Toyota should target the media to aid its recovery January 29, 2013 IN October 2012 Toyota recalled 7.4 million cars due to an electric window fault. The recall had an immediate impact on perception of the brand, according to our surveys. The YouGov Impression measure on BrandIndex dropped from the mid +20s to the mid-teens – a small yet significant fall in perception. Knowing exactly which consumers [...]
Hundreds join iPhone lawsuit against Google January 28, 2013 HUNDREDS of British iPhone users yesterday piled into a class action lawsuit against Google that claims the company bypassed Apple security measures to track web habits. Law firm Olswang is bringing the case against the web company, claiming that Google illegally installed tracking files – known as cookies – on products that use Apple’s Safari [...]
S&P 500 dips after its long winning streak January 28, 2013 THE S&P 500 eased slightly yesterday after an eight-day run of gains, while the Nasdaq edged higher as Apple shares rebounded. The index remained above 1,500, however, after closing above that level on Friday for the first time in more than five years. The S&P 500’s eight sessions of gains was its longest winning streak [...]
RIM hoping that new BlackBerry will bear fruit January 27, 2013 THE long-awaited next generation of BlackBerry smartphones will be unveiled this week, in a make or break moment for manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM). The Canadian company will unveil two new devices running BlackBerry 10, the first major overhaul to its software in years. The much-needed upgrade has been beset by technical delays while RIM [...]
Patent wars hit record high as tech firms fight January 27, 2013 THE GLOBAL technology patent wars hit a new high in 2012, with a record number of applications made for international computing patents. A flurry of costly court cases between smartphone and tablet companies such as Apple, Samsung and Nokia has upped the value of patents in the last 12 months, and this was responsible for [...]
Stocks roar back January 24, 2013 UK STOCK markets turned a corner yesterday after blue chip firms spurred the FTSE to its highest level in nearly five years, giving London its best start to the trading year since 1989. The FTSE 100 list of Britain’s biggest companies surged past the 6,200 mark to its highest level since May 2008, capping off [...]
Apple is left out in the cold after disappointing results January 24, 2013 APPLE saw more than $60bn (£38bn) wiped off its market value yesterday as investors bailed out of the company following a set of results that disappointed Wall Street. After the technology giant’s revenues for the last three months of 2012 missed analyst forecasts, shares fell by 12.4 per cent in New York to hit $450.50 [...]
Amazon buys voice tech firm January 24, 2013 Amazon said yesterday it had snapped up text-to-speech technology company Ivona Software, a sign that the world’s largest Internet retailer may be looking to develop more services similar to Apple’s Siri voice-based search product. Ivona’s technology already supports several features on Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet computers, such as text-to-speech, said Dave Limp, who oversees the [...]
Microsoft profit dips in spite of new Windows 8 January 24, 2013 COMPUTING giant Microsoft yesterday posted a quarterly drop in profits, as slow sales of its Office software dragged down a positive start for its freshly minted Windows 8 system. Sales rose three per cent overall to $21.5bn (£13.6bn) for the three months ending December 2012, the company said last night, but profits slid to $6.4bn, [...]
Nokia hangs up on dividend to preserve cash January 24, 2013 NOKIA returned to profit in the final quarter of 2012, as sales of its Lumia smartphones finally picked up. However, the Finnish company said it would not be paying a dividend for the first time in over 20 years, as it struggles to preserve its cash pile. Following a cost-cutting plan that saw tens of [...]