Daily Archives: January 3, 2009

2008 And The Death Of E-Commerce: The Internet Is Getting Old

95129c_2The great promise of the online commerce industry has been that it would grow at a rate faster than bricks-and-mortar retailers, and that this advantage might go on for years. E-commerce makes it easier to compare prices, easier to find items, easier to buy them, and allows purchases to be shipped and not carried home–often for free.

As gas prices rose earlier this year, e-commerce gained what should have been another advantage over physical stores.

It looks like almost none of that worked out. A rough economy has sunk all retail boats. Whatever edge online shopping had has been destroyed.

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Posted on: January 3, 2009 – 5:50 pm in Internet, ,

December Car Sales: The Achilles Heel Of The Auto Bailout (GM)(F)

The mathematics of the US car company bailout are simple. At least the car companies say that they are.

Expenses get cut. Labor costs go down to what they are for Japanese auto firms operating in the US. Creditor costs get chopped as debt is traded for equity. The failure of the GMAC debt swap program shows that not everyone will go along with that. The final piece is that suppliers take a haircut.

On the revenue side, things are even less complex.

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Posted on: January 3, 2009 – 5:17 pm in Autos, ,

Unlocking The Apple (AAPL) iPhone

Applelogo1There is a hardware developer obsession with "unlocking" the Apple (AAPL) iPhone that has spread to the media. The state of being unlocked allows the handset to be used on networks which do not have cellular distribution deals with Apple. In the US, that privilege belongs to AT&T (T). Since some network technology is not compatible with the iPhone, it is not such a big deal as it seems at first.

In theory, Apple should be fine no matter how many of its new 3G handsets are unlocked. It should be paid for each one of them. It may lose some money from AT&T, which pays it part of the subscriber revenue it brings in from the calling plans linked to iPhone sales. It probably makes up for that by all the additional sales it makes to people who want to unlock their handsets for less restricted use.

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Posted on: January 3, 2009 – 9:07 am in Consumer Electronics,