The Inquirer is reporting on some Strand Consulting research which says: While many players are focusing on the growth markets like India, Brazil, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh – countries where cheap handsets and SIM cards will attract millions of new customers – that’s not the interesting bit, Strand says. The real challenges are markets like Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Switzerland and Germany, where mobile prices are plummeting at the same
I’ll be at 3GSM in Barcelona next week. See you there if you’re going!
It was a warm day in Helsinki. Minus five. And I found myself walking beside the city’s frozen lake, talking about Web analytics. Jouko Ahvenainen heads an analytics firm which has hit upon an idea. Over lunch beside a wintery, but beautifully sunlit setting, we talked about the dramatic changes which are about to take place in the mobile industry. Jouko runs Xtract which has traditionally been a high-end anlytics
There’s nothing like being surrounded by 800 Geeks. You start talking in code – Ajax, RSS, tags, XUL.
In late February I’m launching a series of weekly podcast shows in Central London. “Bitecast” will be a half hour show looking at interesting new trends in the digital media business, covering mobile and the web. In particular the show will look at the shift to digital music, entertainment and the impact on mainstream media. We’ll review the week’s news, check out the latest mobiles, shoot the breeze about the
Here in Helsinki I met up with Ulla-Maaria Mutanen, Researcher, at the University of Helsinki. She has some fascinating ideas about the “Long Tail“. In part because of creating Hobbyprincess.com, which was about how you get girls developing technology and blogging about crafts, she got interested in the idea that the stuff which people make – perhaps a coat or a sculpture – will drop off the ‘long tail’ because
Pissed off that Google is censoring results? Then start typing badly. Blogger Paul Boutin found that image searches for Tiananmen throw up innocuous images of fountains and temples. But type in Tianenmen, or some other close mispelling and you see tanks and protesters… With any luck Google will be able to argue that it doesn’t have to control or censor mispellings. Well, I hope it takes that line, but these
Why have small countries like Finland and Scandinavia produced such global power house like Ikea, Nokia, Ericsson and Volvo? I think it’s down tot he national character that is prevalent in these Nordic countries. Both Swedes and Finns tend to be quiet, modest people (at least compared to Brits and Yanks, who seem loud and egotistical by comparison). Let’s face it, if you live in a climate which is dark
WiFi on every street corner (most of it free). Technical excellence at local technology universities. A young and hungry population. Widespread e-banking and even e-voting. A reputation for producing the talent that coded Skype. Estonia is powering ahead as a technology hub, and not just because it’s wages are lower than comparatively expensive Sweden and Finland. Everything I’ve seen here in Tallin, the capital, says Estonia has what it takes
Meeting Cecilia Stegö Chilò of the Timbro thinktank was an experience. A former journalist, she is a passionate believer in the future of Sweden as a liberalised economy. The problem, she says, is that in a globalised world, the Nordic “social model” of high taxation, expensive public services won’t work, and nor will it create the jobs Sweden’s young people will need in the next few years. She is also