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http://www.bworldonline.com/Research/populareconomics.php?
January 21, 2010 | Manila, Philippines
Equipped with a
Popular Economics vast database
of economic and
BY MA. AIZL CAMILLE B. CABARLES, Researcher financial information, the
BusinessWorld
Research provides
Technology trends for 2010 BusinessWorld readers
and prospective clients
INFORMATION technology in the 21st century has rapidly evolved and essential and timely
penetrated the digitized world where the Internet reigns supreme. industry analyses and
reports.
Gone are the days when people debate over which personal computer
performs better, how the high speed Pentium 4 run applications effortlessly, Through government and
how fast was a 56-kilobit per second dial up connection, and which software non-government facts
company would well deliver amid the increasing demand for user-friendly and figures, the team
computer programs. generates comprehensive
reports that help policy
As Internet connectivity became of high importance, particularly for business
makers, industry
executives, experts found the need to create technologies that will meet
observers, planners, and
consumers’ demand, thus, the invention of personal digital assistants (PDA)
students get a clearer
and laptops.
view of the performance
of various industries and
Acquisition of data, images, videos, music, software, and applications became
the domestic economy as
easily accessible.
a whole.
Also, at the height of Internet usage, people have since indulged in social
networking, as the creation of Friendster, Facebook, Plurk, Multiply, Perfspot, This is particularly
and Twitter made social connectivity possible wherever they are. highlighted in the
BusinessWorld
And with the growing importance of information delivery — whether in the Research team’s reports
academe, business community, politics, defense, or mere social connection — such as Economic
new breed of technologies have been devised and are set to rule the year Indicators (a discussion
2010. of trends and possible
developments on a
“In my opinion, one of the most interesting technology trends of 2010 particular economic
promises to be location based services,” said Giles Nelson, senior director for sector), Stock Picks
strategy and evangelism at Progress Software, in his paper entitled “Is 2010 (analyses on listed
the Year of Location-Based services?” and published this month at domestic companies and
www.cio.co.uk, the website of IT consulting firm CIO Business Technology their stock market
Leadership. performance) Quarterly
Banking Reports (a
Mr. Nelson defined location based services as those that utilize a user or comprehensive review of
object’s physical location to deliver relevant information. the domestic banking
industry) and Corporate
“In 2010 they’re finally going to become mainstream,” Mr. Nelson said. Profiles (a feature on
Location based services are made possible using technologies that enable breakthrough and
users to monitor information delivery or a person’s location in real time. start-up companies).
The sudden rise of the smartphone, for instance, proves its ability to run The BusinessWorld
applications that use location information through its built-in global Research team also
positioning system or GPS (a worldwide Medium Earth Orbit satellite aims to educate its
navigational system) and wireless connection or Wi-Fi (popularly coined by an readers by introducing
organization called Wi-Fi Alliance). economic and finance
concepts through its
Smartphones are handheld devices that combine mobile phone capabilities series of Popular
and the features of PDAs. Economics and the
BusinessWorld Guide to
Mr. Nelson said some companies are using smartphones to update clients on Series.
changes in flight plans, send meter readings and bills for electricity or water,
track ship arrivals and departures in real time, among others. The team, likewise, takes
pride of The Top 1,000
In Fortune magazine’s December 2009 issue, author Michael V. Copeland Corporations in the
included smartphones as one of the four technology trends in 2010, citing the Philippines, an annual
boom of the company Apple. publication that ranks
companies based on
“Even as sales of traditional handsets slow, those of smartphones that can annual gross revenues.
access the Internet continue to rise,” Mr. Copeland said in his article entitled Read more about us
“Tech Stocks for the Next 10 Years.”
“Thanks to an aggressive expansion into international markets, Apple now has
2/1/2010 3:24 PM
BW Research: Popular Economics http://www.bworldonline.com/Research/populareconomics.php?id=0141

18% of the global market share in these high-end devices (behind Nokia and
Blackberry maker Research in Motion), up from 14% in the second quarter of
2009. And Apple is just getting started,” he added.

Meanwhile, social networking sites are seen to change into more than a place
to communicate but to provide location information as well.

“It is widely anticipated that Facebook in 2010 will start supporting location
directly (Facebook’s privacy policy has been already changed to allow this),”
Mr. Nelson said.

“Users will then be able to browse their network by their current location, or
be alerted, perhaps, when a friend is within [one kilometer] of them,” he
noted.

Similarly, Twitter is beginning to support location information wherein users

may browse tweets by location to know those who are near them.

THE PHILIPPINES’ TECHNOLOGY TREND IN 2010

Gillian Joyce G. Virata, Business Processing Association of the Philippines

executive director for information and research, said that location based
services may also dominate the tech world in the Philippines this year.
Help those “It allows business to be conducted anywhere wherein location becomes less
most in need important,” she noted.

The real estate sector, for instance, hardly expanded during the crisis as some
companies permitted employees to work at home or outside the office using
mobile connectivity as the medium of communication, Ms. Virata said.
Eradicate
extreme poverty She noted that companies opted to maximize existing office spaces and
reduce overhead cost by eliminating rental expenses.
& hunger
Support In 2009, mobile penetration reached 90% since some subscribers have more
than one cellular phone, according to Ms. Virata.
Concern
Worldwide However, Cleantech Asia Online editor and BusinessWorld columnist Dennis
O. Posadas said that GPS and Wi-Fi equipped smartphones are yet to take the
lead as connectivity continues to operate using cellsites.

“You can actually get location to a limited extent without GPS by using
triangulation from three adjacent cellsites, which is probably accurate to a
few hundred meters. So if you pretend you are in Makati but is using [Quezon
City] cellsites, then the [telecommunication companies] will know you are
lying,” Mr. Posadas said in an email.

In 2008, Globe Telecom, Inc. launched the Worldwide interoperability for

Microwave Access or the WiMAX, the first ever and the biggest wireless
broadband in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, another new technology that might become a trend is the

personal version of a wireless router called the MiFi.
Public Service Ads
by Google The MiFi is an automated teller machine-sized personal Wi-Fi connection on
the go that can be attached to any Wi-Fi enabled device, which can be shared
since it supports multiple users.

“Generally, the use of Internet for business still has a lot of room for growth
and opportunities that have not been explored yet. Through these
technologies, we will have more pockets of connectivity. This will help boost
small businesses in remote areas in the country and the world becomes your
potential market place,” Ms. Virata said.

Mr. Posadas, for his part, believes that although social networking won’t be a
trend this year, it will continue to track an uptrend.

“I would definitely bet on the continuation of social networking. It won’t be a

trend anymore, but it’s still going to grow big in 2010,” Mr. Posadas said.

Sources:

— “Is 2010 the Year of Location-Based Services?” by Giles Nelson, CIO

Business Technology Leadership, January 12, 2010. Available at
www.cio.co.uk.

— “Tech Stocks for the Next 10 Years,” by Michael V. Copeland, Fortune 2010
Investor’s Guide, December 12, 2009.

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Popular Economics Archive

Technology trends for 2010 (012110)

Labor migration and its impact to society, economy (011510)
The global reserve currency dilemma (010710)
Cost of Christmas increases by a modest 1.8% (122309)
Ample water supply key to economic development (121809)
Rethinking the export-oriented economic model (121109)
Reforming the international financial architecture (120409)
Sustainable finance (112709)
Christmas gift giving: a deadweight loss? (112009)
Using technology to weather the crisis (111309)
Understanding central banks’ open market operations (110609)
RP needs to work towards reaping benefits of excess liquidity (103009)
Islamic banking and the Malaysian experience (102309)
Natural disasters and the economy (101609)
Natural disasters and the economy (100909)
The economics of bargaining (092509)
Study shows access to health care becoming more difficult for
Philippines’ poor (091109)
Monetary policy and asset bubbles (090409)
Nominal versus real values (082809)
The dynamics of money supply and demand (082109)
The economics of retailing (081409)
Returning to the barter system (080709)
Taking stock of the rosy picture (073109)
Why LGUs’ tax revenues and expenditure assignments do not match
(072409)
The economics of taxing sin (071709)
Stabilizing prices through targeting (071009)
The growing significance of the middle class (070309)
Going green amid the crisis (062609)
What hampers the Philippines’ growth (061909)
Explaining the puzzle (061209)
The dynamics behind the yield curve (060509)
The other side of brain drain: poverty reduction (052909)
What the future holds (052209)
Countering the global downturn via effective business
planning(051509)
The cost of Ponzi schemes (050809)
Diversifying the agriculture sector (050109)
The economics of the state entering the bedroom (042409)
The benefits of conditional cash transfers (041009)
Counting the poor (040309)
The Modern Filipino diaspora (032709)
The internal revenue allotment (032009)
Building an ASEAN Economic Community (031309)
Empowering women (022709)
The economics of public-private partnerships (021309)
Depression economics (013009)
The economics of foreign aid (011609)
Financial globalization and market instability (010909)

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