Amazon may soon enter Brazil‘s e-commerce market

Brazil's biggest bookstore chain, Saraiva, is trying to sell its online business, a move that could pave the way for Amazon's debut in Latin America's fastest growing e-commerce market, industry sources said.

Saraiva is widely seen as one of the main hurdles facing Amazon, the online retailer, as it prepares to set up shop in Brazil, a challenging market of 200 million people known for its tax and logistic complexities.

The Sao Paulo-based bookseller wants to sell its e-commerce platform and focus on its chain of over 100 stores and publishing businesses, where margins are higher, three industry executives told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

"Saraiva is trying to sell its online operations. They have offered it to some retailers," said one of the sources.

"Why would this be interesting for Amazon? Amazon's main challenge will initially be overcoming the obstacle of the publishing companies. By buying Saraiva it shortens that distance dramatically," the same source said.

Amazon spokesman Craig Berman declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for Saraiva.

A second source said Saraiva has been preparing to spin off its online retail business for some time to focus on its publishing operations and bookstores, where it also sells CDs and DVDs.

"Their assets in terms of relationships with publishers and distributors could be important for Amazon," the source said.

Amazon is laying the ground to land in Brazil, a $12 billion e-commerce market where still low internet penetration and a swelling middle class should provide sustainable business growth for years to come.

Reuters reported in June that the Seattle-based company was planning to open a digital bookstore in Brazil and start selling its Kindle e-reader by the end of 2012. An online approach would allow Amazon to avoid logistics hazards that could jeopardise a full-scale retail operation.

Saraiva has Brazil's biggest ebook catalog with 12,000 titles in Portuguese, yielding around $250,000 a month in revenue. Though ebooks account for just a fraction of Saraiva's internet business -- it also offers DVDs, electronics and other consumer goods online -- the company says digital book sales are starting to grow at a faster pace.

One person familiar with Amazon's strategy for Brazil told Reuters that Saraiva approached the US retailer in the past, but dismissed media reports of ongoing talks as market speculation. The source said Amazon is sticking to its original plan of focusing on organic growth in foreign markets.

Doors open

Even if Amazon doesn't end up buying Saraiva's online business, the dismembering of Brazil's biggest bookstore could help by weakening its top local competitor.

Earlier this year Saraiva was reportedly pressuring Brazilian publishers not to sign-up with Amazon in an attempt to protect its market leadership, which helped it pull in 731 million reais ($362 million) in net revenue in the first half of 2012.

Saraiva relies heavily on its network of 102 stores across Brazil. Products sold online account for just one-third of the company's retail business and shrank 6.4 percent in the second quarter of 2012 compared to the same period a year earlier.

"Saraiva's online business is not generating the necessary profits," said a third executive familiar with the company's management. "They recently decided to scale down their e-commerce sales in order to maintain profits. And that means the business is not interesting."

Saraiva is looking to unload its online business because of small margins and aggressive price competition from bigger e-commerce players such as B2W, which controls Brazil's top platforms, Submarino and Americanas.com.

Earlier this month, Saraiva signaled it was open to entertaining offers following media reports that it was in talks with Amazon.

The company "is always attentive and willing to evaluate business opportunities of any other nature that arise and that may be of interest to its shareholders," Saraiva said in a securities filing.

Some analysts question the potential value of a Saraiva deal for Amazon, arguing that the US company's strong branding would allow it to grow organically and rapidly seize a big chunk of the Brazilian market.

"The process of integrating Saraiva's operations could pose risks for Amazon. It would be better for them to start from scratch," said Caue de Campos Pinheiro, a retail analyst with SLW Corretora in Sao Paulo.

Others, however, say an acquisition would help Amazon safely navigate the Brazilian market, where a mix of steep taxes and poor infrastructure make it a difficult place to do business.

"They would have a head start," said Jordan Rohan, an analyst with Stifel Nicolaus in New York. "And they would have access to a management team with local knowledge."

Vertu opens first flagship store in New Delhi

Luxury mobile phone maker Vertu today opened its first boutique store in India, here, with plans to expand to other cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

"There is a huge growth opportunity here. People in India today are well travelled, they appreciate luxury products...We want to tap that potential," Vertu president Perry Oosting told PTI.

Though he did not comment on the investmentsmade, Oosting said the company would expand to other major cities in the country through a partner-based model.

British firm Vertu's handsets are available exclusively in over 500 stores globally, including over 100 dedicated Vertu boutiques in 66 countries.

Earlier this year, Finnish handset maker Nokia had sold majority stake in the company toprivate equity group EQT VI but retained 10 per cent minority share.

"India's contribution to our revenues is currently in the single digit. We believe there is potential to grow this to double digits," Oosting said.

Previously, Vertu phones were available in the country across 20 points of sales through luxury products distributors.

With the first flagship store in New Delhi, Vertu hopes to deliver the very best to its customers, Oosting said.

Talking about the luxury mobile phone market, Oosting said it is similar to the luxury car market.

"When we started out, our model was similar to that of luxury watches. But with changing technology and phones becoming a productivity tool, it is now more on the lines of luxury cars. While there is a design element, one also has to keep in mind what goes into the phone and the performance in terms of battery backup, security," he said.

The company has also launched Vertu Constellation Smile, a variant of Vertu's ConstellationTouch priced at Rs 2.96 lakh.

The handset has been designed to celebrate a partnership between Vertu and Smile Train, a global organisation based in New York City providing free corrective surgery for children with unrepaired cleft lips and palates.

‘Angry Birds Land‘ to open soon in Asia

The company behind Angry Birdssaid on Wednesday it would open its first theme park in Asia next year at a site near Shanghai as it builds on the brand of the hugely popular game.
'Angry Birds Land' will be located in Haining city in China's Zhejiang province, next to the commercial hub of Shanghai, and will be the firm's third theme park after one in Finland and another in Britain.
"People in China want to get out and spend their free time at a leisure destination," RovioEntertainment's general manager for China, Paul Chen, told AFP.
"We're hoping to open (the theme park) by Chinese New Year next year, February," he added as the Finnish company launched a playground on the campus of Shanghai's Tongji University.
The first China theme park, featuring an interactive playground and rides, would welcome up to 400 visitors a day paying admission of 60 yuan ($9.50).
China has the world's second-highest number of downloads for Angry Birds at 190 million, trailing only the United States.
The mobile game involves using slingshots to launch birds at fortresses built by green pigs -- an addictive challenge that became the world's most-downloaded app and spawned a franchise of merchandise and media tie-ins.

ARM‘s new chips to turn smartphones superfast

British chip designer ARM  on Tuesday launched processors to power a new generation of smartphones and also offer low-energy solutions for servers, increasing its incursion into a market dominated by Intel.
The Cambridge-based company, whose technology is in Apple's iPhone 5 and Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S3, said its latest blueprints would deliver three times today's processing power using the same amount of energy.
The new chips use 64-bit architecture, an upgrade from current 32-bit designs that will give them increased processing clout suitable for servers while retaining their energy efficiency, the company said.
Chips made using technology licensed from ARM are used across the smartphone and tablet industry. The company is now promoting an emerging trend toward building data centres with many small, low-energy chips instead of a few high-performance ones.
The microserver industry is in its infancy, with Hewlett-Packard, Dell and other vendors showing keen interest.
PC chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices said on Monday it would use ARM's technology to make microserver chips available starting in 2014.
ARM chief executive Warren East told reporters at an event in San Francisco that ARM-based servers may account for a fifth of data centres by 2020.
He said interest in microservers is spreading beyond cutting-edge internet companies like Facebook and Google to traditionally conservative customers, like banks' chief information officers.
"Getting to the CIOs of banks is quite a step but we're already seeing these types of people totally plugged into the notion of ARM-based servers, and looking at not so much whether, but how and when," East said.
Introducing 64-bit technology that lets processors interact more efficiently with memory chips, a feature already offered by Intel, is a key step toward making ARM chips more attractive for data centers.
East said Austin, Texas-based start-up Calxeda has demonstrated that ARM technology can reduce power consumption by over three quarters in servers.
Unlike in the PC industry, which Intel dominated for decades, manufacturers in the smartphone industry can buy their processors from any number of chip designers.
East said data-center equipment manufacturers will also benefit from more options as ARM-based chip designers launch competing chips into the server market, long an Intel stronghold.
Licensees of ARM's new 64-bit Cortex A-50 series include AMD, Broadcom, Calxeda, HiSilicon, Samsung and STMicroelectronics, the company said, and the first chips are expected to ship in 2014.

Windows 8 off to stunning start: Microsoft

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on Tuesday said the Windows 8 operating system was off to a "stunning" start with four million upgrades downloaded since its release on October 26.
"In just the last three days, we have sold four million Windows 8 upgrades," Ballmer said while kicking off a Build Conference for developers at the software giant's headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
"The level of embrace from enthusiasts is very, very high."
Ballmer added that tens of millions of businesses have also switched to the latest version of Windows.
Analysts have depicted Windows 8 as a bold bet for Microsoft since it dramatically changed the long-familiar user interface to adapt to touchscreen mobile devices increasingly popular in modern lifestyles.
"The level of enthusiasm seen for the new products has really been stunning," Ballmer told the thousands of developers at the sold-out event.
Globally popular one-to-many text messaging service Twitter and online file sharing hit Dropbox are among applications being tailored to Windows 8, Ballmer told third-party software developers at the gathering.
Microsoft kicked off sales of its revamped Windows 8 system and Surface tablet on Friday as it ramped up efforts to compete in a market shifting rapidly from PCs to mobile devices.
Microsoft on Monday set out to win over iPhone and Android gadget devotees with Windows 8 smartphones, new devices that emphasise individualism and unify digital lives in the internet cloud.
The global rollout of Windows 8 phones, set to begin in Europe this weekend, is the final piece in a Microsoft operating system transformation aimed at harmonising the technology titan's software and hardware for mobile lifestyles.
The operating system has a user interfaced based on "tiles" that can be personalised with people's pictures, applications, games, music and more.
Microsoft corporate vice president Joe Belfiore said that Microsoft was out to "re-invent" a smartphone experience that has for years basically consisted of a locked screen that opens to rows of icons.
"We decided not use that tired old metaphor and came up with our own way that puts people at the center of the experience," Belfiore said with a slight jab at iPhone.
The Build conference was also intended to inspire developers to make fun, hip, or functional "apps" for devices powered by Windows 8 software.
Microsoft's online shop is stocked with more than 120,000 applications tailored for Windows 8 phones and the number is growing, according to Belfiore.
Analysts have long contended that desirable "apps" are crucial to the success of smartphones.
Analysts said Microsoft is trying to walk a fine line by keeping hundreds of millions of Windows users worldwide while accelerating efforts to compete in the mobile world dominated by Apple and Google.
Microsoft planned a massive advertising campaign for Windows 8.

VIA introduces world’s smallest x86 quad-core system

VIA Technologies today announced the world's smallest x86 quad core system, theVIA ARTiGO A1250 slim system featuring a 1GHz VIA quad-core processor and the latest VIA VX11H media system processor (MSP), in chassis the size of a paperback novel. The ultra-compact VIA ARTiGO A1250 is suitable for a myriad of applications in the home or office, including home server, home automation, hotel management, media streaming, digital signage and surveillance as well as medical and healthcare applications.

VIA ARTiGO A1250 leverages the VIA VX11H MSP to deliver an immersive multimedia experience complete with 3D stereoscopic and HD display support in a low power envelope. The VIA ARTiGO A1200 can fit easily into monitors or on the wall with a 10 x 10 cm VESA mount or placed alongside other home media devices. For system developers, VIA provides third party software security through unique hardware/software design.

"By leveraging the ultra compact Pico-ITX form factor, the VIA ARTiGO A1250 is able to deliver a powerful x86 quad core computing experience in the smallest system design on the market," said Epan Wu, head of VIA embedded platform division, VIA Technologies.

Dell India to shift focus to notebooks

Dell Computers today said that going forward, it would shift its focus more on to notebooks as the category has a huge potential in this market.
"If you look at market like this, I see huge potential for notebooks. That is the biggest segment that is growing, largely because of growing work force and consumers who want mobility. Tablets will pick up like a secondary device, but primarily it will still be notebooks,"Dell India executive director (marketing) P Krishnakumar told here.
He said the company enjoys a market share of 30 per cent in the notebook space in the business-to-business (B2B) space and close to 17 percent in the consumer space.
Taking a cue from the parent, Dell will no longer focus on smartphones and will only focus on the desktops, notebooks and tablets, he added.
"Globally, we have announced that we are not going to be present in the smartphone category. Because that is a different segment how the end-user computing happens. We have decided as a company to focus our energies on desktop, notebooks, all-in-ones and tablets," he added.
On the PC market, he said there is a huge potential here as the PC penetration is quite low, but hasn't exactly translated into growth.
"The PC penetration here is just 7 per cent, though in urban areas it is 45 per cent. In developed countries, it is close to 98 per cent... The industry has not had the growth we were expecting in the last few years," he said.
On the challenges in the domestic market, he said, "We buy in dollars and sell in rupees. It has been very bad in the last 12 months except in last four to six weeks. That again is a hindrance when you buy in dollars and sell in rupees, the prices become very high".
The company today launched its new range of products, including a new series of laptops.
It launched a 14-inch Ultrabook Latitude, priced at Rs 69,990 and the all-in-one Dell OptiPlex priced at Rs 49,990 apart from new tablets, the Latitude 10 for Rs 42,490 and XPS 12 convertible, a combination of laptop and tablet for Rs 90,490.
"The convertible will be imported but the others will be manufactured here. We anyways get the order from customers and then manufacture. It is built to order," Krishnakumar said.
The devices use the newly launched Windows 8 operating system and Krishnakumar said the B2B segment have the option of using Windows 7.
"We had collaborated with Microsoft in much advance (for Windows 8). Enterprise computers may still have Windows 7 but the consumer products have all shifted to windows 8," he said.
He declined to give the sales expectation for the new launches. The company gets equal revenue from its commercial and consumer base, he added.
On the revenue front, Krishnakumar did not divulge the details but said, "from a revenue share point of view we have the largest pie in the Indian market. Overall across consumer and commercial it is 19.7 per cent according to IDCQ2 details".