Major Developments Major Developments by Calendar Year

July 16, 2013

Domestic Cars and Foreign Cars in USA

Filed under: 2012 — Tags: , — Winson @ 3:19 AM

According to a survey conducted by “The Atlantic” website in August 2012, there are 439 cars for every 1,000 persons in the USA. That means the ratio can be drawn to 1 car for every 2.3 persons. These numbers clearly indicate that how essential a car is to Americans. Though there are different means of transportation in USA, people use their own cars instead of public transportation, irrespective of increase in gas prices. This is because cars are the most economical and convenient mode of transportation in USA.

As this is the situation in USA, the competition among the automakers in US is pretty high. There is demand for foreign cars in USA. This article discusses about the major car manufacturers of USA.

Major US car manufacturers
There are many major car manufacturers in USA and to name a few are Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Ford, Lincoln, General Motors, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet etc. Among them, the three big giants who are always on the top of the list and they are also known as the “big three” in automobile market of USA. They are:

General Motors

  • Established on 16 September, 1908 by William C.Durant and Charles Stewart Mott.
  • Headquarters in Detroit Michigan, USA.
  • Working in 156 countries.

Chrysler

  • Established on 6 June, 1925 by Walter Chrysler.
  • Headquarters at Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA.

Ford

  • Established on !6 June, 1903 by Henry Ford.
  • Headquarters at Dearborn, Michigan, USA.

In 2012, General Motors stood first for highest number of production and sales of cars in USA, while Ford and Chrysler shared fifth and twelfth places respectively. Foreign companies like Volkswagen, Toyota and Hyundai topped the list with second, third and fourth places respectively. These rankings clearly show how strong the competition between the domestic and foreign automakers is.

Minor US car manufacturers
Apart from these major car manufacturers, there are some more car manufacturing companies that are small in size, but yet noticeable. Some of them are Anteros, Aurica, DeLorean, Fisker, Mosler, Electro, Shelby American, Tesla, Zimmer, etc.

Why foreign cars are sharing top rankings with domestic cars in USA?
The invasion of foreign cars into the USA started in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It all started with “oil crisis” in USA in the year 1973. This crisis made people opt for fuel efficient cars by some foreign manufacturers during that period. During the same period, domestic manufacturers had manufactured cars with design and manufacturing problems. This lead to the dominance of foreign cars over domestic cars and people are still in that belief that, foreign cars are better than domestic cars.

  • In 1977, General Motors got a bad reputation by the revelation of the news that they installed Chevrolet engines in Oldsmobile.
  • In the same period Ford released “Ford Pinto” and it was so vulnerable that there were reports and complaints from people that the tank exploded when it was hit from behind.
  • Unfortunately, Chevrolet released a flop model “Chevrolet Vega” during the same time with aluminum engine that got rusted very quickly.

These are some of the examples that gave foreign companies a chance to prove themselves in the US market.

Downfall of oil prices in mid 1980s accelerated the US automakers and the success of minivan in 1984 by Chrysler and fuel efficient K-cars raised the hopes of domestic companies.

However, American car manufacturers including the big three have taken lessons from the past experience and are taking measures to produce good cars.

July 10, 2013

Get to Know Different Types of Wood Conservatories

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — Ralph C Dreher @ 8:39 AM

Conservatories are extra add-ons to homes. This addition gives the whole house a graceful appeal. During the past, conservatories were constructed for growing plants. Due to their value additions such as needing very low maintenance, providing extra space, they are an alternative to buy a new house and beautiful appeal, made them to use for different requirements.

Conservatories can be customized bases on personal choice to beautify old or new homes. Wood conservatories bring homes a very beautiful appeal, elegant look and it can complement easily with the existing homes. This article tells you about the types of wood conservatories.

Many home-owners who build conservatories with aluminium or UPVC will feel discomfort having them because of their disadvantages. Home-owners should get conservatories built with a few basic designs and styles, problem of tear and worn out when there is a huge variation in climatic conditions – humidity, for example, will not allow glass to accommodate much easier than wood does, many companies gone out of business for providing damaged UPVC window, guarantee last for less than ten years and many more.

Use of wood for making conservatories are free from above disadvantage. Based on the type of wood sources conservatories are classified as follows.

Hardwood conservatory
Use of hardwood for making conservatories dates back to eighteenth century. Initially, hardwood conservatories were used to store harvested produce and growing plants. As they were adding extra space to home and beautiful appeal they were made transformed for required needs.

Hardwood to be used is obtained from trees like beech, elm, teak, obeche, mahogany, meranti, iroko, idigbo and utile. These plants’ wood source makes conservatories durable since, they have natural resins makes them resistance to weathering.

Oak conservatory
Oak (Quercus robur) is native to parts of Africa and Europe and is a popular wood material for conservatories from many centuries. Oak conservatories have beautiful color patterns that give a pleasant outdoor feel, in the interior of the conservatory.

For wood, many other plants and forests were cut down in different parts of world. But in Europe, oak tree thrives well in that climatic conditions and this makes to replace younger trees for future construction materials thereby preserving environment.

Timber conservatory
It is an inexpensive source of constructing material for conservatory and the source for timber conservatory is softwood. Softwood does not mean the timber is too soft to break. Softwood differs from hardwood in terms of density and hardness. Timber is obtained from evergreen trees (pine) and accounts 80% of world timber production.

Quality and durability of softwood are low due to lack of natural resins, which makes timber to last only for few years. Durability of softwood can be improved by painting resins or oils and this stresses the need of regular maintenance. The most used timber for constructing conservatories is pine.

The advantages of wood lies in its flexibility to customize the design as per the customer’s needs. Wood combines with any aesthetically appealing designs from classic to modern to blend with older or modern homes. Since wood is natural, production wastage and disposal of hardwood is environmentally friendly unlike plastic UPVC and aluminum. It gives the pleasure enjoyed outdoor in the interior. This makes best for converting conservatories to recreation room. Double glazed wood are five times more thermal efficient, which significantly reduces the amount power needed to heat the room.

Now, you know even though wooden conservatories are a little costlier than UPVC plastics and aluminum ones, they are good at imparting timeless quality, luxury to your homes and save money from heating bills. People think buying hardwood for constructing conservatories is likely to deplete forests. But most hardwood comes from forest plantation undertaken to produce quality timber for conservatories and hence no need to worry about environment.

July 9, 2013

History of Internet Advertising

Filed under: 2013 — Tags: — Ralph C Dreher @ 9:01 AM

Internet advertising is growing at a rapid pace and it is the fastest growing form of advertising than any other form of traditional advertising. Even though Internet advertising has been around since 1994, which is only 18 years old, it has gained immense popularity, and today it has become a necessity for every business owner to use it as a means of advertising, promoting and selling products and services online.

Imagining life without Internet advertising would be hard. So, lets take a look at the history of Internet advertising and the developments that took place in these 18 years.

Developments that took place between 1994 – 2000

  • Internet advertising or online advertising was started almost a decade ago in the year 1994.
  • In mid 1990s when Internet was new to the people, there was a misconception among the people that Internet is only useful to the scientists and students who are pursuing computer related academics.
  • Internet had become very common and easily available to the people during 1996 and 1997. Then, slowly people started understanding that, the Internet can also be used in various ways.
  • In 1994, HotWired first sold spaces on its website for advertisements to many businesses. This was the start of the Internet advertising.
  • Advertisers began buying spaces on the popular websites where their company’s brand would get noticed by the visitors.
  • Number of websites started growing in thousands and millions, and advertisers felt that it was not good to stick to one popular website. Then the advertisers started buying spaces from many popular websites and made it visible to many audiences.

Developments that took place from 2000 – Present

  • During early 2000, Internet users started identifying the benefits of commercial services on the Internet. This lead to the craze of having a website for businesses/organization, so that the presence of their company is felt in the Internet.
  • Since the start of Internet advertising, there was a constant growth till 1998 ($1.9 billion in annual revenue). But there was huge growth of Internet advertising market in 1999($7.6 billion in annual revenue) and the momentum is still continuing. The revenue is increasing every after year.
  • But the companies were not sure whether the user would visit the company’s website directly. Then came the concept of “banners” or “banner ads”.
  • Banner is a small note located at one side of the website with some information and link to the company’s website. When clicked on that link, user goes directly to the company’s website.
  • Internet advertising actually got noticed by the common people in 2007 with the help of Google. Google in 2007, brought the revolution of Internet advertising.
  • As years passed on, developments in technology and animation advertisements increased, where the use of technologies like flash player etc. came into existence.
    • Animation advertisements are small videos or a movie that attracts the user easily.
    • Animation advertisements make banner ads more lively and attractive.
  • After 2010, with the introduction of smart phones and advanced mobile phones in the market, it became easier for businesses to promote their products/services to the people. These high end phones provided access to the Internet and this is how Internet advertising market grew further.
  • Social networking sites made targeted audiences closer to the companies and the interaction between them has become more simple.

Online advertising has made a global phenomenon, and in the coming years there are lots of surprises in store that will make the online advertising platform easier to use and navigate.

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