Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Wednesday, July 22, 2015 -- Evening Links, Stories

Apple Watch: Apple Watch Captured Estimated 75% Smartwatch Market Share in Launch Quarter.
The latest data from research firm Strategy Analytics estimates that the Apple Watch captured 75.5% global smartwatch market share during its launch quarter, trailed by Samsung's estimated 7.5% market share.

Strategy Analytics estimates that Apple sold 4 million Apple Watches in the second quarter of 2015, while runner-up Samsung sold an estimated 400,000 smartwatches during the three-month period ending June 30.  
Samsung held a commanding 73.6% global market share in the smartwatch market in the year-ago quarter, but the South Korean electronics maker now trails the Apple Watch by a significant margin. Apple Watch is currently available in the United States and eighteen other countries, and the wrist-worn device is set to launch in New Zealand, Russia and Turkey on July 31.

Apple and Samsung together accounted for 8 in 10 smartwatches sold, similar to the two-horse race between the rival tech companies in the smartphone market. Strategy Analytics estimates that other manufacturers shipped a combined 900,000 smartwatches during the second quarter of 2015 for 17% market share, down from 26.4% market share in the year-ago quarter despite selling 600,000 more smartwatches.
By the way, of every $100 in profits across the entire smart phone universe, Apple took 92 of those 100 dollars --
Apple is dominating the smartphone market. Canaccord Genuity estimated Apple's iPhone took 92% of all profits in the smartphone business on just 20% of sales, in the first quarter.  
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Qualcomm Quts

Qualcomm will cut 15% of workforce, considers split.  The cuts include paring 15% of its full-time employees and “significantly” cutting its temporary staff. Qualcomm last year employed about 31,300 full-time and temporary employees, indicating that more than 4,500 workers could be affected.

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America: The Country Of The Disabled And The Sick

Gonna run out of money. The AP is reporting:
The government says people who receive Social Security disability face steep benefit cuts next year unless Congress acts.
In a report Wednesday, the trustees that oversee Social Security said the disability trust fund will run out of money in 2016, right in the middle of a presidential campaign.
That would trigger an automatic 19 percent cut in benefits.
Like that's really gonna happen in a presidential election year. There's already a fix:
Congress could shift tax revenue from Social Security's much larger retirement fund.  
The much larger retirement fund is in even better shape than last year:
The trustees said the retirement fund has enough money to pay full benefits until 2035, a year later than last year's reports.
Meanwhile,
Medicare's giant hospital trust fund is projected to be exhausted in 2030.
I would say there are a lot of places to rob Peter to pay Paula.  The Greeks are muddling through and they have no shale oil.

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Happy Days Are Here Again

The National Association of Realtors said Wednesday that sales of existing homes climbed 3.2 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.49 million, the highest rate since February 2007. Sales have jumped 9.6 percent over the past 12 months, while the number of listings has risen just 0.4 percent.
The median home price has climbed 6.5 percent over the past 12 months to $236,400, the highest level - unadjusted for inflation - reported by the Realtors.
Home-buying has recently surged as more buyers have flooded into the real estate market. Robust hiring over the past 21 months and an economic recovery now in its sixth year have enabled more Americans to set aside money for a down payment. But the rising demand has failed to draw more sellers into the market, limiting the availability of homes and sparking higher prices that could cap sales growth in the coming months.

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