About Author: Anna Yap

Anna Yap
Description
Administrator and Manager for Zunited, Anna has been the resident female presence since Zunited’s birth in 2007. A pro at public relations, she quickly rose the ranks to eventually be an Administrator on the Zunited forums. She first started cohosting on the podcast with Jared, and still regularly cohosts on the podcast. She currently attends UC Berkeley, where she is double majoring in music and biology, in addition to working in marketing. She loves getting to know new people. Give her a shoutout on twitter!

Posts by Anna Yap

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What’s Coming to Zunited

By
Anna Yap
– March 8, 2012

Big Changes are Underway for Zunited

We at Zunited are proud to announce some interesting new changes and exciting opportunities that will unfold over the next month.

Theme Changes

Zunited will be undergoing a theme redesign to better align with Microsoft’s Metro design scheme. This means a clean, revamped interface, with a darker, more colorful look.

Community

Zunited is excited to bring back the forum presence to the website, where anyone can post their thoughts about the latest news or just casually chat with others and have their voice heard. This will give us a way to read the pulse of our readers thoughts and hear what you like and ideas you have. There will be a few changes to the new Zunited Forum, as opposed to the past forum:

  • All users will sign up and be able to post on the Zunited Forum by logging in via Facebook. The connection with Facebook currently powers all comments on Zunited and will soon be key in signing in to the Zunited Forum.
  • The new forum will be lean. Instead of fragmenting into 10+ boards, the new forum will be leaner, allowing for more variety of posts and topics.

Zunited Podcast

We are pleased to announce the return of the Zunited Podcast with your hosts, Josh Martin and Anna Yap. The Zunited Podcast will be returning, commenting on the latest Microsoft and Technology news from a personal angle. Josh Martin, host and producer of the podcast has been a member of Zunited for some time. Anna Yap, our administrative manager has hosted the podcast since the beginning and brings her quirky take on life to technology news. It is conversational, funny, and delivers you the latest information while your drive, or run, or do anything using your hands (well maybe not anything, though I guess technically you could listen to the podcast through anything, though there are some things that we maybe don’t want to be on during, well, basically don’t make us the background to your murder and/or lovemaking and we’re good. :)

Staff Opportunities

With change comes opportunity! Zunited is looking to fill the following positions:

Marketing Manager

The Zunited Marketing Manager is the first “paid” position at Zunited. The Marketing Manager looks for opportunities for Zunited to shine. They will contact businesses for advertising opportunities, look for events and programs for the site to participate in, and update and manage all Zunited social networking. The Marketing Manager will work very closely with the Administrators, who have the final say on business deals involving any funds. The Marketing Manager will be paid a commission of 30% of income they generate for the website. If interested, please apply by emailing your resume and cover letter to staffing@zunited.net

Forum Administrator

Forum Administrator is responsible for all things relating to the forum. This includes the hiring of a moderation staff, creation of policies, boards, and layout. This position is not paid but adds valuable resume experience and learning opportunities.

Forum Moderators

Zunited will be looking for Forum Moderators about one month after the forum is opened. These positions will be offered to members of the forum who are active and respectable. The position is not paid.

 

This is a very exciting time for us! Stay tuned for all the latest updates as they are made available.

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Windows 8 Consumer Preview Now Available!

By
Anna Yap
– February 29, 2012

Welcome to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Today marks a momentous day for Microsoft with the launch of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Windows 8 marks the first massive change in the Windows Operating System’s interface since it’s inception. With the public release of this preview the general consumer public will have the oppotunity to experience and learn it. This is a truly exciting release and should be greatly benefical. If you have not already downloaded it you can do so using the links on this page.

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is now available for immediate download via instant web install and ISO download. You can download it by clicking the banner above or the link below.

http://preview.windows.com/

 

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Countdown to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview!

By
Anna Yap
– February 28, 2012

Zunited has begun the countdown to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview!

Word on the street is that the Consumer Preview will be going live at approximately 6:00AM PST (9:00AM EST)

Zunited will be here every step of the way providing the latest news and updates! Stay tuned for more info as the night progresses.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview will be available for install HERE once public. 

 

6

Microsoft’s Share of U.S. Smartphone Subscribers steadily decrease; half of a year ago

By
Anna Yap
– August 31, 2011

Microsoft's share of the Smartphone market is current less than that of a year ago.

Microsoft's share of the Smartphone market has decreased from 11.8% a year ago to 5.7% as of July 2011.

 

As the number of people owning smartphones seems to be growing at a steady rate, Microsoft’s percentage of total U.S. smartphone subscribers seems to be steadily declining. According to comScore’s July 2011 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share Report, at the end of July 2011, 82.2 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones, up 10 percent from April 2011. However, Microsoft’s share of the smartphone platform market seems to be declining, as Microsoft is down one point to 5.7% (of smartphone subscribers with Microsoft’s Windows Phone and older Windows Mobile platforms) from the 6.7% it enjoyed in April. Microsoft lags greatly behind the two largest players, with Google at 41.8% and Apple at 27%. Microsoft is also greatly less than RIM, which is at 21.7%.

This 5.7% July figure looks even sadder when compared to the 11.8% that Microsoft had in July 2010.  Even more abysmal are the calculated figures of subscribers who actually use the Microsoft platforms. By the end of July 2011, 4.8 Million people used Microsoft platforms, while at the end of July 2010, 6.3 Million people used Microsoft platforms. That means that although the number of people using smartphones have increased, Microsoft has not been successful at capturing the platform market.

Perhaps the official release of Mango can help Microsoft regain some share in the realm of platform subscribers, however this cannot be enough. This brings into question Microsoft’s ability to effectively market in this growing and evolving society of technology and social media. Why is it that Apple and Google have been more effective at garnering a substantially greater share of the smartphone market, when they have been around for less than or around the same amount of time that Microsoft has (in the smartphone market)? Microsoft has been working on making the Windows Phone platforms more accessible to the consumer market, but is that the only reason why Microsoft has such a lesser share? As was seen in the case of the Zune, Microsoft learned to develop a desirable and polished product, but failed in the marketing department. We can only hope that Microsoft steps up to the plate with their marketing and partnerships so that the new sleek Windows Phone Platform does not also fade into obscurity.

 

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