For brands, to not be present on social media is to commit marketing/branding suicide. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that social media is where everything is – information on the brand/service, customers, interaction between brands and customers.

All this activity – carried out with multiple, brand specific objectives – results in the creation of colossal amounts of data. Data that gives insight into customer preferences, choices, the services/offers that excite or don’t, what techniques work or don’t, customer requests, customer response to the brand/services/overall brand experience and so on. The fact of the matter is that while companies are leveraging social media to further their brand not much effort or money is put into making something of all the information that is generated as a result of this interaction. This is where Social Business Intelligence comes in.

Social Business Intelligence (Social BI) is a sphere of expertise that has been created solely because of the proliferation of social media and its increased use by brands and companies. Social BI deals with creating intelligent data out of all the information that is fed into the social media platform.

For example, a bank may want to know what people on the internet are saying about its new product and its customer service operations in general. Given that there are multiple channels on which the bank is active and that the customer has many more on which he/she can express happiness or disappointment, it becomes nearly impossible to collate all the data and to analyse it. This is where Social BI comes in. It fetches information from across platforms, makes analytic reports, draws insightful conclusion from the data and gives recommendations that can be used by the management to make the right decisions. In this manner, Social BI assists in deciding and judging the effectiveness of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as well as deciding the future course of action that must be undertaken.

According to the Social Media And Business Intelligence Survey conducted by Peter J. Auditore of Unisphere Research, 60% companies (of the total respondents) are planning to monitor social media networks in a holistic manner and 36.44% companies (of the total respondents) are planning to invest in Social BI over the next 1-2 years.

These statistics give a definite picture of how soon and to what extent brands are planning to engage in social media monitoring. From all this information, it is possible to understand that companies specialising in Social BI will be the demand of the hour. Hyderabad based Helical IT Solutions is one such company that as of now is engaged in building a Social BI platform for UnifiedSocial.

I see this trend catching on quick as companies try to differentiate them from competitors on social media platforms and also try to reach out to consumers in a more personalised and direct manner by creating campaigns that specifically cater to them. Do let me know your thoughts on this.

Image Courtesy | ymarketing

Source: WATBlog

We don’t know much about Motorola’s so-called X Phone. The only confirmation of the phone’s existence comes by way of a job posting seeking a product manager to work directly with the team designing the device, but few details have surfaced. Today, however, a report has surfaced over at SmartHouse giving us just enough new info to whet the appetite.

According to sources close to CTO Hugh Bradlow of Australian carrier Telstra, the X Phone is being billed as a “game changer.” OK, that sounds like pretty typical smartphone hype, but that’s not the only sliver of info that was gleaned. According to the report, Google has been working on the software side of the X Phone for quite a while, and when the handset launches it will feature an entirely new software experience with features never seen on a smartphone.

The rumored debut at Google I/O in May — again corroborated by this report — leads to the assumption that the phone will launch as a flagship for the next iteration of Android, Key Lime Pie. From the sound of things, though, the phone could launch with exclusive software features that might not reach other. This includes putting together Google’s suite of mobile services “like no other manufacturer has done in the past.” Can we expect a non-stock Android device designed directly by Google?

The X Phone is headed toward a July launch, if all pans out, and will be available on all US carriers and in the Google Play Store with a pricing and sales model similar to that of the Nexus 4 (or cheaper). Consider us excited.

Source: Phandroid

Samsung is the first challenger to Apple’s hegemonic control over the smartphone industry that could actually become a real threat to the company. While Apple consults the crystal ball, Samsung actually listens to the market. As a recent New York Times article makes clear, Samsung’s strategy is working and the company is growing fast. Here’s why:

Samsung Spends Way More Than Apple on R&D

Samsung currently spends $10.5 billion on research and development. That’s more than double Apple’s $3.4 billion in spending, and a greater percentage of their revenue as well (5.7% vs. Apple’s 2.2%). With that money, Samsung hires designers, architects, engineers, managers, sociologists and psychologists. These employees study trends in everything from art exhibitions to online graphic design in order to come up with inspiration for the Next Big Thing.

Apple Is Playing Catch-Up

Market experts told Samsung consumers wanted a phone with a larger screen, so they developed one. When it took off, Apple realized that their formula for success — dictate to consumers what they should want – wasn’t working so well anymore. Thus, the iPhone 5 was created, with a slightly larger screen than its predecessors. Apple had to play catch-up to Samsung.

Samsung Listens to Consumers, Apple Tells Them What They Should Want

Steve Jobs famously said “Consumers don’t know what they want.” Samsung, on the other hand, studies the market obsessively and develops products that consumers really do want. With their ear to the ground, Samsung learns things Apple doesn’t care to know; that’s why they’re such a big threat.
Samsung Is More Innovative

Among the more interesting tidbits in a recent New York Times article is the revelation that Samsung developed the Galaxy Note so that Chinese speakers would be able to write characters more easily on their devices using a pen instead of typing. “Those insights led to the Note, a smartphone that comes with a digital pen,” writes the New York Times. This is the kind of insight Apple would never have, for all the reasons listed above.

As the New York Times writes, never has Apple had a challenger able to make a truly profitable smartphone or tablet. Not until Samsung. Now the question is, will the company be able to continue to accurately predict market trends in the future? We think so!

Source: Androidpit

According to a new report released yesterday, Apple’s iPhone ranks fifth in user satisfaction in the U.S., trailing behind four Android phones, including the Motorola Atrix HD, the Motorola Droid RAZR M, the HTC Rezound 4G and the Samsung Galaxy Note 2.

The report, which was conducted by the mobile research firm OnDevice Research, asked 320,000 smartphone owners how satisfied they were with their devices. Users were surveyed via their mobile web browser and the company’s software was able to detect the user’s device.

In the U.S., 93,825 people participated in the survey. Apple’s iPhone did a bit better in the U.K. where, it took second place, after the HTC One X. The survey also reached mobile users in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Japan and Indonesia.

Curiously, even though the iPhone 5 was ranked below Android devices, Apple still was ranked number one in terms of overall device satisfaction, followed by Motorola, HTC, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson. Samsung was ranked at the very bottom, which doesn’t really surprise me given the huge number of budget phones they manufacture that barely last a year.

Where is the Galaxy S3? How did Motorola make it to the top? I mean, I know the Motorola Atrix HD was well liked but I didn’t realize it was this well liked. Are you surprised by these results?

Source: Androidpit

Launch of new gTLDs represents a major change to the internet, but they are unlikely to threaten the existing marketplace

The new gTLDs is the biggest change to the internet since the first set of top-level domains were launched in 1984. Photograph: Lifestyle pictures / Alamy

Later this year, hundreds of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), including .money, .sport, .accountants, .marketing and .music will be available to new businesses and registrants, as part of a new scheme by The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The new gTLDs will represent the biggest change to the internet since the first set of top-level domains (.com, .org, .net, .edu, .gov) were launched in 1984. However, while the move has the potential to create astronomical change to how businesses and consumers use the internet, in my opinion, the majority of domains will fail to demonstrate any credible threat to the existing gTLD marketplace.

The story so far

Consumer confusion, cyber-squatting and massive delays are the main criticisms of the new gTLDs programme. While the majority of ICANN’s board members voted to expand the Internet’s Domain Name System in June 2011, so far it has been anything but a smooth process.

ICANN’s CEO Fadi Chehadé stated in a candid speech last month that the company is not ready to release the new GTLDs. He added that he would delay the entire programme for another year if it were up to him. The announcement came just weeks after a key deadline on string similarity analysis was missed. In response to the delays and existing problems with the new GTLD launch process, a number of top-level managerial changes have also taken place at ICANN.

Why are the new gTLDs likely to fail?

The success of new gTLDs such as .money, .finance and .music will depend on how they are marketed and used by brands, as well as small businesses. Search engines have kept quiet on whether a new gTLD will help a site rank for that industry, since this depends on the perceived value of the domains for end-users.

Danny Sullivan wrote an interesting article, stating: “The new names will almost certainly mean nothing to search engines.” He cited the failure of the .travel extension (you won’t find any travel sites ranking with this domain) in addition to how .biz, .info and .mobi extensions were overhyped when they were released in 2001. Since then, these domain extensions have largely been ignored by larger brands.

Of course, the main issue with the new gTLDs is that hundreds will be released all at the same time (ICANN has projected to launch between 300 and 1,000 a year). Many of them will also be competing directly with one another, including .finance, .money, .investment, .insurance, .insure, .trade and .trading.

The fact that there are so many applications for similar strings (let alone competing applications for the same string, as in the case of .money) makes it even harder for these extensions to take off.

It’s not just competing organisations, but in the case of Donuts, a $100m (£64m) startup that is launching more than 300 new gTLDs, also countries themselves that are trying to block their extensions – you can read the ongoing Donuts v Samoa’s .WS issue here (PDF).

Furthermore, what kind of brand is going to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars for a domain with an unknown extension? Or even with a registrar that isn’t guaranteed to be around for more than a couple of years (ICANN has already confirmed that some of the businesses launching new gTLDs will fail). I can’t imagine any credible brand investing in one of these new extensions at least for another five years.

Remember, that in addition to the $185,000 application fee for operating a new gTLD, companies such as Donuts Ltd will also have to spend millions or potentially hundreds of millions of pounds marketing their new extensions to consumers.

Quality control, SEO and public awareness

If these new gTLDs are helpful for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), then we must remember that spammers will quickly abuse them. It could be the .info situation all over again, where extensions quickly become tainted and promoted for spam purposes. In this environment, it’s the trusted domain extensions such as .com and .co.uk that will be the biggest winners.

One of the reasons why I think the new gTLDs will fail is because many of the domains create longer strings than the pre-existing gTLDs.

The other problem I see is that branding a site on a new extension requires double the effort. The market will need to warm to them and the consumer will need to remember your brand (Searchable, for example) as well as the correct extension (.Marketing). What’s to stop them getting confused and typing in Searchable.Website, Searchable.Online or Searchable.Market? These are all new gTLDs that have been applied for.

There are simply far too many similar gTLDs being released for any single extension to usurp the .com era. Even then, it could take months or years for competing applications of similar strings to be settled in trademark clearinghouses or in court.

Source: The Gaurdian

We usually get into the juicy bits of Samsung’s latest this time of year, but in case you don’t remember the Korean manufacturer is going to hold off on its announcement a little bit this year. We may not be expecting an announcement at Mobile World Congress but that doesn’t mean we can’t let our teeth sink into some succulent rumors.

The latest comes from SamMobile, who suggests Samsung has resurrected the “Project J” codename. The name used to refer to the Galaxy S4, but it seems Samsung is using it to detail a whole line of new-age devices and accessories. Specifically, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is said to be coming to market with some of its smaller brethren, such as a Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini and a new Samsung Galaxy Active.

I think I speak for everyone when I say we would appreciate a real Galaxy S4 Mini. We were disappointed to see that the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini wasn’t quite a Samsung a Galaxy S3 under the hood. It was smaller, but it was also considerably weaker. Let’s hope the power inside the Mini can actually match-up to the full blown flagship this time around. As for those accessories, here’s a list of what Project J is supposed to consist of:

Project J Altius (Galaxy S4):
– Clear Cover
– Flip Cover
– Protective Cover
– Pouch
– Extra Battery Kit
– Battery 2600 mah
– Wireless Charging Kit
– HDTV Adapter
– Headset

Project J Mini Serrano (Galaxy S4 Mini):
– Clear Cover
– Flip Cover
– Protective Cover

Project J Active Fortius (Galaxy Active):
– Arm Band
– Bike Mount
– Pouch

The wireless charging kit for that Galaxy S4 would be might nice. Unfortunately, it’s possible that wireless charging functionality won’t be built in as users could be asked to buy the backplate and charging pad separately. That’s not a huge problem if both of those items are expected to be stuffed into the same package. That said, rumors are rumors and it’s not worth getting too excited for these devices so far ahead of launch (especially when we still don’t have a solid idea of what the specs will be like).

[via PocketNow]

Source: Phandroid