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Verizon's support for another ecosystem in Nokia powered by Microsoft software. This would increase its leverage with Apple and reduce the large payments for carrying iPhones.

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Jenkins sees risks to Apple's closed ecosystem and decline in margins of $300 on devices priced at $600.

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A trend for white collar jobs in Japan where companies are sending young Japanese workers overseas to do the phone customer service jobs in places like Thailand. The advantage is the lower cost, and its a new twist on the outsourcing trend because the workers are still Japanese, cost less, and still respond in Japanese.

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Apple has 15.8% of the home computer market by revenue. Apple has two thirds of its PC's as portable or laptops while the Intel/Microsoft PC's are only 50% portables. Apples sales are growing at 35% a year whereas Intel/microsoft Pc's are growing at 5% a year. Apple is really poised to grow. It plans to introduce new versions of it Leopard Operating System frequently for the next 10years, whereas Microsoft is slow to introduce new versions and Aple's Ultimate Leopard Operating System sells for $129 Microsoft Vista Ultimate version sells for $250. Apple PC's sell for higher prices so Apple revenues from its market share are much higher. Apple is poised to grow especially with the younger ipod and i phone users of the next generation. Innovation continues to drive Apple's progress . Jobs talks about the new class of interface Apple created with multitouch interface on the iPhone version of the OS X, which Jobs says simplifies the task of controlling or directing a computer.

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Nokia shifts its headquaters from White Plains, New York., to Sunnyvale, California, to be close to developers and competitors. From U.S. sales at 20% of global sales in 2003, U.S. sales have dropped to 2% of global sales even after the introduction of the Lumia smartphone. The efforts to change the mindset of the company in its new location.

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Supply chains are unraveling in many industries with the tariffs imposed by president Trump on imports from China, and renegotiated trade deals with South Korea and other countries. The growth in the value of foreign value added was possible with cuts in tariffs in the period after 1990 and the emergence of China as a low cost manufacturer with cheap labor. Foreign value added increased from 20% in 1990 to 30% in 2011. The impact on factory towns and communities in the U.S. of trade in which the U.S. manufacturing declined as it shifted to China resulted in the surge in support for president Trump. The tariffs war with China is an effort to correct this imbalance. The result is a shift in supply chains away from China in some industries and gradual shift in others. Rising wages in China had already resulted in early shifts and the the environmental costs adding to this trend. President Trump temporarily suspended a threatened imposition of duties of 25% on $325 billion of Chinese imports. A renegotiated Nafta agreement with Mexico for automobile production and determination of U.S. based content and wages was designed to reset the relationship with Mexico and the auto supply chain for production in Mexico. A threat of tariffs on European auto imports to the U.S. is set for a decision in November. The trade dispute between Japan and South Korea and threat of tariffs also shows the effect this is having in other countries. With the U.S. looking at its own interest in the global supply chain and its advantage or disadvantage, industries and companies are not free to make decisions based on which country offers the best arrangement and deal for manufacturing. Notions of competitive advantage in the tech race with China are affecting the way the U.S. and European nations are acting. ...

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Blackberry's release of the Blackberry 10 all touch smartphone with the new operating system. Blackberry 10 has a better keyboard than the iPhone and Android phones and can enable users to use the calendar and email at the same time. The delayed launch in the U.S. market to mid March or April, because of the 4-6 weeks time it takes for wireless carriers to conduct rigorous testing, means the marketing push comes before the product is available.

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The campaign to establish net neutrality. It is purported to address the problem of phone and cable companies blocking access to websites and interfering with internet traffic. The FCC passed new net neutrality rules by a 3-2 vote. The net neutrality rules are supported by Mr. Obama, and FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, a former law school friend of Obama.

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Dana Goldstein of the NYT looks at the big problem in education today- the failure to teach reading and writing skills to students in American schools. Goldstein cites two alarming statistics. About 40% of students who took the ACT writing exam in the high school class of 2016 lack the reading and writing skills to pass a college level composition class in English. 8th and 12th grade classes in the U.S. have 75% of the students lacking writing skills proficiency, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Of the 1204 comments to this article in the NYT, many of the 17 selected by NYT say the problem is that students lack reading skills. Other problems shown here are the handicaps created by technology, yes technology. Mobile phone use is common and this is done quickly with the least attention to write good sentences, little attention to punctuation, spelling or grammar. Half or incomplete sentences are easier to type on mobile, so a new generation grows up thinking that this is normal. As a result a whole generation of kids have not learned to read or write well, constructing sentences with limited vocabulary. Steve Jobs and Apple may say that iPads and iPhones, smartphones and other tech devices have advanced reading with the beautiful display technology screens, but this is not what is really happening. Google may say that its search helps people access good reading materials, and this too is not what is really happening.  Equally alarming is that there is no clear agreement on how to tackle this problem. The No Child Left Behind 2002 law set a program emphasizing reading and use of multiple choice questions to test reading skills. This was followed by the Common Core standards now implemented in schools for 6 years that shift the focus to writing. Yet the results are still the same, showing little progress. Goodman cites as examples of disagreement, the Writing Revolution project which focusses on grammar and other writing skills, and the Long Island Writing Project that focusses on students finding their own voice by freewriting. A student in the freewriting class which encourages finding your own voice, expresses her frustration by saying she doesn't hear a voice- what voice, she asks.  One of the problems is that teachers themselves lack writing skills. A look at 2400 teacher preparation programs shows little attention paid to teaching writing. The head of the Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University's Teachers College, says Common Core failed in implementation of massive teacher training, which is required to address the problem. As a result remediation programs are needed badly in colleges to fix literacy skills, when better teaching would have prevented the problem in the first place. Little understood or debated is that every generation has to learn about the country's democratic institutions, every generation has to make its own effort to gain civic literacy- it is not something that can be taken for granted or handed down from one generation to the next. Without reading and learning about how these institutions function, young people lack the skills for participating in our democracy and in the global economy. ...

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Mr. Trump the Republican nominee for president dials into Fox New to speak just as Kamala Harris was making her speech and called Mr. Trump "an unserious man" who would bring "serious" negative consequences to the Nation if elected. Bret Baier and Martha McCallum were doing Fox News coverage as Kamala Harris made her speech. McCallum said at one point Kamala Harris was having some success with Women, Black and Hispanic voters, and Trump objected that it was not harris but he that was having success with Women, Black and Hispanic people. Trump's comments- "she didn't talk about China, about crime, fracking."  She talks about this and that, she would do this and that, but she did not do any of it, said the former president. This recalls president Biden's speech at the Convention in Chicago when he said Trump said he would do this every week, to fix America's infrastructure, and he Trump did nothing. He was not Coach, Trump said of Walz, he was Assistant Coach. After 10 minutes Baier heard Mr. Trump entering something on his phone and he ended the conversation with the former president., because they were running out of time. ...

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Three events September 29 Sunday to October 5 Saturday described as "week from hell" for the Biden White House in this report. President Biden can feel a huge sigh of relief for having overcome in each event. The hurricane Helene devastating a swath of western North Carolina, parts of rural Georgia, and western Florida. The president was working round the clock for relief efforts and visiting the flooded regions. Then there was the large missile strike by Iran over Israel following its bombing of Lebanon. This was averted using US missile defense. And in the middle of all this there was the International Longshoreman's Union 45,000 members announcing a strike that  closed all ports on the East Coast from Maine to Texas. President Biden supported the dockworkers efforts to have shipping ports owners in Asia and Europe to share huge profits with dockworkers.  All the time the hard work at the White House and agencies for relief efforts paid off. Republican governors in North Carolina and Georgia praised the relief efforts. And Zient, Buttigieg, Transportation Secretary Brainard at NEC, were on the phone with port owners overseas at 5.30 am Thursday to setup a stopgap agreement till Jan 15 for settlement. The process and hard work paid off.   ...

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U.S. president Obama's passive response in the handling of the NSA spying on the phones of world leaders including the president of Brazil and the chancellor of Germany comes under criticism in the U.S. The failure to provide adequate assurance- and take immediate action since the summer of 2013 when the first revelations of NSA spying were out- to regain trust of European and other leaders is seen as a weakness in leadership. With German presidential elections approaching German chancellor Merkel actually tried to tone down the initial uproar over NSA spying revelations in the summer of 2013. It was only after it was revealed in October 2013 that NSA had monitored Merkel's mobile phone did the chancellor make an issue of this and Obama could not respond to why no action had been taken since the summer and a complete review of NSA spy activities made by the President and advisors. Because world leaders are involved, and not just of allies but large emerging market nations such as Brazil, this becomes the personal responsibility of the U.S. president. Obama also comes under criticism for not responding to the failure of the healthcare website. This matter is of a different nature and could be handled by the President's Health and Human Services Secretary, Ms. Sibelius....

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As thrift is now an important habit for customers, a number of low cost items is what retailers are hoping to sell this holiday season, instead of a blockbuster gadget. Best Buy's executive in charge of looking at customers mindsets says frugality trend is the overriding sentiment and getting value for money is uppermost in the mind. The other factor in this years electronics is that they offer incremental technology and not the Nintendo Wii videogame console or Apple iPhone product that created a lot of buzz. Also most cosumers already have one of these products. An exception is the electornic book reader. And Best Buy is offering competitors to the Kindle by Amazon, for $200-$400, and launching new store sections to let buyer try them out.

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India's broadband prices have dropped to the point where they are the lowest in the world. A UK comparison site shows 1 gigabyte of mobile data  costs $0.26 in India compare to $12.37 in the U.S. and $6.66 in the UK, and globally about $8.53.  Reliance Jio the company which dropped prices starting in 2016, says it is using voice and data on a spectrum known only for data use. Reliance Jio is using only one fifth of its capacity. and says is it is making more revenue per user than competitors. Competitors including Airtel and Vodafone have lowered prices reducing margins of as high as 30 percent to being barely profitable. Reliance Jio gives away its 4G feature phone JioPhone against refundable security deposit of $21, with plans of $1 a month. The handset supports Wifi and WhatsApp. India ha 1.17 mobile subscriptions, 55% in urban areas. Most broadband use now comes from Jio. Mobile data consumption has jumped in India in 2 years to more than 10GB per user per month, which is close to that in the U.S.    ...

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As the pandemic continues to spread and numbers grow with reopening of the economy the question remains -what can we learn from other countries positive experience in controlling spread? Here the Times provides the example of German contact tracing- chancellor Merkel has emphasized that a lot depends on "total" contact tracing, and contact tracing "above all else." Germany's experience is that even if you don't get everything right, you make an honest effort with everything you've got and do it early it makes a real difference. Some of the offices across Germany are stretched and short of staff but they have been working since the beginning of March, sometimes in the early days 7 days a week. Only 33% or one third of the offices throughout Germany for contact tracing have the required 5 person team for every 20,000 people, and 35% are overstretched or at their limit, according to one survey. No apps, just a low tech effort with people from the state administrations who were not working during lockdown trying doing something else, or volunteers. Mainly using the phone, talking to people and tracing the contact chain of people testing positive. Putting this information on the computer with a central database.  The Berlin office has 115 workers and has tracked down every one of 666 virus cases it was given. Because of privacy concerns at the Munich office sometimes even the patient's name is not given and office staff have to locate the name and the person. It requires dedication, flexibility and above all resilience, says Harold Rau, the deputy Mayor of the Cologne office, cited in this Times report. The doctor alerts the local office with a test result. The office calls the person and finds out who he has been in contact with for the last 14 days. Then the people who were in contact with are grouped based on the directness of contact, face to face, so on. These people are asked to quarantine for 14 days, sometimes with the rest of their household. They get daily call to find out how their doing for symptoms. The effort goes back to Robert Koch in the 1892 cholera epidemic in Hamburg. Robert Koch, microbe hunter in Germany, was called in after the epidemic spread from Moscow. It devastated Moscow and Tokyo, but Hamburg suffered far less about 8605 deaths as a result of the contact tracing and strict closing off quarantining of affected chains after isolating them, closing off affected parts of the city. Bit by bit the cholera epidemics sparks were put out before turning into flames, says Koch. In the current pandemic Germany has suffered 8241 deaths and 178,000 confirmed cases. So far this is in line with the cholera epidemic in Hamburg 1892, and this for all of Germany. And it is not just affluent nations that can do this. where there is a will there is a way. In Kerala state in southwestern India, similar efforts have worked to limit spread  with even better results than Germany. ...

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Vodafone is selling off the minority stakes it acquired in mobile phone operators around the world. This is part of the strategy of CEO Colao, to focus on growing businesses such as mobile data, and on focussing on offering a wider array of services in markets of Europe, India and Africa. Vodafone also owns 45% of Verizon Wireless, which has not paid dividends for 5 years as a result of debt.

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Important article on how an outsider, Jorma Ollila, who helped build Nokia from a sluggish Finnish conglomerate to a leader in the mobile phone business, is taking the top job at Shell and helping to give new direction to the company. Shell faces a changing playing field with the rise of national oil companies and difficult access to oil exploration sites. Ollila is the new chairman at Royal Dutch Shell.