PlayStation 4 vs. Xbox One

The products are officially out and the results are in, so now we can pose the question, who is the winner?



Xbox One matched PlayStation 4 console sales on day one of over one million. Xbox One was released in North America, Australia, and parts of South America and Europe. The console is sold out in most places Microsoft said as they work to refill stocks.
Nonetheless, PlayStation 4's first day totals are a bit more impressive because the console only launched in the U.S. and in Canada, a significantly smaller market.

PS4 and Xbox One deals and bundles
If the $399 price tag was not tempting enough, Sony announced that the PS4 will get an assortment of promotions on launch day. Every retail PS4 box will contain a voucher for a $10 wallet credit for the PSN store, a 30-day free PlayStation Plus trial membership, and a 30-day Music Unlimited trial membership. The two 30-day trials are \ valid for new subscribers only. You also get the opportunity of a month of PlayStation Plus which will get you some free games and $10 is always better than $0.

Features 
Xbox One is called the One for a reason. As Matthew Moskovciak says in his deep dive into the Xbox One as a living room device, Microsoft wants to bring all your living room entertainment -cable TV, gaming, and streaming-video -to a single user interface with the help of a sophisticated second-generation Kinect camera/motion sensor and video pass-through functionality that's included with every $499 Xbox One. "That's a stark contrast to Sony's gaming-centric PS4, which has jettisoned -- at least at its launch -- many of the living room features that endeared it home theater enthusiasts, including support for DLNA, CDs, MP3s, JPEGs and any type of digital video file," Moskovciak says. While the PS4 has some impressive new features, including PS Vita remote play the prior game broadcasting (other users can watch you play) and clip sharing, and a $59.99 camera of its own for amplified reality games and facial-recognition sign-in, the Xbox One has a seemingly more robust feature set that seems more futuristic. The concept of  switching between playing a game and watching TV at an instant  -or even watching TV while playing a game- is very appealing.
The only problem is that Microsoft still has some work to do on the software.


Performance 
The PS4 seems to have a slight performance edge but you can expect that most games look almost identical on each console.
Where the Xbox One's performance score took the more significant hit  when it came to controlling and navigating the system. The fact of the matter is it only identified voice commands about 75% of the time, which does create frustration. That should improve in the future, but for now it is a problem.

Design  The design incorporates the design of the hardware and the designs of the software. The PS4 has the advantage in both instances. From a hardware outlook, the most apparent difference is that the PS4's power supply is integrated into the box while the Xbox One (much similar to the 360 before it) except it still has a chunky exterior power brick. The PS4 controller is also preferable. It has a built-in rechargeable battery doubles as a motion controller (which replaces the PS Move), includes a built-in speaker and headphone jack, in  addition to a share button which offers quick links to social media sites.  You can now even recharge the PS4 remote while in standby mode.
 
Value 
The PS4 has the leverage of being $100 cheaper than the Xbox One, which includes the Kinect. When you add in the PlayStation Camera ($59.99), which  enhances the PS4 experience but is not particularly necessary. Although, the only problem is you cannot really do anything with the Xbox One without an Xbox Live gold membership (which costs $60 per year). That makes the Xbox One's real cost to $560 (including the membership fee).
Sony now requires you to buy a PS Plus account ($50 per year) if you want to do any online gaming. However, you can use applications such as Netflix without buying a PS Plus account.
In the end, if the Xbox TV overlay feature (OneGuide) and all the innovative Kinect features worked perfectly -and without certain restrictions, such as lack of DVR support- it would be easier to say those extras merited spending the extra $100 on the system along with the $60 Xbox Live yearly fee. Until Microsoft works out the kinks, in my opinion the PS4 gets the higher value score.

Production Costs
According to Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House the PlayStation 4 costs $381 for Sony to build, $18 under its retail price of $399. The figure comes from a hardware teardown by research firm IHS that included the bill of materials, which amounts to $372, as well as per-unit cost of assembly in the assessment. The teardown notes that the system's processor and memory account for about half of the cost of the entire console at $188, and that the PS4's 500 GB hard drive is $1 cheaper than the 120 GB one found in the PS3, thanks to the major decline in HDD costs during the past four years.
A Microsoft executive said that each sale of the upcoming Xbox One console will break-even or be sold at profit from its launch date.
According to Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi, the company plans to make money on selling games for the console and the Xbox Live subscription (which, he noted, has grown to 48 million members now).
“The strategy will continue which is that we’re looking to be break even or low margin at worst on Xbox One,” said Mehdi. “And then make money selling additional games, the Xbox Live service and other capabilities on top. And as we can cost-reduce our box as we’ve done with 360, we’ll do that to continue to price reduce and get even more competitive with our offering.”

Elastic or Inelastic?
According to Investopedia the degree to which a demand or supply curve reacts to a change in price is the curve's elasticity. Elasticity varies among products because some products may be more essential to the consumer.
Regardless of the fact that both of these products are elastic, meaning that they are not particularly necessary, but a luxury, these products are highly desirable.
This is demonstrated by the fact that both products sold over one million units on launch date.
Important aspects of the products such as design and innovative features all contribute to the popularity of the product. The more advanced the features are the more appealing the product is. Additionally, where the product is sold also contributes to the products level of success. You would assume that the larger the market the higher the sales, but in regards to the Xbox One it was available in all of North America, Australia, and parts of South America and Europe but the PS4 still matched the amount of sales (over one million units) in just the United States of America and Canada which is definitely impressive. So you also have to take product loyalty into account. When consumers become committed to your brand and make repeat purchases over time. Brand loyalty is a result of consumer behavior and is affected by a person's preferences. Loyal customers will consistently purchase products from their preferred brands, regardless of convenience or price. Although, the PS4 is available at a cheaper price in comparison to the Xbox One as well.
Another important component to a successful product is how the company markets their product. The company say Sony or Microsoft has to make their gaming console appealing to people of all ages in order to increase their profit. The larger the target group the better the product does in terms of sales.

In conclusion, I think that the PS4 won in practically all categories stated previously.

Price Elasticity of Demand

In the past week, we have been learning the concept of elasticity and inelasticity. We have learned about how different people have their own ways of looking at how far they are willing to spend on a certain product. As discussed in class, elasticity is known for one in which price change brings about a greater proportional change in the quantity that the consumers demand while with inelasticity, instead of a greater proportional change, the price change brings about a smaller proportional change in the quantity that consumers demand.

In one of our previous classes we were to watch a video about the “life changing” Tummy Tuck jeans, also known as “the most uplifting jeans in the world.” These jeans were targeted towards women over 40 years old and the company suggested selling the jeans for about $100 per pair. The only reason why they suggested selling the jeans for that price was because the CEO of the company has a daughter who believes that women all over the world of all ages, races, religions and background have trouble reducing weight on their tummy and therefore, cannot wear the jeans they long to wear. The demand for these jeans is inelastic because no matter what the price was, women over 40 are willing and able to purchase these jeans even during an economic recession.

Another article that was found was about the Prime Minister of Malaysia announcing that the subsidy for the sugar will be cut down by Rm0.20 (0.07 Canadian) per kg meaning that the price of the sugar will be raised by that amount for every kg. From the history of Malaysia based on the article, the price of sugar increased 4 times in the past three years or so. According to the Prime Minister, the price of the sugar was raised because there were too many people with diabetes. A good example to apply this was comparing the two chocolates: Kit Kat and Cadbury. Price elasticity of demand of Kit Kat chocolate refers to the extent of change in price of a product demanded by buyers in response to the change in its prices. When the price increases from RM5 to RM6, the quantity demand decreases from 100 units to 70 units. The total revenue decreases from RM500 (RM5 x 100units) to RM420 (RM6 x 70units), it shows that the price is elastic. Due to the fact that Kit

Kat is more popular, the quantity is responsive to price changes. When the price of Cadbury increase from RM5 to RM6, the quantity demand decreases from 100units to 90units. The total revenue increases from RM500 (RM5 x 100units) to RM540 (RM6 x 90units), it shows that the price is inelastic. Since Cadbury isn’t as popular as Kit Kat, its quantity is less responsive to price changes. After reading this article, price elasticity of demand is very useful in helping brainstorm price strategies for a product. It can help managers and owners realize how changes in price of a product will affect the quantity being sold.

In conclusion, it’s nice learning about the price elasticity of demand because it’s crazy how much quantity can be affected when there is a change in price. I personally am a part of the big portion that will not pay if prices increase. The only time I would pay is if it’s reasonable and I know what it is worth.

Work Cited

"The Malaysian Insider." Sugar 20 Sen Dearer from Tomorrow (2012): n. pag. The Malaysian Insider. 28 Sept. 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2013

"Subsidy of Sugar ,price Elasticity of Demand of Kit Kat and Cadbury." Web log post. Talk About Economics. N.p., 28 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.

How does Supply and Demand affect pricing?

The past week we have been taking about how supply and demand affect the price of a product. We also did a game where there was a shortage of ice and people had various reasons as to why they need the ice. There were two methods for getting the ice. The first method was a first come, first serve basis. A majority of us sat down because of the benefit of the ice was lower than the opportunity cost to wait for the ice. The second method was where we found out everyone's benefit of the ice and found out the equilibrium price so everyone would get the ice at a fixed price. From this activity, we learned that when supply decreases and demand increases, the equilibrium price increases.

Now I'll talk about what supply and demand is. Supply represents how much the market can offer. Demand refers to how much of a product or service is desired by consumers. Supply and demand is an economic price determination in the market. It pretty much sums up that in a competitive market, the unit price for a particular good will vary until it settles at a point where the quantity demanded by consumers will equal the quantity supplied by producers, resulting in an equilibrium of price and quantity.

There are four basic laws of supply and demand:

1.      When demand increases while supply remains the same, it leads to a higher equilibrium price and quantity.

2.      When demand decreases while supply remains the same, it leads to a lower equilibrium price and quantity.

3.      When supply increases while demand remains the same, it leads to a lower equilibrium price and higher quantity.

4.      When supply decreases while demand remains the same, it leads to a higher equilibrium price and lower quantity.

When supply and demand are equal the economy is said to be at equilibrium. When this happens, the allotment of goods is at its most efficient because the number of goods that are being supplied is the same as the number of goods being demanded by consumers.  Therefore, everyone is satisfied with the current condition. At the current price, the suppliers are selling their goods and consumers are receiving the goods that they are demanding. There can also be a disequilibrium when there is an excess of supplies or excess of demand. If the price of a product is set too high, an excess of supply will be created and there will be allotment inefficiency.  Excess demand happens when the price is set too low and because of this too many consumers want the goods while producers aren't making enough of it.

My analysis

In conclusion, I think that having an equal amount of supply and demand is good for the economy. Both producers and consumers are satisfied because producers are making the right amount of goods so consumers get what they wanted.

                                                                    What Demand Determines

        
                                     
 Hello friends,



              We have recently been learning the concept of demand and what demand determines. We have also learned how to see what demand determines through demand graphs and demand curves. We have also learned about perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly and monopolies. Demand is known to control the market and how much suppliers should be purchasing to supply the markets needs with. I will start by talking about the concept of demand in the market, demand is based on the principle of a consumers desire and financial ability to purchase a good or service. Demand determines the outcome of businesses and economic growth. Demand is the key ingredient for business survival.

The next thing I would like to talk about is Perfect competition. Perfect competition is when there is no participant or business owner that has the market power to determine the price of a product. There are no barriers to enter or exit these types of markets. Perfect competitions are also not long term, if profit is to be made it must be made short term due to fluctuation in economic costs. There are very few of these markets today and an example of perfect competition would be buying and selling financial assets.

Monopolistic competition is when producers sell different items from one another but completely ignore competitions set prices. No business has total control over prices because  of the differentiation in products and marketing. A prime example of monopolistic competition would be restaurants, McDonalds sells things at a different price then Burger King. Although their products are similar they are not the substitutions for one another, they are not exactly the same and different economic costs and marketing schemes exist.

We also learned about Oligopoly which is a market form of small buyers dominating the market. There is complete control over prices. Due to the extreme similarities in market products, pricing must be controlled. There is also government in some industries such as the car industry. A good example of Oligopoly would be the cellular device market. 89% of the United States cellular device market is made up of four companies which are AT&T,Verizon,Sprint and T-Mobile. This shows a few companies dominating one market which is what Oligopoly is all about.

A monopoly is in my opinion the most corrupt kind of marketplace. A monopoly is a single based market,which means there is not competition. A single person or company is the only supplier of that specific good or service. They posses total control over prices because there is no fluctuation in the market and no competition. An example of a monopoly would be MPI, MlCC and Manitoba Lottery Corporation. These are all government run,supervised and corrupt by the government.





http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/28/apple-confirms-its-unclear-whether-there-will-be-enough-retin/
My Analysis
I really enjoy the topic of demand because demand is what makes the business world tick. Many jobs have been created through demand. If you have a product that is heavily demanded and you market and price correctly, you will be successful. Apples products have been in huge demand in recent years, everybody has an Iphone, Ipad or Ipod. They market extremely well but to me their prices are a bit expensive. They have much desired products and they have an amazing strategy which is the key to success. In the famous words of Johnny Giannakis " If you are selling pears and people want apples, put your head between your legs and kiss your a** goodbye from the business world. Wise words my friends, wise words.

THE PROCESS OF PRODUCTION

Hi Everyone,

Last week, we were given a picture and asked to come up with questions and about the picture. One of the questions was how do products get from manufacturers to consumers, which got me thinking about the production process. So today, I’d like to talk about the process by which we get our goods and services from producers. As you are all aware, we have learnt so far in Economics class about the production cycle. We learnt that through the production cycle, people provide producers with factors of production (e.g. labour), and consumer expenditure, and they in turn provide goods and services, and wages, rent and dividends to consumers or households.

The Times 100 Business Case Studies describes the production process as the economic process which involves transferring a range of inputs into those outputs that are required by the market. There are 2 types of resources involved in the production process: the transforming resources and the transformed resources. The transforming resources include the buildings, machinery, computers (land and capital) and people (labour) that carry out the transforming processes. The transformed resources are the raw materials and components that are transformed into end products.

Any production process involves a series of stages in a production chain. At each stage, value is added in the course of production. Adding value involves making a product more desirable to a consumer so that they will pay more for it. Adding value therefore is not just about manufacturing, but includes the marketing process, including advertising, promotion and distribution that make the final product more desirable. It is very important for businesses to identify the processes that add value, so that they can enhance these processes to the ongoing benefit of the business.

The article talks about three main types of production process: job, batch and flow production.

Job production involves making an individual product or service and finishing that project before moving on to another project. It is the creation of single items by either one worker or a team of workers. Job production is unique in the fact that the project is considered to be a single operation, which requires the complete attention of the worker before he or she passes on to the next job. Examples from the service industries include cutting hair, and processing a customers' order in a store.

Some benefits of job production are:

1. The job is a unique product, which exactly matches the requirements of the customer, often from as early as the design stage. It will therefore tend to be tailored specifically to a customer's order.

2. Specifications for the job can change during the course of production depending upon the customer's inspection to meet his or her changing needs.

3. Working on a single unit job, coping with a variety of tasks and being part of a small team working towards the same aim would provide employees with a greater level of satisfaction. For example, aircrews working for United Airways would treat each flight as a specific job, with passengers requiring individual attention to their specific needs - e.g. for vegetarian dishes, wheelchair access to the flight.

Batch production

The term batch refers to a specific group of components, which go through a production process together. As one batch finishes, the next one starts. For example on Monday, Machine A produces a type 1 engine part, on Tuesday it produces a type 2 engine part, and so on, until all the engine parts will finally be assembled together. This method is sometimes referred to as 'intermittent' production as different job types are held as work-in-progress between the various stages of production.

The benefits of batch production are:

1. It is particularly suitable for a wide range of almost similar goods, which can use the same machinery on different settings.

2. It makes possible economies of scale in techniques of production, bulk purchasing and areas of organisation.

3. It makes costing easy and provides a better information service for management.

Flow production

If the “rest” period in batch production disappeared it would then become flow production. Flow production is therefore a continuous process of parts and sub-assemblies passing on from one stage to another until completion. For flow production to be successful there needs to be a continuity of demand, otherwise, there would be a constant overstocking of finished goods. The benefits of flow production include:

·         labour and other production costs will be reduced through detailed planning and the use of robotics and automation

·         deviations in the line can be quickly spotted through ongoing quality control techniques

·         as there is no rest between operations, work-in-progress levels can be kept low

·         investment in raw materials and parts are quickly converted into sales

·         control is easy.

This is a video showing flow production in the production of carbonated soft drinks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B9W_bIu4z8

My Analysis

To conclude, I believe that the process by which products and services are created is very important, as it is necessary to fuel the economy. We also have to find ways to improve the production processes, in order to ensure efficient use of resources at all times. Thank you.

 

Works Cited

 http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/business-theory/operations/production-process.html#ixzz2iwAiBfJt

 

 

North Korea in economics

North Korea in economics 

North Korean emblem

In one of our last classes we have gotten to watch a documentary on North Korea and I was interested in the fact that a nation that is so small could be so powerful and influential on the world. North Korea is a totalitarian regime with a fascist government and fascist way of running their economy, when we compare that to a country like Canada, Canada is a peaceful democratic country where the people elect the government to try to benefit all classes. Considering the differences of these two countries, how is it possible that North Korea, being smaller in size and number, can have so much global impact around the world

What is North Korea's economic system and economic policies?

North Korea poster displaying its power

North Korea is a hereditary dictatorship which is a form of dictatorship except the political power is passed down within the family. The autocratic government is ruled by a dictator, Kim Jong Un, who has the right to do as he pleases without having the need to abide to the law. In the economic system of North Korea the main points of the country's system are power is put into a dominant authority, criticism of the government is not tolerated, opposition parties are strictly banned, free movement or emigration of citizens is forbidden, and there is no voting to elect a new leader. Although North Korea is a isolated and small society, the country happens to have the forth largest standing army in the world which is why they are feared by most of the world, because of all of the destruction that they could potentially cause.

Compare and Contrast North Korea and Canada 

North Korea's structured army

Here in Canada, we live in a democratic society. We have the right to vote to pick who runs our leader, we pick our government, and were able to have a voice that is listened to by the government for whats best in our society and what can be done to help better each province in the country. Canada contains 9.98 million square kilometers, the second most largest country in the world next to Russia, and is home to as many as 33 million people but only happens to be ranked 37 in world population compared to North Korea that only contains 120,540 square kilometers, an incredible difference of over 9 million square kilometers in size. Despite the land size difference, North Korea still has a bigger army and is feared by most of the world as they have to power and intimidation to scare off any smaller country army. North Korea is ranked 65 in the world in population with 24.8 million people, yet is able to fit its inhabitants into such a small area compared to Canada. In free societies such as Canada, people can do as they please, yet in a totalitarian dictatorship, people are oppressed, and the government needs a stable army to protect them from the people that they rule. North Korea has the forth largest standing army in the world and 40 percent of the population makes up the Korean Peoples Army. It is obvious that Canada and North Korea are immensely different nations as their ideas of civilization and regulation are very unalike.

Why North Korea is feared by many

Aside from Iran, in 2013 North Korea is considered one of the most feared countries in the world because of the power that they hold, their large military force, and the potential destruction that they can cause at any time and at any place on earth, despite the fact that they are such an isolated society. Earlier this year North Korea threatened America with their nuclear weapons so they that they could destroy their "aggressors".  In 2009 North Korea declared that they have produced a nuclear weapon and had weapons of mass destruction. With not only the restrictions that the country has on its inhabitants including the internet which happens to be very censored and usually only available in the capital, and with what is considered on of the worlds worst human right records, North Korea is feared because its government is portrayed as an evil party that restricts people who live within its society to being a free to do what they really want to. They are a very isolated country with a large population, people living within the country are starving, they formed a large military base with 40 percent of the population that make it up, they constantly threaten other countries with their superior nuclear weapons, and tourism is extremely limited as only 3000 western tourists visit North Korea each year which starts people asking questions like whether it is a country that would be enjoyable to be able to travel to in the future

Socialism in Canada

Socialism in Canada

In the past few economics classes we have learned and talked about the importance of budgeting and how different governments run. We have discussed how communism, fascism, socialism, and capitalism work and how they can change a government greatly. We learned about the importance of budgeting, how to compromise, how to share power roles and how to split up a budget according to importance.

Is Socialism Accepted?

The article I am reviewing is called “NDP votes to take ‘socialism’ out of party constitution”.

The NDP government voted earlier last month to take the word socialist or socialism out of the parties’ constitution. The party believed that referring to socialism in its constitution is controversial and that they need to take steps to modernize the system. The party believes that the public react negatively towards reference of socialism in Canada and they believe by changing the constitution, people will be more willing to vote NDP in the 2015 election.

The talk about changing the constitution began after the 2011 election. Jack Layton believed that the reason Canadians where not comfortable with voting NDP were because the parties view where out dated and old, So Jack Layton took action and tried to modernize the views of the NDP and what the NDP stand for. He died shortly after. However his view lived on and 960 out of 1148 people agreed to change and modernize the constitution.

Bill Blaikie a socialist delegate spoke out on the matter. Mr. Blaikie believes that is it is a good thing to change the definition of socialism in the constitution of the NDP because he believes the definition is out dated and they need to show Canadians of a more democratic socialist government. Mr. Blaikie believes most people don’t fully understand what it is to be a socialist and think people would like it if they knew the affect it would have on everything.

This article coincides perfectly with what we are learning because earlier last week we all did projects on government system, we are also learning about budgeting and how to deal with money. Socialism is one of the government systems we did. It also deals with money. As Said before socialism deals with the distribution of wealth so instead of one person being in charge of the so called budget, the entire public population is in charge of the money circulation.

What is Socialism?

Socialism is an economic system that is based on social ownership, state ownership, and citizen ownership of equity. It means that everything is owned by the public rather that the 1 percent owning and running everything. It consists of production and distribution of goods and services to use not just for private profit.

Socialism in Canada

Socialism in Canada would not work. We live in a country where everything is run and operated by money, so we live in a capitalistic government system. Everything is dictated on whether you have enough money, whether there is enough funding, and if you get paid when you’re done. Even if we could establish a Socialistic system it would soon turn to communism. In a socialistic system there is no leader, no one person to make a quick decision if needed. The problem is someone would have to make a decision and take it upon themselves to lead and guide the country. This is why socialism doesn’t always work.

My opinion

In my opinion I find socialism to be a good idea, sharing the power and wealth. However I don`t think it has a chance of working. People are very greedy and this greed leads people to love possessions and especially money. If everything was owned and shared by everyone then nothing would advance because there would be no economic gain for the people. For example technology and medicine would not progress. I think that a social government would begin and a communist government would take over. My opinion on the article is that I think the NDP did the right thing and changed the constitution because most Canadians don’t know what socialism is, if the party were instead able to teach people what socialism is completely about I think they would have a better chance winning!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-votes-to-take-socialism-out-of-party-constitution-1.1385171

-Daniel Kosinski