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Tag: cost

  • Acer Plans To Drive Down Price of Smartphones







    It was always on the cards from the moment Acer announced its intention to enter the smartphone arena.

    Now the Taiwanese electronics giant has made it clear that it plans to drive down the cost of smartphones – to a level where mobile operators could give them away for free.

    Acer plans to release two low-priced handsets – the F1 and L1 – in October. Both will be touchscreen devices running Windows Mobile 6.5.

    They will obviously be pitched as entry-level smartphones and will be sold as Pay as you Go models for around USD $62 after network subsidies.

    Acer’s Smart Handheld Business Group head, Aymar de Lencquesaing, speaking at CeBit, said there were four billion mobile phone users on the planet, but only 200 million smartphone users.

    He reasoned that driving down the price and enabling operators to give the phones away free – with a contract – was the "surest way to drive adoption".

  • Can Rising HDTV Prices Be Sustained?












    After a period of steadily dropping HDTV prices the cost of sets to consumers appears to be climbing again.

    The average selling price for HDTVs in the US jumped by more than 10 per cent in February, according to data from the Retrevo CE Index.

    TV prices started a downward shift around May last year, ultimately dropping approximately 35 per cent in January 2009.

    Vipin Jain, CEO of Retrevo, said the price cuts had come as the economy and consumer spending weakened.

    He said this prompted manufacturers and retailers to offer steep discounts during the holidays and leading up to the Super Bowl – two important seasons for HDTV sales.

    "This meant great deals for consumers, but hurt the bottom lines of TV makers," he said.

    "The bankruptcy and liquidation of Circuit City may have also played a factor in keeping prices down.

    "Now that deep discounts from the all-important holiday and Super Bowl seasons are over, excess inventory is clearing out of the channel and merchants are returning to running their business at more sustainable price levels."

    Jain questioned whether the upward price trend was sustainable but said deals were still to be had.



  • Credit Crisis Will Favor Mobiles Over Fixed Voice


    Companies are more likely to give staff a mobile phone than upgrade a fixed voice system.

    That’s one of the findings of a report by Analysys Mason, which concludes that mobile substitution will have a far bigger impact on fixed enterprise voice spend than the credit crunch.

    The adviser to the telecoms, IT and media industries predicts a 15 per cent decline in fixed voice spend next year as a result of mobile substitution.

    In its report, Fixed–mobile convergence in enterprise voice in Europe: forecasts 2008–2013, Analysys Mason notes that fixed voice providers will find that the global financial crisis will reduce enterprise fixed voice spend by 1–2 per cent.

    Ultimately, however, mobile substitution will have a far bigger impact on enterprise voice spend.

    The report’s author, Margaret Hopkins, said enterprises were finding it cheaper to give staff mobile phones for all their calls than to put a new VoIP phone on a desk.

    “In addition to this, the financial crisis will increase pressure to conserve cash and make it even less likely that enterprises will install a VoIP PBX when their old phone system ceases to be supported by the vendors,” she said.

    Other key findings from the report include:

    • Spend on FMC services, where the mobile phones are seamlessly integrated into the enterprise voice system, will grow at a CAGR of 41% between 2008 and 2013, albeit from a low base, while spend on standalone mobile and fixed voice services will decline by 9% and 15% respectively over the period.
    • The economic downturn will boost demand for hosted voice services that eliminate the need for infrastructure investment and deliver short-term cash benefits.
    • Because mobile call prices for enterprise customers have fallen to the point where there is little incentive to push calls onto the fixed network, dual-mode cellular Wi-Fi phones are losing their appeal.
    • Enterprises are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of presence management systems, partly as a result of the arrival of Microsoft OCS, and will start to look for presence information systems for both fixed and mobile phones in new deployments.

  • VoIP Solutions Used By Nearly Half of IT Firms


    Almost half of the IT organisations around the world have a VoIP network, according to a British Telecom study.

    BT’s survey of 267 global IT professionals showed that 48 per cent have a VoIP network at their work, up from 31 per cent in 2007.

    The UK telecoms company also found that a further 20 per cent are in the process of deploying VoIP solutions, with 71 per cent of these expected to be operational within two years.

    While most firms gradually replace their existing telephony systems with VoIP hardware, some install VoIP products or PBXs to replace ageing traditional PSTN systems.

    The survey found that the most important factors for firms considering a VoIP system are security, quality and reliability – a similar finding to surveys in 2005 and 2007.

    Demonstrating the ROI of moving from a PSTN system to VoIP services was listed by the highest percentage of respondents (27%) as the biggest hurdle to adoption of VoIP systems.

    "Cost is a critical factor when building a VoIP business case, but other criteria must take higher precedence when evaluating various implementation strategies and solutions," BT noted in its report.

    "Make sure you understand what your top requirements are, be they network reliability, voice quality or security, before committing to a strategy."