1 Apple sees major car industry upheaval (FT/Gulf
News) Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, has warned that the global
automobile industry is on the brink of a technology-led upheaval, in his most
direct public comments yet addressing reports that the iPhone maker is planning
to start making its own cars.
“It would seem that there will be massive change,
massive, in that industry,” Cook said during an interview. “I do think that
industry is at an inflection point for massive change, not just evolutionary
change.” Apple has been assembling a team of automotive experts and studying
what it would take to become a carmaker, according to people familiar with its
thinking.
Cook did not respond to questions about whether
Apple would make its own cars, but made it clear that a series of technology
shifts were coming together to create a rare opportunity for outsiders to break
into the business.
The growing importance of software, both in
controlling vehicles and acting as the interface with drivers, has already
opened the way for electric car maker Tesla Motors to become the auto industry’s
most significant insurgent in decades. Tesla has released new software for its
Model S saloon to bring self-driving features like automated highway driving
and self-parking, and has promised to use over-the-air updates to keep advancing
the capabilities of its existing vehicles.
The emergence of electric vehicles was also
threatening to destabilise the existing car makers, according to Cook. “A lot
of the major technologies in the car shift from today’s combustion engine
focus,” he said. Apple’s CEO said that, for now, his company’s focus would be
on winning over car owners with its CarPlay system, which provides a way to
plug an iPhone into a car’s systems to act as an entertainment, information and
communications gateway.
Cook also revealed that Apple’s new Music service
has already amassed 6.5 million paying subscribers, or around a third as many
as market-leading subscription music service Spotify. Apple Music represents
the company’s biggest overhaul of its digital music business since the launch
of the iTunes store in 2004. Along with paid subscriptions that echo rivals
like Spotify, it has added a digital radio service with human curators, a move that
Cook claimed had given it a leg up over competitors.
2 Lego toys sees demand surge (The Guardian) Some
children may not see their Christmas wishes fulfilled this year, as Lego’s
factories, although running at full speed, may not be able to make enough
plastic bricks to keep up with the demand from Europe’s toy stores. The Danish
company has become the world’s largest toymaker by sales, overtaking Mattel,
the US manufacturer whose toys include Barbie dolls.
Lego’s success is thanks partly to toys linked to
movies, including The Lego Movie. But difficulties in forecasting demand
accurately means some orders may not be filled on time. “We will not be able to
deliver all of the orders coming from customers in the remainder of the year,”
said spokesman for Lego, Roar Trangbaek.
“It is really extraordinary and it has exceeded both
ours and our customers’ forecasts,” Trangbaek said when asked why the company
had not foreseen the surge in demand. The Danish company’s sales grew by 18% in
the first half of this year to 14bn Danish crowns (£1.36bn), putting it ahead
of Mattel and Monopoly-board maker Hasbro, whose revenues came in at $1.9bn (£1.23bn)
and $1.5bn respectively.
The unlisted company, owned by the family of founder
Ole Kirk Kristiansen, invested more than 3bn crowns in plants and equipment
last year to manufacture more toys. Before Christmas last year, there were some
shortages in some countries including Denmark and Canada.
The company is building a factory in Jiaxing, China,
100km from Shanghai, which is expected to be up and running in 2017 and should
go on to produce most of the Lego toys for Asia. Lego already has factories in
Denmark, Hungary, Czech Republic and Mexico.
3 Halal tourism as business niche (San Francisco
Chronicle) A rental company in Orlando, Florida, is offering "halal
vacation homes" with curtained pool decks and rooms with prayer mats and
copies of the Quran. A British company's app lists gourmet restaurants serving
halal meat in London and Dubai, while a Boston-based developer's app offers
travel guides for 90 cities with local prayer times and a compass pointing
Muslims toward Mecca for daily prayers.
The so-called "halal tourism" market was
once seen as a niche revenue stream, limited to pilgrimages like the
multi-billion dollar-a-year revenue stream generated by Muslim travelers to
Mecca. But now there's a movement in the tourism industry to widen the
"halal tourism" market to cater to Muslim travelers worldwide,
particularly those from wealthy Gulf Arab states.
Travelers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the
United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Oman will spend $64 billion traveling this
year and are expected to spend $216 billion by 2030, according to a 2014 study
for the travel tech company Amadeus. The study found that, on average, a
traveler from these countries spends around $9,900 per trip outside the Gulf.
For Emiratis, the figure reaches $10,400.
Halal in Islam literally means that which is
permissible. Observant Muslims typically avoid alcohol and areas where there
can be excessive nudity, like beaches and nightclubs. For women who adhere to
Islam's modest dress code, swimming can pose a challenge. That means resorts
that offer gender-segregated beaches and pools have an advantage.
Along Turkey's southern coast, several all-inclusive
resorts have expansive private beaches and pools for women. One resort even
built a structure in the sea to keep people on boats from catching a glimpse.
Malaysia is also aggressively seeking more Muslim tourists, promoting itself as
"Muslim-friendly Malaysia".
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