EoW July 2010

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EuroWire – July 2010 19
In a column on environmental issues – specifically, taconite ❈ ❈
mining as a major source of air, land, and water pollution
– Karen Youso of the Minneapolis-St Paul (Minnesota)
Star Tribune discussed the recyclability of stainless steel.
According to the Washington-based trade association
Specialty Steel Industry of North America (SSINA), all stainless
steel products are 100% recyclable, with a recovery rate of
between 60% and 85% typical. Many recycling companies
will want the grade types of the scrap segregated (all 300
series together, etc), SSINA said. The International Stainless
Steel Forum, based in Brussels, says that new stainless steel
products are made from about 60% recycled stainless. While
the dozens of steps involved in making stainless steel – from
mining the ore to producing the steel – all consume energy,
stainless recycling does not itself stress the environment
significantly more than processes for recycling other steels.
Telecom
Discuss: Those first in line to pay top price
for a new electronic device perform a
valuable service for the industry and the public
According to Apple Inc (Cupertino, California), first-month
sales figures for its iPad tablet computer indicate that it sold
more than twice as fast as the company’s iPhone did when it
was new. Apple said that it sold a million iPads in the US in the
28 days to 30th April, when the newer 3G model was delivered to
its first buyers. That model can access AT&T’s cellular broadband
network. The units sold to that point had only Wi-Fi access.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs said on 3rd May that US demand for the
iPad was still exceeding supply, but that the international launch
of the device was set for 10th May. One person who could not
wait is Sayuri Watanabe, who flew from Japan to be among the
first to get an iPad when it became available in the United States.
Her photograph in the New York Times shows a jubilant young
woman flanked by beaming personnel of the Apple store in
downtown San Francisco.
Why did Ms Watanabe do this, when the iPad was certain to
reach Japan before long? Even more puzzling is why she paid
top price when the iPad would be cheaper – and probably better
– in a matter of months. The Times’s Damon Darlin framed the
quandary in stark money terms.
“A tough lesson about buying early could have been learned
by the iPhone’s first buyers back in 2007,” he wrote. “Those
early adopters paid $600 for a phone. Two months later, Apple
dropped the price to $400. Then, in June 2009, it introduced a
better version, with twice the storage, for $200, one-third the
original’s price.” (“Applause, Please, for Early Adopters,” 7th May)
Mr Darlin collected the views of a number of experts, which
need not detain us. Most were variations on the theme of
enhancement of personal prestige through the early acquisition
of a novelty in short supply. The most engaging explanation for
this seemingly irrational behaviour was offered by a professor of
behavioural economics, who told the Times, “I realized years ago
that I derive great pleasure from buying a new gadget.”