Popularity: 96% [?]
Archive for May, 2009
The Slice
Sunday, May 31st, 2009Palm Pre Operating System (OS) Demo
Saturday, May 30th, 2009Popularity: unranked [?]
CNET Disses iPhone
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009Popularity: 1% [?]
iPhones Have Advertising Power
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009We all know the iPhone has the reputation of being the cool kid on the block, but did you know it’s good for advertising?
Brightkite, Inc. and Gfk NOP recently completed a study that found iPhone users are more likely to recall mobile ads than those not using an iPhone. Those using iPhones were more likely to recall all measured types of mobile ads, including mobile display, standard text message, audio, picture or video messages and mobile TV and video ads.
This could be a good sign for other marketers who are making touch-screen smartphones, such as the BlackBerry Storm, Palm Pre and Google Android. However, some experts are wondering if iPhone users represent a viable demographic.
That question is sure to get some varied answers. Nielsen estimated that only 5.9 percent of U.S. households owned or rented an iPhone during Q3 2008. However, the NPD Group ranked the iPhone as the second-highest-selling smartphone in 2009. A Skype survey conducted by Zogby International ranked the iPhone as the second-most-popular smartphone following the BlackBerry.
Another plus – iPhone users like the device. J.D. Power and Associates ranked Apple as the number one smartphone brand during the second half of 2008, based on a customer satisfaction index. On top of that, a survey by Rubicon Consulting found most iPhone users are under 30-years old, technologically sophisticated and more likely to buy new gadgets.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Smartphones to Grow Despite Bleak Market
Thursday, May 21st, 2009If there’s one thing that came out of the recent Reuters Global Technology summit, it’s the fact that the sale of smartphones will grow this year.
Lee Williams, chief of the Symbian Foundation, said sales of smartphones will grow 12 to 15 percent this year. He said larger display sizes and more memory for media are encouraging consumers to buy smartphones.
“For the first time people are realizing you don’t have to carry your digital camera with you and your phone, for the first time people are realizing that you can do your email and access Internet services on your mobile phone,” Williams said.
Some analysts are forecasting that phones with advanced capabilities, like e-mail or Internet browsing, will grow more than 30 percent. ARM, the world’s leading chip designer, said it expects the smartphone market to grow 10 percent and SFR, France’s second-largest mobile operator, said it has seen a strong demand for smartphones.
“There we are seeing strong demand and strong growth,” SFR Chief Executive Frank Esser said at the summit.
Although smartphones are seen as a bright spot, the cell phone market as a whole is shrinking. From January to March, the cell phone market saw production decrease by 13 to 16 percent and the market is expected to decrease by 10 percent this year because of the recession.
A sign of the tough times, Nortel Networks, Canada’s wireless equipment maker, and Qimonda, Germany’s equipment maker, have filed for bankruptcy protection. Despite this, Williams said, the mood in the wireless industry has begun to improve, with companies seeing “the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“They realize they are still in a tunnel and they don’t know how long it will take to the light, but if you go back two or three months nobody could even see the light,” he said. “It’s still tight and awful … I do think some still have to be hit by a train in this tunnel though.”
As for the future of Symbian, Williams said he expects membership to grow to more than 100 by the end of this year, excluding independent software vendors. The foundation had 78 members in February.
The foundation inherits intellectual property from Nokia and other former shareholders of Symbian, a United Kingdrom-based smartphone maker. Nokia bought out other shareholders of Symbian last year and committed to give its software to an independent foundation that would develop it on an open-source basis.
Since then Symbian has lost market share to companies like Apple and Google, but Williams said he expects that trend to turn around. He said Symbian has seen increasing interest toward its software from chinese and Taiwanese companies. Symbian has already been in talks with Huawei anad ZTE, Chinese companies known for their aggressive pricing.
“We have very active discussions with both of those companies,” Williams said, adding that it’s likely one or two of China’s mobile carriers, three to five original design manufacturers and at least one chip maker would join the foundation.
Popularity: unranked [?]
iCIMS Launches Talent Platform v. 9.1
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009iCIMS, the third-largest provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) talent acquisition solutions, released the iCIMS Talent Platform 9.1, the industry’s first end-to-end, organically-built Talent Platform. The latest version of iCIMS’ flexible talent management solution offers users cross-browser and Mac compatibility as well as increased platform security.
iCIMS’ Talent Platform, a solution for mid-market companies, supports more than 700 corporations worldwide. iCIMS delivers applicant tracking capabilities to onboarding and off-boarding, performance management, succession planning, workforce planning and more via a single source code.
According to a press release, the 9.1 version of the Talent Platform offers increased flexibility to its users, providing them with the ability to access the system without worries of compatibility with different web browsers or operating systems. PC users are joined by users of Mac, Linux, Solaris and more in having the freedom of using Internet Explorer as well as Mozilla Firefox to access the iCIMS system. Furthermore, applicants accessing career portals and employees utilizing employee portals have the ability to use Safari, Opera, Google Chrome and more.
Users of version 9.1 will also recognize advancements in security measures. In addition to the increased security and performance offered via the Firefox browser, the platform’s enhanced password security allows for even more protection from un-authorized users.
“iCIMS’ focus has always been on developing and delivering technology platforms that are flexible, secure and easy-to-use and which will allow mid-market organizations to capitalize on their talent pool, giving them the foundation they need to scale for future growth,” said Colin Day, President and CEO of iCIMS. “As these organizations look for best-in-breed solution providers that understand their unique needs, iCIMS continues to stand out as the ideal technology partner that is able to take them to the next level in talent management.”
Popularity: 100% [?]
ReferenceBot Launches
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009ReferenceBot, a free online professional reference automation and collaboration tool, has launched.
ReferenceBot acts as a reference escrow that mediates between the prospect, the employer and the reference, and at the same time builds a universal repository for professional referrals. This tool aims to benefit everybody in the job hunting, hiring, subcontracting and purchasing lifecycles.
It can help companies hiring, subcontracting or purchasing, and it provides an online tool to help organize and automate the request for reference process for candidates. In addition, if they request references for a candidate that already exists in ReferenceBot, all the candidate references will be available right away for review, taking out the need to request references again and speeding up the selection process.
ReferenceBot helps job seekers, sales and marketing people by allowing them to collect and showcase references that they request by themselves, in addition to the references requested by their prospect employers, clients and purchasers, in a centralized place mediated by ReferenceBot.
Professional or industry peers giving out the reference don’t have to write references over and over again – they’re just bothered once and their review will be stored in ReferenceBot.
Popularity: 99% [?]
Kenexa Earns Three Creative Awards
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009Kenexa, a global provider of talent acquisition and retention solutions, was awarded three Creative Excellence Awards for its work in Employment Branding.
Creative Excellence Awards is an awards program sponsored by Recruitment Marketplace and established to recognize outstanding achievement in recruitment advertising and marketing. Awards were presented at the SHRM Staffing Management Conference & Exposition held in Las Vegas, Nev. April 28 – 30, 2009.
Kenexa placed first in “Best Self Promotion Multimedia Campaign” awarded for its internal efforts on Kenexa’s employment branding campaign that included messaging, artwork, a new career site, a cultural video, prints, thank you cards, signage and giveaways for employees including calendars, t-shirts and coffee mugs.
Kenexa also placed first in “Best Temporary Employment Print Ad” awarded for client work done on behalf of a leading direct marketer of value-priced novelties, toys and party supplies, and a leading direct marketer of home décor products, and “Best Radio Ad” for a placement on behalf of United Healthcare Group, a diversified health and well-being company operating in four segments: Health Care Services, OptumHealth, Ingenix and Prescription Solutions and headquartered in Minnesota.
A panel of creative and professional talent in marketing and human resources judges all entries. Each judge independently scores an entry based upon specific category criteria and an automated entry system scores every category — judges do not know which organization developed the entries they are judging.
“We are honored to be recognized by Recruitment Marketplace and to accept these awards on our clients’ behalf,” said Rudy Karsan, CEO, Kenexa. “These awards are a great reflection of the clients we work with, our commitment to the industry, and the efforts and expertise of our marketing and employment branding team. We look forward to producing more award-winning work for our current and future clients.”
Popularity: 38% [?]
Number of Sick At Work is Nothing to Sneeze At
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009Seventy-one percent of American workers admit they go to work when they are ill because they fear losing their jobs or are too busy to take a break, according to a national online poll conducted by Monster.com. 350by200
Over a one week period beginning May 11 and running through May 18, nearly 12,000 U.S. visitors to Monster.com participated in the Monster Meter poll.
Of those who go to work sick, “33 percent fear losing their job if they take a sick day, while 38 percent admit their workload is too busy to take a day off from work even when they are ill,” said Norma Gaffin, director of career content at Monster.com, said in a statement.
Only 19 percent of respondents say they stay home from work when sick in order to rest up and get well. The remaining 10 percent who avoid the workplace when sick actually work from home, even though they’re ill.
The results of the poll are as follow:
Do you go into work sick?
• Yes, work is too busy for me to miss a day: 38 percent
• Yes, in this economy, I’m afraid I’ll lose my job: 33 percent
• No, I work from home if I’m sick: 10 percent
• No, I rest up to get better: 19 percent
“Whether it’s the sniffles or H1N1 Swine Flu influenza, a recent Associated Press report addressed the fact that sick or not, many workers cannot afford to stay home when ill because an estimated 57 million working Americans do not have paid sick days,” Gaffin added.
Popularity: 30% [?]
Reach More Candidates with Mobile
Monday, May 18th, 2009Having a mobile presence is paramount if you want to connect to job seekers.
Searching for jobs online used to be the norm, but as more people become unhappy in their current positions and use employer time and resources to find a new job, those employers are taking notice. As a result, employees are getting fired. This could all be avoided if candidates had access to mobile job searching.
The mobile phone is becoming the top choice of communication for most people. Mobile phones are easy to use, portable and versatile. Unlike land lines or computers, they can be used virtually everywhere.
There are currently more than 4 billion handsets connecting users throughout the world. A recent study by the CDC found that for the first time, cell phones outnumber fixed land lines as a household’s unique phone, as one in five homes have a cell phone but no land line.
Statistics like these are causing more and more employers to turn to mobile. Employers that only rely on traditional advertising or online advertising, such as job boards, might have some luck finding potential candidates, but they are missing a key demographic.
Employers who use mobile are able to connect with job seekers anywhere at anytime. People looking for work can use their cell phone to receive text alerts of open jobs or browse employers’ mobile Web sites. Mobile job searching allows potential candidates to browse open positions when it’s most convenient for them, whether they’re waiting in line or at work.
If you’re tempted to use your work computer to search for jobs – don’t. Mobile searching would be a better alternative, as employers are catching onto the trend that company computers are being used to search for jobs and employees are seeing the repercussions.
According to an article by MSN Careers, one employer at a public relations agency fired an employee for excessive job hunting while at work. The employer began monitoring the employee’s computer habits when her productivity noticeably declined and found her job search was taking more time than her current job, which violated her employment agreement.
“If you want to get fired, by all means job hunt, but your work computer is 100 percent the property of the company for which you work,” the employer cautions. “So even if you are doing the searching at home, best to do so on your personal [home computer]. If your company has monitoring software on your computer, it will record your activity whether you are at work or at home.”
If you’re caught job searching on the clock, it could have negative effects for your future. On top of not being able to receive unemployment because you violated an employment contract, you’ll be hard pressed to get a positive recommendation from your current employer.
“If your employer sees you are job searching, even if just because of casual curiosity, it sends the message that you wish to leave your current employer, and it could cause them to include you in planned layoffs for which you may have never been considered before,” the employer added.
A better alternative would be to use your mobile phone to search for a job. That way you’re guaranteed privacy, as an employer has no right to access your mobile phone. This would avoid any need for you to use a work computer to search for another job and would eliminate your chances of being fired for doing so.
Popularity: 1% [?]