Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Cell phones and Marketing


Cell phones are now being used for advertising. When one sends or receives a please call me from any network a little advert is sent with sms. This creates awareness for the product being advertised and reaches many people because cell phone users often send and receive please call me’s. Advertising is also being used when one accesses the internet from their mobile phone. It is the same concept that is being used for webpage’s, business’s pay for the space that they occupy. Cell phone networks also use cell phones to advertise for their business. For example when I go on the Vodafone live website I see banners that are being displayed. It is advertising new cell phones or new contracts or any other promotion that Vodafone has. It is the same with MTN, Vodacom, Cell C and Virgin Mobile.
There are also many mobile websites where one can download ring tones, Wall papers, pictures and so on, these websites charge people for their downloads . there are also advertisements on television that tell people that if they phone a certain number they can download for free but there is always a catch and most people do not read the fine print and therefore they get scammed. People can also use their cell phones to send sms’s for competitions that are advertised and for voting on shows such as Idols. Then your cell phone number goes into a data base and is sold to other organisations for marketing purposes, then you are bombarded with useless information that most people just delete. Cell phones have had a major impact on marketing and advertising and it is on the increase.
Simone L Abraham

Thursday, April 17, 2008

The downloading process

Upon hearing the wording downloading for the first time, one could imagine that is could be a daunting experience but downloading is not a difficult task. Like any other new process, one just follows the instructions directed by the pc, because computers are so advanced they can in some way think for you (and we all love it when the computer shows you, your errors). Website such as BBC radio have taken the initiative in teaching people how to download, there is a step by step process in which one can follow. This website goes to the extent in defining certain terms in which one will come across during the downloading experience. One needs to note that downloading can be done on your cellphone (you carry a downloading tool wherever you go). It’s all very well that one is able to access the latest popular music, but a burning question is who actually pays for all this magic that you have been able to get your hands on?

Thursday, April 10, 2008

" My precious"

I currently have a Samsung ZV10 cell phone; to me it has been the greatest phone that I have owned. Now I need to upgrade my Vodacom Top up contract, but I cannot decide on which phone I want to take. My phone has been through two years of hard work, good times and bad times. It has been dropped several times and it even rolled down my drive way. My cell phone currently has sticky tape holding the battery to the phone, but I still cannot part with it. It has great features such as 3G and it is a Vodafone live cell phone, that means I can browse the internet for free and it the internet connection is as fast as ADSL. It also has video calling which is my favourite feature , I have a sister in Pretoria and a boyfriend in Durban while I live in Pietermaritzburg , so I want to see them I just video call them and instantly I can see and talk to them. It is fantastic. My cell phone also can multitask, meaning I can make a call and send a sms at the same time or simply switch from internet to make a call by a click of a button. I am also able to able to listen to my favourite music via the MP3 player. It has other “basic” features such as sms, mms, camera, video camera, games, internet and Bluetooth. I never thought I would become so attached to my mobile phone.

Simone L Abraham

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

The cell phone experience

I never thought that something small, black, and hard could be such a blessing. What I am I on about, it is my cell phone . It has changed my life and the lives of the people that are around me. Sometimes I sit back and wonder how people ever lived without one, even my mum who is in her 50’s wonders how she ever managed without one. Its original function was to make calls and now it has become a multi tasking technology. It can be used to sends short messages (sms), multimedia messages (mms), for video calling, as a camera or video camera and now people can use their phones to go onto the internet. It has changed the way people communicate; now people can contact others in an instant either by call or by message. Business people can take their work any where, parents can track their children’s where about or parents can be contacted in an emergency. People feel safe when they are driving long distance because they know they have their mobile phones in case of emergency and now with GPRS on cell phones one can find their way around the country. It has brought people closer together through technology , the phenomena of MXIT has changed young adults lives by keeping in contact with their friends from around the country and world by instant chat at a cheap rate. If it was not for cell phones then there would be no MXIT. Cell phones have become an important part of our lives.
http://www.historicaltextarchive.com/s/history-of-cell-phones.php

Simone L Abraham

Friday, April 4, 2008

The concept of Downloading

With the many different technologies which have been put in place one is able to do anything and everything with just a click of the mouse. In the last century the world has been bulldozed with the phenomena of downloading, this interesting concept allows one to acquire information, music, movies and games by a simple procedure. There are various websites one can log onto to obtain music etc. downloading has brought with it a convenience factor which has helped many people out there, instead of one going to the shops to go buy a movie or a CD, you now have the luxury of sitting in the comfort of your home or office in fort of your PC, and paying a fee to get the song or movie on the spot. Downloading can be defined as “To copy data (usually an entire file) from a main source to a peripheral device. The term is often used to describe the process of copying a file from an online service or bulletin board service (BBS) to one's own computer. Downloading can also refer to copying a file from a network file server to a computer on the network. In addition, the term is used to describe the process of loading a font into a laser printer. The font is first copied from a disk to the printer's local memory. A font that has been downloaded like this is called a soft font to distinguish it from the hard fonts that are permanently in the printer's memory.” (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/download.html).
Mosidi Seleke