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A Swedish Tribe Aids BlackBerry Rescue Bid – WSJ.com
Research In Motion Ltd. [RIM.T +1.83%] is rolling out two new BlackBerrys next month that Chief Executive Thorsten Heins promises will make RIM competitive again in the global smartphone market.
If he is successful, a big chunk of the credit will go to a small acquisition RIM made more than a year before Mr. Heins took over in January. In 2010 RIM bought Sweden-based The Astonishing Tribe, a small but respected tech-design house, and charged it with reinventing the look and feel of the BlackBerry’s user interface.
That interface recently has garnered positive reviews from analysts, RIM partners and some outside application developers, who are testing thousands of prototypes of the new BlackBerry operating system.
Many of those early endorsements have been hedged, however, because the final version hasn’t been available. Most app developers, who are key to RIM’s success, largely are withholding judgment until after the Jan. 30 launch.
“It is going to be a massive departure from the BlackBerry experience of the past,” said Chris Eben, a partner at Toronto-based Working Group, a Web and mobile development-and-design firm that does work for RIM. Mr. Eben has used the prototype.
Odds that RIM can recapture the market dominance it once enjoyed in smartphones appear slim. Consulting firm IDC recently estimated that RIM’s share of the global smartphone market stands at 4.7%, down from 9.5% at this time last year and from more than 50% in 2009. Even among RIM’s core customer base—corporate and government clients—IDC expects shipments of Apple Inc.’s [AAPL -3.76%] iPhones to surpass those for BlackBerry by next year.
via A Swedish Tribe Aids BlackBerry Rescue Bid – WSJ.com.
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Ikea apologises over removal of women from Saudi Arabia catalogue | World news | guardian.co.uk
Ikea, the global furniture company, has apologised for deleting images of women from the version of its catalogue circulating in Saudi Arabia.
The issue was highlighted on Monday by the free newspaper, Metro, which compared the Swedish and Saudi versions of the catalogue and showed that women had been airbrushed out of otherwise identical pictures showcasing the company’s products.
Ikea’s Saudi catalogue, which is also available online, looks the same as other editions of the publication, except for the absence of women.
One picture shows a family apparently getting ready for bed, with a young boy brushing his teeth in the bathroom. However, a pyjama-clad woman standing next to the boy is missing from the Saudi version. Another picture of five women dining has been removed in the Saudi edition.
Ikea released a statement expressing regret over the issue, saying: “We should have reacted and realised that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalogue is in conflict with the Ikea Group values.”
Women appear only infrequently in Saudi advertising, mostly on Saudi-owned television channels that show women in long dresses, with scarves covering their hair and long sleeves. In imported magazines, censors black out many parts of a woman’s body including arms, legs and chest.
via Ikea apologises over removal of women from Saudi Arabia catalogue | World news | guardian.co.uk.
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Swedish equality fades away as rich get richer | Reuters
Reuters – Fredde and Mickan own a waterfront mansion in the Stockholm suburbs, hire Polish help and have endless cash to spend on state-of-the-art barbecues and designer labels.
They are only characters in “The Sunny Side”, a popular Swedish television series, but they drew so much attention to their wealthy neighborhood that an activist group called “Everything for Everyone” chose it for a class war safari.
The tour of the “rich man’s ghetto” promised to “cultivate your class hatred”. It was a one-off and participants were pelted with eggs but it sparked a soul-searching over growing income disparities in a country known for egalitarian values.
“I think many people would say this is the loss of one part of Swedish identity,” said Michael Forster, a senior policy analyst at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD.
Sweden has seen the steepest increase in inequality over 15 years amongst the 34 OECD nations, with disparities rising at four times the pace of the United States, the think tank said.
Once the darling of the political left, heavy state control and wealth distribution through high taxes and generous benefits gave the country’s have-nots an enviable standard of living at the expense of the wealthiest members of society.
Although still one of the most equal countries in the world, the last two decades have seen a marked change. Market reforms have helped the economy become one of Europe‘s best performers but this has Swedes wondering if their love affair with state welfare was coming to an end.
The real tipping point came in 2006 when the centre-right government swept to power, bringing an end to a Social Democratic era which stretched for most of the 20th century.
via Swedish equality fades away as rich get richer | Reuters.
Strange Random Equality Quote:
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ― Winston S. Churchill
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- In Grand Deceivefest, Swedish Parliament Just Voted For Data Retention (falkvinge.net)
- The moderat party in Sweden makes people poor (livingforum.wordpress.com)
- Sweden Could Be First Country To Go Cash Free (inquisitr.com)
- This shows where the Swedish Democrats stands today. This according to Sentio. (stoptheislamisationofsweden.wordpress.com)
- Sweden moving towards cashless economy (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
- The Swedish model is the opposite of the big society, David Cameron | Lars Tragardh (guardian.co.uk)
Mind Your Business 