MACWORLD SAN FRANCISCO—January 15, 2008—Apple® today unveiled MacBook® Air, the world’s thinnest notebook. MacBook Air measures an unprecedented 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, while its maximum height of 0.76-inches is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks. MacBook Air has a stunning 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, a full-size and backlit keyboard, a built-in iSight® video camera for video conferencing, and a spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support so users can pinch, rotate and swipe. MacBook Air is powered by a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, and includes as standard features 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive, and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology and Bluetooth 2.1.

“We’ve built the world’s thinnest notebook—without sacrificing a full-size keyboard or a full-size 13-inch display,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “When you first see MacBook Air, it’s hard to believe it’s a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display. But it is.”

MacBook Air has a vibrant 13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy widescreen display that is energy efficient, and its spacious trackpad offers multi-touch gesture support for pinch, rotate and swipe, making it more intuitive than ever to browse and rotate photos or zoom into web pages in Safari™. MacBook Air features a full-size keyboard design in a sleek and durable aluminum enclosure. The backlit keyboard makes it ideal for dimly lit environments such as airplanes, studios or conference halls, and a built-in ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the brightness of the keys as well as the display brightness for optimal visibility.

MacBook Air delivers up to five hours of battery life for wireless productivity and includes AirPort Extreme® 802.11n Wi-Fi networking, which delivers up to five times the performance and twice the range of 802.11g*. Apple’s Migration Assistant software now enables users to quickly transfer files, applications and preferences from your old Mac® to MacBook Air right over your wireless network.

MacBook Air users can buy the companion MacBook Air SuperDrive, a compact external drive designed for MacBook Air, for just $99. The MacBook Air SuperDrive® is powered by MacBook Air’s USB port, eliminating the need to carry a separate power adapter. Many MacBook Air users will not find a need for an optical drive now that they can wirelessly rent movies from the iTunes® Store, wirelessly backup files with Time Capsule and access the optical drives on remote PCs or Macs to wirelessly install software applications on MacBook Air.

MacBook Air is powered by Intel Core 2 Duo processors running at 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz, and includes as standard 2GB of memory and an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive. An optional 64GB solid state drive contains no moving parts for added durability. Every MacBook Air includes a micro-DVI port so users can connect to Apple’s gorgeous 20-inch or 23-inch Cinema Displays to extend their desktop or connect to projectors and other displays via DVI, VGA, Composite and S-video adapters. MacBook Air includes USB 2.0 for plugging in peripherals or charging an iPod® or iPhone™, a headphone jack and Apple’s acclaimed MagSafe® Power Adapter designed especially for mobile users.

Every MacBook Air comes with iLife® ‘08, the most significant update ever to Apple’s award-winning suite of digital lifestyle applications, featuring a major new version of iPhoto® and a completely reinvented iMovie®, both seamlessly integrated with the new .Mac Web Gallery for online photo and video sharing. The new MacBook Air also comes with Leopard™, the sixth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Leopard introduces Time Machine™, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac; a redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces, an intuitive new feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; a brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock; and major enhancements to Mail and iChat®. .Mac members can use the new Back to My Mac feature to browse and access files on their home computer from a MacBook Air over the Internet while out on the road.

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

William S. Samuels IV, President of Telesales Services, an acknowledged Telesales and Telemarketing industry leader gives his insight into the eight things you need to know before you outsource your call center needs. Bill consults organization of all sizes in all industries - from Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and medical companies, to federal government to two-person startups, and even Dancing with the Stars! Bill works with over 100 call centers to find you the right solution, so you can be confident in his ability to evaluate a call center.

Rochester, NY January 16, 2008 — William S. Samuels IV, President of Telesales Services, an acknowledged Telesales and Telemarketing industry leader gives his insight into the four things you need to know before you outsource your call center needs.

Do You Know These 4 Items to Consider Before Outsourcing Your Call Center?
William Samuels, IV
President
Telesales Services

I. Is Call Center Outsourcing Right For You?
Call Center Outsourcing is the use of a Telesales or Telemarketing vendor to handle an inbound or outbound call center project that normally draws on internal resources. Using outside resources allows you to concentrate, cost effectively, on your core competencies.

Outsourced Call Centers Offer:
• Skilled Telemarketing professionals
• Improved market coverage
• Faster ramp-up, launch, and roll-out of campaigns
• Experience with programs similar to yours
• Rapid response to market conditions
• Account management expertise
• Enhanced reporting capabilities
• Market testing capabilities
• Remote call monitoring

The Benefits of Outsourcing Call Center Services
• Increased Sales and profits
• Reduced costs per sale
• Maximum phone productivity
• Increased number of appointments
• Increased customer base
• Increased lead generation
• Higher number of qualified leads
• Higher number of closed sales
• Better customer retention
• More immediate feedback
• Better results through test marketing
• Increased local, regional, or national market share

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

See, Click and Transform: Latest Version of Bling! It Grants Individuals and Small Businesses Operating Mac Systems the Confidence and Credibility to Compete on the Global Market and Raise Sales, Click-Through-Rates and Sell Stagnant Inventory

San Francisco, CA January 16, 2008 — Vertus, the graphics and imaging software division of Heligon, a technology business specializing in image data interpretation, today unveiled the Macintosh-compatible version of Bling! It, its recently released deep-graphic image-editing tool that quickly and easily transforms product shots to create maximum online sales impact. Since its initial launch, Bling! It users, even those without any prior image editing experience, have found that the software helps raise the achieved sales price of their products and increases the click-through-rate over standard thumbnail images. By giving product images a “shot-in-the-studio” look and feel, Bling! It creates images which attract more attention from buyers, helping sellers achieve higher prices for their products and move previously stagnant inventory. The software is available for live demonstrations throughout Macworld Expo 2008, January 15-18, in the Vertus booth #W-4231.

By combining complex technology with easy-to-use tools, Bling! It empowers any user to strengthen and embellish product images thanks to capabilities previously available only to seasoned image editing professionals. With Bling! It, Mac users can unlock their creative potential without having to master complex and intimidating image editing programs such as Photoshop. With just a few clicks and the guidance of Bling! It’s intuitive balloon tips, users can seamlessly replace a standard image background with a more appealing backdrop and add features such as drop shadowing, highlight effects and logos. The sheer speed realized with Bling! It enables even the novice user to produce product images up to four times faster than with any previously available solutions.

“Bling! It enables anyone to create high quality product shots capable of competing with studio-shot professional product images. We’ve received numerous comments from customers that have “Blinged” their product shots, that they have realized as much as a 20% increase in their achieved product price,” said James Carr-Jones, president and CEO of Vertus. “With businesses of all sizes and industries offering products through e-commerce outlets, the entrepreneur that makes the best impression online ultimately generates the most sales. Bling! It enables even the most casual seller to optimize potential revenue and increase profits by making products truly stand out from the ever-growing crowd without the need to master Photoshop or other complicated imaging programs.”

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

Revolutionary new rapid payment processing lets businesses get their money the very next day, improving cash flow

Thousand Oaks, CA January 15, 2008 — Paymentmax announced a new feature that lets business owners charge a customer’s credit card, then have access to the funds the very next day. This is a major advancement over traditional credit card processing services that take 2 to 5 days before funds become available to the merchant.

“The length of time that it takes for credit card funds to land in a merchant’s bank account has always been a big issue with businesses,” said Tony Shap, President of Paymentmax. “A business can have all kinds of sales on the books, but still have to wait a week to get their money. That can cause cash flow problems. Paymentmax’s new Next Day processing solves that problem,” Shap said.

Paymentmax’s Next Day processing is being made available to the Internet’s millions of online businesses that need to accept credit cards. Paymentmax serves as a single source for capturing and processing of receivables. “In the past, your sales were captured by one provider, then your funds were processes by two or three others. Not only did everybody get a slice of your sale, but every service had to work together and long delays were frequent. Paymentmax speeds up the entire process to a single day with one of the lowest costs in the industry,” Shap said.

Paymentmax delivers businesses credit and debit card funds directly into the merchant’s existing bank account the next day — or in as little as 12 hours. “We constantly strive to offer the best quality solutions in the industry while keeping our prices well below average. Business owners are constantly telling us Paymantmax gets the job done far faster and costs them far less,” Shap said.

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

Invesp, a marketing consulting boutique that offers conversion optimization services, announced that its clients had an average conversion rate of 11.12 percent in 2007, which translates into an increase of up to 321 percent in online revenue.

Detroit, MI January 14, 2008 — Most large online companies have reported a soar in their sales. Companies with significant web presences such as Amazon, Bestbuy and Motorola were able to drive hundreds of thousands of visitors to their sites and as a result reported double digit growth in sales. Other e-commerce sites do not have such brand awareness and are not enjoying the same revenue growth. Most of these sites are turning to conversion optimization companies to help them boost sales. Invesp, a marketing consulting boutique, announced that its clients had an average conversion rate of 11.12 percent in 2007 reporting an increase of up to 321 percent in online revenue.

The fact is that at the heart of every ecommerce website is someone whose job is to increase revenue. As there is an increased pressure on online retailers to generate more sales, these sites are trying to figure out ways to convert more of their traffic into actual consumers, which is why it is crucial to focus on conversion rates. Data tracked by Invesp Consulting, a marketing optimization company, indicates that online conversion rates have been on a steady decline for the last 6 years. Fireclick index, which provides an objective comparison of key metrics across a variety of segments, reported that ecommerce website reported an average conversion rate of 6 percent in the year 2000, but by 2007, most ecommerce sites are reporting an average less than 2 percent.

Surprisingly, these rates have not always been this low. Ecommerce sites used to experience more sales because of limited competition. They were not required to be optimized nor designed with users in mind. But with the boom in e-retailing sites, competition is fierce. Sites are turning to conversion optimization methods with one goal in mind: trying to figure out the best way to increase online conversions.

And companies should be concerned with conversions since there are more users than ever online. Users are picky, if the site does not capture their attention because of the lack of optimization and focus, they will click out within seconds. That translates into hundreds of dollars in lost sales.

For an ecommerce site driving 50,000 visitors a day, a 2 percent conversion rate may suffice. But, conversion rate doesn’t have to stop at that low number. Ayat Shukairy, a managing partner at Invesp Consulting (www.invesp.com), says, “if you’ve already invested hundreds of thousands into your online platform, you are getting tens of thousands of visitors to your site every day. Increasing your website conversion rate can mean getting 1,000 orders instead of 500 orders. Our clients are reporting an average of 11 percent conversion rate. That translates into 321 percent increase in revenue. If companies do not fix the problem with their website, then they are simply leaving money on the table for competitors to take.”

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…