Posts Tagged ‘2010’

The Top 40 iPhone Apps of 2010

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

The iTunes App Store is huge. More than 300,000 apps huge. I’ve watched this monster start from nothing and turn into a billion-dollar industry in only a few short years. We’ve been approaching this point for some time now, but it’s more apparent than ever that app exposure is of critical importance. A healthy majority of iOS app users discover new applications directly from their device as opposed to using iTunes. If you look specifically at the iPhone, the amount of real estate for discovery is only available to a very small percentage of the total apps.

There are currently 20 overall categories, with Games offering an additional 20 subcategories. Each subcategory is broken into three lists and displays a max of 100 apps on the iPhone. Throw in a small number from the Top 25 and Featured lists and you wind up with roughly 12,000 apps being shown at one time. This works out to only about 4% of all apps that receive visibility. One can browse beyond this number on iTunes, but that quickly becomes an overwhelming, laborious task.

The expectation is that the market will dictate an app’s worth, but it doesn’t always work out that way. If you look at the top lists, they are littered with clones, cheap knockoffs and impulse grabs. Ninety-nine cent buys are just too tempting. Without proper exposure (and potentially more appropriate pricing schemes), many truly great apps never see the light of day.

With that said, I’ve compiled what I believe to be the best apps that have come out this year. Some got well-deserved exposure, while others were lost in the shuffle. The difficult part of assembling a “best of” list is striking a balance between apps with mainstream appeal and those with real innovation. There are a number of factors that took place in the selection (such as the merits of an app itself, not just the usefulness of an established service it utilizes) and not every good app could make the cut. (more…)

2010 Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

Strong brands have the power to create business value. They impact much more than revenues and profit margins. Strong brands create competitive advantages by commanding a price premium and decrease the cost of entry into new markets and categories. They reduce business risk and help attract and retain talented staff.

Millward Brown Optimor created the BrandZ Top 100, a ranking that identifies the world’s most valuable brands measured by their dollar value. Our brand ranking provides key insights and actionable information for finance, marketing and business professionals on how to manage and grow their brand assets.

Millward Brown Optimor congratulates all companies featured in this year’s BrandZ ranking: being among the world’s most valuable brands demonstrates successful business and brand management. (more…)

Fortune 500 2010 Ranking Fortune Magazines

Friday, April 16th, 2010

The companies in this year’s 500 list slashed costs so fast and so deeply especially labor that even in a feeble recovery, their earnings soared.

The long-awaited recovery is now under way, but it’s a slow, painful slog that’s short on trust and confidence and long on a drumbeat of numbers that mostly shift from dreadful to less depressing. Twenty-seven months after the recession began, unemployment is stuck at 9.7%. Housing starts are dragging near half-century lows. Consumers are finally spending again, but they’re still too fearful about their jobs and homes to crowd malls and auto lots with the buoyant abandon that heralds a full-rigged revival, the kind Americans are used to.

Amazingly, as consumers struggle, U.S. corporations are staging a nearly unprecedented comeback that’s largely escaping notice. The gargantuan, dispiriting job cuts that seem to dominate the news have also been the spur for an epic resurgence in profits. For 2009, the Fortune 500 lifted earnings 335%, to $391 billion, a $301 billion jump that’s the second largest in the list’s 56-year history, approaching the increase in the robust recovery of 2003. For last year the 500 raised their return on sales from less than 1% to 4%. That’s close to the list’s 4.7% historical average.

Hence, the 500’s profits virtually returned to normal after years of extremes — bubbles in 2006 and 2007, collapse in 2008 — despite a feeble overall recovery that’s far from normal. This year’s list — reminder: the Fortune 500 ranks U.S. companies by revenue — is packed with changes that reflect and spotlight the trends reshaping corporate America. The homebuilders that occupied 14 places in 2007 and three last year, including Centex and Pulte, have all disappeared, casualties of shrinking sales. No fewer than nine newcomers from recession-resistant health care joined in 2009, among them drugmakers Genzyme (sales: $4.5 billion) and Allergan ($4.5 billion). (more…)

2010 The World’s Most Innovative Companies

Monday, February 22nd, 2010

Even in these tough times, surprising and extraordinary efforts are under way in businesses across the globe. From politics to technology, energy, and transportation; from marketing to retail, health care, and design, each company on the following pages illustrates the power and potential of innovative ideas and creative execution.
HP Acquires 3Com for $2.7 Billion, Brings Fight to Cisco DreamWorks Animation Has Become a Tech Incubator What Ever Happened to HP’s Augmented Reality Game? Topics:Innovation, Most innovative companies, Hewlett-Packard Company, PG&E Corporation, Amazon.com Inc., General Electric Company, Samsung Corporation (more…)

抓住2010年的结构性增长买基金

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

2009年,全球主要国家以非常规的定量宽松政策应对非常态的全球金融危机。在全球经济逐步走出低谷的复苏之路上,“繁荣宽松”的信贷盛况不可持续。在中国执行适度宽松货币政策导致货币供应量急剧上升,新增信贷爆发式增长,超额流动性刺激资产价格快速上涨,下半年后信贷规模逐步回归常态。预计2010年防控通胀预期的压力上升,货币供应量增速将低于今年水平,预计全年M2增长20%左右,全年新增信贷规模约7-8万亿元,月均在6000亿元上下,并保持前高后低态势。

货币政策上,“繁荣宽松”退出和“适度宽松”动态微调在某一特定阶段将影响市场流动性,海外热钱的涌入和第三次居民储蓄搬家将成为流动性接力棒。对于国内的股票市场而言,特别是在2010年上半年,在不考虑其它因素情况下,结构性充裕的流动性必然推动结构化泡沫行情。2010年,预计中国经济将形成增速较快、通胀较低的平稳运行局面,内需强劲与外需回暖支持经济持续复苏,宏观经济将启动新一轮增长周期。推动中国宏观经济的三驾马车有望形成“两快一慢”的格局:预计全年GDP同比增长9.2%左右,固定资产投资增速约为25%左右,社会消费品零售总额指标名义增速将达16.5%左右,出口将增长8%左右,进口增长15%左右,CPI全年涨幅约3.0%左右,PPI全年涨幅约4.0%左右,工业企业利润增速将达15%到25%。A股公司业绩增长将沿着健康通道上行,预计业绩增长区间是15%-30%。业绩增长将在季度财报、半年度财报和年度财报等特定阶段引发A股市场成长重估。
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