In 1996, the promulgation of the amended Telecommunications Act initiated a series of liberalization in telecommunication industry. From 1998 to 2000, Taiwan had become the most rapid growth area around the world with 130% compound annual growth rate and had marked a milestone with more than 80% of penetration by the end of 2000. This study focuses on the pricing plans offered by the main operators, CHT, TCC and FET, to analyze the pricing strategies and the competition scenarios with one another. In this study, we, first, gather the pricing plans of the operators and then review the history of the price adjustment. At last, we compare the pricing plans across the boundary of the operators. From the history of the price adjustment and the market evolution, we realize that the new subscribers encouraged by low prices are mostly low in airtime usages. The operators discriminates these low airtime users more in prices under the consideration of market competition and profit gaining. From reviewing the pricing plans of the operators respectively, we find the existence of ¡§redundant¡¨ pricing plans, which might bring the operators extra income. From comparison of the pricing plans offered by the three main operators, we conclude the three players try to lower the competition strength by charging high in different segments.

none

<p>The arrival of the cell phone in rural areas has taken Kenya by storm. It has turned out to be such an amazing transition happening since most people in the start, did not reckon its capacity to gradually become a lifestyle choice. It has certainly changed the way people communicate and becoming a natural necessity for people of Kenya. This can be seen from the numbers of cell phone units sold in the past years. The cell phones in Kenya have gone from 1 million in 2002 to 6.5 million in 2006. Some of this boost has found their way into the rural areas of Kenya and that is what this thesis focuses on. Through a qualitative research approach presented as a case study provide both vigorous descriptions and exiting information. The case study is based mainly on material from telephone interviews that were carried out with a selected sample of the population living in the countryside to obtain their points of view. In addition some opinions received in email form from an organization based in the western part of Kenya is included. A related email questionnaire was administered to one of the companies that sell cell phones in Kenya. Reference has been made to previous research to present some insightful frame of reference on this subject. In conclusion the people in rural parts of Kenya use the short messaging service (SMS) as the most cost effective way of communication. Furthermore, the M-Pesa function on that enables users to make money transactions is also widely used since most people in these areas do not have a bank account. The cell phone has transformed the job market and had a tremendous impact on running a business and made it easier to be available when looking for jobs. It is clear that the cell phone has brought practical, social and economical change and contributing to cultural enhancement. There is however future needs as to solve the battery charging which is a main problem that rural inhabitant have to deal with. This thesis finally shows that the penetration of the cell phone in rural Kenya is of great success. The cell phone is a technique to bridge the gap between cities and rural areas in Kenya.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-191).

Economic development is often associated with the adoption of new technologies. The three chapters in this dissertation ask how societies can achieve efficient adoption of these technologies. The first two chapters analyze the dramatic spread of a new communication technology---the mobile phone---in the East African country of Rwanda, using transaction data. Many technologies important for the modern economy are network goods; these goods tend to diffuse inefficiently in the absence of careful policy design. The first chapter introduces a new method to estimate the value of a network good, and to simulate the effects of policies. Economic actors also must decide whether a given technology is worth adopting. The second chapter analyzes how individuals learn about a new technology, by tracing the adoption of a new, cheaper mobile phone plan. The third chapter considers the side effects of new technologies, specifically, how innovation affects dimensions of quality that are not observed by consumers. / Economics

Most companies have some sort of business model showing how they operate their activities,resources, cost and revenues etcetera. What is becoming increasingly emphasised in today'sbusiness is however to integrate sustainability within the business model. Our research willtherefore investigate how companies are attempting to make their business model moresustainable. We have chosen to focus on the mobile phone industry as reports have shown thatthey are a significant contributor to carbon emissions and electronic waste. With this in mind ourresearch question is formulated as follows:"How is the mobile phone industry attempting to innovate their business models towardssustainability?"As we attempt to understand how the mobile phone industry is attempting to innovate towardsgreater sustainability, we have chosen to perform a qualitative study. The material we usedconsisted of reports and web pages as well as interviews with manufacturers of mobile phonesand MNO’s. To analyse the material we had collected, we chiefly utilised a list of materialconcerns specific to the aforementioned mobile phone industry stakeholders, a proposedarchetype system for classifying attempts to innovate the business model to become moresustainable and finally a tool for graphically presenting a business model and its inner workings.Our conclusions show what the companies we have interviewed are attempting to innovate intheir business model. The innovations focus mainly on their partnerships, activities, resourcesand value propositions. By performing this study we contribute to the still young research area ofsustainable business model innovation through providing a snapshot of what our interviewedcompanies are attempting to innovate at the time of our study. Furthermore it also contributes tothe empirical use of the proposed sustainable business model innovation archetypes as we applythem to empirical data in an attempt to classify the data. Through performing both of theseactions we also contribute a proposed way of classifying sustainable business model innovationwithin a business model through the combining of the archetypes and the business model canvas.

published_or_final_version / Electrical and Electronic Engineering / Master / Master of Philosophy

Η παρούσα μελέτη έχει ως θέμα τις «Ασφαλείς Ηλεκτρονικές Συναλλαγές σε περιβάλλον Windows Phone» και βασίζεται στην εφαρμογή «MiniDoctor», η οποία δημιουργήθηκε για κινητά τηλέφωνα με λειτουργικό σύστημα Windows Phone. Η εργασία αποτελείται από πέντε κεφάλαια. Αρχικά, στο πρώτο κεφάλαιο με τίτλο «Η αγορά των smartphones και των mobile OS» γίνεται μία αναφορά στην αγορά των smartphones και των λειτουργικών συστημάτων τους, τα τελευταία έτη. Έπειτα, στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο με τίτλο «Εισαγωγή στα Windows Phone», αναλύεται τι ακριβώς είναι τα Windows Phone, η ιστορία τους, οι εκδόσεις και τα χαρακτηριστικά τους, όπως επίσης και η αρχιτεκτονική τους. Ακολουθεί το τρίτο κεφάλαιο με τίτλο «Ανάπτυξη εφαρμογών στα Windows Phone», στο οποίο παρουσιάζεται ο τρόπος ανάπτυξής τους και περιέχει τη σχεδίαση εφαρμογών και τη διαδικασία εγκατάστασης προγραμμάτων για τα Windows Phone. Το τέταρτο και βασικότερο κεφάλαιο έχει τίτλο «Εφαρμογή MiniDoctor», όπου περιγράφεται η εφαρμογή, αναλύεται και δίνονται παραδείγματα χρήσης. Επιπρόσθετα, γίνεται αναφορά στις ηλεκτρονικές συναλλαγές και την ασφάλεια που παρέχουν, όπως και στις προκλήσεις κατά τη διαδικασία σχεδιασμού. Τέλος, στο πέμπτο και τελευταίο κεφάλαιο, ακολουθεί η σύνοψη, κατά την οποία περιγράφονται τα συμπεράσματα που αντλήθηκαν από αυτή την εφαρμογή, οι περιορισμοί σχεδίασης και οι μελλοντικές επεκτάσεις. / The subject matter of this diploma thesis is the "Secure Electronic Transactions in Windows Phone environment" and is based on the "MiniDoctor" application, which was created specifically for smartphones with Windows Phone operating systems. This project consists of five chapters. To begin with, the first chapter entitled "The smartphone and mobile OS market" briefly mentions the smartphone and their operating systems market, in the past few years. Furthermore, the second chapter entitled "Introduction to the Windows Phones", analyses the Windows Phones in terms of definition, history, versions, characteristics and their architecture as well. The third chapter that follows, entitled "Developing Applications for Windows Phones", presents the way of developing applications and includes the way of designing an application and the whole procedure of installing Windows Phone programs. The fourth and most important chapter which is called "The MiniDoctor Application", describes and analyses the application and gives examples of how to use it. Moreover, the electronic transactions and their safety are mentioned and the challenges in the process of designing are also cited. Finally, the fifth and final chapter contains the synopsis, which describes the conclusions, the restrictions and the future expansions that were a result of this application.

Marketers use relationship marketing in order to establish mutually beneficial long-term relationships with their customers as a means to retain these customers in the competitive market environment. Relationship marketing should, however, not be used to target each and every customer as not all customers want to build long-term relationships with organisations. In order to identify the most profitable customers to target through relationship marketing, organisations should consider their customers' relationship intentions to form long-term relationships with them. The primary objective of this study was to determine young adults' (aged 18 to 25) relationship intentions towards the South African cell phone network providers they use, namely Vodacom, MTN or Cell C. This was done by considering the five constructs used to measure relationship intention, namely involvement, expectations, forgiveness, feedback and fear of relationship loss. A focus group was used to determine which features related to cell phone network providers young adults consider when selecting a cell phone network provider. This data was used to develop a self-administered questionnaire, which was distributed among respondents studying at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University in the North-West Provirice. A convenience (non­ probability) sampling method was used and a total of 315 respondents participated in this study. The distribution between the cell phone network providers was Vodacom (115), MTN (101) and Cell C (99). Initial data analysis revealed that 73% of respondents had high relationship intentions, while the remainder (26%) had low relationship intentions of forming long-term relationships with their respective cell phone network providers. By means of a factor analysis it was determined that the five relationship intention factors, namely involvement, expectations, forgiveness, feedback and fear of relationship loss, were valid and reliable to measure the relationship intentions of respondents. The results further indicated that respondents with a t"iigh relationship intention are more involved with thei r cell phone network providers and feared losing thei r relationships with their cell phone network providers more than those respondents with a low relationship intention. Furthermore, respondents from the different cell phone network providers do not view the five factors comprising relationship intention differently, but they do differ with regards to other factors related to cell phone network providers. It was found that the majority of respondents regard Vodacom (not necessarily the respondent's cell phone network provider) as the cell phone network provider with the latest technology, as being the quickest, having the best coverage, best handsets, coolest image and best service. The majority of respondents regard Cell C as being the cheapest and MTN as being the most expensive. Results also indicate that respondents' parents play an important role with regard to the choice of their cell phone network providers as the majority of respondents' parents initially chose the cell phone network providers and pay their cellular expenses. It is recommended that cell phone network providers should target young adults' parents with a view to gain a foothold in the young adult market. Furthermore, it is recommended that cell phone network providers should determine how their customers perceive them as compared with competitors in order to better position themselves and to improve communication with young adults. Most importantly, it is recommended that cell phone network providers should identify those young adults with high relationship intentions (those young adults who are more involved with and fear losing their relationship with the cell phone network provider more) in order to retain them by attempting to build long-term relationships with these young adults through dedicated relationship marketing efforts. Recommendations for future research include examining relationship intention with regards to other age groups (such as scholars and adults), other service industries and other geographical areas. Furthermore, the influence which young adults exert on decisions concerning cell phone network providers and the influence of parents on young adults' product and service choices, can be explored in future research by means of the family decision roles. / Thesis (M.Com. (Marketing Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

A consumer research panel is a representative collection of individuals whose consumption habits are continually monitored by a marketing research company. It is designed to study the behaviour rather than the attitudes of consumers in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. The analysed and interpreted reports help the retailer and manufacturing clients to better understand their markets and the changing dynamics within markets which are largely overseen by retail studies. It is shown that consumer research panels have a very high per panellist cost due to the nature of the data collection methodologies currently used being either very labour-intensive with the in-home interviewer visits, or due to the cost of the technology needed when using an in-home audit terminal to scan the barcode of items. The ubiquitous use of the mobile phone begs the question whether this technology, already in the hands of people, could be used as a data collection device. In 2007, Robert Adelmann demonstrated that it is possible to recognise linear barcodes using a mobile phone equipped with a camera and a barcode recognition algorithm. Three requirements are set for a mobile phone to be used as a data collection device in a consumer panel and are indicated by various studies researching each, focused on Gauteng, South Africa. The technology is shown to be quick and accurate enough to be used in everyday barcode scanning albeit not very prevalent among the responding sample. The data communication infrastructure needed to communicate the audited data was found to be 100% present although few of the respondents displayed their interest in joining a research panel based on mobile phones. It is, therefore, recommended that a phone-based consumer panel be used to supplement existing consumer panels to extend in hard-to-reach demographics like the upper-LSM households, and that the privacy and usage concerns raised by the respondents be addressed. It is also recommended that similar studies be conducted in developed economies where required mobile phone technology could be more prevalent. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010.