How much do you make for selling wine?

The article “Passionate oenophile finds niche” is found on Financial Post. It comments on the profit margin for importing wine — 15% margin. For example, $1.2 million revenue would be making $180,000. Not too bad of return of investment.

Link to article: http://www.financialpost.com/small_business/story.html?id=1141948

Oh, by the way, “It’s never easy, he said, to run a block-building business. Buying wine in France, in particular, is not unlike doing business in China — it takes patience, lots and lots of it.” … priceless!

CEOs paid in Canada

“Prepared by economist Hugh Mackenzie, the report finds the top 100 chief executive officers of publicly traded corporations averaged more than $10 million in pay apiece in 2007, the most recent full year for which figures are available. … The top earner, according to the report, was Michael Lazaridis, head of Waterloo-based BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd., who pocketed more than $51 million.”

Not too surprising I suppose

Link to this article: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/560634

I Also found a YouTube video online on this matter.

Cosmetic in Canada

On my way to Blue Mountain yesterday (Thank you again for Dora’s invite and Carmen’s transportation arrangement), I was reading an article “Cosmetic sales an eye-opener” (See link below) Toronto Star that I got from McDonald’s. This was totally surprised me that “Shoppers already has a 20 per cent share of Canada’s $1.3 billion prestige cosmetics market … With plans to open up to 50 stores across the country, the company [Shoppers] is aiming to capture up to $500 million in annual sales, supplementing its existing 1,080 drug stores with $9 billion in annual sales”

The link to this article: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/560638

Wow! This is impressive but I also heard that cosmetic industry is very closed and competitive. I’d like to know now about how Shoppers get into this market.

Discover Music

This is the new commercial from Sirius Radio. Great ad! I was touched while I was watching it! Great job!

Smartphone arena in 2008

This is a rather interesting but not too surprising article on Toronto Star this afternoon. The article title is “The year the cellphone changed forever” (see below). It primarily talks about Research In Motion (RIM) in 2008. Blackberry is known as the flagship of RIM. In 2008, RIM got its foot into a totally new arena by launched two products: the Flip and the Storm. These smartphones target new customers, namely consumers; while the Bold is still keeping the traditionalists excited.

Consumer market is a very tough game and dangerous arena. RIM’s analysts have two diverted views: RIM enters a population depending market which first RIM has to reduce its gross margins of its products. Thus, RIM operating model needs to be adaptive and sensitive this new market. Relationship with network provider is also a key successful factor in this game.

So at the end, who wins in this arena? Consumers: we always win!

Link to the article: http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/559896

(picture credit: theStart.com)

LinkedIn Apps for WordPress

LinkedIn has rolled out Applications which enhances the user interactivity with their platform. WordPress Apps is the one that I am particular interested in since I have been using WordPress for awhile. This is a great way for cross the two platforms together to bring in more attention to your blog. Here’s is a quick tutorial from LinkedIn:

The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy

An Interview with Michael E. Porter, Professor, Harvard University. Porter’s five competitive forces is the basis for much of modern business strategy. Understand the framework and how to put it into practice.

Focus Asia Business Leaders video series promo

I was packing for my rafting trip this week while I was watching BBC. They were showing an interview with Viveca Chan, Founder of WE Worldwide Partners which is a marketing and branding company in China. The show is called Focus Asia Business Leaders. This is one of the interviews from the entire video series presented by Asia Case Research Centre (ACRC) of the University of Hong Kong. I’ve been interested in business management, leadership, and entrepreneurship since my family have proved by their successes.

The FocusAsia Business Leaders Case Study and Video Series profiles leading Asian enterprises and their senior executives. From property development and manufacturing to biotechnology and off-shoring, this series features some of the most successful companies in Asia – from China to Singapore, Japan to India.

The entire video series has 11 interviews. Each video costs US$295 and total costs US$2,595. I went to the ACRC website and found this ~5min promo video.

HTC Touch Diamond vs. Pro

In early May 2008, HTC unveiled two new flagship products, HTC Touch Diamond and HTC Touch Pro.

Their common features are listed as follows:

• 2.8-inch touch screen, 640×480 pixels.
• Vibrant TouchFLO 3D user interface, responding perfectly to your finger gestures when scrolling through contacts, browsing the web, and launching media… all vividly displayed as photos and artwork powered by the 3D graphics processor.
• HTC Weather – providing a constant view of weather at home and abroad.
• Surf and download at broadband speed with HSDPA internet connectivity and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 b/g).
• 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera for quality stills and video.
• Integrated GPS for use with maps software for a full turn-by-turn satellite navigation experience.

By looking at their outlooks, it is obvious that Pro has a full-size QWERTY keyboard. Diamond has a software QWERTY keyboard since its screen is also a touch interface. Pro is 0.71 inches thick and Diamond is only 0.45 inches thick. Also, Pro is 5.83 oz and Diamond is 3.88 oz. Pro is thicker and heavier than Diamond, again, because of its full-size QWERTY keyboard. Depends on your preference, I personally prefer thinner and lighter gadget.

Other features are fairly similar as listed above. Except Diamond has 4GB of internal memory out-of-box, while Pro has only 512MB only! However, Pro has GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz bands (Quad band) while Diamond has only 900/1800/1900 MHz (Tri band). I am still using my two-year-old Moto K1 (Quad band). Comparing with my old SE phone (I don’t remember the model but it was only a tri band), the 850 MHz band really make a different in North Ameria, at least in Canada.

From their name, Pro has more value-added features, such as 850 MHz band and longer battery life. Diamond aims for the entertainment-rich features, such larger memory for music/movie download.

Looking at Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1, it is very comparible to Pro. In fact, they both have full-size QWERTY keyboard, they are both running MS Windows Mobile 6.1, they are both quad band compatible and Wi-Fi support. However, X1 is a stonger one comparing to Pro. X1 has a 3 inches WVGA (800×480, 64k-colour TFT) and lighter (5.1 oz).

Both X1 and Pro will be released late summer in 2008. It is going to be a head-to-head competition! Stay tune!

(Pictures credit: HTC & Sony Ericsson)

BlackBerry 9000 ‘Bold’ review

RIM BlackBerry 9000 ‘Bold’ is official out today in North America (US & Canada) to compete with Apple iPhone which will be released in Canada summer 2008.

The BlackBerry Bold features a half-VGA (480×320 pixel resolution) and a 65,000-color display. There’s a heaping of wireless options on the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) BlackBerry Bold. It also integrates Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 with full A2DP support, and built-in GPS.

The RIM BlackBerry Bold is equipped with a 624MHz Intel PXA270 processor. There’s also 128MB of flash memory and 1GB of onboard memory, which is all supplemented by the microSD/SDHC expansion slot.

As for multimedia, this smartphone is equipped with a 2-megapixel camera with video-recording capabilities and up to 5x zoom. The media player also continues to support numerous audio and video formats, including MP3, WMA, AAC, DivX4, and WMV3 files.

Here’s a video review of BlackBerry Bold found on YouTube.

More detailed review can be found here (courtesy of CrackBerry.com):

• Part I – eBay Purchased BlackBerry Emerges
• Part II – Observations & Video Quick Tour
• Part III – OS4.6
• Part IV – New Eye Candy

Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIM) opens at $136.70, high $140.29.

(Pictures credit: RIM)