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e_Marketing Blog WiMAX for Portland WiMAX service will soon be available in Portland, Oregon. What is WiMAX? It is a wireless alternative to cable or DSL. For a number of years this technology has promised to revolutionize the delivery of "last mile" service connecting homes and offices to internet access points. But these days the focus is more on mobile applications that make it a viable alternative to standard cell phone services. The provider of this service in Portland will be Clearwire, a company formed through joint cooperation of Sprint, Clearwire, Google, Intel, Comcast, and Time Warner. WiMAX will not be significantly cheaper than the alternatives, but it does promise to offer greater potential for merging disparate services such as internet, cell phone, Voip and cable tv. 2009 Will Be Pivotal for Microsoft 2008 has not been the greatest year for Microsoft, but they have still done surprisingly well in spite of the economic slowdown around the world. In an article from PCWorld called Microsoft's Top Three 2008 Mistakes, Shane O'Neill of CIO.com discusses some of the things that went well for MS, and some that clearly did not. In spite of aggressive marketing by Apple, Mac sales fell 1 percent over the year and Windows PC sales were up 7 percent. Microsoft's grip on the PC market remained firm - with 90% of users running Windows, and 70% of internet browsers using Internet Explorer. One has to think that the bad press MS keeps getting will have to impact these market shares eventually. Although it sure seems like both Apple and Firefox do not understand that their elitist attitude ("we're so much better and smarter than the other 90% of you") is an implicit criticism of the very customer they are trying to reach. 2009 will be a pivotal year for MS as they continue to try to beat off Apple, Google and Mozilla (Firefox). According to the PC Word article Microsoft's biggest mistakes for 2008 were: 1. Poor marketing of Windows Vista - They've been letting Apple get away with bashing Vista for years now. It's just not as bas as the critics say it is, and MS's own lack of promotion reinforces the idea that the critics are right. 2. Letting Apple Build Anti-Vista Momentum - Even though the sales figures may not yet show it in a convincing way, Apple has taken the marketing game away from MS with their constant Vista-bashing. MS has not shown that it can adequately respond. Expensive ads featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld missed the mark. Just recently I saw an ad touting the unique features of Vista in a straight-ahead way. It's about time. 3. The Failed Yahoo Bid - Early in 08 the bid for Yahoo looked like it might be a case of two search losers getting together. The failure of the bid did nothing for MS's image as a "winner" or a company forging into the future. As it turned out it was probably good for MS that Yahoo rejected their offer. Now Yahoo is worth a fraction of what MS offered, Jerry Yang, the big Yahoo opponent of the bid is gone, and new Yahoo investors are now courting MS. MS is still interested in Yahoo's search business, and may very well end up with it in 2009. Communicating With Your Real Estate Agent In an article called The Future of Real Estate Communication Phoenix area real estate specialist and blogger Jay Thompson suggests that agents who want to be in the loop with the next generation of home buyers had better understand the communication media they use. Text messaging is something that has become second nature to young people as young as 9 or 10 years old, and it has basically made email obsolete as a way for teenagers to communicate with one another. Thompson reports that in December his two teenagers sent and received about 10,000 text messages - that's about 83 messages each per day - while his 17 year old son claims to have sent maybe 10 emails in the whole month. On the other hand Thompson himself - a technology savvy parent and real estate agent - has more than 5,000 email messages in his inbox, and most of his own text messages have been back and forth with his children. So there is clearly a "generation gap" when it comes to the use of electronic messaging. As he says, "The point is, the way we communicate is changing. According to some researchers there will be 2.3 trillion text messages sent this year. Wikipedia says that 80% of 13 – 24 year olds use text messaging (compared to 18% of 40 – 49 year olds). That’s a whole lot of texting by a whole lot of soon to be first-time home buyers." The other change that has already taken place over the last couple of years is the way an increasing number of people use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. People who would not think of using a stuffy email message to talk to each other find themselves commenting to each other back and forth through Facebook and Twitter. Not only are these becoming mature communication channels between people, but companies and entrepreneurs are finding innovative ways to interact with customers and prospects through these massively popular media. The bottom line is that real estate agents will have to accommodate themselves to the communication media used by their clients. That means if they want to reach young people who are plugged into these non-traditional modes of communication, they themselves will have to become plugged in. |
Cottage-Sales.com - Looking for a cottage or summer home in Canada? You've come to the right place. We have valuable background information on cottage sales and what to look for in a summer home. If you've done any searching for cottages or summer homes, you know this market changes daily. Cottage-Sales.com is a member of the Linknet network of websites. Fast Fax - A Long History And A Modern TruthApr 24, 2006 - Linknet Business News Inkjet Cartridges - Replacement Ink cartridges and Remanufactured ink cartridges. Save money on high quality ink cartridges | Full Color Brochure Printing - Order brochure printing at PrintPelican.com Fast Fax - A Long History And A Modern Truth by Angelina Jordan - The facsimile, or fax as we call it today was one of the earliest concepts in modern technology. First patented in 1843 by Scottish physicist Alexander Bain, the fax is an encoding and/or imaging method that reads text and/or images in small areas at a time, assigns numerical values based on darkness and lightness and then transmits them to a receiver. The receiver produces corresponding marks on paper as the transmitting fax proceeds to scan the next lower line continuing until the entire document has been scanned, digitized and transmitted.We typically think of the fax as transmitting documents via telephone line, but history verifies that Bain patented his original invention 33 years before the telephone and Morse code became standard transmission methods. The facsimile made its official debut at the 1853 World's Fair in London with English physicist Frederick Bakewell conducting the first public demonstration of fax transmission. By 1865, Italian physics professor Giovanni Caselli had launched the first commercial fax system linking Paris with other French cities. Not to be outdone by the Europeans or by having just missed the patent for the telephone by three hours, American professor, Dr. Elisha Gray of Omnifax sold his facsimile patent to the Gray National Teleautograph Company. A demonstration of his fax system generated record-breaking crowds at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The fax continued to advance and was significantly furthered by the work of German scientist Dr. Alfred Korn. Though not to be outdone by the Europeans, In 1922, his facsimile system was utilized to transmit a photo of Pope Pius XI from Rome to the state of Maine in the U.S. enabling the New York World newspaper to publish the photo the same day. The military drafted the fax for use in 1941 to transmit weather charts, maps and orders during World War II. Newspapers relied on faxes to provide them with up-to-the minute details and photos from political conventions and other news-worthy events from around the world. Although the FCC authorized the development of commercial fax technology in 1948, it would be the mid 1970's before it caught on in the mainstream of daily business operations, but even then only in limited industries due to complicated technology and expensive costs. By the mid 1980's though, fax operations were simpler and less expensive and set the world of big business ablaze in a way that forever changed the way the modern world does business. Corporations and large organizations worldwide began implementing the fax as their primary method of communications. Authorizations, customer orders and verifications could be delivered within minutes instead of waiting for postal pickup and delivery, which took forever. The cost to productivity ratio proved a profitable investment for sizable enterprises. Faxing can still be a heavy expense on small businesses, especially for professionals who work from home. There's the cost of the fax machine itself and the cost of ink cartridges, toner and paper, not to mention the cost of additional phone lines and/or expensive software if small business owners opt for strictly computer-based faxing. While e-mailing documents is an option, e-mails often go astray and frequently the computer receiving an attached document does not feature the software application required for opening the document. Thousands of home based businesses rely on faxing for document editing that bypasses the need to have compatible, expensive software. With faxing being a necessity in today's business world instead of a luxury, how can small business owners and work-from-home pros offset the high cost without passing it along to their clients? There has to be an affordable fax option that keeps them competitive with other businesses. And there is ... once again the Internet-age comes to the rescue with cost-effective faxing for small business owners and work-from-home pros leveling the playing field so they can be not only more productive, but also more competitive in their markets. Online faxing gives them a decisive advantage in doing business. I'm sure you've heard about online faxing, but you've also heard about the expensive set-up fees that go along with it. Your budget is stretched to the limit now and a hefty set-up fee just isn't in the cards. Well, you can scratch that expense off your list of luxuries by visiting http://www.faxitnice.com for a simple, affordable option. They've broken the well-kept industry-secret that there is NOTHING to be set-up on an individual basis in Internet faxing, which means that there's no reason for online faxing to be expensive. In business since 2003, FaxIt Nice offers its clients two affordable service options, the OnceOff Fax and the FaxIt Credit. OnceOff Fax is designed for someone sending a one-time and/or occasional fax. FaxIt Credit offers a FREE membership with NO monthly fees. You simply purchase a pre-determined amount based upon your individual business needs in increments at valuable per page savings with deep discounts for volume purchases. Give your small business the big business advantage by using the FaxIt Nice services developed by 350 Nice and ditch the last minute trips to the office supply store for expensive toners and drums. It's a cost-effective way, available 24 hours a day to any country in the world to give your business the competitive edge it takes to be successful in today's market! (c) 2005, Angelina Jordan. Reprint rights granted so long as article and by-line are printed intact and all links made live. Angelina Jordan is a freelance writer and editor specializing in serving the needs of small business owners. She offers over 15 years' solid experience in drafting quality content and providing comprehensive copyediting in the business and non-profit arenas. Contact her via e-mail message to apjordan@adelphia.net to discuss your business writing and editing needs. Article source - Click-Partners.com
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