Hello, welcome to countdown. I am mark barton. And i am an edwards. Anna edwards. Blackberry is looking to the past to brighten his future. How their newn ceo is driving a return to physical keyboards. The details ofs the profit samsung prayer to how to 1000 u. K. Businesses feel about the economy . We dig into the latest report by the British Chamber of commerce. And jack lews agenda as he stops in paris. Onemphasis is back keyboards. That is according to ceo john chen. Chen is trying to rebuild the company after blackberrys 10 touchscreen models fizzled with what customers last year. It contributed to the means of dollars of writedowns. The return of the keyboard. Im not going to hide it. I have been a blackberry user and i was sort of wondered what happened to a company when every new model they come out what out with is a little bit worse than their preceding model. As a fan of the keyboard, i had a big issue with not only the touchscreen but also in blackberry did that. Even the hybrid ones. You did not know where to press and it was always making errant phone calls. And inconvenience. It is very inconvenience. Probably not inexpensive. Definitely awkward. It turns out im not the only one that likes the keyboard to be part of the package. Like very is a company that now intends to turn return to its roots. I personally love keyboard spirit and so you will look to blackberry Going Forward to keyboards. I would not use the word exclusively, but predominantly. Much of an of how emphasis theyre going to put on the keyboard is that theyre suing it a maker of a snap on keyboard. You take your iphone and you can step this new keyboard called the typo created by an upstart, founded by ryan seacrest, the founder of american idol. They are suing that company. The keyboard has not actually come out yet because they say it violates their patents and their designs. It would infringe upon them. It is evidence that they think that this is a, profitable and b, robin will to their business important to their business. Ironman is promoting htc phones. It was a year ago when alicia keys was wheeled out. Was it a partnership that works . I was never a alicia keys fan but one day i had a lot of time on my hands and i was going to places you dont normally go on your blackboard and i discovered one of her songs on there. Shes got empire state of mind. A lot of users out there were in an android estate of mine. The consumer has been lost to an extent by blackberry. Theyre going after governments again he focuses on security, as well. Likes massive, naturally. They have very good security. Theyre focusing on governments and corporations. One of the things that will be an issue is that a lot of corporations have migrated away from the blackberry because their employees did not wanted. Want it. A lot of companies have a bring your own device policy. That is going to be the big issue going for. Maybe they can return. It is interesting when innovation tries to use an old idea to reinvent itself. Even if theyre able to pull it off it is interesting to see if the companies will have that. Announced they were going to partner with foxconn. It removes the inventory problem which of course laster cost them billions. Theirple are still using blackberry for all their staff and currently evaluating where to go. It becomes a little bit easier to government if that is what they want to do. It is in some ways excellent for companies. They dont have to either devices for their company. Likes thank you very much. Es to samsung dropping reporting a drop in profits for the Fourth Quarter. Caroline hyde joins us for more. First profit drop in nine quarters . Profit is down by some eight percent but it is also the sales group you have seen in the same amount of time in more than two years. Not great figures. It is because they are being squeezed from the top and bottom. Apple stealing a market in higherpriced smartphones. The galaxy s4 is really the flagship phone. By a quarter in the Fourth Quarter. Million in the first weekend alone when it went on sale. We will see what china mobile will do with apple. That will only eat into market share. It is the dominant player in the world but this is a competition from the bottom top. You also have competition from the bottom, the Chinese Companies that are offering much cheaper phones and driving down average prices. You have saturation of the high end and you have competition hitting sales. This is not only of phone maker. , tv units. Isplays when 13 was not a great year for tv sales. Chips is the one area of growth. What investors were inspecting, have they been bracing themselves for a slowdown . They seems to have. Look at the share price merit since december 24 to january the third. While we were having christmas destinies, the share price is down by a most 10 . Billion wiped off their market capitalization. It is more than the entirety of htc, lg, and blackberry market capitalization altogether. They been expectings competition. It is worth noting they have given a nice bit of bonuses to their employees. Some 655 billion. That is what has eat into the pockets eaten into the profits. They have new innovations coming out. What are they doing mary . Mary . There . Chairman of samsung is the worlds most richest man. The countrys of gdp. He is urging his companies his employees to innovate. Wearable devices. Remember the galaxy dear . I tested it when it galaxy dear gear . It can now troll a bmw. It can now control a bmw. Wearable devices will be the big thing this year. Caroline, thank you very much. This is the uks largest Business Survey and has been closely followed by the treasury. Jonathan joins us for more. I think we have seen all of these big numbers coming out of the uks economy and the survey really gives a sense of it on the ground. Have produced a pretty strong report, whether youre looking at manufacturing, service, or confidence levels or employment levels. Are of these readings actually back to precrisis highs. It points to some strong growth for the last quarter. It could be north of. 4 . You want them to go out and hire and invest. It looks like that is there and crucially, it looks like that confidence will be there in 2014. Twice it is a positive report, reading the summary. Hard forto hunt negatives, but there are a couple of areas a they are there and theyre risk to outlook, confidence or no. Over the last five years, the big one has been a lack of access to bank financing. It continues. A lack of access to credit, particularly on the cash flow side. You could be profitable and be a strong business but if you have bad cash flow, it is really going to choke you off. That is what theyre facing. That stories and the hard data. We saw last week. We saw lending to businesses for the last the month of november actually slumping. It is not be financing, it is the fact that many of these businesses are telling the bbc that they may have to put up prices for higher overheads. Higher raw material costs as well. A strong currency can offset that but really this is a conservative they are able to put up prices. The bank of englands targeted inflation rate was just beginning to come back towards target. But he of food for thought for the bank of england and treasury. We will have great insight into this latest Quarterly Economic survey. Thats coming up later in the show. U. S. Secretary of the treasury jack lew was in paris today to meet the french president. Is the first leg of his trip which also includes stops in berlin and lisbon. Now. Nichols joins us what is it message going to be to the europeans . He will have two messages. Jack lew will played bad cup in the first two countries and annual play good cop in the third. They will be resting for more labor market reforms. In germany they will urge them to spend more. In portugal, you will give them a big hug and pat on the back and encourage them to implement their rescue plan. This is his first trip to germany since the treasury report came out two months ago. He came pretty close to labeling germany a currency manipulator. This will be germanys opportunity respond but the message is spend more. Do more to boost aggregate demand. In many ways this is the same message that the obama ministration administration has been pushing since the beginning of the crisis. It was the same dynamic. The u. S. Wanted germany to spend more. He would just be going to the continent. No trip to the u. K. Nothing planned with merkel. That was the case before merkel was injured. There will be a little bit on traded talk. Well press for the transpacific partnership, the transatlantic partnership, and just a little bit on banking union. Banking union is important. He does not want his banks, the u. S. Banks, to be at a competitive disadvantage. Tothere are two aspects that. Theyre the cap additive this advantage and that is why he will be pressing especially in germany, and also to come together on some sort of banking union. Look for potential fireworks on the strips and it could happen tomorrow when he has that press conference. Treasury officials are also saying that jack lew is also going to listen. He was an update on just what to new coalition is doing spend, to boost aggregate demand. Also, what the new minimum wage is wage law will do. It will not be oneway traffic. The u. S. The europeans could talk about the u. S. Debt ceiling. I suspect they will raise that. Lous answer will be lews answer will be what was always along which is the u. S. Will not default on its debt. Hans nichols live in berlin. Wife i had, Stormy Weather they have bumped down flights but it has to lead actually boosted online sales over the holidays in the u. S. We will look how big a bump of ecommerce got on both sides of the atlantic. Recreational pot in colorado. I am an edwards. And i am mark barton. Not always aer is good thing but it actually helped online sales in the u. K. , especially clothing. We are joined by sarah. Happy new year. The Fourth Quarter, december, was crucial in spending in the u. K. , not just for the Fourth Quarter but for the year as a whole. Likes absolutely. We saw an improved rate versus last year. I think that is exciting to see 2. 4 for these bending your growth for the spending your growth. Growth. Spent . E was the money the one thing men like to buy for women was jewelry. It was the number one category. If you did not get jewelry, you should be complaining. That was the category were sought real growth. The number one spending category for the month was grocery. It shows that we are social people and we wanted to be as family. Goods are not as important. Andbig losers were apparel electronics. That is interesting. Electronics not being a winner you are saying people spent less on electronics in december than they did in the december previously despite all of the talk about cap was having a good year . Amazing because of consoles coming out and compared to last year, there were a lot of new things introduced that you would think people would come in to spend. In this case, no. It is a commodity roddick. As a something people can easily go online and buy and compare. It has driven the prices down. Volume is up but actual total sales are down. Yout the grocery category, are on the experience around the holiday rather than the gift. Right. I think we have seen this again and again. That is the real postrecession change that we see in the consumer, that they make the choices of what theyre going to spend. Restaurant spending becomes an important part of the budget as opposed to thinking about things. Talk to me about discounting because theres a lot to be made about discounting by the big retailers in the runup to christmas. Was it more than serious years . Previous years . Term impact ofong that have . Your discounting something away to you continue to discount. I will never paid in oral price again. It is the exact problem. Able field will be a better price tomorrow. And i you can make the comparison shop online easily. And now you can make the comparison shop online easily. Have we should just seasons two seasons summer and winter. Forget fall because people just roll on a sweater anyways. The price index for apparel that we run on spending pulse is down on a continual basis and we have seen that down. People bought footwear but they did not buy mens and womens apparel. What is the impact of a more informed consumer . A strong doubledigit gain in online. One of the things u. K. That is interesting is that we would see dips in growth rate of online spending versus other countries that we followed. From that perspective, to see that the u. K. Is really embracing this channel is extremely important. The difference will be that the retailer that is able to move on the channel between the bricks and mortar to the online and back and make it a seamless experience for the client. Twice like john lewis is doing. Quacks like john lewis is doing. That will be extremely important. The client what to shop where they want to shop and when they went to shout. Thank you very much. A teleprompter failed that last nights samsung presentation. Welcome back to countdown. I am mark barton. The 2000 14 consumer electronic show is in las vegas and there is art event headline news. In fewer escape, and what i try to do, as a director, i try to ugh. The type is all off. Sorry. I will just wing this. Tell us what you think. As we will wing it right now. I try to take people on an emotional ride. The curves . How do you think it is going to impact how viewers experience your movies . Excuse me. I am sorry. Im sorry. Ok. Ladies and gentle man, let us think michael bay for joining us. Director michael bay was supposed to have a scripted conversation about samsungs enormous 150 Inch Television but when the teleprompter failed, he walked off stage leaving the with ave Vice President rather awkward moment. A little bit of time to kill. Story touches a nerve in any newsroom because you feel for him. Now and again, but you know, do you feel sorry for him . I do feel sorry for him. I recognize that most people dont feel sorry for him. Apparently he has a bit of a reputation which i am not aware of. It allows me to feel sorry for him. Reputation is that he is kind of an arrogant guy. There is no skews for arrogance. I do feel sorry for him. No one wants to have a meltdown or should feel good about someone having a meltdown in front of them. Ask what expedition is given . He said, wow, i just embarrassed myself at cas. Ces. I was about to speak for sansone samsung. This one is just dollar stellar. I got so excited to talk that i skipped over the Vice President s intro line and the teleprompter got lost. About this nowg because the teleprompter went down and he went off stage. Would be talking about if he was michael bay promoting a television . The rule of thumb for the executive out there is even if youre using a part a proctor, f3 bullet points on a ease of paper and have a three bullet points on a piece of paper. Annasill with teleprompter away as if she walked off set. These are the Bloomberg Top headlines. Janet yellen has won Senate Confirmation to replace ben bernanke at the federal reserve. She will take over at the end of the month. She has pledged to press on with the economy all season toll of the economy has reached full recovery. Ireland is set to return to the debt market with a plan to sell at least 3 billion euros of 10 year bonds. The treasury could a lot the security as soon as today. Exited an international bailout last month. It could be the coldest day of the 21st century in the united states. Transportation methods have been strangled as much of the countrys under snow. Record with a temperature of 27 degrees celsius. Welcome to countdown. I am mark barton. China is cracking down on shadow banking with mounting concerns over the regions banking systems. John joins us with the latest. China is trying to clamp down on shadow banks which really is outside the normality of thinking. Property prices so high and they want to bring those down. This is according to three unnamed sources. The government is looking to clamp down already and this is part of the next action. Theyre going to be regulation designed to avoid loopholes. Fiveanks will allow privately owned lenders is here. It was tricked lending to developers which. A lot of these companies rely on moneylosing industries rely on the shadow those that like to roll over their debt. What of the biggest concerns is chinas that. No one knows how bad or how much it is. It is one of those Elephant Room elephant in the room that you must discuss. They must have their own capital set aside to have buffers against anything goes wrong. All this is being talked about. From three unnamed sources that told bloomberg. They would be named because the government is very controlling. Thank you very much. Will 2014 hold for the financial sector. Lets talk about the s p 500. We dont was a record year last year. Will it continue . We just got over christmas and it will be a dickensian year as far as the s p is concerned. What do we mean by that . Geopolitics and euphoric extremes. Were going to guess a 10 correction. It is going to be short, sharp, and hard. It will die by almost more than 10 . And then new highs. Alleluia i bring you tidings of great joy. Up 10 by the end of the year. That is a dickensian mood. God bless the dollar. Growth is for the 3 . Unemployment before below 6 . You will see the euro at 1. 25. You will see the yen at 120. What you think of the japanese economy . Only leader that understands dick cheney. Not many people do. He was right deficits do not matter. The nick i will trade up to 18,000 the nikkei will trade up to 18,000. That it will have a 20 correction. And these are things you he thinks are going to happen . Yes. Hes also got once it didnt quite make the list and bitcoin is interesting. If you think about the volatility of bitcoin, it is not real, is it . Bitcoin lacks goals. Give me a lovely gold. You and i can argue about what it is worth. We can touch it, feel it, understand it. Bitcoin . It is not an acceptable collateral. It cannot be used as collateral. The prince will use of bitcoin is a legal business. It relies on anonymity is a key part. Those are his words according to byron wing wien. Quite like cuba. Obama will indeed overcome his objections to the Cuban Exile Community and open discussions. Trade and the dramatic diplomatic relations with cuba. It will fall began shaking mandelas funeral. It will follow the handshaking at mandelas funeral. On january 1 it became legal to buy marijuana in colorado for recreational use. Hundreds of people bought it last week at about three dozen stores in colorado that had been granted a license to sell marijuana. The drug has a repetition of being safer than others but a new and controversial method of getting