Monticello Banking Company
Serving the banking needs of Monticello and Wayne County since 1895.

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Begin here to bank and pay bills online. Wells Fargo provides personal banking, investing services, small business, and commercial banking.

Jasper Banking
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Coastal Banking Company
About The Company Coastal Banking Company, Inc., headquartered in Beaufort, South Carolina, is a bank holding company organized as a South Carolina corporation with two wholly

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Filed under: Consumer experience, Internet, Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

Napster (NASDAQ: NAPS) — the mother of all file-sharing services that in 10 years’ time has found itself one among many digital-music services struggling for its very survival — is hoping its new move will attract more users. This day, Napster CEO Chris Gorog said the company is shifting to MP3 downloads free of digital-rights-management software [subscription required], or DRM.

The move is expected to occur sometime in the second quarter, but Napster has yet to finalize the arrangements with some of the four major music companies - Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE), Warner Music Group, EMI Group and Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group. The final three on this list recently began selling MP3s on the download service available through Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). Sony has yet to report plans to sell its tracks as MP3s, but is reportedly expected to come forward soon.

The main value of MP3s is that they have the ability to easily be burned to CD format and can also be played on nearly any digital music player, including Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPod. Previously, tracks acquired at Napster were only able to be played on devices using Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Media platform. The new format would also enable file sharing, according to today’s feature in The Wall Street Journal.

The article notes that Gorog hopes this move to basic MP3s will “boost [Napster’s] download business, but … said the larger significant is the promise ‘to break down the dominance of the shut iPod-iTunes system.’” Napster is certainly not the first, and it won’t be the last, company to try to chip away at Apple’s incredible market dominance. Others have failed, but Napster’s familiar name could give it a modest edge.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research.

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Filed under: Competitive strategy, AMR Corp (AMR), UAL Corp (UAUA), Delta Air Lines (DAL)

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) Monday stated it is continuing to review strategic options and that it didn’t anticipate an “immediate” sale of its regional jet service Comair, Reuters reported.

Delta’s shares fell 21 cents to $13.18 in mid-day Monday trading.

Delta (NYSE: DAL) has considered a sale of Comair since exiting bankruptcy in April 2007. Along with a company restructuring and an evaluation of Comair’s operation, Delta is exploring strategic options, including joint ventures or mergers.

Last fall, Delta and United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) denied that they’d held merger talks after a hedge fund Paradus Capital Management LP suggested that they merge.

For years, sector analysts have argued that the U.S. airline sector needed two or three mergers to reduce the number of carriers, eliminate redundancy and create greater economies of scale and increased efficiency.

However, continued, solid leisure travel demand has led to fuller flights and modest pricing power for the airlines. Prior to the upturn, for all but a few flights, airlines rarely increased ticket prices beyond what was needed to cover higher fuel costs.

In the past two years, however, persistent travel demand has enabled some of the major carriers to boost prices, with United, American Airlines (NYSE: AMR) and Delta all recently announcing fare increases by up to $20 per flight.

Still, concerns about a possible slowdown in the U.S. economy in 2008, combined with uncertainties stemming from the volatile oil market — one where an airline can incur substantial losses if the price of oil rises or if it hedges against an oil price rise that does not occur — have prompted some analysts to continue to argue for mergers, in spite of the carriers’ overall cash flow improvement.

Sector Analysis: The argument, from an efficiency standpoint, remains with mergers. Still, from an executive management attractiveness standpoint, the sector appears to be stuck in neutral, one where each carrier seeks to be the managing company in the deal. The emboldened management stance is typical among companies that sense their strengths have increased and / or will increase. Hence, it may indeed take softer conditions in the airline sector for deal talk to become more attractive to the potential parties involved.

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Filed under: Consumer experience, World wide web, Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

Napster (NASDAQ: NAPS) — the mother of all file-sharing services that in 10 years’ time has found itself one among many digital-music services struggling for its very survival — is hoping its new move will attract more users. Today, Napster CEO Chris Gorog stated the company is shifting to MP3 downloads free of digital-rights-management software [subscription required], or DRM.

The move is expected to occur sometime in the second quarter, but Napster has yet to finalize the arrangements with some of the four major music companies - Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE), Warner Music Group, EMI Group and Vivendi SA’s Universal Music Group. The final three on this list recently began selling MP3s on the download service available through Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN). Sony has yet to report plans to sell its tracks as MP3s, but is reportedly expected to come forward soon.

The main value of MP3s is that they can easily be burned to CD format and can also be played on nearly any digital music player, including Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPod. Previously, tracks acquired at Napster were only able to be played on devices using Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Media platform. The new format would also enable file sharing, according to today’s feature in The Wall Street Journal.

The article notes that Gorog hopes this move to basic MP3s will “boost [Napster’s] download business, but … said the more massive significant is the promise ‘to break down the dominance of the closed iPod-iTunes system.’” Napster is certainly not the first, and it won’t be the last, company to try to chip away at Apple’s amazing market dominance. Others have failed, but Napster’s familiar name could give it a modest edge.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research.

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Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) stated that sales of its troubled PS3 picked up over the holidays, selling 1.3 million units in North America. According to The Associated Press, this increased “the strength of the company’s Blu-ray video format because the console also works as a Blu-ray player.”

Perhaps that is part of the reason that the PS3 has not done better than its rivals, the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)’s Xbox 360. Is the PS3 a Trojan Horse for Sony’s HD video strategy or is it a game platform?

Part of the problem in selling the PS3 has been what the consumer had to pay to play. Until the current price cuts, it was more pricey than the Xbox 360 and twice as expensive as the Wii. This almost certainly undermined unit sales. Without a Blu-ray player as part of the hardware, the game console could probably have had a cost base which was much lower.

Sony might have injured the ongoing marketing of its gaming product by “mixing” it with the company’s plans to dominate high-definition content playback. The PlayStation was once the consumer electronics company’s flagship and was highly profitable. Now the game unit loses money.

Sometimes two goals from one company put into a single product just creates a mess.

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

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Filed under: Competitive strategy, AMR Corp (AMR), UAL Corp (UAUA), Delta Air Lines (DAL)

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) Monday said it is continuing to review strategic options and that it did not anticipate an “immediate” sale of its regional jet service Comair, Reuters reported.

Delta’s shares fell 21 cents to $13.18 in mid-day Monday trading.

Delta (NYSE: DAL) has considered a sale of Comair since exiting bankruptcy in April 2007. Along with a company restructuring and an evaluation of Comair’s operation, Delta is exploring strategic options, including joint ventures or mergers.

Last fall, Delta and United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) denied that they had held merger talks after a hedge fund Paradus Capital Management LP suggested that they merge.

For years, sector analysts have argued that the U.S. airline sector needed two or three mergers to reduce the number of carriers, eliminate redundancy and create greater economies of scale and increased efficiency.

However, continued, solid leisure travel demand has led to fuller flights and modest pricing power for the airlines. Prior to the upturn, for all but a few flights, airlines rarely increased ticket prices beyond what was needed to cover higher fuel costs.

In the past two years, however, persistent travel demand has enabled some of the major carriers to boost prices, with United, American Airlines (NYSE: AMR) and Delta all recently announcing fare increases by up to $20 per flight.

Still, concerns about a possible slowdown in the U.S. economy in 2008, combined with uncertainties stemming from the volatile oil market — one where an airline can incur substantial losses if the price of oil rises or if it hedges against an oil price rise that does not occur — have prompted some analysts to continue to argue for mergers, in spite of the carriers’ overall cash flow improvement.

Sector Analysis: The argument, from an efficiency standpoint, remains with mergers. Still, from an executive management attractiveness standpoint, the sector appears to be stuck in neutral, one where each carrier seeks to be the managing company in the deal. The emboldened management stance is typical among companies that sense their strengths have increased and / or will increase. Hence, it might indeed take softer conditions in the airline sector for deal talk to become more attractive to the potential celebrations involved.

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Filed under: Products and services, Launches, Competitive strategy, Microsoft (MSFT), Sony Corp ADR (SNE)

Sony (NYSE: SNE) said that sales of its troubled PS3 picked up over the holidays, selling 1.3 million units in North America. According to The Associated Press, this increased “the strength of the company’s Blu-ray video format because the console also works as a Blu-ray player.”

Perhaps that’s part of the reason that the PS3 has not done better than its rivals, the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)’s Xbox 360. Is the PS3 a Trojan Horse for Sony’s HD video strategy or is it a game platform?

Part of the problem in selling the PS3 has been what the consumer had to pay to play. Until the current price cuts, it was more expensive than the Xbox 360 and twice as expensive as the Wii. This nearly certainly undermined unit sales. Without a Blu-ray player as part of the hardware, the game console could probably have had a cost base which was much lower.

Sony may have hurt the ongoing marketing of its gaming product by “mixing” it with the company’s plans to dominate high-definition content playback. The PlayStation was once the consumer electronics company’s flagship and was highly profitable. Now the game unit loses money.

Sometimes two goals from one company put into a single product just creates a mess.

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

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Filed under: Forecasts, Industry, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, General Motors (GM)

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) may be taking the concept of the designated driver a bit far. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company is “prepared to spend millions of dollars in pursuit of something long viewed as science fiction: a vehicle that drives itself.”

The new automobiles, if they ever come to market, will be able to park themselves, accelerate and brake without the driver’s help, and move around spots with traffic congestion. In theory, the vehicles will be safer because they will take certain functions that may be critical in avoiding accidents and give them to a machine.

The plan does have drawbacks. One is clearly going to be cost. The driverless automobiles won’t be money savers; they will still need engines, wheels, seats and radios. That actually means that a “driverless” vehicle is prone to be more expensive. In an era where fuel costs could stay high for years or even decades, it isn’t clear that consumers want to spend more for vehicles with fancy features.

GM might feel that it needs more bells and whistles to make its cars more attractive than competition from Japan, but products with better quality, longer warranties and higher fuel mileage might work just as well.

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

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

Now that Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) has lost its pole position as the leader of internet search on the PC, it is quickly moving its services to the handset market, hoping it isn’t too late. The announcement will be made at the Consumer Electronics Show.

According to The New York Times, “Yahoo is planning to announce that it has opened up some of its key mobile software and services to outside publishers and programmers in an effort to make Yahoo’s own mobile offerings more useful to more people.”

Unfortunately for the US portal company, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and several handset companies are already working on similar projects. Cellular services providers also look to phone software and content to help them increase income beyond phone sales and voice service.

The Yahoo! announcement is a perfect example of the stretch many companies make around the Consumer Electronics Show. Each firm feels it has to make some significant announcement unless it wants to appear to be irrelevant. Yahoo!’s news is just a “me too” for mobile software services.

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

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Filed under: Forecasts, Industry, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, General Motors (GM)

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) might be taking the concept of the designated driver a bit far. According to The Wall Street Journal, the company is “prepared to spend millions of dollars in pursuit of something long viewed as science fiction: a vehicle that drives itself.”

The new vehicles, if they ever come to market, will be able to park themselves, accelerate and brake without the driver’s help, and move around spots with traffic congestion. In theory, the automobiles will be safer because they’ll take certain functions that may be critical in avoiding accidents and give them to a machine.

The plan does have drawbacks. One is clearly going to be cost. The driverless cars won’t be money savers; they’ll still need engines, wheels, seats and radios. That actually means that a “driverless” car is apt to be more expensive. In an era where fuel costs could stay high for years or even decades, it is not clear that consumers want to spend more for vehicles with fancy features.

GM might feel that it needs more bells and whistles to make its vehicles more attractive than competition from Japan, but products with better quality, longer warranties and higher fuel mileage might work just as well.

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

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