Which will you choose: Samsung or Apple?

Apple, the powerhouse of top consumer electronics, is finally getting some competition from another company. Apple has never had to deal with a challenging company that was able to produce a profitable and popular smartphone or tablet until the new upcoming company Samsung Electronics. The Galaxy S III smartphone is the first smartphone to compete in sales with the Apple Iphone. Since Samsung produces phones and tablets they have now became a potential challenger to Apple. Theses two companies are the top two that are making turning profits in the in the highly competitive mobile phone/tablet industry. Apple gets a whopping 72 percent of the earnings while Samsung gets the rest of the profit.

These two companies control the marketplace for these products. With this competition Apple now has to lower prices and produce new smartphones and tablets quicker so that they can compete with Samsungs products. Samsung does not only just produce phones and tablets but they also produce other goods like computer chips, flat-panel displays, refrigerators, washers and dryers, cameras, vacuum cleaners, PCs, printers and TVs. Both Apple and Samsung have a different approach with dealing with the marketplace. Apple approaches the marketplace by creating new markets and dominating them like they did with the iPhone and iPad. While Samsung invest more into studying existing markets and produces a new product inside that specific market. Vice president of Samsung, Kim Hyun-suk said “We get most of our ideas from the market….“The market is a driver, so we don’t intend to drive the market in a certain direction.” Apple has a different outlook on the marketplace the founder of Apple Steve jobs doesn’t believe in investing into market research; he says that consumers don’t know what they want so that’s why he has to tell the consumers what they want with his products.

Apple and Samsung couldn’t be any more different from the way the do research to the way they manufacture their product. The factors of production in Samsung are very different compared to Apples factors of production. By Samsung investing in research and development they were able to produce a product that had a bigger display screen of 5.3 inches. The opportunity cost of investing more in research and development is that Samsung could have used that money on something else like producing more product or in advertising. They learned this by listening to what consumers want on the next smartphone. Samsung Electronics has a slightly bigger revenue than Apple but Apple is larger in stock market value. Samsung has 60,000 staff members that work in 34 research centers across the globe that sees what the consumer wants and what trends are big at the time. Samsung relies on Consumer Sovereignty because they are persuaded by the consumers to produce a product based off what they want.

Samsung unlike Apple remains a manufacturer while Apple contracts out the assembly of its devices. Samsung has built its business around producing and selling components to other manufacturers  including their competitors Apple, Sony, and Hewlett-Packard. Apple buys many components from Samsung like flash memory processors, graphic chips, solid-state drives and display parts. Apple uses these parts to include them in their own products like the iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices and MacBooks. Both companies are look to produce the next big thing. All we the consumers have to do is wait and see which company does it first Samsung or Apple.

Power to the People

We learned so much in our government course the first two trimesters of the school year like Foundations, Civics, Elections, Congress, the Presidency, and the Court. The topic that grab my attention the most was how average citizens shape the course of government in democracy through pathways of action. The five pathways of actions that citizens can take part in, to effect the government in a democracy is through elections, courts, lobbying, grassroots mobilization, and cultural change.

Pathways of action are the activities, institutions, and decision points in American politics and government that affect the creation, alteration, and preservation of laws and public policies in our government. These pathways our routes of change in our system of government. The first pathway that citizens use to take part and effect the government is the elections pathway. Our government is based on a representative democracy where voters elect the leaders who run the government. The citizens play a big part in our government because the people who are running to be elected depend on the voters to vote for them so they can be elected into our government. The actions of the leaders in our government are influenced by the citizens because they leader has to keep the voters in favor of him so that they can be re-elected next time they run for office. The activities that the citizens can take part in to effect the outcome of our government are voter registration drives, fundraising, political campaigning, and each individual vote each voter takes.

The second and third pathway that citizens can use to effect our government our the lobbying pathway and court pathway. The lobbying pathway is vital for citizens because they use this pathway to attempt to influence the activities, actors, and institutions of government by supplying information, persuasion, or political pressure. The lobbying pathway is mostly used in the decision making process in our government. These legislatures are made up of elected representatives who more often have to face the voters in elections. Through this pathway individuals or organized groups can present information on a topic to try and persuade the government officials to listen to their input. Citizens use this pathway to try to convince these officials to support or oppose a certain law proposal. The third pathway that citizens can use to effect and take part in our government is through the court pathway. I learned that in the United States the judges have broad authority to order the government to take a specific action. Citizens in the United States are granted specific legal rights that they can use for filing lawsuits against the government. Citizens must hire an attorney and pay for gathering and presenting evidence to the court. One prime example of how citizens can use the courts pathway is in the Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin case. This student is filing a lawsuit for the University of Texas for not accepting her due to her race and accepting other less qualified diversed applicants instead of her. This court case is still going on today.

The last two pathways that citizens can use to effect our government is through the grassroots mobilization pathway and the cultural change pathway. The fourth pathway that citizens can use to effect our government is through the cultural change pathway. This pathway is an indirect approach to influence the government. This requires the citizens to be committed and determined. The final pathway that citizens can use to effect our government is through grassroots mobilization pathway. This is used by citizens when they want to influence the direction of law and policy by mobilizing others to join them in taking strategic actions. The most common way to use this pathway is when citizens boycott or protest against something they do not agree with and want the government to change it. One recent example of how citizens use this path is when a group of americans got together to protest the United States Drone strikes. Some citizens are opposed on the idea of the United States using drones on enemies so they are protesting the United States to stop using the drones because they do not agree with the use of these drones.

With these pathways the citizens of the United States play a big role in shaping our government. Our government depends on the people because it is powered by the people.

Colorado Shoots for Gun Control

Ever since the shooting at an Aurora movie theater last summer there has been a national rise of gun control proposals to stop these unfortunate events from happening again. Also with the recent Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting gun control has become a popular debate topic in politics. This debate over whether or not to enhance restrictions on firearms has become a constant focal point for state legislators this year. Gun control is an issue that the United States has been dealing with for a long time. It is very hard to find a solution that both sides would agree with, but since these recent shootings there has been more pressure into finding an agreeable solution to gun control.

With these shootings the United States is trying to figure out how they can reduce gun related violence. We must act fast before another tragedy occurs due to gun violence that results in multiple deaths. There is one state that has been pondering tougher gun laws since the Columbine school shooting in 1999, this state is Colorado. Colorado has had recent experience with gun violence due to the Aurora “Dark Knight” shooting. This state has lived under the shadow of two of the worst mass shootings in United States history. Gun proposals are being pushed hard by state Democrats this year due to the recent gun shootings. In the article from New York Times lawmakers in Colorado have moved closer on passing a package of new gun restrictions this past Friday. Colorado’s House of Representatives gave approval to legislation to require background checks on private gun sales and also placing limits on ammunition magazines.

Both Republicans and Democrats were paying close attention to this issue to see the results of this topic. State Representative Rhonda Fields who is a Democrat said “There is a common thread that we see in these massacres” he believes that these mass shootings are happening because “They’re using high-capacity magazines.” Since they are using high-capacity magazines it gives them the ability to unleash as many bullets as they can to fulfill in committing these mass shootings and killing off as many people as they can with the ammunition they have. Many Republican legislators argued that the proposed magazine limits would have little to no effect on gun violence. Jared Wright, a Republican who is State Representative from Fruita, says “It makes no difference to public safety if there are 10 rounds in a magazine, whether there are 15 rounds in a magazine or whether there are 30 rounds.” Personally I agree with State Representative Jared Wright on how making magazine limits will have little effect on gun violence. By trying to change the size of the magazine of a gun will not effect or stop people from causing another tragic event from happening again. I believe that there needs to be more drastic gun control laws so we can stop these shootings from happening. Republicans also are not in favor of the background check proposal because they say people that are buying guns from a federally licensed gun dealers must already undergo a background check in Colorado just like in every other state that is under federal law. Republicans state that all of these new proposals for gun control will not stop criminals and felons from committing another mass shooting and I agree with them. I do want to see stricter gun laws but these proposals will have little effect on gun control in the United States.

There are many aspects and views on gun control and citizens of the United States should research and learn about the topic before giving their own opinion about it. What I learned from reading this article and comparing it to our government class is that there’s a difference between finding a solution to a problem and the politics behind the solution. Both sides have to agree on the solution and it needs to satisfy each of the sides view on the problem.