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Prime time for TV sales
Published: Sunday, January 15, 2006 at 3:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, January 15, 2006 at 12:00 a.m.
Forget about Christmas -- now is prime time at Bob Burnett's Appliance and Television Center.
The Spartanburg store, along with other television retailers, report that January is a big sales month, driven largely by sports fans upgrading their sets in preparation for their favorite big event.
"This particular month does pique people's interest in getting a new TV, more than other months," said owner Bob Burnett.
The Super Bowl, the NCAA college basketball tournament and, this year, the Winter Olympics, are all bringing in the customers, Burnett said.
Burnett said sports fans are looking for high-definition sets because they offer a higher-quality image than traditional televisions.
"When they have a fellow shooting free throws and you can see the sweat on his face, it's a very intense experience to watch a sporting event on high-definition," Burnett said.
John Harris, owner of John's TVs in Roebuck, said December through February are his busiest months.
Harris repairs televisions and sells used sets, and he said this time of year demand increases for both.
"They either want it fixed or they will buy a new one," Harris said.
Harris said high-definition sets, along with plasma and LCD screens, are popular with sports fans, as are large-screen televisions.
"If you're a sports fan, you want it. And I'll be truthful -- this new stuff is beautiful," Harris said.
Chain retailers also say January is a strong month for their television sales.
"The NFL and the college bowl season is the gift that keeps on giving for us," said Randy Baumberger, president and chief operating officer of Ultimate Electronics, a retailer with 32 U.S. stores.
The holiday selling season is still the company's largest. But while sales of digital cameras and audio equipment drops off after Christmas, television sales stay strong in January. And the broadcast of NFL games in high definition can provide the extra incentive to upgrade sets.
"You probably have to go back to the transition between black and white and color to see what we're seeing today," Baumberger said of the booming sales of digital TVs.
Sales of the 10 best-selling models of televisions in January 2005 were $875.9 million, higher than 8 of the 11 preceding months, according to data from the NPD Group, Inc. And analysts say many sports-related TV sales are made in December right after Christmas.
George Creighton, operations manager for a Circuit City store in Rockville, Md., says it is not uncommon for shoppers to wait until game day. On the morning of Dec. 18, when the Redskins played the rival Dallas Cowboys, his store sold three high-end TVs to people who wanted a better set for the game.
Because big sporting events are often the main reason people buy high-definition televisions, retailers heavily promote TVs during January, said Eric Haruki, an analyst at IDC.
Falling prices are helping, too. Thirty- to 34-inch LCD TVs sold for an average of $2,379 this time last year. That has dropped to $1,566 now. TV shoppers can thank innovations from Asian manufacturers.
Screen-makers are also figuring out how to handle larger pieces of glass, which means they can make plasma screens more efficiently and charge less. For example, a TV maker would have paid $676 for a 32-inch screen in January 2005. By December that had fallen to $544. Prices are expected to keep dropping.
Though ongoing pricing wars have cut retail prices and gross margins to levels lower than vendors would like, the TVs are still not cheap.
"It's like buying a car in the old days. I bought a car for less than this thing costs," said Ben Zimmerman, 71, during a visit to a Best Buy in the Minneapolis suburb of Roseville. He and his wife were picking out the TV they were buying each other for their anniversary. They settled on a 26-inch Sony, which they planned to use mostly for watching DVDs.
He ended up paying about $1,800 for an LCD TV, and shelled out another $250 for an extended warranty.
Upstart TV brands now fight for shelf space with established makers like Sony and Samsung Electronics Co. Some familiar names like Zenith and RCA have been bought by companies that slap those brands on Asian-built TVs. About 88 percent of TVs sold worldwide are built in Asia.
Shoppers are seeing new brands, too, such as Vizio TVs from V Inc.
Some of the early Vizio TVs sold for as much as $600 less than similar Panasonic models, said Haruki, adding that the Vizio may not have been quite the Panasonic's equal, but "bang-for-the-buck wise, it's very, very good."
But buyer beware:
Gerard Catapano, manager of audio, video and imaging at Consumer Reports, says performance on many of the newer brands is "typically inconsistent."
"We found very few did well, compared to a known name brand, like a Sony or Panasonic, which performed more consistently," he said.
Harris, the Roebuck store owner, agreed.
"We're seeing a lot of this imported stuff where the company is here today and gone tomorrow, or there's no back support," he said.
"You get what you pay for."
Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.
This story appeared in print on page E1
Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.
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I’ve already argued that the rush to point fingers at Facebook for allowing lots of fake news to get passed around is greatly overhyped by people searching for explanations for last week’s election results. That doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t be looking to do something about fake news on various platforms. On Monday, Google also faced some controversy over fake news, when its top result for people searching for “final election results” pointed to a fake news site with made up numbers. In response, a few hours later, Google announced that it was going to start banning fake news sites from using Google’s AdSense ad product. A few hours after that, Facebook announced a similar pledge to stop allowing those sites to make money from Facebook.
This leads to a few different thoughts: lessening the power of totally fake news sites is certainly a good idea. And cutting off conventional ad revenue paths might be at least somewhat effective in the short term. After all, recent reports have shown that many of the fake news sites were set up by people overseas in a pure arbitrage play to cash in on the easy ad revenue by finding lots of gullible Americans.
The young Macedonians who run these sites say they don’t care about Donald Trump. They are responding to straightforward economic incentives: As Facebook regularly reveals in earnings reports, a US Facebook user is worth about four times a user outside the US. The fraction-of-a-penny-per-click of US display advertising — a declining market for American publishers — goes a long way in Veles. Several teens and young men who run these sites told BuzzFeed News that they learned the best way to generate traffic is to get their politics stories to spread on Facebook — and the best way to generate shares on Facebook is to publish sensationalist and often false content that caters to Trump supporters.
“I started the site for a easy way to make money,” said a 17-year-old who runs a site with four other people. “In Macedonia the economy is very weak and teenagers are not allowed to work, so we need to find creative ways to make some money. I’m a musician but I can’t afford music gear. Here in Macedonia the revenue from a small site is enough to afford many things.”
Of course, this raises lots of other questions. If Facebook can figure out which sites are “fake” news sites, then, um, why doesn’t it also adjust its algorithm to either highlight that those are fake news sites or to simply not promote those stories in feeds quite so much? But there are a number of other issues here. Sure, for the purely fake news sites, perhaps this makes sense, but who’s determining what sites are “fake” and what’s not. Because while it sounds like a black and white kind of thing, that discussion can get fuzzy pretty damn quick. After all, some of the sites that have been discussed publish a mixture of fake and real news. And sometimes “real” publications get tricked and publish fake news too. Remember, just a few weeks ago, Rolling Stone lost a lawsuit for publishing what was basically a fake news story. And, of course, you’ll have opinionated partisans on all sides arguing that this or that publication is “fake.” We see it all the time when people yell at us for linking to certain websites that haters insist are propaganda for one or the other political parties. Where do these companies draw the line?
Another problem is that while Google and Facebook may dominate the ad business, they’re hardly the only ones. Hell, we get emails basically every day from new ad networks looking to put ads on Techdirt. Many of them seem dubious, but do kids in Macedonia running fake Trump stories care about how dubious the ad networks are? If they get paid, they’ll use them.
Finally, while cutting off ad revenue from these sites isn’t a horrible idea, it does seem to avoid the actual issue which is how so many people are absolutely terrible news consumers. And, yes, you are too. Everyone is at some point. A story just seems too good to be true, or that fits with your world view, and of course you’re going to share it, because that’s what we’ve all been conditioned to do. What would be great was if there was a way to actually train people to be better news consumers — to actually take the time to learn what’s happening and what’s really going on — but that seems like it’s just wishful thinking these days.

domain: news


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The question still remains whether this ambitious goal by the Japanese government will help in reviving the past achievements. Back in 1988, the country accounted for 51 percent of global semiconductor sales
The East Asian country Japan, which is well-known for its global consumer electronics brands, is now looking forward to unleashing a new scheme to establish a top-notch semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem. For over twenty years, the semiconductor industry has been dominated by China, Taiwan, and South Korea. Hence, various excerpts in the country questioned whether the new industrial policy by the country will be successful or not, and most importantly, whether the campaign at this moment is correct or not.
As per a report of the American media Foreign Policy, the Japan’s new ambitious goal are part of a wider strategy of improved economic security, Japan wants to carry it out as soon as possible because of the global supply chain disruptions that happened due to the escalating demand amid the coronavirus pandemic. Experts also stated that this move is part of a border defense mobilization program to counter China and the US. Apart from this, Japan is also looking for more cutting-edge weapons and augmenting spending in the military by two percent to GDP by the end of 2027.
Japan became well-known from the 1960s to 1980s and turned out to be No. 2 in the international economy via a well-planned state organized program that included well-planned economic activity and instead of competition there should be corporate cooperation, and a tougher foreign policy to tackle the rival’s growth. The programs helped the country to witness several globally niche consumer electronics firms such as Panasonic, Sony, Toyota, and others. Then, the Japanese yen became so sturdy that it averted unfair competition, along with low cost products from China and South Korea. The Foreign Policy report exclusively opined that If they couldn’t compete for the end product, how about the high-value elements, especially semiconductors and later flat-panel screens?
Back in 1988, the country accounted for 51 percent of global semiconductor sales. But, this did not last long because very soon, the South Korean and the Taiwanese manufacturers started dominating the international market. But, the good news is that several complex chemicals that are utilized in chip-making are produced by numerous Japanese companies. For instance, Ajinomoto Build-Up Film, which is now widely used in chip manufacturing, garners a profit ratio of nearly 48 percent, according to Japanese financial magazine Diamond, compared to the company average of 10.5 percent.
The question still remains whether this ambitious goal by the Japanese government will help in reviving the past achievements. China, which is already leading the global supply chain and components ecosystem, has also failed in its efforts to become a leader in the semiconductor industry. In an exclusive interaction with The Foreign Policy magazine, Takahide Kiuchi, an economist at the Nomura Research Institute in Tokyo said, "Attempts to revive Japan’s semiconductor industry through government intervention have repeatedly failed in the past. Under such circumstances, even if the government supports it, it will not lead to the revival of the Japanese semiconductor industry. The problem is the lack of massive investments required and a brain drain of necessary talent over the years."


text: It's official. Four million people are now self-conscious in how they pronounce the word "Blue." Okay, maybe just the 500k in the Americas, but you get the point. Nintendo announced in a gloating press release today that the company has sold more than 4 million copies of Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day with Japan driving about 75% of those sales. What's your Brain Age? Or has this game made its way to the bottom of a drawer somewhere?


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Adhering to a variety of collaborations this year, FTX Trading Minimal introduced on Thursday that the business has actually partnered with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Solution One Group. According to FTX, the connection will certainly “extend numerous race periods” and also the FTX logo design will certainly be “included plainly” by both cars and trucks and also motorists.
FTX Partner With Mercedes F1 in Long-term Collaboration for Numerous Race Seasons
Popular automobile brand names and also world-famous race groups have actually been getting in the blockchain and also cryptocurrency room in multitudes this year. Whether it be with marketing crypto systems or NFTs, preferred brand names and also competing groups intend to participate the blockchain market.
At the end of August, Ferruccio Lamborghini Gallery released NFTs, Porsche delved into the non-fungible token market, and also Electric motor Group McLaren entered the NFT battle royal. NASCAR motorists have actually been showing off crypto marketing and also have actually been asked to be paid in electronic money also.
Daimler AG, with its Mercedes-Benz brand name, has actually been included with F1 auto racing because 1954. Mercedes-Benz (Daimler AG) presently has 33 percent of the group based in Brackley, England.
On Thursday, FTX disclosed it is teaming up with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Solution One Group and also the collaboration intends to be lasting. While we understand that the FTX logo design will certainly be presented by both Mercedes F1 motorists and also cars and trucks, various other sorts of FTX branding will certainly be revealed throughout the upcoming Russian Grand Prix. The Russian Grand Prix Solution One race including Mercedes F1 is slated to occur on Sunday, September 26th.
” FTX is enjoyed companion with the ruling Solution One Globe Champions and also present group factor leaders, Mercedes-AMG Petronas, to proceed magnifying our placement as the leading international cryptocurrency exchange,” Sam Bankman-Fried, Chief Executive Officer & & Owner of FTX, claimed in a declaration sent out to Bitcoin.com Information. Bankman-Fried included:
Under Toto’s management the whole Mercedes-AMG Petronas Solution One group has actually been concentrated on quality and also they have actually leveraged advancement to aid them come to be seven-time Builders’ Champions. We anticipate seeing Lewis Hamilton remain to test for his possible 8th Solution One Globe Drivers Champion title throughout the rest of the 2021 period.
FTX Is Knee-Deep in Sports, Crypto Exchange Logo Design to Be Included on the F1 Group’s fleet of Mercedes-Benz Trucks, Garage
FTX has actually made many relocate 2021 and also increased $900 million in a current Collection B funding round. The company has actually been knee-deep in the sporting activities market and also just recently released a business with Super Dish celebrity Tom Brady and also cover girl Gisele Bundchen.
FTX likewise ended up being the MLB’s main cryptocurrency exchange in a lasting handle the expert baseball attire. Along with the logo designs the Mercedes-AMG Petronas group will certainly sporting activity, FTX logo designs will certainly be presented on the group’s fleet of Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
” FTX will certainly likewise have accessibility to Mercedes-AMG Petronas Solution One staff member,” the news clarifies. “Consisting of motorists Lewis Hamilton and also Valtteri Bottas to even more broaden the reach of the FTX brand name to Solution One’s international follower base with advertising campaigns.”
The business claims Mercedes F1 and also FTX will certainly likewise disclose various other campaigns in the future which might consist of an NFT collection, FTX Pay assimilation, and also various other principles.
What do you consider FTX partnering with Mercedes F1? Allow us understand what you consider this topic in the remarks area listed below.
Tags in this tale.
Daimler AG, F1 auto racing, Solution One, ftx, FTX Exchange, FTX Mercedes, FTX Trading Minimal, Mercedes, Mercedes-AMG Petronas, Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1, Mercedes-Benz, Russian Grand Prix, Sam Bankman-Fried.
Photo Credit Reports: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Mercedes F1, FTX Exchange Logo Design,
Please note: This write-up is for informative functions just. It is not a straight deal or solicitation of a deal to purchase or market, or a referral or recommendation of any kind of items, solutions, or firms. Bitcoin.com does not offer financial investment, tax obligation, lawful, or audit suggestions. Neither the business neither the writer is liable, straight or indirectly, for any kind of damages or loss triggered or affirmed to be brought on by or about using or dependence on any kind of material, items or solutions discussed in this write-up.


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Ricardo researches feasibility of niche UK battery facility
Ricardo has leveraged its expertise in niche volume manufacturing, battery R&D, recycling, and strategic consultancy to study the feasibility of manufacturing critical electric vehicle components.
As part of its mission to support the decarbonisation of the global transport and energy sectors, Ricardo, announced that it has received UK Government funding to assess the commercial viability of a facility to assemble battery packs for UK manufacturers of smaller volume vehicles, i.e. those which produce fewer than 10,000 vehicles per year such as those required for rail, commercial and off-highway vehicles.
These UK electrified vehicle manufacturers include some of the world’s best known prestige brands which create their luxury cars, special vehicles, and off-highway machines for a customer base in the low thousands. This compares with the hundreds of thousands or millions of vehicles produced for the mass market. The economic study considers how to meet the particular battery hardware needs of these diverse manufacturers across a wide range of business sectors, by ensuring a UK supply chain in electric vehicle components.
Martin Starkey, Managing Director for Ricardo Performance Products said: “The UK automotive industry has a diverse mix of sector-leading manufacturers. The volume requirements and flexible product specifications of niche volume manufacturers are not aligned with the high-volume outputs from emerging ‘gigafactories’. A niche volume battery manufacturing facility will help to establish a robust supply chain for these critical electrification components. In doing so, it will deliver national competitive advantage for the UK, and support the mass adoption of electrification by making it more affordable, helping to contribute to the green bounce back through sustainable practices. Ricardo’s future manufacturing strategy is very much aligned to this emerging need for electrified vehicle components. Leveraging our proven track record in industrialising technology, we are very pleased to have received the funding, which will enable us to pursue this strategy, and help the UK reach its ambitious targets to achieve its net zero goals.”
As part of the study, Ricardo assessed how the proposed facility could help minimise the risk of scaling up the innovation of new battery concepts to niche volumes. Harnessing its world-renowned expertise in batteries, the company will also explore opportunities to minimise the environmental impact of battery pack manufacture through ‘second life processing’ and recycling of core elements from construction.
Ricardo has published its findings on the future of niche volume battery manufacture in the UK, and it is available to download here.
If you are considering battery power for your rail fleet then get in touch with our experts


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After engaging in a legal battle that lasted for almost eight years, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. (SRI) finally won the lawsuit it had filed against Italian manufacturer TEK Automotive S... Read more
Bridgestone Corporation has announced that it has won a patent rights infringement lawsuit against Wanli Tire. The leading tire manufacturer won a favorable ruling from the Shanghai Intellec... Read more
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adimas - Fotolia
Pure Storage received a thumbs-down from traders on its first day as a public company Wednesday, but its rivals hailed its initial public offering (IPO) as a good sign for flash storage systems.
The Pure IPO price of $17 was in the midrange of its target and raised $425 million for the vendor. But the price fell 5.8% to $16.01 by the close of trading on the opening day. That brings the valuation of the Pure IPO to slightly below $3 billion.
Storage insiders say the down trading is more likely because of Pure's heavy losses so far than a knock on the technology. Pure lost $112.7 million despite $158.7 million in revenue for the first six months of 2015, after losing $183.2 million on $174.5 million in revenue for all of 2014.
Despite year-over-year revenue growth of 308% in 2014 and 114% for the most recent quarter, Pure has lost more than $390 million in its short history. That means Pure had to go public to stay afloat, despite more than $530 million in venture capital funding.
Still, Pure's spending has helped it achieve number three market share behind EMC and IBM in the lucrative all-flash array market. That is one reason why its IPO was watched closely in the storage world, and its flash storage rivals see Pure becoming a public company as validation of their technology. The fact that the Pure IPO was completed could open the doors for other storage companies to follow.
Pure is the first storage vendor to go public since Nimble Storage in December of 2013. Nimble's storage systems also rely heavily on flash, although they also include hard disk drives in a hybrid setup. The two storage IPOs before Nimble were all-flash array vendor Violin Memory and server-based flash company Fusion-io, which was acquired by SanDisk in 2014.
"The IPO you're seeing from Pure and the IPO we had is a sign of the significant transition from disk-centric companies to flash-centric companies," Nimble CEO Suresh Vasudevan said.
"The last set of companies that have gone public points to the disruption flash is causing. Fusion-io, Violin, Nimble and Pure show that flash is causing the biggest rethinking of storage architectures in a long, long time."
Nimble's price opened above its target range and rose on its first day of trading but has since fallen below its IPO number. Violin's price dropped 21% on its first day of trading and has continued to fall, although Violin shares rose 9.3% Wednesday after Pure's IPO.
"The Pure Storage IPO reinforces what Violin is hearing from customers, namely that there is a strong appetite by enterprises to leverage flash storage in the data center," Violin CEO Kevin DeNuccio declared in an e-mailed statement. "The industry is also further confirming that next-generation vendors are a key part of the massive disruption occurring in storage."
Other storage startups also closely watched the Pure IPO. Heavily funded all-flash startups SolidFire and Kaminario, as well as hyper-converged vendors Nutanix and SimpliVity, hybrid array company Tintri, object storage startup Scality and disk backup vendor ExaGrid are among those considered IPO candidates over the next year or two.
"Seeing another flash storage company go public with a lofty valuation and fast growing revenues is good for the industry," SolidFire CEO Dave Wright said. "It shows the opportunity that exists for other next-gen storage companies."
While flash rivals see the Pure IPO as good for the industry, they did not follow Pure's strategy of spending heavily to gain quick revenues.
Wright said SolidFire has taken a more measured approach than Pure. While SolidFire's $150 million in funding is significant, it is less than one-third the total funding Pure has used to build its early sales and marketing forces. Wright said SolidFire also sells to larger enterprises and service providers, and that customer base takes longer to cultivate.
"We've definitely taken a little bit of a different route with the company," Wright said. "Our growth rates are in line with theirs, but there are differences as well. Our strategy for building our business is about sustainable growth. We want to grow the business in a way that the top line [revenue] and bottom line [profits] grow over time, and we can tell a story that tells investors there's a clear line of sight to profitability. That's not part of Pure's story today. Obviously, they expect to get there eventually but it's not where they are today."
Nimble had less revenue and smaller losses when it went public in 2013, and Vasudevan has set the end of 2016 as a target for profitability.
"There are two schools of thought," Vasudevan said of building a storage company. "One school says it is a land grab and you want to invest early. That makes sense if you believe storage has a lock-in factor where once a customer chooses a vendor, somebody else cannot easily replace that vendor. That's the approach Pure has taken."
"Our belief is that's not how storage tends to behave. Storage tends to be a decision often made on a project-by-project or workload-by-workload basis. You want to balance top line growth with investment, and a prudent approach would not be to burn cash at a rapid pace as you're generating top line growth," Vasudevan said. "We believe you can achieve [revenue] growth even as you generate cash."
Both approaches will be tested in the coming years -- by Pure, Nimble and other storage startups looking to go public.
Consider a review of your past network decisions
Are flash and disk prices truly equal?
What you need to know for an all-flash purchase


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Almost 20% of respondents are, however, more pessimistic. They believe that Romania needs at least 30 years to become a pro-business environment.
Almost 50% of entrepreneurs indicate fiscal issues (regulatory unpredictability, taxation’s complexity and levels of taxes) as being the biggest obstacles in creating and developing a business in Romania.
When it comes to the five pillars that support the development of this sector, 62% of respondents believe that the entrepreneurship education and training factor has improved in Romania in the past year. The figure was higher than in 2014 – 58%.
Over 40% indicated an improvement in the entrepreneurial culture, 37% noticed a positive development of the assistance provided by organizations specializing in the development of entrepreneurship, and 30% saw a better access to finance.
Only 20% believe that regulation and taxation experienced a positive development in 2014, according to the EY study.
The entrepreneurs also mentioned five government measures that would support the development of Romanian businesses on a short-term. The measures are: reducing the tax burden and providing tax incentives (45%), reducing bureaucracy and simplifying legislation, especially Tax Code (15%), providing state guarantees for loans, especially for start-ups (8%), improving collaboration and communication between the public and private environment (7%), and the stability of the tax environment (5%).
Over 80% of respondents find access to finance difficult or very difficult, down six percentage points from last year’s edition of the study. Romanian entrepreneurs believe the government could take several measures to improve access to finance, such as tax facilities for investments in small companies (26%), providing loan guarantees (20%), and reduced taxation of capital gains (18%).
The study also reveals that the fear of failure remains one of the significant barriers in the entrepreneurship approach. 65% of entrepreneurs consider that business failure is penalized by the Romanian society. 35% see business failure as a barrier for future projects, 17% perceive it as a career failure, and 11% believe this indicates a lack of entrepreneurial skills. Only 29% consider business failure a learning opportunity.
369 entrepreneurs answered online for this study, between January 9 and February 24. (source: romania-insider.com)


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Tourism sector closes strong year in 2018
Image by Pixabay
Commercial accommodation establishments saw a 3.8% growth in tourism nights in 2018, accompanied by a 9.3% rise in gross revenues compared to a year before, with December growth boosted by long weekends over the holiday period, according to data released by the Central Statistical Office (KSH).
In December 2018, the number of nights spent by international tourists increased by 0.9% compared to the same month of 2017, the KSH said. In the last month of the year, the number of foreign guests arriving at accommodation establishments exceeded 390,000, spending a total of more than 950,000 nights. The number of tourism nights grew in hotels, boarding houses and campsites, while falling in community hostels and bungalows.
More than 75% of tourism nights were spent by international tourists in the Budapest-Central Danube Region, up 1.6% compared to the same month of the previous year.
The number of domestic tourist arrivals grew by 1% in December and exceeded 430,000. The number of tourism nights they spent grew by 2.3% to more than 950,000. The rate of expansion was 2.5% in hotels, realizing 81% of domestic tourism nights.
With the exception of the regions of Northern Hungary and Southern Great Plain, domestic guests spent more nights in each tourist region. The two most popular regions were the Budapest-Central Danube Region and Lake Balaton.
Room occupancy in hotels rose by 0.4 of a percentage point to 52% in December. Total gross revenues of accommodation establishments grew by 6.7% to HUF 38 billion at current prices; within this, accommodation fee revenues were up by 8.2% (to HUF 21 bln).
Domestic tourism nights were boosted by the five-day weekend over Christmas and four-day weekend over New Year, state news wire MTI noted.
For the full year of 2018
In the entirety of 2018, commercial accommodation establishments registered a total of 12.5 million arrivals and 30.9 mln tourism nights, up 5.2% and 3.8%, respectively, compared to 2017.
Foreign guests spent 2.4% more (15.3 mln), while domestic guests spent 5.3% more (15.6 mln) nights. Room occupancy in hotels inched up by 2 percentage points to 61.3% over the year.
Total gross sales in commercial accommodation establishments grew by 9.3% at current prices to a total of HUF 510 bln in 2018. Within this, accommodation revenues increased by 8.3% to HUF 301 bln, the KSH reported.
German tourists spent the most guest nights in Hungary last year, at 2,083,100, followed by visitors from the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic, who spent 1,050,500 and 933,900 guest nights, respectively, according to MTI.
At the end of 2018, some 2,633 commercial accommodation establishments were in operation with nearly 79,000 available rooms and 219,000 bed places. The number of rooms increased by 3.1%, while that of bed places by 3.2%.
Data for commercial accommodation establishments in January 2019 will be published on March 20.
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FICO moving Minneapolis HQ to California
Credit-score calculator Fair Issac Corp. (FICO) is moving its Minneapolis headquarters to San Jose, Calif., the company said Thursday, confirming a Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal report earlier in the day that such a move was likely in the works.
FICO (NYSE: FICO) is building a new headquarters near Mineta San Jose International Airport to be closer to Silicon Valley's tech talent, the company told the San Jose Mercury News. The new headquarters is expected to be ready next month.
FICO moved its headquarters to Minnesota from San Rafael, Calif., in 2004. The company announced Twin Cities job cuts in August and planned to move its downtown Minneapolis operations to Roseville at the end of 2012.
FICO had 307 full-time Twin Cities employees at the end of September, it reported in public filings.
Jim Hammerand reports on Twin Cities breaking business news for MSPBJ.com and manages online features and social media.
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SuperValu Inc reported record results for the second quarter of fiscal 2005, which ended Sept 11, 2004. The Minneapolis MN-based grocery chain tallied net sales of $4.5 billion compared with $4.6 billion in 2003, and net earnings of $78.5 million versus $62.2 million a year ago.
Jeff Noddle, SuperValu chairman and chief executive officer, said, “We are pleased with our record results in the second quarter. We achieved strong earnings performance reflecting last year's asset exchange and a continued focus on merchandising programs. SuperValu's outlook remains solid, and our current earnings per share guidance for fiscal 2005 is a range of $2.80 to $2.90 per share.”
For the first 28 weeks of fiscal 2005, the company reported net sales of $10.4 billion compared with $10.4 billion a year earlier, and net earnings of $227.9 million versus $135.9 million in 2003.


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The Motorola ATRIX 4G Laptop Dock was one of the most innovative gadgets we saw at CES. Deservedly, it stole the show, only to underwhelm us with its price when it was released later in March. But the disappointing price and slightly laggy performance, shouldn't bring the whole idea down, and luckily – they haven't.
Motorola's earning conference call last week brought some exciting news about the future of the accessory as chief executive of Motorola Mobility Sanjay Jha himself said that it's a key component of the company's strategy:
"In the Android ecosystem, there is a need for us to differentiate," Jha said. "[With] Atrix devices with the Webtop and lap-dock we really think there is an alternative way of viewing the convergence between mobility and computing. And we will continue to focus on that," he answered an analyst's question.
"You will see multiple devices from us in the second half...and we will expand the range of our lap-dock devices so we cover a broader price point, addressing both the enterprise premium tier as well as more consumer tiers," Jha added.
The Motorola ATRIX 4G Laptop Dock won't cut it to a full-blown netbook, but it was a big step in that direction. As Moto promises updates to its Webtop software and with quad-core smartphones in the works, we can easily see it turning into an even more appealing accessory.


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The founders of design platform Canva share their lessons for start up success. It starts with getting the best advice and the right governance for the right time.
Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of global design platform Canva, says the ability to identify good advice and, more importantly, how to apply it to help a business grow, goes to the art and science of running a startup. “What works in another company won’t necessarily work in your own,” she cautions with a wisdom derived from a decade of studying her market and customers.
At 29, Perkins is Canva’s co-founder with partner Cliff Obrecht and former Google Wave team member Cameron Adams. Since launching in 2012, the online design and publishing platform has grown to more than 15 million users across 190 countries. Nearly 18 months on from a $50.9m capital raising and a valuation of more than US$2.5b, the company has about 550 staff, its revenues are growing fast and it is even turning a profit.
The twists and turns in Perkins’ entrepreneurial journey are recounted on Guy Raz’s US National Public Radio program, How I Built This. She describes the lengths she went to for advice, backing founders and investors to get Canva right. Perkins travelled to San Francisco to pitch the idea to Silicon Valley venture capitalists, went kite-surfing with investor Bill Tai and sifted through a mountain of research to help Canva scale and grow.
Based Sydney, Manila, Beijing
15 million users
The right advice
If you want an example of a startup failing because the founder didn’t take the right advice, try the once-celebrated Theranos “unicorn” (billion-dollar startup). It only takes the first chapter of John Carreyrou’s bestselling expose, Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, to realise the now disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes had a few issues when it came to taking advice — namely, shutting it down. Holmes was briefly the world’s youngest self-made billionaire, running a company valued at more than US$9b in 2014. The next year, the US Food and Drug Administration started investigating the claims and accuracy of the company’s wearable device, which allegedly could administer medication, monitor blood levels and adjust dosages as needed. By 2016, Holmes had been banned from lab testing and, in 2018, was charged with fraud and banned from being a director for 10 years.
George Foster, the Stanford-based Australian Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Management, told a Melbourne Business School forum recently that Theranos had a superstar board, but no-one with domain expertise, which meant red flags didn’t surface early. Lacking audited accounts didn’t help. Foster, who has analysed hundreds of surveys of founders through his executive recruitment company, said the number-one problem holding back founders from scaling up their enterprises was people issues.
The Theranos tale is a familiar one to people inside and outside the startup world. Holmes’ daring won her a host of powerful supporters, but also raised questions about her aspirations, company ethics, and resistance to exploring alternative strategic paths for scaling the company she founded. As of March, Holmes had been charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, with a maximum penalty of 20 years in jail.
Cult of the founder
Knowing when to seek out advice, and how to filter good from bad, is central to building a startup or scaling for growth, say those who’ve built companies before. Will Richardson, founder of Australian impact venture firm Giant Leap, says the question of who should be giving advice to founders is contextual. What is clear and constant is that his experience as an investor watching businesses scale doesn’t qualify him to give anything other than general business advice to founders. Do your due diligence on them at the beginning, he says, “then get out of the way and let the founder do their thing”. If they need help, connect them to your network, he says. That way, if there’s specialised knowledge out there, they’ll get it.
It’s a sentiment echoed by firms such as US venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), which made the idea of being “founder-friendly” into a marketable commodity among venture capitalists. Since being founded in 2009, it has raised US$7.1b and backed the likes of Airbnb, Facebook, Slack and Zynga. Co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz are known for their enduring focus on the founder.
However, the risk is that founders, particularly first-time founders, high on their company’s initial success and usually buoyed by media plaudits that feed a growing cult of CEO celebrity, can end up in an echo chamber, which the benefit of independent counsel does not always penetrate.
An evolving sector
The global startup sector is undergoing a massive expansion, with the low cost and ubiquity of platforms for tech startups driving more entrepreneurs to tackle billion-dollar markets than ever before. In Australia, the tech startup environment has long been criticised for its shortcomings. It is too short of capital, has too weak an appetite for risk, and has inadequate and inconsistent policy frameworks to support entrepreneurs to scale and grow the nation’s future businesses. However, with dramatic growth in the startup formation rates, increasing availability of capital and more high-growth companies to inspire future entrepreneurs, there’s every reason to be more confident.
At the Australian Governance Summit in March, in a discussion on the governance and other challenges for startups, Rick Baker, co-founder of Blackbird Ventures, reminded the audience of the increasing positives. Australia’s early and late startup ecosystem, and venture capital capacity, is changing. “We have a growing venture capital community, and a startup community that’s really, really gathering momentum,” Baker told the gathering of 1400 directors and business leaders.
Blackbird Ventures has backed a stable of well-known Australian companies, including Canva, Culture Amp and SafetyCulture. Baker says Blackbird’s portfolio now has some big companies, none of which existed seven years ago. “They employ more than 2500 people and that’s just the beginning,” he said. “We’re starting to see the next group of startups pop up and be successful. It’s a really tough road, there’s not enough money in Australia, but it’s all going to keep a system that we’re building here, and it’s pretty awesome.”
His comments echoed those of Alex McCauley, CEO of StartupAus in the 2018 report, Crossroads: an action plan to develop a world-leading tech startup ecosystem in Australia. The report found that, from 2015 to mid-2018, Australian venture capital firms raised more than $4b in new funds. The effect of this growth is made clear in the data: in 2017–18, Australian startups raised more than $3.5b from all sources, according to data published in Techboard’s annual startup funding report. Venture funding accounted for almost $1b of this.
“Five years ago, tech startups simply weren’t a part of the national political conversation in Australia,” wrote McCauley. “Since then, we’ve had at least $2b of extra funding directed towards startups and innovation through the federal National Innovation and Science Agenda and state government innovation funds.”
What’s the right approach for a startup board?
Recent research by KPMG found one in four Australian startups has an independent director on the board.
65% don’t have a formal recruitment process for board members
92% have board members who are external investors in that startup
24% would not choose the same board again
Startups that have completed Series A, Series B and Series C+ funding rounds were much more likely to say they’d change their board if they could go back, relative to seed-stage funded startups (30% vs 15%)
50% of startups compensate board members with cash or equity
Based on in-depth interviews with 26 startup board directors in Australia, the US, UK and NZ, and a survey of more than 70 Australian startups.
Katherine Woodthorpe AO FAICD, chair of Sydney tech community Fishburners — which has given rise to the likes of Koala, Jayride, Hyper Anna, Mad Paws and Car Next Door — says that ultimately it’s a numbers game, building the whole ecosystem and normalising entrepreneurial mindsets for scalable growth businesses that generate jobs. “When you have more people who have gone through the startup experience, more capacity, more skills, [then] you have learned the lessons,” says Woodthorpe.
Getting appropriate governance
With more startups and scale-ups, and more momentum, getting the right sort of governance to support the organisation at the right time is increasingly vital. Experienced players advise avoiding an echo chamber of ideas and opinions.
“It’s really important, as a board member, not to stifle the founders; not to be a board member who just focuses on governance, compliance and the boring stuff,” says Baker. “Really, your job is to amplify the potential for success. So it’s to be coach and mentor; to be constantly pushing, sometimes pushing the founders to take more risk — to do more, go faster, and try things, even if they might fail. But as directors, the challenging thing is that we have all the [same] obligations as with more mature companies, in terms of compliance and governance.”
According to Baker, there is a danger in putting a mandated board and formal governance in place too early. Early-stage businesses need to be able to duck and weave as they find their feet.
“Startups are really messy,” says Baker. “They’re chaotic. The founders who are usually running the startups have often never done this before. Often, they have no idea how to run a business, particularly from the governance and compliance side.”
Blackbird representatives sit on the board of “roughly half” of its companies and Baker says it is common that there will only be venture capitalists on a startup board. Andreessen Horowitz says it wouldn’t advise having a board until a company had raised more than US$5m. Baker adds there comes a time in a company’s life when the board becomes more important — “often around the Series B funding phase”.
Should you risk a startup board?
While directors are increasingly sought out to become involved with startups, the risks are uppermost in mind for many. Woodthorpe says being involved with a startup requires different skills of directors.
“For good or ill, it is easy to get directors who have lots of board experience, but when you go into a startup, you need [to be] hands-on and be OK to change your strategy on the run,” she says. “Solvency is always an issue and you need not be frightened of flying close to the wire, because that’s what high growth is.”
As with recent examples such as GetSwift — a startup that went to ASX IPO (initial public offering) too soon — boardroom turmoil can result when strong-minded founders and directors diverge.
Phaedon Stough is a serial founder and angel investor who has worked with entrepreneurs and high-growth tech startups. He was on the board of Pollenizer, Australia’s first incubator, and is co-founder of incubator Innovation Bay. Stough says identifying the point when someone needs to be given advice is the board’s role, but they need to bring diverse perspectives.
“The venture capitalist plays a role in that board pie,” says Stough. “If it’s only VCs on the board as companies grow, that’s a very bad board. You want independence, you want variety of opinion, of process.”
Baker agrees, noting that once a company starts scaling, problems become more strategic.
“You might become kind of siloed in a certain market and so for the challenges of growing within that market, it could be really useful to have someone actually on the board with that experience.”
Stough encourages founders, the executive teams and advisors to look at the power of a board relative to the kind of advice they’re giving: “Do they have voting rights, what’s the voting structure of the board? What’s the point of having a board when they have no power?” This, he says, is just an advisory board and engenders a different kind of relationship with the founder.
Stough says a significantly smaller pool of advisors with “scar tissue” can be a difficulty for founders in Australia. “It’s a maturity of market thing — there haven’t been enough exits,” he says. “I had one [advisor] who was an ultra-high net worth individual. He was brutal, but that’s what you want. He was telling me the stuff you don’t really want to hear, but he definitely helped in a lot of different areas.”
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KTDA factories roll out plan for reliable wood fuel
Posted Sunday, May 5 2013 at 20:35
Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) has launched a programme aimed at ensuring reliable supply of wood fuel to its factories.
The first component of the two-pronged programme involves the 65 tea factories managed by KTDA propagating tree seedlings, mainly Eucalyptus, which are then released to the local communities for planting.
They are also relying on firewood from their own forest plantations to meet energy requirements for tea processing. Almost 99 per cent of thermal energy used in the factories comes from firewood and other biomass, while the remaining percentage comes from fuel oil.
KTDA chairman Peter Kanyago said in the last five years, the factories have used 3,927,939 cubic metres of firewood to generate thermal energy.
During the same period, the factories released 20,490,923 seedlings to neighbouring communities for current and future supply of firewood.
This was equivalent to 4,740,559 cubic metres of expected firewood.
“The KTDA wood-fuel development programme, which began more than 12 years ago, is designed to ensure that all tea factories have commercially as well as environmentally sustainable sources of wood fuel,” a statement from KTDA said.
“The factories are acquiring their own land to plant trees, both to meet their wood fuel needs, as well as for conservation,” it added.
The KTDA plan is to acquire and plant 40,300 acres of exotic trees for wood fuel and indigenous trees for conservation.
As at February this year, KTDA-managed factories had acquired 13,880 acres of land, which represents 34 per cent of the total land targeted.
Of this, 7,185 acres (52 per cent) in Kiambu, Murang’a, Nyeri, Embu, Kirinyaga, Tharaka Nithi and Meru has already been planted with trees, stated the tea agency.
Other areas include Kericho, Bomet, Kisii, Nyamira, Nandi, Trans-Nzoia and Vihiga.
The programme is being implemented through the agency’s Environmental Conservation Foundation that targets to plant about five million indigenous trees by 2017.
The on-going tree planting campaign is expected to bring the total planted indigenous trees in 2012/2013 financial year to 500,000. The foundation aims to increase this to 750,000 trees in the next financial year, a report from the agency indicates.
Mr Kanyago said under the environmental sustainability pillar, KTDA is partnering with Germany’s Development Agency (GIZ), in a coo-stoves project that is ensuring a 40 per cent reduction in firewood use in tea farmers’ kitchens.
According to the tea agency, to date, 37,787 cook-stoves have been built in KTDA farmers’ kitchens and 924 farmers have acquired new skills as cook-stove builders.
“The target is to roll out this programme to all the 560,000 small-scale tea farmers,” the agency stated.


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Grab, announces a strategic partnership with Maybank to drive the acceptance and usage of Grab’s new cashless payment method, the GrabPay mobile wallet.
The announcement comes as Grab, which received its e-money license from Bank Negara Malaysia in December 2017, is set to launch its GrabPay mobile wallet in beta in the coming weeks. With the partnership and support of Maybank, Grab consumers will not only be able to use GrabPay mobile wallet at GrabPay merchants, but will also be able to eventually use their mobile wallet at Maybank’s key merchants thereby making GrabPay accepted at a wider network of merchants. Similarly, Maybank customers will also eventually have the option of paying via Maybank QRPay at GrabPay merchants.
In addition, through the partnership, consumers will soon also have the added convenience of directly topping-up cash to their mobile wallet via Maybank2U, Maybank’s internet banking portal. Maybank customers who use GrabPay as a payment method for rides and other services on Grab will enjoy exclusive benefits and rewards. Grab and Maybank will collaborate to bring more merchants into the mobile payments network, where merchants can benefit from new marketing possibilities through the GrabRewards platform and easy new ways to track transactions through the GrabPay app.
Ooi Huey Tyng, Managing Director, GrabPay Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines, says, “This partnership underlines the strength of Grab’s collaborative approach. The whole industry needs to come together to make the cashless economy a reality in Malaysia. We are honoured to partner with Maybank which not only shares our vision of a cashless payments future, but also recognises Grab as ideally poised to help make this a reality. With GrabPay mobile wallet as the leading payment method on our Grab app, it will build an interconnected ecosystem of our services, thus making Grab an everyday app to complement consumers’ everyday lifestyle.”
Group President & CEO of Maybank, Datuk Abdul Farid Alias says that the collaboration with Grab was part of Maybank Group’s ongoing efforts to provide customers with even more digital conveniences that would not only enrich their online experience but also enhance their lifestyles.
Through the same Grab app, consumers will be able to access not just transport services, but other important everyday services such as ordering and paying for food and drinks, paying for items purchased at shops or making money transfers to friends. All payments made via GrabPay will also earn consumers GrabRewards which can be used to redeem discounted rides, or other lifestyle items in the GrabRewards catalogue.
In addition, through the GrabPay ecosystem, micro-entrepreneurs which include driver-partners and merchants can also go cashless and gain additional income as Malaysia moves towards a cashless lifestyle.


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As the chicken sandwich continues to be an area of competition for fast food chains, Burger King is putting a new spin on its own years-old OG chicken sandwich.
Over the weekend, new information was leaked online confirming that BK was preparing to release its Mexican Original Chicken Sandwich. It will include all the key components of the Original Chicken Sandwich: breaded chicken patty, mayonnaise spread across the sesame buns, and lettuce. However, what makes the new variation unique is its spicy components, often used in signature Mexican dishes.
Fans will get a dash of heat with ghost pepper cheese and crispy jalapeños atop the sandwich. These new ingredients are also used on the chain’s popular Ghost Pepper Whopper, which joined menus exclusively for Halloween.
It’s no shocker that Burger King would want to spice up its chicken sandwich, considering that it’s been around since the 1970s with virtually no upgrades, unlike the famed Whopper, which can be enjoyed in several different ways. BK’s offering is also not brought up much in the chicken sandwich wars, which have held the entire fast food industry in a chokehold since the debut of the Popeyes Chicken Sandwich that shook that industry. Since then, KFC, Wingstop, Wendy’s, and others have worked overtime to perfect this dish and lure fans away from the competition.
The Mexican Original Chicken Sandwich will begin popping up on menus starting in January, though it does not appear to be a permanent decision just yet. Instead, it seems the food chain will start slow with a testing phase.
Either way, it’s long overdue.


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Instagram is rolling new updates to Boomerang as it tries to catch up with TikTok in terms of creative effects for video. Boomerang was launched in 2015 and let users create short videos that play in a back and forth loop. With TikTok creeping in on Instagram’s audiences, the Zuckerberg-owned platform has added new features to the Boomerang effect.
- SlowMo lets you slow down your video to half their original speed – they’ll play for two seconds in each direction instead of one second.
- Echo does a double vision effect(blur effect) that makes everything almost like you’re drunk or tripping.
- Duo speeds up and then slows down a video to the beginning with a glitchy, digitized look.
These new effects can be found when you launch Boomerang and can be applied to videos in your gallery or when you record a video using Instagram’s camera.
Boomerang has new creative twists that'll make you say yaaassssss. Try them all out today. pic.twitter.com/wp0A71RefL
— Instagram (@instagram) January 10, 2020
Another extra feature is video trimming that will let you edit the start and end of the video thus giving Instagram users more control over what they can post.
These effects are already on TikTok, a popular and rival social media app that’s been growing exponentially and Mark Zuckerberg even shared plans to take on the app.
“TikTok married short-form, immersive video with browse. So it’s almost like the Explore Tab that we have on Instagram. I kind of think about TikTok as if it were Explore for stories, and that were the whole app … So we have a number of approaches that we’re going to take towards this,” he said in leaked audio recordings.
“We have a product called Lasso that’s a standalone app that we’re working on, trying to get product-market fit in countries like Mexico … We’re trying to first see if we can get it to work in countries where TikTok is not already big before we go and compete with TikTok in countries where they are big, ” he adds regarding Lasso, another standalone app Facebook is working on.
Instagram Stories are a very popular feature of the app and Boomerang effect is the app’s most widely used feature used to record Stories.
“Your Instagram camera gives you ways to express yourself and easily share what you’re doing, thinking, or feeling with your friends. Boomerang is one of the most beloved camera formats and we’re excited to expand the creative ways that you can use Boomerang to turn everyday moments into something fun and unexpected,” said an Instagram spokesman to Techcrunch.
These features which TikTok already has enabled its users to creatively come up with memes that include users high-fiv-ing themselves using an Echo-esque feature, highlight action-packed moments or loud sounds with Duo-style glitch cuts and conjure an army of doppelgangers behind them with infinity clones effect.
The new Boomerang effects are rolling to users globally – just head over to the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store and update the Instagram app.


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Kroger’s deal provides a foothold in Florida
- Staff Tampa Bay Business Journal
Kroger, which currently does not have a presence in the Sunshine State, would pick up one store in Florida and that could be the beginning of a beachhead, according to a report in the Cincinnati Business Courier.
Publix Super Markets Inc., based in Lakeland, is the dominant player in Florida, where two weaker chains, Winn-Dixie and BiLo, are recovering from bankruptcy. Kroger should be able to stir up the competition, the Business Courier reported.
Kroger has bid $2.5 billion in cash to buy Harris Teeter. Publix has not commented on analyst speculation that it could make a competing offer.
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Apple’s ‘Amazing Story’: Apple TV Plus Isn’t Just Another Streaming Service
Before Steven Spielberg walked on stage for Monday morning’s Apple special event, Steve Jobs Theater already had more stars than Washington D.C.’s annual July 4th parade.
Cameras filming the event for the livestream captured the faces of actors Chris Evans and Octavia Spencer in the audience. Backstage, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston were likely rubbing elbows with Jason Momoa and Kumail Nanjiani. Even Big Bird was there, recruited to bring a high-wattage spotlight to the Apple TV Plus announcement. And when it was all over, Apple CEO Tim Cook handed the stage over to Oprah Winfrey, who revealed her own streaming video projects for Apple and then threw up her hands and shook the hall with a version of her patented holler, “Appleeeeeee!”
But Spielberg was chosen to kick off Apple’s streaming video reveal, teasing his reboot of the 93-year-old Amazing Stories anthology, a magazine that inspired him as a young boy. Pointing out that Amazing Stories started as a magazine in 1926 was a perfect way to thread Apple TV Plus with the new Apple News Plus, the iPhone-maker’s new subscription service for online news.
But thin on details like price, price, and, well, its price, it’s hard to see how Apple TV Plus is “not just another streaming service,” a phrase that Apple executive Jamie Erlicht used on stage.
To know what Apple TV Plus is, you first have to understand what it isn’t. It’s not Apple TV, which is the name of the company’s little black box for televisions. It’s also not an online marketplace for subscribing to other channels like HBO, CBS All Access, or Britbox—that’s the all-new Apple TV Channels. It’s also not an app (well, not directly), because the already-existing Apple TV app is a unifying interface for all video content flowing through Apple, making streamed shows from services like Amazon Prime Video appear next to programs from the PBS Kids app, so users can quickly decide what to watch.
When Apple TV Plus launches in 100 countries later this fall, its ad-free content will be accessible via the Apple TV app and feature original shows like Spielbergs’ Amazing Stories, Ninjiani’s immigrant anthology series Little America, and a Sesame Street-themed show for little viewers. All of this video content makes Apple TV Plus sound an awful lot like a streaming service, but it doesn’t have a huge back catalog made by other studios, like Netflix does. So in that way, it’s not.
In addition to being accessible on Apple TV boxes, the Apple TV app—and presumably the Apple TV Plus service—will be available on other Apple screens, including Macs. But in an unconventional move by the company, Apple is abandoning its usual walled garden approach of restricting (or at least premiering) its services to its own hardware. Instead, the company will install the Apple TV app on smart televisions by LG, Samsung, Sony, and Vizio. In fact, it will even come to Roku devices and the Amazon FireTV, which again, really makes Apple TV Plus seem an a lot like a streaming service.
So how is Apple TV Plus not a streaming service? That’s unclear, probably because a streaming service is exactly what it is.
“Life often makes no sense,” director JJ Abrams reassures viewers at the start of a marketing video heralding Apple’s new (non) streaming service. “There’s something about stories that gives a sense of order and purpose to the world, and allows us to live other lives than the life we’re living.”
Fair enough, but consumers crave sense—especially when they are trying to save money by cutting cable television out of their lives, and now are being asked to subscribe to one more thing, without being told the cost. Presumably Apple will reveal a cost before it launches. Until it does, Apple TV Plus is little more than a sizzle reel, though a star-studded one, at that.
Will Apple TV Plus be free to Apple device owners, as has been rumored? Or will it be a part of a bundle of services, a model that Amazon has made a killing with? There’s no answer to those questions right now.
Instead, there’s Oprah—standing on stage, enlisted to inspire and tell viewers that there’s never been a moment quite like this one. “We have this unique opportunity to rise to our best selves in how we use—and choose to use—both our technology and our humanity,” she says before talking about the documentary, mini series, and book club that she’s contracted to make for Apple.
Then, as only Oprah can, she encourages everyone watching “to move together, one billion plus strong, into a future of our own design, all connected by Appleeeeeee.”
Or was it AAPL? It was hard to make out what she meant, amid all the hype.


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Aquion chooses Sony site for battery plant
For the fourth time in four decades, the state has crafted a package of economic incentives to lure a manufacturer to a sprawling Westmoreland County plant most recently occupied by the Sony Corp.
Advanced battery-maker Aquion Energy Inc. announced on Tuesday it intends to lease about 250,000 square feet at the nearly 3-million-square-foot former television assembly plant in East Huntingdon. Officials say the plant will generate about 400 skilled manufacturing and engineering jobs in the next three years.
The company makes batteries using sodium instead of lithium, providing a less expensive method of storing electricity generated by renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power.
In the next few weeks, Aquion, located in the Lawrenceville section of Pittsburgh, expects to complete a long-term lease for the space, which is owned by the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority, said Ted Wiley, vice president of business and market development for the company.
Steve Kratz, spokesman for the state Department of Economic and Community Development, declined to offer any details about incentives offered to Aquion.
The company, co-founded in 2008 by Wiley and Carnegie Mellon professor Jay Whitacre, made the announcement even though it has not finalized details with the state, Wiley said.
"We are confident, with the level of support and the nature of the support, that we will get this done. Conceptually, we agreed on the general terms," Wiley said. "We found Pennsylvania to have the best overall incentives."
Aquion narrowed its finalists for the site to Pennsylvania and three other states, Wiley said. An unidentified Asian country was considered, said Wiley, who would not identify the other locations.
"After considering all of our options, including aggressive offers from a number of other U.S. states, we concluded that Southwestern Pennsylvania is the best location for Aquion to establish its first high-volume manufacturing operation," Chief Executive Officer Scott Pearson said.
The firm looked at the quality of the local work force, the proximity to its research and development offices in Lawrenceville and the distance to its customers, Wiley said.
"This is a massive investment" by Aquion, said Donald Smith, president of the Regional Industrial Development Corp. in Pittsburgh, which is marketing the East Huntingdon facility for the state.
The company expects to install manufacturing equipment this year and begin production next year, Wiley said.
In September, Pearson predicted the plant could make tens of thousands of batteries a day, compared to about 60 a day being made on a pilot basis in Lawrenceville. The batteries are about the size of a breadbox.
Aquion, which has about 70 employees, may grow to about 200 workers by next year, Wiley said. The company will be hiring workers with machining skills and basic electrical skills, as well as general laborers. Manufacturing, electrical and mechanical engineers also will be hired.
"This is a real feather in Pennsylvania's cap. They were competing with a lot of other states," said John Skiavo, executive director of the Economic Growth Connection of Westmoreland, a Greensburg-based economic development organization.
"This is wonderful. It's going to bring jobs and new opportunities to Westmoreland County. We've been trying to fill the Sony plant with multiple tenants," said Chuck Anderson, chairman of the Westmoreland County commissioners.
The county added no economic incentives to the state's package, Anderson said.
The East Huntingdon plant has a storied past of economic highs and lows.
The state invested millions of dollars to lure Chrysler Corp. to the site in the late 1960s, but then-Chairman Lee Iacocca pulled the plug before the plant was completed because of a downturn in the auto industry.
The state spent about $100 million in 1976 to convince Volkswagen of America Inc. to use the plant to produce Rabbits and Golfs. About one-half of the investment went to buying the plant from Chrysler, and additional state money was used to build access roads and rail connections. Volkswagen closed the plant in 1988.
In the early 1990s, the state pledged $40 million in grants and low-interest loans to convert the automobile plant into a television-making plant.
Sony's manufacturing operations rose and fell with television sales. Sony announced in 2008 it was pulling the plug on its television assembly operations in the county, shutting down completely in March 2010.
The state has been left with a 2.8-million-square-foot manufacturing facility -- Sony had leased the plant from the state -- that has proved costly to subdivide. Pennsylvania has provided $10 million in funds from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program to convert the building into a multi-tenant facility.
To finance the expansion, privately held Aquion is seeking to finalize loan guarantees with the federal Department of Agriculture through the state Agriculture Department, which will enable loans from financial institutions, Wiley said.
Aquion has received financial support from three private investment firms and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Aquion will join three other companies at the former Sony plant. Solar Power Industries Inc., based in Rostraver, leases 265,000 square feet for the production of silicon ingots for solar power products. Dai Nippon Printing IMSA makes thermal transfer ink ribbons for barcodes in 135,000 square feet at the facility. Leeds Inc., a promotion product company based in New Kensington, warehouses products there.
Westmoreland County Community College recently signed an agreement to lease 70,000 square feet for its advanced technology work force training center, which it intends to open in the fall of 2013, said Daniel Obara, college president.
"We're well-positioned to meet the training needs of Aquion," Obara said.


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Warner Bros. Pictures has updated the official website for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises at TheDarkKnightRises.com with new info on how fans around the world can gather ‘evidence’ that will unlock screens of the new trailer.
You can find the locations to head to at TheDarkKnightRises.com and at the locations, you’ll be looking for the following:
Then it says to do the following: “Submit photographic evidence of graffiti related to any movement in support of the vigilante’s return. Make sure that location services or store location is on in your camera settings. Report any and all information pertaining to the investigation to the designated contact (#tdkr07202012 or firstname.lastname@example.org)”
Addresses for the US and Canada will be added on April 30, 2012, at 8am PST.
Here are some of the screens that have been gathered so far. You can click on it for a bigger version. Stay tuned to the SuperHeroHype Forums where the fans are working on this viral right now and you can view all the screens that have been unlocked at TDKR07202012.com!


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APPAREL / RETAILRecent and archived news stories on: Action Sports, Autos, Clothing, Cosmetics, Malls, Online Shopping, Stores/Retailers, Surf/Sportswear...
Members of the Orange County business community celebrated five winners of the Business Journal’s 13th Annual Excellence in Entrepreneurship Awards last week.
Irvine-based Motorcycle Industry Council hired Erik Pritchard as its general counsel. The appointment was effective immediately and fills a spot left open by the departure of Paul Vitrano, who recently joined snowmobile and ATV maker Polaris Industries as vice president for global government relations.
Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. said it is looking to raise as much as $27 million in a private placement that would help it grow its e-commerce and plus-size businesses as the company pushes to make headway on a turnaround.
Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. said it is looking to raise as much as $27 million in a private placement that would help it grow its e-commerce and plus-size businesses.
Orange County auto dealers sold 11,594 new vehicles in February, a 7.8% increase from a year earlier.
Five Orange County auto dealership groups made Automotive News’ list of the top 125 in the country.
Irvine-based Tilly's Inc. shares fell in after-hours trading Wednesday after the retailer said it expects business to be tough in the current quarter.
Investors sent shares of Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. up in extended trading Tuesday after the retailer reported continued improvement in its business.
Huntington Beach-based fast-casual seafood restaurant concept Slapfish inked a new franchise agreement for Southern California.
APPAREL: Shoemaker takes wider view on lineup, retail
Sanuk got the comfort thing down 17 years ago with its Fur Real sandal, constructed of indoor-outdoor carpet.
AUTOS: Seeks halo effect for whole lineup with new model
Kia Motors America Inc. sees 2014 as the year of the luxury sedan—and the time to push up market perceptions of its brand.
Min Kun Kim, who most recently served as chief executive coordinator at Kia Motors America Inc.’s headquarters in Irvine, was promoted to president and chief executive of Kia Canada Inc.
“Mentorship is one of the single most important gifts you can give to youth, especially those facing adversity,” says Melissa Beck, chief executive of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County.
Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. announced the addition of three board members that signal a push by the teen and contemporary retailer to grow its e-commerce business and social media presence.
ECONOMY: 5.5% increase in sales; 2.2% gain on OC jobs
The biggest minority-owned businesses based in Orange County combined for $12.8 billion in revenue last year, a 5.5% increase from a year earlier.


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Samsung's European Apps Store to Launch Sept. 14
Today Samsung announced that it will open its version of a mobile application store in Europe on September 14. The store will launch first in the United Kingdom, France and Italy, with 30 additional countries following later in the year. The store will have about 300 applications at launch, and Samsung expects that number to grow to more than 2000 applications by the end of 2009. Samsung specifically said that the store will support smartphones, which will include Windows Mobile and Symbian-based devices. Samsung has yet to announce any plans to bring an apps store to the U.S. market.
Samsung Makes Its Secure Folder A Downloadable App
Samsung today released its Secure Folder through the Galaxy Apps Store. Secure Folder is a protected space for smartphones that can store files, documents, images, videos, or other content that the owner wishes to lock away.
Samsung Introduces the Z, Its First Tizen Phone
Samsung today announced the Samsung Z, the first smartphone to run its home-grown Tizen platform. The phone strongly resembles Samsung's Android smartphones and will launch in Russia during the third quarter of the year.
Samsung Plans to Sell Refurbished Galaxy Note7
Samsung plans to bring back the Galaxy Note7, despite the massive recall that spelled the phone's demise last year. The company will sell refurbished versions of the phone, though Samsung is still determining where via talks with regulatory authorities and carriers.
Samsung Rebrands Its App Store to 'Galaxy Apps'
Samsung announced a change to its application storefront for smartphones and tablets that it hopes will set its offerings apart from Google's as well as reduce consumer confusion. What was previously called Samsung Apps will now be called Galaxy Apps.


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It's time to stop wasteful spending on unhealthy subsidies.
The REAPS Act is a bill that will improve America’s health by ending direct agricultural subsidy payments that are overwhelmingly skewed towards the direct and indirect support of foods that are high in saturated fat, such as meat and dairy. In fact, 63 percent of subsidies for domestic food production support the production of meat and dairy, while less than one percent goes to producers of fruits and vegetables.
These subsidies are out of line with the USDA’s own Dietary Guidelines, which suggest that half of the food on our plates should be fruit and vegetables. When it comes to subsidies, however, we still give out almost two-thirds to meat and dairy producers.
The REAPS Act, introduced by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), calls for a permanent end to direct payments. This commonsense legislation will level the playing field and end taxpayer-funded government handouts which favor one food over another.
Please ask your U.S. representative to become a co-sponsor of H.R. 2487, the REAPS Act, to end government hand-outs to producers who are making the most unhealthful foods, align our agricultural policy with our nutritional guidelines, and further ease the burden of our deficit on American taxpayers.


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B.Good Gives Loyalty Members Option to Do Good
B.GOOD is now empowering its fans to do good via its loyalty program.
The Boston-based the farm-to-table restaurant chain launched its updated loyalty program, B.GOOD Rewards. B.GOOD Rewards allows consumers to earn and redeem through a points-based structure that rewards one point for every dollar spent.
Customers can redeem rewards for select menu items. They also have the option to donate their points to B.GOOD's network of 25 community partners.
The restaurant has had community partners since it launched its app in 2015, explains Brent Feldman, Chief Marketing Officer.
“…Connecting communities and inspiring good is also a key part of what we do,” he said. “It was a no-brainer to give our customers the opportunity to help drive positive social and environmental impact through a donation feature.”
For their rewards, the community partners can choose B.GOOD food or a cash donation equivalent.
New Mobile App
The donation feature is part of B.GOOD Rewards and is available via the updated B.GOOD app that was released last week.
Customers can order ahead, monitor the status of their rewards, set the dietary filters and access enhanced nutritional information and more.
For B.Good, data gleaned from the new app will be used to drive personalized communications.
“From the back-end, we now have the ability to glean more behavioral insights and put those insights into action,” said Feldman. “For instance, we’re able to see the time of day that customers are coming in (lunch vs. dinner), the menu items they’re purchasing (burgers vs. bowls) and locations that they’re visiting. While we had access to some of this data before, it was certainly more limited.”


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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.K. bellwether retailer Marks & Spencer on Tuesday reported a 3.6% rise in its annual profit, helped by an improving market share in clothing and a return to growth in food sales, though the company said it remains cautious about the year ahead.
The group reported a net profit of 526.3 million pounds ($754.6 million) for the fiscal year ending April 3, compared to £508 million a year earlier.
Sales rose 5.2% to £9.54 billion, helped by an extra week in the latest fiscal year.
Adjusted pretax profit rose 4.6% to £632.5 million and was slightly ahead of Marks & Spencer's (MKS) forecast range of £620 million to £630 million.
Singer Capital Markets analyst Matthew McEachran said the group's profit was broadly in line with expectations as a strong performance in non-food sales was partially offset by an unusually large bonus payout to staff.
"We have improved performance in all core areas, demonstrating the resilience of the M&S brand. We took action to guide M&S through the recession without losing sight of what matters most to our customers -- quality and value," said Chairman Stuart Rose.
"Consumers are naturally concerned about any impact of the budget on June 22. We therefore remain cautious about the outlook for the year ahead," Rose added.
One likely measure to be introduced by the U.K.'s new coalition government is an increase in the country's value added tax rate to 20% from 17.5%.
Rose told analysts on a conference call that Marks & Spencer would almost certainly pass on such an increase to consumers through higher prices. He also noted that trading in Ireland has seen a solid improvement since the country had its budget, indicating that consumers want more confidence about where they stand financially.
Rose stepped down as CEO of the group earlier this month, handing the reins to Marc Bolland, the former chief executive of Morrison Supermarkets (MRW).
Bolland didn't provide any details on his plans for the company, but Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Richard Chamberlain said he is likely to focus on trying to improve customers' perception of value for money, developing a more coherent international strategy and accelerating cost savings.
Shares in the group dropped 1.1% on the London Stock Exchange, but still outperformed compared to a sharp drop for the country's main FTSE 100 index. Also see London Markets.
The stock is down around 18% since the start of the year.
The group said it increased its share of the U.K. clothing market by 0.3 percentage points to 11.2%, with growth across all sectors as customers began to show signs they felt more confident about spending on their wardrobes again.
Total food sales rose 1.8% and the company said it also generated comparable sales growth over the year for the first time since summer 2007, though its market share fell to 3.8% from 3.9% as it cut prices.
For the current fiscal year, Marks & Spencer said it expects gross margin to be broadly flat, with operating costs likely to rise between 4% and 5% as a result of space growth and cost inflation.


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McCaleb still holds 2.89 billion XRP tokens.
The ex-CTO could get rid of all his tokens as early as May 2021.
McCaleb sold $ 400 million worth of XRP in 2020 alone
The price of XRP could suffer in the coming months as former CTO and ex-founder Jed McCaleb could sell nearly 3 billion of these tokens on the market.
The XRP is fighting to retain a place among the first five cryptomonnaies at present. The real possibility that ex-CTO and Ripple founder Jed McCaleb sells all of his stakes won’t help XRP.
McCaleb, who left Ripple several years ago to found Stellar (XLM), still owns nearly 3 billion XRP tokens. Crypto analyst Leonidas Hadjiloizou recently tweeted that Ripple’s ex-CTO could get rid of all of his XRP holdings by the end of the year. Even very probably from the month of May.
Hadjiloizou is a big fan of XRP data and admits McCaleb may be looking to get rid of the rest of his tokens this year. McCaleb currently holds 2.89 billion XRP. The tweet also suggests that McCaleb could get rid of over 38 million XRP per day this week, for a total of $ 166 million.
XRP recovers from SEC accusations
XRP appears to be on the mend following charges against Ripple Labs by the US Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ). A massive sale by the ex-CTO could diminish any decent takeover of the project.
Additionally, the cryptocurrency could see its market capitalization drop. That would only give him a slim chance of making it into the top 10. McCaleb reportedly sold over $ 400 million of this token in 2020 alone. Even after the SEC charges were announced, McCaleb reportedly sold over 28.6 million XRP, or $ 8.58 million at the time.
The possibility that the Ripple co-founders‘ market dumps nearly 2.89 billion coins over several weeks could cause the price to drop dramatically.


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OnePlus 11 is expected to come with a 6.7-inch QHD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, 3216×1440 pixels resolution, a punch-hole cutout for the selfie snapper, and HDR10+. The flagship is likely to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen2 processor paired with Adreno GPU, up to 16GB RAM, and 256GB storage that will not be further expandable. The phone is likely to boot Android 13-based OxygenOS custom skin out of the box.
On the other hand, the OnePlus 11R will replace the OnePlus 10T with a price jump of Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000. This means we can expect the phone to cost around Rs 48,000 and Rs 52,000. It appears that OnePlus is strategically moving away from the affordable flagship segment.


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Royal diamond on the block
The 400-year-old Beau Sancy, one of the world's oldest and most storied diamonds in private hands, is up sale at Sotheby's auction house. Weighing in at 34.98 carats, the sparkling pear cut gem is estimated to be worth up to $US4 million ($A3.87 million).
Those who don't have the money to buy the jewel can see it on display ahead of next month's sale.
Cut from the famous gem mines in the Indian city of Golconda, the diamond made its way through four royal European families and once belonged to Queen Marie de Medici of France. Its most recent owners are the descendants of the last Emperor of Germany.
The gem is currently on display in Paris. It will travel to London and Zurich before its auctioning in Geneva on May 14.
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Following on Pick n Pay’s recent launch of a new point-of-sale service called Deposit @ Till, the functionality has been further extended to include the Pick ‘n Pay Group’s Boxer Stores. Deposit @ Till enables customers to make direct cash deposits into their bank accounts at any Pick n Pay and Boxer store countrywide. According to Richard van Rensburg, Chief Information Officer at Pick n Pay, this is another step towards making banking services more accessible and convenient for customers, anywhere in South Africa.
Pick n Pay is a leading retail group with a footprint of over 1,700 stores. Over the past few years, it has embarked on a structured rollout of innovative financial services in-store, both at the point-of-sale and at specially designated kiosks within selected stores.
Deposit @ Till was developed by Efficacy Payments in partnership with leading technology provider, Transaction Junction, with Absa as the sponsoring bank. Efficacy Payments is a South African payments company that forms part of the Crossfin-owned Crossgate Group. The business was established with a financial inclusion and cash displacement strategy in mind.
Efficacy Payments also formed a strategic partnership with Visa to support them in developing and commercializing the use of Deposit @ Till in South Africa using Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time push payment solution.
Andrew Marsh, Managing Director at Efficacy Payments, believes there is still a large need to expand customer access to financial services. “A significant number of wage earners still get paid in cash on either a daily, weekly or monthly basis. By the time they finish work and get paid, most traditional bank branches are closed and cash accepting ATMs are few and far between. This leaves wage earners vulnerable to criminal elements as they make their way home.”
With Pick n Pay and Boxer’s significant national footprint and daily, longer trading hours, the Deposit @ Till service will now enable customers to safely deposit wages and other funds into any Visa or Mastercard linked bank account.
Currently, customers from ten banks can make use of Deposit @ Till with the remaining banks being brought onboard in due course. Customers only need to bring their Visa or MasterCard bank card and the cash they wish to deposit to any Pick n Pay or Boxer till point. The cashier will assist with making a direct deposit into the customer’s card-linked bank account and provide a till slip as proof.
Efficacy Payments has also been working with Visa over the past four years to improve the consumer experience and enable the unique new experience of depositing money into any bank account, and across networks. Marsh says that while they’ve worked on the service long before the COVID‑19 pandemic, the timing of the launch is perfect considering the sudden move to more contactless and digital forms of payment. “Deposit @ Till at any Pick n Pay or Boxer store gives customers a great way to digitise their cash wages and from there transact safely with their Visa or Mastercard card.”
According to Otto Williams, Vice President and Head of Strategic Partnerships, Fintechs and Ventures in CEMEA at Visa, “Withdrawing cash from till points has existed for many years but through the new Deposit @ Till facility, customers can now also deposit cash directly into a Visa linked bank account. Working with our partners to drive the next generation of digital payments is core to our growth strategy at Visa. With the proven success of Visa Direct, we are excited about our strategic collaboration with Efficacy Payments and the launch of Deposit @ Till. This will provide a new way to meet the needs of today’s consumers and especially wage earners who will benefit from the security and convenience that digital payment provides.”
Negotiations are currently underway to bring more retailers on board. “Expanding access to deposit facilities at the retail point of sale also alleviates some of the pressure on bank branches and ATMs while driving additional foot traffic into retail stores,” adds Marsh. “As consumers and businesses adapt to the new post lockdown reality, banks, retailers and consumers will continue to seek greater choice in how financial services are offered. We believe we will see more partnerships that bring together large retailers and banks as well as smaller innovators to deliver new forms of value to customers during these challenging times and beyond. Pick n Pay’s Deposit @ Till is the start of the journey – we have a number of further innovative solutions currently under development.”
For more information about Efficacy Payments, please visit www.efficacypayments.com


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NEW DELHI: Shares of Kotak Mahindra Bank tumbled 4.43 per cent in trades after the lender reported a 56 per cent year-on-year (YoY) drop in its... ...http://economictimes.feedsportal.com/c/33041/f/534022/s/489612cb/sc/21/l/0Leconomictimes0Bindiatimes0N0Cmarkets0Cstocks0Cnews0Ckotak0Emahindra0Ebank0Etumbles0Eas0Eq10Econsolidated0Enet0Efalls0E220Carticleshow0C482910A580Bcms/story01.htm
NEW DELHI: National Highways Authority of India and the Haryana government have given undertakings to National Green Tribunal on Thursday that the... ...http://economictimes.feedsportal.com/c/33041/f/534022/s/489663f4/sc/7/l/0Leconomictimes0Bindiatimes0N0Cnews0Ceconomy0Cinfrastructure0Cnhai0Eharyana0Egovernment0Eto0Engt0Eexpressways0Ewill0Ebe0Efinished0Ein0E30Eyears0Carticleshow0C482916370Bcms/story01.htm
A new app has been launched as a fabulous free guide to the clubbers' paradise island of Ibiza. Designed to add a new dimension to holidaying on... ...http://pressreleaseping.com/new-clubbers-app-brings-ibiza-life
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The article below represents a preview only and is not meant for reuse or republishing. Lucknow, July 31 -- The state government has set a... ...http://www.htsyndication.com/htsportal/article/Razing-and-raising-go-on-a-war-footing/7608525
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A good news for all HTC fans who were disappointed after the miserable failure of One M9, Taiwanese manufacturer is all set to unveil their new flagship smartphone which CEO Cher Wang announced back in second quarterly meeting with investors.
Today HTC China unveiled a teaser of upcoming hero smartphone which will be unveiled on 6th September 2015. So far One A9 commonly dubbed as “Aero device” is the only device which is in rumours. As per so far leaks, the device will be the first flagship smartphone to have a Deca-core Helio X20 processor with 4GB of RAM and quad HD display is also expected feature. A high-end camera sensor is also expected to enhance the captures quality even in low light conditions.
The handset is expected with a price tag around $500 - $600, which means we should expect a premium smartphone is on its way from HTC. We don’t have to wait much to know the actual details of the device. The device will be official on upcoming Sunday.