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Apple
to replace flawed iPod units
San Francisco: Apple Computer Inc has acknowledged
that its iPod Nano digital music players are flawed, after
a flurry of complaints were posted on online forums that
the digital players' display screens cracked. The company
said it would replace flawed units.
The
company launched Nano, the tiny MP3 music player, earlier
this month to heavy fanfare. Most of the complaints revolved
around scratched screens that made the displays difficult
to read. Company officials said the only real problem
was cracked screens, which would be replaced. They said
it was a design issue
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Sony
to undergo restructuring
Tokyo:
Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony Corporation, has unveiled
a plan to resurrect the ailing electronics giant. The
biggest part of the revamp is a planned cut of 10,000
jobs worldwide, or 6.7 percent of its current 150,000
global workforce. As many as 4,000 jobs would be cut in
Japan and 6,000 from overseas, by the end of fiscal 2007.
The
company will close down 11 manufacturing bases, slash
15 unprofitable business categories and reduce the number
of product models by 20 per cent. The 15 categories –
all from the electronics division – have been identified
but will not be disclosed yet. Finally, 20 percent of
existing product models will disappear, though specifics
will be announced in the months ahead.
Apart from this, the company will sell off 120 billion
yen ($1.1 billion) worth of non-core assets, including
real estate and stock holdings, by the end of 2007.
In
the days ahead Sony will focus on specific product categories
such as TVs, video recorders, Walkmans and digital imaging.
Surviving products include PlayStation3 and Bravia LCD
TV.
Sony
will also abandon the plasma technology in favor of LCD,
partly because the company was never more than a licensee
of plasma engineering. Plasma, though, has turned out,
at least for the moment, to be cheaper and more popular,
especially in larger screen sizes.
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Competitiveness
Index: India catches up with China
Mumbai: India is catching up with China
in competitiveness. Jumping five places, India was ranked
50th in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness
Report, released recently. China on the other hand has
dropped three places to 49 enabling India to edge closer.
According
to the report, Finland is the most competitive economy
in the world, topping the world rankings for the third
year running. The US is second, followed by Sweden, Denmark,
Taiwan and Singapore. Brazil fell eight places to the
65th slot.
China's rank dropped as its macro-economic environment
score took a marginal hit. The report said both India
and China continue to suffer from institutional weaknesses.
The
rankings are drawn from a combination of hard data publicly
available for each of the economies studied, and the results
of the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive evaluation
conducted by the WEF, together with its network of partner
institutes in the countries covered by the report. This
year, nearly 11,000 business leaders were polled in a
record 117 economies worldwide.
The
survey is designed to capture a broad range of factors
affecting an economy's business environment. Particular
attention is placed on elements of the macro-economic
environment, the quality of public institutions which
underpin the development process and the level of technological
readiness and innovation, the WEF said.
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DaimlerChrysler
to cut 8,500 jobs
Frankfurt:
DaimlerChrysler has offered a voluntary redundancy package
to its staff at the Mercedes Car Group division. The package
aims to cut 8,500 jobs in high-cost Germany over 12 months.
The company said the move was aimed at sharpening its
competitive edge and would cost 950 million euros, which
it will offset with extraordinary income and efficiency
gains, and partly finance from existing reserves.
It
will book most of the costs in the last quarter of 2005.
The group said it was aiming to achieve a slight rise
in operating profit this year, from the 5.8 billion euros
it posted in 2004.
The
Mercedes division employed around 105,000 staff at the
end of last year, of which some 94,000 were in Germany.
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