EOC Week 4: There's an app for that

These days, everyone’s cell phone can play games, take your blood pressure, or find directions. There is an app for almost anything. There are also great ideas for apps that have never been made. One great idea I have had is for a corrective vision app. All you have to do is just input how bad your vision is, or what the quality of your corrective glasses are, and using the camera, the phone will correct the image for you so you can see it without using your glasses. Think of all the times you were trying to read something, or just look at an image but can’t find your glasses. This would save time and make it much easier. Another great idea for an app is a how to for dummies. There are many people in the world who were never taught simple tasks like how to wash there clothes or clean the bathroom. With how to for dummies, how to videos will show you how to do simple tasks like washing dishes, cleaning your bathroom, or making your bed. The last idea I have is a remote control for your television. Almost everyone sits in front of the tv pretty much every day, and a lot of times they see a show and would love to change the channel but can't find the remote. If you could use your phone as a remote for your tv, you wouldn't need to go searching for your remote anymore. Now people can just leave the remote on top of the tv and use their phone as the remote. That way you never lose your remote again.

EOC Week 3: Making Money for Good

Many companies all over give back to the world in some way. Many of these companies, like Target, Yoplait, and Kraft, have offers for whenever you buy their product, they will donate to people in the world that are in need. Companies do this to help promote their product, but to also give back to the world to show they care. By having donations whenever someone purchases their product, it helps people show they care and also makes people feel good about themselves knowing their money is going to people in need. Target has been giving back to the community for a long time. Target donates 5% of their sales back to the community for things like school, art, and making the community safer. One of the donations they do is “Take Charge of Education,” where their slogan is “Help us help your favorite school.” (https://sites.target.com/site/en/corporate/page.jsp?contentId=PRD03-005174&ref=sr_shorturl_tcoe) Target donates 1% of your REDcard purchases at Target to a school of your choice from K-12. Here people not only get a good feeling for giving to the community, but they get to give to a school of their choice which makes it more personal and caring. Yoplait also donates but they use a different method. Their slogan for their donations is “Save Lids to Save Lives.” The donations are made from when someone buys a Yoplait yogurt with a pink lid, removes the lid, rinses it off, and mails it back to Yoplait. Through everyone who participated in this, the people “helped us donate more than $2.6 million for the fight against breast cancer.” Yoplait has also donated to the breast cancer cause in the past and they have donated “$30 million for the breast cancer cause during the past 13 years from all Yoplait’s donation programs.” (http://www.yoplait.com/Slsl/default.aspx)

EOC Week 2: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

The video game market has been growing rapidly for a long time now. Since technology is constantly improving, companies are finding new ways to appeal to gamers. Finding new ways to have gamers interact with one another, gamers are becoming more involved in the game world and less in the real world. New technologies like Xbox Kinect are helping gamers interact even more with the game itself, making the game even more enjoyable. The recession has definitely slowed down the market, having “Industry sales of new video game hardware, software and accessories in the U.S. fell 9%, to $5.06 billion in December from $5.5 billion during the same time a year earlier…” (http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/01/13/video-game-market-sales-fall-december/) The market has recovered some of it’s losses, where “retail video games market grew 3% in February, up from the same time period last year, to $1.36 billion.” The Xbox Kinect Controller is a large contributor to this, having “passed 10 million unit sales, helped drive the 22% jump in sales of video game accessories.” (http://www.bgr.com/2011/03/12/u-s-video-game-market-jumps-3-in-february/) I think having Kinect, Xbox would definitely have to be a question mark here. Kinect is helping the growth of sales in Xbox systems, as well as games. It opens many doors for Xbox, but I don’t think the company knows where to take it, or where the gamers want it to go. Mobile gaming has grown rapidly as well. Mobile gaming never used to be a competitor in the video game market, but since smart phone technology has arisen, mobile gaming has improved to a point to help put it in the market as a competitor. Smartphones have grown a large amount from 2009 to 2010, where “iOS and Android game sales increased from 5% in 2009 to 8% in 2010 and revenue increased from US$500 million to $800 million in that same yearly period.” (http://www.tuaw.com/2011/04/15/ios-and-android-gained-video-game-market-share-in-2010/) These new advancement in technology are helping the gaming market grow, but where the market will go next is what everyone is wondering.

EOC Week 1: Great Customer Service

Depending on where you go, customer service can be either really good or really bad. About 6 months ago, when I bought a computer from an apple store, I had a great experience. The employee who sold me the computer was a really nice guy. He helped me out with exactly what I was looking for. I already knew which computer I wanted, and when I talked to the guy, he didn’t convince me to spend just a little extra, but he tried to convince me to spend less money on a different computer. It might not have been quite as good of a computer, but when I told him what I wanted, he knew it might be a better idea to spend less money and buy another computer. It was almost a thousand dollars cheaper. Not only did he help me out with what I needed, but he also threw in a couple things for free, like an extra keyboard, and I never even asked for him to do anything like that. The guy was definitely a great employee, or at least I thought so. Not only did he help me out as a customer, but it also seemed like he was trying to get to know me and connect with me on a personal level. I can tell that Apple takes care of their customers a lot. Almost every time I go to an Apple store, the employees are really great and the customer service is amazing. Even when I called the customer service hotline, they treated my good. I already am an Apple customer, but had this been my first experience, it definitely would not be my last.

EOC Week 1: My Voice

Michael Schultz is a young man from Las Vegas, Nevada, who works with engineering, mixing, and the production of audio for movies and music artists. Some of his latest projects have been working with a few artists in producing their music and trying to help promote them to the public. With his interest in all audio fields and his fast ability to gain knowledge and adapt, he is quickly learning every side of the audio industry. Michael has also been working with some local recording studios and gaining connections in the audio industry. Michael also plays many instruments like the guitar or piano and is a working musician in a local band that has traveled throughout Nevada and has future dates to play in California. He also writes music for other artists as well himself. He is constantly working to make a better name for himself in the audio industry. Michael has plans of opening a production studio for audio in film as well as for recording artists in the future.