On the Net

with Chris Goh

Year in Review

Last year was significant for computer consumables. The price of Flash memory and other data storage devices fell significantly, while the proliferation of mobile consumables has seen the decrease and new maturity of colour displays. Processing Power, though slowing down in speed increases, has still seen significant improvements in the last year with Intel also releasing the most significant chipset and bus upgrade since the introduction of the Pentium, to eliminate AGP and herald in PCI express.

This year has also seen Wireless service provision becoming a reality in Australia, and you will see the real possibilities in mobile computing. The significant stumbling blocks mobile computing still faces are battery life (though new polymer batteries and lower power processors has seen significant improvements), but more importantly interface design. With a mobile unit with a small screen, the task of presenting multiple functions with ever more complicated devices moves out of the realms of the techy to the more functional and people inspired realm of designers; designers that can, like a good website, allow anyone and everyone the ability to access the power of their little device within 1 to 3 menu jumps, and that isn't easy especially when it has to be intuitive.

We have seen both Sony and Nintendo enter the same field that Nokia attempted to do with the Ngage, and judging by responses in Japan these new mobile game units; the Game Boy Advance and PSP, will do extraordinarily well. However this territory has been tackled before, with Atari and their Lynx a decade prior, but the difference now (besides mind boggling graphics and multimedia features) is consumer acceptance of Digital Consumables, as not only a great functional device, but also a fashionable attire. I think that maturity of perception is largely owed to Apple and the iPod - the first real digital consumable to be taken to heart by a populace. Though mobile phones started the trend of digital attire, iPod made it super cool.

There are a number of digital music players like Creative's range which I dare say sound better and have more functions, but like all good marketing campaigns they reach out for our desire to be unique, and the iPod gives us that feeling of exclusivity; and that is exactly what you hear from those who have weathered the corporate IT storm of the last three years - "we have product differentiators". In an era of varied degrees of brand loyalty (with an ever more IT literate community) as well as price competitiveness, which is never good for business margin, differentiators are a key marketing pitch.

We are seeing that now in the area of LCD screens, and mobile phones, where the maturity of these product groups are reaching their heights of innovation. Product differentiation and finding product niches is the next step in their product cycle, to stand out in an ever-saturating market.

In other important technology developments in the last year, Affymetrix has put all the DNA strands of a human being that was collected by the Human Genome Project finished in 2003 into a glass chip that is the size of your thumbnail. Blood drawn from patients are sent to labs where they use these chips to determine genetic profiles to do something as simple as seeing what strength your medication should be based on your genetic profile. Genetic manipulation has never been so easy, so much so the Indian Government has drawn up plans to create what they call "Stem Cell City Clusters" that will attempt to encourage a community where research on stem cells are shared and collaboration between groups can be undertaken. The sad part of this area of science, like pharmaceuticals before it, is that new natural discoveries are being patented for commercial profitability, and that will certainly impact on its accessibility to those who often need it most.

In one of this year's major historic events, SpaceShipOne made space travel viable to most countries by being the first privately funded organisation to send a man to space and in doing so also won the X-Prize. Co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, was the major financial supporter of this project (and also of SETI after NASA stopped funding it). NASA has also gone on a grants/competition funding spree, recognising it is cheaper to hold a competition and offer a prize than write a detailed functional specification and tender it out to organisations that could never fit all the criteria.

Speaking of Microsoft, the software giant suffered at the hands of the EU, but it has at the same time greatly diversified its product range to have its media format accepted as an international standard, which is no small victory. SCO has also taken a pause in what was a continual litigation exercise to stop Linux taking over its operating system market but several key cases have been halted as courts await the more important stoush with SCO and IBM to see if SCO really owns the copyrights to important Unix Code, which makes up Linux.

The big explosion this year has been the security market. With governments getting tough on agencies with security, including compliance of AS7799 for Australian agencies, it's no wonder. Security issues being key to wireless adoption hasn't gone as far as it could.

The OICT (Office of Information and Communication Technology) has also been broken up after being previously moved into the Department of Commerce, which ends an interesting attempt by the NSW government into IM governance of its agencies.

Hotnews

Google has launched a new hardware product, MiniGoog, which, for US$5000, gives you a cut down version of the Search Engine you can deploy on your own corporate Intranet.

In Las Vegas the biggest consumer electronics show was opened. RoboSapien, the best selling toy last Christmas, received a much coveted innovation award. RoboSapien V2 was launched at the show plus two additions to the family, which are pets - Robopet and Roboraptor.

A new Virus for windows called Cellery poses as a Tetris game, and whilst you're playing it, it propagates itself on your network and looks for more victims.

Apple has launched the Mac Mini starting from $799, which gives you a really small box packed with plenty. You get a G4 1.42Ghz PC, 40-80 Gig HD with 256Mb RAM, 32Mb ATI Radeon 9200 Video Card and a CDR/DVD. It came amidst a record quarter for Apple, largely propped up by Sales of iPods.

Only last week a company touted a new solar cell that came on sheets like contact paper, but the University of Toronto has showcased the first sprayable plastic solar cell, which like spray paint can be used on any device to produce solar energy.

The NSW Police have released a tender to upgrade their SAP system, which will include the requirement for a single sign on environment.

In a major step that will help Nazi holocaust victims, Swiss Banks, as part of an agreed settlement, has published 3000 pre World War II bank account details. Though 20,000 names were released the banks have said at least 15,000 of those were unlikely to belong to Nazi victims.

In a record year for Samsung, its profit for last financial year was 81% up based on its solid growth in the mobile sector, with profits of $10.8 trillion US. Motorola has become the second biggest mobile phone maker.

21-year-old Derek Cheng was sentenced to 12 months detention after being found guilty of stealing up to $600,000 by using a virus to capture passwords to get into people's online banking services.

Andrew Fischer from Omaha has had a closing bid of $30,000 US for advertising space on his forehead for a period of 30 days, courtesy of EBay.