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Free wi-fi access in the UK is supposed to be a global leader- but how “free” is the internet access?Recent research by the Office for National Statistics showed that 4.9 million people connected through hotspots such as hotels, cafes and airports over the last year in the UK, up from 0.7 million in 2007.

But there’s a big catch.

These hotspots usually either come with a charge or require you to be a customer – buying a superfluous sandwich or a beer in order to get your internet access.

Wi-fi provider The Cloud serves many cafes and restaurants, including Pizza Express, Eat and Pret A Manger – but their users must be prepared to pay to eat.

And BT recently announced a partnership with Heineken pubs where wi-fi is on the house – starting with 100 pubs in London and expanding to 300 throughout the UK by 2012. But again, you have to be a customer.

Many councils have realised the potential benefits of community wireless access and tried to launch free wi-fi schemes. Many have failed.

Probably the most trumpeted example was in Swindon, which aimed to have free wi-fi emanating from the top of lampposts for the whole town by April 2010. A loan was made to a private provider, but the money ran out and private sponsors were hard to come by, the council says.

Now only one small section of the town is covered.

But while councils and other bodies have struggled in the UK, there are many successful free wireless internet projects around the world.

Many US cities – including Denver, Raleigh and Seattle – have free access in some areas, usually the centre. Bologna in Italy has a similar set-up.  Taipei in Taiwan currently has major public sites covered.

NYCwireless is a non-profit organisation that builds free public wireless networks in parks and open spaces in New York City, including a newly announced outdoor space covering the area between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.

There is some progress in the UK where Bristol has a free and open network in much of the city centre.

The council says this is done at minimal cost because decades ago they purchased old cable ducts allowing them to create their own broadband network.

In 2007, the City of London initiated “free” wireless access, touting its importance for traders, bankers and brokers to access data on the move – but only the first 15 minutes are actually free.

Virgin Media plans to roll out free public wi-fi in London to compete with BT’s Openzone – the catch being that customers must subscribe to Virgin’s broadband service at home to access the fastest speeds at no cost.

Of course, there would be many people who would question the need for free public wi-fi, even in city centres. We don’t expect free electricity or free public transport, so why should people get free internet?

But the advocates see it as a move that could stimulate business and provide a boost to quality of life. But the powers-that-be can’t seem to agree on whether funding of any sort should go to free wi-fi, particularly in these straitened times.

And this attitude is why some people say the private sector is a more viable route. For now, most Britons will have to fork out for the paying for their emails and browsing..

The mobile phone patents wars are escalating as Google is backing up HTC in its continuing war with Apple over patent infringement.HTC has used patents it bought from Google to lodge a fresh complaint against Apple with the US International Trade Commission (ITC).

It has alleged that Apple’s computers and mobile devices infringe patents involving wi-fi capability and processor communication technology.

This is the third complaint that HTC has filed against Apple.

“We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones,” said Grace Lei, general counsel of HTC.

HTC is not the only smartphone maker involved in a legal tussle with Apple.

Samsung Electronics, which makes the Galaxy series of smartphones and tablet PCs, has also been fighting a legal battle against Apple.

It is becoming an Apple versus Android war.

Apple has filed complaints against the South Korean manufacturer, accusing it of infringing its patents. It said that Samsung had copied the design and look of Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices.

Samsung has counter-sued Apple, saying it infringed Samsung’s wireless patents.

Both HTC and Samsung use Google’s Android operating system in most of their smartphones.

Analysts said that HTC’s latest legal action, which uses patents it acquired from Google, indicates that the tussle is becoming a much bigger issue than just a simple fight between two manufacturers.

Apple has accused Samsung of infringing its patents with the Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets. The companies have been stepping up their legal action against each other this year.

And in the early salvos, Apple seems to have got the upper hand.

Last month, a court in the Netherlands banned Samsung from selling three models of its Galaxy smartphones in a number of European countries after Apple filed a claim for patent infringement.

Earlier this week, Samsung pulled out its new Galaxy Tab 7.7 from the IFA electronics fair in Berlin, one the world’s largest electronics shows, after a court blocked sales of the product in Germany.

Analysts said the regularity with which these companies have been taking legal action against each other was also an indicator they may be using it as a competition tool.

A quarter of UK Smartphone users see mobile advertising and nearly two thirds see online video ads according to new research.Among its findings, the analysis shows mobile and video advertising gaining traction in reaching a sizeable percentage of the total audience.

In June 2011, 63.1 percent (or nearly 2 out of 3 online video viewers in the UK) were exposed to video ads.

Among the total number of smartphone users in the same time period, 25.4 percent recalled seeing an ad while browsing the Internet or using an application on their devices. In comparison, 95.3 percent of fixed line Internet users were exposed to online display advertising.

Advertising Expands Reach among UK Mobile and Video Populations

Over the past two quarters, mobile advertising has seen a steady increase in reach. 5.4 million UK smartphone subscribers (25 percent overall) recalled having seen ads through a mobile browser or app in the quarter ending June 2011, representing a 28-percent increase from three months prior. In addition, nearly 8 percent of smartphone users recalled seeing ads at least once a week (up 28 percent), and 7.5 percent recalled seeing them almost every day (up 52 percent).

Of the 33.7 million online video viewers in June, 21.2 million (63.1 percent) were exposed to ad videos. While the total number of online video viewers remained constant from quarter-to-quarter, the number of unique viewers exposed to video ads rose 15 percent. Meanwhile, the online display market continued to show a high rate of penetration in the UK, with 40.0 million unique visitors exposed to online display ads in June 2011, accounting for 95.3 percent of the total UK online audience.

15-24 year olds most likely to be exposed to online video ads and smartphone Ads
A demographic analysis of people exposed to online advertising revealed that 15- 24 year olds were the most heavily exposed to online ad videos. Nearly 70 percent of 15-24 year olds were exposed to at least one online ad video in June 2011 – approximately 7 percentage points higher than the total Internet audience.

15-24 year olds were also 10 percent more likely than the average video viewer to be exposed to video ads, while 25-34 year olds have the second highest penetration and were 4 percent more likely than average to be exposed.

*An index of 100 indicates average representation relative to the base audience.

15-24 year olds see an even more pronounced relative skew when it comes to exposure to mobile advertising. In June 2011, 31.6 percent of UK smartphone users age 15-24 recalled having seen ads on an app or browser, the highest penetration among age groups. With an index of 125, 15-24 year olds were 25 percent more likely than the average smartphone user to recall exposure to mobile advertising. Meanwhile, 45-54 year olds and those 55 and older showed a significantly lower likelihood than average of recalling mobile ad exposure.

*An index of 100 indicates average representation relative to the base audience.

The research can be found at: http://www.comscore.com/Mobile_and_Video_Emerge_As_Significant_Online_Ad_Platforms_in_the_UK

You’ve built your business’s smartphone mobile app- but how are you going to make money out of it?If you’re thinking of a suitable price tag for it and hoping that it will take the various app stores charts by storm- you could be in for a nasty surprise.

Mobile app downloads are expected to have increased from over 7 billion in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012- which works out a growth in revenue from £2.5 billion to £10.9 billion.

But although 80% of the 2009 figure is accounted for by paid apps, by 2012 that is expected to drop by around half.

The rest is made up of a mixture of advertising, virtual goods (things bought within the app environment, such as tools in social games such as Farmville), and other revenue models.

Sometimes giving your app away for nothing may mean a bigger payoff in the future.

Top 5 revenue streams

• Paid apps
• In-app advertising – you get paid for each ad seen
• Virtual goods – for example buying tools in Farmville
• Subscription – charging a monthly fee, for example to access news content
• Marketing – a free app used to promote a product
• Hybrid- free initially then charging for premium content

As such, different business models need to be developed for different types of content. To do this, you need to measure two things – stickiness and utility.

Utility means how much the user values the time using your app.

The general rule is the higher the utility of the app, the more the consumer is prepared to pay for the app up front.

If it’s a relatively simple application, like a web app like chat or messaging, the consumer is less likely to pay anything at all and you have to go for other models.

Stickiness refers to how often you end up using an app – if you ‘stick’ with it.

The majority of games that are only played three or four times and are very unsticky, however some apps like Facebook are extremely sticky.

Stickiness means that advertising might be a good option.

If you have an unsticky app and choose to go with advertising, you will only display it three or four times. As the current rate is £1 for a thousand impressions, you won’t make much.

If you have a high utility but low stickiness you go for a paid app. High stickiness and low utility, like web applications, then advertising is the choice.

Virtual goods – for example things players need to enhance a game – have been pioneered by companies like Zynga, the creators of Farmville.

Considerations include whether your target market can easily pay for things – for example are they underage and have no access to a credit card?

And you need to weigh up the rates taken by the market place for a paid for app with the rates charged for using advertising.

Apple, for example, takes 30% of the face value of every app sold in its iTunes store.

But if you simply want to promote a product – a shiny new BMW, for example – then making your app free and recouping the cost in increased sales is the sensible option, says Mr Laurs.

As long as the app is perceived as free for the consumer then the marketability of the app is generally 50 times higher than any paid app.

It’s obviuosly easier to get consumers converted to free apps than to pay for them. It’s human nature.

Almost half of UK internet users are going online via mobile phone data connections according to the Office for National Statistics.Some 45% of people surveyed said they made use of the net while out and about, compared with 31% in 2010.

The most rapid growth was among younger people, where 71% of internet-connected 16 to 24-year-olds used mobiles.

Domestic internet use also rose. According to the ONS, 77% of households now have access to a net connection.

That figure was up 4% from the previous year, representing the slowest rate of growth since the ONS survey began in 2006.

Among the 23% of the population who remain offline, half said they “didn’t need the internet”.

Household internet access

Year                           Households (millions)                              Percentage
2006                                         14.3                                                        57
2007                                         15.2                                                        61
2008                                         16.5                                                        65
2009                                         18.3                                                        70
2010                                         19.2                                                        73
2011                                          19                                                          77

Northern Ireland excluded from 2011 survey.

Source: Office for National Statistics

The ONS report is the first since dot-com entrepreneur Martha Lane-Fox was appointed as the government’s UK Digital Champion, with a brief to increase internet uptake.

In a statement, Ms Lane-Fox said: “That so many offline households don’t see any reason to get online reinforces the importance of the digital champions network that the Raceonline2012 partners are creating.”

The figure for domestic connections contrasted sharply with the rapid growth in uptake of mobile services.

However, the popularity of 3G broadband did not necessarily mean that more people were going online overall.

Many of those using mobile phones are likely to already have home broadband connections.

Older users, who the government is particularly keen to get connected, appeared to have been relatively untouched by the phenomenon.

While 71% of 16 to 24-year-old who went online said they used mobile broadband, just 8% of internet users aged over 65 made use of the newer technology.

The ONS survey also found a dramatic rise in the use of wifi hotspots – a seven-fold increase since 2011 – suggesting that the rise of 3G has done little to slow demand for free and paid-for wireless access.

All findings were based on a monthly survey of 1,800 randomly selected adults from across the UK.

All businesses make mistakes – but how those mistakes are handled may often decide whether the business retains or loses its customers.Businesses are not philanthropic institutions: they exist to make money in the form of profit. To make money businesses have to anticipate and satisfy customer’s demands, so that customers provide the necessary income to the business in return for the goods or services that they require.

Identifying enough potential customers who have the requirement for the goods and services on offer, is the primary problem for every business. Having identified the potential customers, the next difficulty is to convert them into customers that pay for their goods and services.

It often costs businesses more than they realise in order to gain a new customer – and considerably more than it does to retain them, so it is surprising how businesses can often take a casual attitude to their customer relations and to retaining customers for their repeat business.

Gaining and retaining customers is a privilege not a right. Customers don’t have to give their business and they are not obliged to remain customers, especially if the marketplace is filled with competing offers for products and services.

Maintaining customers depends largely on how the product or service is delivered.

As a minimum standard customers should always receive their goods and services at the price agreed and delivered in the manner and time expected. This is certainly the case in business to business transactions, where delivery to price and specification have particular importance to companies involved in manufacturing, or where their supplies inventories work on “just in time” deliveries.

From time to time, mistakes will be made – products may fail to meet their specification, deliveries are incorrect or are late, or perhaps there are mistakes in the invoicing.

When a customer complains, the customer is not always right.

But customer complaints need initially to be treated in the first place, as if the customer were right. It is easy for some employees not directly involved with the customer to treat such complaints as a nuisance, but complaints are a valuable source of information about how customers perceive the product and service  for which they are paying.

It is all too easy for  employees not directly in contact with the customer to be unaware of how their actions can alienate both potential and existing customers; for example a delivery not being made on time, a credit level exceeded that prevents delivery, incomplete orders.

When such events occur, provided that customers are informed of the problem at the earliest opportunity and kept informed about progress to its resolution, the harm to customer relations will be minimised.

The worst situation is to not inform the customer of any problem, but allow the customer to find out the hard way, which may create problems for the customer, and breaks the trust of reliability between the customer and supplier.

For managers responsible for getting and retaining business, it is important to ensure that all employees understand that however remote their jobs appear to be from a direct relationship with the customers, their actions can have a significant role in the acquisition, retention or loss of a customer’s business.

Getting customers and retaining their custom is hard work which can easily be undone and negated by others who don’t appreciate the consequences foreseen or unforeseen of their activity or lack of it.

If a customer complains, and there is shown to be a problem, the first action is to admit it to the customer and apologise. It is the job of the manager responsible for getting and retaining business to investigate the complaint, its possible causes, and to provide a swift remedy for the problem. In doing so, managers should consider the following principals:

• Don’t assume that approved business procedures are followed, always check.
• Can procedures and policy it be verified?
• How do you know?

Managers who are responsible for getting and retaining business, must take ultimate responsibility when customers are lost through failings of company staff.

Managers must check that the policies, procedures and results are maintained by their employees, and be ready to help when foreseen and unforeseen problems arise that effect the customers.

All businesses make mistakes, but how those mistakes are handled may often decide whether the business retains or loses its customers.

From: http://businessperformancemaximized.com/it_is_easier_to_lose_business_than_to_get_it

Google has announced a deal to buy Motorola Mobility for £7.7 billion ($12.5 billion).In a joint statement both of the boards said that they had unanimously approved the deal, which should be completed early in 2012.

Earlier this year, Motorola split into two separate companies.

Mobility develops and manufactures mobile phones, while Motorola Solutions covers wider technologies for corporate customers and governments.

Google is making a high-stakes gamble in the global smartphone wars.

The search engine and developer of the Android operating system for mobile phones is gearing up for its confrontation with Apple- who owns the iOS and also makes smartphones.

Google has suffered a number of mobile phone setbacks recently, most of them in patent courts. Motorola Mobility holds 24,500 patents, which should allow Google to imitate Apple’s strategy of slowing down rivals by taking them to court for alleged patent infringements.

Google’s problem is that buying Motorola leaves its other Android partners potentially high and dry. Will they get the same early access to the latest versions of Android? Will Motorola get that little bit extra when it comes to smartphone features?

Google has released statements from three Android partners supporting the deal. They’re clearly written with clenched teeth. To handset-makers, Microsoft’s new Windows Phone software will suddenly look quite attractive.

And it puts a question mark over Google’s new boss Larry Page. Does he have no better use for the company’s cash than buying a fickle hardware business? Is Google losing corporate focus?

Shares in Motorola Mobility jumped 56% by the close of trading in New York on Monday, to $38.13, still below the offer price of $40 per share. Shares in Google fell 1.8%.

Meanwhile, Nokia shares listed in New York had jumped 17% by the end of trading on news of the deal, with renewed speculation that the Finnish mobile phone company could become a bid target itself, with Microsoft a likely suitor.

The deal would allow Google to “supercharge” its Android operating system, the joint statement said.

Google said it would continue to run Mobility as a separate business.

“Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies,” said Larry Page, Google’s chief executive.

Sanjay Jha, his counterpart at Mobility, said: “This transaction offers significant value for [our] stockholders and provides compelling new opportunities for our employees, customers and partners around the world.”

The deal is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval.

Motorola was once one of the world’s most successful mobile phone manufacturers, but has fallen behind the likes of Apple, Samsung and HTC in recent years. Many of its handsets already use Google’s Android operating system.

2G phones are often better for making phone calls than the latest 3G smartphones according to the communications regulator Ofcom.People living in rural areas should exchange their smartphones if they want to actually make phone calls new research from communications regulator Ofcom suggests.

New models, such as Apple’s top-selling iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S2, offer sophisticated “third-generation” (3G) technology to allow access to high speed networks, email and the internet, but the new Ofcom study found that starting and completing calls made from rural areas was better on older 2G phones.

These devices, called feature phones rather than smartphones, allow more internal space for aerials.

Ofcom found that “in the more rural areas that the phones were tested, the feature/entry-level phones generally returned somewhat better performance than smartphones for call completion and call setup.”

The regulator suggested that “This may be due to the reduced complexity of antenna on these devices and 2G phones not having issues in switching between 2G and 3G networks.”

Quality of sound was found to be the same between devices, however.

Ofcom carried out its research to assess whether consumers were being properly informed about mobile network coverage.

It found that, while individual phone companies provided valuable network maps, just three out of every ten consumers consulted them.

The regulator wants to encourage shops to inform customers about coverage when they’re buying mobile phones, and it also wants different networks to standardise their information so that consumers can compare services across providers.

Ofcom’s comparison of 2G and 3G handsets aimed to examine whether coverage maps were accurate across different devices.

The regulator found that “performance differences are likely in practice to be modest, and not necessarily a factor that consumers should base their choice of phone on”.

Overall, Ofcom found that mobile networks were making progress at addressing areas of poor-coverage both in rural areas and in buildings.

The regulator added, however, that there were a number of areas where commercial organisations were unlikely to be able to justify making sufficient investment to seriously improve coverage.

Apple’s new rules for iPad and iPhone apps payments have been criticised after they forced Amazon to change the Kindle app to make buying new books more complicated.The new terms and conditions, which mean publishers must give Apple 30 per cent of the price of any content they sell via apps, came into force on 30 June.

In response, in July, Amazon removed a “Kindle Store” link within its app in order to preserve its profit margin on e-books.

Kindle app users are still able to buy more books, but they must exit the app and navigate to the Kindle Store via the iPad or iPhone web browser.

But the change has left users confused and angry. On the iTunes page for the app, some indicated they didn’t understand the new purchasing process.

“Pointless update,” said SJH31. “Wish I didn’t update now. What’s the point if I can’t buy books.” and “In reality Apple didn’t like the competition and so has hamstrung apps like Kindle. Shameful from Apple.”

Those who did understand the change overwhelmingly blamed Apple.

Apple is competing with Amazon via iBooks, which still allows users to make purchases from within the app. The rule change has forced Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Google to make similar changes to their e-books apps too.

Apple’s rivalry with Amazon is expected to intensify, with the online retail giant reportedly poised to expand its range of gadgets beyond e-readers to include a full colour touchscreen tablet.

Steve Jobs originally announced the new apps payments regime in February.

Apple has since softened it slightly by allowing publishers to charge more for content in apps than they do on their own website, where they do not have to pay a 30 per cent cut to a third party.

Apple announced last week that in just 3 years 15 billion apps have been downloaded through it’s online store.
With a sizeable revenue cut of paid programmes, it has become the accidental goose who has laid the golden egg for Steve Jobs.

And although Apple did not invent the smartphone application, its system has defined the user experience. iOS apps are simplicity at every turn – payment, installation and use.

Others have followed-suit, with great success. Android Market passed three billion downloads in May.

But after a period of rapid growth, native smartphone apps are facing a fight for survival.

That threat comes from web apps – software that runs in a browser rather than being downloaded and installed on the device’s operating system.

Mubaloo, one of the UK’s biggest mobile app developers, estimates that requests from clients for web apps has doubled in recent months – enough to make them the third big player in app development.

The reason for that is simple – developing web apps solves several headaches.

Firstly, like the regular internet, a good web app can be made to adapt to a wide variety of devices rather than forcing the developer to create different products for each platform – be it iPhone or Android, smartphone or tablet.

Secondly, by circumventing the strict guidelines associated with official stores, Mr Mason’s clients can have exactly what they want, and can say for certain when it will be ready for the public.

Should any changes need to be made once the app is live, they can be made instantly, rather than wait several days for approval.

And then there’s the matter of money.

Put an app in the App Store and 30% of each sale goes to Apple. Android takes the same, but the cash goes to payment processors and mobile carriers. Microsoft and BlackBerry also get a cut of what sells in their stores.

Web apps offer developers the chance to cut out the middle man.

If that was not enough of an incentive to fly solo, in February of this year, Apple announced that it would also be taking 30% of revenue from in-app subscription payments.

It is that levy which may have proved be the final straw for cash-strapped publishers relying on a lucrative digital strategy to keep operations moving.

The first major player to adopt a web-apped approach to mobile subscribers was the Financial Times (FT). In June, the newspaper released its debut web app. Since launch it has attracted 200,000 users.

FT bosses have said subsequently that future app development will be focused on web platforms rather than native.

Key improvements in smartphones’ ability to power staple web components mean the FT web app does almost everything the company would expect from a downloaded app – including offline reading.