Alphabet Inc. In Collaboration With Lenovo To Release a Next Level Phone

The search giant is in partnership with the multinational technology company to launch a smartphone with 3D features.

The 2016 Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas turned out to be quite a hit in terms of technology. Alphabet, Inc. introduced its new3D technology that it will be working on in partnership with Lenovo. The Chinese technology company will build an android powered smartphone incorporating a 3D technology of Project Tango by Google.

The Chinese multinational tech giant announced that this next level smartphone will be ready by as early as summer of 2016. The name of the device has not been disclosed by either of the tech companies as yet. This third dimension featured product will be priced for not more or less than $500. It will be incorporated with processors chips by Qualcomm Inc. and is said to be less than 6.5 inches.

The Project Tango was introduced back in 2014 by Google Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) with the purpose of giving smartphone a human touch. The reason for the development of the product was so smartphones could perceive and comprehend things like human beings. Additionally, the search giant is also working on building 3D maps with the help of sensors and cameras to get a clear picture of the surroundings; this technology will allows users to navigate their surroundings, track their whereabouts and monitor their movements in the environment.

Presently, the Project Tango is only accessible to developers via costly tablets to use and test the new technology in the market. According to the latest news, now users will be allowed to use this technology first0hand through their smartphones. Jeff Meredith, the Head of Lenovo Tablets stated that this is not a technology that has a short lifespan. This statement makes it evident that this might have been the coolest technology that might have been introduced at the CES and is likely to be in the market for a long time.

At the CES, the lead of Project Tango introduced and demonstrated the use of the device and showed around its features and services. As an example, he showed an animated cat through the device that followed its owner with the help of the device. The sole reason as to why Google introduced this device at the show was because it wanted developers to develop novel apps for the Project Tango. Jeff added that they introduced this device to the public so that the developers can feel comfortable for developing apps for this.

Lenovo as well as Google are quite confident that this technology and product will help them generate profits as its fairly new and everyone at some point will want to buy it. The only concern, at this point, is that it will require multiple sensors and cameras which could lead to copying of the design and might affect the release of the smartphone.

Amazon Offers 20% Discount To Prime Gamers

Amazon is giving away 20 percent discount on all new and pre owned games to its Prime members

Amazon Inc. always puts its Prime members first. The company vowed initially that it will make every penny worth if its loyal customers buy the Prime subscription and so far the $99 per year investment is not bad at all. The online retailer offers two day free shipping service along with free video streaming service to all of its Prime members. Apart from this, extra deals, discounts, and benefits are also offered to the members every now and then. According to sources, the firm is all set to offer 20 percent discount on games to its Prime members.

It is believed that the Seattle based firm is taking a serious step forward to tap one of the biggest audience in the world currently. Amazon realizes that the trend of gaming and buying games online from retailers such as Amazon, Wal-Mart, and EBay etc. is increasing hence the company has come up with the best solution to attract gamers on its platform. Amazon achieved two milestones through a single initiative. It will not only be attracting a new audience towards its marketplaces but will simultaneously increase its Prime members as well.

Amazon will offer a massive 20% discount to all Amazon Prime members on new and pre owned games. It is making a serious play for the dollars of all the gamers out there as it extends its discount deal which only applies to the physical games and does not include any video game console bundles. The discount will expire in two weeks after a game is launched. It should be acknowledged that the discounted price will only be shown once the buyer adds any game in their shopping carts. If the game is in the discounted list then the price will be changed as soon as it is added.

This new discount deal is similar to that of Best Buy’s program. Best Buy has a Gamer Club Unlocked program which offers 20 percent discount on new video games to its customers for a price of $120 for two years subscription when it initially launched. The Gamers Club Unlocked subscription is now priced at only $30 for two years and is benefitting the gamers very well.

Amazon already offers discounts to its Prime and non Prime customers for all the pre ordered games through its online marketplace. The 20 percent add on discount is an icing on top which would surely boost user growth of its Prime program.  

Tesla Model S Secured First Position as the Best-Selling Plug-In Car in 2015

With deliveries of 50,366 units, Tesla Model S was the best selling plug-in electric vehicle last year.

While many have eyed Tesla just reaching its 50,000-52,000 global sales target in 2015, even though it was left well behind, Tesla Model S was significantly sold more than any other plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) last year.

With the company’s 50,366 sales mark for 2015, the luxurious Model S proved to be the number one bestselling electric vehicle going ahead of Nissan Leaf, which contributed to around 43,000 sales across the globe. Model S has also proved to be the second most sold car with 107,148 deliveries since its launch in mid-2012, following Nissan Leaf with a head start from December 2010, ahead of GM’s Volt/Ampera also launched in December 2010 with sales of 106,000 units.

The sales of Model S last year also proved to be a significant jump from 2014 when Tesla delivered 31,655 cars that took the title of the second most sold vehicle. The company has continued to make new records. Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV took the third position last year with approximate sales of 39,000 units due to markets abroad, as it faced a delay and still not launched in the United States.

BYD Qin PHV marked the fourth position with deliveries of 31,898 units only in China last year, while BMW i3 secured the fifth with worldwide deliveries of 24,057 units, according to sales tracker, Mario R Duron.

In all, the global market absorbed around 500,000 PEVs in 2015, which means that Tesla contributed to around 10%. Its home country cumulatively proved to be its largest market, the United States, which has absorbed around 60% of Model S production since release. Norway is the second one with about 9.4%, while China remains the third one. Similarly, Holland, Canada, and Germany are fourth, fifth and sixth markets respectively. Switzerland and Denmark have acquired the seventh and eighth positions.

Entering the final quarter of 2015, Tesla needs to go far ahead with only 33,151 worldwide sales, and it winded up recording 17,400 more vehicles from September 1 to September 31 of which only 208 were its Model X SUV. This did not make Tesla the best seller of PEVs, as when its sales were taken into account, China’s BYD ended up last year with 58,728 deliveries in the country ahead of its 50,580 units, including Model X sold globally. 

CEO Musk told on Monday that Apple’s development of new electric car to compete with his organization is an "an open secret". Apple has not officially stated its plans for such endeavors. “It is pretty hard to hide something if you hire over a thousand engineers to do it,” Elon spoke to BBC in an interview at Tesla’s design studio in the Los Angeles Area. He does not seem bothered about this particular “competition” though. 

Amazon Plans To Acquire Colis Prive To Take On UPS and FedEx.

The retail company is planning to acquire the French delivery package service in an effort to start its on delivery process rather than relying on external parties.

A report published in the Seattle Time highlighted that Amazon is all set to start its package delivery service, as it is on its way to acquire Colis Prive, a French package delivery firm. According to the report, the retail giant will be purchasing a 75% stake in the delivery firm.

The e-commerce giant is going all out to change the face of retail, as it adds the distribution aspect into its logistics sector. The deal is expected to be finalized and carried out in the first half of 2016.

The initial theory that emerged in the past regarding Amazon’s own delivery service turns out to be true as this acquisition news surfaced. It is believed that this would only strengthen the company further as it makes an effort to build its own distribution service, according to Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Baird.

Sebastian added that the ecommerce organization would be using this for its in-house distribution services along with making deliveries to third-party companies. Representatives from Colis Prive also said in an interview with a French newspaper that it will continue to build its ‘commercial portfolio’ and will not only distribute its services to the retailer.

This acquisition has been a part of the plan to take on its rivals UPS and FedEx, although it will be a while till it manages to emerge as a strong competitor in the delivery industry. Almost 25% of the French company is already owned by Amazon.com, now it is aiming at acquiring the rest of the 75% as well.

Presently, the online retailer has been relying on UPS, FedEx or DHL for its deliveries to reach its customers. In the near future, it plans to have delivery drones and its own fleet of trucks. Thus, it is safe to say that in time, it will not be relying much on third party delivery services.

On the other hand, the retail giant is working on leasing 20 Boeing 767 jets for transportation purposes of its products and getting them delivered to various customers. 

Amazon stock, at this point, is being traded at $617.74, which indicates an increase of 1.76%. Towards the high end, the share price was seen at $619.85 and the lower-end was seen at $598.57. Amazon reported earnings per share of $0.69 with price to earnings ratio of $896.11. The 52-week high of the e-commerce company is $696.44 and 52-week low is $285.25.

Twitter, Inc. Hit A New All-Time Low Share Price On Friday

The social media website has hit a new all time low yet again after its initial all time low share price back in August 2015.

On January 8, 2016, Twitter Inc.’s stock dropped by as much as 2% hitting its new all-time low at $19.76. In the past five trading days, the stock has managed to drop by 15% due to poor user growth. Investors have been quite unhappy because of the sluggish user growth of the social media network. Ever since ex-CEO and co-founder of Twitter, Dick Costolo stepped down from his position in June; the company has been constantly going through a rough patch.

The investors at Wall Street have continuously questioned the strategic direction of the micro-blogging company while others have pointed their fingers at the slow user growth for the decline in the stock. Ever since its one year high of $53.49 back on April 7, 2015 Twitter stock has fallen by as much as 60%. In October, the social media website reported better than expected earnings for the third quarter for fiscal year 2015. For upcoming further quarter, investors and analysts are predicting revenue to be somewhere between the range of $695 to $700 million.

For the latest quarter, 320 million active users were reported by the organization which shows that the monthly active users have just increase by 4 million since its last report. The fourth quarter earnings for the current fiscal year are expected to come out on February 10, 2016. The stock, at this point in time, is in a crisis situation.

In other news, Jack Dorsey stated that he has been looking for different ways in which Twitter users can post tweets specifically something that lets the users make longer tweets. He added that the customers of the social networking website are already doing that by posting the screenshots of the text but he said he would like the tweets to be short, sweet and conventional. According to the announcement, the tweets will now be of 10,000 characters per person from an initial 140-character limit.

It could mark as the end of Twitter when other smaller rivals such as Snapchat and Vine are giving its users more attractive features and options through which they are able to attract a good audience. Back in November 2013, when the company went public it was trading at a share price of $26 per share on the NYSE. The first fall that it witnessed was back in August when it dropped below its initial public offering price and this was the second hit.

Stock of the micro-blogging website is down 22% since it went public but it is not the lowest performing stock; in comparison Square stock is as low as twitter’s as well. It has fallen about 13.8% this week.

Tesla Motors To Roll Out Model 3 Sedan In 2017

The CEO plans to roll out the new electric vehicle in 2017 - as its major competitor General Motors shows off the new Chevrolet Bolt.

At the Consumer Electronic Show, General Motors showed off its high technology electric vehicle, ‘Chevrolet Bolt’. Comparatively it is putting a lot into this new automobile while will start production sometime next year. The idea behind the latest Bolt is to compete with Tesla Motor’s Model 3 Sedan, which is also expected to roll out sometime in 2017.

According to GM, the new Bolt will be offered for $30,000 with a 200 mile range (after income tax reduction). The chairman of GM, Mary Barra talked about Tesla’s ‘limited retail network’ however she emphasized of the novelty of the auto maker along with the value that is created by the company for its customers.

In the United States, automobiles are mostly sold with the help of auto dealerships while the largest automotive and energy storage company has its exclusive stores. The independent auto-dealer revealed the Model 3 Sedan’s prototype earlier in March which according to the company will cost about $35,000. In the past the automobile organization has had no trouble in working and manufacturing cars that can be driven by drivers but making an entirely electrical car will mainly highlight the areas where the motor giant has always struggled.

One of the areas where the auto maker mainly struggles is with its production capability. Earlier last year, during the third quarter’s earnings call, Elon Musk, the CEO stated that the novel vehicle will be made available in a time span of two years. That being said, only about 507 vehicles of the Model X were produced by the fourth quarter whose idea/concept was unveiled three years prior to the production. For the Model 3, Tesla will need to increase its pace in terms of production since increased competition is on its way. On the other hand, it will have to sell its Model3 for a profitable and competitive price, since it only sells luxury cars.

Additionally, Tesla Stock has been trading up by as much as 1.50% at $218.88. During the session on January 8, 2016, the stock was seen hit a high of $286.65 and a low of $181.40; and kept fluctuating between the two throughout the day. The earnings per share was reported to be at $-5.32. Currently the market capitalization is at $28.24 billion.

Subsequently, it has planned to roll out over 500,000 cars per year by the end of 2020 and the sole thing that will be helping the company maintain its position in the EV market will be the Gigafactory is building in Nevada. Along with providing batteries to the automobile maker, it will help with the economies of scale that will ultimately lead to increased profits.

Netflix, Inc. Makes A Surprise Entry In Various Asian Market

Netflix, Inc. shocked the world with its latest release – unless you are sitting in China, Syria, North Korea or the Crimea, you are blessed enough to access the video streaming media service. There was an unprecedented global expansion into 130 countries on January 6, 2015. The original content by the media giant had made its services available in all over the world however the categories might vary from country to country.

Earlier on Wednesday, the video streaming service was launched in India and Russia but not China, catering to over 70 million potential customers in those regions. So the total countries that the service is now available in is 190; now it just need to be in 20 more countries by the end of 2016. This news was revealed at the CES 2016 conference held in Las Vegas, where the media giant had planned to announce the entry into the Indian market.

Along with making the expected announced, it added to it the launch in Russia as well as Indonesia. It is safe to say that the on demand video subscription service is now available in some of the largest countries of the world. Initially in 2015, the company was in talks with Alibaba Group Holding regarding a potential partnership but soon after the Chinese e-commerce giant launched its on video streaming service in the country.

The chief executive officer of one of America’s largest media companies, Reed Hastings stated that it hopes to enter the Chinese market in the near future, as per a blog post by Variety’s Live Blog. Another official announcement was made by the company suggesting that the service will most likely not be available in North Korea, Crimea as well as Syria due to restrictions by the U.S. government.

In the new market, Netflix, Inc. has planned to keep its same pricing strategy. In India, the pricing starts with 500 Indian Rupees which is $7.49 per month for the basic, single user, non-HD package. The standard and premium packages come in about 650 Indian Rupees ($9.75 per month) and 800 Indian Rupees ($11.99). At this point, the customers of the new market are only able to make payments via credit and debit cards. It is highly expected that it might get into partnership with various mobile carriers so that the millions of users who do not own a credit or a debit card are able to make payments easily.