Peugeot and Citroën are considering own low budget brand

Peugeot and Citroën are devastated by the success of Dacia in West-Europe. Accordingly to the Frech newspaper 'La Tribune': this increases the plans to start a budget brand themselves. PSA wants with a new budget brand models which are overseas produced, such as the Chinese Dongfeng Citroën, to obtain to Europe. Also models which are produced in South-America must end up this way. Generally, those do not entirely satisfy to the high Western European standard. For not damaging the reputation of Peugeot and Citroën they want to create a new brand . As from 2010, the project with the overseas models must start to run.

Peugeot en Citroën kijken met lede ogen naar het succes van Dacia in West-Europa. Dat wakkert bij het concern de plannen aan om zelf een budgetmerk te beginnen. Dat weet de Franse krant La Tribune te melden.Met een nieuw budgetmerk wil PSA modellen die overzee worden geproduceerd, zoals deze Chinese Dongfeng Citroën, naar Europa halen. Ook modellen uit Zuid-Amerika moeten deze kant op komen. Die voldoen doorgaans niet helemaal aan de hoge West-Europese standaard. Om de merken Peugeot en Citroën daardoor niet te veel te schaden, moet daarvoor een nieuw merk in het leven worden geroepen. Vanaf 2010 moet het project met de overzeese modellen gaan lopen. Bron : HLN

How to Make Money off Free iPhone Games

Can developing free software for mobile phones be a business? It can if you're Illusion Labs, a fledgling company in the Swedish port city of Malmö. Illusion Labs was started a year ago by Carl Loodberg and Andreas Alptun, who had worked together at another Swedish company called TAT, designing software for companies including Samsung and Nvidia (NVDA). They set up their own company so they could concentrate on developing applications specifically for Apple's iPhone. "When the iPhone came out, we were excited about the big screen, the graphics chip, and the good components," says Loodberg. "We thought it was an opportunity too big to pass up." It looks like they were right. The first game they developed has become one of the most popular pieces of software for the iPhone. The game is called Labyrinth, a digital update to the old wooden box on which you maneuver a small silver ball through a maze while avoiding cut-out holes the ball could plunge into. The game, which is available for free from Apple's (AAPL) iTunes, is being downloaded 80,000 times a day, according to Loodberg, and is getting rave reviews from users. "Controls extremely precise," wrote one person on iTunes. "Smooth, very fluid, and is realistic," wrote another. While the game is free, its success could mean rich rewards for Illusion Labs. The company is selling a souped-up version of the game, which is also quite popular, for $6.99 on iTunes. More promising, advertising agencies have contacted the company to develop variations on the game with the logos of advertisers embedded in them. Marketing and Mobile Phones Already, Illusion Labs has designed a game called iPint for Carling beer, with the London-based ad agency Beattie McGuiness Bungay (BMB). In iPint, an iPhone user tilts her phone to guide a beer down a bar through a variety of obstacles and into a waiting hand. Once the beer arrives at its destination, the screen changes into a pint glass with Carling's logo on it. It then fills up with a virtual beer, which disappears when the phone is tilted to simulate drinking from a glass. Loodberg and Alptun won't comment specifically on how much they were paid for the work. This is a new era for marketing and mobile phones. In the past, phonemakers including Nokia (NOK) and Motorola (MOT) and wireless operators such as AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ/VOD) kept tight control over what people could do with their mobile phones. That's changing now, as wireless players let customers install new applications on their phones and go where they want on the mobile Web. Apple, whose phones are sold exclusively through AT&T in the U.S., has been at the leading edge of the trend. When Apple announced its iPhone 3G last month, it also unveiled the iTunes App Store, which lets any independent software developer market its products to the phone's users. Already, there are more than 1,000 applications being offered by developers, from Illusion Labs to Major League Baseball to eBay (EBAY). Other wireless carriers are following the approach of Apple and AT&T. Verizon Wireless has said it will open its network to outsiders. In the future, there will be more opportunities for developers who want to work with a wide range of phones, from Apple's devices to Research In Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry to the mobile phones of HTC. Read further here : http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2008/tc20080810_846445_page_2.htm Source : http://www.businessweek.com/

Better Than Free (by Kevin Kelly)

This is a must-read article for pricing managers ! Pol Vanaerde - president of the ePP.

The internet is a copy machine. And when copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable.When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.Well, what can't be copied ? There are a number of qualities that can't be copied. Consider "trust." Trust cannot be copied. You can't purchase it. Trust must be earned, over time. It cannot be downloaded. Or faked. Or counterfeited (at least for long). If everything else is equal, you'll always prefer to deal with someone you can trust. So trust is an intangible that has increasing value in a copy saturated world. There are a number of other qualities similar to trust that are difficult to copy, and thus become valuable in this network economy. I think the best way to examine them is not from the eye of the producer, manufacturer, or creator, but from the eye of the user. We can start with a simple user question: why would we ever pay for anything that we could get for free? When anyone buys a version of something they could get for free, what are they purchasing? From my study of the network economy I see roughly eight categories of intangible value that we buy when we pay for something that could be free. In a real sense, these are eight things that are better than free. Eight uncopyable values. I call them "generatives." A generative value is a quality or attribute that must be generated, grown, cultivated, nurtured. A generative thing can not be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced. It is generated uniquely, in place, over time. In the digital arena, generative qualities add value to free copies, and therefore are something that can be sold. Eight Generatives Better Than Free Read more on : http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/01/better_than_fre.php

Not all prices increase as fast.

A study into the highest increased prices are showing some surprising results. Inflation can be felt mainly at the petrol station. Nevertheless, fuel is on the tenth place in top-10 of the largest price increases. The study has been retrieved from the national institute for statistics (NIS) that compared the consumer prices of June 2007 with those of June 2008. Which mysterious product became on a 12 months period almost twice as expensive? It does concern aluminium foil, but - as you probably would think - because the demand for aluminium has increased enormously. No, the price increase has to do everything with extra environment taxes of the government. More surprisingly number two on the list: the price of lemons has increased the last year with 73.11 percent. Furthermore the top 10 list exists especially from ' usual suspects' , amongst energy: fuel became more expensively 62%, natural gas 49% and electricity 37%.

Niet alle prijzen gaan even snel de hoogte in. Een onderzoek naar de grootste prijsstijgers levert enkele verrassende resultaten op. De inflatie laat zich voor de meesten onder ons waarschijnlijk het meest voelen aan de pomp. En toch prijkt diesel slechts op de tiende plaats in de top-10 van de grootste prijsstijgingen. De rangschikking komt van het Nationaal Instituut voor de Statistiek (NIS) dat de consumentenprijzen van juni 2007 vergeleek met die van juni 2008. Welk mysterieus product werd op 12 maanden tijd dan bijna dubbel zo duur? Het gaat om aluminiumfolie, maar niet - zoals je misschien zou denken - omdat de vraag naar aluminium enorm toegenomen is. Nee, de prijsstijging heeft alles te maken met een extra milieutaks van de overheid. Wellicht raadselachtiger is de nummer twee op de lijst: de prijs van citroenen is het laatste jaar met 73,11 procent toegenomen. Verder bestaat de rangschikking vooral uit de 'usual suspects', waaronder veel energie: stookolie werd 62% duurder, aardgas 49% en elektriciteit 37%.

The complete top-10 list: 1. Aluminium foil (76.51% - higher government taxes) 2. Lemons (73.11%) 3. Fuel (62.14%) 4. Natural gas (48.90%) 5. Grey shrimps (44.65%) 6. Spaghetti (42.40%) 7. Flower (39.41%) 8. corn oil (38.80%) 9. Electricity (37.09%) 10. Diesel (33.85%) Bron : netto.be

Tank tomorrow on the prices of today!

You can save a lot by using pre-paid cards at the petrol station. It already excist in America. The American company MyGallons proposes motorists in own country pre-paid card to purchase, coupled to a fixed price by a litre petrol. On this way, you avoid the fluctuation of the oil prices. In fact you buy with such a card a certain quantity petrol on the price of the day. Afterwards you can refuel, knowing that you will never pay more - but of course also never less - than the purchase price.

Subscription is also needed

It sounds almost too beautiful to be true, of course there are the small lettres. At purchase of such a card you create immediately ' a subscription' at MyGallons. You pay for the subscription annually between 30 and 40 dollars (between 20 and 25 euro). You can upload the card automatically (each time the amount falls under a certain value) or by means of the Internet. " We have already tested the system since April of this year. In the meantime we have an agreement with 95 per cent of the American filling station so that you can use the card almost everywhere, " thus Greg Salsburg, spokesman of MyGallons.

Up to 760 euro a year savings

The company values that the owner of a large car can save up to 1,200 dollars (760 euro). Persons who drive more modestly, can nevertheless count on savings of 530 dollars (335 euro).

Door een systeem van voorafbetaalde kaarten te gebruiken, kan je heel wat besparen op een tankbeurt. In Amerika bestaat het al. Het Amerikaanse bedrijf MyGallons stelt automobilisten in eigen land voor een voorafbetaalde betaalkaart aan te kopen, gekoppeld aan een vaste prijs per liter benzine. Op die manier ga je de schommelingen van de olieprijs uit de weg. Eigenlijk koop je met zo'n kaart een bepaalde hoeveelheid benzine aan de prijs van de dag. Achteraf kan je tanken, wetende dat je nooit meer - maar natuurlijk ook niet minder - zult betalen dan die aankoopprijs.

Ook abonnement nodig

Dat klinkt wellicht te mooi om waar te zijn, maar natuurlijk zijn er de kleine lettertjes. Zo sluit je bij de aankoop van een kaart meteen ook een 'abonnement' af bij MyGallons. Daarvoor betaal je jaarlijks tussen de 30 en de 40 dollar (tussen de 20 en de 25 euro). De kaart kan je automatisch opladen (telkens het bedrag onder een bepaalde waarde zakt) of met een opdracht via het internet. "We testen het systeem al uit sinds april van dit jaar. Ondertussen hebben we een overeenkomst met 95 procent van de Amerikaanse tankstations zodat je de kaart bijna overal kan gebruiken," aldus Greg Salsburg, woordvoerder van MyGallons.

Tot 760 euro per jaar besparing

Het bedrijf schat dat de eigenaar van een grote auto per jaar 1.200 dollar (760 euro) kan besparen. Wie bescheidener rijdt, kan toch nog steeds rekenen op een besparing van 530 dollar (335 euro).

bron : netto.be