Naked news on the mobile

As far as we remember, there is this TV channel in Hong Kong already, where the news speaker gets undressed in course of her work.

It didn't take long to take a similar service onto mobile phones. An Australian company called GoConnect makes it possible for the rest of the world.

The Naked News, a Canadian-produced "infotainment" program features an all-nude cast who deliver "both the serious and lighter side of the news". Newsreaders, one of whom is from Adelaide, generally begin reading their reports fully clothed, but disrobe as the story unfolds (http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9673361%255E13762,00.html). We wonder how some countries in the rest of the Asian region will react to this.

Spam fight continues

Its never nice to receive spam, whatever regulation is put in place. Okay, there is spam, which is not called spam, may be because it is legitamate - like from companies, who send material to you, that you didn't ask for, and just because they got your e-mail address or your business card. When we talk spam, we mean those milions of mails send to "innocent" owners of e-mail addresses, advertising viagra, printer ink, or those who ask to get support to get these huge amount of money out from Nigeria, which recently changed to China.

Countries start to "fight" back - we talked about China in this context, a longer time back, yesterday, we indicated that Singapore imposes penalties on spammers. In the US, a spammer was sentenced to 7 years of jail for sending 850 million of junk mails through accounts he just opened with stolen identities (http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9682088%255E15306,00.html). The spammer thinks the sentence is too harsh.

I hope the whole effort works - but then, how come, I get more and more spam, still? Well, let's hope the best and let's assume we still need to trave a long way right?

Malaysia sets deadline for software registration

Well, Asia is quite hard hit with software that is pirated. The average software piracy rate in Asia is about 55%, but in Malaysia, it reaches 68% - but declining. This is higher than in countries like Singapore or Hong Kong, but way below countries like China.

Still, Malaysia wants to strengthen its position as global destination for e-commerce - see the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) as best example for the effort -, and it just doesn't look too good for a country with this kind of ambition, when software piracy is high. The result could be that a country with high piracy rates is blacklisted by World Trade Organisation (WTO)

There are annual controls in selected company premises to check for software and so it is this year. Companies have been told to register their software until next week, and than, raids on companies will begin again (http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,9666795%5E15322%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html).

Singapore fights spam

Like everybody else, we are absolutely against spam. We are always saying that if there is someone coming from outer space in a couple of 1,000 years and finds fragments of computers and reads e-mails, those guys might think that we have great technology, but a huge lack in printer ink, that we populated the earth but needed a lot of viagra to do so. Just because they found computer e-mail inundated with spam.

Okay - governments across the globe take actions against it, and now it is Singapore's turn (http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040525/API/405250664). The government is saying that spammers caught can be fined 58 cents for each spam e-mails - we believe they mean Singapore Dollars. Okay - most of the spammers in Singapore probably spam from the outside of the country - we reported earlier that China is one of the favourite origins (do spammers spam in Chinese as well?). Attorney General Chambers official Charles Lim is also quoted as proposing that spam would need to have an opt-out inclusion. Now this shows that he is not so much up to date - spammers just love it if you notify them that you want to opt out - since they frequently operate on a "luck" base - shooting out computer-generated mails with possible name combination, a response to an opt-out option would show them that they actually reached an active e-mail address. To know that an e-mail address is active increases the price in case spammers want to resell addresses - know what we mean?

Wrong SMS caused suicide

We wrote a lot about it already - whatever is a blessing can also be a menace. We reported about divorces via SMS in Malaysia and that employees got fired via SMS in South Korea.

Now we have asuicide - A girl in India committed suicide after receiving a SMS message that she failed in her tests. The very sad thing is that the message was a mistake - in fact, she had passed (http://www.cellular-news.com/story/11178.shtml).

Microsoft and Blogs

It happened already last week, and there was no follow up in the news about it. But can it be that Microsoft is launching its own blog page? Okay, this is only pure speculation, but blogs are in the eyes of Bill Gates, after his speech to an audience of chief executives. It is his view that they are a good way for companies to tell customers, staff and partners, what they are doing. He also outlined that there are more than 700 employees at Microsoft whouse blogs to keep people up to date with their projects.

While this sounds like a comment from the industry and an inside-out approach to customers and the other groups mentioned under the motto "we inform you what we are doing", he forgot to mention that blogs are frequently the voice of the consumer and the population about things that don't go so well. Be it to report about political oppression or to voice complaints about technology or update about trends in the marketplace. Or, frequently, that blogs are very often only short lived - someone starts it and than stops a couple of weeks later after running out of ideas, or getting bored with it.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Internet platform for independent artists

May be it's the aim to care for smaller bands, may be it is opposition to the acting of the global music industry, however, it sure is a nice move of on Australian to set up a online platorm that allows independent artists to sell their songs. Smaller bands always had have a problems competing with their own styled music, especially, if they went against the grain. It is reported that the "platform, Martian Method, allows musicians to publish and sell their songs, and collect payments, either on their own website or from a central website" http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9653884%255E15318,00.html).

A nice idea, and sure to get into problems with the global music industry that might see this as an additional headache.

Change of guard at NTT DoCoMo

DoCoMo still is one of the most successful mobile carriers in the world. Now, President Keiji Tachikawa will resign next month and is successor is current Senior Executive Vice President Masao Nakamura.

DoCoMo succeeded by being innovative, customer centric and, I read once, because of its independence from bureaucratice NTT, the "mother" organisation.

However, competition has it that it catches up with the leader, if leading companies don't change fast enough - and DoCoMo over the last couple of years was battled with emerging competitors, declining growth rates, and customers who looked elsewhere for a different type of service. However, that is not the reason why Tachikawa steps down - but he regrets that he has to hand over the service during troubled times.

Nakamura already indicated the areas that DoCoMo wants to concentrate on as its future strategy, namely

1.) to increase the number of subscribers to its third-generation mobile phone service named "FOMA"

2.) to establish new revenue sources, such as mobile e-commerce

3.) to enhance customer satisfaction.

Pity that he mentioned customer satisfaction last but apparently, he has the answer already as he says that "All our company needs to do now is to create new services". Makes us think - isn't this product centric, company talk? Where is the input from the customer? He says that it will take a couple of years to get the company on the recovery track. No wonder!

Jetstar in Australia accepts reservations by SMS

Low cost or budget airliners are mushrooming across the Asian region, and it is quite interesting to note the innovations they are coming up with to stay ahead of the game.

Jetstar from Australia is now the second carrier worldwide that allows bookings to be conducted via SMS (http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9609055%255E2,00.html) - and as such, the company nicely integrates one of the most successful usages of mobile phones into their business operations. A similar, ticketless service is provided by AirAsia in Malaysia.

Those who book flights with Jetstar via SMS will receive a reservation number that can be used for the checking process.

Cyberspace as a resource to be shared by all

At least, that is what by far the majority of respondents - a resounding 94% - wants cyberspace to be. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) conducted an online survey over the last month. Okay, online surveys have their problems but also the advantage of granted wide reach. In this survey, 1,250 respondents participated with 9% from Africa, 11% from Asia, Australasia (3%), Europe (51%), Arab States (3%) and the Americas (23%).

Scolded by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi

"Don't send e-mail on your cell phones or read comic books in Parliament while in session". The Japanese Prime Minister was quoted as saying this scolding rookie lawmakers (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&e=3&u=/ap/20040517/ap_on_re_as/japan_scolded_lawmakers). Why did they do it is not clear - may be the speeches are not exciting enough, or they are not motivated enough to do their work? May be they looked for inspiration from the outside?

Eminem - don't sing his songs loud

Okay - we exaggerate, but Apple Computers has been suit by Eminem for running an ad for their IPod where a small boy is singing a song by Eminem (http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5214985.html), for - guess what - copyrights violations. Eminem never endorsed any commercialproduct on a national level, and he says that such endorsement would "require a significant amount of money, possible in excess of US$10 million" (no interpretations from us about this one).

But hey - isn't it great that Apple endorses his songs? I mean, they are also criticised for their descriptive nature, and well, we couldn't imagine a better ad in a high profile runner such as the IPod. so - DJs out there - take care if you sing along songs, when you play music in the discos, okay? Or you there in the car, close the window, when you sing - you might give the wrong impression!

Evermore and Microsoft

There was once a time when no one dared to challenge Microsoft. People were saying that it is no fun to launch new business since sooner or later, they would attract the attention of the giant. That was not too long ago, actually, just a few years.

Sun Microsystem challenged Microsoft - their Star Office was given away for free for a long period of time, on their webpage. We saw it as suitable flanking strategy to attack Microsoft straight at their heard. But Star Office hasn't gained enough traction to be a real challenge and the support it gets from Sun is not that impressive. But nevertheless.

Of course, many might still know Lotus Smartsuite - a beautiful program and an early leader in the office application which was badly blindsided by Microsoft's introduction of Windows.

Others were saying that many users would switch if someone would just develop a better product. And, oh yes, we shouldn't forget Linux - and its tremendous succes.

Okay - why so much of a talk? Well, there is something growing in China - a company called Evermore has, in three years of its existence, managed to challenge Microsoft in China (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-05/18/content_1475422.htm). China, which is already a challenge for Microsoft, since Linux is the preferred choice for many governmental run companies. Evermore is now launching a well functioning software suite in Simplified Chinese, American English and Japanese. Is founder and general manager, Gus Tsao, established the company three years ago, saying that he will defeat Microsoft - and as a result, was called crazy by people. But he did it, and a new battle has opened up for Microsoft. Disadvantage for Evermore? Its pricing strategy is pretty similar to what Microsoft offers. US$99 for an annual lease or US$249 for a three year lease. Well, apparently, not everything that comes from China needs to be dirt cheap to succeed. Let's see, what is happening!

Sony to launch world's smallest computer

Just recently, on May 11,, we asked if Sony of Japan had become a follower instead of an innovator and now, finally, they managed to blast a new trail.

They plan to launch the world's smallest computer in their VAIO series. This computer only weights 550 gram and measures 6.7 inches in width, and is 108 millimeter high http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/668923.cms).

Its standard memory capacity is 256 megabytes and hard-disc drive capacity is about 20 gigabytes. Input can be done by either a stylus - a pointed instrument used on pressure-sensitive screens - or a collapsible keyboard.

But hm - this might be too small as computer, and too big and heavy for my shirt pocket, or handbag.

Spam in China

BusinessWeek () describes a "study" that is suppose to show that by far the majority of spam, under which all of us suffer, is originating from webhosting companies in China. A company called Commtouch Software says that they tried to trace "the location of destination sites advertised in spam". They survey 300,000 messages and found that 71% of the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for them were based in China. Explanation? It is cheap to host websites in China and the government, mostly pretty rigid in clamping down on undesirable content, has problems keeping up with the growth development.

SMS and its importance in China

It is clear, across many bloggers, and users of SMS, that blogs and SMS are important to transmit news and events out of countries that are not necessarily the most easiest going with contents in their legalised pubications.

It has now been shown that an increasing number of youth in the US consume news and comments of events from late night shows. As sad as it is those don't necessarily exist in countries across Asia, or if they exist, they are pretty tame and stricly follow official lines. However, nobody can beat technology and the improvement in technology that it has brought about.

There is now a new study about the usage of SMS in China (http://www.chinaview.cn ) that indicates that more and more users in China get their daily dose of satirical humour via SMS. Or, to put it in numbers - 51% of respondents in a study received jokes - 66% get greetings, 60% chat, and 59% talk serious business. WoW - and the total? A total of 150-200 billion messages were send in 2003, up from 1 billion in 2000, 18.9 billion in 2001, and 90 bilion in 2002 - talk about growth!!

But creativity is not necessarily in demand as one respondent stated that he received 200 messages for New Year, but all of them were identical. Interesting findings, don't you think?

Stockmarket recovered a bit

Well, all in all, the stock market in India recovered yesterday and lost "just 11%" - bad enough. The fear appears to be high, but then, it has to be said that politicians become more pragmatic when they start the real work. And, we remember the BJP's start into power after the last elelctions - everybody was fearful as well, with regard to their strong Hindu orientation. And what happened? India developed into a powerhouse. So let's wait and see a couple of weeks. Crucial point in time? The budget in July - this is when the truth will come out. Until then? Expect volatility!

Stockmarket plunges after elections in India

CNN reports (http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/05/17/india.politics/index.html) that India's stock market plunged 11% in the early Monday morning hours. Traders are concerned about The Congress Party's election victory.

Those concerns are mainly based on the perception that the Congress Party and its coalition won't continue with the reforms initiated earlier.

Elections in India

Italian born Sonia Gandhi is probably the next prime minister in India. Her Congress Party, will probably enter a coalition with the communist. We hope that this won’t change India’s course too much. India opened its markets over the last decade and became one of the roaring tigers in Asia. Shortly in the beginning of this year, it was the world’s fastest growing economy. Everybody associates India with outsourcing, offshoring, and software development.

But analyst say that it is the rural population that was left behind in a geographic area where electricity, jobs and clean water are still luxuries and which punished the ruling BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and current prime minister Vajpayee. It shouldn’t be forgotten that despite all its success more than 300 million billion Indians still survive on less than one US dollar a day.

Analysts also speculate that the voters punished the current government for initiating a peace process with neighbouring Pakistan (Xinhua General News Service, May 14, 2004).

We have to see what happens next in India – but this is democracy, and it should be mentioned that this year, Asia made great strikes in democracy with elections in the Philippines, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Korea etc. So changing governments is a normal process.

Video-games players make better students?

And here we go with another confirmation. Wired runs an article under the thesis that students who play video games are better students http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,63415,00.html. Other studies already confirmed that children exposed to videogames have a better reaction than those who are not exposed.

Henry Jenkins, host of the Education Arcade Symposium (http://www.educationarcade.org) is quoted as saying that he thinks using games to teach new ways of thinking is a no-brainer, especially given how wired many schools are today. He said there are studies showing that a majority of new college students play video games regularly.

"The computers are already in the classroom," he said. "They're already playing games. Maybe the teachers should join them."

Would this work in Asia? Well, we reported earlier that the police is now catching truant students in video arcades in Malaysia, but this here is confirming our view that something might be wrong with the whole educational system in Asia - that schools are still way too much focussed on top-down teaching, instead of integrating IT into their curriculm much closer, to continue building value into children.

Samsung launches Brand Plaza in New York

We mentioned it first on April 27 - Samsung announced the development of Brand Plazas in Malaysia.

Now they follow the step in New York after opening a 4-storey building in Moscow earlier. CNet describes it as their effort to overtake Sony, but hasn't this happen already? (http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-5211453.html)

The shortfall of SMS

We’ve got divorces in Malaysia via SMS (which are forbidden now, but were shortly possible amongst the population adhering to the Islamic faith), employees were fired in Korea via SMS, but the same negative has also cropped up in the UK. The formerly so polite British now admit that More than 50 per cent of them would now rather apologise by text message than do it face-to-face or even over the phone.
Furthermore, 38 per cent of would even turn down a personal invitation such as a wedding invite by text, rather go to any more effort to politely decline in person.

Others are not honest about the places they are currently - 45 per cent of respondents have lied about their whereabouts by text message - such as sending a text that reads “am at office late tonite. won't be home until 10-ish', before getting another round of beers in down the pub. “ Hm – When the texting still works than the person cannot be too drunk. But it might be easier to text when you are drunk, than to try to grasp the right words. But we don't think that this makes it right - and is a shortfall of moder technology. But how will it develop once streaming media is available real time over the mobile phones? Do you have to show the mobile phone around, to prove your location? We don't know - but may be this is the reason why the Brits don't want to use MMS, although their mobile phones are capable of it? So far, 80 per cent of us have studiously avoided the new technology, according to The Register.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

TV on the mobile phones?

Japanese DoCoMo, on the top of the game in Asia, said that it wants to start field trials of streaming television over its 3G services. It doesn’t specify more with regard to the service, for example if it is streaming the service or how, but it is an interesting offering and a move ahead in the 3G development.

The Kyodo News of today also reports that KDDI developed a prototype such handsets, showing that the market for it is heating up in Japan. But not all is rosy with this technology in Asia as Asia Pulse reports that in Korea, the regulators postponed the adoption of a national digital television to review a European technology as well as the United States' standard.

It is interesting to support those news with some more related once. Namely that a news release by Telecom in the Netherlands forecasts that there is a huge market for digital TV in 2010, reaching 120 million users. It is not quite clear on which basis or sample the study is based but the paper also forecast that Asia will have the highest penetration of cellular TV services, followed by the Americas, Europe and the Middle East and Africa. Apparently the service in Europe is bound to take of earlier as Germany and Finland have developed mobile devices that combine digital TV and mobile phone, aimed at offering commercial operations from 2006.

What do you think – watching TV on the mobile phone? May be just the sport or breaking news? By then, TV should also be on in the PDA’s (if they haven’t been merged totally with mobile phones anyway, or streaming TV should be available on the desktops. Not sure, if the development is company centric, or if it plays to the taste of the consumers, and may be, again, some dreaming numbers have been spit out??

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Poor Sony - from innovator to follower?

There was a time when Sony was leading the market - it launched approximately 3,000 products a year according to Gary Hamel in his book - Leading the Revolution. Their core competency was miniaturisation.

Over the last couple of years, Sony did't produce that much excitement in the market - their Playstation is probably the last product that generated a real buzz in the market. Recently, the followed Apple Computers quite a bit - first, they launched retail outlets in Apple style, to provide visitors with the Sony experience.

Now again, they are following Apple - Sony launches their own IPod - styled product, called Sony Vaio Pocket VGF-AP 1 (didn't anybody tell them to use a more memorable name?), which is a bit heavier than the IPod. Sony will launch their Vaio in June 2004. Let's see if the bird flies!!!

(By Asia Business Consulting)

First 3G and now 4G

Just about 1 week ago (5/5/ 2004), we wrote about a research study by Analysys Research that predicted that the number of users of the high-speed data protocol 3G (UMTS) would rise from 600,000 at the end of 2003 to 240 million by 2009. Our comment was that while these are nice numbers, estimates were estimates and history showed that they keep changing, dependend on research supplier or geographic region.

Now Ericsson's Vice President of Research, Ulf Wahlberg, announced new study findings related to the introduction of 4G services - which is the service coming after 3G services (http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=130472&liFlavourID=1&sp=1). He defines defined 4G as mobile telephony at a data rate of 100Mbps globally, that is, between any two points in the world. Locally, 1G bps will be possible. Which is fascinating espcially considering the timeframe - those services are suppose to be available in 2012, with licenses being given out in about 4 years from now.

If this should really be true, than poor telcos who shipped out so much money to get the 3G licenses and are now in the process of establishing the service.

Wahlberg states as supporting argument that new telephony systems would be launched every 10 years - which might or might not be correct - but from which point do you count the 10 years? From the point of time, when the technology was discovered, or from the launch - where? And well, 3G just takes off - slowly, or better, very slowly - so let's just wait for the next estimates to come, will we?

Lady Pink
It is a sad case, really. There is a former star in Japan, called Lady Pink. Apparently, she was famous in the 1970s (I have never heard of her, but then, I am not Japanese). She lost slightly more than US$150,000 in a case of identity theft (phishing). The lady, now 46 years old, didn’t realise that somewhat had copied her creditcard and started to withdraw money from her ATM machine last autumn – in a total of 10 occasions.

She says that she hardly uses the account and therefore only realised after such a long time, that her money was gone.
(http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20040510p2a00m0dm009000c.html)

The Indian GenX

India is voting – today is the last day – and I just found an article that says that the Indian youth, or better the GenX generation, isn’t that much interested in it anymore.

That they are more interested in careers, MTV, shopping etc, and describe politicians as not being able to meet their needs. The article in Times of India (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/666836.cms)quotes a guy as saying: “Just look at our politicians —they don't do anything for the people. They come with promises during elections, and that's the last you see of them.”
Our comment? What will happen if a party is elected that one doesn’t like at all? Don’t they realise that no voting or not getting involved at least a little bit is also political? Only that it is apolitical?

But the other problem surely is related to communications. Politicians are more often than not older, and male. So they might not be able to address the youngsters, and the women (or the young woman – sorry for the semantic). And when a youngster finally manages to get through the party lines, she/ he is no longer the brand he used to be when he started to climb. The rough edges are gone. Or she/ he won’t be able to make major changes, because others in a party won’t let him/ her anymore – see at Koizumi in Japan, as the best example. Sad!

World record in SMS

Funny news - A guy from the UK beat his own world record to become the world's fastest SMS (ler). He had to type: "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

James Trusler typed the message in just 67 seconds (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/3689819.stm).

In the article he states that he annoys people in public transports because he keeps thumbing ahead - but at least, he switches the phone off in cinemas (thank you so very much). He is also quoted as saying that his relationship with his wife developed and flourished, as her romanced her with text messages.

On his webpage he offers some tips for people to improve their typing speed (http://www.jamestrusler.com). Thank you - that is all I needed to conclude today's day.

Korea - the fight about MP3 in mobile phones heats up

We reported back on April 1st that Samsung's new mobile phone launch that would have included a MP3 player was delayed due to protest by the Korean Association of Phonogram Producers about copyright issues.

The Korean Association of Phonogram Producers states now that "LG Telecom`s MP3 cellular phone provides no protection against playing free copies of copyrighted songs, which is a threat not only to the music industry but to the mobile content industry as a whole."

They just don't realise that more and more musicians use the Internet as a way to promote their business (e.g.; see David Bowie) and that more and more studies find that distribution via the Internet doesn't handicap sales of music CDs. We also agree with studies that state that if the music would be better and there would be more quality music on CDs, more people would actually buy CDs. But as long as one song resembles the next on most of the CDs published nowadays, of course people don't want to spend so much money on something that doesn't provide value for money.

McDonalds and Nokia partner in India

Interesting, in which ways companies partner nowadays. Apparently, Nokia and McDonalds partner in India. Their offer is that those who eat Happy Meals can get a framed picture of themselves (http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/05/06/nokia.india.reut/index.html).

We are not sure what to think of this besides the fact that this is another form of alliances, one of those that were not necessarily possible just a few years back. But hey - how will I look like with all the tomato and chili sauce dripping from my Burger?

And where to put the framed picture, when the tables in McD are already so small? But okay, it is an idea.

A subculture in Korea

Unemployment is still high in Korea, after the Asian crisis hit it in 1997 followed by massive restructuring of the economy.

Amongst the youth group age 15-29, the unemployment rate hit 8.8% in March - equivalent 435,000 - this statistic does not include those unemployed longer that 12 months. Many of those guys are now part of a developing subculture called "baeksu" in Korean, or "empty hands" denoting laziness.

The article, which appeared in the Korean Herald (http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html_dir/2004/05/06/200405060025.asp) doesn't really define how the subculture is developing but states that those affected hang out in coffee shops, work in an art center, as freelancers or contributor to internet websites. But it indicates via comments from those in the group that it was a purposeful decision to drop out - that they wanted a different type of life. Koreans are one of the most hardworking people in the world but does this indicate that work/ life balance might change, that they start to take life more serious, in the sense that work and what you do actually won't define you as a human being, but that other values emerge?

What do you think? Any opinion?

Offshoring - some developments in Australia

When we talk about offshoring and the protest of certain quarters against it, we mostly think first about the US. Recently, there is some movement in offshoring by European companies and probably, some protests will take place there as well, considering the more rigid structure of the labour laws in those countries and the challenge for European companies to develop new and more flexible industries.

Who would think about Australia? Well, it seem, something is going on there as well! It is reported that the Australian tech industry's peak representative body, the AIIA, will "actively oppose" any move to ban Government departments from sending work offshore through overseas outsourcing partners. They are saying that the industry in Australia wouldn't be able to defend low-end IT services anyway and should concentrate on serving the higher value added market segments - We agree!!

This is following a survey that found out that of 100 companies and government agencies surveyed (which is a pretty small basis) 12 per cent of organisations had already completed an offshore project. Another five per cent said they were considering the option for later this year (http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,9467860%255E15316,00.html)

AsiaPac IT spending to grow

What must this be a relief for many IT suppliers serving the Asia Pac region (exclusive Japan) as a new survey by IDC found out that the IT industry is expected to grow by 10% to US$388 billion. IDC also says that IT spending among small- and medium-sized enterprises - companies which have less than 500 employees - is expected to grow more sharply than at big corporations, coming in at 12 per cent this year, compared with the 10 per cent overall figure

Sony launches music distribution services in the US

Oh no - we have got another one. We are not sure if we are able to put them all together, but besides Apple's iTunes, we have Coca Cola (which experienced problems right away), Hewlett Packard had some plans, Walmart is doing it and so on.

And now Sony - they will allow music users to download a song for US 99 centsa piee and US$9.90 per album. Advantage here? Their songs - about 500,000 - can be transferred to other mediums, something that handicapped others ()

Quantum Computer in Japan

In Japan, NTT Corp. and NEC Corp are leading other companies in developing a quantum computer, dubbed the ultimate computer that can process information at a speed 100 million times faster than a supercomputer (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20040503a1.htm). While analysts say it will take several decades before their research can be put into practical use – it still is a fascinating time in which we live, isn't it?

3G Development

The numbers keep changing, whatever source you read, and in whatever month you are in. It is also probable that each company that provides this kind of research is pushing its own agenda, and as such, well, the recent study by Analysys Research.

In Europe about the growing penetration of 3G is just one more indicator that something is happening and that there is a future, even so competing systems are also developing. But Analysys Research basically states, that Seven out of ten Western European mobile users will have a 3G-enabled device within five years. And that the number of users of the high-speed data protocol 3G (UMTS) will rise from 600,000 at the end of 2003 to 240 million by 2009, according to Analysys Research ()

(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/03/3g_mass_market/) .

This would equal a CAGR growth of about 170% - an unbelievable high number. How about Asia? Well, countries issued licenses (e.g.; Singapore, Malaysia) and they started to establish their network. China declared that she is not going to issue licences until the beginning of 2005 or end 2004 – so the big boost from this side of the world will come later, as the economies of scale are not there.