"…IBM said the weaker dollar helped to push revenue up 10 percent."
"…International Business Machines Corp. said revenue grew 10 percent from the year-ago period, with 6 points of that growth related to the weaker dollar."
At the heart of it, Global companies, like IBM, can hedge their bets by investing all over the world (some part of the world can be doing better than others, like our own part of the world, the United States, which is moving towards or in Recession).
"…The broad scope of IBM's global business — led by strong operational performance in Asia, Europe and emerging countries — drove these outstanding results,'' said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and chief executive.
For fiscal 2007, IBM reported earnings rose 18 percent to $7.18 per share, including a 5-cent gain on the sale of its printing systems division in the second quarter, on sales of $98.8 billion, representing 8 percent growth year-over-year."
I suppose, it can be said Global companies don't have put all their eggs in any one basket, which is why they can prosper in situations like the one we're in now. Notice, however, not one word about operations in this country; and I have to wonder what the loyalty of a company that is so global – do they still layoff people here, because US operations aren't doing as well, or do they use that Global Profit (surplus) to bolster US Operations?
I suppose, the same argument can be made for the United States – the dollar is very weak, yet due to it's inherit weakness, more tourists (record number of tourists in New York – just read about it this morning), more foreigners investing in US Properties, helps to keep the service economy running.
It's hard to say anything is fully good or bad, it all depends on where you sit.
"..Twomey used The Sims Online as an example of the sort of interface all companies in the future will be using, in fields including retail, client services, B2B and advertising. Twomey cited the interface behind Google Earth as another example of a “game-like interface” that has been put to real world use. Twomey said that geolocation services would also play an important role in the virtual Internet, suggesting that the way we will interact within next generation virtual Internet services would have a strong geographical focus."
According to WikiPedia - "Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown dramatically since the wide introduction of the Internet. "
Meanwhile ECommerceTimes has a story on Virtual Worlds: An Economist's Sandbox where "..On July 25, the company controlling Second Life announced that it would no longer allow gambling. Economic activity was cut by nearly half as gambling halls shut down. That's a recipe for disaster in any economy, but the online world stayed on an even keel."
Also, Marshall Brain at HowStuffWorks.com explains ECommerce in several simple steps but I'd like to see it updated to include Virtual Worlds ECommerce. Right now the examples given are:
"..
heard about all of the companies that offer e-commerce because you have been bombarded by their TV and radio ads
read all of the news stories about the shift to e-commerce and the hype that has developed around e-commerce companies
seen the huge valuations that Web companies get in the stock market, even when they don't make a profit
purchased something on the Web, so you have direct personal experience with e-commerce ."
According to TechCrunch:
"..It’s interesting that the head of the body that controls the Internet believes that the world of tomorrow is virtual; Twomey didn’t suggest that it may happen, he stated that it would be as a fact.Virtual worlds such as Second Life may not be the exact model used in the future, but there is little doubt that if Twomey is correct they are certainly heading in the right direction."
There…take that! All the critics saying they're not convinced about Virtual Worlds – they don't get it – but the head of by organization that runs the Internet does.
I just follow my own opinion, and you know what it is.
"…The bottom isn’t here. It’s not even in sight yet,” said Richard F. Moody, chief economist with Mission Residential, a real estate investment firm in Austin, Tex.
Builders and developers are scaling back as Americans are finding it more difficult and more expensive to obtain mortgages. And as credit standards tighten across the entire lending industry, mortgage companies are finding it difficult to raise cash and to sell their loan portfolios."
That's not good news for the architects that I know – you don't sell many plans if no one can borrow money to build anything.
"…New-home construction fell everywhere except in the Northeast, where it increased 6.1 percent at a seasonally adjusted annual rate, compared with last July. On an unadjusted basis, however, construction in the Northeast fell.
In the Midwest, the adjusted rate of construction dropped 17.5 percent. In the South, it fell 26.3 percent; in the West, 21.5 percent.
Economists worry about a ripple effect if the credit market gets tighter, cutting off loans for more individuals and corporations. Stricter borrowing conditions could cause home sales to fall even more, which could in turn depress prices further. And the effect of falling home prices could cut into consumer spending, which would harm economic growth."
I looked at the visit count using the top 5 house plans sites in Google (query = "house plans") and this is what it shows traffic in visits is mostly static:
But what's more telling is the Engagement Score is way, way down for all the sites which implies sales are way down and interest is …down:
According to Compete the Attention Score is the total time spent on a domain as a percentage of the total time spent online by all U.S. internet users. See Full Description. In other words, the average internet visitor to houseplans.com, architectualdesigns.com, globalhouseplans.com, thehousedesigners.com or coolhouseplans.com is about about 45% less interested in Architectual House Plans than they were a year ago.
Interestingly, the traffic to top Bankruptcy Sites (that resolved to domains) was overall sharply up:
And Attention of the Average Visitor is way up from a year ago:
All while People Visits to Forclosure sites went up sharply from last year:
Overall, about 30% more visitors (people) are going to the top 5 Foreclosure Sites this year than the same time last year.
But let's try one more thing… if interest in "house plans" is really lower due to the market conditions than interest in "home builders" ought to be way down…right?
Well, take a look a this – I took the top 5 home builders from Google that Compete had data on and look what I found:
The interest of the average visitor to home plan builder sites is roughly half of what it was a year ago! What does that tell us?
The Housing Market is weak….very weak. It's going to take a lot more than traffic and even well designed websites that are search optimized to sell house plans.
That's why I have tried to point my clients in the direction of Social Networks and increasing the value they offer to potential buyers; but, it may be too late in some cases.
