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Keyword: R&D


Phone Power (2/26/2005)

Mobile phones that require less fixed investment and maintenance can extend telecommunications to areas that copper wires might have taken decades to reach.

Keywords: appropriate technology, Bangladesh, cellular phones, developing countries, digital divide, fishermen, Grameen Bank, India, market information, mobile phones, phone lady, R&D

Survival of the Fittest (3/7/2002)

In the PC business, low profit and generic products are compatible with market domination.

Keywords: commodity, Dell, direct marketer, direct sales, generic products, inventory, market share, PC, product innovation, profit margin, R&D, survival of the fittest

The High-Tech Treadmill (6/22/2001)

The profit of New Economy business firms that have very high R&D fixed costs and very low marginal costs is brutally squeezed in economic downturn.

Keywords: average costs, business cycles, competitors, demand, fixed costs, hi-tech companies, investment, loss, marginal cost, new economy, obsolescence, profit, R&D, sales, software, upgrading, venture capital

The Snowball Effect (11/9/2001)

Knowledge-based industries subject to increasing returns because of high R&D fixed costs and low variable costs naturally tend to monopolize the market.

Keywords: Adam Smith, avalanche, diminishing returns, fixed cost, increasing returns, lock in effect, marginal cost, natural monopoly, negative feedback, network externality, operating system, positive feedback, R&D, snowball effect, software