Most of you may have read the various news reports about
results of the financial stress review recently concluded in the European Union.
The primary aim of the review was to assess the strength (or weakness) of banks
to meet the challenges prevailing currently. Fortunately, the results brought a
fair amount of cheer for all and the sundry. All but 5 of the banks passed
(quite opposite to the recently announced CA final results in which less than 5%
passed). But while the various members of the finance ecosystem were doing an
assessment exercise, members of the mobile ecosystem were doing some
housekeeping themselves. The media was filled with reports of certain emerging
trends, setbacks, projects / ventures being shelved.
Emerging trends :
The word ‘trend’, in general, means the popular taste at a
given time, a general tendency to change, a general line of orientation or a
general direction in which something tends to move and then again it
also means to turn sharply, change direction abruptly. It’s funny
when you stop to think about it, how the same word conveys different messages,
in this case more or less opposite meaning. Trends for some is the most
obvious thing which makes choice easy and then there are others who would say
they never saw it coming. Not convinced ? Look at the state of the US financial
system and the arguments on the current scenario . . . . many say we went hoarse
shouting bloody murder and the Feds says we never saw it coming.
Coming back, here are some fairly interesting developments
(trends) that may interest you:
Broadband service a legal right in Finland :
Apparently, Finland is the first country in the world to make
access to broadband services a legal right for its 53 lakh citizens. Under the
new law, which came into effect earlier this month, telecommunications companies
will be obliged to provide all citizens with broadband lines that can run at a
minimum of 1 Mbps (megabites per second). While making this announcement, the
Finnish Ministry said “Internet was part of everyday life for Finnish people and
it was the government’s priority to provide high speed Internet access to all.
Internet services are no longer just for entertainment, Finland has worked hard
to develop an information society and a couple of years ago we realised not
everyone had access”. It is believed up to 96% of the Finnish population are
already online and that only about 4,000 homes still need connecting to comply
with the law. The government has also promised to connect everyone to a 100 Mbps
connection by 2015.
You may recall, the Indian Government had also made certain
promises (among others) when it unveiled India’s broadband policy in 2004.
Instead, all we’ve got so far is more dug-up roads and the ever-increasing
frequency (not to mention duration) power outages. Suffice to say we have a long
way to go for now.
E-reader Kindle outpaced sales of hardcover books on Amazon :
Earlier this month Amazon.com, one of US’ largest
booksellers, announced that for the past three months, sales of books for its
e-reader, the Kindle, outnumbered sales of hardcover books. In that time, Amazon
is said to have sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books (including
hardcovers for which there is no Kindle edition). Amazon.com added that in the
past four weeks sales rose to 180 digital books for every 100 hardcover copies.
Apparently the pace is quickening. It may interest you that Amazon has 630,000
Kindle books, which is a small fraction of the millions of books sold on the
site.
Meanwhile, Penguine launched the first electronic book with a
video tie-in. Penguin Group and Liberty Media’s Starz Media began selling the
first version — for Apple’s iPad — of a novel with accompanying video from a TV
mini-series based on the same tome. News reports suggest that the deal may serve
as a model for other cross-media partnerships. Priced at $ 12.99, above the
$ 9.99 industry norm for e-books (read Kindle books), Penguin’s iPad
version of Ken Follett’s 12th century England epic ‘The Pillars of the Earth’
will let users read the novel and watch scenes from the mini-series.
While book lovers mourning the demise of hardcover books with
their heft and their musty smell, publishers may need a reality check. Here’s
why. A CEO of media company, which advises book publishers on digital change
said that “This was a day that was going to come, a day that had to come”. He
even predicted that within a decade, fewer than 25% of all books sold would be
print versions. Another CEO commented that “the shift at Amazon is
astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15
years, and Kindle books for 33 months”. (there you have it, the obvious
and the oblivious — and they coexist in the same business).
India unveils prototype of $ 35 tablet computer :
It looks like an iPad, only it’s 1/14th the cost : India has
unveiled the prototype of a $ 35 basic touchscreen tablet aimed at students,
which it hopes to bring into production by 2011. “This is our answer to MIT’s
$ 100 computer,” Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal told the media
when he unveiled the device.
In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte — co-founder of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab — unveiled a prototype of a
$ 100 laptop for children in the developing world. India rejected that as too
expensive and embarked on a multiyear effort to develop a cheaper option of its
own. Negroponte’s laptop ended up costing about $ 200, but in May his
non-profit association, One Laptop Per Child, said it plans to launch a basic
tablet computer for $ 99.
News reports indicate that the tablet can be used for
functions like Word processing, web-browsing and video-conferencing. The tablet
doesn’t have a hard disk, but instead uses a memory card, much like a mobile
phone. The tablet design cuts hardware costs, and the use of open-source
software also adds to savings. It has a solar power option too, though that
add-on costs extra. Without discounting the cost, it seems like a real blessing
when one considers the ever-increasing frequency, not to mention the duration,
of power blackouts in India. A Ministry spokesperson, said falling hardware
costs and intelligent design make the price tag plausible. Apparently, several
global manufacturers, including at least one from Taiwan, have shown interest in
making the low-cost device, but no manufacturing or distribution deals have been
finalised.
India plans to subsidise the cost of the tablet for its students, bringing the purchase price down to around $?20. Kapil Sibal turned to students and pro-fessors at India’s elite technical universities to develop the $?35 tablet after receiving a ‘lukewarm’ response from private sector players. The stated goal is to get the cost down to $?10 eventually.
If the Government can find a manufacturer, the Linux operating system-based computer would be the latest in a string of “world’s cheapest” innovations to hit the market out of India, which is home to the 100,000 rupee ($?2,127) compact Nano car, the 749 rupees ($?16) water purifier and the $?2,000 open-heart surgery. But given the past, one doesn’t know whether this project will die a quick death within this year, or a painful government-funded one over the next two.
Tax returns on Twitter:
Before you jump to any conclusions, it ain’t happening in India yet. Savvy politicians are no strangers to Twitter and Facebook, using it for their own political ends (Obama, Shashi Tharoor, Lalit Modi to name a few of the celebrated users).
Incidentally, Filipinos are among the most prolific users of social networking and text messaging in Asia. Earlier this month, the Philippines’ new government turned to social networking, using it to meet some serious social and economic ends for the country. When most nations are fretting about their fiscal deficits, Manila thought of an innovative way out to bridge the gap: enlisting Twitter and Facebook to boost tax collections. Honest citizens will be allowed to complain about tax evasion and corruption, by posting an update on Facebook or Twitter, when they smell a tax cheat.
No prizes for guessing if this would work in India. After all, India is not just growing to be the land of enthusiastic tweeters, but also the very land of tax evaders and Swiss bank account holders. The question that begs to be answered is, are Indians morally outraged enough about cheating the government that they start telling on their neighbours or will they continue to remain mute spectators? (Jaago re!!!…….)
(The concluding part of this write-up will be printed in the next issue of the Journal)
