'Made in India' Phone Unveiled

Motorola has just developed a mobile phone for the "common man, which is an auto rickshaw driver, a paan shop owner, a wrestler, nurse and a primary school teacher." (not my words).

It is interesting, what all goes as 'Made in ...", in this case made in India. Isn't it that Motorola is a US firm? So what we see here is actually a result of globalisation.

Nevertheless, a positive development due to the fact that in India much as 98 percent of the demand in the country is voice, and only 2 percent is data and value-added services. He pointed out that tele-density has grown 25 percent, to reach the 125-million subscriber mark by December 2005.

As such, it is appropriate for a company like Motorola to cater to the vast number of people in order to grow business. Because high valued products such as the RAZR or ROKR won't go very far in countries where the majority of the population cannot afford such kind of proudcts. It is not that I want to keep high-priced products from them, but it is more realistic to go in with products that make sense to those countries.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

No more nude chats in China

A nationwide campaign by the government of China succeeded in the shut down of 5,098 websites that provided pornographic video chat services.

Apparently, the 50,000 agents are pretty actively snooping out the web to identify what is not suitable to the development of the motherland. This is ongoing since March this year as the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) "ordered local telecom authorities to compile databases of personal information for all individuals and companies that had registered internet domain names in China. The information will be used by public security departments to increase control over China's internet environment."

I wonder if they found the famous Chinese sex blogger as well, or if she is able to evade the net to further her activities.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Koreans indicted via mobile phones

So far, Koreans were happy with their mobile phones. They could request civil documents via their phones, surf the web and even have free mobile broadcasting.

But from next year onwards, the table has turned and they might hear the sound of incoming messages with more trepidation. Prosecutors in Korea will pstart telling people they have been indicted via text messages. However, so far it is a service to which users need to sign up. And who actually would sign up to such service?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Eat your phone

Now it really gets heavy. Christmas periods are often the reason for trouble, fights, disturbances, because people just cannot stand each other for longer periods. Okay, I generalise, but the stats are with me in this. And mobile phones are now being blamed to be the reason for fights.

Anyway, how angry can you be when you are eating someones mobile phone?

A Blue Springs, Missouri woman was the latest victim of cell phone rage. She swallowed her boyfriend's mobile in mid-argument because "she didn't want the boyfriend to have it.

I guess that they didn't fight very much longer, since she was admitted to the hospital with the phone still stuck in her throat. May be we can soon hear calls for bigger phones because nowadays, with all those small phones around, you never know.

Merry Christmas!

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Mobile phones and the destruction of family life

Don't we all know this scene? A couple sitting in a restaurant or somewhere, but instead of talking to each other, they text friends? Or one of them is calling another friend, while the other looks bored out of the window? Are they addicted to mobile phones? Or just bored with each other?

We also have stories about the challenge that employees face with their e-mails. That there is no clear distinction between private and personal life anymore (also I believe that people are able to manage their time quite well, nevertheless).

Now, what is the connection between the two lines of descriptors up there? Of course - mobile phones invade the privacy of the homes and one of the partners at home gets mad with the interference. The story is that mobile phone don't necessarily heat up your brain cells but the temperature at home.

A research, according to a report in HealthDay.com, showed that increased use in mobile phones brings job worries home, increasing stress in family life.

And at a later part of the article? "found that between the interview periods, the use of cell phones and pagers decreased family satisfaction and increased distress and negative work-to-family and family-to-work spillover." Okay - I understand. There are those with their phones constantly on, and constantly talking. But hey - there is the off button as well. There is also time management and the possibility to say no to demands from work at home.

We are living in different, faster times, but we still think with a traditional mindset of clear divisions between work and life. But these times are over, only that we haven't been able to adjust to it smoothly enough.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Blogger admits that he caused accident - in blog

Take care what you write in your blog.

In the US, a blogger admitted to causing his friends death in his blog - he admitted to pulling the steering wheel of the car they were driving in, causing the car to spin and end up in a drain.

He wrote in his blog: "It was me who caused it. I turned the wheel. I turned the wheel that sent us off the road, into the concrete drain ... How can I be fine when everyone else is so messed up?"

He later retracked and deleted the entry, but it was enough to investigate. Nevertheless "the confession forced him to lead guilty to manslaughter charges. He could have gotten 15 years in prison, but defense lawyer John Spivey and Assistant State Attorney Julie Greenberg recommended five years in prison, 10 years of probation and a permanent license suspension."

His blog will be used as evidence.

So, whatever you write, can be read. By anyone who has got access to it. That easy.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Personal and business e-mail merging

Say whatever you are going to say - but I said it so earlier. Employers shouldn't penalise their employees for "things" that they are not paid for since employees do things in their private time for work that they are not paid for (got it?).

Well, basically, employees, or consumers "are increasingly merging their personal and professional e-mail usage." So that means that employees check their private e-mail at work and their work e-mail at home, over the weekends, or even during the holidays.

To provide the numbers: " 55 percent of the respondents look at their work e-mail at home in the evening and 54 percent view work e-mail on weekends. Conversely, 48 percent check their personal e-mail at work." Now you got it.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

iPod creates silence in formerly noisy places

Well, remember the entry in this blog recently about the high-pitched noise a retailer applied against youth that loitered in front of his shop?

May be he should have give away some iPods for free because now, there is the "rumour" that iPods replace the chatter of mobile phones in the underground system of Chicago.

The reporter writes that "It is clear, to my ears anyway: As more and more commuters plug in, turn on and tune out the world beyond them, train compartments and bus cabins have become quieter, dreamier." And what has the iPod replaced? Mobile phones - the chatter of the people has gone down because more people use the iPod instead of their phone. Hm - this is interesting. May be Apple should include a mobile phone into the iPod - what do you think?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Wikipedia founder shot by friend

What kind of sad news this is:

"Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has been shot dead, according to Wikipedia, the online, up-to-the-minute encyclopedia.

Apparently, the assassin was a "friend of the victim of a recent controversy which ironically, smeared former Robert F Kennedy aid John Seigenthaler as a suspect in the assassination of both Kennedy brothers. That claim, which the site carried for several months, along with the assertion that Seigenthaler had lived in Russia, was eventually proved false.

"At 18:54 EST on December 12, John Seigenthaler's wife, who was infuriated at Wikipedia regarding the recent scandal regarding his role in the Kennedy Assassination, came into the house, where Jim was having dinner. Wearing a mask, he [sic] shot him three times in the head and ran," reported the online reference source."

(By Asia Business Consulting)

China and India

It is an interesting question - can you estimate the wealth of a country by the number of existing billionaires? I am not sure about that but I am sure that the Asian century is dawning when the number of billionaires in India and China is growing.

I actually don't care about the number, because probably, I won't be a billionaire in this lifetime. But it is interesting to see that magazine articles comment on the growth of billionaires in the two countries and take it as a measurement for which country is ahead.

In this sense, it is India. And there are as many as "27 billionaires, which is more than double (of) last year's count." And more: "Even more interesting is that the collective net worth of the 40 richest Indians outstrips that of Asian rivals China by as much as four times.

According to Forbes' data, the collective net worth of Indian billionaires stood at 106 billion dollars as against just 26 billion dollars of their Chinese counterparts."

Question is: Do you care?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Shifting ethics by country

Do you remember the case when Yahoo revealed the identity of a journalist to the Chinese government and later said that it just obeyed local laws?

I was wondering at that time about Yahoo's social responsibility (but never checked if their stock price actually declined). I mean, it is declared policy of many US companies to be and act ethical, and socially responsible, especially after Enron and all.

Does this mean that this behaviour or corporate conduct only applies in the US, but stops in other countries?

Truly enough "a senior EC official has criticised hi-tech firms for helping China silence its domestic critics. In a blog entry, EC vice president Margot Wallstroem said Microsoft, Yahoo and Google were matching their morals to suit new markets.

In particular she said the firms seemed to have deleted words such as "ethics" and "corporate social responsibility" from their codes of conduct."

Great entry, and even more, the Vice President of the European Union has a blog! Way to go, Ms. Vice President.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Give in once, you lose twice

Kazaa in Australia appears to be with the back to the wall. Already, they block the access to their services for Australian users, a move following an earlier court case.

Apparently not enough. Now 30 music labels sue again. This time for contempt of court. It was not enough for those music labels that the service was shut down. They wanted Kazaa to follow the earlier court decision, namely to build in a filter system.

Is this a step back for them? I don't believe so. I believe that besides pushing Kazaa out of the window, they also want to show that Kazaa is not able to follow through with their request, a victory that they then can leverage across other countries.
Am I wrong?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Measuring the impact of blogs on brands

I am not sure if anything like this exists already and even if it does, this is a White Paper worth copying, reading and distributing. So download it here, the White Paper on Measuring the Impact of Blogs on Brands.

It apparently is the first paper that directly highlights the influence of blogs on corporate reputation, in this case Dell. If you are a regular surfer in the Internet sphere, you will realise that Dell's customer service is not the best one - well, the company didn't start out to be the best in customer service, but what they apparently deliver is not necessarily - I spare the rest.

Let me quote from the article:

"The white paper uses the example of blogger Jeff Jarvis’s criticism of the computer retailer, Dell. It shows first that Dell has sustained long-term damage to its brand image and secondly that the cheerleaders for the poor reputation of Dell’s customer services, are bloggers. The analysis demonstrates how bloggers exercise their power and how their authority has come at the expense of the conventional media sources such as the Washington Post and The New York Times."

And that, of course, is the hard part. In the bloggersphere, one company can only hope to be treate objectively. Which is tough, because we all operate from different experience levels and point of views.

What does this mean for a company? The finest attunement to tracking blogger comments and entries, and great skills in treating customers of all kinds with the utmost respect. Quite normal, but sometimes, this is the hard part of the game.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Self-destructive SMS

If you are in the business of secret agent, or have an affair, and send text messages to stir up sentiments, this is the tool for you: A "StealthText that destroys texts within 40 seconds of being read, just like the messages played to agents in the Mission Impossible TV series and movies." It has been invented by a company called - StealthText - how creative!

Wouldn't it be lovely? Well, read on and you realise that it is not for necessarily for you, because, well, sender and receiver need to sign up to the service. So it is still possible to trace those that cause trouble with their stupidity.

But then I wonder, why is the company targetting the defence and financial services market?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

BusinessWeek pulls European and Asian edition

Launched in Asia in 1996, BusinessWeek was one of the most successful weekly business news around. I enjoyed it, online and offline. However, they never really managed to integrate their online and offline version - it appears their web strategy failed. When the Internet rules, newspapers and magazine lose.

Result: A plug is pulled. BusinessWeek will soon stop printing its Asian and European editions. At the same time, many other business magazines are also struggling with declining advertisement sales.

Somehow, traditional media still doesn't get it, is on the defence, don't get it and deliver archived news, actually, and now, well, have to pay the price. Or is it the consumer who actually read the Asian editions? But without perceived credibility, many more will fail, although, as said, BusinessWeek is a credible magazine.

(By Asia Business Strategy)

Creating the United States of Asia

Would this be a nice vision? It took Europe nearly 50 years to get to where they are today - united. And still, they still fight about integration issues, but these are just simple issues, considering the major unification that took place a couple of years back.

Will there be an unified Asia, some time in the future? "The groundbreaking East Asia Summit could pave the way for the creation of a permanent East Asian community, the equivalent of the European Union or, in its initial stages at least, the former European Economic Community."

Why not? The chances are there, since the world is no longer simply divided into two major blocks.

Challenges would be numerous - from geographical divisions - think: the many islands and the spread of the overall area -, to different religions, different stages of the economy, and last, but not least, who would take the economic leadership? India? Japan? China? Both countries are economic powerhouses, but they frequently have problems with each other. Anyway, those can be overcome, so yeah, let's look forward to an United States of Asia. Imagine the economic power. Imagine the consumer strength! Isn't it fascinating?

May be our grand-children will be able to enjoy it, in about 20, 30 or 40 years.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Microsoft vows to fight South Korean antitrust ruling

"Microsoft has apparently not decided to withdraw Windows from the South Korean market, as it once threatened should it be ordered to unbundle."

So at least, this one is a clear cut one. However, the software giant will fight a South Korean government ruling ordering it to separate its IM software and Media Player from Windows and pay a US$32m fine for violating antitrust laws."

Clearly, they need to fight those lawsuits because if they would give in only once, it might cause a huge avalanche of follow-up lawsuits. But what would actually happen, if they wouldn't win?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Microsoft bets on India

Samsung announced large-scale investment plans last month. It seems that now, it is Microsoft's turn. The difference is that Microsoft is focussing on one country, India, while Samsung stated their interest to invest and increase R&D globally.

Microsoft's move into India is tremendous - the giant "invest 1.7 billion US dollar in India and nearly double its workforce through 3,000 new jobs over the next four years, as it plans to make the country a major hub for its research and product development. The investment will also go towards setting up offices in 33 cities for enhanced market penetration as well as addition of 700 retail outlets."

(By Asia Business Consulting)

No more Kazaa in Australia

Finally, the music industry succeeded again, at least in Australia. Kazaa no more, after they shut down their service following orders from Federal Court.

Those with an installed version, so, will still be able to download.

"he Kazaa Web site is expected to remain off-limits to Australian users at least until at a decision is made in the appeal by Sharman and associated parties against the orders. The appeal is due to be heard in February.

The Federal Court of Australia had ruled in September on civil lawsuit brought by about 30 music labels that Sharman and associated parties had authorized users of Kazaa to breach copyright. The Federal Court had ordered Sharman to install a keyword-filtering system in Kazaa by Nov. 5 that would prevent copyright-infringing behavior by users. The court then granted a further extension until Dec. 5.

However, Sharman and the music industry had during a conference discussed the use of more effective measures than keyword filtering, with so-called "audio fingerprinting" software raised as an option. The music industry is believed to have opted not to attend a second proposed conference."

My question is, why is Australian recording industry association not happy with the shut down?

In a statement they wrote: "Sharman has thumbed its nose at the court. They were given a chance to do the right thing and they've ruined it. They cannot be trusted to even take the simplest steps towards complying with the court's orders and again have shown they intend to do nothing about the illegal activities occurring on a massive scale on their system."

Contradiction, right? Sharman, who is "running" Kazaa shut down and they still be denounced by the recording industry? Makes me wonder.

What else will be there? Well, after the original Napster closed down, many, many other download services turned up. Let's see how many will pop up now. Or, if downloads from legal sites now thrive or dive?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Quality assurance test at Chinese newspapers and magazines

Actually, it could be something worthwhile doing.

In China, all employees at Chinese newspapers and periodicals are ordered to undergo examinations to ensure they meet "press and publication qualifications."

Considering the tragic death of Princess Diana at the hands (or chase) of Paparazzi and other stories that involves bad journalism, well, actually, a quality assurance of the media might be worthwhile at thought.

But I stop the praise here. Because, firstly, it is China, which traditionally watches all new movements and free speeches with suspicion, and then, well, I am very much for freedom of speech and owning up to responsibility to what is written. Own ethics, so to speak, and not something that has been prescribed by a government regulation, or in a manual for writers.

For that, I believe it is China's dream of controlling everything in writing (and thinking?) that is showing its face yet again in another regulation. And soon, there will be more victims of regulations.

Despite the fact that Chinese surfers want freedom from control. In a very responsible manner. "Only eight per cent of Chinese surfers believe that political content should be controlled, down from 12 per cent in 2003. However, 73 per cent want restrictions on violence, and 85 per cent on pornography." Now how is that? Trust is about trusting that your population can manage itself, in certain manners. So let go, as simple as that!

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Employee usage of e-mails

Once again, the e-mail using employee has been single out as the victim of an influx of emails.
"A study by EMC Corporation said that employees 20% of their time managing emails. An overwhelming number of corporate email end-users surveyed cited restricted email inbox space, and too many personal files (PST) to manage as their top email pain points. On average, Singapore companies typically handled about 100GB of emails per company annually. This is expected to grow at an average of 15% per year."

Sure it is expensive to store all those e-mails (that makes me realise that EMC is in the information and storage solutions business - interesting fact, isn't it?), especially the ones with attachment. But it also is a matter of educating users in handling the documents correctly. How often is it the case that users respond to mail by clicking "respond to all", then include the attachment as well and only want to say "Thank You". It happens, plenty of time. This is what clocks up server space.

Thus, why not educating employees about the etiquette in corresponding to e-mails. Or even earlier: Why not including online usage, inclusive e-mails into the school curriculum?

The result? Less confused employees, who face challenges in understanding their colleagues e-mails.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Rural phone penetration in China - is it a threat?

The Chinese government should celebrate. Telephone penetration rate in the countryside had reached 96 percent, not an easy feast in such a large country.

However, it is not necessarily seen as a boon to the country. " improved rural communications for better flows of information is a double-edged sword for the Chinese regime. In theory it allows the central leadership to know what's happening at the grassroots level. Conversely, it will enable people in the countryside with unresolved problems to connect and organize in ways that challenge local, provincial and ultimately the national government."

So instead of being happy that villagers can access better information, it is already seen as a threat! It takes time to realise that better information and knowledge almost exclusively leads to higher prosperity and growth.


(By Asia Business Consulting)

File swapping still on

And of course it is still on. How is it possible to turn back the time after a period when things were given away for free. It doesn't matter that Napster closed down and has changed, that Grokster is going out and that Kazaa is ... is it still around? Research found out that European European consumers who download music from illegal file-sharing websites outnumber those using legal services. "The research suggests only five per cent of all internet consumers pay to download music while 15% share the music without paying. In the 15-24 year age group, 34% admitted to sharing music online without paying for it."

And what is wrong with that? Business model change, how often do I have to say this. Some understand, some don't. But it is clear that so-called illegal downloads also promote legal ones, and I am happy to repeat it every time.

Sure, the movie industry and the music industry would like to gain control and they are trying hard, by suing their own customers. But tell me one company, where this has worked before?

The researcher in this study pinpoint it correctly: "The digital youth of today are being brought up on a near limitless diet of free and disposable music from file-sharing networks. When these consumers age and increase spending power they should become key music buying consumers."

(By Asia Business Consulting)

High pitched sound against noisy kids

Once you get older, the ability to hear higher level of noise deteriorates. This deterioration has been used by someone to develop a device against the youth.

A store owner installed the new device that emits high-frequency noise in order since youngsters sat on the railings just outside the door, smoking, drinking, shouting rude words at customers and making regular disruptive forays inside.

The ability to hear high frequencies deteriorates with age, the change happens so gradually that many non-teenagers might well hear the Mosquito's noise. "Unless the store owners wish to sell their goods only to senior citizens," he wrote, "I doubt that this would work."

For now the owner of the store is happy.

(By Asia Business Consulting)