An Update from the Digital World – Pace of Global Technology Innovation Is Accelerating

Broadband and mobile drive new computing cycles
Global technology innovation is accelerating and is becoming a major driving force in the next two major, and converging, computing cycles for the evolution of the Internet — one for broadband Internet usage and the other for mobile Internet usage. Consumers around the world, not enterprises, are driving demand. For businesses, the opportunities — and potential dislocations — are significant. For China, the opportunities to help set the pace for the development of the Internet (especially in mobile) are very real.

Desire to communicate is at core of innovation. Communication accounts for 45%, and rising, of online usage in the United States
Internet leader are vying to become next-generation global communication hubs. Mobile network speeds continue to advance, greasing the skids for innovation on the mobile platform. Revenue models for broadband and mobile Internet are now different but will likely converge.

Asian companies no longer just ‘fast followers’
A rising number of Asian companies have begun to ramp up innovation with a focus on anticipating customer and consumer needs. We see a core group of nextgeneration customers in China, where there are more Internet and mobile phone users under the age of 30 than in any market in the world.

A version of this report appeared in the Chinese business weekly Caijing on December 10, 2005.

An Update from the Digital World – Pace of Global Technology Innovation Is Accelerating (12 Pages)