Mobile Computing!
October 25, 2008
An image like this is probably very common all around you. I’m not really sure who this is since this photograph was taken at a traffic light, but I’m assuming the bike rider was taking the PC CPU for repairs to a shop, or from a shop to deliver it back to someone. You can tout about all the genuine software and hardware brands you want to talk about, but the thing to think about here is this: how much PC dissemination or IT awareness would have spread across a country like Pakistan, if we never had a market that made access to technology affordable? My guess? Very little.
Piracy and the gray market is bad - Don’t get me wrong. We’re all about protecting intellectual property, but the biggest barrier to entry for someone who has an income of approximately Rs.100k a month coming into the household, and who is also trying to buy a computer for the basic communication or desktop publishing or home office features.
At the conusmer level, people will buy what makes fits into their wallets. At the Corporate or Government level, on the other hand, if they were really serious about curbing piracy and not hurting the economy in anyway, they’d promote freeware. Ubuntu, Linux and other open source OS are there for people to use. Not everyone has to use a pricey, genuine version of Windows when there are alternatives available. The second hand market will solve itself out eventually. Consumers want value for money. Value that will last them a long time. But as long as you continue to have access to technology that people can actually afford, you will find examples of such images all around you…
Salman Ansari’s Keynote at the Dawn Financial IT Conference
June 18, 2008
Here’s Salman Ansari’s Keynote at the Dawn Financial IT Conference, on th 17th of June, 2008
Calling out for Events
April 3, 2008
If you have an event coming about the IT industry in Pakistan, please send a brief paragraph about it to us at info@netxpress.com.pk - or click on the TalkBack Link of this website. Be sure you have sent us the date, time and target audience so people know whether this event is meant for them. Thank you!
Pakistan: The IT Leader!
March 12, 2008
The United States Consulate’s principal officer, Bryan D. Hunt, has said that
The LCCI IT Fair-2008 held in the first week of March every year, is co-organized by the LCCI with and some technology giants operating in the
On Market. Needs. Technology: Hilmy Cader
November 20, 2007
Hilmy Cader is the Bahrain-based Global CEO and Senior International Consultant of MTI Consulting. MTI is an international business and marketing strategy consulting firm he founded in 1997 that provides solutions focusing on Strategic Planning, Marketing and Corporate Structuring. We spoke to him about… well… the Market, the Needs and the Technological requirements to make it all happen!
What is the most important rule of business you define in the many speaking assignments you have done around the world?
Being top of mind, and having the patience to wait for the moment when a prospect’s need surfaces – that’s when being top of mind pays off!
What makes a marketing strategy successful?
One of the key elements of a successful marketing strategy is a thorough understanding of who your customers are and what ‘’needs’’ they are looking to satisfy.
Catering to every possible need: Pakistani infrastructure grows by leaps and bounds
November 9, 2007
One of the primary priorities of the Government of Pakistan is to do its level best to create an ideal investor friendly environment in Pakistan, thus resulting in large-scale investment in various sectors, with special emphasis on the infrastructure in the urban areas.
To have a sound business environment, a country must have a healthy transport system which includes both land and air transports, proper sanitation facilities as the more cleaner the environment, the more investors are attracted to that location, a good communications and IT network as the more advanced the system the more chances of investment in that particular sector.
The Government of Pakistan recently received a loan amounting to US$ 3 billion dollars from various donor agencies for infrastructure development in the country. Of this amount, 8.67 million dollars is to be utilized for preparation of projects in transport, energy and water and power sectors. The road sector will get five packages out of which four will be implemented by the National Highway Authority and one by Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, called the District Road Resource Management Project. Under the District Road Resource Management Project, 1200 km of rural roads in four provinces will be maintained, rehabilitated and constructed.
One of the premier projects underway in the country at the moment is the Khushal Pakistan (Prosperous Pakistan) Program launched by the government to focus on rural infrastructure development. Launched in 2003, the program, earlier known as Tameer-e-Pakistan (Building Pakistan), covers schemes related to sectors such as gas, electricity, roads, telecommunication, education, health, sanitation and water supply. The program will cover essential infrastructure at the village, union, tehsil and district level; [Read more]
Banking to shift towards mergers
November 6, 2007
The period of acquisitions has almost ended in the Turkish banking sector and mergers will be the next trend, Finansbank Chairman and CEO said Thursday at a press conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of the bank.
Those unable to attain success in the banking sector will either leave the scene at the end of the competition or orient toward merges, said Ömer Aras. Some mergers that extend abroad may also come up, Aras added.
Credit risks that started with the subprime crisis in the world will affect the banking sector, said Aras. “It is not very possible to draw a very optimistic picture for the developed markets for the upcoming period. This situation may last long.”
Microsoft works family angle in new Xbox ads
November 5, 2007
Video game makers have a bold plan to save the American family. Well, sort of. Bringing families and friends together is the marketing hook behind Microsoft’s Xbox, as well as promotions from rival Nintendo for its Wii game system. The tech titans want to reach beyond teens and adult technophiles and ring up more business from casual gamers. “We’re growing our consumer base,” says Jeff Bell, a Microsoft (MSFT) corporate vice president, about the company’s new ad campaign and the Oct. 22 launch of the family-oriented Xbox 360 Arcade console.
“We want to broaden our appeal.” When the original Xbox arrived in November 2001, it was targeted at hard-core games, such as “the stereotypical young male dressed in black and living in the basement of his parents’ home,” Bell says. Microsoft now wants to show that gaming doesn’t have to be just an individual endeavor.
“Technology was really starting to silo people,” says Mike Harris, global strategy director at the T.A.G. youth marketing unit of Microsoft ad agency McCann WorldGroup. He offers an example that’s happened in his life: He’s watching TV, his wife and son are working on separate computers, his daughter is using her iPod and cellphone, and they’re all “in the house, sitting in different rooms.”
Microsoft’s new ad efforts, which include commercials that show a father and daughter playing with guitar-shaped controllers, position “Xbox as a connector that brings people together,” Harris says. That light, family-friendly attitude reflects where the industry is going, he says. “Marketers looked at the world and said, ‘Consoles shouldn’t just be about gamers playing hard-core games anymore,’ ” he says. “Should we be talking to just an 18- or 23-year-old guy? No.” Despite conventional wisdom, it’s not just young men using PC and console video games. Slightly more than a quarter of players are under 18, but nearly half are 18 to 49, and another quarter are 50 and older, according to Entertainment Software Association data provided by eMarketer.
The bid to diversify sales comes as industry revenue explodes. U.S. retail sales of video games — including portable and console hardware, as well as software and accessories — generated revenue close to $12.5 billion in 2006, up from $10.5 billion in 2005, according to the NPD Group. Microsoft wants to see more money from that boon. On Oct. 25, its entertainment and devices division, which includes the Xbox console and popular games such as Halo 3, reported a $165 million profit for the quarter ended Sept. 30.
That unit had a $142 million loss for the same quarter in 2006. Even though it reversed its loss, Microsoft still faces tough competition. Nintendo (NTDOY) has been aggressive in seeding its Wii game with the casual player. For instance, it has placed units on cruise ships and donated them to retirement communities for people to “sample,” then, hopefully, buy. Another rival, Sony (SNE), just launched two ad campaigns, one for its PlayStation 3 console and one for its PlayStation Portable (PSP) system. But Microsoft’s Bell says he’s not intimidated.
The more selection Microsoft offers, the more sales they’ll lure in, he says. “We’re bringing forth the concept of choice,” he says. Microsoft’s maneuvers: •A fresh ad campaign. TV and cinema ads show ordinary folks at spots such as a shopping mall parking lot. Their day-to-day activities are disrupted when a group of people crash the scene through unusual means such as hot-air balloons.The outsiders set up a mock living room, complete with a couch, TV and an Xbox. Bystanders then crowd in to check out Xbox. •Family-friendly video games. Rough-and-tumble Gears of War and Halo 3 are among the more well-known games that Microsoft publishes.But the company is also promoting less-violent fare, such as Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action, which launches this week. The $59.99 game has a range of puzzles that use movie trivia. •Less-expensive console. The $279.99 Xbox 360 Arcade comes with five free family-friendly games such as Uno and Pac-Man. Microsoft still offers the regular Xbox 360 for $349.99 and the Xbox 360 Elite — targeted at hard-core gamers — for $449.99.
Pakistan an emerging hub of IT in future: experts
November 4, 2007
WASHINGTON (November 04 2007): Pakistan has a lot of encouraging factors to emerge as a new hub of information technology growth in the next five years, prominent IT experts and global studies that also take into account geo-strategic challenges, say in their latest assessments.
“The prospects remain bright because the fundamentals of the Pakistani economy are solid and the country is expected to sustain high levels of investment and capital inflow, chief executive officer of a California-based company that pioneered IT services business in Pakistan, said in an interview.
Backing up his optimism with his long experience, international trends and global IT companies’ search for English speaking workforce for their fast-paced growth, Najeeb Ghauri, the head of Netsol Technologies, says Pakistan can gain its rightful share in the bulging world market. On the economic front, continued upbeat performance rising investment, a 7 percent average growth, healthy foreign exchange reserves level, soaring home remittances - and global financial institutions forecast of sustained high growth in the medium-term reinforce Ghauris confident outlook.
He said that maintaining political stability and overcoming security challenges will be important to lending further appeal to Pakistan’s status as an emerging economy and further bolstering international investor confidence.
“So coming few months will be very important — but overall the picture is hopeful as far as IT growth is concerned, said Ghauri, whose company expanded its business to one billion rupees in Pakistan last year.
According to A T Kearney Global Services Location Index 2007, Pakistan is listed among countries holding out a vast potential and being financially more attractive than some major current destinations while an international study last year rated Pakistan as a major IT business hub in half a decade.
Highlighting advantages the South Asian country offers in terms of its skilled, English proficient yet inexpensive human resource, some of the ingredients considered vital to prospering the IT business, experts put Pakistan ahead of India and China as it also offers increasingly open and well-regulated business environment, Pakistan’s exports of IT and services have grown by 50 percent year-on-year for the last three years.
An upcoming 17-storey IT park in Lahore and growing software companies in Karachi symbolise the country’s aspiration to advance in the futuristic field. Pakistan Software Export Board now has an ambitious target to boost exports of software, services, call centres and BPO from US $1.4 billion in the fiscal year ended June to about $4.5 billion by 2010.
By then, the overall IT and services industry in the country is also expected to grow to $10 billion from the current $2.4 billion a year.
A key advantage that ranks the country ahead of even bigger regional economies is the human capital the South Asian country boasts of in the long-term perspective. About 100 million of its 160 million people are aged below 25 years and with proliferation of IT institutions and infrastructure, a huge number is likely to go for the attractive profession.
Acknowledging the demographic advantage, a leading American entrepreneur told Pakistan’s top economic managers in Washington that the country would have the second largest English-conversant population outside the English-speaking world.
Najeeb Ghauri, who is founding member of the US-Pakistan Business Council, says efforts are also underway to foster a better relationship with US companies as a number of them show keen interest in availing opportunities that most notably include services and financial sector.
His own Nestol Technologies is slated to launch local public sector, e-government services. Besides, Pakistan is also striving to enter the offshoring marketplace largely through contact centers and back-office services. Companies have set up approximately 100 contact centers in the country in the past three years. In addition to telemarketing,
Pakistani workers provide payroll, accounting and human resources work. However, the country also needs to establish quality higher education centers to rise to international expectations and demands over the longer-term, stresses Ghauri, who is a member of Pakistan Human Development Fund. In addition, Pakistani professionals’ greater international exposure , he feels, can also enhance its status as an emerging IT hub.
In this context, he agrees to the idea of invigorating efforts to maximise the number of H1-B category American visas for Pakistani professionals since that will help market the country’s potential and also improve its image.
What The Google Phone Could Do For Linux
November 2, 2007
BURLINGAME, CALIF. -
Even the best technology needs a sugar daddy. Seven years ago, Linux got just that when IBM said it would put $1 billion on the then-nascent open-source operating system, pushing the software into the corporate mainstream. Now the same could be about to happen for Linux with the mobile phone, with Google set to give Linux a major endorsement this November.
Industry insiders say Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) is about to release Linux-based software that will bind mobile phones to Google’s online services, a move likely to exacerbate the growing conflict between Google and Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) over the future of the mobile-phone market.
The stakes are huge. More than 289 million mobile phones were sold worldwide in the third quarter of this year, according to market tracker IDC. By contrast, IDC reports that just 66.9 million personal computers were sold during the same period. To stay relevant, both Google and Microsoft will need a big piece of this market.
Google’s effort is centered on a team of more than 100 engineers led by Danger co-founder Andy Rubin, who have put Google’s applications and Linux software into phone-friendly form (see ” How To Spy On Google”). Google has approached players in the industry, too, including Taiwan’s HTC, to build the hardware that would use its system (see ” Google’s Friends and Family Plan”). The company has also spoken with carriers, including Orange, in an effort to entice them to provide the service.
Finally, Google hopes to tap into the base of developers and technologies that have formed around Linux since its high-profile endorsement by IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) to make it easy to put its software on a variety of phones. Linux developers boast the tools are already there to easily build phones around Web-based services. “If you wanted to do a Facebook-branded handset or a YouTube-branded handset, you could probably do that for less than one million [dollars],” says Benoit Schillings, chief technology officer at Trolltech, a Norwegian-based software developer.
Of course, the growing profile of mobile editions of Windows, OS X and Linux opens up consumers to new security threats, too. Tools for building software for all three operating systems are widespread. Both Symantec (nasdaq: SYMC - news - people ) and McAfee (nyse: MFE - news - people ) already offer security software for Windows-based mobile devices. And McAfee has already signed up with the Mobile Linux Initiative.
Industry efforts such as the Mobile Linux Initiative, however, would allow Google to move into mobile without pushing aside some potential partners. Of the three largest handset makers, both Motorola (nyse: MOT - news - people ) and Samsung have placed big bets on Linux-powered handsets, with Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ) trying out a smaller number of smart phones and tablets. Putting out an open-source collection of software would allow all three to integrate Google’s services into its efforts.
Yet to break out, mobile Linux still needs a deep-pocketed backer. “Linux will need to have some champion,” HTC CEO Peter Chou said in an interview with Forbes.com in September, admitting that he’s eyeing mobile Linux. “There is no free lunch in the world.”
And Google brings more than just cash. By coupling its online advertising smarts with mobile Linux software, Google could insure that a business case exists for mobile Linux.
Carriers could presumably share the revenues generated by Google’s keyword-based ads. And software developers might be able spin Google’s ads into their own services.