iPhone 5 n few more to come…!!

As the genius Steve Jobs finishes his chapter questions arises on whats gonna happen to our favourite Apple… well nothing much its gonna make more products and keep making them as long people would love them adore them and buy them.

Speaking about new products everybody was anxiously waiting for Iphone 5  and what people got was the iPhone 4S a higher and a better version of the best iPhone ever iPhone 4( its gonna get better as time passes). Apple sent out numerous invitations to members of major media outlets for a media event that was scheduled for October 4th. Tim Cook, the Chief Executive of Apple, lead the meeting.  The invitations were sent out with the headline “Let’s talk iPhone” so we knew there would be some major next-generation iPhone discussion set to happen.. this step by Apple let everyone believe that iPhone 5 is not too far from reach but alas that did not happen.

Ever realised the iPhone is the only Phone one whose model numbers are so simple. 2g, 3g, 4, now 4s n then 5….Who gave these numbers to the iPhone.. Steve, Apple Inc or lets just say Bloggers, people talking technology, or it can be you or me. when the first iPhone came out it was called “iPhone” it was not given any number. lets be fair and say it was the 1st generation iPhone and usually 1st generations do not have numerical value associated to it. Then came iPhone 3G, why 3G because it was 3G enabled. the 1st one was not. then comes the 3Gs a faster version of 3G. the ‘s’ in the 3Gs stands for speed. I personally thought it was for Superior. the 3Gs was not different from the 3G at all well except for the speed and other minor thing like the camera and video recording. Surprising after all this the 1st generation iPhone got a number calling it 2G.

Now comes the numbers game. Gizmodo the gadget website had released a report saying  they had purchased an iPhone prototype for $5000, and furthermore, had conducted a product tear down of the device. a prototype reported to be lost by a Apple employee, Now when Gizmodo found this phone did it come with a box saying it was iPhone 4.. NO OBVIOUSLY NOT.. the number was just an assumption which everyone did when they knew there was another one due soon… Apple did a clever thing of keeping the name whatever people thought of assumed it to be after all the phone was a success even before it was out.

Similarly there was a hype about iPhone 5 but very few thought about iPhone 4s.. the is very good move by Apple but not letting the target market think they are predictable which they would be if the Iphone 5 was out.

I personally think that the further models would not have a particular number associated to it but will have a feature based or a technology based name, After all iPhone was just a name for a particular model of mobile phone it was not the company name like its other counterparts. but again I am no one who would comment but just another iPhone lover and its target market.

I would like to finish this post by paying tribute to the Genius Steve Jobs by this quote

“Chairman Steve Jobs introduced numerous revolutionary changes to the information technology industry and was a great entrepreneur. His innovative spirit and remarkable accomplishments will forever be remembered by people around the world.”
-Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung-

A giant leap of success

India has come a far way of from just plain call centres. Half the world thinks of India being a call centre hub because of its cheap labour well go ahead and say that cause its true but theres more to it. Its similar in the past when called India as the land of snake charmers. Even two decades after the Indian technology miracle began it is hard not to be impressed by the scale of the achievement.

 

Indian IT has made shareholders and employees rich and now boosts the country’s balance of payments by $59 billion a year. Yet its impact goes far beyond the numbers. The big firms were among the first to win blue-chip American and European clients and to adopt blue-chip governance and accounting norms themselves. This won acclaim from foreign investors.

I hope this changes the perception of India being a third world country.

In the grand scheme of things  companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS ’ performance is still strong, with sales growth and margins which are, by global standards, impressive. Although many Western multinationals initially slashed their budgets in response to the financial crisis, they quickly performed a U-turn and increased spending, as they redoubled their efforts to redesign and outsource key parts of their businesses. BUt even though there is strong link up between the Sales growth and Employee and Indian IT companies are desperate to escape their tag as “body shops” whose main competitive advantage is low labour costs. But i still think of it as an advantage.

This is straight from “The Economist”

The cost arbitrage available by employing Indian engineers rather than Western ones is still at least 50%. The strategic worry probably reflects three things, though. First, large Western rivals have come a long way in replicating some of the advantages of Indian firms. Wipro’s Mr Senapaty says that for many years they dismissed the Indian model as a temporary phenomenon boosted by the dotcom bubble and the Y2K scare: “It was only in 2003 and 2004 that they realised the Indian model would survive.” Now firms such as IBM and Accenture have vast employee bases in India too, and although they still struggle to grow as consistently or as profitably as Indian firms, they can compete better.

Wages for employees in India are rising at over 10% this year, and as the economy develops there will be more competition for talent from other industries. There is a need is to improve the supply, and the quality, of graduates cause the dark side is that only about a quarter of job applicants are typically considered employable – but i’m sure that would not take long.

But in time India’s IT firms will surely invent new products and markets. After all, they are past masters of taking something that only exists in their imaginations and turning it into a multi billion dollar reality.

Toyota and Nissan: Trailing in Large Pickup Trucks

The Japanese makers lured truck buyers who resemble car owners rather than die-hard truck lovers. Now sales of large pickups such as GM’s Chevrolet Silverado and Ford’s F-150 are rebounding, and Toyota and Nissan Motor’s failure to attract the truly devoted pickup buyers’ means less cash in their coffers.

Toyota’s full-size Tundra, which starts at $23,455, attracts a different type of buyer group which does not really exist for Toyota, They claim they are not in the market to unseat the biggies like GM or Ford and therefore set a modest target of about 200,000 cars and similarly Nissan hoped to sell at least 100,000 units of it Titan Truck.

Unless the biggies in the truck market blow it or back out there is no way Toyota or Nissan can penetrate that market even though Toyota being commanding in the America’s passenger car. First of all the companies do not understand the target market since it’s a completely different market and also the fact that the particular truck market being a fairly old market. Secondly anyone who buys a truck is due to a particular need and would definitely go for Chevrolet or a Ford because of its decades of good service.

By contrast, GM has sold an average of 825,007 large pickups annually over the past decade, including the Chevy Silverado and Avalanche models and the GMC Sierra. Ford’s F-Series models averaged 724,478, and Dodge Ram models averaged 339,448, according to IHS.

Despite commanding America’s passenger car market, Japan’s Toyota has failed to attract traditional truck buyers to its large pickups.

RIM’s BlackBerry: Failure to Communicate

When apple unveiled its new tablet device I pad people welcomed it and a fantastic innovation, then even made it the gadget of the year, Steve Jobs in his words described the I pad “truly magical and revolutionary product,” something “and “unbelievably great.”

But when Jim Balsille the co CEO of Research in Motion introduced the Playbook his company’s answer to the I pad Balsille spoke something that not many understood. On the technical level the playbook seems better than the I pad, Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum wrote that its technical features appear “to outperform competing device hardware on nearly every metric. But the problem lies in selling and people adapting it, if RIM cannot sell it then it would not really matter if the device is technically better than Apple’s I pad.

Competing with Apple gets tough and the reason it gets tough because Apple relies on innovation and comes out with a device that is not available in the market and this is exactly what people want, something that is not available. And with Apple fantastic marketing and awareness it is comparatively easy for them to get the customers adapted to their products.

RIM is also good at innovation and can be seen with products such as the Black Berry which is the No 1 smart phone in a lot of countries, but RIM has been slow to the marketing game. The first BlackBerry TV ad ran in 2008, nine years after the product was launched, when it was already racking up sales of more than $6 billion a year. (Sales hit almost $15 billion in the year that ended Feb. 27.)

They also lacked a full time Chief Financial officer for 2 years until their Chief accounting officer was appointed for the job. Most of the companies falter because they get locked into a system that has worked for them for quite a while when everything else outside is fast moving and changing. Just having a technological edge is not enough it is how you pass on the message or communicate the technology to your customers.

Tourism and Social Media: An Internet Reality Check

Tourism is big business. In fact, it’s one of the world’s largest industry. I need not tell you that Social Media is also big, so it is a no brainer that these are a match made in heaven.

Now research says that 4 out of 10 people research online before they travel. That may seem less cause I thought 9 out of 10 did that, but welcome to the real world not every place in the world have internet privileges like us bloggers. But considering the fact the total number of people travelling around the world it is very big number. Because of this, tourism businesses around the world are focussing their marketing strategies on Social Media, some even leading with it over traditional advertising. And why not? If you can get a campaign to go viral, you will get heaps of free PR and, in turn, more people travelling to your destinations, right? Unfortunately it’s not that easy.

Queensland tourism ad “best job in the world” campaign was one of the most successful campaigns ever. The very first day had about 20000 applications which obviously lead to the crash of the website on a couple of occasions. The campaign has been talked about on over 1 500 blogs and even won a coveted Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Awards.

The Queensland tourism ad was very well made the ad does not call you directly to the island to have fun or a good time. The only thing in the campaign which tell you about the island is small link which says “About the Island”. It’s a well documented Web Design policy, if you want users to convert, have strong Calls to Action.

As a tourism business few of the following tools may be used to make your business look pretty. These tools are not just tools but a whole a new world in itself with large number of people living in.

Facebook: over 500millions users, can set up a fan page around a subject or just a “like” page around the business. Facebook also give users tips and tricks to make your page a valuable resource and then update it with relevant deals and specials.

Twitter: Twitter is nonetheless an awesome way to communicate with an opt-in base of followers in short bursts. Tweet deals, interesting facts and links to interactive video and photo content.

Blogs: Blogs may be more traditional but the one of the most effective ways to promote a tourism website. Blogs generate fresh content and the best part; it ranks well on Google and other search engines. It encourages interactions through comments and views and provides the business with a human face.

Niche social networking sites are emerging in many businesses and Tourism is one business where there are some really good ones. TripAdvisor, WAYN short for “Where Are You Now” are few of the famous and effective ones.

Here is a ad which speaks about Goa tourism and shows that Goa is not just about beached but also lot of other things. Best waay to reach a large audience and a far audience put the ad on a public open forum.

<object width=”960″ height=”750″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/dv77QpG2v-I?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US”></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param></object>

So, as you can see, Social Media can work to increase a tourism business’ revenue and brand profile, you just have to invest time and creativity into it and drive people toward conversion. You also don’t need huge volumes to make a success of Social Media. With the right message, in the right space, talking to the right audience. Don’t forget to drop in your views and comments chao….!!

How Viral Marketing Strategy Can Increase Site Traffic?

Viral marketing has changed and rocked the advertising world for a few years now. the success of few ads have got many companies thinking about having one. The viral strategy is just like the computer virus works. It transforms itself from one system to another to thousands of site subscribers. A well-implemented viral marketing strategy can boost the web traffic to be significant.

Things that need to be taken into account while developing a viral strategy proper language needs to be used to impress the reader, anchor text can be used to increase web traffic to the website. another tool that can help write a proper article is the author box. There have been many new innovations and strategies employed by different companies in search for a solution to increase the web traffic but the most successful have been able to do so, relying on simple practice of email newsletters.

Having created news letters that suit the requirements of the subscribers which specifically target the expectations of the readers is best method. The more accessible information can be shared, the more rapidly it will be spread. Submit your news on the social networking and bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg. They have established niche communities. Find yours. Submit articles, make comments on other stories, be seen, be heard, and be out there.

The tables have turned with the evolution of the Internet. The power has shifted from the marketer to the consumer. Within a matter of seconds, their opinions and voice are spread rapidly throughout the world by one single email.

The viral effect can be amazing to see happening and it does make you realize that there is a big world out there that wants to get in touch with you.

Using blogging software to create website

Setting up a website might be a very technical thing to for one to do. Since now it’s the most import thing for a business to set up it has to be done well. A good website reflects and says a lot about the companies.

A small business could create websites for each of its product lines, and build each site with blogging software, then link them all together to a main sales site. New product announcements, FAQ, customer support, description of features etc. is all handled in a snap. And more importantly it does not even look like a conventional blog site, the structure of the site is just like a normal website but in a way have all the benefits of a blog with having RSS feeds, visits from search engines as well as indexing.

The blog is embedded into the website seamlessly, and retains the ease and functionality of a blog, without looking like one. The site retains all the benefits of a blog – easy, frequent updates, a conversational tone, the ability to interact with site visitors and customers right on the site, and the ability to use pinging and blog directory announcements, etc.

One of the basic differences between blogs and websites is that blogs are dynamic whereas websites are usually static. Bloggers update their blogs frequently and thus new posts are added to the blog which show publishing dates some where near the title. You can easily use blogging platforms like Blogger.com to create a blog with unlimited space and bandwidth. On the other hand, if you want to start a website with a new domain and host it may cost some dollars per month, depending upon the bandwidth usage.

Search Engine Ranking: Long Term Or Short Term?

Search is an option which has changed our lives in many ways. The approach towards many things has changed and we can’t think of living without a Search option on the internet. Now business have taken totally different advantage altogether, finding new ways to promote their business. If you do a search in Google for your keyword, you will notice the results are split into two sections: Sponsored Listings (along the top and down the right hand side), and the Free Results (also called the Organic Results) down the main centre of the page. The Sponsored Listings are paid advertisements, and the Free Results are the results from the search engine database.

Search engine marketing involves a combination of free website submissions and paid search engine listings, to ensure your website reaches customers using search engines to research purchase decisions.

In Long term it is difficult to guarantee a top position. A lot of work time and effort is required in this process. Website coding is one in which your site is optimised and also increasing the number of inbound links to your website (link popularity), which is also crucial for high search engine ranking.

Because it can take quite some time for changes to take effect, it can often take 3-6 months of work (or even more for new sites) before you begin to see noticeable changes. The long term benefits, however, are very good, because your site is then much better positioned in the free search results, which then provides ongoing free traffic well into the future.

For short term if businesses need to be on the first page of results immediately, then you can take out sponsored listings (called Google Adwords). There are several ways of doing it. One way is pay per click. It is literally free to list your ad in first page of the results but the business needs to pay for per click ad visited. The amount usually depends upon what is specified. Ads are usually ranked according to bid price (although other factors are involved).

The advantage of Google Adwords is that you can be on the first page of results very quickly. The disadvantage is that the benefits are short term. As soon as you stop spending, your ads come offline.

So depending upon your business you need choose which approach would you choose for your business. Option one which is long term provides better results on the long run. Where as option 2 which is short term provides instant results and also a good option for a particular segment.

What method would choose for your business…???

Paid vs. Earned Media

One of the benefits of digital media that it can be tracked, which means measurability. So, how does earned media measure up against paid media, and vice versa?

The terms “earned, owned and paid media” have become very popular in the interactive marketing space today. In fact, taken together they can be applied as a simple way for interactive marketers to categorize and ultimately prioritize all of the media options they have today.

In Paid media a brand pays to leverage a channel. An example of paid media is display ads, paid search and sponsorship. Analytics packages tell you about what a visitor does once she comes through to your website. Your ad server tells you a bit more about what happened before that visit.

Many people are predicting the end of paid media (aka advertising). However, that prediction may be premature as no other type of media can guarantee the immediacy and scale that paid media can. However, paid media is shifting away from the foundation and evolving into a catalyst that is needed at key periods to drive more engagement.

Post click and view tracking allows for true measurement of a campaign – it’s all about knowing what happens after the click. By placing tracking code on the conversion pages of the destination website, conversions can be tracked by placement. Sophisticated ad servers also allow for cross channel tracking. Using this technology, we can gauge how display campaigns support search, for example, and the true value of the various elements of campaigns can be evaluated.

Earned media is when customer becomes the channel itself. “Earned media” is an old PR term that essentially meant getting your brand into free media rather than having to pay for it through advertising. However the term has evolved into the transparent and permanent word-of-mouth that is being created through social media. You need to learn how to listen and respond to both the good and bad as well as consider when to try and stimulate earned media through word-of-mouth marketing.

Earned media has the merit of third-party credibility, and it reaches people when they are opted in and value the information. Media coverage in the right publications is still the single most effective tool to raise brand awareness.

With paid media being largely ineffective and earned media facing the growing irrelevance of traditional media in face of burgeoning social media, brands pursue the avenue of becoming media companies in their own right. Bypassing traditional media channels, they either set up their own TV channels, print publications (corporate publishing), or blog networks

Ultimately, your tracking solution should allow you to not only compare your earned media vs. your paid media, but to see the effect that they have on each other (and of course on your search traffic). Instead of merely looking at the most recent source of a visit to your site, a multi-touch attribution model allows you to see what effect different media have on a series of visits to your website.

How to get free website traffic

One question asked by new business owners is “how to increase traffic to my website” this million dollar question which needs to be answered so that business gets successful.  One may say an advertising campaign may help, well it will but there are certain methods which will help website owners.

• Constantly create and  update the website

Visitors need information and they need it fresh and new content to visit the website and learn interesting facts or purchase items of the website.

• Offer free newsletters

Again a free newsletter which a visitor to the website has subscribed can contain a lot of information which is beneficial to the visitor. Information about latest product additions and valuable tips and solutions can get customers to visit the website for an actual experience from reading from the newsletter to the website. Newsletters can also help in capturing leads through names and email addresses which is valuable to the business owners.

• Optimize the website for search engines

Search engines are a great source to get free website traffic. Optimizing the website with the right keywords is highly recommended specially with the ones through the potential customers are likely to use to find the business.

• Making use of Social networking sites

Millions of people are turning towards Facebook and Twitter to exchange ideas and information. Setting up accounts with these networking sites helps getting free traffic by sending out messages to all the followers.

• Writing articles and sending them to article directories

Article marketing is popular and effective means of promoting you website. There are many article directories on the internet which accept articles which can be distributed to other website seeking content. This method also shows the expertise and knowledge about the business and this helps gain trust among potential customers.

A lot of effort goes into developing a website and more effort goes in promoting a website. The ability of a business to get free traffic into their website does determine long term plans of the business.