Carbonated Beverages VS Healthier Options- Let The Race Begin!

The industry trends are changing, with consumers becoming health savvy. Consumer preferences have changed from carbonated beverages to low-calorie healthy drinks, for two reasons- weight control, and adopting a healthy lifestyle. However, neither Coca-Cola, with its Diet Coke, or PepsiCo, with its Diet Pepsi, have been able to discover an alternative to natural cane sugar.
Carbonated drinks have been losing ground, with their sales going up to only 2.2% year-over-year in 2012. Companies making such beverages have been losing their market position, with consumers moving from carbonated drinks to beverages like sports drinks and ready-to-drink tea. With that stated, there is a boom in the bottled water category. Consumers are now opting for flavored water over harmful carbonated beverages. The energy drinks industry is growing four times more, as compared to the carbonated drinks industry. Read More:

Marissa Mayer Plays Her Cards Right

Google Inc.'s triumph is remarkable. The expression, 'Just Google It,' could be considered as a part of the English dictionary. However, its biggest competitor, Yahoo! Inc, beat the company by driving unique traffic to its search engines in US.
Yahoo had outdone Google back in May 2011, and history repeated itself in July 2013. Yahoo received 196.5m unique visitors in the US, while Google had 192.3m. Yahoo's stock price rose up to 3.1% when the news broke into the market. This event raised three questions- is Yahoo going to make a comeback? Will it take over the lion's share as the most efficient search engine? Also, is Marissa Mayer, who was a part of Google Search, Google Email, Google Images etc a major success, the key player behind this? Read More:

Verizon Takes The Bigger Slice Of The Cake In Postpaid Smartphone Subscribers

Smartphones and tablets are the new mode of communication. Ericsson Research is of the view that in 2015, 95% of mobile revenues will revolve around wireless data utilization. Every five years, the revenue per user for wireless date is increasing at an annual rate of 16%. This is the reason companies providing wireless services are focusing on postpaid consumers. Read More:

The Smartphone Industry Is Doing The Talking In The Emerging Markets

In 2008, smartphones had a little share of 11% in the global cellphone industry. By 2012, the market for android phones boomed, with the market share of smartphones rising up to a good 44%. Statistics show that 1.7 billion phones were sold globally, out of which 712 million were smartphones. There is one key reason behind this- the emerging markets focus on price, since the consumers are price conscious. Rightly so, the consumers would always opt for an affordable smartphone, as the emerging markets are providing them with innumerous varieties.Read More:

Hewlett-Packard In Hot Water

The CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Meg Whitman, announced a restructuring plan for the company in 2012. The reasons for this are crystal clear. PC shipments are to decline to an 8%, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). The dynamics in the technology sector are changing at a rapid pace. Smartphones and tablets have made their way in the lives of the consumers, giving the personal computing industry a run for their money. Smartphone shipments are to grow 40% YoY within this year. So, where does HP stand? Read More:

Africa- The Future Land Of Investments

A major chunk of Africa's population consists of working age citizens. The African economy savings to GDP ratio is 23.69%. Together with that, Africa is rich in natural resources. For the past seven years, Africa's GDP growth rate has been above 5%. Statistics suggest future GDP growth is going to occur at approximately 5.3% in 2014. Within the next three decades, Africa will have a bigger work population, as most of Africa's current population is twenty years of age. Investors are showing interest in the continent, for these obvious reasons.Read More:

Nike On The Roll

Nike experienced revenue growths of 16%, solely because of its footwear brand, Converse. Nike's footwear segment collaborates to a major chunk if the brand's stock price, i.e approximately 40% YTD. Its footwear stands at a 57% of its total revenues. The company's major markets are Europe, China, and America, with 41% of its total revenues coming from North America. Nike's shares went up over 6.5%, right after the company announced its earnings of $0.9/share for the first quarter of FY14.. Read More:

Hewlett-Packard In Hot Water

The CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Meg Whitman, announced a restructuring plan for the company in 2012. The reasons for this are crystal clear. PC shipments are to decline to an 8%, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC). The dynamics in the technology sector are changing at a rapid pace. Smartphones and tablets have made their way in the lives of the consumers, giving the personal computing industry a run for their money. Smartphone shipments are to grow 40% YoY within this year. So, where does HP stand? Read More:

Fast Food Chains Versus Healthy Eating- Who Takes The Bigger Slick Of The Cake?

Fast food chains have been making headlines for all the wrong reasons, some of which are child obesity, heart diseases, intestinal defects et al. Americans have become health savvy over the years, partly because of weight issues, and partly because of health problems. A recent survey suggests every third American choses to eat healthy.
Statistics of the Harris Interactive study on food choices suggest that 56% of Americans are likely to choose a restaurant that caters to their healthy diet needs. Due to these reasons, fast food restaurants have suffered a major loss, with McDonald's being at the number one spot, and Burger King (BKW) following close behind.
'Fast-causal' dining restaurants have a high same store sales (SSS) growth due to the changes in food choices. In 2012, same store sales growth for the fast food chains declined to around 3%.
Due to these factors, Burger King and McDonald's turned towards providing healthy meal options to their customers. There are two major reasons behind this- declining sales, and the change in eating habits. Burger King introduced 'Statisfries', French fries that contain 20% less calories than regular fries.Read More:

Athletic Footwear In Full Swing

The average gross margin for the athletic footwear industry is 45%. The reason for this is simple- low input costs of raw materials. Nike Inc. dominates the market of athletic footwear, with a market share of approximately 48%. NIKE and Jordan brands together make up 59% of the total footwear sales in America, with 330 basis points of market share YoY.
Athletic footwear is divided into three categories, with the 'running' category taking over the bigger chunk of the market, precisely 35%.
Nike has been benefiting from the growth of the basketball category, which enjoys a growing 2.9% market share. It is crystal clear the sales for Nike's basketball footwear is going to shoot up. This current growth in this category has resulted in a boost for Nike's Jordan brand of basketball shoes, which alone make 58% of the revenues of the entire basketball footwear category in America. Read More:

Apple's 5c Fails To Amuse

Apple Inc.'s (APPL) new business strategy is inclined towards emerging markets, due to threat of cheaper competition. Hence, the company introduced two new products on September 10, iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s. The iPhone 5s is the continuation of the iPhone line. However, the iPhone 5c is a device for consumers in the developing markets. This launch is considered as the initial step towards Apple's new business strategy.
In 2013, emerging smartphone markets are likely to grow 45%. Analysis suggests developed markets are not even close behind, with the growth rate of not more than 14%. The conclusion is simple- emerging markets are growing at a rapid rate, while the developed markets are at a point of satiety.
The International Data Corporation (IDC) has reported that smartphones below $250 compensate 45% of the market share. Competition in the emerging markets is intense. Vendors have no choice but to sell products at affordable rates, as low priced alternatives are easily accessible. This raises a question- will iPhone 5c make it any bigger, considering the emerging markets are price driven? Read More