Thinking about business phone lines?

Rogers now offers a Hosted IP Voice service for customers who require office lines for their business. Whether you are a large corporation or a smaller business, this solution might be of interest to you.


What is Hosted IP Voice?
This is a telephone service supported over the Internet (VoIP, or Voice Over Internet Protocol) and eliminates the need for previous cumbersome service requirements, separate voicemail services etc.


An overview of Hosted IP Voice

• Eliminates the need for Key System services and separate voicemail platforms
• Requires Internet access to be enabled
• North American Long Distance, 1000 incoming toll-free minutes/month and integrated IP fax are included
• Features and extensions are managed by you, the customer, via a secure online administration portal
• Signing up is easy via a Rogers Small Business Sales Channel partner
• Live Agent customer support available 24/7

For more information on a Business Phone for your company, visit http://www.rogers.com/business/bc/en/smallbusiness/products/businessphone/plans/

Five Keys to Positive Phone Shopping

An interesting article came across my desk recently which talks to the fact that shopping for a new cellphone or smartphone can be a stressful experience for many buyers. The choice of devices available coupled with choosing the right plan can have consumers walking out of the store rather than into it.

iQmetrix has come up with a list of five keys elements that will help your customers have a more positive experience while in your store:

• Easy activation: The mobile phone activation process can be complicated, so any efforts to simplify the experience, through patient explanation and advice, will go a long way in increasing customer satisfaction.
• Fast checkout: Expediting the checkout process is essential to delivering a good phone shopping experience. Retailers must make efforts to avoid long checkout lines – customers don’t want to wait.
• Vast phone selection: Confusion is the enemy. It is important to not only offer a variety of devices, but also to present them in an understandable way. Store design and merchandising should clearly identify brands, categories, rate plans, etc. Retailers should meet customers’ expectations of product choice and quality, while avoiding out of stocks.
• Affordable prices: Customers want to easily compare costs of different phones, plans and accessories to identify a price that works for them. Once again, pricing should be straightforward, not confusing.
• Good customer service: Sales associates must demonstrate strong product knowledge while also being polite, genuine and helpful. Good listening skills are essential. Responsiveness is extremely important, as customers do not want to wait around for a salesperson to help them. 

BlackBerry Tips & Tricks

Originally posted June 16, 2010
Here are some helpful tips to making the most of your BlackBerry smartphone!







Messaging Tips

• Create a custom icon for BlackBerry Messenger v5.0 contacts
• Highlight the contact, press menu and show on home screen
• Delete multiple emails
• Highlight any email and hold down caps while scrolling up or down (then delete)
• To move to the last cursor position after you close and reopen a received email message or PIN message, press G
• In a message press the Shift key and the Space key to move up a screen. Press the Space key to move down a screen
• View the email address of a sender
• Highlight the sender name in an email and press Q
• Don't want to receive SMS or MMS messages?
• Go to Options>Security Options>Firewall. Check off SMS and MMS
• To view received messages press Alt I. To view sent messages press Alt O. Hit the back button to view all messages again

Typing Tips

• Type "B" to go to the bottom or "T" to go to the top of your Messages list, or Space to skip a page
• Hold the ALT key and press the Right Shift key to lock caps when typing. Press the Right Shift key again to unlock
• To insert a period, press the Space key twice. The next letter is capitalized.
• To type accented/special characters, press and hold the letter key and slide your finger left or right on the track pad/trackball
• To capitalize a letter, press and hold the letter key until the capitalized letter appears
• To reply to all in an email message or a PIN message, press L.
• Hold the ALT key and press the Left Shift key to lock numbers when typing. Press the Left Shift key again to unlock
• To insert an at sign (@) or a period (.) in an email address field, press the Space key

Other Helpful Tips

• Ever have to dial a 1-800 number with letters using your BlackBerry?
• Hold ALT while typing the letters and dial
• To zoom in before taking a picture, press the Volume Up key. To zoom out press the Volume Down key
• Having trouble reading the text on your BlackBerry? Change the font!
• Options >Screen>Keyboard>Font Family
• When updating BlackBerry App World make sure to perform a reboot of your BlackBerry
• While listening to music in the media player hit N for the next track or P for the previous track

With thanks to BlackBerry Help for the daily updates. Follow them on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BlackBerryHelp.

Top Ten Smartphone Companies for 2010

Originally posted June 4, 2010

iSuppli has ranked the world's Top 10 mobile phone companies (for Smartphones and feature phones) for the first quarter of 2010.
iSuppli states that smartphones are having a revolutionary impact on the wireless business as more people are moving to those compared to the standard feature phones.

iSuppli lists these Top 10 companies based on market share, and sequential growth:

iSuppli Rankings (Q1 market share): Nokia (37.4%) Samsung (22.3%) LG (9.4%) Sony Ericsson (3.6%) RIM (3.6%) Apple (3.0%) ZTE (3.0%) Motorola (3.0%) Huawei (2.1%) TCL-Alcatel (1.8%) Other (10.7%)

iSuppli Rankings (sequential growth) RIM (3.6%) Apple (0.2%) Samsung (-6.5%) TCL-Alcatel (-9.3%) Nokia (-15.1%) LG (-20.1%) Sony Ericsson (-28.1%) Motorola (-29.2%) ZTE (-35.6%) Huawei (-44.7%) Other (4.5%)

With Smartphone usage growing all the time, they are being hailed as the "hottest segment of the cell phone market" with anticipated growth this year to increase by another 35%.

This complements earlier blog posts that global smartphone shipments jumped 65% in the first quarter, and could well be the reason behind so many manufacturers including Smartphones in their handset line up. 

For more details, take a look at the entire article, from IQMetrix.