Eco-Fone Summative Assessment: UK Smartphone Market Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the UK smartphone market, focusing on Eco-Fone, a UK-based company dealing in smartphones and accessories. The report examines market trends, including the growing smartphone usage among adults and older customers, and forecasts fut...Read More

Eco-Fone
SUMMATIVE
ASSESTMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Brief overview of mobile phone market in UK..........................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Forecasting the UK adult smartphone use..................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................5
Some features which make smartphones popular with older customers.....................................5
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................6
A ‘pros and cons method’ table for expanding business to Kingston.........................................6
TASK 5 ...........................................................................................................................................7
Cost of a new building and well-known commercial mortgage lenders in the UK...................7
TASK 6............................................................................................................................................9
Testing the possible differences in net takings of the two shops..............................................9
TASK 7..........................................................................................................................................10
Customer Satisfaction..............................................................................................................10
TASK 8..........................................................................................................................................12
Quality assurance procedures..................................................................................................12
TASK 9..........................................................................................................................................13
TASK 10........................................................................................................................................13
Summary...................................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Smartphones are the class of phone which consists of highly advanced features. They
consists of high hardware capabilities and operating systems that serve various facilities such as
internet, multimedia and other software functions such as messaging and voice call. They are
highly popular in the market that is because of features such as wider usability (Abramovici,
2014). This project is done with reference of Eco-Fone an UK based company which deals in
smartphones and accessories. The organisation is carrying out their activities from two shops
situated in Putney and Richmond. In the present market company is not dealing with Laptops and
tablets but tent to produce the same in the market in the near future. This report will analyse the
mobile phone market existing in the UK in relation with product, customer information and
finance. In the later part of the report recommendations have been made for expansions. Along
with it use of phone by old age people for entertainment is also enlighten.
TASK 1
Brief overview of mobile phone market in UK
In according to the survey which is being conducted by Deloitte about the mobile usage
in UK market, It has been observed that the usage of the smartphones are growing on a daily
basis. Because of which sales of smartphones have faced an increase of 1.5 billion annually. The
present market depicts that more then 60% of adult population in the UK are using smartphone
and this tents to increase to a percentage of 90% by 2020 (Frith, 2018). This is because
smartphones are assisting people in performance of day to day activities. In the current economy
32 million people are working in UK and around half of them are using smartphone in their daily
work activities. As per the report which was carried in 2017, the mos common smart phone
features used by worker is E-mail (44%) voice call(34%) and calendar management (23%) and
there are various unofficial application as well which is being used by them such as mobile
browser, photo applications and navigation.

Email
Making Standard calls
Viewing Documents
Managing Time
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
41
33
17
8
37
32
0
6
2017
2016
TASK 2
Forecasting the UK adult smartphone use
As per 2017 report, the smartphone usage among the UK adults is continuously growing and is
reached to a high level up-to 85 percentage. As the penetration is increasing yearly at a rate 4% .
the smartphone adoption rate s 90% in the context of people laying in the age group of 18 to
45years. It can be abstracted from the report that the seventeen percent population between the
age group of 16-24 look at their smartphones at least 100 times on a daily basis and twelve
percent of individual comprising of age group of 16-19 claims that they look at their smartphone
more then 200 time on a daily basis. Where as it showed that thirty four percent of people
comprising of age group of 16-75 years use their phone while eating (Donker and et. al., 2013).
There is considerable;e rise in the number of old age people using smartphones. It has reached to
71% as compared to 29% in the year 2012. In the present time 91% of people of the ge group of
18-75 are using their smartphone on a daily basis and 3% of them have claimed of using
smartphone 3 months ago. 1% of the population claimed that they use their smartphone once in a
week while the reamining 1% claimed that they have used their smartphone last month only.

TASK 3
Some features which make smartphones popular with older customers
AS per the opinion of Kelion L, 2017, the sale of smartphones have boomed with the
increase smartphones usage by the older people in United Kingdom. This has been concluded
with the fact that 71% of people aged between 55 to 75 years have their own phones. This age
group have shown fastest smartphone adoption in comparison with all other age groups. The
study which is been carried by Deloitte is based on sample size of 1163 respondents. Research
found that people buying smartphones first time were forced to buy it only for entertainment
purpose and in order to spend free time (Bagga, Noseworthy and Dawar, 2016). Old people are
adopting smartphones as it enable easy booking of cab and the fact that parking meters
encourage payment. It also is because of it's size and visibility as the screen does not have any
harmful impact on eyes. All these factors have resulted in increase in the sale of phones.

TASK 4
A ‘pros and cons method’ table for expanding business to Kingston
The business operations of Eco-Fone are been processed in the two shops and have never
carried out their business operations in Kingston. To expand the business of the company they
have planned to develop a pro and cons method to examine the feasibility of the business
operations over there (Premkumar and Nigel, 2015). The pros and cons method consists of a
scorecard that will lead in analysing the outcome.
Should we expand
business
Yes, it will be beneficial for the organisation in capturing the
market of Kingston effectively.
Pros Score/10 Cons Score/10
Customer base of
the organisation
will increase
9 Large amount of capital
will be required in
expanding the business
organisation.
6
It will increase the
brand image across
the borders and will
help in increasing
profitability.
8 Complexness in making
perceptive regarding the
various rules and
regulations of the local
government
6
Hiring of new work
force will be
required and it will
lead in creating
innovative and new
ideas for
commencing the
business operations
appropriately.
7 Issues will arise because
of different languages
and cultural differences.
8
High market-shares
and competitive
advantage will be
increase.
6 Rival companies will try
to impact the business
operations and revenues
in the market and will
generate threat.
7
Total Pros 30/40 Total Cons 27/40
Average Pros 0.75 Average Cons 0.67

TASK 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
Monthly EMI Payment £3145.90
Total Loan Amount Payable £566261.81
Total Interest Payable £216261.81
Mortgage loan can be defined as the debt instrument or money given by the banking
institutes against the property of an individual. These loans are taken with the purpose of buying
a property like land, commercial property, home, etc. it is also stated as one of the secured laon
system as the lender is authorised to fortify the property if the person is not able to repay the loan
amount within the defined time period (Pan and Superior Communications, 2016). The borrower
is required to deposit the loan amount along with the interest rate amount to the lender and after
that the property on stake is dully freed. It is also known as claim of property and incorporate
various features like tax, insurance, principle, interest rate. Some organisations in UK which
offers mortgage loans are as follows:
NatWest Commercial Mortgages
Bank of Scotland

Sterling capital reserve
Sterling Knight
Alliance & Leicester plc.
Bank of Ireland

Together Commercial Mortgages
HSBC – UK Mortgage Lenders
TASK 6
Testing the possible differences in net takings of the two shops
The Eco-Fone is carrying their business operations in the segment of smartphones and
accessories on their two shops in discounted rates (Smartphone sales boom with over-55s, 2019).
The difference between the two shops are defined here which are as follows:

Shop 1, sample of 40 net daily takings has mean of £100 whereas, shop 2 has a mean of
£90 for the same quantity of net takings in the market. The sample deviation for the shop 1 and
shop 2 is £20 and £40 respectively. Thus, it draws the outcome that business owner of shop 1 has
achieved great profitability in comparison of shop 2 in the market. The reason for this difference
is because of the sample size and mean increases, it will lead in decreasing the variability. In
shop 1, the sample size is 40, mean is £100 and the standard deviation is £20. whereas, In shop 2,
the sample size is same but the mean is less and variability is high in comparison to shop 1. This
shows that shop1 has accomplished high revenues and profitability in the market. To succeed in
same manner, the owner of Shop 2 is required to redesign their business strategies and product
offerings.
TASK 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 √
 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.

Interpretation: When this primary research was conducted few questions were asked to
limited section of customers from different categories and is been considered as the overview of
the whole customer base. At first it gathered the information about the last time they bought any
product from the company and answer received was between 1 to 3 months of time. The
Company is required to carry out some effective strategies that will lead the consumers in buying
products in less time intervals. When the respondent was asked about period of time for which
they have used a product in an efficient way, it came out that they have used it for time period of
1 to 3 years which is a affirmative outcome for company as the customers will be satisfied with
the services provided by the company and the quality of the product is good as it provides long
durability. In third question, various characteristic was asked like customer service, quality of the
product, price, staff value etc. respondent were required to choose if the services provided are
excellent, good, fair or poor.
At the time of asking the overall experience in relation with the company, the customers
response was very satisfactory and it results in carrying good brand image in the market. To
continue doing business with the Eco-Fone, the customers response was very likely about this
thing. They will continue to buy the products of the company (Twenge, 2017). To attract
customers in effective manner company can introduce exciting offers and gift hampers. The last
question was that if the existing customers will like to suggest company's products to their
friends and families and the response of the customers was positive. It will lead in expanding the
customers base for the company in effective manner.
TASK 8
Quality assurance procedures
Poison distribution is a discrete probability distribution that leads in expressing the
occurrence of a specific event for the particular period of time. It is can be defined as the
statistical distribution that is used in the independent events which are generated on a constant
rate. This distribution process is termed as the discrete function in which the analysis of events is
proceeded to measure whether they are happening or not happening. In this, variables are
measured on the ground of whole numbers. If some fractions occur, they will not be included in
the poison distribution model. Total 10,000 invoices are send in a month and out of all of them,

two to three invoices are returned every month because of some major errors. In this distribution
model, an average will be measured with the help of cumulative frequency. This frequency will
be founded on checks accepted by a person (Zhuang, Baskettand and Shang, 2013). By this,
there is a possibility of attaining more than 3 invoices that will be returned in a month.
TASK 9
Mentioned in references section below.
TASK 10
Summary
It can be summarised on the basis of above presented data that smartphones are the very
essential part of everyone's lifestyle these days and it helps in making life easy for them. The
people of UK use smartphones for different purposes. The use of the smartphones for official
purposes is less as compared to the use for entertainment purpose is concerned (Global mobile
consumer survey, 2017). The old generation of UK also prefers smartphones for the purpose of
ordering various products and services with the help of online platform.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the above report, it can be said that people in UK are using smartphones
on a wide range to perform their official and non-official work effectively. Use of smartphones
has increased with a rapid pace in the market of UK, which helps the companies belonging to
this field in gaining a wide range of opportunity to raise their revenues and profitability in the
market. There are various characteristic in a smartphone like music player, camera, Bluetooth,
web browser, etc. which increase attention of old generation people so that they can entertain
themselves in a desirable way. Pros and cons method and questionnaires will assist the business
organisation in analysing their business strategies in effective manner.

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.
Smartphone sales boom with over-55s, 2019.[Online].Available
through<https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41319684>
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
Global mobile consumer survey. 2017. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://192.168.1.18/projectfiles/internal_chat_attatchment/deloitteglobalmobileconsum
ersurvey2017_ukcut1552049277.pdf>.