Online Leisure: a War on Three Fronts 
War drums have been rolling for some time now in the online music sector. The outcome of this battle could, indirectly, condition the Internet film distribution market. Full Story (PDF, 14 Kb)

Title: Internet Trends
Source: Morgan Stanley – US Internet Team
Date: Abril 2004
Abstract: Although the Internet must still prove that it will be the most important distribution channel of the decade, things are going well. At least that is what Morgan Stanley analysts state in their report “Internet Trends 2004”. In it they describe the underlying tendencies that, in their view, will mark the future of the Internet in the coming years. SFO (Search-Find-Obtain) is quickly becoming a global reality and it is to be the next killer application of the Internet. Proof of this is the fact that companies offering diverse services like Google, Amazon.com, Yahoo!, Expedia or Overture are all treading on each other to offer users whatever they need and, of course, to sell it to them. In this sense, the Morgan Stanley analysts highlight the discrepancy between the mind share and market share of these popular companies, which, according to the analysts, shows that there is still a world of potential consumers to exploit.
The step from an offline world to an online world requires time, but without any doubt it is happening. The report takes as an example the following comparison: a single web page, eBay, centralises 602 million classified ads, while all the North American newspapers together (1,468 daily papers) don’t reach 120 million ads (data from 2003).
Associated with the success of SFO is the success of the publicity for keyword searches and with it the increase in the income for sponsored links. All in all, the Morgan Stanley experts vindicate what they consider the “Internet momentum” in which other leading players are: the rise in consumer electronics, the spread of broadband and the sustained growth not only of the number of Internet users but also of the frequency with which they use it. Full Story

The advance of wireless technology is unstoppable. While we are still trying to assimilate that it is possible to connect to the Internet without an “umbilical cord” that links up our computer to the telephone line thanks to Wi-Fi technology, out comes Wi-Max, which does the same but faster and over greater distances.
The question now is whether these two wireless technologies will complement each other or whether one will substitute the other. The experts foresee both of them living together: Wi-Fi will continue to expand in offices and homes while Wi-Max will develop in wider areas like open spaces, rural areas or huge infrastructures, doing away with the “islands” created by the limited range of Wi-Fi. In other words, Wi-Max will get to where Wi-Fi can’t. On the other hand, this new technology could be a threat for ADSL and cable, particularly in new areas, given that the cost of setting up a network is much less (there is no need to dig up streets and roads to install it).
In any case, it is quite clear that the future of communications lies in wireless technology: it is estimated that at present there are some 100,000 hot-spots in the world, 500% more than in 2003, which, according to Gartner, will enable more than 30 million users to enjoy wireless connections. Spain, although far from the leadership of The United States, comes in at very respectable ninth place in the world ranking of Wi-Fi connections.
News in Cnet News.com
Article in The Wall Street Journal (Premium service)

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has had its market share cut by one point for the first time in five years. According to WebSideStory, a company that has been researching into the browser market since 1999, Internet Explorer went from having 95.73% of the market to 94.73% last June.
Although the dominance of the Windows browser is still unquestionable, there are those who see this loss as the first symptom of weakness. This is, above all, because the fall of the Internet Browser coincides with a 26% increase in the market share of the open-source Mozilla, whose presence on the market has gone up from 3.21% to 4.05%.
Undoubtedly, the security problems that Internet Explorer has suffered for some time are partly responsible for the loss of users. Keeping the operating system up to date with patches and anti-virus updates is hard and costly, so it is no wonder that more and more people are betting on alternative open source browsers like Mozilla or Opera. Although their presence is still merely testimonial, the truth is that for Internet Explorer this is the first point of inflection in its exponential growth that started when it was introduced as a default browser on Windows 95, literally killing off Netscape.
News in Baquía and Noticiasdot.com
Articles in The Inquirer, USA Today and PCWorld

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, creators of Microsoft and Apple respectively, are the main characters of the play called “Nerds”, written by Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner. With this explicit title they present the narration, in the form of a musical comedy, of the trajectory of both characters from their teenage years – when they schemed up complex computers while enclosed in their respective garages – to the present day, converted into two icons of computing and part of its history.
The play, performed at the Vassar Collage in Poughkeepsie (New York), also includes supporting characters like Steve Wozniak, who worked side by side with Steve Jobs in the development of the first Apple computer, as well as fictional female love interests. Although the authors invited Jobs, Gates and Wozniak to attend the first performance only the latter responded but declined the invitation.
This is not the first time that the lives of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have been used in a plot. In 1999, TNT, the North American chain, broadcast “The Pirates of Silicon Valley”, a television film on their lives, their achievements and the rivalry between them.
News in The New York Times

By Guillermo Armelini, e-business Center PwC&IESE research assistant
Can you imagine having access to the computing services you need from your computer or other device without having to buy the software? This is the aim of “utility computing”, that considers computer services and applications as a service: the consumer only pays for what he uses. Full Story (PDF, 191 Kb)

By Miguel Reiser, e-business Center PwC&IESE collaborator
Although it may look like a threat to employment, outsourcing information services to more economical countries means a chance to save costs.
Full Story (PDF, 17 Kb)