WCA September 2010

From the americas

The Alcatel One Touch phone, which provides direct access to Yahoo content through a single button, was launched in Indonesia on 15 th June, with other Asian markets to follow.

What, precisely, is the service a health care practitioner might provide by cell phone? According to a “What will it do?” box accompanying the Union-Tribune article, it will track health conditions such as blood sugar levels and heart rate; deliver advice on healthful behaviours tailored to the specific patient; remind the user about medication schedules or doctor appointments; and alert physicians when a problem surfaces. While this may sound less than revolutionary, the projected savings from fewer trips to hospitals and doctors’ offices could be considerable. And “infrastructure” costs would presumably be low. “Since the mobile phone is always on and always with you, it’s the most logical platform for monitoring and maintaining personal health,” Mr Jacobs, of Qualcomm, told the hometown paper. “And new types of mobile devices and services have tremendous potential to improve productivity for medical professionals.” Mr Darcé remarked on some changes already under way ❖ ❖ that would seem to reinforce that view. Programmers have designed hundreds of medical-related applications for the iPhone and other smart phones. California health officials have launched free text-messaging systems that send information to subscribers about West Nile virus outbreaks in their area. The longer-term outlook also looks bright. According to a report from the Institute for the Future, in Palo Alto, a non-profit research centre that specialises in forecasting, “Mobile health will encompass a whole set of new business and consumer practices that fundamentally transform the health care system as we know it.” But both the futuristic centre and the civic leadership of San Diego must function in present-day California, a challenging environment for all new ventures. As Mr Darcé pointed out, more research is needed to prove that mobile devices actually improve the health of users. Neither government-administered Medicare nor private insurers in the US have a payment system for electronically based consultations. Nothing daunted, Gary West, a former tele- communications entrepreneur who has given $90 million toward the creation of the West Wireless Health Institute in La Jolla, told the Union-Tribune , “I firmly believe that San Diego is the right place at the right time to give birth to a new industry. [It] has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that every other community would love to have.” Elsewhere in telecom . . . Reporting in ❖ ❖ telecomasia from the CommunicAsia show held in Singapore in June, Bill Mumford wrote that the US online information-sharing firm Yahoo had unveiled a new messaging app and a phone with bundled Yahoo access aimed at mobile Internet adopters in emerging markets. According to Irv Henderson, Yahoo’s vice president of mobile and local product development, emerging mobile markets are “crucial” for Yahoo, whose Internet ad display business is focused primarily on PC users. The new apps bundle Messenger One is aimed at new-to-the-Net users. While the company has no immediate plans to monetise the product, Mr Henderson said operators would be able to charge a small premium for access to the Messenger One apps.

Automotive

Hyundai is fulfilling its earlier promise in the US market According to the Detroit Free Press , the head of Hyundai Motor America ends his e-mails with this admonition: “Stay humble, stay hungry.” In light of the company’s momentum, the paper’s staff members are of the opinion that CEO John Krafcik may find it difficult to follow his own advice. In 1998, Hyundai held 0.6% of the US auto market. Today, it holds 4.4% and ranks seventh among US brands. Sales at the halfway point in 2010 are up 23%, marking the 17 th consecutive month of year-over-year market share gains for the South Korean company. In April, demand for the its best-selling midsize Sonata was so strong that customers had to be turned away. As Mr Krafcik told freep. com, “We cannot build our cars fast enough.” (“Hyundai Keeps Gaining in US,” 27 th June) Hyundai entered the American market in 1986 with a single model – the Excel – and set a record for selling the most automobiles ever in a first year of business in the US (some 126,000 sold). But the Free Press noted that it is in the past decade that the company has really come from behind. Many credit Hyundai’s chief executive, Chung Mong-koo, who took the reins of the parent company in 1999. Over the same decade of steady gains for its US unit, Seoul-based Hyundai Motor Co was taking a parallel course. In 2001, it ranked 32 of 38 brands in a JD Power Initial Quality Survey. Today, it is the world’s fourth-largest auto maker. Elsewhere in automotive . . . The Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp ❖ ❖ (LAEDC) announced that the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD plans to locate the headquarters of three separate US operating divisions in Los Angeles. As North America’s largest consumer market for electric vehicles, southern California was seen as a strategic outpost for BYD because of its proximity to Los Angeles International Airport, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and several railways, LAEDC said. It noted as well that the area is already home to major operations of the Japanese car companies Honda, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Toyota, and South Korea’s Hyundai and Kia. BYD started up in 1995 in Shenzhen as a rechargeable battery maker. It entered the electric car industry in 2003 and is seen by many analysts as an emerging world leader in that technology. Last year, BYD sold over 430,000 automobiles in China, to more than double its performance for 2008. The company attracted attention in 2008 when American billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, bought a 9.8% stake. Dorothy Fabian – Features Editor

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2010