Angelica Cabrera

RIM’s Blackberry Messenger has been known to be consistently reliable service for its users. However, this reputation acts like a double-edged sword as its customers are less forgiving when the service goes down. This past week, a hardware failure temporarily rendered the service useless to tens of millions of Blackberry users. Because RIM routes all Blackberry data through its servers, a system crash affects users around the world.

Fortunately, RIM has a loyal customer base, so it is not likely that many will jump ship for the iPhone or another smartphone device right away. However, the event it did negatively affect their brand image, stock value, and will deter potential customers. Although RIM’s customer loyalty may have lessened the impact of this crisis, RIM should take steps in the future to ensure that incidents like these do not happen again, as a customer base faced with so many other substitutes for RIM’s Blackberry may not be as forgiving next time.

Source: The Globe and Mail

A new report by the Cable and Telecommunications Association for Marketing has found that almost half of all Canadians are now watching TV shows or movies online. As well, one in three are considering cancelling their TV services. Most home viewing is still done the “traditional” way, but the Internet is quickly changing that. The most popular online viewing sites are YouTube, Netflix, and iTunes.

Consumers enjoy watching content online because they can choose to view what they want, when they want. In addition to allowing them to customize their content viewing, online streaming comes at a greatly reduced price – and in the cases of file-sharing services like torrents – free. The use of technology as alternatives for traditional ways of doing things may not be totally successful, however, as seen in the unimpressive growth of the E-book market. However, the Internet can deliver video content to users with a closer similarity to how a television delivers its service compared to how an E-book acts for a paper book. As the digital age progresses, it is probable that the use of the Internet will be a viable substitute for television subscriptions.

Canadian-based start-up Keek is gaining recognition for its “microvideo” service. The social network site allows users to share short 36-second clips, called “micro-video status updates” to people in their network. The videos can be posted through webcam or mobile  apps. The service is targeted mainly to the under-24 market and is to YouTube like Twitter is to Facebook. The unique venture has just recieved $5.5 million in financing.

The reason the company’s unique selling point is perhaps only gaining popularity now is because few microvideo startups in the past years have failed to gain traction. But the fame that Keek is enjoying now is a result of changing customer tastes who are more connected with the Internet in anything they do, increasing the demand for services such as Keek. However, tt will remain to be seen whether the rising popularity of “micro-blogging” (Twitter) can translate to video.

Source: Financial Post

India recently introduced a cheap tablet computer intended to lift villagers out of poverty and bridge the country’s “digital divide”. The computer, called “Aakash”, is part of a series of “cheap” innovations that are now frequent in India. The company’s developer, Datawind, is selling them to the government, teachers, and students for as low as $35. The Aakash can handle word processing, Web browsing, and video conferencing.The company intends for the technology to help rural businesses. For example, it could provide farmers with information to improve their yields.

The company wants to start a price war in order to lower the price of the Aakash as much as possible. Other than intending to drive prices down, Datawind encourages competition so that the “cheap” tablet can be improved.

Although the Aakash was developed with good intentions, it remains to be seen whether the device can create a significant effect on society, namely the problem that the product targets: poverty. It will be a challenge for Datawind to develop their simple and tangible product in order to combat a complex and intangible concept such as this. Without the correct implementation and distribution of the Aakash, the “cheap” innovation may not make much of an impact at all.

Source: The Globe and Mail

The world’s most popular smartphone, the Apple iPhone, has been recently revamped, and with this change comes a shift within Apple as well. The launch of the new version of iPhone every year garners much media attention, but this year it is particularly special as it is the company’s first year with the new CEO Tim Cook at the helm, instead of the previous head of the company, Steve Jobs. Cook has long played a background, albeit vital, role in Apple, and finds himself in a newfound position of “salesman” of Apple’s new products. This brings into question whether this change in Apple’s new management structure will impact its sales. It seems to be that the brand awareness of the iPhone guarantees success with every new model. While Jobs has long been a familiar face for the job of promoting the iPhone, the sheer popularity of the product means that Cook’s appointment will not hinder iPhone sales, in the short-term at least. However, because the new iPhone is deemed as more of an “evolutionary” product from its predecessors than a “revolutionary” one, Apple will need to produce more groundbreaking products in the future to maintain its success it so famously enjoyed with Jobs.

Source: The Globe and Mail

For COMM 101 – Business Ethics Class 3 Blog Post

A recent federal report has placed ultimate responsibility on BP for the 200-million gallon oil spill which occurred in their undersea well last year. This incident resulted in the deaths of 11 workers, billions of dollars in damage to hundreds of miles of coastline, and the crippling of the Gulf economy.

The report, released on Wednesday, concluded that BP violated federal regulations in the construction of the well, as it failed to take the necessary precautions to ensure the utmost safety of the project. BP made several flawed management decisions that complicated operations and added risk, thus the well was not kept under control at all times.

BP, under federal regulations, was obligated to conduct operations in order to ensure “the safety and protection of personnel, equipment, natural resources, and the environment.” The main ethical issue here is that BP neglected this social responsibility to its workers and the environment in order to cut costs. BP may have initially benefited financially by neglecting the ethical responsibilities of their actions, but this incident will cost them dearly in the long term, with perhaps irreparable damage to their corporate image.

Source: The Globe and Mail

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