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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.

A portfolio of 6,000 patents was auctioned to realise some value from the assets of bankrupt telecoms firm Nortel.
Google lost the auction as a consortium including Apple and Microsoft made the winning bid of £2.8 billion.

The sale of the patent portfolio started as a five way scrap and boiled down to  two separate combined consortia and individual firms including Google and Intel.

Initial estimates suggested the portfolio would attract around £1.24 billion but the four days of intense bidding saw the total rise sharply.

As the bids got bigger some firms dropped out and others became partners to pool their resources. From going it alone, Apple joined a consortium that included Microsoft, Research In Motion and Sony.

Ultimately the portfolio was being fought over by two groups: Google and Intel on one side and the Microsoft/Apple-led consortium on the other.

Google’s bids for a pool of wireless patents were based on unusual mathematical theorems. During the sale, Google’s bids were based on pi, other constants and the distance between the Earth and the Sun.

“Google was bidding with numbers that were not even numbers,” a source involved in the auction told the Reuters news agency.

During its bids, Google picked numbers including Brun’s constant and Meissel-Mertens constant that were said to have “puzzled” others involved in the auction. When bids from rivals hit $3bn, Google reportedly bid pi, $3.14159bn, to up the ante.

“Either they were supremely confident or they were bored,” Reuters’ source said.

It is not clear what inspired Google to draw on obscure mathematics for its bids. However, Google co-founder Sergey Brin is widely acknowledged to be a maths prodigy and the bids may reveal his influence.

Currently Google had about 700 patents in its mobile portfolio, many of which relate to using handsets to serve its core competences such as search.

By contrast, he said, the Nortel patents relate to future technologies that will make mobile networks faster and handsets more powerful.

Owning the patents could also ease the burden on firms making Android devices as they would have fewer licence fees to pay.

Use of Android technology from Google is free provided handset makers pipe traffic back to the search giant so it can make money with adverts.

However, the numbers of companies asking for cash to use the non-Google developed technologies found in Android phones was rising, he said.

For instance, Microsoft has announced licensing deals with many Android phone makers including General Dynamics and HTC.

With the control of the patents passing to a consortium that includes firms that are Google’s bitter rivals in the mobile phone world, licence fees could increase.

The charges for making and receiving mobile phone calls while travelling in Europe has been cut.Mobile phone operators cannot now charge more than 32p per minute (plus VAT) for outgoing calls, and 10p per minute (plus VAT) for incoming calls.

The new tariffs are the latest in a series of annual price reductions forced on the mobile industry by the European Commission.

Brussels has said it aims to equalise roaming and domestic charges by 2015.

Price regulation was introduced in 2007 by the then commissioner for information society and media, Viviane Reding.

Since then, the maximum call charge has been reduced by approximately 6% per year.

A group of UK mobile operators – O2, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile – attempted to challenge the Commission’s price-cutting agenda, taking their case to the European Court of Justice.

However, their complaint was dismissed in June 2010.

Along with the lower rates for phone calls, the commission also reduced the wholesale rate of mobile data from 72p to 45p per megabyte.

Whereas the price cap on voice calls applies directly to the way consumers are billed, the data changes only affect what operators charge each other. There is an expectation, rather than obligation to pass on the savings.

Operators are compelled to place a £45 cap on users’ data consumption, in order to avoid unexpectedly high bills, but customers who wish to continue their data roaming can request to have the limit removed.

The World Health Organization’s cancer research agency says mobile phones are “possibly carcinogenic”.A review of evidence suggests an increased risk of a malignant type of brain cancer cannot be ruled out. However, any link is not certain – they concluded that it was “not clearly established that it does cause cancer in humans”.

A group of 31 experts has been meeting in Lyon, France, to review human evidence coming from epidemiological studies.

They said they looked at all relevant human studies of people using mobile phones and exposure to electromagnetic fields in their workplace.

The WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) can give mobile phones one of five scientific labels: carcinogenic, probably carcinogenic, possibly carcinogenic, not classifiable or probably not carcinogenic.

It concluded that mobiles should be rated as “possibly carcinogenic” because of a possible link with a type of brain cancer – glioma.

The WHO estimated that there are five billion mobile phone subscriptions globally.

Christopher Wild, director of the IARC, said: “Given the potential consequences for public health of this classification and findings it is important that additional research be conducted into the long term, heavy use of mobile phones.

“Pending the availability of such information, it is important to take pragmatic measures to reduce exposure such as hands free devices or texting.”

For more information on cancer, please click here now: Mobile phones may cause brain cancer new research finds

Google is being sued by the online payments company PayPal for allegedly stealing its secrets less than 24 hours after the search engine unveiled a technology to allow consumers to use their phones as credit cards.The lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday in Santa Clara, California, accuses Osama Bedier, a former PayPal executive now at Google, of misappropriating trade secrets and using them to help his new employer develop its technology.

Stephanie Tilenius, another former PayPal executive now at Google, is alleged to have breached her contract by hiring Mr Bedier from PayPal at the start of this year.

The legal action underlines the scale of the fight between the two companies in the growing mobile payment market, as well as the fierce battle in Silicon Valley for employees.

PayPal, which is owned by online marketplace eBay, is developing technology to be used by shoppers when paying in shops.

Google on Thursday announced a deal with Mastercard and Citigroup that would allow consumers with a phone using its Android operating system to make payments with it.

PayPal has developed “a wide range of trade secrets in the areas of mobile payment, point of sale, and digital wallet, which give PayPal an advantage over both existing competitors and new market entrants, such as Google,” the lawsuit alleges.

According to the suit, Mr Bedier was a key figure in leading PayPal’s ongoing negotiations with Google over making PayPal a payment option on Google’s Android operating system, which is the market leader in the US.

A deal was about to be signed in January, when Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, announced plans to take over as chief executive from Eric Schmidt. Four days later, Mr Bedier left to take a job at Google, the suit alleges, and develop a rival technology to PayPal’s.

Meanwhile, Ms Tilenius, who left PayPal for Google in October 2009, began trying to hire Mr Bedier last summer, it is alleged. “I heard from a little birdie that you might be open to bigger and better challenges, I have a HUGE opportunity for you,” Ms Tilenius posted in a Facebook message to Mr Bedier around July 15 last year, the lawsuit claims. During last autumn, Mr Bedier was interviewed by several Google executives including Mr Page and Mr Schmidt.