Targeting your audience.

It is important to make sure that you know exactly who your target audience is before you start promoting. Getting the right audience for your event, will be one of the determining factors to its success. If you€™re an events management company, your audience needs to be people/businesses that will be in constant need of hosting events.

Now that you know who you€™re targeting, you need to find them in a strategic manner. Social media could be a good way to reach out to one audience but not another. You may find that your specific audience is better targeted through more traditional forms of promotion (email or post).

Make sure your speaker(s) fits the bill.

The speaker needs to compliment the audience. The older generation are more likely to be receptive to someone of their own age as opposed to a young speaker. They need to be confident, ideally experienced, and know what they are talking about whilst being enthusiastic about the subject.

Event locale.

Choose an appropriate location for your audience attendees and size. If you know exactly how much people will be attending, the venue needs to accommodate them comfortably. If not, the location/venue you choose has to be able to adapt successfully with little fuss.

Think about the basic, obvious things such as weather and accessibility, you don€™t want to inconvenience the attendees.

Regular updates.

In an ideal world, everything will run smoothly and on time with zero delays. However, there is a probability that things can go wrong and you need to be prepared to deal with that efficiently. This is very important if you€™re the company running the event.

If seminars run over, or there are any technical difficulties, it is important that the guests are made aware. Apologise for any inconveniences and keep them updated on when the day will resume once more.

Throughout the day, keep an ear out for feedback. If you receive compliments, thank them. If you receive concerns, investigate and reassure them. Either way, note them down for use in a post-event meeting.

Learn from your mistakes and build on your success!

Most importantly, at the end of the event, thank everyone for coming!

Source: Fusion Communications Feed

Ofcom has revealed that Vodafone was the most complained about network during the final three months of 2014, with 0.15 complaints per 1,000 customers.

Vodafone overtook EE in the quarter, who had been the most complained network for the seven previous quarters, but saw its number of complaints fall 0.2 to 0.12 per 1,000 customers.

Tesco Mobile was the least complained about network with 0.02 complaints per 1,000 customers, the first time it had been included in the results, which also showed it had been the least complained network in the Q2 and Q3.

Three had previously held the title of least complained operator, but came in second with 0.03 complaints per thousand customers, just edging out O2 who had 0.04 complaints.

In a blog post, Vodafone UK CEO Jeroen Hoencamp promised to improve its customer services following Ofcom’s announcement.

Hesaid: €œWe€™re disappointed that more customers needed to raise complaints with us in the second half of last year.€

€œWe always want to provide our 20 million customers with a great service and we are clearly not there yet. This Ofcom report serves to remind us that we need to do more to deliver our goal of providing the best customer experience in our industry.€

Overall, the number of complaints for pay monthly mobile customers has risen slightly during the quarter, from 0.08 per thousand customers in Q3 to 0.09 per thousand customers in the three months ending December 31.

However, it was down year-on-year, from 0.10 per thousand customers in Q4 2013, and had fallen from 0.13 per thousand customers when Ofcom first started releasing results for mobile in Q1 2013.

Complaints from pre-paid customers also hit record lows during the quarter, down from 0.007 in Q4 2013 to 0.005 the following year. It was the same figure in Q4 2012 as well.

Ofcom director of content and consumer group Claudio Pollack said: €œComplaints figures help inform consumers’choices of telecoms and pay TV services. There are now more providers included in our report, so people can compare complaints figures for all the biggest companies.

€œWhile operators still have room to improve their performance, it’s encouraging to see a continuing decline in the total volume of complaints.€

Credit: mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Source: Fusion Communications Feed

Samsung re-established its global smartphone sales lead over Apple in Q1 2015 after holding on by its fingernails in the final quarter of last year.

This was according to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker which revealed that Apple’s sales share fell sequentially from 19.85 per cent to 18.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, Samsung increased its sales share from 20.01 per cent to 24.5 per cent in the last quarter.
Samsung shipped 82.4 million smartphones during the reporting period and Apple a further 61.2 million units.

Overall, there were 336.5 million smartphones sold in the quarter. This was a year-on-year increase of 16.7 per cent but down sequentially by 10.9 per cent.

Despite the good news for Samsung, Apple did close the gap in like-for-like figures. Samsung’s share was down from 30.7 per cent a year ago while Apple’s rose by three per cent 18.2 per cent.

€œThe challenge made by Apple for the top spot in the fourth quarter returned to a clear lead for Samsung in the first quarter, despite the soaring global demand for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus,€ said IDC mobile phone team research manager Anthony Scarsella.

€œSamsung’s shipments, given that the S6 was not launched into the market for the full quarter, were driven by large volumes into emerging markets and steady demand for its midrange and lower-priced smartphones.€

Lenovo (figures combined with Motorola) retained its place at number three in the market selling 18.8 per cent marketshare (Q1 2014: 12.6 per cent).

Fourth placed Huawei also increased its share from 4.7 per cent to five per cent on the back of sales which grew from 13.5 million last year, to 17 million.

LG – the only other vendor to be ranked by IDC – saw its share remain flat at 4.6 per cent (Q1 2014: 4.3 per cent). It sold an additional three million handsets compared with last year for a total of 15.4 million. It did, however, return to the top five replacing Chinese brand Xiaomi.

The rest of the market had a 42.1 share, up 1.3 per cent on Q1 2014. Sales in this segment increased by a fifth to 141.7 million.

Source: mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Source: Fusion Communications Feed

Apple posted record revenues and profits in its fiscal Q2, helped by iPhone sales soaring 40 per cent from the same period last year.

For the three months ending March 28, 2015, revenue increased 27 per cent year-on-year to $58 billion (£38 billion) while profit grew by a third (33 per cent) to $13.57 billion (£8.9 billion).

This was helped by the sale of 61.17 million iPhones in the quarter – a second quarter record for the company. These were up by 40 per cent from the year-ago quarter on revenue of $40.28 billion (£26.41 billion), which soared by more than half (55 per cent) from Q2 2014.

The results weren€™t brought down however by sliding tablet sales. Apple sold 12.62 million iPads in the quarter on revenue of $5.43 billion (£3.56 billion), down by 23 pr cent and 29 per cent respectively annually.

Internationally, Apple saw significant growth in China, with revenue soaring by 71 per cent year-on-year to $16.82 billion (£11.1 billion). This saw it overtake Europe as Apple’s second highest earning operating segment – revenue for the latter grew 12 per cent to $12.2 billion (£8 billion).

Revenue in the Americas continues to dominate Apple’s results. These were up 19 per cent from a year ago to $21.32 billion (£13.98 billion) – accounting for more than a third of the firm’s overall revenues.

Apple CEO Tim Cook (pictured right) said: €œWe are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever.

€œWe€™re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we€™ve experienced in previous cycles, and we€™re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch.€

The manufacturer’s Q3 results will include sales of the Apple Watch, which went on sale in nine countries, including the UK, on April 24.

Apple is forecasting revenue of between $46 billion and $48 billion for the quarter, with gross margin between 38.5 per cent and 39.5 per cent.

Source: mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Source: Fusion Communications Feed

Prime Minister David Cameron has €œabsolutely guaranteed€ businesses that a new Conservative Government will do all that it can to ensure that the infrastructure is put in place for faster mobile and fixed broadband and that all €˜not spots’– where signal availability drops off – are filled in.

Speaking at the launch of the Conservative Party’s manifesto for business at the Chartered Accountants Hall in London this morning, Cameron told an audience of several hundred of small business owners he understood the frustration of poor mobile coverage and slow broadband.

€œYou may be driving along an A-road and suddenly you lose our signal, you might lose your customer. You might lose that vital order. So the mobile Project, to make sure that we sure we deal with the not-spots in our country is absolutely vital.

€œThese things aren€™t discussed in some dusty corner of a business park. They are discussed round the Cabinet table with me banging the table saying €˜it’s not good enough we€™ve got to go faster.€™ So I absolutely agree (with criticism of slow broadband)?€

Source: mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Source: Fusion Communications Feed

EE is expecting BT’s £12.5 billion acquisition of it to be approved by the end of this year, allaying fears it may take longer.

BT sealed its multi-billion pound deal of the mobile operator on February 5. At the time, it was expected the deal would be finalised by March 2016, provided it gained regulatory approval.

On March 16, the UK Competition and Markets Authority confirmed it had invited rivals to make initial comments on the deal prior to a formal investigation. Some reports have suggested it may not be approved until early next year.

Talking to Mobile News following the publication of its Q1 2015 financial results, EE CEO Olaf Swantee said he is confident the purchase will be approved over the coming months and is hopeful this is done quickly.

€œOur experts, who are working with the Competition Market Authorities, have said that the merger will probably gain approval before the end of the year.

€œClearly we would want the deal to be approved quickly so that we can get on with delivering more value and a better network for the UK.€

Source: mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Source: Fusion Communications Feed

The global wearables market was worth $8.9 billion in 2014, according to research from Futuresource UK, with 56 million devices shipped worldwide.

The biggest growth was in the connected watches and fitness trackers category, which grew by 140 per cent from 2013, with Futuresource UK expecting a further 50 per cent surge in 2015.

Nine per cent of consumers told the research firm they will buy a smartwatch this year, with new applications such as mobile payments expected to drive sales.

The biggest drivers in 2014 were fitness, health, and mobile communications, according to the latest report, from the Worldwide Wearable Technology Quarterly Tracking service, with gifting playing a big role in wearables sales with 42 per cent of wearables sold in the build up to Christmas (Q4).

Fitbit, Samsung and Garmin were the biggest brands, but Futuresource expects 2015 to see numerous new entrants from Swiss watchmakers, jewellery and fashion houses all exploring the wearables market.

€œThe market for wearable technology is growing but still finding its feet with consumer applications that extend beyond fitness and health applications, it is still very much in its infancy,€ said Futuresource Consulting director Simon Bryant Associate.

€œThe future of this market depends on killer applications, practical usage cases, and replacement models, which are as yet an unknown quantity.€

Credit: mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Source: Fusion Communications Feed

Apple has admitted that demand for its Watch could exceed supply at launch on April 24.

The manufacturer’s first wearable product is being made available for preview and pre-order tomorrow.
However, as with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in September, Apple has revealed that it may be able to meet customer demand for the product.

Apple senior vice president of retail and online stores Angela Ahrendts said: €œBased on the tremendous interest from people visiting our stores, as well as the number of customers who have gone to the Apple Online Store to mark their favourite Apple Watch ahead of availability, we expect strong customer demand will exceed our supply at launch.

€œTo provide the best experience and selection to as many customers as we can, we will be taking orders for Apple Watch exclusively online during the initial launch period.€

Customers in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the UK and the US will be able to try on and experience the Apple Watch at their local Apple Store or Galeries Lafayette in Paris, Isetan in Tokyo, Selfridges in London and select €˜Authorised Resellers’in Japan and China.

Pre-orders for the product open tomorrow through the Apple Online Store from 8:01am BST for delivery beginning April 24.

Those visiting stores tomorrow can try on the Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport or Apple Watch Edition to find the model with the size, finish and band to best suit them. They will be able to view all three collections and get hands on with demos to browse and edit different watch faces, and learn about its health and fitness features, Digital Touch, Siri and more.

Apple Watch will also go on sales at boutiques in major cities including Colette in Paris, Dover Street Market in London and Tokyo, Maxfireld in Los Angeles and The Corner in Berlin.

The Apple Watch Sport costs £299 and £339; Apple Watch from £479 to £949; and Apple Watch Edition, crafted from custom rose or yellow 18-carat gold alloys, starting at £8,000. All prices exclude VAT. The product is compatible with iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6 or 6 Plus running iOS8.2 or later.

Source: mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Source: Fusion Communications Feed

Microsoft’s only handset launch at Mobile World Congress has gone on sale in the UK today.

The Lumia 640 will be joined by its larger variant, the 640 XL, by the end of the month.

The 640 has a five-inch display, 8MP camera, a 1.2GHz processor and 2500mAh battery. It is available in glossy cyan, orange and white, and matte black. It is available on O2 for £99 for new prepay customers joining the network.

The beefed up XL variant comes with a 5.7-inch screen, 3000mAH battery and 13MP camera. It will be priced at ‚¬189 for the 3G version and ‚¬219 for the 4G handset. It is available in matte cyan, orange and black, and both matte and glossy white and is priced at £219 SIM-free.

€œPeople are looking for a device which brings them more flexibility to switch easily between work and play, without breaking the bank,€ said Microsoft Devices UK acting general manager Simon Rayne.

€œThe Lumia 640 and the Lumia 640 XL keep people prepared for anything, with the full range of Microsoft experiences – including Cortana, Office and OneDrive – that Lumia users have come to expect straight out of the box, fast 4G connectivity, long-lasting battery and a choice of screen sizes and camera capabilities, depending on individual preferences.€

The devices also come with a year’s subscription to Office 365, 60 global Skype minutes every month for a year and 1TB of OneDrive storage. The subscription can be used on one smartphone, one tablet and one PC.

Source: mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Source: Fusion Communications Feed

Android stretched its UK sales share lead over iOS to 14 per cent ahead of a number of Q2 flagship releases running the former.

This is according to the latest sales share figures from Kanar Worldpanel ComTech for the three months ending February 28.

The Google operating system continues to lead the UK market with share of 52.6 per cent, up 1.1 per cent for the three months ending January 31 but down 5.2 per cent from a year earlier.

Apple iOS saw its share fall 1.5 per cent from the previous three month measure to 38.6 per cent, but this was still up by 8.6 per cent compared to the same period 12 months ago.

Windows edged its sales share up by 0.4 per cent from the end of January to 7.8 per cent, despite it falling one per cent year-on-year.

Kantar chief of research Carolina Milanesi said the release of new flagship smartphones from a number of Android players in Q2 will provide a boost for the OS market.

€œThe new flagship products in the Android ecosystem by Samsung, HTC, LG and Huawei shipping from April across markets will inject a new spark into the ecosystem battle,€ she said.
Differentiation will remain a challenge in an ecosystem where vendors share such an important common denominator – OS. Samsung’s clear departure from previous generation’s design will certainly help the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge to stand out.€

Source: mobilenewscwp.co.uk

Source: Fusion Communications Feed