iPhone’s Technology May be Taking Over the Mobile Market

BlackBerry seems to be a standard companion for many business professionals. When the BlackBerry came out it attracted mostly businessmen; who chose it because of its revolutionary capabilities. These capabilities made it so no matter where you are in the world, you can access anything. Then they began to market the BlackBerry to the general consumer when news about the Apple iPhone was released. 

The iPhone became the new revolution in the mobile phone industry with its built-in touch features, mobile access and classic Apple ingenuity.

The Daily Dog posted an article today about how Apple iPhone may be making the BlackBerry less popular with Business professionals. AT&T has been marketing the iPhone mainly to consumers. Despite that, business men have been making the move to iPhone. CNET News.com reports that consumers feel that the iPhone beats its competition hands down, according to user-satisfaction rates. 

The article states that 59 percent of the iPhone business-community is “very satisfied” with it. BlackBerry received only a 47 percent of customers that were “very satisfied”.

The article reports that “if nothing else, it will act as a catalyst to other manufacturers, and the evolution of the iPhone is worth keeping a watch on,” said Alastair Behenna , chief information officer at Harvey Nash. 

This information will do nothing but raise business for the iPhone. These results will surely increase Apple’s status as technological innovator. 

I have seen similar products to the iPhone at Verizon Wireless. The industry is showing signs that it is beginning to catch up. I guess it is time for Apple to release another version of its outstanding product.

An even more friendly Starbucks?

Starbucks’ coffee houses were very busy Tuesday night. It was not because of finals coming up; it was because Starbucks is making an effort to give its impressive chain of stores a homey feel. 

 The Daily Dog published a new article on its website this morning that covers this interesting story.

 The article talks about how Starbucks unveiled this new campaign because it is aiming to revive the “intimate and friendly feel of a neighborhood coffee shop.” The NY Times reported that Starbucks orchestrated its 7,100 stores to all close at 5:30 p.m. for a three-hour retraining session for employees.

 The Daily Dog states that Starbucks is trying to revive its “soul of the past.” The company is scaling back by closing 100 stores, due to low sales and its plans to continue expanding have been set back.

 I think this is such a good PR move for Starbucks. Stop trying to conquer the world and remember your customers and cater to them.

 I went to a Starbucks on Wednesday morning and I noticed that they have started writing names on customer orders.  Little changes like this make customers feel like they are being catered to instead of shoved through the line. I love Starbucks and I am glad to hear that they are making efforts to connect to their customers. Almost daily customers like myself, love when Baristas remember our names, our orders, and continue were we left off in conversations days ago.

 These little changes will give Starbucks what it is so desperately wanting: A connection with their customer. 

The Death of the DVD

The Daily Dog issued an article today that discussed the “death” of the DVD. The article stated that DVD sales fell 3.2 percent last year, the first in annual drop in the history of DVD sales.

The article said that Industry experts are expecting similar declines in 2008 and 2009. This is not a big surprise that these sales are declining with the revolutionary technology that has been introduced in 2007.

DVD distributors, like 20^th Century FOX are now including digital files of the movie or TV show’s logo on all DVD products so that those logos can appear on iPods and iTunes libraries.

Apple has introduced movie rentals and movie downloads, straight to your computer from iTunes. So, not only can you rent movies on your couch, you don’t have to return them. When you download a movie, you never have to worry about the DVD getting scratched. Your computer holds a digital file of the film. To compliment the new features of iTunes, Apple introduced the Apple TV.

Apple TV is essentially a hard drive that converts the contents of your iTunes folder and projects it onto your HD TV. This allows users to watch their movies the have rented or bought, on their TV. I own one and honestly, it is an incredible invention. I love it.

DVDs were just the beginning of the digital revolution. The article also stated that industry experts are saying that it is just a matter of time until DVD technology is obsolete. “Today, digital files on discs; tomorrow mass downloading straight from the internet.”

PR and HR: Interchangeable?

This is the case at Chrysler.

At Chrysler, the public relations department now reports to the Human Resources department. Chrysler has lowered the value of PR in its organization. If I was a practitioner at Chrysler, I would be upset.

The fact is that practitioners everywhere are upset. The PRSA website has posted an excerpt from the “Ask the Professor column”, that appears in the March issue of PR Tactics. The article talks about the opinions that surrounding this disturbing trend in the corporate sector.

It definitely is an interesting trend. The column suggests that the trend stems from companies trying to streamline and make operations more efficient and organized. This is just an awful to hear about.

HR is concerned with one group of people and their behavior. These are the employees of the company. PR is concerned with influencing the behavior of multiple publics, outside of and organization and the internally. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? If anyone should be in charge, it should be the PR professionals.

The column suggests that “the key, then, is for PR practitioners to assert themselves as strategic managers, to sell their function as a senior-level responsibility and, of course, display the abilities to back it all up because, in the end, the caliber of the people determines whether they get a seat at the decision-making table.”

As a student studying public relations, this makes me wonder where the industry is heading in the future. The PR profession appears to be continually growing and changing. Let us all hope that this “trend” has reached its peak and is now on the decline or PR as we know it, might soon cease to exist.

Hyphens: Heros or Foes?

I have always struggled with certain forms of punctuation, however, I now find myself becoming obsessive about it. Hyphens have been a particularly tricky concept for me to grasp. I used to find myself hyphenating everything because I was really confused. Now, due to the University of Oregon writing and grammar courses, I feel like I am able to wade through the mania of punctuation. I was looking around on the Internet today and came across, my new secret obsession Grammar Girl.                            

 Grammar Girl provides “quick and dirty tips to better writing.” It is a fun site. I discovered today that the site had a new entry about hyphens. So, I had to listen to it. Since hyphens have always been a problem for me I found it particularly interesting. The podcast broke the complex rules down to a few simpler rules.                            

 Basically, a hyphen can typically be used before a noun because hyphens ten to help modify nouns. So, a good quick rule of thumb is that they go before nouns. There are exceptions to this rule, but the podcast by Grammar Girl goes more in depth. It was a great podcast. It was really informative and really helped clarify a form of punctuation that has always baffled me. 

My Podcast & Me

  I wrote and recorded a podcast yesterday. It was definitely a learning experience. I had only recorded one podcast before this one. This time, I realized that this experience could be of value to a public relations practitioner. Podcasts are an effective communication tool because they are versatile, reach a broad audience and can be published in many different mediums. Podcasts are able to reach a wide range of people.                   

 I wrote my podcast on how to write the statement of a Public Relations plan. It was the first in a series of 10 podcasts that I have dedicated to how to write an effective PR plan. The 10-step plan is based on Writing Winning Proposals PR Cases by Tom Hagley, a professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. In the first episode, I went in depth into the six steps that will lead you to effectively writing your statement.  I took a case study from Professor Hagley’s class and used that to construct a statement based off of the case study that I provided. Then at the end of the podcast, I gave an example of what a good plan statement would be in a PR plan. The example I gave was one that my group and I wrote together.

 Writing a great statement in your PR plan is how you grab the attention of the person reviewing your plan. IT is what draws them into wanting to listen to what you have to say. A good statement serves as the foundation to what the rest of your plan will end up looking like. 

 Preparing Your PR Plan was a podcast I wrote and recorded because it is furthering my interest in becoming a great PR practitioner. That class has been inspiring me, so I thought I would share my inspiration, in the form of a podcast.