11/20/2007

Amazon.com introduces Kindle for E-Readers
Delivering digital books through the Ethernet

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Amazon.com, the online retail giant launched its much-awaited wireless electronic reader Kindle with access to several media outlets.

This revolutionary e-book reader provides a sharp, high-resolution screen that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle is a battery-operated device costing $399 and is currently for sale in the U.S. only. Kindle has more than 88,000 books available, which includes 100 of 112 current New York Times® Best Sellers and all New Releases costing $9.99, unless marked otherwise. After buying a book, it is auto-delivered wirelessly in less than one minute. Kindle uses a wireless technology to download e-books with no monthly wireless bills.

Users can also buy subscriptions to newspapers—both national as well as international, magazines, and blogs for a monthly fee. This includes titles such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, TIME, Atlantic Monthly, and Forbes. Monthly Kindle newspaper subscriptions are $5.99 to $14.99 per month.

The Kindle device can hold more than 200 books in its built-in memory and more with add-on memory. Kindle is lighter and thinner than a typical paperback, and weighs only 10.3 ounces.

(Images from Amazon.com)

Sixty-two percent U.S. consumers cite advertising as their primary source of information about holiday products

Accenture recently released an online survey that analyzes the holiday shopping plans of 532 U.S. consumers, 18 years or older. Sixty-two percent of the respondents cite advertising as their primary source of information about holiday products, word of mouth: 55%, retailer website: 39%, and manufacturer website: 23%.

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company.

Here're some other important findings:

• 44% plan to shop on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
• 49% said that gas prices will not affect their holiday spending; on the contrary, 45% said they will make fewer shopping trips this year due to gas prices.
• 57% said they will set a budget for holiday gift before heading to the stores.
• 70% of respondents are concerned about the safety of products made in China.
• 77% cite crowded malls as the main hindrance in holiday shopping, followed by long lines (65%).
• 58% plan to buy a trendy gift item for someone this year.
• 60% consumers seek environment-friendly products.

FedEx's Launch-a-Package

FedEx has launched a new campaign that allows users to upload and send photos and documents to friends or colleagues in a virtual FedEx box. The viral b-to-b campaign is created by Atmosphere BBDO New York and allows users to write a message, add photos and attach documents, and send the virtual package via email to a recipient. The campaign is available at www.launchapackage.com. This site was originally created as a banner ad a year back and was a great success.

Ohio Workers Concerned about the Job Market

Ohio workers are the least optimistic about the U.S. job market, according to the Spherion Employment Report. But the state's workers did have positive outlooks regarding job availability and their current job stability.

The survey asked workers to rate two things: "their confidence in the economy and the job market," says Bizjournals.com. The following is an edited list of Spherion's results for October. To view the entire list, visit Bizjournals.com.

• 50% of those surveyed in Ohio said the economy is getting weaker, while 46% of U.S. workers in general held the same opinion.
• 51% said there were fewer jobs available, compared to 46% in September. U.S. workers didn't change their opinions from the month before, with 39% thinking the job market is shrinking.
• 50% were confident about their ability to find a new job, versus 59% in September. U.S. opinion was unchanged at 58%.

HP 4Q Profit Beats Wall Street Forecasts
The Associated Press
By JORDAN ROBERTSON

Associated Press
Photograph By: Paul Sakuma

Nov. 20, 2007 | SAN JOSE, Calif. |
(AP) - Hewlett-Packard Co., which took the title of world's biggest PC seller a year ago from slumping rival Dell Inc., is warning investors that it does not expect its PC business to continue expanding as quickly as it has been.

"The numbers we've delivered are huge. It's not prudent to build a business model on that," Chief Executive Mark Hurd said in an interview Monday. "We're not building our models on the kind of growth we've seen in the past."

Sales of laptop and desktop computers have fueled much of the Palo Alto-based company's growth over the past year, jumping 26 percent to $33.5 billion and accounting for nearly a third of HP's $104.3 billion in revenue in 2007.

Still, Hurd said Monday that the company isn't forecasting the same kind of rapid growth for its PC business, though it expects to continue taking market share from other makers. The company has historically given similarly conservative financial guidance.

As the world's largest technology company, HP's results are closely watched for signs about the health of technology spending.

Investors were interested this quarter in whether HP was hurt by the continuing mortgage crisis that has saddled banks with billions of dollars in losses. But Hurd said HP derives only a small slice of its business from sales to the financial services sector. He didn't see any "material weakness" in that segment during the latest quarter, he said.

"We're actually trying to get more exposed to financial services we see that as a big opportunity for us," Hurd said on a conference call with analysts.

HP reported fourth-quarter sales and profit Monday that easily beat Wall Street's forecasts.

A brightened financial outlook and the board's authorization of $8 billion more for stock buybacks a sign the company believes its shares are undervalued helped lift HP shares 86 cents to $50.30 in after-hours trading. They fell $1.31 to $49.44 during the regular session Monday, before the results were released.

HP's net income leaped 28 percent in the three months ended Oct. 31, to $2.16 billion, or 81 cents per share, from $1.69 billion, or 60 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding one-time charges, HP's profit was 86 cents per share, 4 cents higher than the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Sales jumped 15 percent to $28.29 billion, nearly $1 billion more than the $27.4 billion Wall Street was expecting.

Aided by falling prices for components such as memory chips, strong PC sales were behind much of that growth, including a 49 percent rise in laptop sales to $5.16 billion and a 15 percent increase in desktop computer sales to $4.21 billion.

HP currently commands about 20 percent of the worldwide PC market, compared with Dell's roughly 15 percent, according to the latest data from market researcher IDC.

But HP's most profitable business is printer ink. The company derived 42 percent of its $2.63 billion total operating profit in the latest quarter from its Imaging and Printing Group, nearly twice the amount contributed by the Personal Systems Group, which includes PCs.

For the full fiscal year 2007, HP rang up $104.3 billion in sales, a 14 percent improvement over last year and the first time HP has cracked $100 billion in annual sales. Net income for the year was $7.26 billion, or $2.68 per share.

Investors were pleased with a higher financial forecast.

HP expects profits excluding one-time charges of 80 cents per share in the first quarter, 3 cents higher than Wall Street's forecasts. And it predicts sales between $27.4 billion and $27.5 billion, also higher than the $27 billion analysts were expecting.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or distributed.


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