Consumer Technology World Brief
3-D printing has been popping up in technology reviews and highlights since a few years due to its ability to innovate in the areas of customized design and manufacturing in various domains ranging from art to the medical field. And if you are wondering if it was just a fad then fear not, it is being accepted and integrated into more and more workflows. The next step for 3-D printing appears to be “mass customization” – the process of printing something unique for each user – and to leverage this evolutionary step companies like Shapeways and Cubify are promoting a marketplace environment for these mass customization based 3-D printing services. One of the major and interesting deals in recent history in the Consumer Technology world is the sale of Motorola’s smartphone business to Lenovo for USD 2.9 billion and the point of interest is not only the sale price but also the fact that Google acquired Motorola Mobility for USD 12.4 billion in 2012. According to analysts the huge difference in the purchase and sale price is due to the perceived value Motorola’s portfolio of mobile patents which are being retained by Google. In the interesting world of patent infringement disputes, especially in the consumer technology world, the perceived growth and opportunities of wearable tech industry can be observed based on the recent law suit filed by Adidas on Under Armour for alleged patent infringement of mobile-app technologies in the wearable tech domain.
North America Review
The recent debate and highlight on immigration policies of the U.S. raised several key questions like if immigration promotes innovation and development of a nation or if in the long term it stunts innovation and thus economic development. We do not have an answer for these key questions but at the same time would like to point out the positive impact of globalization and immigration on innovation and how multinationals have accepted and are utilizing immigration of high knowledge workers to their advantage. The recent naming of Satya Nadella as the CEO of Microsoft, one of the largest software multinational corporations, highlights this interesting trend of giving importance to merits and experience over passport and place of origin even for the most influential posts in a company.
Another interesting event to note from the U.S. is the recent snowstorm, the resulting low temperatures and how this plays out with the increasing gas prices in the Northeast. In the last week of January the gas prices within the city spiked to a record high in the spot market on the outskirts of the city, even though a few hundred miles away, in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, the biggest natural gas field in the U.S the prices were cheaper by as much as 30 times. The reason for this price difference is, apart from the key parameters like spot market dynamics and long term pricing etc., attributed to the pipeline bottleneck existing between Pennsylvania’s gas fields and the cities in the Northeast thus creating a situation of high demand and slow supply.
Asia Review
Continuing our discussion on energy and gas pipelines, in the Asia region, China’s Oil Pipeline project through Myanmar highlights the importance and criticality of securing future energy sources for nations dependent on oil imports. In 2009, China National Petroleum and Myanmar Oil & Gas Enterprise signed a USD 2.5 billion agreement to lay down a 500 miles oil and gas pipeline from Myanmar’s western coast to China’s southwestern Yunnan province. At the same time it is interesting to note the side effects it is creating in Myanmar in terms of worker unrest and differences between Burmese pipeline workers and Chinese workers.
An interesting trend in the Asian region is the ramping up of defense spending by Asian countries in 2013 and a slight slowdown in defense spending by the traditional leaders in this domain like the U.S. In 2013, the Asian region accounted for 24% of the global defense spending and this share is projected to grow to 28% by 2020. At the same time it can be noted that the defense spending in the Asian region is dominated by China with a huge margin followed by Japan, India and South Korea respectively. Comparing the defense spending of USD 139 billion by China with the USD 1.8 billion spent on defense by Philippines highlights the gulf in resources and expenditures within the Asian region itself and points to the issues arising because of this gulf in defense resources.
Europe Review
In Europe, the recent approval for the sale of 18 % of Dong Energy, Denmark’s largest electric utility company, for USD 1.5 billion to Goldman Sachs resulted in wide spread protests and pull outs in the government highlighting the negative image attributed to the multinational financial institutions due to their role in the financial crisis resulting in economic crisis across Europe and the world. One of the key points of the deal that ticked off the protests was the reported plan of Goldman Sachs to manage its investments through popular tax havens like Luxembourg – as this was perceived that the bank would shift earnings to tax havens. It is reported that this deal has resulted in a slide in opinion polls for the Social Democrats.
France is reportedly eager to resume their trade ties with Iran following an interim accord between world powers and Iran resulting in lifting of sanctions in certain sectors in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. A trade delegation of about 100 business people was scheduled to visit Iran in the first week of February to push for France’s efforts to move back into the Iranian market. The eagerness to resume the trade ties could be attributed to the reasonably strong presence of French companies in Iran before the sanctions came into place – for example before the sanctions took effect the French automotive companies sold more cars in Iran compared to their European competitors.