A number of Australian employees of Hewlett-Packard are facing the loss of their jobs as the global computer giant looks to slash its worldwide workforce by up to 30,000.
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Stuart Corner
Thursday, 01 November 2007 16:44
That has all changed with Telstra's new flagship retail store, dubbed T[life] (sic), in Sydney (soon to be followed by an even bigger one in Melbourne in the old Nike store on the corner of Swanston and BourkeStreets.)
Mobiles aren't its sole focus, it is designed to showcase the full gamut of Telstra's consumer offerings. But mobiles are what hit you as you walk in: a table full of just about every model in the Telstra range, and each one powered up and fully functioning. You can make calls, browse the web, watch Foxtel on Next G and do pretty much anything else the phones are capable off.
This hands-on facility is backed up with a team of service staff, but you don't have to stand in a queue for an indefinite time while the person in front of you pesters the salesman with a never ending stream of dumb questions (well, that's always what it seems like when you're queued up and waiting your turn). You can go up to a touch screen and book a 20 minute session either a short time hence, if that suits and a slot is available, or up to two weeks hence.
The new store represents a massive investment in both its establishment and operation and is yet another example of Telstra's ability to leverage its scale and market leading positions in mobile and fixed telephony, broadband, and pay TV - all of which will be promoted. It will be a hard act to follow, but in the mobile space at least the competition will need to come upwith something that similarly allows users to really play with the devices.
At 852 square metres on two levels it is five times the size of the average Telstra store, and initially at least will be open seven days a week: from 7.30 am to 9.00 pm on weekdays and 8.30 to 6.00 pm on weekends. It's located on the corner of George and King Streets in the Sydney CBD. This looks set to become something of a high-tech destination for shoppers: Apple is opening a store across the road in 2008 and Nokia is also set to open one nearby.
Think again. Most businesses only have PART of a DR plan - and this spells business disaster in the event of an IT disaster.
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