Month: October 2016

Technology Boom- Samsung gadgets malfunction just in time for the release of Apple’s flashy Iphone 7 and Google gadgets

As mentioned in Janice’s blog, Samsung is facing one of the most challenging moment during its history.

Released on August 19th, the latest product which should be the most competitive one against iPhone7, was reported with explosion issue from China on August 24th, even less than a week from the official release. As far as I know, Samsung did not give a prompt reply  until over 30 explosions took place by the end of August. It must be one of the most bleak month for the business. And finally, in early September, Samsung announced to recall the Note 7 smartphones which is also the largest worldwide recall in consumer electronic history. Sales are halted. Even the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) declared that it’s now illegal to use a Note7 aboard any aircraft under FAA jurisdiction.

http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-galaxy-note-7-recall-714419/

https://www.cnet.com/news/why-is-samsung-galaxy-note-7-exploding-overheating/

Is that the end? Concede and compensate, apologize to the consumers, will the problem be solved so easily? Obviously not. First, Samsung has lost the most fundamental brand reputation, who will be willing to carry a bomb with him or her? It is not about the quality but about the safety of human’s life. Second, majority are really infuriated about the late reaction given by the company, it took such a long time to make an announcement which also caused to loss in customer loyalty.  Simultaneously, the competition in smart gadget market is always so intense. Besides the existing strong rivalries such as Apple and Huawei, Google has just launched their new Pixel smartphone while Amazon is working on its Echo, we cannot help thinking about that how the market would be during the temporary leaving of Samsung. The business will be suffering its most difficult time not only in how to beat the competitors but also in how to gain the loyalty back, which is far more challenging the former one.

References:

http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/the-samsung-galaxy-note-7-fiasco-a-blow-by-blow-account-343955.html

https://www.cnet.com/news/samsung-galaxy-note-7-fires-faa-flight-illegal/

Word count:328

Re: Huawei’s new market approaches gain ground by Miranda Liu

This has been a really attractive blog to me as I, myself, is a Huawei smartphone user.

Truly, as Miranda has mentioned in her blog, Huawei was located as the more affordable but not that functional smartphone at the beginning. Since it is a Chinese brand, it’s quite easy to expand the local market due to the large population and the unbalanced income. As the market expanding, the company has become more and more ambitious, especially when it became the third smartphone giant in the world, only behind Apple and Samsung. It is quite impressive for a young business from a developing country, in my opinion. And as the development takes place, Huawei smartphone has become more functional and classic, both in external and internal. Its collaboration with Leica was really a shock to me since Leica is one of the best and even luxurious camera producer in the world, so it’s really hard to imagine that a company which positioned as affordable is making this far even other giants not doing it. To me, Huawei is more user-friendly than Samsung. Not compared with Apple is due to its own system, but in the area of Android, I think Huawei is doing a pretty good job, even better than Samsung and other brands.

http://consumer.huawei.com/en/mobile-phones/p9/index.html

Now Huawei is sparing no efforts to expanding the global market and I think it goes pretty well, which may be different from Miranda’s opinion. As far as I know, many people in North America are getting interested in this brand and are willing to buy one. Seriously, why not? This is a phone with really high quality and more affordable price. And another problem Miranda has pointed is about the consumer loyalty. This is a really good point, I think. As a strange brand coming into the global competition, it will take time to form the consumer loyalty, I presume. However, hard not impossible, especially during such period while Samsung is troubling with their explosion and iPhone7 is doubted by majority, it seems that Huawei is really a good choice. And you know what, though it may take time to form the international brand loyalty, it can still make profits because of the existing market in China, again with such a large population and demand. Actually, Huawei has already gained its brand loyalty in China, I think, not only because its local support with the patriotism but because its highly cost-effective the phone itself.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33590875

Word count: 411

On Friday, September 30th, Rogers Media announces an overhaul of its magazines, which is unexpected but not that surprising, with Flare, Sportsnet, MoneySense and Canadian Business becoming exclusively available online as of January next year. As for other giants of publication in Canada, Maclean’s, the representative national publication lasting more than a century, will go from weekly to monthly, while Chatelaine and Today’s Parent will only be published six times a year.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/rogers-retreats-from-print-in-radical-media-division-overhaul/article32163670/

Also, Rogers shows its intention of selling all of its business-to-business magazines as well as its French publications. Steve Maich, the senior vice-president of digital content and publishing at Rogers Media said that the company is already communicating actively with potential buyers and hopes to stop those sales before next year.

What factors cause such changes?  With the pervasive dissemination of digital access to large amount of resources, there is a gradual dwindling of the subscriber business across most of the printing media over the past five years. However, the loss in the number of subscribers is not the most serious problem, the bigger issue is due to the advertising revenues. While the demand for printing magazines decreasing, the advertising dedicated to magazine has started to fall dramatically in recent years, which can be the greatest reason of the bleak prospect for the paper media market. For example, print advertising revenue for Rogers Media sank more than 30 per cent during this one-year term.

The rapid decreasing revenue warns the giant publication. After realizing that maintaining the existing operation model will do no good but increasing its burden, Rogers Media decides to change its existing strategy and operation model – focusing more on the online subscribers and shutting down the printing editions. It is much wiser to transfer to digital format than simply closing them. It is a hard decision while it is a right decision. Keeping the original brand will not cut down its subscribers otherwise it may attract new subscribers (e.g. younger people) via online subscribing.

http://www.quertime.com/article/15-online-tools-to-create-e-magazines-ebooks-and-digital-newspapers/

Compared with tomes, piecemeal news is actually more acceptable for online reading. As digitalization is becoming more and more popular, shift in methods of transmission also caters to the consumers’ demand. Sticking to the old format rather than making changes will only lead the business to the end, while smart company would change its strategy in marketing promptly instead.

References:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/rogers-magazines-1.3785707

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/newsalert-rogers-announces-stop-printing-145450197.html

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/newsalert-rogers-announces-stop-printing-145450197.html

Word Count: 395