Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1663
Apple will release new hardware next month, the product of various compromises
Evidence is mounting that Apple will unveil its first mixed reality headset at next month’s WWDC. Technology reporter Mark Gurman wrote a long article saying that this product has gone through a long 7 years of research and development, but it is far from Cook’s original vision.
In 2015, Apple began to develop mixed reality devices. At first, they used products such as Samsung Gear VR and HTC Vive as prototypes. Cook’s goal is to launch a lightweight augmented reality (AR) glasses, because he worried that a closed device will prevent social interaction. In a public speech in 2016, Cook said that very few people can accept being tied to a computer (referring to VR), and very few people can accept being enclosed in a certain place, because essentially everyone needs to interact and interact. social contact.
Apple’s former chief design officer, Jonathan Ivey, had similar ideas to Cook, and therefore had a disagreement with the hardware development team. The latter hoped that the new device would have powerful performance and top visual effects, and therefore needed to be connected to a Mac Mini-sized host . Ive prefers a self-contained, portable device, even at the expense of some performance. Ultimately, executives backed Ive.
In order to be close to the idea of Cook and Ivey, the R&D team came up with a compromise plan: make a virtual reality (VR) device that can realize some augmented reality functions: when the user switches to AR mode, the It will display the surrounding environment picture taken by the external camera; at the same time, in order to keep the user in touch with the outside world, there is also an external display screen on the device, which can show the user’s eye movements and facial expressions. Apple hopes to use this way Allow people around you to interact with users.
However, the subsequent progress of the project was very slow, and the engineers gradually realized that it was not feasible to create a self-contained and practical AR glasses-to prevent the machine from overheating, they needed to achieve iPhone-like performance while consuming only ten One power. Some internal employees joked that the purpose of this project is to make Cook happy.
Unlike Jobs, Cook has never been deeply involved in the specific design of products, nor does he have a strong obsession with a certain product requirement. Until 2019, Apple still had no real progress in developing AR glasses. The head of the R&D team said at the year-end plenary meeting that Apple could release glasses a year after launching a head-mounted device. Later, Apple delayed the development of all independent AR glasses, almost killing the idea.
For all the compromises, the first MR device on the horizon is significant. For Cook, this is his last major product as Apple CEO; for Apple, it has invested billions of dollars and saddled the company with anticipation of the “next iPhone”; and for all the focus on mixed reality And for those of the Metaverse, it may still fulfill a potential that the field has always only dreamed of, never realized.
Augmented reality company Magic Leap CEO Peggy Johnson (Peggy Johnson) said that he is very happy that Apple can enter the market, because the latter usually only enters when the market is ready and has a strong ability to bring products to mass consumers. (Qiu Hao)
Domestic retail has basically recovered to before the epidemic, except for real estate-related
A few days ago, the National Bureau of Statistics released the retail sales data of social consumer goods in April this year. According to the retail sales of commodities above designated size from January to April this year, 17 commodity categories are clearly polarized. At present, only three categories related to real estate have not yet reached the level of 2019.
Clothing, shoes, hats, needles and textiles have returned to the level of 2019 since this year, and there are 13 other categories that have increased by at least 20% over the same period in 2019. Among them, grain, oil, food, beverages, tobacco and alcohol have all increased by more than 40%. However, the three categories of furniture, construction and decoration materials, household appliances and audio-visual equipment have a gap of 14%, 9% and 4% respectively, and the growth rate ranks at the bottom.
The slow recovery of real estate consumption is partly due to the high base of the real estate market in 2019. Housing prices rose rapidly after 2017, and reached historical highs in 2019. On the other hand, in the past three years, real estate seems to have been hit harder than other industries, including policy regulation, real estate thunderstorms, increased residents’ willingness to save, and decreased willingness to invest and consume. After the third quarter of 2021, the real estate industry will enter a cold winter. The three major home appliance brands are unsalable (Midea, Gree, Haier), and the inventory of goods in the first half of 2022 will double compared with three years ago.
The real estate market has recovered significantly this year. The sales of commercial housing began to turn positive after a year-on-year negative growth for half a year. Sales rose 8% YoY in March and doubled to 16% in April. Keike’s profit in the first quarter hit a record high, and the transaction volume of second-hand housing was close to the level of 2021.
Household appliances and audio-visual equipment are in the same recovery trend as the overall market. The year-on-year decline in a single month has continued to narrow since -15% in November last year, and turned positive to 2.5% in April. The difference between January-April and the same period in 2019 was only 3.9%. In the first quarter of this year, the sales and profit growth rates of Midea and Gree both turned from negative to positive. Midea had experienced three consecutive quarters of decline in growth rate.
However, the restoration speed of construction and decoration materials and furniture is obviously lagging behind, and it is contrary to the recovery trend of the real estate market. Both January-April year-on-year growth rates declined gradually, to -16% and -1.6%, respectively. The recovery of these two types of consumption may lag behind the demand for home purchases. About 80% of the sales of commercial housing in China come from off-plan housing (commercial housing pre-sale), and consumer demand for home improvement may not be generated until the housing is handed over 6 to 24 months later. (Intern Meng Xiaohan)
SmallHotels Can’t Wait For The Industry’s Recovery
Since the beginning of this year, people have started to travel, visit relatives, and travel again. The long-standing demand has accelerated the recovery of the hotel industry. According to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the total number of domestic tourists in the first quarter was 1.216 billion, close to the level of 2019. The average room price of 6,324 star-rated hotels across the country is higher than before the epidemic.
Budget hotel chains are the first to wait for spring. Atour Group released its financial report yesterday. In the first quarter of this year, the average room revenue (RevPAR, the product of the occupancy rate and the average room price) was 337 yuan, nearly 20% higher than the same period in 2019. The average daily room rate and occupancy rate both exceeded those before the epidemic.
Huazhu and Beijing Tourism Group, which announced their quarterly reports earlier, also showed a similar trend. Among them, the average daily house price and RevPAR of Huazhu increased by 24% and 18% respectively compared with the same period in 2019, and BTG Homeinns recovered to 92.8% and 99.5% respectively. Jin Jiang Hotel’s RevPAR is higher than before the epidemic.
Luxury hotels are not far behind either. Marriott, InterContinental, and Hilton’s PevPAR in mainland China in the first quarter of this year all returned to 90% of the same period in 2019. Hyatt Group said that China’s room revenue is higher than before the epidemic.
A group of small hotels failed to wait for the recovery of the market. An entrepreneur in Guangzhou told us that among the hoteliers he has come into contact with, few have persisted until now, and those who have survived until now have not made up for their previous losses. He himself opened two hotels in 2017, one of which focused on cost-effectiveness, and closed it at the end of 2020. “At that time, the occupancy rate dropped from 60 to 70% to almost zero.” A business-oriented company cut nearly two-thirds of its guest rooms last year, and has survived with a loss until now.
The capital market is cruel, and they regard these adjustments as new opportunities for large groups. According to CITIC Securities, as of the end of last year, there were about 442,000 domestic accommodation facilities, 18% less than three years ago, of which the supply of hotels in high-tier cities accounted for more than 30%. Analysts mentioned that the construction cycle of hotels is long and the cost of high-tier cities is high. It is expected that the supply recovery will be limited in the next 1 to 2 years, and leading hotel groups will benefit more. Huazhu, Jinjiang, and Beijing Tourism have 40% to 50% of their stores located in the first-tier cities. And quasi-first-tier cities.
The aforementioned entrepreneur said that he did not plan to enter the game because “don’t chase high”. AIGC is his new research direction. (Lin Guangying)
How did the Starbucks brand start and how is it inherited?
Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, visited Beijing a few days ago and met with Shen Nanpeng, the founder of Sequoia China, and talked about his Starbucks experience, as well as his views on entrepreneurship, brand, and inheritance. talk:
Biggest challenge at Starbucks?
In the 2008 financial crisis, Starbucks had to close stores and lay off employees for the first time in history. At the time, an institutional shareholder suggested that now was the perfect time to cut employee health insurance. “I said no,” Schultz said. Then cut the investment amount to almost zero. By the next quarter, nearly half of shareholder value had evaporated.
- “This is just an example. Be loyal to your values, stick to your core will, and stick to your original intention of starting a business.”
- “True leaders make tough decisions in the face of adversity, and it’s very isolated.”
- “I think I made the right decision.”
How did the Starbucks brand start and how is it inherited?
- “To build a long-lasting brand, the most important thing is to constantly ‘reserve water’ to the brand equity… Another problem is how to compensate if the brand equity is lost.”
- “The worst thing is that brand success breeds arrogance and arrogance…I hope we are still as eager and aggressive today as we were in 1987 when we didn’t succeed, when we were rejected by 242 people.”
Can Starbucks’ success be replicated?
- Schultz said directly that it is difficult today. What he means is that today, too much capital is involved, and entrepreneurs may not have time to build an independent system. They need to find a partner, otherwise they will be defeated by other entrepreneurs who move faster. And now there are too many brands.
- “The challenge is how to create a common culture with partners.”
- “If you find something that’s really unique and doesn’t exist in the market, then go for it … The challenge is that today’s brick-and-mortar retail business, without e-commerce, without food delivery, is very difficult.”
After withdrawing from daily operations, how to ensure that Starbucks will not deviate from such a vision and values in the future?
- Schultz said that he spent six months with the new CEO, constantly repeating Starbucks’ values to him, and spent a lot of time in the past year discussing what he talked about today with the management team.
- “I’m going to keep an eye on all of this in a positive way… I don’t want to be a shadow of the new CEO, but I’m there to help him when he needs it.”
- The three characteristics of an excellent CEO, “The third is IQ, the second is emotional intelligence, and the first is curiosity.” (Lin Guangying)
OTHER NEWS
National Finance and Development Laboratory: The pressure on local governments to repay debts has increased sharply.
According to the latest quarterly data released by the National Finance and Development Laboratory, the total issuance of government debt in the first quarter was 5.7 trillion yuan, and treasury bonds, local government bonds and urban investment bonds were the largest issuance scales in the same period of the past. At the end of March, the stock of debt was 76.3 trillion yuan, of which local government bonds accounted for nearly half, which is the main force driving local government infrastructure and investment.
According to the report, from the perspective of financing, the net financing of government debt in the first quarter was 2.2 trillion yuan. Only the net financing of treasury bonds increased by more than 5 times. To alleviate the financial pressure brought about by debt repayment and interest payment. From the perspective of debt repayment, the total repayment of national government debt in the first quarter was 3.3 trillion yuan, and the repayment of local government bonds had the highest year-on-year growth rate of 133.8%, followed by urban investment bonds and the lowest national debt.
Kweichow Moutai has set a firm goal of 15% revenue growth and invested 4 billion to set up a fund.
The net profit in the first quarter exceeded 20 billion yuan for the first time, and the direct sales revenue increased by more than 60%. The management of Kweichow Moutai reaffirmed its revenue growth target at the performance briefing. In addition, Kweichow Moutai will participate in the establishment of Moutai Zhaohua Fund and Moutai Jinshi Fund with its own funds, and each will pay 2 billion yuan in the first phase. The investment scope of these two funds is very broad, including new generation information technology, biotechnology, new energy, new materials, high-end equipment, big consumption and other fields.
The RMB exchange rate broke 7.
On the morning of May 17, the offshore RMB/USD exchange rate broke through 7.0 for the first time since December 2022. In the afternoon of the same day, the exchange rate of the onshore RMB against the US dollar also broke through 7.0. The U.S. dollar index rose slightly this week. According to data from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, China’s service trade deficit in the first quarter of this year was US$47 billion, basically the same as in the first half of 2020.
Canada Goose’s quarterly sales in China surged by 40%.
Down jacket brand Canada Goose (Canada Goose)’s revenue in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023 as of April 2nd exceeded expectations by 31%, of which the Asia-Pacific region increased by 65%, accounting for nearly 40%. The company stated at the performance meeting that “compared with last year, the growth rate of the Chinese market has reached a record 40%”. Four of Canada Goose’s 10 new global stores in FY2023 will be in China. U.S. sales fell by single digits, and the company remained cautious about its growth expectations.
Chinese return to Australia to buy property.
In the first quarter of this year, inquiries from Chinese buyers for Australian property rose 127 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of last year, according to real estate firm Juwai IQI. In the fourth quarter of last year, China was already the largest source of overseas investment in the Australian residential market, reaching US$400 million. Rising rents, limited supply and population growth are currently driving up property prices from Sydney to Perth, with the return of wealthy foreign buyers adding further pressure on prices.
ChatGPT is launched in the US App Store, and the GPT-4 function charges $19.99 per month.
OpenAI launched the iOS version of ChatGPT in the United States on Thursday. It is free to download and use, no ads, and pay $19.99 per month to use the latest GPT-4 features. OpenAI says it will expand to other countries in the coming weeks, and an Android version is coming soon. Previously, the official ChatGPT could only be used on the web page. However, there are media reports that Apple has restricted employees from using such AI software. Like Samsung, Apple is worried about leaking confidential data.
Thirty-three years after the bubble burst, Japanese stock indexes are back to their highs for the year.
On May 19, the Nikkei rose to 30808.35 points, the highest level since August 1990. With the stock market getting better together, it also includes that Japanese land prices will increase by 1.6% year-on-year in 2022, which is the largest increase in fifteen years; in the fiscal year ended March this year, the net profit of Japanese listed companies increased by 7.4%; the real GDP in the first quarter of this year The annual rate rose 1.6%, the first increase in three quarters, as both personal consumption and business investment in equipment rose.
Wal-Mart raised its sales and profit forecasts as low-priced items and essentials hit the market.
As consumers continue to suffer from inflation, Walmart’s low-price strategy is working, asking suppliers for the lowest prices and presenting special deals in the most prominent way. In the fiscal quarter ended in April this year, sales at Walmart stores (opened for more than a year) increased by 7.4% year-on-year, and it raised its annual sales and profit expectations. Company CFO John David Rainey said consumers are spending more on food as their purchasing power declines, a trend he expects to continue in the second half of the year.
The UK has pledged to invest £1 billion over the next 10 years to support its semiconductor industry.
Compared with the tens of billions of dollars allocated by the United States, the European Union, etc., the British government’s investment is much smaller, and its 10-year investment amount cannot keep up with TSMC’s half-month capital expenditure. Government officials say the subsidies will focus on areas where they are strong (and cost less) such as chip design and compound semiconductors.
Singapore’s catering industry is facing the problem of rising inflation and labor costs.
Some restaurant owners in Singapore are warning the government that soaring rents, raw material costs and stricter labor laws are crushing them. At present, the inflation level and labor shortage faced by Singapore’s catering industry are the highest in more than ten years. The price of cooking oil has increased by 60% in the past year, and employee wages have increased by 25%.
Meta could face hefty EU fines for transferring EU user data to the US.
According to media reports, people familiar with the matter said that because Facebook did not comply with the EU Supreme Court’s warning and transferred EU user data to US servers, the parent company Meta may face high fines, which may be higher than Amazon’s 2021 breach of EU privacy. 764 million euros were fined as a result of the regulations. Meta and EU regulators had no immediate response. In 2020, due to concerns about data surveillance, the EU Supreme Court ruled that the previously signed “European and American Data Privacy Shield” agreement is invalid. Last year Meta said it might be forced to suspend its European operations as a result.
U.S. creators sue Montana over TikTok ban.
On Wednesday local time, five TikTok creators in Montana sued the governor, arguing that the statewide TikTok ban he signed violated the First Amendment to the US Constitution (guaranteeing freedom of speech). According to media reports, creators believe that the ban has affected their income and content creation. Several of them have more than 200,000 fans, and their identities include students, veterans, ranchers, and parenting mothers. Plaintiffs’ law firms blocked a similar TikTok ban in Pennsylvania in 2020.
Disney continues to cut costs and will close a Star Wars-themed hotel that opened last year.
The “Star Wars: Galaxy Star Cruiser” themed hotel is located in the Orlando Disney Park, which took 6 years to build and officially opened in March last year. The theme hotel has 100 “cabins”, and the starting price for two tourists is US$4,809, including two days of accommodation, meals and an immersive Star Wars themed itinerary.
In February of this year, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that he would cut costs by $5.5 billion and plan to lay off 7,000 employees. Now, they’re closing the Star Wars-themed hotel in September. We read on the hotel’s official website that its last “voyage” is scheduled for September 28-30. In addition, Disney will cancel the construction of a $ 1 billion office park.
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