Newsroom

"I believe that the future of computing will be driven not by existing users but by new users. These are going to be from the world’s emerging markets. They need computing at the price of a cellphone. They need computing as a utility. The next big thing in computing will be about building a platform which makes the two most important creations of the past – the computer and the internet – available to the next users at a fraction of today’s prices. It will be about making hardware, software, broadband connectivity, content and support available for Rs 700 ($15) per user per month for the next billion users of computing. This is a global market of $180 billion per annum which does not exist today." Read full article here.

Continue Reading This News Entry

"First discussed in a Harvard Business Review article and then in Foreign Affairs, this transformative business idea is the mission of C.K. Prahalad, who has been called one of the top 20 business thinkers today. He brings this radical concept to life in his book that launches Wharton School Publishing/Pearson new business imprint, THE FORTUNE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Publication Date: August 25, 2004; $27.95 hardcover). The 25-minute CD (included with every book) shows the results of companies and organizations creating sustainable win-win scenarios -- the lives of real people at the BOP are dramatically improved in many ways." Read full article here.

Continue Reading This News Entry

"Working in poverty-stricken areas gives corporate travelers an up-close look at global problems such as disease, illiteracy or injustice. It also puts them in a position to bring about change. 'When executives are in disadvantaged areas, the first instinct is to do something immediately ... and reach into their pockets for money," said Lelei LeLaulu, president and chief executive of Counterpart International, which helps develop small businesses in emerging economies around the world. "But that is not usually the most effective way.' What's needed is a longer-term approach that yields greater rewards, he said." Read full article here.

Continue Reading This News Entry

"According to the latest PC Tracker numbers for the CEMA region from IDC, while the total PC market growth continues to slow, slipping 21.3% this year, portable shipments soared by more than 60% compared to the same quarter in 2003. In addition, the desktop market expanded by 16% and the x86 server market by 26.6% year-over-year. The sales figures from CEMA are vital trend indicators, because while the numbers are small compared to other areas of the globe, the region represents untapped growth potential for the PC market, and the many other technology systems and services that follow on the sales of computers. Read full article here.

Continue Reading This News Entry

"Jerry Azarkman, a 51-year-old former door-to-door peddler, and his brother Ron, 48, have built a small retail empire that caters to newcomers who are eager to join the consumer market but sometimes feel alienated from it. What the Azarkmans have grasped is that the poor can be good credit risks, if the retailer gives them reason to be grateful someone has taken a chance on them." Read full article here.

Continue Reading This News Entry

"General Motors East Africa Limited yesterday announced plans to expand its Nairobi plant. Bill Lay, GM's managing director said that the expansion will help the company cope with increased demand coming from the public transport industry. Lay said that the implementation of the East African Community (EAC) protocol, scheduled for January 2005, will also provide a major opportunity for the company to increase sales." Read full article here.

Continue Reading This News Entry

"The Indian soap war hints at a bigger trend. The developing world is looking more attractive than it has in years to the world's leading purveyors of food, shampoo and laundry detergent. While growth is stagnant in North America and Europe, the market for consumer goods elsewhere is expanding fast, in stride with growing local incomes and populations." Read full article here.

Continue Reading This News Entry

"Far from the prosperity and growing competition in Asia's glittering big cities -- where growth is beginning to cool from a once-blistering pace -- the beverage giant is investing tens of millions of dollars to expand its production and distribution footprint. The strategy is to market super-cheap sodas to a vast population that in the past was considered too poor, provincial or difficult to reach for consumer-product companies. If successful here, Coke could be mapping a new strategy for how Western companies approach hundreds of millions of potential customers on the lower rungs of Asian society." Read full article here.

Continue Reading This News Entry

"Windows XP Starter Edition--an inexpensive version of Microsoft's flagship operating system that does not contain as many features as the standard version--will begin shipping on PCs in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in October, said Maggie Wilderotter, senior vice president for the worldwide public sector at Microsoft." Read full article here.

Continue Reading This News Entry

"'Over 400 million households worldwide by 2008 will have the income, the electricity, and the connectivity necessary to make an appropriately tailored PC for their market a desired product,' Poole said. More than half of those households are in markets that Microsoft is most interested in grabbing: Brazil, China, India, and Russia. 'Those are the big dogs of emerging market opportunities,' Poole said, and would be the natural targets for expansion of Starter Edition." Read full article here.

Continue Reading This News Entry