The Mobile Communication Industry and EU Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Mobile Communication Industry and EU - Essay Example Under its new name, Vodafone Group Plc., the company begun to claim its place as one of the world's largest mobile telecommunications company with ownership interests in 26 countries across five continents and partnership networks in 33 other countries. Vodafone does not manufacture cellular phones and network equipment so it has become the largest purchaser of these products. In 2004-05, the company bought $23-billion worth of these products from third parties, including $12 billion on handsets, network equipment and IT services from all over the world The company today boasts of the Vodafone Speaking Phone which was devised to address a major EU concern about giving communication access to disabled persons. The Speaking Phone converts its screen content into speech to allow the blind to "read" text messages. This is just one of Vodafone's products and services that "democratize" access to communication technology. Right now, Vodafone is developing another project called M-PESA, which seeks to enhance the access of mobile telephony to banking. This would allow customers to borrow, transfer and pay cash through the use of SMS text messaging. Another project in the pipeline intends to include voice and data communication in its services.As for Telefonica, the company has operated in Spain for 80 years but only under the auspices of EU did it break out of its mold to expand to all Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets which spread to17 countries in the European, African and Latin American continents. From just fixed telephony, it begun to offer broadband, mobile-cellular telephony and Internet services. By 2005, Telefonica was the world's sixth largest company in terms of market capitalization and seventh in the EuroStoxx50 ranking. It now serves 153.5 million customers worldwide, involving 16 million fixed lines, nearly 5 million data-Internet access and over 20 million mobile telephones. With over 1,5 million direct shareholders, Telefonica trades on the major national and international stock exchanges. The aggressiveness and enterprise shown by Telefonica and Vodafone are exactly the kind of business cultures the EU seeks to foster through the EU Enterprise Policy. Under this policy, EU promotes innovation, entrepreneurship and competitiveness in manufacturing and services and ensures that all business within the region compete and trade on fair and equal terms. The overall goal is to make Europe an attractive place to invest and work in. EU is all about integration and in this regard, the enterprise policy works to coordinate policies on trade, research, the internal market, employment and training, the information society, regional development and taxation, without overlooking the importance of environmental protection. Under the enterprise policy, EU also preoccupies itself with removing obstacles to competition across the board, preventing new ones from going up and limiting, improving and simplifying the process of regulation. Most of the barriers to intra-EU trade have in fact been dismantled with the imposition of product standards on public health, the consumer and the environment. The EU Enterprise P

Hypotheses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Hypotheses - Essay Example o setting prices that are lower than the competitors’ selling prices, the company must exert extra efforts to generate future customers’ demands for the company products. Customers prefer buying the lower priced products, all other factors being of equal importance (Bowman, 2010). Further, the next information needed is the advertising and promotion budget. With a higher budget, more target customers are reached. Consequently, more advertisements will persuade more target customers to try the new company product, compared to allocating a minimal advertising budget (Bowman, 2010). Furthermore, the marketing study must include the competitors’ prices. The customers’ prices will influence the demand for the company’s products. The competitors may institute cut-throat competition pricings, selling products at the lowest market price. The competitors are hoping that the cash-strapped and price-conscious target clients will prefer the lowest priced product in the market (Bowman, 2010). Moreover, the market test will show the current demand for the product. The company must determine whether the current competitors are supplying all the needs of the target markets. The current demand will indicate whether the market is saturated. Compared to a target market where all the competitors are not able to current supply the target markets’ present and future product demands, It is more difficult to sell a product in a saturated market because all the customers’ demand are presently met (Bowman, 2010). Further, the product quality must be determined. A poor quality product will generate low demand and higher product returns. However, high quality products will generate high customer demand. Quality affects the sales output (Bowman, 2010). Furthermore, location plays an important role in generating sales (Bowman, 2010). The product must be sold in places that customers can easily access. To save on transportation, customers will prefer buying from the nearest