Eco-Fone Summative Assessment

This project provides a comprehensive analysis of the UK mobile phone market, focusing on Eco-Fone, a company dealing in smartphones and accessories. It covers market trends, forecasts smartphone usage, explores factors influencing older customers' adoption, and evaluates the feasibility of expanding to Kingston. The project also includes a customer satisfaction survey and quality assurance procedures.

Eco-Fone
SUMMATIVE
ASSESTMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Brief overview of mobile phone market in UK..........................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
Forecasting the UK adult smartphone use..................................................................................1
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................2
Some features which make smartphones popular with older customers.....................................2
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................2
A ‘pros and cons method’ table for expanding to Kingston.......................................................2
TASK 5 ...........................................................................................................................................3
1.5 Cost of a new building and well-known commercial mortgage lenders in the UK..............3
TASK 6............................................................................................................................................6
1.6 Testing the Possible Difference in Net Takings of Two Shops............................................6
TASK 7............................................................................................................................................6
1.7 Customer Satisfaction...........................................................................................................6
TASK 8............................................................................................................................................8
1.8 Quality assurance procedures...............................................................................................8
TASK 10..........................................................................................................................................9
Summary.....................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Smartphone is a class of mobile phones having highly advanced features due to stronger
hardware capabilities and operating system that facilitate internet, multimedia and software
functionality along with basic features like text message and voice calls. Smartphones are
becoming very popular due to their wide usability (Abramovici, 2014). This assignment is
written in context with Eco-Fone which is a UK based company dealing in smartphones and
accessories. Company is operating its business from two shops, one shop in Putney and another
shop is in Richmond. At present company is not dealing in laptops and tablets but planning to
expand its business activities in UK. This report is going to cover overview of mobile phones in
UK along with product, financial and customer information. Beside this, recommendations for
expansions are also stated. Beside this, for entertainment purpose old age people are also using
smartphones.
TASK 1
Brief overview of mobile phone market in UK
In accordance with the survey carried out by Deloitte about mobile usage in UK market,
it is overviewed that usage of smartphones are enhancing on a day to day basis. Due to this, sales
of smartphones have encountered an increase of 1.5 billion annually. At present, around 60% of
adult population in UK are using smartphones and it is expected that this percentage will reach
to 90% in 2020. This is because smartphones assists individuals in performing basic activities
related to work. Approximately 32 million people are working in UK and half of them are using
smartphones to pursue their work related activity (Global mobile consumer survey, 2017).
According to report carried out in 2017, most common usage of smartphones among workers are
E-mails(44 %), voice calls(34 %), Calender management(23%). Unofficial applications which
are msotly used by UK population is mobile browser, photo application, navigation, instant
messaging.
TASK 2
Forecasting the UK adult smartphone use
According to 2017 report, smartphone usage among UK adults have continuously rise to
85 percent. Year to year, the penetration is increased by 4%. In context with people form 18 to
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45 years age group, smartphone adoption rate is 90% from past some years. As per the survey, it
can be concluded that seventeen percent of population from 16-24 age group looks at their
smartphone at-least 100 times daily whereas twelve percent of 16-19 years old claims that they
use their phone for more than 200 times everyday where as thirty four percent of 16-75 years old
use their smartphone while eating food. Considerable rise has been encountered in smartphone
usage for old-age people. In 2012, only 29% old people were using smartphone but this
percentage has now increased to around 71%. In present scenario, 91% people form age group
18-75 years uses smartphone on daily basis where as 3% people claim that they have used their
smartphone 3 months ago. 1% population claims that they use their smartphone one time within
1 week where as remaining 1% population said that they have used their smartphone last month
only (Global mobile consumer survey, 2017).
TASK 3
Some features which make smartphones popular with older customers
According to the opinion of Kelion. L, 2017 it is stated that sales of smartphone have
been boomed with older customers in United Kingdom. This is acknowledged from the fact that
around 71% of people aged between 55 to 75 years have their own application capable mobile
phones. This age group has encountered fastest smartphone adoption rate than people form other
age group but their phone usage is less as compared to other age groups. Study carried out by
Deloitte is based on sample of 1163 respondents that were asked some specific questions.
Research team found that first time buyers were forced to buy a smartphone for entrainment
purpose and spend their free time (Smartphone sales boom with over-55s, 2019). Old people are
preferring smartphones due to the fact that parking meters encourages payment with the help of
smartphones and booking a cab is not possible without them. As modern smartphones are bigger
in screen, so it doesn't impact the eyesight of old people due to which considerable rise in the
sales of smartphones have been encountered.
TASK 4
A ‘pros and cons method’ table for expanding to Kingston
All the business operations of Eco-Fone are carried out at two shops but they have never
operated across border in Kingston. A pro and cone method is used by company to analyse
whether it is feasible and viable for company to expand its business operations to Kingston or
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not. Along with pros and cons, a scorecard is prepared to acknowledge average result (Bagga,
Noseworthy and Dawar, 2016).
Should we expand
business
Yes, Kingston market is beneficial for Eco- Fone company to
expand there business .
Pros Score/10 Cons Score/10
Customer base of
company will increase
9 High capital and
investment is required to
expand business in
Kingston
6
Brand popularity due to
which a firm position in
market can be sustained
8 Complexity in
understanding different
rules and laws of local
government
6
Hiring of new staff will
takes place due to which
innovative and new
concepts will be used
while operating
business
7 Problems due to
language and cultural
difference
8
High market-shares and
profitability will be
achieved
6 Competitive rivalry and
existing companies in
same field can impacts
the business operations
and revenues
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Total Pros 30/40 Total Cons 27/40
Average Pros 0.75 Average Cons 0.67
TASK 5
1.5 Cost of a new building and well-known commercial mortgage lenders in the UK
Loan Amount £350000
Number of EMIs 180
Annual Interest Rate 0.07
Monthly Interest Rate 0.00583
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Monthly EMI Payment £3145.90
Total Loan Amount Payable £566261.81
Total Interest Payable £216261.81
Mortgage loan is a debt instrument or advanced money given by a bank against property
of an individual. These kind of loan are taken to buy property such as land, home etc. It is a
secured loan due to which lender can fortify the property of loan is not repay within agreed time.
The borrower needs to pay the loan along with interest amount (Donker and et. al., 2013). It is
also called as claim of property and incorporate different aspects like tax, insurance, principle,
interest rate. Some organisations in UK which offers mortgage loans are mentioned below :-
NatWest Commercial Mortgages
Bank of Scotland
Sterling capital reserve
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Sterling Knight
Alliance & Leicester plc.
Bank of Ireland
Together Commercial Mortgages
HSBC – UK Mortgage Lenders
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TASK 6
1.6 Testing the Possible Difference in Net Takings of Two Shops
Eco-Fone is dealing in both smartphones and accessories in discounted rates on its two
shops. For shop1, sample of 40 net daily takings has mean of £100. on the other hand, shop2 has
a mean of £90 for same quantity of net takings. Sample deviation for shop1 and shop2 is £20 and
£40 respectively. Hence, it shows that business owner of shop1 has gained more profitability
instead of business person of shop2. This is because as sample size and mean will increase,
variability is going to decrease. In case1, sample size is 40, mean is £100, standard deviation is
£20. In case2, sample size is same but mean is less and variability is high. This shows that shop1
is attaining mre revenues and profitability. To achieve same, business owner of Shop2 needs to
redesign their product offering and other strategies.
TASK 7
1.7 Customer Satisfaction
1. When was the last time you purchased a product or services from us?
 Within the last month
 Between 1 month and 3 months √
 Between 3 and 6 months
 Between 6 months and 1 year
 Never
2. How long have you used our products/services?
 Fewer than 6 months
 Between 6 months and 1 year
 Between 1 and 3 years
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 Between 3 and 5 years √
 More than 5 years
 Never
3. Please rate us on the following: (Please tick one: excellent=4, Good=3, Fair=2,poor=1)
Basis 4 3 2 1
Customer service/support √
Quality of products/services √
Sales staff √
Price/value √
4. How would you rate your overall satisfaction with us?
 Very satisfied
 Satisfied √
 Neutral
 Dissatisfied
 Very dissatisfied
5. How likely are you to continue doing business with us?
 Very likely
 Likely
 Neutral √
 Unlikely
 Very Unlikely
6. How likely are you to recommend our products/services to others?
 Very likely
 Likely √
 Neutral
 Unlikely
 Very Unlikely
7. Please suggest how we can improve our products/services to better serve you.
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Interpretation: When this primary research is carried out some questions were asked to
sample population and their answers were considered as the opinion of entire population. At first
they were asked about the last time when they have purchased any product from the company
and answer for it is between 1 to 3 month. Company needs to pursue some good strategy so that
consumers will prefer to buy more and more products without any delays. When respondent was
asked about the time period for which product was used in an efficient way the answer was
between three to five year which is a positive result for company as customers will be highly
satisfied with the service of company if purchased product will be durable. In third question,
different aspects will be asked such as customer service, quality of product, price, staff value etc.
respondent has to select if the services are either excellent, good, fair or poor.
When respondent is asked about overall satisfaction level of then the result was satisfied
which means company is considering the preferences and choices of customers in a desired
manner. For continuing business with Eco-Fone, the respondents specifies that they are neutral
about this thing. May be they will continue to purchase services and products of company. To
gain their wide attention, company can offer them products by adding some exciting offers or
vouchers and for last question in which respondent is asked if they will promote our product to
their friends and known people, the answer was positive. This will help the company in
expanding their customer base due to which revenue and profitability will also increase in a
considerable manner.
TASK 8
1.8 Quality assurance procedures
Poisson distribution is a discrete probability distribution which expresses the occurrence
of a particular event for a specific time period. It is a statistical distribution which is mainly used
for independent events that occurs on a constant rate (Frith, 2018). This distribution is a discrete
function in which the events are measured in accordance with the happening or not happening. In
this, variables are measured on the basis of whole numbers. If some fractions occur, they will not
get included in poission distribution model. Total 10,000 invoices are send in a month and out of
all of them, two involves returned per month due to some errors. In poission distribution model,
an average will be calucated with the help of cumulative frequency. This frequency will be based
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upon checks received by a person. By this, there is possibility of achieving more than 3 invoices
that will be returned in a given month.
TASK 10
Summary
Based on above mentioned data, it is summarised that smartphones have became a
necessary part of an individual life as it assists in managing different day to day activities. People
in UK prefer to use smartphones for their official and non- official purposes. Percentage of
people which is using smartphone for entertainment purpose are more in number than those
people which uses smartphone to perform some work. Old people in UK are also preferring
smartphones so that they can order or book different kinds of products and services in an
efficient manner.
CONCLUSION
Form above mentioned report, it can be concluded that people in UK are widely using
smartphones to perform official and non-official work. Use of smartphone have rapidly increased
in UK market, due to which companies dealing in this field have gained wide opportunity to
enhance their revenues and profitability. There are different feature in a smartphone such as
Bluetooth, music player, mobile browser which gains attention of old age people so that they can
entertain themselves in a desired way. Pros and cones method and questionnaires will allow a
company to analyse their future strategies and current performance in an appropriate manner.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Abramovici, M., 2014. Smart products. CIRP Encyclopedia of Production Engineering. pp.1-5.
Bagga, C. K., Noseworthy, T. J. and Dawar, N., 2016. Asymmetric consequences of radical
innovations on category representations of competing brands. Journal of Consumer
Psychology. 26(1). pp.29-39.
Donker, T. and et. al., 2013. Smartphones for smarter delivery of mental health programs: a
systematic review. Journal of medical Internet research. 15(11).
Frith, J., 2018. Smartphones as locative media. John Wiley & Sons.
Lenhart, A., 2012. Teens, smartphones & texting. Pew Internet & American Life Project. 21.
pp.1-34.
Pan, J., Superior Communications, Inc., 2016. Case for mobile phone. U.S. Patent D746,801.
Premkumar, K. and Nigel, K. G. J., 2015, March. Smart phone based robotic arm control using
raspberry pi, android and Wi-Fi. In 2015 International Conference on Innovations in
Information, Embedded and Communication Systems (ICIIECS) (pp. 1-3). IEEE.
Twenge, J. M., 2017. Have smartphones destroyed a generation. The Atlantic, 3.
Zhuang, T., Baskett, P. and Shang, Y., 2013. Managing ad hoc networks of
smartphones. International Journal of Information and Education Technology. 3(5).
p.540.
Online
Smartphone sales boom with over-55s, 2019.[Online].Available
through<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41319684>
Global mobile consumer survey. 2017.[Online]. Available
through<http://192.168.1.18/projectfiles/internal_chat_attatchment/
deloitteglobalmobileconsumersurvey2017_ukcut1552049277.pdf>.
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