360 DEGREES Weblog

Location: The Jaguar Suite is located at 51 Buckingham Gate, Taj Suites and Residences, side-street between Buckingham Palace and Westminster Cathedral, London. The Jaguar suite is a newly added feature to the already known Taj, and will be available from September.
Accommodation: This five star TATA enterprise Taj hotel has collaborated with another TATA company Jaguar, and has added two suits in the hotel that are sleekly-designed 1,832 square ft suites, inspired by Jaguar’s timeless style and technological innovation, which will be the first of its kind in the world. The bedroom is evidently designed with the inspiration from the Jaguar models of cars of legendary 1960’s E-type to the state-of-the art C-X75.
The rooms are designed by the Jaguar Design Director Ian Callum and his in-house design team, hence the rooms feature the custom-built auto motivated artwork. The material used in the decor and the furnishing are leather, metal and high gloss veneers. The rooms are equipped with super king sized beds, grand sized bathrooms and marble floored showers. Further, the room is decorated with subtle Jaguar motifs and artwork, and consists of dining area to accommodate 10 people, a fully ready gloss black kitchen and a number of gadgets including TV’s, Blu-ray players and sound systems. The room also features the unique wall that is covered in Italian leather, and is embedded with a 42 inch television with minimalist clean-fuel fireplace. There is no word on the tariff as of now. Apart from these two suites, the hotel features 86 contemporary suites from one to nine bedrooms, including the Presidential floor, separate living room, fully-equipped kitchens and luxurious bathrooms.
Fine Dinning: Apart from the Jaguar room which has a dinning space for 10 people, the hotel has three separate restaurants and three bars for the elegant guests.
Other Highlights: The hotel is built in a true English style as the architecture gives glimpse of the history of England. Award-winning Courtyard garden plays a beautiful ornate cherub ordained fountain (allegedly a gift from Queen Victoria). Another highlight of the hotel is the Michelin starred Quilon Restaurant which serves southern coastal Indian cuisine. The hotel has an array of rejuvenating spa option with a bespoke treatment range designed by Anne Sémonin.

It’s a testament to your brand name and image when a plurality of consumers are willing to buy your product without even trying it… or even seeing it with their own eyes.

A recent survey of close to 3,000 people found that 35 percent were willing to purchase Apple’s next-gen iPhone when it hits the market.

Altogether, 2,852 consumers responded in the Experian PriceGrabber survey. Of respondents, 7 percent said they’d nab the iPhone 5 within its first week on the market, 14 percent wanted to get it within the first month, and 51 percent said they’d buy the iPhone 5 within its first year of release.

“Our survey data confirms the strong following Apple has built around its iPhone, with more than one-third of consumers planning to upgrade to the latest model only a little over a year following the release of the iPhone 4,” said PriceGrabber general manager Graham Jones, in a press release.

Apple has nearly always had a cult following of loyal users, but in recent years, particularly since the release of the first iPhone, that devotion has spread. Not all may consider themselves “fanboys,” though (and in fact, many will vehemently deny it). The company’s media events are heavily anticipated and product releases are swathed in rumor. Almost two million iPhone 4 devices were sold its opening weekend, and when it hit Verizon, sales records broke in a mere two hours. With such a popular brand, and such a successful line of smartphones, it’s not surprising that people can’t wait to get their hands on an iPhone 5 — even if they don’t know what it looks like yet.

So what makes Apple such a desirable phone manufacturer that consumers are willing to bet on it, sight unseen?

One factor: Apple’s well-curated, well-populated App Store presents consumers with a wide variety of quality apps to choose from. Other app stores still just don’t stack up, either suffering from a lack of content, a lack of profit (for developers), the presence of malware, or sudden app removals.

If you’ve got a problem with an Apple product, Apple’s brick-and-mortar stores offer a convenient, reliable way to get help or get a fix. Apple even has an app for its App Store, so you can easily schedule appointments if, for instance, your iPhone’s home button suddenly quits functioning.

If you’re planning on giving a phone as a gift, according to the PriceGrabber survey, you can’t go wrong with Apple: 69 percent of respondents said they would prefer receiving an iPhone 5 as a gift over other upcoming smartphone models such as the Droid Bionic, Galaxy S II, or BlackBerry Curve.

With all this hype and anticipation, I would not be surprised if iPhone 5 sales end up blowing past sales records out of the water.

Thanks WIRED

British luxury sports car maker Aston Martin has latelyannounced to extend its brand license agreement to include internationalproperty developments. The key elements of the distinctive Aston Martin stylewill be now applied to the new property concepts. The three elements thatdefine the Aston martin brand – Power, Beauty and Soul – will be playing amajor role in placing Aston Martin branded developments at the height of the luxuryproperty industry. Alvaro Hidalgo of First Logic said…

Aston Martin has an inherent beauty that stems from a basicrequirement to be streamlined and aerodynamic. It is this design expertise, andan understanding of aesthetics combined with functionality, that willdifferentiate Aston Martin developments. Each Aston Martin property development will be unique. Theproperties will built to suit a selection of first class leisure destinationssuch as marina, beach, ski, golf and polo resorts.

The Aston Martin’s luxuryproperties portfolio worldwide will include villas, apartments, residences,hotels, sports clubs and accompanying exclusive leisure facilities. First Logic, an international property developmentconsultancy, is currently identifying suitable worldwide locations for thisextension to the Aston Martin brand.

A report from the Association of American Publishers reveals that e-books sales experienced “powerful continuing growth” as they colorfully put it, and paper books of all types dipped, compared to the same period (January-February) from last year. This isn’t surprising news, mainly because it isn’t news — and even if it were, it’s just history repeating itself; we’ve seen the same thing happen to music.

The parallels are clear, though the situations and reactions of the RIAA and AAP are somewhat different. Mostly in that the AAP and other booksellers aren’t being dragged kicking, screaming, and suing into the future, but are embracing it despite its implications.

The attempt to push through that big deal with Google seemed to indicate willingness on the part of the publishers to be part of the new order of things. It got struck down by the judge as opportunistic and overreaching on Google’s part (a decision I agree with, personally, though the agreement was very forward-thinking), but the fact remains that booksellers are actually excited about the future of publishing, the money to be made, the markets to be reached, and so on. The fact that a report like this can be published without any kind of bitter commentary on the decline of paper books is telling. If the RIAA had issued a report saying that digital sales were up 150% but physical sales were down 25%, it would be accompanied by a few poorly-reasoned shots at piracy.

Piracy will in fact be a part of the bookmaker’s lot soon, as well; indeed, it’s already a problem, according to some. With greater sales of e-readers comes greater piracy and the threat of phantasmal “lost income,” as the music industry loves to say, but of course you can’t lose what you never had, and their disingenuous calculations of piracy’s effects poison their credibility. I imagine we’ll see a few quixotic stands by the booksellers as well, and battles like the pedophilia controversy and the 1984 remote detonation will continue for a few years as standards get hammered out. Right now, for instance, Harper-Collins is making a fool of itself by attempting to rip off libraries.

Changing the container we get our words in is a natural change, and this level growth should continue, or even accelerate, over the next few years. A $99 Kindle, ad-supported or not, will push another few million of the things out the door, and technological advancements like flexible devices have yet to make their impact. And unlike the record industry, booksellers are itching to get their hands on these new product vectors.

The market won’t begin to settle down until e-readers are as popular as mobile phones and PCs, which I believe will happen despite the threat of tablets. Once the device class reaches a reasonable level of saturation, then the real battle begins. This growth is the storm before the storm.

You may have heard that the Dutch Government now plans to outlaw music and movie (and whatever else) downloading. That seems pretty prosaic: since when was it legal to infringe on someone’s copyright? Isn’t that the whole point of copyright? No matter, for in the lead up to the Dutch announcement’s announcement a survey was taken. “What about the survey?” you may ask. Well, said survey reveals that a good number of artists believe that they’re not hurt financially by piracy, and that it’s about time to re-think the artist-fan relationship with respect to DRM.

The survey asked 4,000 artists (musicians, authors, photographers, etc.) for their views on all sorts of piracy-related subjects.

For example, only 12 percent of respondents said they believed file-sharing hurts them financially. Artists with more schooling’ under their belt tend to be among those who don’t believe file-sharing hurts them financially. So much for the claims by certain organizations that artists are being put in the poor house because of BitTorrent.

What else? Oh, that file-sharing helps spread the word about their work. So says just north of 50 percent of respondents, though this number may change as more and more streaming options break into the mainstream. A sort of, “Online music services help spread the word about my work.”

All of this being said, the Dutch artists aren’t a bunch of hippies who think everything should be free forever. Nope, with a majority saying that the penalties from illegal file-sharing should be more serious that the current penalties on the books.

Bernard Arnault’s LVMH is on the acquisition trail. In October last year, French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton bought a 17 percent stake in the family-controlled Hermès International and lately, the firm announced to take a controlling stake in jewelry company Bulgari in an all-share deal. This time, LVMH is considering a bid for luxury footwear firm Jimmy Choo, as reported by The Sunday Times. The news isn’t official as of now, but if it turns out to be real, LVMH would need as much as €500 (about $804 million) to buy Jimmy Choo, the fashionistas’ favorite shoemaker.

Media Piracy in Emerging Economies, an academic report on pricing and copyright infringement in poor countries, comes to the conclusion that high media prices (as measured against the average wage in poor countries) are responsible for piracy — that is, when you control for social attitudes towards copying, enforcement differences, and so on, the largest predictor of whether a country will have rampant copyright infringement is whether the media in that country is priced high relative to peoples’ earning power.

To make their point, the authors have released the report under a provocative “Consumer’s Dilemma license” that charges escalating rates depending on whether your IP address is in a rich or poor country.

* Prices are too high. High prices for media goods, low incomes, and cheap digital technologies are the main ingredients of global media piracy. Relative to local incomes in Brazil, Russia, or South Africa, the retail price of a CD, DVD, or copy of MS Office is five to ten times higher than in the US or Europe. Legal media markets are correspondingly tiny and underdeveloped.
* Competition is good. The chief predictor of low prices in legal media markets is the presence of strong domestic companies that compete for local audiences and consumers. In the developing world, where global film, music, and software companies dominate the market, such conditions are largely absent.

* Antipiracy education has failed. The authors find no significant stigma attached to piracy in any of the countries examined. Rather, piracy is part of the daily media practices of large and growing portions of the population.

* Changing the law is easy. Changing the practice is hard. Industry lobbies have been very successful at changing laws to criminalize these practices, but largely unsuccessful at getting governments to apply them. There is, the authors argue, no realistic way to reconcile mass enforcement and due process, especially in countries with severely overburdened legal systems.

Thank you boingboing

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad last January, the biggest surprise wasn’t the actual product. (Many shrugged and called the iPad a “bigger iPhone.”) It was the price: Just $500.

Nobody expected that number, perhaps because Apple has traditionally aimed at the high end of the mobile computer market with MacBooks marked $1,000 and up. And perhaps we were also thrown off because Apple execs repeatedly told investors they couldn’t produce a $500 computer that wasn’t a piece of junk.

But Apple did meet that price, and the iPad isn’t junk. The iPad is still the first, and best-selling, product of its kind. Competitors, meanwhile, are having trouble hitting that $500 sweet spot.

Motorola’s Xoom tablet is debuting in the United States with an $800 price tag. (To be fair, the most comparable iPad is $730 — but there’s no $500 Xoom planned, and the lack of a low-end entry point will hurt Motorola.) Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, with a relatively puny 7-inch screen, costs $600 without a contract.

Why is it so hard to get to a lower starting price? And how was Apple able to get there?

Jason Hiner of Tech Republic suggests it largely has to do with Apple’s retail strategy. Apple now has 300 retail stores worldwide selling iPads directly to customers. That’s advantageous, because if the iPad were primarily sold at third-party retail stores, a big chunk of profit would go to those retailers, Hiner reasons.

Apple has partnered with a few retail chains such as Best Buy and Walmart, but those stores always seem to get a small number of units in stock. Hiner rationalizes that the true purpose of these partnerships is probably to help spread the marketing message, not so much to sell iPads.

“The company can swallow the bitter pill of hardly making any money from iPad sales through its retail partners because it can feast off the fat profits it makes when customers buy directly through its retail outlets and the web store,” Hiner says. “However, companies like Motorola, HP, and Samsung have to make all of their profit by selling their tablets wholesale to retailer partners.”

The retail advantage is a reasonable theory, but Hiner neglects to mention the high overhead costs that Apple must pay handsomely for each of its 300 stores. To Hiner’s credit, Apple running its own stores does present clear benefits: the customer outreach is enormous, and of course, in Apple stores, Apple products don’t have to compete with gadgets sold by rivals on other shelves.

But when we try to decipher why the iPad costs $500, we have to consider the sum of all parts, not just the retail strategy.

Thanks WIRED

EXCEPTIONALL | “Exceptional B2C innovations will increasingly come from all corners of the globe, with brands and talent from emerging markets in particular getting ready to shine.”

Now that virtually the entire world has joined the consumer arena, prepare for an avalanche of new brands, entrepreneurs and innovations from ‘emerging’ markets that will have global potential and appeal. From aggressive Chinese brands to Turkish creatives to Brazilian apparel, we’re seeing a sharp increase in world-class companies that can and will compete for consumers’ Dollars, Reais, Euros, Pounds, Rupees, Rands, or Liras.

Sure, the expansion of global markets creates new opportunities for existing well-known brands, but the real story of the rise of these new powerhouses is the new brands that are making waves, both within their domestic markets, but increasingly outside these, competing and even beating the established, entrenched incumbents at their own game. One thing’s for certain – the range of brands that consumers covet will be even more diverse in twenty, ten or even five years.

Go over to Trendwatching and read the report

The most recent Duracell Toy Report suggests that kids don’t have no mo love for the Nerfs and Legos of our childhood. I say yours and mine because I’m relatively young for the world and I only got my first computer when I was in my teenage years, and I know the majority of the people on the internet still are people my age. I enjoyed action figures. According to Duracell, kids have switched over to Apple gadgets, Playstations, and Harry Potter video games.

Children quizzed this year added up to be thus: approximately 39 percent of children of all ages quizzed wanted Apple gadgets this year. Seventeen percent of 5-8 year olds, 50% of 9-12 year olds, and 66% of 13-16 year olds all had Apple right up on top of their lists.

The top 10 toys for Christmas 2010, according to the report are:
1) iPhone 4 (14%)
2) iPod touch (13%)
3) iPad (12%)
4) Kinect for Xbox (6%)
5) Zhu Zhu Pet Hamsters / Kung Zhu Hamsters (5%)
6) Flip Video Camera (4%)
7) Toy Story 3 Jet Pack Buzz Lightyear (4%)
PlayStation Move (4%)
9) LEGO Harry Potter Years 1-4 Video Game (3%)
10) Barbie Video Girl (3%)

The report was made up of 2,138 children and parents equally quizzed. The report found that 3 out of 5 parents asked would be buying presents that would “keep their youngsters quiet throughout the holidays.” That’s scary. I mean it makes sense, sure, keep the kids quiet so you can live your life, but that’s a kid. Parents, do you want a world where everyone is busy on a screen forever? Do you want that kind of world for future generations?