It took eight years for RIM to get authorization from the Chinese government to sell its BlackBerry devices in the Republic of China. Following the decision, China is added to a list that already includes Japan, South Korea, Singapore and India, the Asian countries where the Canadian manufacturer already has a presence. Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at RIM, says that his company has already received about 5,000 requests for BlackBerry, mostly from business professionals and foreign multinationals with offices located in the Asian powerhouse.

BlackBerry has finally obtained approval from the Chinese authorities to sell its devices in their country. RIM is stepping into an interesting market, but one in which it will have to gain ground on RedBerry, a product with similar characteristics already available in China.

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Title: Informe 2007 sobre tecnología e innovación en España
Source: Fundación COTEC
Date: June 15, 2007
Abstract: In 2006, Spain invested 1.13% of its GDP in R&D, going over the €10 billion mark for the first time. Nevertheless, this figure is still a far cry from the EU average and that of the OECD. For this reason, the improvement in investment “will need to intensify for a few years in order for the technology to become a clear source of competitiveness,” according to Juan Mulet, general manager of COTEC.
The report prepared by the aforementioned foundation points out that Spain should beef up private R&D investment, which is currently 53.9% of the overall amount, twelve points below the European Union standard, which was set at 66%.
Spain’s average R&D spending per capita in 2005 was €228 euros, although it varies considerably according to the autonomous community. Whereas the Communities of Madrid and Navarra invested €485 and 429 per capita, respectively, Castilla-La Mancha and the Balearic Islands spent just €66 per capita, respectively.
The 2007 report by the COTEC Foundation has come up with a new way to evaluate the performance of the Spanish innovation system, “based on the sectors generating efficiency, the productivity of traditional sectors and traditional business.”

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Bill Gates and company are preparing to bolster their strategy for the online services market. This was the announcement from Microsoft’s top brass at the Worldwide Partner Conference, which took place July 11-12 in Denver, Colorado. Microsoft will continue to focus on its role as a package software manufacturer, while also fully reinforcing the business model it has already hinted at with its ‘Live’ strategy. This includes products such as Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger and Windows CRM Live.
The move by Microsoft to put products of this variety online is also designed to snatch away some market share from Google, who for some time now has been cashing in on this model, though without renouncing the benefits of local software applications.

Press release in Microsoft
Article in eWeek

The so-called person-to-person offshoring (PPO) is a form of delocalizing support services aimed at individual professionals. Small and medium-sized businesses from all around the world are starting to use this brand of small-scale delocalization on endeavors such as developing the corporate website, or tasks like editing, translating or drafting documents, or even aiding customer service, as well as others. Although contracts of this type made with individual professionals are significantly less prevalent than those hiring service companies, it is a global market with a world of possibilities. As a matter of fact, from April 2006 to March 2007 it brought in $250 million and forecasts for 2015 have this figure rising to $2 billion.

Articles in CNET News and Computing

The report entitled Wireless Broadband 2007: WiMAX&CO (PDF, 851 Kb)   investigates the current state of wireless technologies, focusing particularly on WiMAX. The study, developed by IESE professor Brian Subirana along with Alexis Vassilopoulos, is part of the Top Ten Technologies project led by professor Subirana. Its purpose is to research to find out which are the ten key technologies affecting the business world. The study by the e-business Center PwC&IESE also examines the rival technologies and the current state of the allocation of the radio spectrum, one of the outstanding issues for WiMAX.

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The impact of information and communications technologies in the media was the focus of the 3rd Meeting on Media and Advertising, held on July 4 at the IESE campus in Barcelona.Paolo Vasile, chief executive of Spanish broadcaster Telecinco, and Maurizio Carlotti, his counterpart at Antena 3, coincided in their opinion that digital terrestrial television (DTT) does not pose a threat for commercial TV broadcasters, defending that the platform must be introduced gradually. “DTT is our future, but we don’t have to hurry things because it doesn’t have an expiration date,” said Vasile.
Both executives also the Personal Video Recorder (PVR), which allows individual viewers set their own programming schedule without any ad interruptions. It is a challenge, says Carlotti, one that the Spanish industry has yet to face up to, given that it “has not gotten the market penetration it expected.” Both experts also pointed out that apart from technological innovation, attention must also be given to the quality of the content, especially when one considers how spectators are increasingly more demanding.
The vice chancellor of the University of Navarra, Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero, expressed his support for large companies putting more resources into innovation, given that presently the torch bearers in innovation in the sector are the small companies.

More information (In Spanish)