The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Google

  • Apple’s product marketing: So far, so good?

    Apple’s product marketing: So far, so good?

    When developers started building Apple’s phones in 2007, they were given one format for the four-inch iPhone screens. A larger format came along three years later, when the iPad made its debut.

    Google, on the other hand, gave developers an array of options, so they could build apps for its ever-evolving cache of hardware partners and devices.

    With Apple, the format options remained limited.Until June, when its latest software update blew those restrictions apart.

    It was one of several signs that the nation’s top smartphone-maker was ready to expand its portfolio. On Thursday last week, the New York Times nailed several persistent rumours: at Apple’s much-anticipated Tuesday event in Cupertino, Califonia, it will unveil two iPhones with larger screens, a wearable computing device and a mobile payment system within its devices.

    For the coming holiday season, there are various things to be gleaned from Apple’s history of launching products. The company has given significant support to new product launches. And it typically couples expensive media buys – in high-profile television, print and outdoor ads — with lucrative product placement, a tactic the company pioneered.

    There are other considerations. For one, Apple may be venturing into two categories — wearable devices and mobile payments – unproven in consumer adoption and untested in the ad world. Apple’s wearable device will not ship until 2015, according to multiple reports. Also, Ad Age extensively reported that Apple is undergoing a significant marketing overhaul, building a sizable internal creative team to pit against its long-time agency TBWA/Media Arts Lab.

    Apple’s creative strategy has also evolved since the death of its founder, Steve Jobs, in 2011, and the rise of its combative competitor Samsung.

     

    Hello iPhone

    Little netted Apple more media attention than Mr. Jobs, in his token black turtleneck, unveiling the first iPhone on stage in 2007. Yet, Apple still felt the need to advertise.

    The first iPhone spot, “Hello,” made debut during the 2007 Oscars. It showed the Apple logo, but not the iPhone name — Apple was battling Cisco over the rights.That year, Apple reported an increase of $129 million in ad spending, to $467 million.

     

    Big support for new products

    As digital media expanded, Apple avoided a centralised strategy, letting its videos proliferate across the web. Its first commercial for the iPad, in March 2010, went viral. The new tablet also found its way into mainstream television shows, such as Modern Family, a coup that came, quite likely, without paid promotion from Apple.

    The handset-maker still spends a considerable amount on TV. Last year, 80 per cent of its measured media spending – $626,972 – was spent on TV, according to the Ad Age DataCentre.

    For its size, the world’s most profitable company spends little. Only 0.64 per cent of its revenues went to marketing last year. Samsung spent 1.82 per cent of global revenues on ads and 3.51 per cent on sales promotion. But Apple’s revenues are massive. When it needs to spend on ads, it can.

    The firm dropped $51.9 million on adverts for its new iPad in the second quarter of 2010, and kept up that pace for the remainder of the year, according to figures from Kantar media.

    Apples’ ad spend leapt three-fold between 2010 and 2011, and its revenues grew faster than that. Apple spent $31.1 million in the fourth quarter of that year to promote the new MacBook Air. It spent about the same amount two years later, during the holiday season, for the MacBook Pro.

     

    Shape of ads to come

    Apple has run ad campaigns promoting specific services, like its App Store, in 2008, and its FaceTime video feature, in 2010. But the iPhone, the source of more than half of its revenues, remains the biggest beneficiary of ad spending. More than 40 per cent of Apple’s measured media spending, from 2009 to 2013, promoted the smartphone.

    This year, however, it has hinted at the shape of ads to come, as it builds devices and services that orbit the iPhone. “Parenthood,” a spot from June, slyly featured plugs for Apple’s growing presence in the connected home industry. Two more spots, “powerful” and “strength,” showed off the numerous ways iPhone consumers deploy the device, including for fitness-tracking.

    Apple has also increased its marketing presence abroad, particularly in China. In August, it released a mini-film with a Chinese electro-pop band. Its marketing shift is following sales. In 2009, China and Hong Kong accounted for 1.8 per cent of sales; this past quarter, they neared 16 per cent. For Apple, Asia is an incredibly competitive market – one that, incidentally, loves large-screen phones.

  • Google knows not Belekete

    Google knows not Belekete

    The title of this piece tells a lie. In a way. Google, that world famous internet search engine, does know two places called Belekete. But the two places it knows are not the Belekete I write about. It knows a Belekete in Central African Republic (CAR) and another one in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It was clueless about the Belekete in Cross River, one of the six states in the Southsouth. I searched and searched but the information I kept coming across were about the weather of the CAR Belekete and the DRC Belekete.

    Until some days ago when our correspondent in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, Nicholas Kalu, sent me a report on Belekete, a ranch community made up of eight villages, the place never existed to me. I am sure many are in my shoes. Some days before the report came, Nicholas had briefed me about a place he visited and had to walk for hours and almost died in the process. The reality only hit me when I saw Nicholas’s copy and the pictures. Reading through the report made me ask a question I have always asked when I come across shocking places people call homes. I asked myself: why live in hell?

    This question has always popped up in my mind when flood sacks people who live in flood plains. I have always wondered why can’t they relocate and the answer has always been in question form: to where? And     they usually add: “This is our home.”

    People are very sentimental about certain things, which baffle me. I will never live in a place where flood constantly harasses me. I will never live in a place far removed from civilisation like Belekete.

    From Nicholas’s accounts, Belekete has no schools, not one; Belekete has two health centres, with one member of staff each; Belekete has no connection with the outside world via the Global System of Mobile (GSM) Telecommunication; Belekete regularly loses its children, men and expectant mothers to sickness and complications far beyond the experience of its health officers; Belekete knows nothing about electricity; and the road to Belekete cannot take a car, a tricycle or even bicycle. To get there you need to walk for at least seven hours, climbing mountains and crossing gushing streams.

    The inhabitants of Belekete claim their original home is where the Obudu Ranch Resort sits. They claim they moved further inside when the ranch was to be developed. But I ask a question: why did they not move to somewhere around the Bebi airstrip? On my last trip to the airstrip, I saw so many unused parcels of land and I doubt if the government would have denied them access to the parcels of land. Or could it be they feel more comfortable having to climb mountains, valleys and cross rushing streams on their way home?

    Like Nicholas recounted, his guide did not break a sweat on the return journey which took all of eight hours. What he saw as a miracle was no miracle to the people of Belekete. It is what they face regularly.

    But no matter what the people enjoy about staying in such difficult terrain, it is also a source of worry to them. Being tucked away in such pre-ancient caves also means only the daring will be willing to take help to them. With no roads, no one will plan any medical mission there. With no roads, it is unlikely anyone will be willing to donate hospital facilities and equipment. How will the building materials be transported? How will the labourers find their way there? Just how will things work out? Yet help is needed but the question remains: how will it come?

    The clan head, Chief Ogweshi Francis Ngweli, painted a gory picture of their fate.

    His words:  “People have been dying because we don’t have healthcare here and there is no assistance of carrying people up to the ranch. Pregnant women and sick children have been dying. I am sure you have seen it with your two naked eyes with the almost eight hours you have passed through. We need facilities. The only health officer we have here, if anything takes him out that means we would not even have anyone to attend to us, even for the small ailments. In the past weeks, my people have been dying.

    “We have appealed to the government but because there is no motorable road, the government has not been able to give us some sort of assistance. We are begging they should help us. The place is so backward in all in the sense that there is no road. There is no pipe borne water and we back people who are sick all the way to the ranch. And because of that we wish the government to help us with a road and assist us with proper healthcare facilities.”

    Not many in government even know a place like Belekete exists. A top shot in the state was quoted by Nicholas as saying:  “Are you serious there is a community in the state that you can trek to on foot for that number of hours to get to? You are not saying the truth.  To be honest with you I have never heard of it. Did you say it was a ranch community? Does such a place exist in this state? Let me see what I can find out about the place.”

    He was not able to find out anything before we went to bed. Such is the mystery of Belekete. I asked Nicholas if the people vote and he said: “yes”. I found that difficult to believe. Which adhoc electoral staff will agree to go to such a terrain? May be the electoral body uses indigenes of the place.

    My final take: Belekete needs help to stop the deaths of its children, expectant mothers and others alike to ‘small’ ailments like malaria. What will it take, for instance, to put a road there? Yet, for me, access is critical. Without a road to Belekete, nothing can truly move forward. With a road in place, other amenities, such as electricity, water and health facilities can come. I am not an engineer, but my layman’s knowledge tells me that with the mountains and gushing streams, putting a road in Belekete will mean building bridges and stuffs like that. That will cost so much money, which the state government, weighed against opportunity cost, may not see sense in. It may prefer the people relocate to less difficult terrain.

  • Google complies with EU rule

    Google complies with EU rule

    Google is complying with a European Union (EU) court’s requirement that it create a process for people who want outdated or inaccurate information about them removed from its search engine—but only after Chief Executive Officer Larry Page said the court’s ruling in favour of the “right to be forgotten” empowers governments to restrict online communications and risks damaging the next generation of Internet companies in Europe.

    On Friday, the company launched a Web form that allows people to submit URLs they would like removed, along with an explanation of the problem. Those who file requests must also say which country they live in and include a copy of a valid form of ID, which Google says it won’t use for anything besides authenticating the request. Google will then review each request to determine whether the information is “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed.” The company is still determining how it will handle removal requests. The links themselves will continue to exist; they will simply not show up in search results shown within the European Union.

    This isn’t going to be a straightforward process, and Google will have to weigh the right to privacy against the right of the public to obtain relevant information. It will rely on a committee of Internet experts for help balancing these two objectives. Con artists may not be able to make it harder to find out about their involvement in financial scams, for instance. But for a man who had to sell his house to settle a debt—and the record of that sale is the first thing that shows up when someone searches his name—the court’s ruling could provide some relief.

    Google shared some information with the Financial Times about what kinds of requests it has received since the ruling. Information related to frauds or scams made up 30 per cent of submissions; links related to convictions of violent crimes, 20 per cent; and those related to arrests for child pornography, 12 per cent.

    You could definitely argue that removing such information from Google deprives the public of relevant information.

    Mario Costeja González, the Spanish man who brought the complaint to have records removed from the search engine showing that his home had been repossessed, which led to the EU court’s ruling, told the Financial Times that Google’s changes were enough for him. He said Google is now “perfect” and congratulated the company for complying with the order. “I think this is the correct move. You have to provide a path for communication between the user and the search engine. Now that communication can take place,” he told the FT.

    The ruling has raised hackles among free-speech defenders. But last week in Bloomberg Businessweek, Paul Ford wrote that Google will be able to coexist with the right to be forgotten. While Ford worked at Harper’s, the magazine occasionally fulfilled requests to keep certain pages from its digital archives from being indexed by search archives. (The pages continued to exist; they were just harder to find.) Google has also allowed people to ask that posts from old Usenet discussions be removed from its index.

     

     

  • Google beats Apple in global brand ranking

    Google beats Apple in global brand ranking

    The stories of many brands were different last year. Some fared well; others did not. In the 2014 ranking of businesses, the Brandz 100 “Most Valuable Global Brand” noted the strengths and weaknesses of firms. Some that made the ranking last year fell by the way side; others made a come back. There were also new entrants. MTN staged a return as the only African brand, reports ADEDEJI ADEMIGBUJI.

    • MTN is Africa’s best

    For top brand managers, the acid test is to remain on top of the competition.

    This will enable them to sustain their market share and optimise value in a market where consumers are unpredictable.

    In the 2014 ranking of businesses, the BrandZ 100 “Most Valuable Global Brand”, made available to The Nation by an agency, Millward Brown Nigeria, the combined brand value of top 100 brands went up by 12 per cent. Google overtook Apple to become the world’s most valuable global brand. It is worth $159 billion, representing an increase of 40 per cent year-on-year.

    The report said some African brands fell from the ranking, with MTN remaining as the only brand from the continent. The ranking, which was commissioned by WPP, and conducted by Millward Brown Optimor, used the views of potential and current buyers of a brand, alongside financial data, to calculate brand value.

    In the analysis, Apple slipped to number two on the back of a 20 per cent decline in brand value, to $148 billion. Despite remaining a top brand, there is a growing perception that Apple is no longer redefining technology for consumers because of lack of dramatic new product launches. Also, the world’s leading B2B (Business to Business) brand, IBM, held onto its No 3 position in last year’s ranking with a brand value of $108 billion.

    The Managing Director of Millward Brown Optimor, Mr. Nick Cooper, said:  “Google has been hugely innovative in the last one year with Google Glass, investments in artificial intelligence and a multitude of partnerships that saw its Android operating system becoming embedded in other goods, such as cars. All of this activity sends a very strong signal to consumers about what Google is about and it has coincided with a slowdown at Apple.”

    The analysis showed that the combined value of the Top 100 brands has nearly doubled since the first ranking was produced in 2006. “The Top 100 today are worth $2.9 trillion, an increase of 49 per cent compared with the 2008 valuation, which marked the start of the banking and currency crisis,” the report said.

    According to the report, successful brands have continued to retain their market share ahead of others because of the value of their share of life – they have become part of people’s daily life, than a mere  tool for business and social interaction.

    Those brands include Google which is the number one in the latest ranking, followed by Facebook, Twitter, Tencent and LinkedIn.

    “They have become part of our lives, they offer new forms of communication that absorb people’s attention and imagination, while also helping them organise the rest of their lives at the same time. To gain more of our mind-space, brands, such as Tencent and Google are even crossing categories.

    “This trend also pushed No 1 Apparel brand, Nike, a prime example of a brand seeking to become a share of life brand which offers services such as Nike+ that extend well beyond its functional raison d’etre,” the report stated.

    Many brands missed the ranking because of their craze for profit, others which main consideration was not profit made the top 100.

    “Brands in business for reasons beyond the bottom line have a better chance of success in today’s world,” the report said. For example, Pampers, which promotes mother and baby health issues, is at No 39 and grew its value by 10 per cent to $22.6 billion.

    MTN is another of such example. The telecoms operator has continued to find huge success on the back of its “everywhere you go” payoff line, making Africa proud, with a brand value of $10.2 billion.

    In the apparel category, the top 10 brands grew in value by 29 per cent to nearly $100 billion this year, outpacing cars (up 17 per cent) and retail (up 16 per cent). With brands such as Uniqlo, Nike and Adidas, recording double-digit increases in their valuation.

    The technology brands continued to record impressive growth across the world, making headlines as the biggest riser. “Not only are the top four brands technology companies, but so too are many of this year’s biggest risers. This year’s fastest climber was leading Chinese internet brand Tencent, up 97 per cent to $54 billion at No 14 position, followed by Facebook which rose 68 per cent to $36 billion and is at No 21. New brands in the Top 100 include Twitter at No 71, with a brand value of $14 billion and LinkedIn at No 78, with $12 billion. Collectively, Technology companies make up 29 per cent of the value of the BrandZ Top 100 ranking.

    The number of brands from fast growing economies slipped this year. China, with 11 brands, continues to have the largest representation; two Russian brands, Sberbank and MTS, remain in the ranking, and MTN is Africa’s representative for the third consecutive year.  “As a result of emerging markets currency decline, MTN remains the only African representative in the Top 100”, says the Regional Managing Director, Millward Brown Africa & Middle East, Mr. Charles Foster,

    According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Store, WPP, Mr. David Roth, this year’s index highlights strong recovery of the brands after the 2008 recession; prompting a real growth across all categories. “This year’s index highlights the end of the recession, with a strong recovery in valuations and, for the first time, real growth across every category and the Top 100 as a whole. What’s remarkable is the way that strong brands have led the recovery. Seventy-one of the brands listed in our 2014 Top 100 were there in 2008. Despite the financial turmoil and the digital disruption that have decimated many businesses during the last few years, these brands have remained in the ranking, proving the durability of strong brands.”

  • NFF partners Google+ for Super Eagles

    NFF partners Google+ for Super Eagles

    The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is partnering Google for upclass on-line activities for the Super Eagles, and the project is already making some good impact.

    Chairman of the NFF Marketing Committee, Mr. Deji Tinubu said on Thursday: “The Super Eagles are now active on social media and have official presence on Google+/YouTube. Fans can follow them on www.google.com/+SuperEagles and www.youtube.com/NigeriaSuperEagles for exclusive updates.”

    On Wednesday, several thousands of fans across the globe joined the players and their coaches online in a special Google+ video chat ahead of the clash with the Flames of Malawi.

    Tinubu added: “The launching of a landing page on Google+, which is also connected to a YouTube Channel, will in the medium and long term serve as a principal publicity platform for our international players in the Super Eagles and other National Teams, and will also help with the media campaign at major championships.”

  • Privacy on the line

    Privacy on the line

    – Content of rules matters more than identity of regulator 

    A coalition of US telecommunications and cable providers is lobbying to be regulated in privacy matters by the Federal Trade Commission instead of, as now, the Federal Communications Commission. Privacy advocates – emboldened by a debate on government monitoring of telephone and internet use – are crying foul: the companies’ aim is to elude privacy rules altogether, they fear. Both sides have a point.

    That cable and telecoms companies are regulated under a separate regime from internet companies is a historical artefact that is also increasingly an anomaly. The advent of the internet and the phenomenal growth of bandwidth means internet companies increasingly substitute for television and voice services offered by traditional providers – through email, streamed or downloaded film and music, and new forms of communication such as social media. Cable and telecoms companies have a good case for saying that largely similar products should be regulated according to equivalent rules.

    The prize, of course, is the monetisation of the vast information they accumulate about their users. Facebook and Google make money from the power to tailor advertising to user behaviour; so could Comcast and Verizon if they were allowed. They are not, because the FCC has more teeth and enforces tighter rules than the FTC.

    If cable and phone users want to pay less for services in return for their private data being used to target ads, there is no greater case for the law to ban this than in internet communications, where it is the standard business model. But the basic principle must be for this to happen only with the genuine, informed and active consent of consumers. On this, privacy advocates are right to sound the alarm. Many internet companies – recall Facebook’s unilateral service changes and Google Street View – treat privacy as an afterthought. Some industry leaders are genuinely puzzled why users care.

    The solution lies not in the specific agency chosen to regulate privacy, but rather the rules the regulator is set to patrol and the tools with which it does so. The FTC fights many privacy battles – it has charged Facebook and Google with misleading their users, and is probing brokers that sell collected data. If its powers are weak, so is US privacy legislation outside of sectoral niches such as the FCC’s remit. Washington should pass comprehensive rules, fit for the internet age, to protect privacy better across sectors. Who the regulator is matters less than what it is empowered to do.

    – Financial Times

  • Google, ASUS partner on tablet

    ASUS and Google have unveiled a new tablet in Nigeria. It is called the Nexus 7, a 7-inch Android device with tablet screen and built-in wireless charging that eliminates the need for clumsy power cable connections.

    According to a statement, ASUS Chairman, Jonney Shih, said: “After the success of the first Nexus 7, we are very excited to continue our partnership with Google with this new model. The new Nexus 7 puts the very latest mobile technology in users’ hands and sets a new benchmark for tablets.”

    Senior Vice President of Android, Chrome and Apps at Google, Sundar Pichai, said: “Together with ASUS, we took what you loved about the original Nexus 7 and made it even better. It is now thinner, lighter and faster, with the world’s highest resolution screen in a seven-inch tablet. Whether you are sitting at home, in a coffee shop or at the airport, the new Nexus 7 is powerful, portable and made for what matters to you.”

    According to Google, with a vibrant, seven-inch full high definition (HD) display packed with more than 2.3 million pixels for a stunning 323ppi (pixels-per-inch), the new Nexus 7 brings apps, games, books and movies to vivid life with unparalleled image quality. ASUS TruVivid technology improves color clarity and brightness, while IPS display technology gives ultra-wide 178-degree viewing angles.

  • Be warned, you can be ‘googled’

    Be warned, you can be ‘googled’

    Last Thursday, while searching for a term I was not familiar with on Google, I stumbled on an article titled: 5 Ways to spot bad employees…before they are hired

    I was curious about what it means to be a bad employee and clicked to read the article.

    One of the five ways titled Google the candidate caught my attention.

    The article by a staff of allbusiness.com stated thus: Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and even industry articles can reveal interesting details about a person that you’d never be able to uncover in even the best interview. This kind of research can also help you uncover inaccuracies in the candidate’s résumé.

    The above advice to employers reinforced my belief that people should be careful about what they put online. In the present digital world, you are as good as what search engines say about you than your carefully prepared curriculum vitae or the positive impression you give at interviews and during your interaction with people.

    Employers want to know more about you than your educational qualifications. They want to know the company you keep, the quality of your thoughts and many other things about you which what you say or share online or is said or shared about you online can reveal.

    I remember reading a quote that cautioned against unrestrained use of the internet that said in future, some of us may have to change our names to erase our cyber past.

    With growing internet access in the country, we all seem to be too eager to share so much online at the slightest instance. Many are so obsessed with posting on facebook that they literally violate their own privacy.

    While it may be okay to indulge in some occasional sharing of information and pictures, especially on anniversaries and a few other special occasions, what many do on the social media is an abuse of the forum at their own expense without realising it.

    We don’t have to share information about everything we do. We need to realise that almost everything about us online can be found through use of search engines.

    If you are very active online, search for your name on Google and you will be surprised what you will find. Things you have forgotten about and things about you that you are not aware are online.

    To regulate use of social media for instance, some organisations abroad have social media policies. There are things employees must not do online for the sake of the image of their organisations. Since I first posted a part of this article on facebook last week, I have read various responses with some saying it may be better not to share anything online. The solution is not about staying offline. No one who wants to be taken seriously in this age should. What is necessary is a lot of caution in deciding what we should and should not publish online. Google must be able to say something about you however little. The issue what will it say about you. The option is yours.

    The next time you’re online, remember you are documenting for scrutiny the kind of person you are. My advice: Know what to post online. It could make or mar your opportunity to get that job or position you desire or retain your present one.

  • Enterprise Bank goes live on Google maps

    Enterprise Bank Limited has been listed on Google Maps.

    Google Maps is a Google service offering powerful, user-friendly mapping technology and local business information – including business locations, contact information and driving directions.

    In a statement, the bank said the map offers street maps, a route planner and an urban business locator in numerous countries around the world. It also provides such special features as scale control, street view, and configurable location icons amongst other facilities.

    “By getting listed on to this mapping platform which now features its branches, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and Point of Sale Terminals (PoS) locations, it is now easier for stakeholders to access us and our services from anywhere in the world. This unique relationship between Enterprise Bank and Google has enabled the financial institution boost visibility and excellent service delivery to its numerous customers,” it said.

    The statement added that this is yet another milestone in the bank’s move to reposition the brand, products and services by providing excellent customer service to its existing and prospective customers in the years ahead.

    Also commenting on the development, Juliet Ehimuan Chiazor, Google Nigeria Country Manager, said: “The goal of Google Maps is to make it easier for people across the world to locate places and businesses of interest. We are excited to see Enterprise Bank Limited and more Nigerian businesses using Google Places to get listed on maps.

    “This makes it easier for Nigerians to find and engage with these businesses. Customers can also search for their banks and get directions on the go, using Google Maps on their mobile phones.”

  • Google improves handwriting on tablets

    Google has announced some improvements to the Handwrite facility for smartphones and tablets that use handwriting instead of typing to carry out web searches.

    In a statement, the company said that they have been working to improve recognition quality and also working on a number of features to make it easier and faster to handwrite searches on Google.

    Users can distinguish between ambiguous characters, overlapping characters, and write multiple characters at a time in Chinese.

    If you’ve tried Handwrite before, you may have had some trouble entering a lowercase “L”, the number “1”, or a capital “I”. Now, we provide alternate interpretations of your characters that users can select above the space bar. Similarly, in Japanese the characters “?” and “?” look nearly identical but are different characters and produce different search results. If Google interpreted the handwriting one way and the user meant the other, they can now more easily make a correction.

    Compared with tablets, mobile phone screens are smaller and are a little more difficult to write on. Now, instead of squeezing in letters across the width of the small screen or writing one letter at a time, users can write letters on top of one another.