James Blog

More News about the News

There is a lot in the news about news at the moment.

With the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) announcing major job cuts and a format change in the current SMH from 'broadsheet" to "tabloid" size (they don't like us referring to the SMH as a Tabloid) and moving more toward a digital age, and News Limited's announcement they too are restructuring their business to embrace digital delivery, along with job cuts - then it's no wonder any retailer involved in selling newspapers are concerned about the future of the printed format newspaper.

Just as well the smart retailers have been taking steps to filter their reliance on the sale of newspapers and expand their retail offerings to their customer to maintain relevence and traffic flow.

But what about those retailers that have ignored the warning signs for the past decade. We all knew this time was coming and eventually the print media would need to move their businesses online to stay at the forefront of news delievery.

Well, it's not too let... YET !

Now is a time that is more important than ever to establish your retail presence and sure up the traffic flow of customers you have enjoyed for so long, before they decide to look elsewhere for the consumables they still want and need.

Windows might just open new Doors

    The battle for supremacy in the Smart Phone race might just be starting.

After Apple introduced the iPhone, sales of Smart Phones boomed around the world, and in Australia the iPhone quickly became the top selling smart phone. Then along came google with the Android Operating System (OS), with their open platform allowing all handset makers to use and develop the system for their hardware. Using this "Open Source" Android quickly become the number one OS, with 60% of the Smart Phone market. Google have recently purchased Motorola, so we can expect some pretty close co-operation in developing the Motorola and Android OS to gain even more traction.

The interesting emerging player in the Smart Phone Arena is Windows. Their new version of Windows Phone OS, version 7.5, known as Mango has been well received by the consumer and reviewers. Although not quite up to scratch with the number of available applications as iPhone and Android, Windows phones are proving to be fast, sleek and very capable, especially with the integration with Office.

According to IDC, the Research and Technology Company, Android will continue their dominance of Smart Phone shipments during the next 4 years but will lose market share to Windows, while Windows Phone, aided by the collaboration with Nokia will push to the number 2 spot, relegating Apple's iOS to 3rd place. See the table below.

This will be the same in Australia, as our market continues to adopt new technologies at a staggering rate. According to the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) there has been record shipments in Australia of Mobile Phones, exceeding 10 million during the year to May. In fact, during May, nearly 800,000 mobile phones were shipped to stores, up 7.5% on May last year. This means one in two Australians have bought a new phone during the past 12 months. Incredible !

Don't get left behind. While retail trade is slow at best, and consumer confidence remains low, mobile phones continue the charge in sales.