Consumer Technology World Brief
Motorola has unveiled Project Ara which is an open source initiative for modular smartphones with the goal to “do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software”. Motorola will be working with Phonebloks, which recently showed off a similarly ambitious concept for modular smartphones. The design consists of an endoskeleton to which various components such as camera, battery pack and more unusual components can be attached. This allows the user to customize the phone according to their needs such as higher memory space or longer battery life. This will result in a complete overhaul of the mobile industry with focus geared towards component interchangeability.
Fully electric cars and range-extended vehicles like the Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model S, and Chevrolet Volt have only been on the market a few years, but it’s pretty clear that they’re on the front line of an automotive revolution. However the battery capacity is a problem with the charging logistics still in the development phase with no suitable commercial options. And that’s where the folks at HEVO Power come in. They’ve designed a new system for wireless charging that they’ll be testing next year in New York City. If all goes as planned, it could make life much easier for electric car drivers and fleets. HEVO’s system relies on charging plates embedded in the street, designed to look like manhole covers. When parked above them, electric car owners can power up their batteries with no fuss. HEVO’s prototype is expected to debut in early 2014, using two specially outfitted Smart Fortwos owned by New York University.
North America Review
President Barack Obama signed a bill that ends the 16-day partial government shutdown and raises the debt ceiling. Weeks of bitter political fighting gave way to a frenzied night in Washington as Congress passed the bill that would prevent the country from crashing into the debt ceiling. The debt cushion now extends through February 7, with current spending levels being authorized through January 15. That means a few months of breathing room, but little more. After all, the bill doesn’t address many of the contentious and complicated issues – from changes to entitlement programs to tax reform – that continue to divide Democrats and Republicans. The past 16 days of the partial government shutdown has come at a steep cost. Standard and Poor’s estimated it took USD 24 billion out of the economy.
The chaotic launch of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law has Democrats in Congress increasingly anxious about its potential impact on them in the 2014 elections and scrambling to protect themselves if the program’s problems persist. Some of the Democrats, such as New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen, represent states where enthusiasm has been high for the Affordable Care Act. Among other things, the law aims to provide inexpensive health insurance to many of the estimated 15 million Americans with little or no coverage. The balky website, HealthCare.gov, has been unable to process an untold number of applications for insurance since its debut on October 1, and the frustration both types of Democrats have had with it was evident on Thursday. If the Obama administration is able to fix it and ensure a smooth rollout then there will be no problems for the 2014 elections but if not then evidently they are heading for choppy waters ahead.
Asia Review
In defying four years of official cooling efforts, China’s soaring house prices reveal an uncomfortable truth: government is one of the biggest obstacles to the success of taming the market. Homes in cities such as Beijing are more expensive by some measures than Britain or Japan, a dismal outcome for a central government campaign aimed at making homes more affordable to Chinese. House prices in September rose nationwide at their fastest pace in three years. China’s reform efforts, such as lowering government reliance on land sales for revenue and providing speculators with more investment options, should help iron out these factors. Nowhere in China is the problem of a surging property market more acute than in Beijing and Shanghai, where the lure of good education and employment have underpinned demand as millions of Chinese are encouraged to migrate to cities.
China’s state-owned GAC Motor scored above average in a closely watched quality survey, as home-grown brands narrowed the gap with the foreign marques that dominate the world’s biggest car market. GAC Motor, which sells cars under its own brand Trumpchi, had 97 problems per 100 newly sold vehicles. That was better than the average 119 problems and beat global names such as General Motors Co’s, Buick and Chevrolet, Ford, Nissan and Honda. Three other Chinese brands — Venucia, Roewe and Luxgen, also performed better than the industry average, compared with none last year. But despite these efforts, foreign brands still grabbed the top spots in the survey – Toyota’s Lexus and Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz tied for the highest quality, with 52 problems per 100 cars, followed by Subaru, made by Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, Volkswagen and BMW.
Europe Review
The euro zone economy will expand slightly more slowly next year than previously expected because of weaker private demand and investment and inflation will stay well below the central bank target over the next two years. The European Commission forecasts published on Tuesday are likely to add to arguments for an interest rate cut by the European Central Bank, which is to discuss its next policy move on Thursday. Nevertheless, recession was firmly behind the euro zone from the second quarter of this year and the pace of recovery would slowly accelerate quarter-on-quarter. Many euro zone governments were forced to sharply rein in spending over the last three years as investors began demanding unsustainably high prices for lending to them because of concern they might never get paid back. The Commission said that euro zone consumer price growth, which the ECB wants to keep below but close to 2 percent over a two year horizon, will be 1.5 percent this year and next and only 1.4 percent in 2015 as unemployment stays at record high levels around 12 percent.
Four European banks paid a heavy price on Tuesday in a clean-up of the financial industry, with Rabobank fined USD 1 billion and three other major lenders preparing for possibly huge legal costs after a string of scandals. Dutch Rabobank said it would pay regulators in the United States, Britain and the Netherlands 774 million euros after 30 employees were involved in “inappropriate conduct” linked to interest rate manipulation. European and U.S. banks are still struggling to cast off a variety of misdeeds revealed after the financial crisis erupted in 2008, and the relentless rise in the cost of fines, lawsuits and compensation shows no sign of abating. Rabobank is the fifth lender to be fined for manipulating reference rates such as Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate), which are benchmarks for more than USD 300 trillion of financial assets. Regulators have now imposed penalties totaling USD 3.7 billion. Seven people have been charged with criminal offences.