTA ROSA, Calif., Sept. 30 -- Advanced Digital Optics (ADO), Brillian Corp. and OCLI, a wholly owned subsidiary of JDS Uniphase, announced they have jointly developed a rear-projection television (RPTV) light engine based on Brillian’s LCoS Gen II microdisplay panels and ADO’s UltreX-3 color management kernel. The on-screen contrast ratio of the light engine with panels has reached 2500:1, exceeding the known contrast level achieved with any other liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) microdisplay technology. OCLI is the licensee of ADO’s UltreX technology and provides exclusive manufacturing, marketing and sales support for the product line.
"We believe tThe UltreX-3 light engine with Brillian panels offers contrast performance and uniformity levels that make the on-screen experience much more vibrant than competing technologies," said Michael Newell, director of product development at ADO. "With this new level of performance, we expect to quickly set the standard for microdisplay-based light engines."
Greg Miller, vice president and general manager of OCLI Products Division, said, "The consumer today is looking for large-screen televisions that are higher performing, lighter weight and take up less space in the living room. The UltreX-3 light engine offers cutting edge performance and helps enable television makers meet these consumer demands."
OCLO makes optical thin-film-coated components and assemblies used to manage light. OCLI's products are found in many applications including computer displays, large=screen TVs, projection systems, telecommunications equipment, photocopiers, fax machines, medical and analytical instruments, communications satellites and aerospace and defense systems.
For more information, visit: www.ocli.com


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Microbeads and chipped plastic waste from grocery bags and cups often end up in the world's oceans.(Photo: AFP)
A bill intended to reduce the volume of microplastics dumped into the ocean was approved by Japan's parliament on Friday, but it included no sanctions for failure to comply.
The measure, which received unanimous approval in the upper house, seeks to encourage businesses to reduce their use of microplastics, including microbeads -- tiny plastic particles used in exfoliating creams and other cosmetic products.
But the law contains no details of punishment for those who break it, raising questions over its impact.
Microbeads and chipped plastic waste from grocery bags and cups often end up in the world's oceans, contributing to a build-up of plastic that is choking marine creatures and damaging the environment.
The effect of microplastics on human health remains unclear, but scientists have expressed alarm over their presence in everything from bottled water to seafood.
A team of researchers last year found some 40 percent of fish caught in a survey across Japan had microplastics in their digestive systems.
World leaders have voiced concern and five countries at the Group of Seven meeting in Canada this month signed up to a new charter seeking to limit plastic pollution.
Japan, along with the United States, did not sign up to the charter, which aims among other things to increase plastic recycling.
Japanese industry has started taking measures to address concerns about microplastics, according to the government, with major manufacturers already ending the use of microbeads.
The new law also encourages local government to educate residents about recycling and reduction of plastics.


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HARLINGEN, Texas (KVEO) — Following Governor Greg Abbott’s decision to end the mask mandate and reopen the state at 100%, some local businesses are saying ‘no mask…no service.’
KVEO reached to local business to hear how they plan to move forward after the governors decision.
“I don’t want any of these people to be sick, and I don’t want any of these people who work for me to be sick,” said the owner of Harlingen restaurant Colletti’s, Jo Wagnar.
Local gym owner, Denise Sluck, feels there’s too much of a risk in a gym environment.
“You know the business setting that we are in—I agree with you—there’s definitely a lot more close contact.”
Sluck mentions they have dealt with the push back on masks before.
“We actually had a lot of that at the very beginning we had a lot of people that kind of argued it like ‘it’s against my right,’ and I totally understand,” said Sluck. “But we have to think of everyone as a whole.”
Other businesses are leaving the choice up to customers but will require staff to be masked.
“We will not be requiring our customers to wear masks, we encourage them to wear masks and we encourage them to use the hand sanitizing stations at every door,” said general manager of Station 1, Omar Trevino.
Others, are prepared to turn customers away.
“We’ve gone this long doing what we’re supposed to do, and we see it’s helping—I just don’t see any reason at this particular time to stop doing what’s worked,” said Wagnar.
Governor Abbott’s mandate, which takes effect March 10, allows county officials to impose restrictions if hospital capacity goes to 15% or higher for seven consecutive days. However, they are not allowed to enforce penalties or jail time.


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Nestlé posted a 4.3% sales increase during the three months to the end of March, it announced during an investor call.
Chief Executive Mark Schneider warned against reading too much into the company’s first-quarter results, (posted Friday 24) as customers stockpiled food to deal with coronavirus shutdowns. He told analysts and investors the situation remained “highly volatile”.
Nestlé would not be able to forecast the financial impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on its business, Schneider added. “It is important not to get carried away by the strong organic growth.”
Sales in North America and Europe were particularly strong in March, helping to drive an overall rise of 4.3% in the first three months of the year, beating analyst expectations for a 3% increase, Reuters reported.
Schneider said Nestlé was working to adapt to the virus conditions and ensure it had enough raw materials and factory capacity to meet the increased demand, while also taking safety precautions against COVID-19.
Demand in China, the first country hit by COVID-19, was starting to recover but was not at pre-crisis levels, the company said.
In a press statement, Nestlé said it is still too early to assess the full impact of COVID-19, but will maintain its original full-year 2020 guidance for “the time being”. The Swiss food giant expected continued improvement in organic sales growth and underlying trading operating profit margin. Underlying earnings per share in constant currency and capital efficiency are expected to increase.


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The Ford Fiesta has been the best-selling car in the UK for what seems like an eternity, but what about the cars doing the business in other countries? Thanks to data sourced from the Best Selling Car Blog, let us take you on a whistle-stop tour of the world as we discover the most popular cars of November 2016.
- Revealed: the once popular cars vanishing from our roads
- The 10 most popular classic cars – and what they’re worth
USA: Ford F-Series (72,089 registrations)
Few things in life are guaranteed, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the Ford F-Series will remain at the top of the US sales chart. Registrations are up 11% compared to November 2015, with the car in second spot – the Chevrolet Silverado – shifting a ‘mere’ 45,280 units.
China: Haval H6 (70,292 registrations)
For the first time in Chinese history, more than one million SUVs are sold in a single month, reports the Best Selling Cars Blog. Meanwhile, saloons are down 0.1% and MPVs are down 19%, as China mirrors the trends seen across the world. The Haval H6 is quick to take advantage, overtaking the Wuling Hongguang to claim top spot. Registrations are up 74% compared to November 2015.
India: Maruti Suzuki Alto (23,320 registrations)
Maruti Suzuki dominates the sales charts in India, with no fewer than seven models found in the top ten. Sitting pretty at the top with 23,320 registrations is the Maruti Suzuki Alto, while the more familiar Swift, Baleno and Celerio also appear near the top.
Germany: Volkswagen Golf (17,841 registrations)
The Volkswagen Golf remains the meister in Deutschland, but registrations are down 16% compared to the same period in 2015. Overall, Volkswagen’s year-to-date registrations have shrunk by 3%, but it does manage to fill 40% of the top ten. Creeping into the top ten, with registrations up 29%, is the Mercedes-Benz E-Class.
Japan: Nissan Note (15,784 registrations)
In Japan, the charts are split into two groups: standard cars and kei cars. Overall, the Nissan Note is the best-seller, thanks largely to the launch of the new e-Power variant. Registrations are up a huge 144%, seeing it rise from 30th to 1st, toppling the Toyota Prius in the process.
Brazil: Chevrolet Onix (15,700 registrations)
For the second consecutive year, the Chevrolet Onix is set to cement its position as the most popular car in Brazil. Meanwhile, the Jeep Compass – still fresh from its global debut in Brazil – jumps from 75th to 23rd position. Does this point to wider success for the Brazilian-built SUV?
Italy: Fiat Panda (13,197 registrations)
The Fiat Panda remains numero uno in Italy, but the star performer is its larger sibling – the Fiat Tipo. Registrations are up 3,276%, seeing the Tipo jump from 14th to 4th in November. The estate version is now the best-selling car in its segment, ahead of the Audi A4, Volkswagen Passat and Peugeot 308.
Canada: Ford F-Series (11,273 registrations)
As the Best Selling Car Blog points out, pick-ups are the dominant force in Canada, with the Ford F-Series, Ram Pick-up and GMC Sierra up 37%, 16% and 20% respectively. In common with the US, the F-Series is by far and away the leading vehicle, with 135,422 registrations in 2016.
France: Renault Clio (10,163 registrations)
As you’d expect, the top ten in France is dominated by French cars, with the Renault Clio sitting pretty at the summit. Meanwhile, the new Megane slots in at number six with 4,793 registrations, while the new 3008 makes its debut with 4,476 units, enough to earn it a seventh place slot.
South Korea: Kia Morning (9,256 registrations)
If the Kia Morning looks familiar, it’s because you’ll know it as the Kia Picanto. It’s the first time the city car has topped the South Korean charts since November 2014.
For more information visit https://bestsellingcarsblog.com