Welcome to TowneBank - based in Virginia
Full service banking. From on the internet banking and bill payment to commercial and personal loans.

Personal Banking
Welcome to the home of HSBC’s personal banking. Follow our links to the local sites, where you can obtain details of personal banking, accounts, loans and credit cards etc

Banking
Wage and salary employment in banking is projected to decline 2 percent over the 2004-14 period, compared to 14 percent growth for wage and salary employment across all industries

Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking
The Banking Agency of the Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB dbfi Website

banking.sc.gov - Home
Home. The Office of the Commissioner of Banking regulates State chartered banks, savings banks, savings and loan associations, credit unions and trust companies.

Banking-Commerce-Online Glossary
Commerce Bank Serving Central PA.

Banking Information from the FRBSF
A gateway for bankers and financial institutions to information from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Banking Supervision and Regulation department

Colonial Bank :::::
Welcome to Colonial Bank, your Financial Strength in Local Hands. At Colonial Bank, our goal is to provide the kind of banking experience that’s hard to find these days.

Welcome to pricelinefinancial, banking by EverBank!

Barclays Wealth - Information centre
International and Private Banking services from Barclays Wealth A range of services to meet your cross border, offshore and private banking needs

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Good news, Products and services, Industry, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), AT and T (T), Research in Motion (RIMM), Technology

The question of whether or not Americans would be willing to dish out close to $600 for a new iPhone has already been answered. The iPhone was definitely one of the (if not the) biggest product launches of 2007, and just how successful Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)’s new iPhone has been doing was made even more obvious with its third quarter sales figures.

Sales have been so good in fact, that in its first full quarter of sales, the revolutionary iPhone outsold all other smartphones with the exception of the BlackBerry from Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM). This is an accomplishment that is even more impressive when you consider the obstacles that the iPhone was up against:

• iPhones have been put on sale only in the United Says
• iPhones are available for service only with AT&T (NYSE: T)
• iPhones weren’t available in some pretty massive markets inside the United Says, including much of Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota and Alaska

Even with the above barriers to entry, the iPhone was able to gobble up a very impressive 27 percent of the total smartphone marketshare during the quarter. With its 27 percent share of the market, the iPhone has already outpaced the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Media lineup of smartphones, which is now sitting in a solid third place.

The iPhone’s success will undoubtedly change the landscape of the mobile phone market forever. For one thing, the launch of the iPhone resulted in the smartphone market growing by a big 180 percent. That is a huge inflow of new consumers into the market based solely upon the iPhone hype. Companies have definitely been paying attention to the iPhone and we have the ability to expect to see more smartphone designs hitting the market. But don’t be surprised to see some pretty hefty price tags attached to the next generation of smartphones. If the iPhone proved anything, it is that consumers will pay whatever it takes to get the products that they crave.

Looking ahead to 2008, I would not expect any shakeup in the top 3. The iPhone should be able to easily hold off Microsoft, but I do not believe that we will see a changing of the guard in the top slot just yet. The BlackBerry should definitely be concerned about the red hot iPhone, but should not be in any sort of danger of handing over its number 1 spot any time soon.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor’s Observer. DISCLOSURE: Mr. Fowlkes owns and/or controls diversified portfolios of long and short stock and option positions that include holdings in AAPL.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Forecasts, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy

Despite a shaky economy where recession concerns gain ground everyday, vehicle demand is booming for at least one major auto maker. Vehicle maker Honda expects that even in a recession, people will continue to need cars, and from this point of view, Honda anticipates its global sales will jump 6% this year to a record 3.76 million vehicles, helped by strong demand in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

According to Takeo Fukui, the automaker’s president, Honda plans to invest in research for hybrids and other new technology in Japan to face “the competition in hybrids” which has just begun. Let’s remember that Toyota has already made the Prius, which is currently the top-selling hybrid.

Honda intends to create a new hybrid model that runs on gas and electricity, and its sales are expected to reach 200,000 cars a year. The company’s strategy will be based more on hybrid offerings as overall hybrid sales are estimated to bring about 10 percent of Honda’s sales in the next four years.

Looking ahead, the automaker forecast a North American sales growth of 3 percent to 1.59 million in 2008, and a rise of 3 percent to 1.55 million cars this year.

Since Honda already has such a strong reputation for providing more fuel efficient automobiles, the recent surge in oil prices helped Honda’s sales and the company plans to increase its revenue by investing about $425 million in a new center in Japan to focus on hybrids and fuel cells research.

Eliza Popescu is a financial writer for the on the internet investment advisory service Investor’s Observer.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) have been saying for years that the next frontier for internet-based advertising is the cellphone screen. With wireless handsets having high-speed data connections and really impressive (but small) screens, and with cellphones outselling Computers one would think both companies are right on the money. Not a quarterly conference call with Google can go by without CEO Eric Schmidt alluding to the mobile ad space as a whole new frontier for Google.

When a research firm like Gartner predicts $11 billion in industry revenue from mobile advertising in 2011, that is the kind of figure that makes many stand up and pay attention. But so far, mobile advertising reality isn’t turning out to be rosy as that. Mobile advertising is an industry worth under $1 billion in 2007; can it really skyrocket to over $11 billion in four years? Most likely, no.

A main reason for this is the incredible complexity of mobile web browsing on the mainstream cellphone (lack of a keyboard, perhaps?). I’m not talking Palm Treos, iPhones and other muscular, do-it-all phones, but the kind the average joe carries in that front pants pocket. Do you know of many people who regularly access the internet on their cellphone? Consider it for a second. According to Jupiter Research, only 16% of Americans regularly access the web on all those cellphones. What’s going to get that figure up to 50%?

For one, a much less convoluted way for normal phones to hop on the internet, making it as simple as web browsing on a Personal computer. It’s nowhere near that now, save for a handful of device categories like smartphones and the like. Think text messaging could be the answer? Will customers stand for being interrupted with advertising over text messaging? It’s an opportunity that could launch a consumer revolt more than anything. What’s left, then? Mobile advertising will get there and indeed win the day — just not by 2011 and in the numbers predicted.

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Bad news, Launches, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) launched its new Android cellphone software with a huge PR blitz. The new system would allow thousands of developers to write applications for handsets. The operating system would open up a closed system that had granted cellular carriers to dominate what features people could get on their phones.

The plan may have run into a wall. There appear to be a number of bugs in the developer software for Android, which are driving developers trying to build applications for it crazy. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Google stated the software kit it released last month amounts to an ‘early look’ designed specifically to get developers started as soon as possible and to elicit their feedback.”

The feedback is hideous. Google states it is cleaning the software up.

It would be easy to state that Google is stretching itself too thin by entering a number of new markets. Cellphones are not very closely related to the company’s core search engine development. Google feels that there will be a day when there’s a limit to PC-based search activity growth.

Moving Google software to handsets grants the company to get a foothold in the next platform for internet service — the wireless handset.

Google has plenty of engineers. The problems with Android probably have nothing to do with resources which are too thin. It’s just careless development and quality assurance.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Share This

Share This

SBDCNet; Finance
Finance. Buying or Selling a Business. Checklists, articles and guides about buying or selling a small business:. The Buyer Seller Relationship …

Finance
Master of Science degree in Finance and Graduate Certificates in Investments and Financial Management are offered by the Carey Business School of Johns …

San Diego Source > Finance
The San Diego Source is your city guide to San Diego. We've got San Diego news, business, finance, real estate, construction, legal , government, …

LCB - Finance Department
Information on undergraduate, MBA and doctoral curriculums.

Personal Finance | Dallas Business News | Dallas Morning News …
Business.gov's Guide to Business Finance, Loans and Allows provides plain language resources that help small businesses find loans and grants; …

My Way Finance - Home
Get quotes, stock research, and portfolio tracking, plus world-class content and functionality from leading partners such as Associated Press, …

Amazon.com: Finance - Business & Investing: Books: Banks & Banking …
On the internet shopping for Finance Business & Investing from a great selection of Books; Banks & Banking, Corporate Finance, Foreign Exchange, Inflation, …

Business.gov - Official Government Guide to Business Finance …
Business.gov's Guide to Business Finance, Loans and Grants provides plain language resources that help small businesses find loans and grants; …

Google Finance Help Center
To contest a parking ticket in person, make a payment, record a deed or conduct other Finance business in the Bronx, visit 3030 3rd Avenue …

Henry B. Tippie College of Business :: Department of Finance
Earnings data provided by Zacks. Mutual fund data provided by Valueline. Market commentary and personal finance content provided by Smartmoney.com. …

Share This

Share This