MaSSSoftech

Apple’s weathered the economic downturn like almost no other company, pulling in massive profits without having to resort to deep price cuts. But what’s its secret?

Over the past few weeks I’ve been asking a group of Mac/Apple fans why they thought Apple was doing so well. Here are four possible reasons for Apple’s success:

* Constantly improving, innovative product line
Apple doesn’t have a huge product line, but the company is constantly tweaking it. Most of the product updates are well thought out and offer the end user extra value. This is attractive to both new and existing customers.
* Advertising
Apple has a massive ad budget and this allows it to spread the word to a huge audience. When this comes to Macs, this is allowing Apple to aggressively go after those disillusioned PC users. Those funny Mac vs. PC ads are serious business.
* Customer satisfaction
Apple consistently scores very high in customer satisfaction surveys (the company usually tops the list). Happy customers not only re-buy, but tell others that they are happy, therefore generating further sales.
* Vista sucked
Given how Vista was widely considered by many consumers to be a failure, this has handed users over to Apple on a plate. After all, for users who were sick of Vista, or just wanted to give the OS a wide berth, Apple is an obvious choice.

Google now gives users of a subset of Google Voice features if they want to simply use their service without getting a brand new “Google Number”. Mobile phone users can now forward incoming calls to their “Google Voice” mailbox rather than the one hosted by their carrier.

The features available to these users basically includes voicemail, and the ability to make low-priced long distance phone calls, according to the official Google Voice blog.

* Online, searchable voicemail
* Free automated voicemail transcription
* Custom voicemail greetings for different callers
* Email and SMS notifications
* Low-priced international calling

For those of you who want to use Google Voice to its full potential — you’re going to have to take the plunge and get a brand new number. The features, if you choose to go this route, are much more interesting and useful:

* One number that reaches you on all your phones
* SMS via email
* Call screening
* Listen In
* Call recording
* Conference calling
* Call blocking

Once Google fully supports number portability, perhaps they will be able to allow users to simply use one of their existing phone numbers with the full service — but I’m not going to hold my breath for that just yet.

Will you be using the new voicemail service from Google Voice?