Survey Shows How Smartphones and Tablets Have Changed the Stone Industry

July 12, 2013

Earlier this year when the new Pope, Francis, made his first appearance in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, a major newspaper published two photographs under the headline “How Apple has Changed the World.” The first photo, showed the crowd dutifully applauding when Pope Benedict made his first appearance years before. The second, with Pope Francis standing on his balcony, depicted tens of thousands of folks using smart phones and tablets to take photos of the new Pontiff greeting the masses. Welcome to the new world of communications.

In the six years since legendary Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, introduced the iPhone and others copied the concept, there has been a revolution and the stone industry is a part of it.

To gauge the impact of the smart phone and its bigger cousin, the iPad or tablet, MIA recently conducted a member survey to find out just how prevalent these devices and how important are they to the companies and individuals that use them. We also sought to determine the extent to which members are utilizing social media in their operations. The survey drew the largest response in the association’s history of doing this type of survey. The findings were literally unbelievable.

• 96 percent of the more than 150 companies responding to the survey said they were using smart phones, with 76 percent calling them very important. Another 20 percent said they were somewhat important.
• 9 out of 10 respondents said smart phones were used regularly to photograph new job installations. These photos are used to show to potential clients what to expect.
• More than half (54 percent) said they were using iPads or tablets in marketing efforts, with little more than half of the respondents utilizing them to show customers examples of their work.
• The number of companies developing their own apps for tablets was, at 15 percent, marginal.
• 18 percent indicated they were using MIA-developed apps such as iStone and Stones of North America. Of those using MIA-developed apps, 84 percent rated them somewhat to very effective.
• Over a quarter of MIA members responding said they have taken advantage of YouTube to show examples of their work and facilities.

MIA members are also using social media sites in their marketing efforts. Fifty-seven percent said they were using Facebook and Twitter, while 30 percent indicated they were using QR codes for marketing.

Among those reporting developing proprietary apps for tablet use, the concepts ranged from room scene visualizers to slab inventories. Several said they were using APPS developed by machinery and stone vendors. One major fabrication firm uses an iPad to load architectural drawings for use onsite.

Several companies said they were utilizing YouTube to show corporate capabilities, company commercials, slab inventory and how equipment work. Some equipment vendors are putting their entire product offerings on YouTube.

Most respondents are continually updating their web sites…some, daily. “We spent $100,000 a few months ago,” said one responding company. “This is a constant thing for us.”
 
Of course, in addition to the ability to enhance marketing efforts, today’s smart phones and tablets offer an infinite variety of applications, not the least of which are updatable calendars, the ability to instantly receive and send e-mails, driving instructions and more.

Garen Distelhorst, MIA Communications Director, was wowed with the response to the survey, “The tremendous response coupled with the results reflect an industry that is constantly innovating and forward thinking, I hope that our members will continue to look at the MIA as thought leaders in mobile technology.”

Source :

http://www.stonedimensionsblog.com

Youstone interview with representative of the Qatar national stone trade fair(May 4-7, 2015)

• I request you as a representative of the Qatar Fair Company, explain us about the Qatar government visa issuing procedures and the reason for the denial of Iranian participants’ visas until exhibition opening.

We have been organizer of Iranian participants of the Qatar Project Fair for the last 6 years and, we have never faced such a problem. This year, we applied for visas earlier than previous years. Organizer Company should request visa according to license issued by Qatar Ministry of Trade (we also have same procedures in our country).

At the beginning , a list of participants from all over the world with their passport copies, should be sent to the Qatar Ministry of Trade at a specified date. Then, they determine whether to issue avisa or disapprove a participant’s application, based on received lists and their issued licenses. Finally, there will be some accepted participants of say, 1500 persons.

• Please let’s know how long before the opening, the Qatar government should inform this confirmation to participants?

Normally, we apply for visa one month before the opening date of the fair. We send participants documents for the organizer company of the fair. Then, they pursue the required processes in a week and finally they send all received lists to the Ministry of Trade who send confirmed application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue visas based on their rules and regulations. This year, same process is followed and Iranian participants’ visas were issued. But, at the end, issued visas were sent to the Ministry of Interior for political and security checks to determine which countries get license to attend. Finally, they denied visas for Iran, Russia, Lebanon and Pakistan. Most of Lebanese and Pakistanis participants could get the visa until the trade opening. But Iranians and Russians could not attend at the trade. As a result, 900 square meters space which belonged to these two countries were empty and covered.

• Has the Qatar’s government announced anything officially to Iran’s government?

The Qatar government has done nothing to clarify the situation or apologize officially. As I said before, there is an explanation on the website about visas status which says “under process”, it means the visa issuing is in process and there is no specific problem.

We have requested the authorities for investigation into the matter, but our complaint won’t cure the problem for the present time. However, it might be a solution and avoid further damages for future cases. We don’t know yet about the course of actions our Foreign Ministry and Embassy will conduct and how they complain about the case and the way Qatar’s government will respond. So far, we have received no response from any party yet.

Maryam Shaghaghi of Youstone interview with Mr.Motamedi of Nojan Rad co. (Iranian representative of IFP (Qatar Natural Stone Trade Fair )

Study of Iraqi Kurdistan Stone Market

Iraq’s market is divided into northern and southern divisions, the northern division consists of Dohuk and Hawler, which imports stone from Turkey. This is because of two customs (Zakho & Ibrahim Khalil) that are the most important customs in terms of facilities. Early recognition and investment in this market and long-term planning by Turkey, has earned them the trust of the market. It should be noted that, Turkey’s export is not limited to this area only, but the stone market of whole Iraqi Kurdistan imports from Turkey. The southern division has border with Iran, and there are 2 boundary trading market located there, Bashmakh and Siran Band in Baneh; however only Bashmagh border is used for this purpose.

The only active quarry in Iraqi Kurdistan is called Halan, you can see some of the stones extracted from this quarry in figure 1.

Figure 1: Stones Extracted from Halan Quarry

There are two main problems about Iran stones:

• Lack of trust, this is because of wrong behavior from Iranian exporters and the low quality products they have exported
• Governments lack of investment in Iraqi Kurdistan’s stone market, and also there is not a decent way for exchanging money.

Different paying methods

• Credit Card
• Cooperative
• Paying in Advance

In respect to current situation and lack of trust in Iranian exporters, credit card method is the most secure method at the moment.

Building stone export company of Kerman province, is one of the active companies that export stone to Iraqi Kurdistan, which has started its activity since 2011. According to the conducted studies, the exported stone is supplied by quarries in Khorramabad, Isfahan, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kerman.

In terms of importance, cream Travertine comes first and then it comes to Granite and Marble.  Of course in this market, any other stone that is well marketed can be profitable.

Amount of exported stone to Iraqi Kurdistan is mentioned in the following table for 2013 and 2014:

Table 1: Exported Stone from Sanandaj Customs 2013-2014

Table 2: Exported Stone from Bashmagh Border 2013

 Table 3: Exported Stone from Bashmagh Border 2014