Posted by: Jerry Liao on: July 5, 2009
Have you ever wondered where the old PCs go to after a company decided to upgrade their corporate PCs? I only have two guesses – it’s either they give it to their employees or they donate it to schools or institutions.
And given the speed on how faster computers are being made, old PCs may not be that old as everyone thinks. What I am saying is it may be slow to companies, but it surely is fast to students and / or institutions who would simply use it for word processing or for presentation purposes perhaps.
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But according to Gartner, demand for secondary PCs will outstrip supply for years to come, but reuse does not necessarily mean "greener" IT because growing exports for reuse or recycling are leading to increasing e-waste in emerging markets.
In 2008, 37 million secondary PCs were refurbished and exported to emerging markets, and Gartner predicts that this number will rise to 69 million by 2012. A secondary PC is one that is repurposed after its primary use (as a new PC) has ended. Secondary PCs must have been used in the installed base for more than 120 days to be considered secondary use.
Gartner found that the demand for secondary PCs has increased as the global recession has tightened its grip. As product life cycles lengthen, demand for secondhand PCs is outstripping supply. Even when the markets recover, shortages of used PCs will continue as large volumes, especially of notebooks, will be too old to have a useful second life span.
These secondary PCs will eventually need to be disposed of. In 2007, nearly 68 million secondary PCs had to be discarded worldwide. In emerging countries, approximately 15 million secondary PCs had to be discarded in 2007. Gartner estimates that by 2012, emerging countries will need to dispose of a total of 30 million secondary PCs annually.
With all due respect, I am not sure if Gartner considered that with the ongoing trends, PCs are becoming more affordable and Web 2.0 is here or perhaps even Web 3.0 will be here by 2012. By that time, emerging markets may no longer need these secondary PCs anymore and would opt to go with the affordable new PCs. So affordable that they won't even think about their software since most of them will be available on the web.
Too early to tell really, three years in technology is considered eternity.
Posted by: Jerry Liao on: June 30, 2009
Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, the man who revolutionized music, especially music videos, and a world icon, passed away on June 25th 2009 at the age of 50 due to cardiac arrest. The news of his death sends shockwaves across the real world and cyberspace.
Media giants CNN, FoxNews, Bloomberg and the rest of media world provided an extensive coverage of his sudden demise.
In cyberspace, the news of Michael’s death sets the internet on fire, to the extent that Google reacted that it was under a hack attack due to huge jump in search queries.
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Posted by: Jerry Liao on: June 28, 2009
What do you know, there really is light at the end of every tunnel. After painting a gloomy picture for the PC industry, research group Gartner revised its forecast and reported that the personal computer market is expected to grow in the fourth quarter
According to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc, worldwide PC shipments are on pace to reach 274 million units in 2009, a 6 percent decline from 2008 shipments of 292 million. Gartner now expects the PC market to post positive growth in the fourth quarter of 2009, setting the stage for a healthy market recovery in 2010 with units forecast to grow 10.3 percent.
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Posted by: Jerry Liao on: June 23, 2009
Technology has brought a lot of benefits to mankind. It made most of us more effective and efficient both in our professional and personal tasks. But as much as their are a lot of advantages , there are still those who are more innovative than others – like using technology in some other ways, the bad ways.
Common Sense Media in San Francisco USA recently released the results of a national poll on the use of digital media for cheating in school. The poll, conducted by The Benenson Strategy Group, revealed that more than 35% of teens admit to cheating with cell phones, and more than half admit to using the Internet to cheat. More importantly, many students don’t consider their actions to be cheating at all. The results highlight a real need for parents, educators, and leaders to start a national discussion on digital ethics.
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Posted by: Jerry Liao on: June 21, 2009
Just recently, the Senate of the Philippines conducted a hearing to determine what is causing the sudden disappearance of mobile credits plus an inquiry as to why mobile loads comes with an expiration date.
Representatives from Globe Telecoms, Smart Communications Inc., and Digitel Mobile Philippines Inc. (Sun Cellular) attended the inquiry. So we already know the problem, let us talk about the solution. Let us talk about the disappearing mobile credits first:
There are only two possible reasons why its happening – wrong billing and unauthorize deduction of mobile credits. Wrong billing and delayed billing are problems of telecommunication companies. They should upgrade their billing system and make it real time. Real time meaning as soon as the credits are used, it should be deducted right away to avoid misunderstanding of charges.
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