EoW July 2010

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. 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 30 th 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 3 rd May that US demand for the iPad was still exceeding supply, but that the international launch of the device was set for 10 th 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,” 7 th 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.” Telecom

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EuroWire – July 2010