Here we are now entertaining…What’s the new craze you ask? Well, music and movies on demand might give you the answer. This was definitely one of the most upfront trends in 2007.
To support this idea here’s quite an impressive statistic: distribution of video-on-demand through cable and broadband networks materialized this year worldwide into a $1.1 billion business.
By 2012, according to industry experts, this business will come to a 35 per cent annual increase, that is a $5 billion worth business , taking market share away from DVD retailers, an important change that service providers, like cable, satellite and direct to home players have already acknowledged.
In India, for example, IOL Broadband has already initiated an IP-based on-demand television service. IOL Broadband also provides interactive gaming, video conferencing, an e-education channel and live financial data from the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Cell-addiction
It seems that talking (on the phone) is becoming quite the thrill for Indians. Fortunately, they don’t have to reach deep into their pockets to do it because calls are getting very cheap these days.
In the meantime, playing the high volumes game is a danger to operators margins. The average revenue per user (ARPU) for GSM services is falling already and even though CDMA ARPU is getting higher , the GSM figure is still to reach.
The fact that pre-paid customers cover more than 85 per cent of the total cellular subscriber base and account for a fantastic 96 to 97 per cent of all incremental additions does not better the situation. On average, prepaid customers have lower bills and are a floating population with increasing churn levels.
The churn is expected to increase along with the competition, since TRAI has established a panel to engage in finding the details for number portability feature, allowing a subscriber to keep his mobile number albeit he changes the service provider.
By 2010 the government anticipates telcos to meet the fabulous 500-million customer mark (wireless and fixed) although at the moment only one in five Indians owns a phone. This so called teledensity of about 22 per cent is explained through an approximate 50 per cent dissemination in the urban areas and only 2 per cent in rural areas.
India represents a huge business opportunity and this is easily noticeable when Indian telcos are putting in an estimated $20 billion over the next two years to improve their networks, construct towers, and create their subscriber base.
Wimax, the winning horse?
The number of those seeing Wimax as the next big thing in the world of wireless communication is getting bigger and bigger though 3G proponents would disagree with the idea.
Yet, companies such as VSNL, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Bharti Airtel and even smaller firms like Microsense, are heavily investing in the complex forms of communication as the wireless bandwagon and have begun offering fixed WiMAX networks as pilots.
Basically, WiMax, is an IEEE 802.16 technology that bears both fixed-nomadic WiMAX WBA (802.11d) and mobile WiMAX WBA (802.16e). However,in India fixed WiMax has the overwhelming predominance.
Get your Game On!
2007 also brought quite a boost to the Indian gaming industry, both through a drop in prices and introduction of better gaming solutions to more efficient means to attract the gamers.
Both Microsoft and Sony tried to better lure the gamers, the first one by introducing Xbox 360 Elite, an upgraded version of its famous Xbox 360, and the latter by launching its PlayStation3 in India with the latest blue-ray formatted optical disc drive.
Dot matrix printers make it to the next year
We are stepping into the fourth generation of printing devices but it seems that dot matrix printers still want to linger for a while (at least for the following year) and the reason they are so confident is their lowest cost per page that is quite a devil to beat and the acceptable print quality in text.
Social networking picks up
We can’t deny Websites such as Facebook, YouTube, Orkut and Second Life being the stars of 2007. First and foremost, these social networking sites stepped into the light not owing to their networking functionality, but because they were there offering to many users the chance of their first incursion into the world of personal publishing. The question rising is how many of these social networks will still shine in 2008?
Security threats
Looks like the malware writers have kept themselves quite busy in 2007 (360,000 pieces of unique malware discovered, McAfee’s Avert Labs state) and according to the latest estimation the total number of malware will reach by 2008 an astounding 550,000.
Financial Services industry maintains its top place as target in the industry sector with 91.3 per cent of all attacks in September alone.
Most anticipated launches
Apple iPhone was the most awaited handset iPhone and here we let numbers speak for themselves - 1.4 million items sold in the US in the first three months.
At the moment, the phone has reached besides US also a few European countries like UK, France and Germany.
Microsoft Vista was launched in January this year: the outcome of five years of work. It was released in four editions and available in 18 languages, including Hindi. Windows Vista Home Basic came with the same price as Windows XP Home.
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