The Ford Motor Company, which is struggling to keep its grip on second place in the American car market, said Friday 18 August 2006 that it would cut by one-fifth the number of vehicles it plans to build in the final three months of the year. The slowdown represented the deepest production cuts since the industry’s crisis of the 1980’s. It also underscored the difficulty that Detroit, whose business relies on sales of sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, is having as gas prices remain around $3 a gallon. Detroit’s market share has dropped to its lowest level in history, while Asian brands, known for their fuel efficiency, are setting sales records. - NYT
Detroit, USA
Google
ANN ARBOR, Michigan | Google plans to build an office and research center that will have up to 1,000 employees.
Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., has been on an investment spree lately. It is spending $1.5 billion this year on operations centers, including a large site in The Dalles, Ore., and on custom technology.
- Mr. Page, a Michigan native, has maintained close ties with the university; his company is in the midst of a project to digitize all seven million volumes in the university’s libraries.
- Google has been scouting the city for up to 240,000 square feet of office space, according to a report last year in The Ann Arbor Business Review. Ann Arbor was among a handful of potential cities chosen from an initial list of 50, the report said.
- Most of the space would be used for a technology and call center, with about 40,000 square feet needed to house the library digitization project, which has been hindered by court challenges over copyrights.
Michigan
Michigan has lost nearly 300,000 jobs since 2000, and its jobless rate has been higher than the national average for 57 consecutive months.
Southeast Michigan, where numerous auto plants have closed, is trying to shed its Rust Belt image and market itself as a technology hub known as Automation Alley in an effort to make up for some job losses.
Ann Arbor
On a game day in Ann Arbor, you don't have to know your way to the stadium. Just plant yourself somewhere near the sprawling University of Michigan campus and wait to be carried along in the stream of students, fans and alumni heading for the city's main event: Big Ten football in the largest stadium in college athletics.
- With 107,501 seats, it could almost hold Ann Arbor's entire population of 110,000
Home Network
Sixteen percent of North American households now (2006) have a home network. Home networking adoption grew by 80% in 2005, on top of 61% growth in 2004. Tenured networkers — those who have had a network for longer than 18 months — are sticking with Ethernet in surprising numbers, but wireless technology is dominant in new networks. The average network has more than five devices connected and at least three different types, but most networks simply enable basic PC activities like broadband, file, and printer sharing. The shift to the entertainment-centric network remains well into the future.
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