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Yashica Vashishtha

Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.

Hitachi : The History of Japanese Multinational Business Conglomerate

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Hitachi is a name that is more than a hundred years old and has been dealing in a number of fields successfully at a global level. The company has its global branch in more than eleven business segments including Information & Telecommunication Systems, High Functional Materials & Components, Financial Services, Electronic Systems & Equipment, Automotive Systems, Railway & Urban Systems, Digital Media & Consumer Products, etc. The company is the largest manufacturer of electric machinery and has made its name into the Fortune Global 500 list of 2012.

The Founder

Hitachi was founded by a Japanese electrical engineer Namihei Odaira, who was born on 15 January 1874, in Ienaka, Tochigi, Japan. Odaira graduated from the electrical engineering department of Tokyo Imperial University, in the year 1900. After graduating, Odaira started working as an engineer in a mining company. Within six years after graduating, he switched between various such companies, and after six years in 1906, he joined Kuhara Mining Company as an engineering section chief. His responsibility in the company included the maintenance of mine’s electrical equipment and electricity.

Hitachi
Image Source: hitachimed.com

During his job at the Kuhara Mining, he started manufacturing a five-horsepower electric motor with the help of one of his colleagues. Eventually, with the development of the induction motor, Odaira happened to found Hitachi, in the Kuhara Mining Company’s Hitachi copper mine, in the year 1910, hence, making the owner of Kuhara Mining, Fusanosuke Kuhara, the official president of Hitachi, instead of Odaira himself.

The History

Hitachi is a combination of two Kanji characters, Hi and Tachi, where Hi stands for sun and tachi means to rise. In 1918, the headquarter of Hitachi was moved to Tokyo. In 1920, Hitachi Ltd. was incorporated as an independent company, and Kuhara was removed from the position of the president. Odaira became the managing director of Hitachi and stayed at the same position from 1910 to 1929.

During the second world war, the American forces tried to destroy the Hitachi plants and disband Hitachi altogether. Also, Odaira got expelled from the company by the U.S. occupation authorities. It took three years for Hitachi to convince the armies to continue its functioning and except 19 of its plants came back into operation. In 1951, Odaira was taken back as the chairman of the company. The same year, in the month of October, Odaira passed away at the age of 77.

At the time of Korean war, in 1949, the American military offered various manufacturing contracts to the Japanese industries, including Hitachi, that saved the company from a complete collapse, after so much damage, and the death of Odaira. The company started gaining its previous position, and in 1959, it established the Hitachi America Ltd., followed by the establishment of Hitachi Europe, Ltd. in 1982.

In the year 2011, Hitachi Ltd. came into talks with Mitsubishi, for Japan’s largest merger, but due to some reasons, the deal got cancelled. In 2012, Hitachi acquired the United Kingdom-based nuclear energy company Horizon Nuclear Power, and it plans to establish up to six power plants in the UK.

Hitachi and Mitsubishi again had words regarding merging their thermal power businesses, in November 2012 and began the operations of the joint venture in February 2014. Hitachi owns the 35% shares in the joint venture, whereas Mitsubishi owns 65% shares of it.

Currently, Hiroaki Nakanishi KBE chairs the company, and Toshiaki Higashihara is the president of the company. Along with America, the company has expanded to the various parts of Asia, Europe, Middle East and Africa, etc.

Alibaba Smashes its own Last Year’s Single’s Day Sales Record

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Amazon and Flipkart broke their own previous records of sales in the past festive season sales held before Diwali. But, with the 10th annual Chinese shopping bonanza Singles’ Day, the Chinese internet business giant Alibaba group has made e-commerce history, after it generated a record $30.7 billion in only 24 hours.

Alibaba
Image Source: foshansourcing.com

The biggest sales day of China celebrated on 11/11, recorded a 1 billion sale in the first 1 minute and 25 seconds. Alibaba’s Single’s day sale aka the double 11, is the biggest e-commerce sale in the world. On the 11th of November, as soon as the sale started, at midnight, people were buying things from milk powder to iPhones on the website.

Alibaba.com is the biggest dominating e-commerce marketplace, in China, and it is also planning to expand to other countries as well. The Single’s sale is a month-long event that peaks on November 11, and this year it has surpassed its own record of last year’s sale. Last year, it had earned $24 billion in just short of 16 hours. Despite the highest sale this year, the growth rate fell from 39 per cent to 27 per cent, by the end of the day.

Almost ten years ago, the Alibaba group started the Single’s Day sale as a novelty student holiday to celebrate being single and treat themselves through retail therapy. But, in the past ten years, it has become China’s biggest shopping festive season sale. Although most of the Chinese public did not show much interest in the 2018’s Single’s Day sale, Alibaba was still able to surpass the total earnings of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales (2017) combined.

In 2015, Jack Ma the founder of Alibaba Group had shown an interest in making the Single’s Day sale open at a global level, and also, organised the first non-Chinese Single’s Day in Russia, tiny Hong Kong and the US, last year. The sale mostly included the purchase of mobile phones, wool coats and knitted sweaters. This year, the sale was also organised in South Korea, U.S. and Japan, where the purchase of the same items has been recorded.

Collett E. Woolman : The Co-founder & First CEO of Delta Air Lines

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Collett Everman Woolman was one of the principal founder and first Chief Executive Officer of the infamous Delta Air Lines. Woolman with his vision took a great leap in the airline business. From an employee of the Delta Air Lines to the CEO of the same, Woolman worked rigorously to lead the airlines, to be one of the best in the world. His hard work and inspirational life even took his name to the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame.

Early Life

Woolman was born on 8 October 1889, in Bloomington, Indiana, but spent most of his childhood in Urbana, Illinois. He completed his high secondary education from a local public school and entered the University of Illinois to pursue a Bachelor degree in agriculture. After his marriage with Helen H. Fairfield, in 1916, the couple moved to Monroe, in northeastern Louisiana.

Founding Delta Air Lines

After completing his education, Woolman joined Louisiana State University as an Agricultural Extension Agent. At the time, the Southern United States were facing a big issue with their agriculture works, i.e., the boll weevil, a cotton-destroying pest. A United States Department of Agriculture entomologist, Dr B. R. Coad, was trying new methods to solve this problem, and Woolmen also joined him in his mission. The ultimate solution, that they used against the boll weevil was to sprinkle calcium arsenate over the crops. As it was difficult to sprinkle the dry-powder over big fields, the team started doing the same with the help of army-loaned aircraft. The aircraft would dust out the powder over the fields, and the issue was solved.

C. E. Woolman
Image Source: deltamuseum.org

An aircraft manufacturer, Huff-Daland Aero Corporation, noticed the whole matter and formed a new division for crop dusting, naming it as Huff Daland Dusters, on 30 May 1924, and established the headquarter in Macon, Georgia. The Airborne crop dusting organisation was the first of its kind, in the world. Woolman was selected as the lead for the department and was appointed as the vice president and general manager of the same.

The company earned profits in the business, but as soon as the summer growing season ended, the need for the air dusting deceased, simultaneously. Woolman advised moving the service to other places, where the season was reversed and started operating in Mexico and Peru. With the help of Peruvian Airways Corporation, Woolman also started the passenger service in Peru. The agreement did not last long, but, Woolman gained the much-needed experience in the business.

In 1925, the company setup was moved to Monroe, Louisiana. At the same time, the Huff Daland Dusters was in financial trouble. The company was looking for a buyer for its bailout, and Woolman took the advantage of the opportunity, and on 13 September 1928, Woolman acquired the company, naming it Delta Air Service. The company started its passenger service on 17 June 1929 and received funding from its three new investors C. H. McHenry, Travis Oliver, and Malcolm S. Biedenharn. The first flight by the airlines was between Dallas, Texas and Jackson, Mississippi. In 1930, Woolman was named to the board of directors of the company.

At that time, there was a very less number of people who travelled through an aircraft. Hence, the company took a break from the passenger service and started functioning as an airmail service. Later, in March 1934, the passenger service was started again. In 1941, the headquarter of the company was relocated to Atlanta. After moving to Atlanta, Delta Air Service started adding new air routes and acquired a few other airlines. The propeller planes were replaced by the jets, and it started expanding towards the europian countries and across the Pacific. On 1 November 1965, Woolman was appointed as the chief executive officer of the company. Only after one year, on September 1966, at the age of 76, Woolman passed away, leaving a great legacy behind him.

Delta Air Lines After Woolman

In 1987, the company had a merger with the western airlines, and throughout the 90’s the airline saw rapid growth. In the late 90’s in competition with Southwest Airlines, the company launched a new sub-airline, named as Song. But soon, it started seeing failures due to the lower yields, higher fuel prices, and economic challenges. In the year 2005, the company got bankrupt.

During the bankruptcy, the company sold the old and unused aircraft, and the company shut the unprofitable routes and hubs. At the same time, Delta was trying to find out the loopholes in their functionality and was preparing itself for future with new strategies. In 2007, the company emerged as a polished and better version of its own, hence, operating to lead the company towards success.

On 14 April 2008, the company announced a merger with Northwest Airlines, forming the world’s largest airline. In 2010, the Northwest Airline accepted retirement, making the Delta Air Lines the wholly-owned company. Currently, the airline is functioning as the most prefered airlines across the world, due to its excellent customer service.

General Motors Stepping into E-Bike Business; Unveils the Models of First Two

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ebike
Image Source: mashable.com

Every business tends to walk forward and try to achieve new big things. But, as Elon Musk has already expressed his intention to bring new Tesla electric bike, the General Motors, has also released the prototype of their upcoming electric bikes, hence, moving from building big cars to developing smaller and convenient smart e-bikes.

The company has unveiled the prototype of two of their e-bike, one of which is the compact one, and the other is the foldable bike. The bikes are said to be smart e-bikes that are inspired by the company’s subscription-based communications, in-vehicle security and emergency services feature, seen in the OnStar cars. The bikes are designed keeping the security in mind and has the USB device charging points at the front. The bike is also equipped with the LED lights.

On the release, Hannah Parish, the Director of General Motors Urban Mobility Solutions, said, “As an avid cyclist and urban commuter, I know how great it feels to get where I’m going easily and to show up sweat-free. We blended electrification engineering know-how, design talents and automotive-grade testing with great minds from the bike industry to create our e-bikes.”

The GM’s electric vehicle team, including the engineers behind the Chevy Bolt, will be responsible for the development of the bikes. The bikes consist of a mid-drive electric motor and have got its battery mounted above it. The battery is a bit smaller and hence, needs to be re-activated by peddling the bike after the battery drains out.

The company has not revealed much about the e-bikes, and we have to wait to find out the full specifications of the bikes. But, the company has given a chance to the public to have an impression of their creativity on the bikes, as it has organised a campaign, in which people are welcomed to participate with their suggestions, for the name of the bikes, and the selected suggestion will win a prize worth $10000. And, that is not all, the nine runner-ups will also win $1000 as the prize money for their suggestions. The candidates can apply through www.eBikeBrandChallenge.com.

Startup Company Unveils World’s First Foldable Smartphone, Beats the major Tech Giants

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Quite unimaginable, but a start-up company has beaten the big giants by making the world’s first foldable smartphone named the Royole FlexPai. Although companies like Huawei and LG had expressed their intentions of developing bendable smartphones in 2019, now they won’t be the first ones to do so. The smartphone was unveiled by Royole Corporation, a California-based start-up company, at a conference, in Beijing, China on Wednesday.

The device is a tablet with a 7.8-inch display in a single panel that can be folded into halves, the screen remaining on the outer side, without breaking and making the size of the tablet fit into the pocket. The device is 7.8mm thick and can be bent up to 180 degrees, with the help of a hinge, that is placed at the spot of the fold. The device has the 1920×1440 pixels resolution screen. On the folded position, the screen on the edge shows the notifications and other settings options.

Royole FlexPai
Image Source: royole.com

The device is empowered by the Water OS 1.0, based on the Android 9.0 Pie OS and runs on the Qualcomm’s next-generation Snapdragon 8-series processor. Interestingly, the smartphone is using the latest processor, that still has to be launched officially in coming two months.

The smartphone is also providing better camera quality with a 16-megapixel widescreen lens and a 20-megapixel telephoto lens, dual camera, having an aperture of f / 1.8. The camera can be used when the screen is opened to the tablet format. The smartphone comes with a storage range starting from 6GB to 512GB, and a 3,800mAh Lithium Polymer battery.

The company has established a workshop in Beijing, China, for the manufacturing of the smartphones, and is currently available for the pre-orders in China only. The price for the three variant of the device is set as ¥ 8,999 (€ 1140) for 6GB RAM model, ¥ 9998 (€ 1265) for 8GB RAM model and ¥ 12999 (€ 1645) for 8GB RAM model. The company has proclaimed that it will spend 200 million yuan into global firms that would develop apps and software for the device. Also, the Royole FlexPai is said to be released in the global market in December 2018.

Palmer Luckey : The Home School Kid Who Brought a Revolution in the Virtual Reality

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An idea really can change your life, and if the idea is related to the technology, it is definitely going to turn your life around and give you many perks. The virtual reality was far from reality and only limited to the science-fiction stories and movies. But, a teenager brought the fiction into reality with its Virtual Reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift. Palmer Luckey is the mind behind such creative idea, that has changed the world of gaming and has opened new ways for Virtual Reality. The spotlight-shy engineer gives the credit to his home-schooling for his invention and the success that he earned at a young age.

Early Life

Palmer Luckey was born on 19 September 1992, in Long Beach, California, to parents Donald and Julie. His father was a salesman at a car dealership. Luckey did his initial schooling at his home, and it was her mother who tutored him. He grew an interest in the field of electronics and engineering at an early age and taught himself the same, through online classes. He grew up playing video games and watching sci-fi movies, developing an interest in virtual reality. During his childhood, he also went for the sailing lessons.

Palmer Luckey
Image Source: forbes.com

His passion for electronics engineering and virtual reality led him to try his hands on projects like coil guns, Tesla coils, and lasers. Also, based on the virtual reality, he created over 50 different head-mounted displays. One of his most expensive experiment was the development of a PC gaming rig using the elaborate six-monitor setup, costing him tens of thousands of U.S. dollars.

Along with the homeschooling, to earn the funding for his experiments, he worked at many places as a part-timer, including a groundskeeper job, youth sailing coach job, and a computer repair technician job. He also repaired and resold the old iPhones, earning at least US$36,000, from the business.

After completing the basic education, he took the community college courses at Golden West College and Long Beach City College, at the age of 14. He later took a journalism course in the California State University, Long Beach, and wrote for the student-run newspaper, Daily 49er, as an Online editor. At the same time, he started working as a part-time engineer at the Mixed Reality Lab (MxR) at the Institute for Creative Technologies and worked on a cost-effective virtual reality project.

Oculus Rift

Fascinated by electronics, lasers and virtual reality, Luckey at the age of 17, started experimenting with the head mounted virtual reality gears as he was not happy with his PC gaming rig. As it was not serving the purpose of creating a 3D environment for the gaming. In 2010, he developed his first prototype named PR1, followed by some other prototypes exploring features like 3D stereoscopy, wireless, and extreme 270-degree field-of-view. After developing the sixth generation VR box, he put it on crowdfunding website Kickstarter. By the year 2012, he received thousand of request regarding the availability of the VR box, and he dropped out of college so that he could focus on the advancement of the device.

During the process, he met the former executive of Gaikai and Scaleform, Brendan Iribe, and discussed the scope of the device, in the gaming world. Iribe liked the product and invested a thousand dollars in the production of the VR box for the Kickstarter campaign. The two started a company named Oculus VR, Iribe becoming the CEO and appointed Michael Antonov, as the chief software architect of the company. Luckey presented the VR box in front of Gabe Newell, Valve’s Managing director, Michael Abrash, a few gamers, as well as at many gaming conventions, including PAX, Gamescom, and QuakeCon 2012.

The Oculus Rift raised $2.4 million funding, during the Kickstarter campaign. Before the Kickstarter campaign, Luckey had shared that he is expecting to earn enough money that could compensate the money spent on the costs of parts, manufacturing, shipping, and credit card/Kickstarter fees, with about $10 left over for a celebratory pizza and beer. In fact, he had earned 974% of the original target, enough amount to buy a new office space and employ more staff for the company.

In March 2014, Facebook acquired Oculus VR for $3 billion, resulting in Luckey’s estimated net worth equal to $700 million, in 2015. Luckey continued working on Oculus within the Facebook office, till 2017. In 2017, he left the company without disclosing any particular reason to the media.

Personal Life

Luckey, even after, achieving so much at a young age, does not consider himself as a celebrity or a VIP. In fact, he is often seen in a casual look with a pair of sandals. After gaining the profits in the Facebook deal, Luckey bought a party house in the ritzy Silicon Valley town of Atherton, where he lives with his seven friends. He also spent $120,000 to buy a Tesla Model S. saying, “Elon Musk is a cool guy who deserves my money.”