Soccer and growth in texting

It all looks beautiful for those in the SMS or texting business during this worldcup. Numbers from the UK indicate that growth in texting is tremendously related to football events.

"Mobile phone users in the UK sent a record 3.3 billion text messages in May. The Big Brother TV show, the FA Cup and Champions League finals all helped boost numbers."

I am really looking forward to the numbers as far as they concern the worldcup. Global data must be up, up, up and may be the dream of 3G getting a boost from the worldcup comes true as well.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Bill Gates and the smart card for prostitutes

A worthwhile initiative, and an out-of-the-box thinking that is not seen that frequently in Microsoft.

"A project backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given chip-embedded smart cards to 500 prostitutes in Mysore, India.

The card allows them to get discounts in shops and hotels and earns them loyalty points that can be redeemed for discounts on later purchases.

But the cards also have the medical record of the prostitute who has to compulsorily get his or her health check up at a clinic once in three months. The card becomes inactive if the holder fails to do this. "

What do you think? I think it is a promising early start into his new career.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Usage of mobile phones during thunderstorms

Rain, rain go away. This old children song might become mobile phone users' new favourite if it is really true that the usage of mobile phones during thunderstorms is dangerous.

In the UK three doctors describe one girl who was witnessed being struck by lightening in a London park while talking on her mobile phone. Apparently, there were three other cases - worldwide.

Okay - a couple of issues. Is this really something worthwhile talking about? Three cases, worldwide seems like a lot.

Next - in my time (oops), we were taught to stay away from fields and parks during thunderstorms because if you are the highest point around, you attract lightning. This girl now walks in a park - sure a danger, according to my education.

But this has nothing to do with mobile phones or only in so far that she was using her phone when she was hit. So as sad as it is, it is an educational issue, once more!

May be the phone attracted the lightning, may be not. But I wonder how many other people were using their mobile phones in London the same time around?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Insurgents threaten families of soldiers via mobile phones

Okay - there is a war in Irq and the US is not seen as the positive force that they would like to see themselves.

But is is really necessary to involve the families of those soldiers in the war and expose them to cruelty?

Apparently, "wives and family members of soldiers fighting in Iraq have received telephone calls, believed to include death threats, from insurgents." They obtained the numbers through using electronic interception devices that allows to hack into the mobile system.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Is Internet control via software really better?

A mother, after realising that her 12 year old daughter, posted as an 18 year old in social networking site MySpace, imposed stricter Internet controls by putting kinds of protection on her family's three computers to monitor her three children.

This comes in the path of an estimated 750,000 identified sexual predators on the web. Okay - it is clear that it is easier to be contacted from someone anytime, anywhere, from anywhere. Web-enabled PDAs, increasing usage of mobile phones as webtool, social networking sites - all make it easier to communicate, but also, to be victimised on the web.

Controls however can only go so far - and there is always a way to get around it. Old fashioned education - face-to-face, leading into the web, what is there and what is not out there is important. Isn't it time that parents, schools and even kindergarden start including the web in their curriculum together with some "social educational rules"?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Cheating with creativity

China's students "weren't allowed to cheat" much in one of their national examination tests proving their English language abilities - who isn't.

But the importance of the test is so great that students became very creative in beating controls. More than 100 cheating devices were found on or in students. In students? Well, here we go:

"A student in Wuhan used a "microearphone" which is 3 mm in diameter to cheat. The earphone is so tiny that it slipped into the student's auditory canal, causing a perforation of the tympanic membrane. Another student got a set of microearphones stuck in his ears and needed an operation to remove them. An interphone hidden in a student's abdomen caused bleeding when it exploded."

Well, I believe that if you are that creative to cheat, you are creative enough to learn a a language and find a job in a very creative way as well. No worries then, actually.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Consolidating telecommunications industry

The telecommunications equipment industry is consolidating with Siemens and Nokia pushing ahead strongly.

Both company announced plans to combine their mobile-network operations to create a joint venture with annual revenue of about US$20 billion. This will put pressure on market leader Ericsson AB.

After their merger, other equipment providers scrample to find suitable partners and Nortel is one player that is hit already.

"In an industry that is consolidating, with customers that are consolidating, you have to find scale," said Inder Singh, an analyst with Prudential Equity in New York.

True - but the question is - what comes after the consolidation phase? Something is always coming behind it, as otherwise, we would have a very consolidated world.

Clearly, this has an impact on Asia - especially on the large scale markets China and India.

China is expected to put up for bid contracts for third-generation wireless networks worth $10 billion to $12 billion until 2009/10. India is another big-item market with deals worth US$5 billion in the pipeline over the next few years as well.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Girl killed by train while talking on the mobile phone

There really is a need to ban public usage of mobile phones, because too many things go wrong.

Now, a girl in India was killed by a train because the conversation on the mobile phone distracted her so much that she didn't see the train coming. She was killed instantly.

Okay, it is clear that it is not good to talk on the phone when you do things that are important. You cannot focus enough when you are distracted. Clearly, it was the girl's fault, but even so, what about a better protection at the crossing or more serious attempts on preventing people crossing rails at places where they shouldn't cross in the first place?

Again, while people are distracted when using their mobile phone - too diverted from paying attention to things around them - there is no reason to ban phones (the article doesn't say so, but the call can be made easily). It would be just the same as banning the train, right?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Gates to give up daily role at Microsoft

Just when it gets interesting, Bill announced that plans to withdraw from day-to-day duties at Microsoft Corp., so he can focus on his charitable foundation while others run the company he co-founded and guided to industry dominance and vast personal wealth.

Good for him - I wish him all the best.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

KDDI loses data to third party

It is quite amazing how organisations in a country such as Japan - well known for its advanced Internet technology - are still allowing information "to get lost" or leaked accidentally in the Internet. Mostly, it is human error that is causing this, showing the challenges that newer technology can cause to some.

Now it is KDDI, the Japanese telecommunications company's turn. "KDDI Corp. said that personal information on nearly 4 million Internet service subscribers, including their names and addresses, was leaked to a third party." Interestingly, there is a criminal plot behind all this as "Tokyo police announced the arrest of two men on suspicion of attempting to extort 5 million yen to 10 million yen from the telecommunications firm, saying they had personal data on more than 4 million customers."

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Employers checking social websites

Employers check their potential candidate's credentials online. Serious!! Be careful with what you post.

"When a small consulting company in Chicago was looking to hire a summer intern this month, the company's president went online to check on a promising candidate who had just graduated from the University of Illinois.

At Facebook, a popular social networking site, the executive found the candidate's Web page with this description of his interests: "smokin' blunts" (cigars hollowed out and stuffed with marijuana), shooting people and obsessive sex, all described in vivid slang.

It did not matter that the student was clearly posturing. He was done. "A lot of it makes me think, what kind of judgment does this person have?" said the company's president, Brad Karsh. "Why are you allowing this to be viewed publicly, effectively, or semipublicly."

Warning enough? It is clear that it is easy to post pictures, and if you are blant, you attract visitors. May be the wrong ones. So don't wonder if you don't get that job that you eyed. When was the last time you checked out what kind of information pops up when you type your name in the search bars?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Texting as revision tool in UK schools

It has been called a destroyer of family life, too cost intensive for the youth, more damaging than cannabis, and in generally bad for kids and addictive - mobile phones and texting. Now who is counting the articles in the world that point to the positive values and usage of mobile phones?

Well, here is one article outlining a school in the UK that puts texting to new heights. "Year 11 pupils have been able to message teachers from home with revision queries and get a text answer.
The school said "text mentoring" had also seen teachers messaging pupils with revision prompts and exam tips." And it's been used. So imagine some youth huddled together in the Starbucks next door - they are not lazying around and skipping school. They are learning and revising. How is that?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Good bye to the web as you know it

Something is brewing in the US and it will shake the foundation of the web in a way not known so far. In fact, the whole premises of freedom of speech, on which the web is build, might be shaken up.

What am I talking about?

"US politicians have rejected attempts to enshrine the principle of net neutrality in legislation.
Some fear the decision will mean net providers start deciding on behalf of customers which websites and services they can visit and use."

"telecommunications and cable companies will be able to create toll lanes on the information superhighway" says House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and adds that "this strikes at the heart of the free and equal nature of the internet."

Clearly, governments are worried about mobbing on the web, cyber-terrorism or file-downloads. Still, the vibrancy of the web was created on the foundation of a free-wheeling culture of those participating in the web development. If this is gone, the web will just be another tool in a regulated world.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Growth of online advertisements

Online advertisement is set to grow further: "First-quarter online ad expenditures of US$3.9 billion, a 38 percent increase from the same period in 2005 and a 6 percent rise from the previous quarter."

Those who read this blog regularly know that this makes me shiver, especially considering the quality of most online ads that still believe that overlaps and pop-ups are the way to go. I am no longer saying that all online ads are bad, but still, most of them are not relevant to me - even Google's sidebar ads - , I click them off and mostly, they leave a bad taste behind. What are your feelings about them?

(By Asia Business Consulting)

The always-on connectivity

Blackberry's make their way into our life. The dark side of it is that employers expect employees to be available anytime, anywhere, even during their holidays.

"Steve Ritchie, CIO at Investcorp, said: "It's too easy to stay connected and get work done when on the road. There is no longer any excuse not to be working. With BlackBerrys, PDAs, laptops, wi-fi hotspots and high-speed internet from hotel rooms there really is no way to honestly say you cannot stay connected."

That means that it is hard for employees to get mentally disconnected from work- and it won't get easier, considering that mobile phones get more and more functional.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Increasing the functionality in mobile phones

As mentioned a while back, digital cameras are a sunset industry with camera phones becoming the mode of choice.

It is happening. According to a global Nokia Research, 44% of people already use their handset as their main camera.

Even the days of the MP3 player looks numbered - 67% of those questioned said they expected their phone to replace their portable music player.

Well, "the Nokia research aimed to find out just how much use people make of the ever-growing list of functions crammed into modern mobile phones. It revealed some cultural differences among those who responded, with 68% of those questioned in India being the most likely to use their phone as their main camera.

Handsets look set to displace digital camerasBy contrast, 89% of Americans said they would stick with two separate devices. The global average of those expecting to use just one device was 42%."

What about clocks, games, even TV, or the Playstation and Gameboy?

"The research found that, on average, a third of people regularly browse the net on their phone.
At the same time it revealed that for many, mobiles are taking over from more mundane devices.

For instance, 72% of those questioned in the survey use their phone as their alarm clock, and 73% use it instead of a wristwatch."

Interestingly, the importance of people's mobile phones was shown by the fact that 33% would rather lose their wallet or purse than misplace their mobile. And a fifth of respondents would rather lose their wedding ring than their handset.

Wow, a wedding ring versus a mobile phone and the mobile phone wins.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

India's crossing 100 million mobile phone subscribers

India has reached a new benchmark - its number of mobile phone subscribers crossed the 100 million. This makes the country the 5th largest in the world in number of subscribers.

Clearly, they still have a long way to go - vast rural areas are still underdeveloped and, once more accessible, will further boost mobile phone growth. Developing a phone specifically made for the Indian market is a right way to further the growth, while the topline will be taken care of through increasing salaries.

All in all, we will hear more of India in the future.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Mopping on the Internet - now it is China's turn

The accessibility of the web to millions and millions of people can quickly create smart mops or tides of people turning onto each other.

I once mentioned the Korean doggie woman chased by the crowd after she didn't clean up the subway after her dog, well, pooed on the floor.

Now there is the case in China where morality takes a beating.

"It began with an impassioned, 5,000-word letter on one of China's most popular Internet bulletin boards, from a husband denouncing a student he suspected of carrying on an affair with his wife.Immediately, hundreds joined in the attack. "Let's use our keyboard and mouse in our hands as weapons," as one person wrote, "to chop out the heads of these adulterers, to pay for the sacrifice of the husband." Within days, the hundreds had grown to thousands, and then tens of thousands, with total strangers forming teams to hunt down the student's identity and address, hounding him out of his university and causing his family to barricade themselves inside their home."

(...)

The case exploded on April 20, when a bulletin board manifesto against Bronze Mustache was published by someone under the name Spring Azalea. "We call on every company, every establishment, every office, school, hospital, shopping mall and public street to reject him," it said. "Don't accept him, don't admit him, don't identify with him until he makes a satisfying and convincing repentance. Impassioned people teamed up to uncover the student's address and telephone number, both of which were then posted online. Soon, people eager to denounce him showed up at his university and at his parents' house, forcing him to drop out of school and barricade himself with his family in their home.

Others denounced the university for not expelling him, with one poster saying it should be "bombed by Iranian missiles." Many others, meanwhile, said the student should be beaten or beheaded, or that he and the married woman should be put in a "pig cage" and drowned."

Thinking of those "proposed actions", I wonder about the maturity of Internet users. It is easy to blame, and easy to write "poisoneous stuff" on the Internet. It is easy to blame in the disguise of anonymity - not that I am for a real name system.

But then, how different is this from the "I hate ..." websites that are all around us as well. Freedom of expression is a great, but how can it be that under the banner of freedom, people get hurt?

Let me just wonder and ponder a bit more.

(By Asia Business Consulting)

Microsoft to enter security market

It seems like a contradiction. Microsoft announced that they enter the security market in a big wave. This is the company whose Internet Explorer and Windows Program is plaqued by holes that are constantly exploited by hackers.

Still, McAfee and Symantec better watch out. As mentioned in an earlier posting, Microsoft is used to battle giants and frequently wins in the end. Why do they win? Because they never give up, and get better with each release.

It was clear that the company would go into security after their recent purchases of related companies (i.e. Giant), and it is also clear that they want to win, considering that their stock is going nowhere and that the Windows Software market is softening.

(By Asia Business Consulting)