As the third quarter came to end, Apple (AAPL) began to tally its earnings. Historically, the third quarter has been marked by slow growth and decreased earnings for Apple, presumably because the company generally releases its new iPhone(s) in the late fall. This strategy curtails mobile phone sales during the summer, as everyone awaits Apple's newest release.
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The App Revolution
Less than two weeks ago, the Apple (AAPL) App Store celebrated its sixth anniversary since launching under Steve Jobs in 2008. Since its inception, the App Store has racked up over 75 billion downloads, and hosts over 1.2 million iOS apps. As impressive as these numbers may be, the App Store is continually overlooked.
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Tinder For Jobs
How many hours have you spent on Tinder aimlessly swiping left and right in an attempt to find your perfect soul mate? Swiping left and right for HOURS until you find that one perfect person; you swipe right hoping that they swipe back so you can start your relationship together. Now imagine an application that will take this whole process… and apply it to jobs.
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Our Chronic Addiction
As the United States slowly inches toward ending its ill-fated War on Drugs, first decriminalizing marijuana, we have begun to see the first attempts to build legitimate businesses around pot. With the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, the growth of medical marijuana in several states (including California), and the diffuse relaxation of penalties for pot-related crimes, many have recognized the enormous potential market for legal weed, especially if current trends continue.
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The Follower's Dilemma
Game theory has been the subject of many recent discussions I’ve had with curious college students, aspiring economists, and adults alike. In general, the core concept is quite simple and boils down to a basic question: given a certain situation, what is your best response to another party’s action(s), assuming all actors are rational? Or, in other words, what reaction yields the recipient the highest possible utility (a measure of one’s satisfaction)?
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The Opportunistic Employee
Finding a job in today’s economy can be difficult, to say the least (unless you’re a high school student). Most industries are far more competitive than they once were, and finding jobs at dream companies, like Google (GOOG) and Facebook (FB), is nearly impossible. In fact, more often than not, new college grads will cling to the first job offer they receive, which is often due to the lack of critical, public information.
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Is Blackberry Back?
In the span of about five years, BlackBerry (BBRY) rose to the peak of the US mobile phone market and then crashed to the bottom. Before 2011, BlackBerry held a larger percentage of the global market share for mobile phones than both Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG). In fact, for FY 2009, BlackBerry held 50% of the global market share for smartphones.
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