Year: 2008

Categories
gadgets

The iPhone effect: I

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Last Updated on July 8, 2008 by stlplace

I did not take too seriously of iPhone when it was launched a year ago. But I was wrong. My initial thought Apple jumped into the mobile phone world with a touch screen smart phone, with way too much fan fare (remember the Ads on CNBC, CNN etc?).

Well, now I think it set a new standard for smart phones for consumers. Apple announced its new 3G iPhone recently, and there are interesting customer spending analysis (Christopher Null) and iPhone manufacturing analysis (iSuppli). Numbers aside, a more intereting phenomena is, since the announcement of 3G iPhone, Nokia (NYSE:NOK) stock continued to drop. Note Nokia mainly sells outside of the US, while iPhone sells mainly inside the US. Interesting? The perception must be iPhone is going to each Nokia’s dinner: its source of profit, the N series smart phones.

iPhone and the rest of the world
Here in the US, I have seen Sprint launched this Instinct (Samsung), Verizon already got touch screen Voyger (LG).

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Categories
gadgets

K-touch: from Shanzhaiji to darling

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Last Updated on June 24, 2008 by stlplace

K-touch (Tianyu 天宇or天语, benephon), a Chinese Shanzhaiji maker a few years ago, reached the top spot in domestic brands (in terms of sales). It sold 17 million handsets last year, beating all the big boys (Ningbo Bird, Xiameng Amoi, Lenovo Handset), and plans to sell 30 millions this year. Recently it also raised 530 m RMB from US private equity firm Warburg Pincus (Chinese news here). The following is a picture of upcoming Tianyu K-touch in series C800 8M camera phone. The MSRP will be CNY 2800 (about $400). A comparable phone from Nokia will cost twice, according to Tianyu. You can read see more C800 pictures at softpedia.

Tianyu K-touch in series C800 8M camera phone pic

In Chinese 天语 means voice from heaven. Romantic name, isn’t it?

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Categories
Fun

George Carlin talks about stuff

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Last Updated on June 23, 2008 by stlplace

Hillarious yet educational 🙂

See more my stuff @google.

Categories
Master Series

Buffett on courses in business schools

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Last Updated on June 23, 2008 by stlplace

We only need two, according to Buffett, at 2008 shareholder Q&A session (transcript at GuruFocus). Note Q5, WB answer, he noted the following two courses:

1) how to value a business;

2) how to think about stock market fluctuations.

I think the first one is obvious, all the accounting, financial and quantitative skills. The second, is less obvious, it’s more about psychology. Buffett’s sidekick Charlie Munger summarized in his Human Misjudgement speech. Buffett also said something like “be cautious when others are greedy; be greedy when others are cautious“. This is certainly not science or a rule can be applied easily. For instance, if one person bought SPRD last Friday (like yours truely), it fell more today.

I noticed Danbin, a China hedge fund manager admires Buffett very much, also has his own way. He is almost religous about holding his stocks these days, amid the recent big drop of China market. You can read this article at his blog to get a glimpse. I am sure many of his clients are thinking or asking to bail out.

Oh, well, whatever it works for him/her. The key is to make money in the long run.

Categories
Investing

Asset management in China: I

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Last Updated on June 23, 2008 by stlplace

When I say a mutual fund manager, what kind of personality (impression) appears in your mind? A guy or a lady in his/her 40s, with financial education, 10 years or more experience in investment field…

This is not the case in China. Due to the boom of China stock market in recent years, and the boom of the hedge fund, many experienced guys (like Danbin, more about Danbin later) started or joined hedge fund so that they could make more money. Here is a Chinese article titled “rookie fund managers in charge of trillons of Yuan, only 7 fund managers have more than 7 years experience in China mutual funds”. The following Chinese video below tells the same problem.

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Categories
Life

Remembering Tim Russert

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Last Updated on June 22, 2008 by stlplace

Don’t know exactly when I learned about Tim, most likely the Bush-Gore 2000 election. But I do remember watching Tim at Meet the Press on Sunday mornings after that.

Tim Russert Meet the Press pic
(source: CNET)

The thing I like about Tim Russert is: he always asks intelligent questions, provide objective information for the audience to consume, not personal views; and at the same time I am impressed by his polite manner and smile, many ordinary people think he is “one of our own”. And indeed his uproots is working class: his book Big Russ and me talked about his father.

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Categories
Fun

European soccer championship 2008

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Last Updated on June 22, 2008 by stlplace

Yesterday I watched the Russia Netherland game. It was great. Russia has a young and energetic team, and they have lots of oppertunities. Guess who is Neatherland coach? My hero (20 years back) Dutch soccer star Van Basten!


(van Basten legendary goal in European Championship in 1988?).

TV schedule here. It is the first time ESPN broadcast the whole thing in the US.

Categories
IPO

Speculating on Spreadtrum Communications SPRD

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Last Updated on August 14, 2008 by stlplace

Let me put up the negatives (risk, downside) first. If it still stands after all the beatings, it may work out eventually. We all know semi-conductor is a tough business, and as you may know making cell phone is a cutting throat competitive business in China.

SpreadTrum chip pic

Negatives
SpreadTrum (Nasdaq:SPRD) supplies chips to domestic cell phone makers (Amoi, Lenovo, etc.). Recently the cheaper Shanzhaiji caused much trouble to the domestic brand makers, because Shanzhaiji are much cheaper with ok quality. You can read more about this Shanzhaiji thing from my del.ico.us bookmarks (articles in Chinese). I learned about Shanzhaiji from pacificepoch article by LiJing (yes, it’s in English).

Other percepted negatives include: SPRD bet on inferior domestic brewed 3G standard TD; co-founders leaving on Feb; consumer slowdown. But I view those more as glass half full, rather than glass half empty. Let me explain.

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Categories
Web

GSeeker no longer update

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Last Updated on June 20, 2008 by stlplace

I am a tech guy, and not surprisingly I like Google. A while ago I found this gseeker blog which talks extensively about Google products in Chinese. Although I shifted my interest to finance in recent years, I read gseeker almost everyday, and it was like a friend to me. Now this relationship comes to an end. Creative Weblogging, which owns gseeker domain name and the content, decided to cease its Chinese operation. It’s sad.

The good thing is KenWong, the author of gseeker and gseeker vision, still maintains a personal blog here. To be honest, I found out gseeker vision just today. It was cool.

Another interesting thing I notice is CW asked $20 k for the GSeeker domain name and the content, when Ken and his friend asked to buy. Not a small sum for Ken. (quote gseeker, CW对GSeeker域名及内容的开价是20K，美元。我肯定是没这么多钱买了，但我也远没有想到我的blog竟然能值十几万人民币。)

PS, another blog which I like but no longer up-to-date is letsthinkchina, written by my friend Zhong Siwei.

Categories
Shanghai Composite

Reasons behind big drop in China market

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Last Updated on June 20, 2008 by stlplace

Fundamentals
The common census is China economy growth will slow down significantly, due to the slow down from export (trouble in US economy); rising inflation (food, oil etc.)

The rights of minority shareholders are also not protected as well as mature market, because in some cases the management cooked up the accounting books, and get away from it.

The flaws in market itself
Recent arrest of former vice head of China securities regulatory commission (Wang Yi): people fear this is not an isolated event, and bigger fish will be caught as this thing unravels. Insider trading was rampant and still is prevalent in China. Insider trading reduces the confidence of long term investors, people just want to make quick money and run.

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