Behind Your Business

The tablet wars seem to be pretty hot these days. But if new numbers are an indication, they're just warming up.

Apple has sold more than 14 million of its iPad, the undisputed industry leader, as of December, but its market share dropped from 95 percent in the third quarter of 2010 to 75 percent the following quarter, according to the research firm Strategy Analytics.

Shipments of Android-powered tablets during the same period rose from 2.3 percent to 21.6 percent. Those market-share figures represent shipments from manufacturers to vendors and not end-user sales, however.

All told, there were more than 17 million tablets shipped globally in 2010, more than half of them, 9.7 million, in the fourth quarter, which included the holiday shopping season. Android tablet shipments were at 2.1 million for that quarter, while only 300,000 devices using other operating systems were shipped.

Galaxy Sales Slow

The Wall Street Journal on Monday noted that sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the most popular tablet that runs Android, were not as stellar as the company hoped. In an earnings call on Friday, Samsung's Lee Young-hee said that two million of the Tabs were shipped by the South Korean manufacturer, and while consumer response "wasn't as fast as we expected, we still believe sell-out was quite OK ... As you know, the tablet is relatively new and we need to see how the market develops before we give any firm numbers."

Still, CNN noted that Apple's financial reports showed a slowdown of the iPad's success in the last quarter of 2010, with 525,000 more iPads left unsold than in the previous quarter.

"When Apple introduced the iPad, there was no one else worthy of discussing on the market yet," said Michael Gartenberg of Gartner Research. "So even though people are reporting changes in the market share, you are...

Debt is one of the most stressful things we have to face in modern life. Today it seems hardly impossible to get through life without making use of credit services, and while this can be very convenient, it can just as easily get out of control, guzzling up your income and leaving you in a very unpleasant financial predicament. Debt counselling service helps people who are experiencing difficulty in meeting their monthly financial obligations. If you are stuck in a downward spiral of debt and do not know how to turn your financial situation around, you might need some professional help with your debt.

The media revolution that is the Egyptian uprising is now going back to the future. Since Internet access was largely shut down shortly after the current protests began, older technology is helping to get the word out.

One of the most popular work-arounds is a dial-up modem calling international numbers on the still-working phone system. Several Internet activist groups have been providing lists of numbers outside Egypt, including We Re-Build, Telecomix, Anonymous and others.

The Twitter Revolution

The numbers are often distributed as Twitter messages, which are hash-tagged as #egypt or #jan25, the day the uprising began. In addition, Internet service providers in the U.S., France, Sweden and Spain, among other countries, are helping service traffic by means of modem pools for international calls. Some of the ISPs have waived their normal fees. A group of nearly 30 dial-up services has been offered by an Internet-access group called the French Data Network in Paris.

A popular configuration is reportedly a laptop, a mobile phone, and Bluetooth on both. Depending on the cell coverage in, say, Cairo, this makes for a radical new communications tool for an insurgent movement. Following a shutdown, mobile-phone service has been restored for services run by Vodafone and France Telecom, and nearly 95 percent of Egyptians are subscribers to a mobile network.

In a statement on its web site, Vodafone said "there was no legal or practical option open to Vodafone, or any of the mobile operators in Egypt, but to comply with the demands of the authorities."

Ham radio is also being utilized, and the We Re-Build group has said it's monitoring that means of communication for either voice or Morse code transmissions. Fax machines are also being used, again because the phone system is operational. Among other things, it's used to distribute information about getting online via...

Credit card offers used to come in the mailbox in droves. The credit crunch dried up a lot of those offers but fortunately credit is on the mend and card offers are starting to arrive again. Most people when they go to the mailbox will take one of two actions after they have received an offer in the mail. Some people will take the card offer and immediately throw it away in the trash can.

In the UK, the financial and accounting industry is tremendous, and it covers quite a few areas, from regular audit and advisory tasks to intricate administrative accounting. It really should not be difficult to find a skilled accountant in Britain, seeing that it's probable that there are almost 300,000 certified accounting professionals in the country. Furthermore, close to 200,000 pupils are attempting to attain some sort of accountancy criterion or official certification. Research has shown that there are many more skilled graduates, about 260,000, competing for just under 100,000 accountancy careers. In addition, competition is fierce for those people who try to go after graduate schemes, with as much as 50 applications for every available spot. Britain is regarded as a world leading expert in accounting specialties such as audit, taxation, financial reporting and business advisory companies.