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September 30, 2005
Demand for used personal computers outstripping supply in developing regions
Demand for second-hand computers in some developing regions of the world is outstripping supplies, a new Gartner study has shown.
One in every dozen computers used worldwide is a "second-hand PC," and about 152.5 million used systems were shipped in 2004, according to a study released Wednesday by market research firm Gartner. Second-hand PCs are systems used for more than three months by the primary consumer and then made available to another person.
The research company estimated that for every two new PCs shipped to mature markets in 2005, one secondary PC will be resold. More than 200 million PCs will be shipped in 2005, according to an earlier Gartner estimate.
Secondary machines tend to come from the U.S., Japan and Western Europe in order to meet demand in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Asia Pacific.
Gartner analysts said developing countries are under pressure to accept used PCs as a viable technology option because they are so much cheaper than new machines.
However, such movement of used machines from the West to locations like India and China is causing concerns among environmental groups. They allege that PCs shipped for secondary use often land in unorganized recycling yards, posing health hazards to workers and the environment.
One potential low-price alternative to refurbished PCs might be the long-awaited $100 laptop, a notion that has been backed by tech executives including Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Advanced Micro Devices CEO Hector Ruiz. On Wednesday, Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab presented his own plans for such a device, one goal of which is to help better educate children in developing countries.
Posted by admin at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)
September 29, 2005
SMS messaging finds voice?
A Singapore technology company, Bubble Motion, has teamed up with Sweden's Ericsson to market a messaging service that eliminates the need to type a text message and replaces it with voice recording. It is a potentially lucrative product for wireless-service providers in developing countries and could make inroads in places where text messaging never caught up.
In Asia, short-message service, or SMS -- is extremely popular. This service allows users to type messages using the letters on the keypad of their cell phone to send to another person at a fraction of the cost of a regular phone call. Many people however find the process of typing on a small phone tedious.
Posted by admin at 03:10 PM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2005
China develops hybrid automobiles
Already a major competitor in the telecommunications/data infrastructure industries, China is now targeting the hybrid automobile market in taking the lead with low cost products.
At the Exhibition of Science and Technology Achievements during the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05), which concluded yesterday in Beijing, China's Dongfeng Electric Vehicle Co Ltd introduced prototypes of a hybrid car (model EQ7200) and a bus (model EQ6100).
The EQ7200 can reach a top speed of more than 160 kilometres per hour while consuming 30 per cent less petrol than a normal car of the same size.
Six EQ6100 buses have been on trial operation on a passenger route in Wuhan, capital of Central China's Hubei Province, for two years.
The company's CEO has stated recently that the company is going to prepare buses for full commercial use by the end of this year. The first clients are likely to be city public transport authorities and government departments.
The Chinese government is also stepping up support for other types of alternative energy vehicles. Recently China has decided to earmark 880 million yuan (US$106 million) to support an electric vehicle project.
Posted by admin at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)
September 27, 2005
Motorola sets new standard for low cost phones for developing countries
On Tuesday (Sept. 27), Motorola Inc. rolled out several cell phone models based on its C11x platform that bring the wholesale cost of handsets below $30.
Motorola introduced the new models at the 3GSM World Congress in Singapore when the GSM Association revealed the company had again won the tender to supply handsets to operators in emerging countries. The phones are targeted for markets as diverse as India, South Africa, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Thailand, the Philippines, and Yemen.
Although other handset makers made bids, such as China’s TCL & Alcatel Mobile Phones Ltd., the GSM Association decided Motorola’s low-cost platform best fit the needs of difficult to reach emerging market users. Conway said important factors were after-sales support, local service, brand presence and a choice of low-cost handset models, including an exclusive product, the C113a.
Motorola submitted two handsets in its proposal - the C113 and the C113a, which was specifically designed for the Emerging Market Handset program. The C113a offers talk times of up to 450 minutes and up to 330 hours of standby, reducing the need for frequent recharging. The handsets will be available early in 2006.
The 10 operators supporting the second phase of the GSMA’s Emerging Market Handset program again expect to order about 6 million of these low-cost handsets from Motorola. The GSMA project, which is chaired by Erik Aas, the Chief Executive of GrameenPhone Ltd. of Bangladesh, is supported by some of the leading operators in emerging markets – AIS, Bharti, BPL, Globe Telecom, Hutchison Essar, IDEA Cellular, MTN Group, Orascom Telecom, Telenor and Vodacom.
Posted by admin at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)
Intel expanding R&D in Asia
Intel Corp, is looking at technology partnerships with research institutes, universities and government bodies in Singapore and the rest of Asia-Pacific in a bid to accelerate introduction of products.
A partnership with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), was announced in March 2003. It involved Intel and IDA working with five Asian telcos - SingTel, StarHub, MobileOne, China Mobile, and Hong Kong's PCCW - to develop inter-country WiFi roaming standards in a $3.9 million project.
Intel today is collaborating with video software maker Muvee Technologies to bring digital home technologies to households across Asia. The collaboration is through a digital video contest that runs between now and Oct 9 in Singapore, Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Taiwan, and the Philippines.
Intel has invested US$1.3 billion in China in the past two decades and has 5,000 people there.
Posted by admin at 06:11 AM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2005
Fire locally hire globally: The New IBM Way
Even while IBM is cutting 14,500 employees in mostly developed countries, the company gradually is stepping up hiring in areas where labor cost is cheap.
Once a provider of high-end products and IT services, IBM is gradually becoming a low cost competitor in the IT services market.
IBM announced plans to hire 14000 IT workers in India, where it already employes 40,000 professionals. In Brazil IBM plans to hire 8000.
Such low cost workforce will allow IBM to compete with its major competitors Infosys and Tata Consulting Services of India.
In India often people joke that IBM now stands for Indian Business Machines.
Posted by admin at 03:13 AM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2005
Intel helping boost WiFi deployment in Southeast Asia
SAN FRANCISCO (EE Times) — Aiming to accelerate WiMAX wireless broadband deployment in Southeast Asian countries, Intel Corp. Thursday (Sept. 22) announced the Asian Broadband Campaign, an initiative to provide broadband wireless consulting and technical services.
Intel (Santa Clara, Calif.) said it plans to work with governments, telecommunications regulators, education, health and agriculture public sector agencies and carriers — including True Corp. in Thailand and Telekom Malaysia — to help them prepare for and conduct WiMAX trials to test connectivity.
Once broadly deployed, Intel said, the countries hope WiMAX will help them to meet the United Nations Millennium Development goals to eradicate poverty and hunger, expand primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child mortality, combat diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development by 2015.
"The developing countries of Southeast Asia have committed to the United Nations that they will work to meet these objectives," said Sean Maloney, executive vice president of Intel's Mobility Group, in a statement. "Intel believes that technology, and specifically WiMAX, can be one of the foundations to help these countries reach these goals."
As part of the company's Digital ASEAN vision of an integrated region of connected villages, provinces, cities and countries, Intel said it would begin WiMAX trials in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines by the end of 2005. Trials in Indonesia and Vietnam are expected to take place in 2006.
Posted by admin at 08:53 AM | Comments (0)
September 22, 2005
Isreal fights BPO - India's propaganda engine heats up
In a bid to fight job losses to India, Isreali government is providing subsidy to high tech companies that would keep work onshore according to a Hindustan Times article.
Under the program Isreali government would pay around $200 monthly for five years per employee to keep jobs in Isreal. Many Isreali firms are taking advantage of this subsidy to develop local software development centers employing thousands of women IT workers.
Such government strategies by governments obviously is a major threat to India's BPO market where global companies gain from not only cheap Indian workers but tax advantages as well. And Indian media has already started its engine to brand Isreali workers under the subsidy program as low cost and low quality work force.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 21, 2005
Indian IT companies looking for Chinese talent
India's National Association of Software & Service Companies (Nasscom) is leading a delegation of Indian IT companies to China this week to scout for talent, expand operations in China and improve relationships with local vendors.
Led by Tata Consulting Services chief executive officer S Ramadorai the delegation will consist of members from companies like Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, NIIT, Mastek, Sun, HP, vMoksha, Hexaware, Flextronics and Sasken.
The aim of the delegation will be to develop an understanding of the Chinese IT industry from various perspectives — government, academia, local industry and outsourcing.
India's IT giants such as Infosys, Wipro, TCS and Satyam already have opened up operations in China to tap into local talent. Now smaller players are joining the bandwagon as well.
Posted by admin at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)
Global wireless users cross 2 billion mark
The number of wireless subscriber worldwide has just crossed 2 billion mark. The estimate which comes from Wireless Intelligence, a venture between researcher Ovum and the GSMA (Global System for Mobile Association) shows the mojority of this growth is driven by sales in large developing countries.
China, India, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Africa have become hot-spots for wireless manufacturers. As market penetration reaches 100% in developed countries such as Sweden, Italy, Austria, Japan, South Korea, and Britain growth in such areas is slowing.
The cellular industry may ship 750 million new phones this year. Ovum estimates the industry will reach the three billion subscriber mark by 2010.
Posted by admin at 08:26 AM | Comments (0)
China to start Internet Protocol based television broadcasts
Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and China Telecom will in about two weeks begin commercial trials of IPTV services in a total of 17 Chinese cities, an SMG official said Tuesday according to a report by Interfax.
IPTV refers to TV broadcasting services based on internet protocol technology. Subscribers to the services are able to watch TV programming on computers or on TV sets that are connected to a digital set-top box. IPTV offers both live streaming services and VOD (Video-on-demand) services over the internet.
China Telecom, as of May 2005, has already recruited approximately 40,000 users for trial IPTV operations in Guangdong Province and the municipality of Shanghai.
Posted by admin at 08:08 AM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2005
India opens up its nuclear energy sector to private sector
In a bid to invite investment and produce more nuclear power, India might open up the nuclear energy sector for private participation.
The latest entrant in this sector is the National Thermal Power Corporation, India’s largest power producer that has decided to add 2000 watts of nuclear energy by 2012.
In July, U.S. President George W. Bush promised to help India gain access to civilian nuclear technology and fuel to power its plants.
Bush's announcement, subject to the approval of the U.S. Congress, would remove a ban on sharing nuclear power technology with countries, such as India, that have resisted international oversight of nuclear development.
Reliance Industries and the Tata Group too have evinced interest to invest in the Nuclear energy sector.
-Silicon India
Posted by admin at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)
VoIM promises free long distance for mobile phones
Services such as Skype, Google, Yahoo, AOL, ICQ and MSN offer this computer-to-computer calling as part of their instant-messaging programs today. Subscribers log on to their chosen program and have a conversation with others using the same program. To use Voice over instant messaging (VoIM), you'll need a microphone for your computer, speakers and, if you like, a webcam.
Such services charge fee when one dials fixed line or mobile phones. However talking to other PCs across the globe connected to the Internet is free. Now client applications of such services are coming to mobile phones and personal digital assistants.
Skype's mobile client for Windows Pocket PC allows conversation using WiFi enabled PDAs. Now all we need is a client application for those mobile phones with data capability. No more long distance charges.
Posted by admin at 06:55 AM | Comments (0)
September 18, 2005
India on the lookout for alternative energy sources
According to recent report by Wall Street Journal, energy hungry India is seeking alternative fuels to complement its booming demand.
In additional expanding local oil and gas production India has been encouraging use of renewable, more environment-friendly fuels like hydro, solar and wind power to cut reliance on thermal power that makes two-thirds of India's electricity.
More importantly, it aims to boost nuclear-power output nearly tenfold by 2020, even though a new nuclear-power plant costs five times more than a coal or oil-fired one.
In July of this year, the United States said it would share its civil nuclear technology with India. And just this week, India and France agreed to negotiate a pact to cooperate on nuclear power.
Expansion of the hydropower sector, which meets around 20% of power needs now, will be more modest. The government aims to lift current hydropower capacity of 23,488 megawatts by 50,000 megawatts by 2017.
Posted by admin at 04:41 AM | Comments (0)
September 16, 2005
Ethopia first to deploy aid management platform
The Government of Ethiopia is the first to deploy the Development Gateway Foundation's Aid Management Platform (AMP), a web-based information-sharing tool that helps improve the coordination and harmonization of international development aid to ensure greater results for people in developing countries.
AMP is an e-government solution that addresses administrative challenges faced by developing country governments and their donors in tracking and reporting on international aid flows and programs. By enabling access to standardized information about aid activities within a country, it facilitates the improved planning, allocation, disbursement and general management of aid resources.
Led by Ethiopia's Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MOFED), the piloting of AMP in Ethiopia was a joint initiative of the Development Gateway, OECD, UNDP and World Bank, and was supported by the country's official Donor Assistance Group representing major multilateral and bilateral donors. The Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Bangalore played a critical role by rapidly developing the AMP application, as part of its work for the Development Gateway India Research Center, funded by the Government of India.
AMP can be easily customized for other countries with similar aid management and donor coordination needs. Additional modules for scenario-building, knowledge management and financial calendar coordination are planned.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 15, 2005
Chinese travellers able to withdraw money from Citibank ATM machines worldwide soon
Chinese citizens who travel abroad soon will be able to use Citibank's vast network of automated teller machines in 50 countries worldwide to withdraw money.
As part of the deal, Citibank signed a reciprocal agreement yesterday with China's national China UnionPay Co., a Beijing network owned by more than 80 card-issuing banks. Customers of Citibank visiting China increasingly will be able to access ATMs connected to the nationwide UnionPay system of 8,000 machines.
Citigroup and UnionPay officials conceded enforcing China's legal maximum of 5,000 yuan, or about $618, in withdrawals a day per person could be open for abuse. It will be upto Chinese banks to ensure the such limits are enforced.
The deal may be a pre-curser to more expansion of such services to other developing countries allowing travellers to access cash from ATMs instead of carrying cash or travellers checks.
Posted by admin at 05:52 AM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2005
Sweden To Try To End Fossil Fuels Dependency By 2020
Prime Minister Goran Persson of Sweden said Tuesday that his country will try to end its dependency on fossil fuels in 15 years by boosting research devoted to alternative energy sources primarily driven by global warming concerns.
Persson said the government will increase spending on energy research and will start subsidizing exports of environmental technology. Wind power will be extended and a tax regime promoting renewable energy sources would continue, he said. As part of the initiative taxes would be reduced for cars running on natural gas instead of gasoline.
Persson also said 35% of the cars driven by government employees would either run completely on electricity or renewable fuels, or be hybrid cars.
Posted by admin at 02:12 PM | Comments (0)
September 13, 2005
India and Russia Partner to Market and Develop Tech
India and Russia hope to operationalise a joint technology centre in Moscow in January next year for the commercialisation and marketing of proven Russian technologies.
India and Russia have also agreed to set up a separate centre for joint research and development (R&D) in cutting-edge bio-technology, nano-technology and laser technology.
According to officials, India is willing to give US$75-100 million and Russia, which also has now available funds, is ready to make an equal contribution.
Posted by admin at 09:06 AM | Comments (0)
September 11, 2005
China taking over data networking business?
When it comes telecomm or data networking infrastructure providers, the names that come to mind are Nortel, Lucent, Alcatel, Motorola and Ericsson. However standardization in the industry driven primarily by convergence towards the Internet Protocol (IP) and using standard components in networking devices is opening doors to Asian companies such as Huawei Technologies to become global players.
From optical networking to mobile GPRS or 3G systems Huawei's technological footprint is rapidly expanding. Ask any executive at Major US networking infrastructure provider what is the biggest threat to his/her business and answer would most likely be competition from Huawei.
Long accused of copying Western technology, Huwai has become a major player by gradually moving into research and development. The quality of its products has improved drastically and so has performance of its systems. After gaining significant marketshare in China the company is moving rapidly into foreign markets including Europe and US.
The networking industry story seems to be following the same pattern that morphed the PC industry into basically a commodity business. After Chinese Lenovo purchased IBMs personal computer division it become the world's number three PC maker. Huawei is rumored to be in talks with European Marconi for a possible takeover. As networking becomes a low margin business could the industry end up the same way as the PC business in Chinese hands?
Posted by admin at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)
September 10, 2005
Artists from developing countries embrace online music sales
In the past one had to go to an Asian community in the US or Europe to pickup hindi, urdu or chinese music CDs. With the emerging popularity of online legal downloading services, music from many developing countries is finding way to such services.
At Apple's online Itunes music site that sells over 1.5 million songs daily one can find latest albums and songs by Asha Boshley, Ravi Shankar and a slew of popular artists.
Usually, Hindi, Bangla or Chinese album CDs sell much less than their English counterparts at Asian communities such as New York's Jackson Heights. However, on Itunes songs from international artists are selling at the same US 99 cents per song.
Itunes is not the only online legal music download channel. Early this year a California company has launched what it calls the first online music download store dedicated to music from India and the Indian sub-continent.
CrimsonBay offers music from premiere Indian labels such as Saregama India Ltd, Ishq Records, Yatra Communications and others.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2005
India's Infosys Tech Sees Growth in Europe
One of India's largest technology outsourcing companies, Infosys is seeing significant market expansion in Europe in the next several years according to its CEO.
The tech outfit which prides itself as a low cost leader in IT services recently won a $140 million deal with Dutch ABN Ambro bank. Currently Infosys is the fastest growing IT services firm in Europe.
As most European IT services firms lack offshore capabilities US and Indian firms are gaining significant marketshare in the EU region.
Relatively cheap and highly skilled labor force in India is also attracting many large US IT outsourcing firms to open up service centers in the country. As of last year outsourcing giant IBM had 23,000 employees in India.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 08, 2005
Grass to replace fossil fuel?
Britain's The Times newspaper reported that within the next ten years a type of gentically engineered giant grass (about 14ft long) could replace coal and oil in electricity generation.
Trials have shown that the plant, known as Miscanthus giganteus grows on most arable land, requires no fertiliser, suffers no pests or diseases and produces huge volumes of material that can be harvested using existing technology and burned in power stations.
If miscanthus were grown on 10 per cent of suitable land, it could generate 9 per cent of Europe’s electricity according to scientists.
The crop should prove profitable for farmers, with a onehectare field able to produce enough energy to replace 36 barrels of oil — at current prices, a yield would be worth $2,160 (£1,170) per hectare.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 07, 2005
Eastern Europe to Lead Call Center Market Growth
A recent study by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan claims call centre market is expected to experience maximum growth in eastern Europe, followed by parts of the Middle East, Africa and southern Europe.
According to the report, the total market size of contact centres in the EMEA region was 34,674 in 2004. The market is likely to grow at a compound annual growth rate of five per cent to 44,574 by 2009.
With email and web chat applications fast gaining popularity, Frost & Sullivan expects multi-channel contact centre applications to account for 20 per cent of total shipments by 2009.
The growth of these and other advanced applications is expected to drive adoption of IP contact centre offerings, which the analyst firm estimates will grow to 17 per cent of the total market shipments by 2009.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 06, 2005
Bangladesh invents low-cost technology to treat industrial waste
The Bangladesh Environmental Management Project (BEMP) has invented a sustainable technology to treat industrial wastes discharge particularly by the textile and dyeing industries creating a great scope of preventing pollution.
The process involves filtering liquid textile waste through several layers that separate a large portion of dyeing chemicals. BEMP sources said that 75 percent of the fresh dye solution used in dyeing could be recovered for potential reuse. Flow of the wastes is pressed to enter into a reed-bed,a constructed wetland of several layers consisting of brick chips,sand, tiny stones and soil atop where selected vegetation is cultivated.
Later, the reed-bed drains clean water through the way opposite to the entering side of polluted water. Beside, the sediment that was filtered first is burnt carefully to make sludge, which can beused in making bricks after mixing with mud or cement.
The government of Banglades plans to introduce this safe, environmentally clean technology in all of the industries that produce a lot of liquid wastes.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 05, 2005
Indian experiencing massing jobs boom
India is experiencing unprecedented jobs boom accross almost all industry groups amid strong domestic economic growth (GDP growth averaging 6t.9%) combined with a vibrant service oriented export market.
The ICT sectors are leading this boom in job creation. The software industry alone is expected to create 120,000 new jobs. The business process outsourcing industry is expected to hire 150,000 people; more than 25,000 new sales, customer service and engineering jobs will arise in the telecom industry.
IT, IT enabled services and telecom are the top three areas where job creation is strongest. Software giants like IBM (nowadays jokingly referred to as Indian Business Machines), Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services have projected that they’ll be hiring upward of 13,000 people each year.
In addition to technology related sectors, discount airlines, retail and financial services are demontrating growth.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 04, 2005
SMS Major Headache for Governments in Developing Countries
Asian goverments are cracking down on SMS services that has become a powerful communication tool for consumers. SMS is used to organise protests, generate rumours, aid in crime and, possibly trigger bombs requiring least resources.
In developing countries such as Bangladesh, most cell phone users are faceless because they use pre-paid phone cards. Due to low risks from careers' perspectives and desire to control telephone related expenses by poor, users pre-paid services are gaining marketshare in third world countries.
In fact pre-paid cards are turning Asia into the fastest-growing telecom market, making up about 60 per cent of users in China and over 90 per cent in Indonesia and the Philippines at end-2004, according to Gartner.
Combined with pre-paid services SMS text messaging via cell phones provides an even more economical means of communicating. SMS messaging market is seeing exponential growth in Asia. Over 200 million SMS messages are sent across in the Philippines today.
Thailand moved to register users of pre-paid phones in May, claiming it as part of initiatives to stop terrorists using mobile phones to set off bombs. Malaysia asked phone companies to register all holders of pre-paid services after text-messaging gossip-mongers spread a rumor claiming the premier's ailing wife had died. Similar registration requirements are imposed on pre-paid services in China and other parts of Asia to curb terrorism and in certain cases imposing control of public media by governments.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 03, 2005
Outsourcing Piracy the Chinese Way
When it comes to watching premium content on cable television you can go the legal way or the Chinese way. In the US a household pays on average around $40 (US) for cable television. In New York gold package costs around $80, movie channels such as HBO costs $11 extra.
You can get same premium channels today on the Internet for free from Chinese P2P sites. Cable television companies are battling the same kind of piracy issues that Napster started with the music industry.
P2P streaming TV is the latest generation of peer-to-peer technology. This new method turns an ordinary computer capturing the TV channel into a rebroadcaster of video streams . The signal, which is taken live off TV systems mostly in China, is delayed by about a minute before it shows up on computer screens in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media or RealNetworks Inc.'s Real Player program.
US regulators and media associations are just begining to look into such piracy practices trying to figure out what actions to take.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2005
Instant messaging replacing fixed line telephones?
Microsoft's this week made an announcement of buying closely held Teleo Inc., a San Francisco maker of voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP, technology, which allows users to make calls over the Internet to regular telephones, cell phones or PCs.
With Teleo's purchase Microsoft will be integrating VoIP to its MSN messenger product. Currently the Teleo solution is similar to popular Skype which runs a small dialer software on PC that allow initiation of calls. Just like Skype PC-to-PC calls are free but users have to prepay for making phone calls to regular phones.
Google also has made recent announcements about introducing instant messaging products that support voice communication. Many believe Microsoft's recent foray is in response to Google's move.
There were 62.72 million instant messenger users just in China in 2004 and this figure is expected to reach 82.67 million in 2005 and 103.34 million by 2006. With the addition of voice on such services will leave even less reason for many young people to maintain fixed line phone service. And since these voice-enabled services are making their way to PDAs that have wireless interface such instant messaging services may soon end up competing directly with cell phones.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2005
BBC to allow program downloads
The British Broadcasting Corporation, hugely popular in developing countries, is planning to allow Internet users download its television and radio programs according to report by AP.
BBC is hoping the service will be fully operational by end of 2006.
Unlike other traditional media companies BBC is branching out in embracing the Internet. Already, BBC offers live webcasts of its radio and on a limited basis television programs.
Recently BBC joined Apple's podcasting bandwagon where media companies make audio programs (most commonly in MP3 or AAC for Ipods) available online in a way that allows software to automatically download the files for listening at the user's convenience.
Under Apple's podcasting scheme Ipod users can automatically synch their devices with their favorite programs as soon as they connect to a computer running ITunes for listening on the go.
Posted by admin at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)