...AMITY INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL | Fall of Another Smartphone Giant-Blackberry | Another Example of Technology Obsolescence and Strategic Failure | Submitted By: Ghan Shyam Rathi Once a pioneer and leading light in the smartphone market, BlackBerry is in a potentially terminal downward spiral. The Canadian company, formerly known as RIM (Research in Motion) established an iron grip on the enterprise and successfully bridged the gap from pager, to handheld computer, to smartphone. It was once the dominant smartphone due to its mobile email popular with businesspeople and tech-savvy consumers. Nicknamed “the CrackBerry” because it was so addictive, the device was declared by Oprah Winfrey to be one of her “favourite things”. US President Barack Obama could not bear to part with his BlackBerry and Madonna said she slept with hers under her pillow. In the last couple of years Apple's iPhone and Google's Android platform have taken over with a combined market share that tops 90 percent. Struggling to arrest a declining user base, amid poor sales of its latest devices, we are now hearing that BlackBerry might sell up. Brief: BlackBerry Limited, formerly known as Research In Motion Limited (RIM), is a Canadian telecommunication and wireless equipment company best known as the developer of the BlackBerry brand of smartphones and tablets. The company is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by Mike Lazaridis, who served as its co-CEO along...
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...them all: Snake. Nokia were by no means the first company to release a commercially available mobile phone, but it was the first to do it really well, and with true mass appeal. "Back in the 1990s there weren't these other big brands," says Ben Wood, an analyst at CCS Insight. "Nokia were so dominant. People didn't talk about what brand, it was just about the number, 3210, or whatever you had. They took users on a journey." Era of complacency So far, so good - but then one presentation changed everything. "Complacency had kicked in," Mr. Wood continues, "they felt they could do no wrong. "Then all of a sudden, in January 2007, Steve Jobs walked on to a stage and pulled an iPhone out of his pocket and changed the world forever." The fall was swift. According to figures from analyst firm Gartner, Nokia's smartphone market share in 2007 was a dominant 49.4%. In subsequent years, it was 43.7%, then 41.1%, then 34.2%. In the first half of this year, it had plummeted to just 3%. Many blame this decline, at least in the initial stages, on Symbian, the firm's...
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...The case of Enron Corporation and Andersen, LLP can be noted as one of the most infamous fraud scandals in US history. Investors lost millions of dollars and ruined the public’s trust. Enron was once the seventh largest public company in the United States and Andersen LLP was the world’s largest and most respected business organizations. Enron’s stock prices soared to approximately $100 to less than $10 in 2001. How did these two big giants fall into oblivion and what could have been done to avoid the disaster of these companies? Enron Corporation was formed as the result of the July 1985 merger of Houston National Gas and InterNorth of Omaha, Nebraska. Their headquarters were located in Houston, TX. In its earlier years, Enron was a natural gas pipeline company whose primary business strategy involved entering into contracts to deliver specified amounts of natural gas to businesses or utilities over a given period of time. Enron soon became involved in in the transmission and distribution of electricity in addition to gas in the US as well as the development, construction, and operation of power plants and pipelines worldwide. Enron’s CEO was Jeffrey Skilling who only held his position for six months and Kenneth Lay, who was the CEO/Chairman of Enron from 1996 through 2001, was reinstated to CEO after Skilling’s resignation due to “purely personal” reasons. Andersen. LLP was originally founded as Andersen, Delaney & Co. in 1913 by Arthur Andersen, an accounting professor...
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...risks as well a fluctuating foreign currency. While continuing to expand their business, Enron began offering a variety of financial hedges and contracts to their customers. This new venture uncovered interest rate risks, environmental risks, and constant price wars. Enron Online launched in 1999, which revealed dangerous technological failure risks. Enron decided to use Special Purpose Entities for borrowed funds. These SPEs were a great risk because the likelihood of materially misstating their financial statements increased significantly due to liabilities not being reported as cash inflows were coming in. These SPEs, as well as many other business endeavors by Enron, relied heavily on their guarantees of stock. If stock prices were to fall under a certain level, obligations made by Enron would become payable (Seabury). Once Enron’s risks were realized the company experienced pressure to report more stable and prosperous financial statements. They wanted to continue attracting investors and increase their competiveness in the marketplace, which drove management to enter into aggressive accounting schemes that ultimately led to their downfall in 2001. 2. The case explains how Enron used SPEs to sell off assets, which removed their related losses and liabilities from the company’s balance sheet. Listed below are the three SPEs mentioned in the case and how Enron used them to report better financial statements. Chewco was established by Enron executives in connection with...
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...Maans V. Giant of Maryland, L.L.C., 161 Md. App. 620; 871 A.2d 627; (LEXIS 2005) Facts: On Sunday, May 23, 1999 at 1:00pm, Chandra Maans (Plaintiff), went shopping at a Giant store with her fifteen year old niece, Amanda Randolph. Upon proceeding to the checkout lanes, Maans slipped and fell. Maans tried to avoid the fall by grabbing onto another cart which was in front of her. Maans was unable to avoid the fall and fell on her back. Maans was six-and-one-half months pregnant and was transported to the hospital by ambulance. At the time of the fall, Maans did not recall seeing anything wet on the floor or recall her clothes being wet after the fall. However, Maans stated she heard the assistant store manager tell another person to clean all the water off of the floor. Maans also stated she heard the assistant store manager tell the paramedics to be careful not to slip on the water that was on the floor. Maans did not know how the water got on the floor or how long the water had been on the floor. There was also no “wet floor” sign in sight. The assistant store manager stated that there were a couple of drops of soda on the floor at the time...
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...The Solar System was formed around 4 billion years ago due to a cloud. It is a part of the Milky Way galaxy and consists of 8 planets. All the planets within the Solar System revolve around a star, known as our sun. The following planets listed are in order from closest to furthest from the sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Although, there is a dwarf planet named Pluto, which is unofficially the ninth planet in our Solar System. Each planet falls into a certain category, either Terrestrial Planets, or Giant Planets. The reason for the name of the Giant Planets, is because they are either of an ice giant or a gas giant. Mercury, Venus and Mars fall into the Terrestrial Planet category. Meanwhile, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune fall into the Giant Planet category. The reason for...
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...Hermon, because they had sworn and bound themselves by mutual implications upon it. 7. And these are the names of their leaders: Semiazaz, their leader, Arakiba, Rameel, Kokabiel, Tamiel, Ramiel, Danel, Ezeqeel, Baraqijal, Asael, Armoros, Batarel, Ananel, Zaquel, Samsapeel, Satarel, Turel, Jomjael, Sariel. 8. These are their chiefs of tens. VII. 1. And all the others together with them took unto themselves wives, and each chose for himself one, and they began to go unto them and to defile themselves with them, and they taught them charms and enchantments, and the cutting of roots, and made them acquainted with plants. 2. And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells: 3. Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, (sic) 4. The Giants turned against them and devoured mankind. 5. And they began to sin...
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...in New York after having made money in railway bonds. So what went wrong? Compiled by Rediff Business Desk Lehman Bros, which till June 2008 had not reported a quarterly loss even once, had earlier survived many an economic crises, like railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s, and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management in the 1990s. Thus the collapse of the giant investment bank came as a major shock for the entire world markets that plunged after Lehman filed a Chapter 11 petition with US Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. The $613 billion (some estimates put the size at $639 billion) bankruptcy thus throws up the question: why did the Wall Street giant go bust? Here's why. . . Why did Lehman Brothers go bankrupt? The giant investment bank succumbed to the sub-prime mortgage crisis that has rocked the United States and the global economy. Lehman was strangled by a massive credit crisis and fast plummeting real estate prices. The gargantuan $60 billion loss in bad real estate loans forced the bank to file for bankruptcy. However, the fall of the...
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...(Beowulf, 814-823). Like Grendel, Beowulf’s “follow[ing] his own will” not only ends his life, but it also ends the life of his people as well (Beowulf, 3077-3078). This suggests that within the Germanic society, one’s own proud actions affects those surrounding them as well. [Where can I place this though?] Pride, in Christianity, is known to be a deadly sin, therefore it is only natural that the Lord intervenes where pride is involved. The Lord’s own war against the giants gives the okay for the Danes and Geats to feel proud over their victories against the monsters. However, connected to the heroic concept of hubris, Beowulf falls from his heroic level because he allowed himself to become too proud. This sin of pride connects Grendel and Beowulf together, giving Beowulf a Christian (background) beside his own Germanic background. It is important to note the foreshadowing of Beowulf’s pride, as mentioned in “The Interlace Structure of Beowulf,” Hrothgar warns Beowulf of the consequences of pride, but it falls on deaf ears (Beowulf, 1760). Beowulf allows pride to enraptured him during his fight with to obtain the treasure. By gaining the treasure, he would fulfill the heroic expectation of gaining treasure for his people, thus giving him fame (Leyerle, 12). His confidence, of course, is attacked by the – of hubris. Beowulf’s collapse demonstrates how ruin is hidden by the desire of fame. Although the interest of treasure is for his people, the motive is mainly for the self,...
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...Giant ground sloth The giant sloth, also known as the megalonyx, which is Greek for giant claw, lived from the Miocene – modern time period or from 10 million to about 10,000 years ago. They lived in the woodlands of north America. And seven facts about this type of is the diet, classification, popularity, habitat, predators, extinction and size, First, the giant sloth was omnivorous with a diet consisting of moderately to soft tough food and ate yuccas and common grasses. The sloth had blunt teeth that couldn’t chew meat. And it used its huge dangerous claws to strip the bark off of the trees. The giant sloth didn’t have much to do much hunting it so it didn’t need that many predatorily attributes. Many sloths had giant claws in order to dig up bugs in order to eat them. Second, Giant sloths are classified as Chordata, Mammalia, Xenarthra, pilosa, megatheriddae. Animals that belong to the class Chordata possess a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve chord and a...
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... Calvatia gigantean, more commonly know as the giant puffball. The giant puffball is a mushroom that is part of the kingdom fungi. Its phylium is basidiomycota. The class of the giant mushroom is agaricomcetes and its order is agaricales. The giant puffballs family is agaricaceae and its genus is calvatia. (5) Giant puffballs appear to be white and round shape, or almost oval in some cases. The calvatia gigantea can be found in central or eastern USA and Canada. These mushrooms are usually found to be growing to their full potential in the fall. They are fruiting bodies that have spores. The calvatia gigantean grows mainly directly off of the earth, but it also can grow of trees. The name giant puffballs is a little deceiving because these mushrooms are not always giant, they can be as small as a golf ball, or they can be as large as a basketball. “A big specimen of the giant puffball can be almost two feet long and contain seven 7,000,000,000,000 spores” (1). The puffball is full of spores that can be found to be very useful. The mushroom cracks open to have the wind take the spores away. However, some puffballs don’t crack open to have the wind take away the spores, some puffballs have a opening on them which is where the spores are released. The spores are about “3.5 to 5.5 microns in diameter”. (1) These spores are what make the giant puffballs like a big sack of powder, because the spores are extremely dry. The giant puffball mushroom is one of many mushrooms that...
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...there hoping she was in a bad dream Hours passed and soon some clinking noises were heard, much too foreign to Julia's soft fabric ears The lights came up, and she found herself among similar looking monkeys just like her, and it frightened her a little She froze and prayed hard as she had been thrown into a strange new world and feels totally insecure Just then a dashing looking giant came and looked at her gently She could feel something warm in her little cotton heart Feeling secure with the giant she wanted to move and reach out to the giant but somehow she couldnt move a muscle Worried the giant would leave she began to panic To her relief the giant pick her up gently and brought her with him:) she was so relief that she was saved from the strange place and even though she isnt back in her little yarn world, she felt safe:) As he places her in his bag and covered her in darkness again, he whispered to her, "Just Trust Me:) I'll bring you to a safe haven;)" As she wondered as to what the giant was saying, she was brought on a long journey in the cold Just as she was about to fall asleep from the long wait in the dark, she was brought back out But this time it is in a...
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...Most people would agree that cultural diversity in the workplace utilizes our country's skills to its fullest, and contributes to our overall growth and prosperity. The companies I chose was the internet giants which include eBay, Amazon , yahoo and Google. All these companies have failed horrible in the Chinese markets. The Chinese competitors achieved greatly success from the down fall of these companies. The American companies failed because of their way of thinking. One reason they failed was because they only focused on the white collar middle class and ignored majority of the regular people. Ignoring the regular people only gave them time to focus on the hive level people a.k.a the white collar. They will never understand why the failed because their employees of the American internet giants are mostly from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore or they have a overseas background. Most American websites are afraid of negative news. They Chinese are afraid of no negative news. Most Chinese websites would like to be hated by thousands because they feel as if they will be remember better this way. The employees of American internet giants salaries are 10 times more than their competitors. Their philospy is make no first mistake and get results second. This is the reason why they are beaten badly by the Chinese competitors. Most American companies spend a huge amount of money on unnecessary marketing researches paper. The Chinese are always thinking of short term goals to...
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...he demonstrates that kids need old-fashioned playgrounds where risks occur. If children are allowed to take risks, they will gain courage, confidence, and character. By allowing kids to not play it too safe on the playground, it teaches them how to be well-rounded people and conquer their fears, anxieties, and panics in life. When I was a child, I was always climbing and swing on things, and I would fall, get scratches, and get back up to do it again. I would sometimes cry, because it would hurt too much; however, I kept climbing and swinging. If I had stop climbing and taking those daredevil risks, I would not conquer my future risks in life. It is like the story of David and Goliath. David was only a child in Saul’s army. He was tired of the giant, Goliath, mocking God and taunting the people of God. He gain courage and remained courageous through his life by standing up to Goliath and defeating him with “a sling shot and five smooth stones in his pocket” (Samuel). Just like David conquered his giant, children who are allowed to be kids and take risks can conquer their giants and become courageous adults. While courage is a great start, allowing kids to take on danger and uncomfortable tasks builds confidence and character to face any adversity and believe that great change can happen. In the Book of Genesis, Noah was building an ark for the great flood that was coming forewarned by God (Noah's Ark). Instead of doubting God and being afraid to do the abnormal, Noah built...
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...Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book I Kings, Empires, Bigotries and Victories Introduction There are two parts in this essay: the former part Kings and Empires compares the beginning of the universe with the formation of empires and looks at the several transformations of the world as the manifestations of the great power of the ruler; whilst the latter part Bigotries and Victories takes reference from the the quote “History is written by the victors” and the bias narrations in some stories to bring out the darker attributes of the worldly reality and its celebrated protagonists. Kings and Empires It is said that an unknown god commanded the jumbled elements in the universe to fall into order. Then, he assigned characteristics to these elements; fire is the lightest while water is the heaviest. To this mighty god, the world without boundaries was chaotic and restless. By being powerful enough to command and order these rudiments, he laid out systems and set up the foundations of the universe itself. His values became ‘the order’ and his words became ‘the law’. The creator and Jupiter are thus similar, as both at one time, ruled the cosmos and wielded this great power of the king. However, they should not be confused as the gravity of influence new rulers can bring to the world could have been another analogy that Ovid may have wanted to make through his retelling of the banishment of Saturn, Jupiter’s father. Throughout the text, the kingship of the universe has changed...
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