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Posted: 26 Feb 2016 01:17 PM PST
Twitter has spent its entire existence, especially since becoming a public company, in the shadow of Facebook. So maybe it shouldn’t come as a shock that someone asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg what he would do if he was CEO of Twitter, which has suffered stalled user growth and a slumping stock price in recent months. Zuckerberg fielded the question at a town hall Q&A session in Berlin, according to VentureBeat. Though he initially said he didn’t know how to answer the question, he eventually pivoted to crow about Facebook’s own successes, especially the rapid growth of Instagram. The photo-sharing network is similar to Twitter in that many people flock to it in order to keep up with public figures, according to Zuckerberg. But Instagram has now exceeded Twitter by many major metrics. Instagram has more than 400 million users compared to Twitter’s 320 million and it has 200,000 advertisers compared to Twitter’s 130,000. The next big development in this relationship between public figures and their followers will be live broadcasting, Zuckerberg predicts. Facebook has been heavily pushing live video and is now rolling out live-streaming to its Android users. Twitter, meanwhile, bought the live-streaming app Periscope in March. “‘Live’ is going to be an awesome thing for public figures… imagine your favorite public figure or politician having the power to broadcast from their pocket, go live, have an audience of thousands of people,” Zuckerberg said. “I think you’re going to see a lot of that on Instagram and Facebook, and if the Twitter folks do a good job, I think you’ll see a lot more of that on Twitter too.” The challenge for Twitter, of course, will be to figure out how to effectively fit live video into the core user experience before Zuckerberg and his employees do.   |
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Posted: 26 Feb 2016 11:49 AM PST
Put one in the win column for Samsung. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday ruled (PDF) in favor of Samsung in a long-fought patent battle with Apple. The court’s ruling means Samsung will not be required to pay $120 million in patent-infringement damages, nor will it need to alter any product designs, dealing a blow to Apple’s argument that Samsung has “slavishly” stolen its intellectual property. In its ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals said that Samsung did not in fact violate patents Apple holds related to turning alphanumeric characters, such as phone numbers, into links, as well as the iPhone’s slide-to-unlock feature. The court also reversed an earlier jury decision that Samsung violated an Apple patent on auto-correction. The court was particularly scathing in its comments about Apple’s patents, calling them “obvious”—a term used to describe technologies that are not deserving of patents. The court added that Apple’s slide-to-unlock and auto-correct patents are “invalid.” Apple and Samsung have been battling over patents since 2011. Both companies have said that the other has violated patents they own related to mobile technology and design. As the patent-infringement cases extended across the U.S. and Europe, neither Apple nor Samsung won a significant case until 2012, when Apple won a landmark ruling in California that awarded the company more than $1 billion in damages. Since then, the companies decided to scuttle their international disputes and focus solely on the U.S., but the patent-infringement cases have continued to fly. Over the last couple of years, a series of appeals, rulings, and trials whittled down Apple’s $1 billion in damages to $548 million. Samsung has appealed that case to the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of ultimately dealing a final blow and retrieving its cash from Apple, which is currently holding it until the Supreme Court decides whether to hear the case. The case in question on Friday is the other big battle between Apple and Samsung. Like the other case, Apple and Samsung sued each other over alleged patent infringement across a slew of mobile devices. Apple had initially sought $2 billion on the patents cited in the case, but was awarded just $120 million by a jury in 2014. Samsung argument in the case centered on the idea that Apple’s patents are invalid and obvious, and should not be a legitimate means by which the company could collect damages. The court’s agreement calls into question the validity of Apple’s patents and whether the company could (and should) hold patents related to so-called “obvious” technologies like slide-to-unlock—a software mechanism that allows users to unlock their smartphones. Given that, it’s possible the issue could ultimately find its way to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which awarded the patents to Apple. The USPTO has reviewed the legitimacy and validity of Apple patents in the past, most recently examining whether the so-called ‘915 patent, which describes how the pinch-to-zoom feature works on touch devices, is “patentable.” The USPTO has on separate occasions determined that the ‘915 patent should not have been awarded, forcing Apple to file an appeal last year to the Federal Circuit in hopes of keeping its patent and the damages associated with it. With the latest ruling now in, Apple has effectively lost $120 million in damages it would have otherwise received from Samsung and will now need to pay out a little over $158,000. The company can either accept the ruling or appeal it, though it hasn’t said what its next move will be. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment on the ruling. In addition to Samsung, several industry giants, including Google, Facebook, and eBay, may be pleased by today’s ruling. In July, those companies, along with others in the industry, filed a brief with the Federal Circuit Court supporting Samsung’s fight with Apple. The companies argued that if Apple’s victories are allowed to stand, it could unleash a series of subsequent patent lawsuits utilizing the same intellectual property to target other device makers. Those lawsuits, the coalition said, would negatively affect the development of “useful modern technologies” and “have a devastating impact on companies.” Samsung did not respond to a request for comment. This article originally appeared on Fortune.com   |
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Posted: 26 Feb 2016 11:40 AM PST
The extent of Apple’s ambitions in the automobile market have taken centerstage—previously occupied by rumblings of a tablet or television set—in the canon of long-running rumors about the company’s future plans. CEO Tim Cook again addressed the issue Feb. 26 during the company’s annual shareholder’s meeting in Cupertino, Calif. Asked about the potential for an iCar of sorts, Business Insider reported he said: Do you remember when you were a kid, and Christmas Eve, it was so exciting, you weren’t sure what was going to be downstairs? Well, it’s going to be Christmas Eve for a while.Before answering, Cook kidded his questioner “maybe I should have called on someone else.” In a recent interview with Fortune, he addressed the spate of hires in the car space many have taken as confirmation of the firm’s interest in challenging locals Google and Tesla, not to mention potential competitors in Detroit. “The great thing about being here is we’re curious people. We explore technologies, and we explore products,” Cook told the magazine. “And we’re always thinking about ways that Apple can make great products that people love, that help them in some way. And we don’t go into very many categories, as you know. We edit very much. We talk about a lot of things and do fewer. We debate many things and do a lot fewer.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called Apple’s plans around building a car an “open secret,” something Apple itself has never confirmed. Reports about the project, supposedly called “Project Titan” internally, claim that some 600 employees are attached. Steve Zadesky, the executive many think in charge of Titan, recently left the company.   |
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Posted: 26 Feb 2016 08:28 AM PST
The goal of Canvas is to show users more engaging ads that load much faster than the external webpages to which ads often point. Canvas ads reside in the News Feed just like traditional ads, but when clicked they expand into a full-screen ad that can include images, text and video. A big problem with mobile advertising is that it’s harder for marketers to really grab a user’s attention with such a small amount of visual real estate. These new ads, like the vertical ads on Snapchat, are likely to leave a bigger impression than banner ads or other types of mobile marketing. Major brands like Coca-Cola and Burberry have already used the format and, according to Facebook, found it effective. In Coke’s case, people who viewed the ad watched it for 18 seconds on average, which is a long time in the battle for attention on mobile devices. The ad format is the latest initiative in Facebook’s ongoing plan to move more Internet activity to its own apps. The social network recently launched Instant Articles, which let news organizations load their content directly into the Facebook app for faster loading.   |
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Posted: 26 Feb 2016 07:38 AM PST
Weight Watchers sales declined rapidly in the last quarter, despite media celebrity Oprah Winfrey’s investment and advertising campaign.
Weight Watchers reported a 21% drop in quarterly revenue down to $259.2 million, and active subscriber membership dipped 4.8% during the fourth quarter ending Jan. 2, Reuters reports. Winfrey joined the weight-loss company in October 2015 after it had experienced a nearly three-year decline in sales. She made a $43.2 million investment for a 10% stake and was added to the company’s board; its stock more than doubled on the day her involvement was announced.   |
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Posted: 26 Feb 2016 07:38 AM PST
Kohl’s will close 18 stores in 2016 in anticipation of another year of meager sales gains. The number may not sound huge, but it’s the first time the retailer has had a store-closing campaign. Earlier this month, Kohl’s reported comparable sales rose a modest 0.4% during the holiday season. Now the department store expects comparable sales, which exclude recently closed or opened stores, to range from unchanged to rising 1% for most in 2016. Total sales may even fall, Kohl’s warned investors on Thursday. So now the retailer has decided to pare some of its 1,160-store fleet. (Macy’s has also announced store closings because of weak sales.) “While the decision to close stores is a difficult one, we evaluated all of the elements that contribute to making a store successful, and we were thoughtful and strategic in our approach. We are committed to leveraging our resources on our more productive assets,” Kohl’s CEO Kevin Mansell said in an interview. While the planned closings represent not even 1% of square footage, they represent a shift in Kohl’s strategy toward smaller stores and outlets. As first reported by Fortune in October, Kohl’s will open seven smaller stores of 35,000 square feet each, or just under half the size of a regular Kohl’s store, in 2016. The retailer will also expand its new chain of outlets called Off-Aisle, adding two locations to the pilot stores. What’s more, Kohl’s will open 12 Fila outlet stores to showcase that sportswear brand. The shift comes as Kohl’s turnaround plan, launched in 2014 and called the “Greatness Agenda,” has helped it avoid sales declines that have hurt Macy’s, but they still have yet to significantly boost sales. The chain has reported five straight quarters of comparable sales growth, but the pace of gains has been modest. Kohl’s had promised investors that sales would go from $19 billion in 2014 to $21 billion by 2017. But with the company forecasting total sales from down 0.5% to up 0.5% from 2015’s $19.2 billion levels, Kohl’s is clearly not on track. This article originally appeared on Fortune.com   |
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Posted: 26 Feb 2016 07:38 AM PST
Subway, the world’s biggest fast-food restauranteur, will next month add a new chicken sandwich to its menu, one that will feature antibiotic-free meat for the first time in the chain’s history. The new sandwich, which Subway showcased at a media event in Manhattan this week, will debut on March 1 at U.S. restaurants. Subway says the new rotisserie-style chicken sandwich also features no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. The menu addition is part of a broader plan by Subway to transition to only serving chicken raised without antibiotics, with a promise to make the transition for all chicken it serves in the U.S. by the end of 2016. It will also transition to turkey raised without antibiotics over the next two to three years, while the pork and beef phase will be completed in 2025. The longer delay for those meats is because it takes longer for those animals to mature, and thus the change takes more time for suppliers to implement. “We are looking at all our menu items and ingredients and looking at how we can make those ingredient lists cleaner so customers can understand what’s in their food,” Lanette Kovachi, Subway’s global dietitian, told members of the media at a Subway store in New York City. She added that by the end of this year, Subway will have removed all artificial colors and flavors across the entire menu. Quick-service restaurant (QSR) concepts like Subway have made public strides to source ingredients that consumers have deemed healthier or come from more humane practices. Subway, like McDonald’s, Dunkin Brands and several others, has vowed to switch to cage-free eggs. In Subway’s case, that change is set to be completed by 2025. Subway, which opened its first store in 1965, says it has been on this journey for many years. It points to past initiatives to fortify bread with calcium and vitamin D; reduce sodium; and provide clearer details about the nutritional information for items on Subway’s menus. The restaurant chain, along with many of the industry’s largest brands, including McDonald’s and Burger King, have faced challenging sales trends as consumers have shifted their spending patterns. Fast-casual concepts with more focused menus are winning business away from the QSR concept. Consumers are also increasingly visiting convenience stores and supermarkets, which are offering more freshly made grab-and-go menu items. So Subway, like many of its competitors, is responding to a consumer-driven trend. And it are leaning on its suppliers to change their manufacturing process so Subway can offer antibiotic-free meats and other healthier fare. Will the fresher and cleaner image Subway espouses boost sales? Only time will tell. “Today’s consumer is ever more mindful of what they are eating, and we’ve been making changes to address what they are looking for,” Dennis Clabby, executive vice president of Subway’s Independent Purchasing Cooperative (IPC), said in a statement last year. This article originally appeared on Fortune.com   |
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Posted: 26 Feb 2016 07:14 AM PST
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. economy’s slowdown in the final three months of 2015 wasn’t quite as bad as initially thought. The gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic health, grew at an annual rate of 1 percent in the fourth quarter, the Commerce Department reported Friday. That’s an improvement from the first estimate of 0.7 percent, though just half the 2 percent growth posted in the third quarter. The revision was made because the downturn in business stockpiling was less severe than the government’s first estimate. That helped offset slightly weaker consumer spending. The latest figure, however, does little to change the fact that growth in the final months of 2015 was modest. Since then, global weakness and financial market turbulence have triggered worries about the potential fallout on the U.S. economy. Still, economists are confident that GDP is poised to accelerate this quarter. Steady job gains and faster wage growth are boosting consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy. “First-quarter GDP growth is on track to rebound to a very healthy 2.5 percent (rate) which should dampen any concerns about an imminent recession,” said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics. The fourth-quarter figure marks the slowest growth in six months, since the economy skidded to a weak 0.6 percent showing in the first quarter last year. That was followed by a solid rebound to 3.9 percent in the second quarter and then the 2 percent gain in the summer. Friday’s upward revision stems from a tweak in the government’s data for business stockpiles. That translated into a 0.1 percentage point drag on growth, rather than a 0.5 percentage point drag initially reported. This change could weigh on first quarter activity if businesses are reluctant to add to their stockpiles. Consumer spending grew at a 2 percent rate in the fourth quarter, down from an initial estimate of 2.2 percent. Spending had surged at a 3 percent rate in the third quarter, and economists are counting on a rebound in the current quarter. Also weighing on growth in the fourth quarter was a downward revision to government spending, which fell at a 0.1 percent rate instead of a 0.7 percent rise first reported. All the changes in the fourth quarter left GDP growth for the year unchanged at 2.4 percent, the same as 2014. While some economists have boosted the odds of a recession because of the declines in stock prices this year, Gus Faucher, senior economist at PNC Financial Corp., said he believe the economy will keep growing. He forecasts GDP will expand 2.3 percent this year, little changed from the past two years. “The decline in stock prices is something to watch out for, but consumer spending is being helped by rising home prices that are boosting household wealth, continued solid job growth and increased wage growth,” Faucher said. In addition, economists view the big decline in energy prices as the equivalent of a tax cut, giving consumers more money to spend on other items. |
Sunday, February 28, 2016
U.S. Economy’s Year-End Slowdown Not as Bad as Expected - TIME Business
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