Consumer Technology World Brief

The recent confirmation of the impending IPO filing of Alibaba has attracted the interest of the consumer technology world not just in terms of the potential success of an Asian origin tech company in the U.S. market (the IPO is widely expected to surpass the USD 16.4 billion raised in 2012 by Facebook) but also in terms of the positive impact it will have on Yahoo which owns a 24% stake in Alibaba. In the acquisition news in this domain, Apple is reportedly interested in acquiring Beats Electronics, the headphones brand setup by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, for an estimated deal value of USD 3.2 billion making it one of the largest deals in the Cupertino tech giant’s history. A recent study by a photography blog revealed that Amazon was recently awarded the intellectual rights to taking pictures of people in front of seamless white backgrounds. Further details revealed that the process and diagrams submitted for the patent were similar to those followed by a lot of photography studios since many years – thus highlighting the loopholes in the current IP filing ecosystem.

North America Review

In the U.S. region, an interesting trend to note is the growing age of the farmers in the U.S. – a trend that began at least three decades ago and shows few signs of reversing. The U.S. Department of Agriculture releases every five years the Census of Agriculture, in which it was estimated that the average age of principal operators—the person most responsible for decision-making on farms and ranches—climbed to 58.3 in 2012, up from 57.1 in 2007. Back in 1982, by contrast, the average age was 50.5. Data released in April 2014 put the average age in six states at 60 or older, and Arizona farmers and ranchers claim the oldest average age in the nation at 61.1.

In a positive note on the U.S. economy, companies in cities across the U.S. are facing challenges in filling positions, with current jobless rates in few metropolitan areas in the U.S. below the 5.2 percent to 5.6 percent level – the level which Federal Reserve regards as full employment nationally. Thus the competition for workers is prompting businesses to incentivize the hiring process by raising wages, add benefits, and recruit from other regions.

Asia Review

 In the Asia region, the biggest democracy in the world went to polls to elect the next government. One of the biggest points of discussions from both the ruling party and the opposition parties has been the economic growth of India (or lack thereof). Another interesting aspect is the impact of social media and internet on the current elections and the political ecosystem and how it is resulting in greater engagement from the younger generation.

In April, the government of Japan’s conservative Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, lifted a ban from the 1970s that restricted arms exports. The ban is perceived to have hindered the growth of the country’s defense industry by resulting in an isolated Japanese defense industry that produces very small quantities at very high cost. On the other hand, Japan’s Asian neighbors have taken advantage of its absence from the export scene. South Korea exported USD 3.4 billion worth of arms in 2013 and China last year passed France and Britain to become the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter.

Europe Review

In the Europe region, U.K.’s economy is finally showing the positive effects of its austerity measures with figures released in April showing the economy expanded 0.8 percent in the first quarter, up from 0.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. That performance puts Britain on track to have the fastest-expanding economy among the Group of 7 developed nations this year. The economy grew at an annual rate of 3.1 percent as of the end of the first quarter.

Another interesting country to note in Europe is Poland. As Poland marks 10 years of EU membership on May 1, the country has emerged as the star of Eastern Europe, though there is still a long way to go in bridging the gap between Poland and its neighbors to the west. Pay and benefits in Poland average €10.4 an hour compared with €42.6 in Germany. Despite two decades of uninterrupted growth, Poland is home to five of the continent’s 20-poorest regions and another interesting statistic to note is that at least 2.5 million young Poles have left during the past decade, of which, about a half-million left the country last year.