Research and Markets is making available a new market research report entitled "Conservatories: UK", which reviews the UK market for conservatories for the 5 year period until 2005 and also looks forward to the market demand for the period until 2010.

According to a release announcing the availability of the report, "the market for conservatories is segmented by type of design, by type of frame material, by type of roofing material, by surface area, by sector, by type of installation, by frame colour and by type of vertical glazing. Included in this report is a chapter analysing factors affecting demand and a chapter on distribution. The industry structure is also analysed and includes 16 company profiles."

The 16 conservatory companies featured in the report are: Amdega, Anglian Group, BAC, Bowater Home Improvements Group, The Burnden Group, Cestrum Conservatory Systems, CDW Products (formerly Caradon Doors and Windows), Deceuninck Group, Epwin Group, Everest, Planet PVC Group, Planet Tradeline, Speedframe PVCU Windows, Rehau, Shepley Window Systems Company, Ultraframe Group, Veka and Weatherseal Holdings.

Is Direct Mail becoming less effective for marketers? The answer seems to be a yes and that people's tolerance of direct mail is on the wane, at least based on a recent study of UK consumers as part of the CCB fast.MAP Marketing-GAP Research and reported on TMC.net. The number of people not opening direct mail has reportedly increased by one percentage point from 13% last year to 14% this year.

The reason is not hard to fathom-- consumers are bombarded by an overload of marketing messages everywhere they turn to. The advent of more digital marketing media such as the Internet and mobile phones has raised question marks on most traditional marketing methods; direct mail is no exception.

Direct mail marketers and service companies would do well to understand the implications of this study and take the necessary steps to ensure that their marketing message doesn't go straight from the mail box to the trash box.

More data from the study here.

For those running home offices, running to the post office to attend to postal matters can be quite a drain on time, while also potentially having an opportunity cost owing to missed business calls during those visits.

Home franking systems are thus a good option for  such businesses and help save these business owners both time and money, says business writer Isla Campbell in a syndicated article.  Some of the advantages of franking machine systems that she lists in her article are:

• Considerable savings in time: franking machine users don't have to stand in


• Savings in money: More efficient than stamps, which can lead to wastage of hundreds of pounds per year. Moreover, the accurate weighing of the mail with the electronic weighing scales of the franking machines reduces any extra payments.


• Take advantage of discounts from Royal Mail for franking machine users


• Greater marketing/branding opportunity, with the ability to frank company name /logo on all outgoing mails


• Ability to do bulk/large mailings with a franking machine.

See the full article by Isla here. 

The global interactive whiteboards market is slated for explosive growth after almost 600,000 whiteboards cumulatively valued at over $1 billion already being installed worldwide this year, says a report by Futuresource Consulting.  In fact, the report predicts that 80% of classrooms in the UK will have interactive whiteboards by 2012. The EMEA region is supposed to show more than six times greater demand than the UK, while Asia is expected to show a 150% growth in interactive whiteboard sales, thanks to demand from China and India.

Use of whiteboards in the US is very high with more than three times the number of boards sold than UK, the country ranked second in the list. At the same time, US, UK and Mexico account for almost 70% of total interactive whiteboard installed base worldwide.

One in six classrooms worldwide is forecast to be using interactive whiteboard technology by 2012.  Interactive whiteboards hook up to computers and projectors to create large touch-sensitive displays which integrate AV, graphics and text into the lesson structure, improving learning by illustrating new concepts clearly and effectively, increasing pupil motivation and aiding in lesson flow.

The Futuresource report has analysed whiteboard use and demand in 66 countries.

Logicube has introduced SuperSonix, a successor to the company's Sonix portable, hand-held, hard disk drive duplicator. Shipments for this new duplicator will commence in September.

Claimed to be the fastest hand-held duplicator in the market, the SuperSonix can deliver cloning speeds upto 6GB/min. The SuperSonix has a new colour touch screen and an intuitive Wizard function to step novice users through key cloning processes. Built-in support for SATA and PATA hard drives, USB connectivity and support for Firewire 1394B is featured. eSATA and microSATA drive support is also available with optional cables.

SuperSonix is compatible with Windows Vista and includes advanced software to provide a variety of cloning modes including sector-by-sector copying, selected partitions copying and copying-only data areas.

The duplicator comes with a one year standard parts and labour warranty.