ByMike Moffit

Dear Friends,

It is snowing as I look out the window and my road is barely passable as we have one of the latest springs in my memory. There are crocuses peaking up as I look out my kitchen window and I am starting to see buds on the trees, but that white stuff falling from the sky just isn’t conducive to spring joy. It won’t be long though until the Green Mountains will be green again.

My trip to China was a great adventure. I went with my friend and colleague, Jason Wu and we spent three long days walking the floors of the China Sources Fair and the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, and then had appointments in Shenzhen and Dongguan to visit factories. We also had our, now traditional, dinner with our friends from out west, Simple Mac, who were also sourcing products for their stores.

The flight out was long, but my Delta flight across the USA had WiFi on board and I was able to surf, instant message and work all the way—that is so handy. The flight from LA to China left at 1:30AM so I tried to get some sleep but it’s never easy on a plane. Fortunately, when I arrived in Hong Kong at 9AM they had my hotel room ready so I was able to sleep until dinner and mostly recover from jet lag.

You will soon see some of the new products we discovered, it is really like looking for a needle in a haystack as we walked the hundreds of booths at the shows. One reason we always pick a few companies to go visit in the mainland is that often times, you cannot get the real flavor of a company until you visit its factory. We visited one potential speaker manufacturer, and as they showed us the assembly line we noticed the lack of quality control stations which we had seen at other factories. In another factory, we were concerned about the ventilation for the workers gluing leather pieces together. We do these examinations to assure ourselves that the working conditions are safe for the employees and that we are dealing with responsible vendors. Then we double check with our guy in China, Simon Liao, who checks on our production, interfaces with the factories and does final quality control.

The big news this week is Apple’s outstanding financial results with the largest year over year growth of any quarter ever at over 83%. I have the details for you below.

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  • I am heading to New York to visit the manufacturer of the electric hub motor I plan to use on my electric motorcycle conversion project. Dave Sellers and Steve Miracle will be flying down with me for the day to determine if this motor will meet my design criteria of 100MPH and 100 mile range. I’m glad to be back in Vermont, but this late April snow stuff is putting a crimp in my early season riding. Whichever of my employees predicted a late first ride is going to win that contest.

    Thank you for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

    Your Kibbles & Bytes team,
    _Don, Ben & Kali_ (Welcome back KALI!)

  • eWaste Update

    Last week we announced this year’s eWaste recycling events. In case you missed the announcement, this year we’re holding free eWaste events in both Vermont and New Hampshire. The Vermont event is scheduled for Saturday, May 14th at National Life Insurance Headquarters in Montpelier, VT. Our 2nd annual New Hampshire event will be held on Saturday, May 21st at the Mall of New Hampshire in Manchester, NH. Both events are completely free and are “all-you-can-eWaste!” Each event will take place between 9:00AM and 2:00PM. While the vast majority of electronics are recyclable and will be accepted, there are a few exceptions–namely kitchen appliances and air conditioners. If you plan to collate your eWaste prior to the events, double check it against the accepted materials list “*here.*”:http://www.smalldog.com/ewastevt

  • Earth Day 2011

    Today is Earth Day, which–this year–is themed after the Earth Day Network’s ‘A Billion Acts of Green’ campaign. This program seeks to amass one billion pledges by the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil. At the program’s “*website*”:http://act.earthday.org/ users can submit their ‘Acts of Green’ towards the program’s goal. We encourage you to visit the site and submit an ‘Act of Green’ of your own. Regardless of if it’s big or small, you’ll still be making a difference!

    The environment is extremely important to us here at Small Dog Electronics. We strongly factor in Planet with People and Profit in our triple bottom line, and do our best to implement environmentally sustainable and green business practices on a daily basis. In 2004, we wanted to expand our commitment to the environment, so we began a local eWaste recycling program through our Vermont retail stores. This initiative has since expanded, and in 2007 we initiated a free recycling day in honor of Earth Day. This year, even if it’s as small as switching out a desk lamp with a compact fluorescent lightbulb, we encourage you to be as green as possible.

  • Apple PAVES the Street

    Grace came into the office yesterday afternoon after the Apple financial results were announced, and I said I needed a new verb to describe what Apple did to Wall Street with their latest quarterly results. She suggested “Apple paves the street” which is totally appropriate. Apple posted sales of $24.7 Billion dollars! I remember when Apple’s goal was to post $5 Billion in sales for an entire year. This quarter they posted just under $6 Billion in PROFIT! This compared to $13.5 Billion in revenue and $3.07 Billion profit for the same quarter last year. These numbers are the best results for a non-holiday quarter

    Here’s some of the details:

    * Apple sold 3,760,000 Macs, a 28% increase year over year and close to the all time record- this growth is contrasted with an overall 3% contraction in the PC market

    * Apple sold 18,650,000 iPhones for the quarterly sales record, this is 113% growth!

    * Apple sold 9,020,000 iPods representing a continued decline in iPod sales

    * Apple sold 4,690,000 iPads as the iPad 2 was launched and Apple worked to meet the overwhelming demand- Tim Cook described it as the “mother of all backlogs”

    * Apple will host its 1 billionth retail customer this month and retail stores are doing well.  I do not talk much about Apple retail, don’t go there–patronize your local Apple Specialist for superior service and support!

    * Apple is posting sales at the rate of $190,332 a minute!

    * Apple has about $65,800,000,000 in cash and liquid assets in its war chest

    Apple continues to create new markets and innovative devices that seem to intuitively fit into our lifestyles. When I was in China I was simply amazed at how many iPads and iPhones people were using on the trains (which have WiFi, by the way). It used to be Dells and HPs being pulled out on the plane in business class, now it is usually a majority of Macs. Everyone who meets with me and has something other than a Mac says they want a Mac. There is no question that the most amazing story in American business history is unfolding before our eyes. The product pipeline is full, Apple continues to innovate and lead, leaving competitors in the dust. We have never been prouder to be an Apple Specialist!

    Congratulations to Tim Cook, Steve Jobs and the entire Apple team for an awesome quarter!

  • Apple Launches New Support Communities

    If you sought support from Apple’s user discussion forums last weekend, you may have noticed the service was down for an extended period of time. This was due to Apple’s rollout of its completely redesigned forum platform. Rebranded “*Apple Support Communities,*”:https://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa the service, and its encompassing pages, have undergone a complete redesign both in terms of aesthetics and functionality. In an effort to better facilitate a smooth transition for its large base of existing users, Apple has posted a series of tutorials on the Support Communities’ homepage. Covering the basics of creating a new account, asking and rating questions, and more, these tutorials are useful resources for new and existing users alike.

    Though the site’s redesign has not received universal praise, many users have already reported it more navigable and useful than its predecessor. Apple implemented a new social-inspired rating/ranking system that allows forum users to “like” posts and rate them based on their helpfulness. Users can also mark individual posts as correct which makes finding accurate solutions faster and more reliable. In turn, posters with a large number of correct answers will receive increased forum privileges and better positioning on the message boards.

    Apple’s established message board community is one of the largest and most dedicated in the entirety of the tech realm. As with any forum, not all information is accurate, but there seems to consistently be a higher percentage of correct answers. While not the exclusive nor definitive source of all Apple knowledge, Apple Support Communities can be a valuable asset and provide accurate solutions faster than simply “Googling it.”