Analysis of Issues for Eco-Fone Smartphones

Introduction
The company Eco-Fone is in the business of selling Smartphone and accessories from the two
shops Richmond and Putney. Since its set up in 2014, the net profit has shown a steady growth
year on year. As the company continues its journey on the growth trajectory, there are several
important issues that it has to address. It is important to evaluate the current trends that are being
demonstrated by the Smartphone market. Based on the analysis of current market trends, the
report in the following pages have been prepared. Based on the findings regarding trends,
information regarding products, finances and customers; recommendations are given for future
expansion of the company.
1. Analysis of Issues for Eco-Fone Smartphones
1.1 An Overview of the Mobile phone market in the UK
Among the 33.5 million workforce in UK now, 32 million are engaged in an occupation. Among
the employees who owned a Smartphone, it was found that only half of them used it for at least
one work related activity (Deloitte, 2017). Voice call, calendar management and emails were the
three applications that were most frequently used by the workers on the Smartphone. The
commonality of these three applications was a result of the fact that these were optimized for the
Smartphone.
Additionally, there are number of unofficial Smartphone applications that are used on a daily
basis at the workplace. Amongst the entire workforce, it is found that 40% of them use whatsapp
on a daily basis. The reason again for the popularity of these applications is that they have been
optimized for the Smartphone (Deloitte, 2017).
However, as compared to applications related communication, there was a limited usage of other
applications related to workflow. There has been little change in the adoption of workflow
applications in Smartphone over the years. The reason behind this paucity of usage is not due to
lack of needs. On the contrary, the lack of usage of smart phone for work related activities is lack
of suitable software and applications.

1.3 Smart phones - A potential market for older customers
In recent years there has been an increase in the smart phone usage amongst older customers.
There are plenty of reasons that can explain this trend. One explanation behind the habit of older
generation in buying a smart phone is higher than average wealth of the people belonging to the
age group of 55 to 75 years (Kellion, 2017). In some cases the children of these elderly
populations might have gifted them a Smartphone. In certain cases it is the situations that have
forced the elderly population to purchase a smart phone. For instance, smart phone might be the
most convenient method for paying at the numerous parking meters that have cropped up.
Without a smart phone app, it might also be difficult to book a taxi in certain cities, thereby
prompting the elderly to make a purchase (Rosales and Fernández-Ardèvol, 2016).
Another reason that has contributed towards the growing popularity of smart phone amongst the
elderly users is the changes that have been brought about over the years. Certain features of the
modern day smart phones like bigger screens, louder speakers etc. have helped the elderly
(Kellion, 2017). The applications have also become much easier over the years and some of the
Android app makers now make dedicated applications that are especially targeted at the elderly
population. For example facial recognition as an application for authentication has become
extremely popular for the elderly population who no longer have to fiddle with buttons or search
for their glasses to key in their password for unlocking their device (Pang, Vu, Zhang and Foo,
2015).
1.4Feasibility of Expanding business to Kingston using Pros and Cons table
In order to address the question of whether the company should expand its business to Kingston
we have evaluated the pros and cons of this decision. Kingston can serve as a thriving business
opportunity. However, for setting the business in Kingston, the company has to bear additional
capital and operational cost (Cantwell, 2009). However, be bearing this additional cost, the
company can proceed on diversification, and thus gain the opportunity to expand its customer
base. However, business might not be well received by prospective customers at Kingston.
Although, the company can leverage the experience it had in the current shops at the new
location, Kingston is however an uncharted territory for the company. Thus, although the
company can usher in profitability and growth by this venture, it can also lead to heavy losses
and reputational risk.