Orange and BIC Launch the BIC Phone, the Pre-charged Disposable Cheap Mobile Phone
Posted on August 2, 2008
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Alongside BIC’s disposable pens, lighters and razors at French convenience stores will soon offer a new cheap mobile phone. The BIC phone will come equipped with a charged battery and a SIM card loaded with 60 minutes of prepaid calls from Orange (network operator).
News stands, tobacco shops, major supermarkets and local convenience stores at train stations, and airports in France will sell the BIC phone from September for around EUR49 (US $77).
The slogan on the blister pack, “Turn on and talk” contrasts with the way cell phones are usually sold: after a long wait in-store to activate them, new phones often need an overnight battery charge before they are ready to use.
According to BIC & Orange, new BIC phone will appeal to consumers who like easy-to-use and pay as you go products. It also meets specific phoning requirements, serving as a back-up phone if needed (e.g. a second line when advertising the sale of an apartment, a car … which leaves the main phone line free).
BIC’s involvement with the product is minimal: It doesn’t make the phone (that’s done by the company that makes mobile phones for Alcatel), and it doesn’t distribute it (that’s done by Orange).
The BIC brand is synonymous with disposable items such as its iconic orange ball-point pen, products BIC euphemistically calls “non-rechargeable.”
That’s not the case with the BIC phone, according to Orange.
“It’s not a throw-away product,” said Karine Rolland, a spokeswoman for Orange’s department of Commercial Communications and Sponsoring.
Once buyers have used the initial 60 minutes of calls, though, they might as well throw the phone away unless they are willing to mail off a registration form to Orange and then wait for the phone to be activated.
Customers who do bother to register their phones receive a credit for an additional 50 minutes of calls, and are then able to add further minutes by purchasing Mobicarte vouchers through Orange’s network of resellers. If the phone is not registered, then it will be deactivated two months after the first call is made, even if it has credit remaining.
Available in citrus orange and lime green, BIC phone can be used only for talking, sending and receiving text messages, or listening to FM radio. It weighs 61 grams and measures 98 millimeters by 44 mm by 12.6 mm and there is no Web browser, digital music player or camera.
With a fully charged battery, it can be used for up to 4 hours of calls, or kept in standby mode for 240 hours, Orange said. BIC phone has a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port through which the battery can be recharged. Neither Orange nor BIC representatives could say whether the necessary cable or charger will be included in the pack, however.
[via news.yahoo.com, IDG News Service & orange.com]
Put-In Cups for Customized Ads, Banners, Logos, Team Names & Mascots on Chain-link Fence
Posted on July 20, 2008
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Randall Hunt was a Texas electrician four years ago when he invented Put-In-Cups. The small, plastic squares fit snug in the spaces of a chain-link fence and work the same way as a banner.The idea came to Hunt after passing by a Fort Worth-area school and seeing foam cups in a fence spelling out “God Bless America.” That was cool, Hunt thought, but the next day most of the cups had been blown out of the fence.
This new, exciting product will do away with using plastic cups to decorate your chain link fence. Now, you can purchase these small, plastic devices from Put-In-Cups and get your message across again and again. Hunt’s ashtray-shaped cups, which come in seventeen different colors, have been “sun-tested in Arizona, freeze-tested in Maine and hurricane-tested in Florida.” Moreover, each cup proudly displays “Made In Texas.”
“It’s really taking off,” Hunt said from his booth at the Arlington Convention Center during the second day of the Texas Girls Coaches Association summer clinic. “Business triples every year.”
Hunt’s cups, which cost about $360 for a big box of 2,000, are on display around the Fort Worth area, including Fort Worth Cats’ LaGrave Field and the Aledo High School.
Put-In-Cups can be used as a cheaper alternative to banners. Generally banners cost about $10 per square feet. At that price, a 3′ x 15′ banner would cost $450. The same amount of coverage in Put-In-Cups would cost about $100. That’s less than a quarter of the price of a banner!
Put-In-Cups is a great way to decorate your school fence or the fence around your playing field with team names and logos, mascots, mottoes or just sayings.
Put-In Cups can be used at home for increasing privacy and security of your house.
Hunt, 44, said his patent is coming soon after more than 2.5 million cups have been sold in less than four years. He has sold cups to European US military bases as far away as Italy and Germany.
Hunt’s largest one-time order for Put In Cups was for 150,000 (about $27,000) to a major Canadian fence manufacturer.
[via Put-in-Cups.com & star-telegram.com]
Bicycle Trailers on Loan at IKEA - Rent a Bike & Trailer Directly at the Store
Posted on July 14, 2008
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Danish IKEA shoppers now have a new option for bringing their large, bulky purchases home: a pool of Velorbis bikes with trailers that are available for loan at virtually no charge.
IKEA of Denmark is now starting a new program at their Danish stores. They did a market research and found that about 20% of their customers rode their bikes to the stores - even though most of them are located outside the cities in large commercial centers - some call them Big Box Districts - which are located pretty far from the city center.
Freetrailer started as a service for Danes to loan car trailers for free but has now included bike trailers at one IKEA in the Copenhagen region, with plans for more. To borrow a bike and trailer bike users must make a deposit of about US $100 and then can choose to pay for a seven dollar insurance policy for each loan or be liable for the larger amount in costs if the bike is damaged or stolen. Bicycle and trailer may be kept overnight and returned the next day. A bike with trailer can be loaned for more than one day to give you time to return it. Although trailer might possibly be too small to move your new Ektorp sofa, but you could get quite a few flatpacks onto it.
With this simple move IKEA shows that they cares about their customers and also about the environment. Recognizing — and celebrating — the preferences of eco-minded consumers makes good sense for IKEA, which is bound to share in the eco-iconic glory.
[via www.freetrailer.dk]
New Service Lets US Drivers Save on Gas by Offering Fixed Price Gasoline
Posted on July 8, 2008
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Starting this month, American drivers concerned with rising gas prices can seek relief with the launch of MyGallons.com, a fixed price gas savings program that allows people to pre-purchase gas at today’s prices. Mygallons.com is a new service that lets you purchase gasoline at the current rate, and lock in that price for future fill ups.
After registering on the MyGallons website and receiving a MyGallons Card, members will be able to pay the current price for gas to be stored in their accounts as a credit balance in gallons. Secure MyGallons Card can be used at over 95% of the nation’s gas stations. The MyGallons Card is swiped right at the pump just like a standard debit or credit card.
“The price of gasoline was changing all the time. It seemed unpredictable,” Steven Verona, founder and owner of the Miami-based company, said on Monday.
“It seemed there had to be a way to fix the price,” he said.
A member’s price per gallon at the time of purchase is based upon the average gasoline price in the zip code of their account’s billing address. For example, if a customer pre-purchases fuel for $4.00 per gallon and redeems 6 months later when gas prices have risen to $5.00 a gallon, the consumer saves $1.00 per gallon. If analysts’ predictions of much higher prices prove correct, the average American driver will experience significant gas savings with MyGallons.
“By allowing consumers to pay for quantities of gas at current prices, MyGallons provides them with a solution to cope with gasoline price increases,” said Steven Verona. “While everyone seems to want to point fingers and place blame for the staggering rise in gas prices, I am proud to say MyGallons is actually doing something to help the consumer save money on gas.”
Members may access their account via the MyGallons website to check their balance in gallons, savings, transaction history, and pay for additional gas to add to their account. Customers can be notified via text message and/or e-mail when their balance is close to zero, so they may purchase additional gallons to their account.
“We don’t sell futures. It’s prepurchased gas,” said Verona, who said MyGallons.com uses a sophisticated hedging strategy to protect and meet obligations to members.
The risk to the consumer is if price of gasoline in the future becomes cheaper rather than more expensive. But if members are dissatisfied, they can drop out of the program and receive a lesser of the current price or what they paid as a refund.
“There is that risk that the price could fall significantly,” said Verona.
“But I think that most people would agree that risk is pretty minimal. Overtime, it is going to go up even if there is no change in the supply/demand relationship because inflation alone would push the price up.”
The company has no time limit on your purchased gas, so you can wait to fill up as long as you want. With gas prices predicted to hit $7 per gallon in the next two years, it might be a good idea to stock up on gas now.
[via mygallons.com]
Great Unusual Present or Birthday Gift Idea: M&M’s Faces, Customized Chocolate Candies
Posted on July 5, 2008
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Creating your own customized M&M’s chocolate is easy as 1-2-3! While consumer personalization has hit products from cell phones to sneakers, Mars Snackfood US is leading the way in bringing this trend to the candy category. Company just got even more personal and launched My M&M’s Faces, allowing consumers to print their favorite faces on the M&M’s chocolate candies.
Ordering is done online: customers can visit MyMMs.com, upload one or two photos, pick up to three colors and enter up to three different custom text messages to be printed on separate M&Ms candies. Using a simple interface, they can zoom in or out to select which part of a photo they want to use. Then M&Ms graphic specialist tweaks the picture, creating a sketch-like rendition that looks good on small pieces of candy. Your customized birthday gift or personalized wedding present is ready!
Customized M&Ms chocolate candies are available in 7-ounce bags at US $14.95 per bag (minimum order: 3 bags); a 5- or 10-pound bulk box for US $162.50 or US $312.50, respectively; or a variety of 1.6- to 1.75-ounce party favors (minimum order: 20 bags), priced at US $4.99-$6.19 per bag, based on variety.
Printing personalized messages on M&M’s started as a small R&D project in late 2004. The pieces caught the eye of a senior executive who urged testing whether the printed product would sell online. After six months of selling about eight bags of personalized candy a week, orders eventually grew to a point where the company decided to add more manufacturing capacity dedicated to making M&M’s for the personalized chocolate candy business.
My M&M’s brand initially handled messages for birthdays, holidays and special events such as weddings and graduations. Since its inception, the customized candy business has sold 1 million bags of personalized candy, which costs about $9 a pound, not including the cost of packaging that the customer selects.
[via mymms.com]