BlackBerry Semakin 'Diujung Tanduk'

Susetyo Dwi Prihadi - Okezone

SAN FRANCISCO - Research in Motion (RIM) terus mengalami tren negatif  dalam hal penjualan BlackBerry. Pasalnya, dalam laporan triwulan terakhir di tahun 2011, handset asal Kanada terus mengalami penurunan yang berimbas pada hilangnya market share RIM di Amerika Serikat (AS).

Dalam laporan terbaru, penjualan BlackBerry dalam selama tiga bulan terakhir, yang berakhir pada November, mengalami penurunan sebesar 16,6 persen, dari sebelumnya 19,7 persen. Sementara Akibat penurunan ini, Google Android dan Apple mendapatkan keuntungan besar-besar. Demikian hasil penelitian comScore.

Menurut comScore, Android menjadi platform smartphone teratas di AS dengan jumlah market share sebesar 46,9 persen pada akhir November, yang mengalami naik dari 43,8 dari triwulan sebelumnya. Demikian yang dilansir melalui NDtv, Jumat (30/12/2011).

Pangsa pasar Apple juga meningkat selama periode tersebut dengan kenaikan mencapai presentase 1,4 poin  dari 28,7 persen. Microsoft, masuk pangsa pasar smartphone dengan nilan penurunan menjadi 5,2 persen dari 5,7 persen.

ComScore mengatakan sebanyak 234 juta orang di AS menggunakan perangkat mobile dan 91,4 juta yang menggunakan smartphone. Sementara itu, Samsung tetap menjadi produsen handset terkemuka di AS dengan 25,6 persen dari pelanggan seluler AS pada akhir November, naik dari 25,3 persen pada akhir Agustus.

LG berada di posisi berikutnya dengan 20,5 persen, turun dari 21,0 persen, diikuti oleh Motorola dengan 13,7 persen, turun dari 14,0 persen. (tyo)

SOPA dan PIPA apa sih?

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) dan Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) adalah peratuarn perundang-undangan yang akan memberlakukan peraturan anti pembajakan di layanan di internet. Segala macam bentuk pembajakan, mau film , musik, video, dll pokonya dilarang. Perusahaan-persahaan internet besar bisa jadi harus menutup paksa seluruh aksesnya yan berhubungan ataupun yang mengarah ke file bajakan. UU ini emang belum resmi dibuka, namun sudah mulai beraksi yaitu dengan penangkapan Kim Dotcom sang empunya situs penyimpanan file Megaupload. Gue yang sejatinya tukang download turut bersimpati atas penutupan situs megaupload karena salah satu yang berjasa dari hasil downloadan gue. Sekarang File sonic aja juga udah ga bisa download file kecuali file yang kita upload sendiri ke situs tersebut.

Namun banyak kok perusahaan-perusahaan internet raksasa yang menolak pemberlakuan UU tersebut seperti Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo, dll. Bahkan wikipedia yang versi laman bhs Inggris sempat mematikan situsnya selama 24 jam sebagai bentuk proses dari SOPA dan PIPA. Penghasilan yang didapat dari perusahaan internet tersebut pastinya luar biasa, kekayaan kim dotcom sendiri ditaksir ratusan juta dollar bahkan bisa jadi lebih. Wahwahwah, apalagi yang punya Google, Yahoo ya? Kim Dotcom aja punya masion sendiri yang merupakan termahal di Selandia baru. 

Saya sangat menyayangkan kalau sampai internetpun harus mendapatkan informasi dengan bayar juga. Apa jadinya hidup tanpa internet? kalau saya sendiri lebih suka download ketimbang main jejaring sosial.   Kalau dimana-mana orang bisa autis gara-gara jejaring sosial, aku bisa autis gara-gara lagi download. Mudah-mudahan SOPA dan PIPA bisa dipertimbangkan lagi sama pemerintah di Amerika sana, itu sih harapan pribadi aku. Jangan sampai merampas hak manusia untuk mendapatkan informasi secara gratis, apalagi buat orang-orang kecil kaya kita yang mungkin cuma bisa crhat lewat blognya.

South Korea has the Fastest Internet Speed and was declared to have the World’s Top Technology Market by the UN

The United Nations recognizes South Korea to have the world’s top technology market!

Free Wi-Fi virtually in every cafe, in bookstores, in most office buildings, GPS feature media poles in the heart of the busy financial district and real-time arrival time streaming at bus stops—all with broadband speed that is still to be unmatched from any other country. Having lived in South Korea I have come to feel firsthand how fast and wired the country of South Korea is. Apparently users of smartphones and free wi-fi junkies were not the only ones who agree with me. Last week, the United Nations recognized South Korea as the country with the top technology market!

For the second consecutive year, South Korea was awarded by the UN with this honor. Each year the International Telecommunication Union (ITU; UN agency for information and telecommunications technologies) publishes a report and these global rankings come from the Measuring the Information Society report. Although it’s been only a year, much has changed for Korea. Already known to the world as being one of the most wired nations, the fast advancements in mobile markets and other telecommunication ventures coming out of this country, helped them acquire more points to help recapture the title in 2011.

Smart Korea: Which one would you use?

Over in America, Pando Network ran a study of a new online gaming application by analyzing 27 million downloads by 20 million different computer units throughout 224 countries, from January 2011- July 2011. South Korea proved to have the fastest average game download speed of 2,202 Kbps, where the global average was found to be 580 Kbps.

Compliments of Pando Network

The United States was found to have an average of 616 Kbps and behind South Korea in 2nd and 3rd were Romania and Bulgaria with 1,919 Kbps and 1,611 Kbps respectively. Eastern Europe proved to have the second fastest gaming download speed. Either way, Korea and her other European top speed companions are servicing their citizens well above the global average.

 

Passing the key essential checkpoints

How is Korea measuring up? Well with 91% mobile broadband penetration (highest globally), 96% household Internet connection rate, 36.6% fixed mobile penetration, not so bad. Let’s have a short Q&A session covering some other details to see how Korea achieved this title for a second consecutive year.

Q: Does the region have a high level of internet penetration

A: Mutliple wi-fi spots per square mile, incomparable broadband speed, and 3G that works about anywhere (not to mention the 4G LTE craze going on right now).

Q: Are people early adopters?

A: The exponential increase of smartphone and tablet PC users of all ages speaks for itself; and we can’t forget to mention the overall speed of how quickly this nation developed from their third world status just 30 years ago.

Q: Does the region enjoy an infrastructure that supports digital over traditional models?

A: Take education for example. The education and schooling culture dominates the realm of Korean social issues. And the Korean government has committed to convert all school textbooks into digital forms, that are also to encompass cloud computing technology.

Q: Is there a technology eco-system?

A: Geographically it is difficult for Korea to have organized grid blocks, unlike the US, but their day-to-day operation of almost every aspect of technology services is a system that not only serves the citizens of this country at an unheard broadbandspeed, but finding solutions to any glitches are usually all taken care of in the day—the system is that efficient! No more scheduling appointments to have a service man come and check the cable at your house, then find the problem, and then come back a week later to fix it. Nope, done all in one day.

Q: Are investors more inclined in making investments in new ideas?

A: Not only is the government investing into “Green”efforts, but many small, medium and large conglomerates of Korea are investing largely into alternative energy and integrating “green” technology into their repertoire.

Fastest Cities and Slowest Cities, Compliments of Mashable

 

Below you will find a short description of the metrics used by the UN:

“The report captures the level of ICT developments in 152 economies worldwide and compares progress made during the past two years. The IPB combines fixed telephone, mobile cellular and fixed broadband Internet tariffs for 165 economies into one measure and compares these across countries, and over time.” -Measuring the Information Society Report.

UN members were so very impressed with the longevity of Korea’s infrastructure. Along with Korea at the top of the list were Australia, Japan, and New Zealand— where mobile phone services play a significant role in the lives of the people. Finland made an impression making it to 5th place this year after being ranked 12th last year. This year they were recognized for being the first country to make broadband access a legal right for citizens. Hong Kong was the only other Asian country in the top ten.

Here is a list of the top ten for 2011:

Compliments of Asian Scientists

I have been able to experience the difference in speed firsthand, but not all of you may have. Korea has definitely spoiled me and I only hope that you will all be able to experience the pampering of living in the most wired country with the fastest broadband speed.

\the author by Amy G Jung

Top 3 Korean Telecommunication Companies: A Rare Look into their Strategies and Competition

Top 3 Korean Telecommunication Companies: A Rare Look into their Strategies and Competition

Korean market for smartphone grows rapidly

The mobile environment in Korea has been developing for quite some time now. The distribution rate of cell phones have always been extremely high, and various attempts have been made for mobile service. The contents market such as mobile game, call-waiting tones, and background image earned meaningful results. And it shows quick adaptability to smartphone environment that is recently receiving global attention.

The development of increase in the number of new smartphone users in Korea

Cell phone users in Korea are 51,963,001 (the end of August 2011) and since March 2010, it exceeded the distribution rate of 100%. The number of new smartphone users grew quickly after the launch of the iPhone, and is quickly approaching twenty million users. Right now, the weight of smartphone sales in the whole cell phone market is about 82%.

Infrastructure tows the market growth

There are several reasons for why the Korean mobile market responds quickly and grows. As ultrahigh speed internet became popularized early and the distribution rate of PC grew higher, web services have been already developed. The fact that Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, which are the world-class cell phone making companies, are Korean companies had some effect on it.

Another reason is that there is the concentrated population in the capital area. The end of 2010 as the basis, the population in the capital area in Korea is about 23,616, and it takes up approximately 49% of the entire population. Since population is concentrated on a certain region, it's easy for choice and focus regarding investment on infrastructure and marketing.

There aren't many places like Korea, which is appropriate for test beds for new network infra. Since we have conditions like this, construction of new infrastructures like LTE, WiMax (Wibro), Wi-Fi, NFC, RFID is fast, and the amount of content consumption and application service due to this developed naturally.

New challenge to 4G

There are three telecommunication companies, SKT, KT, and LG U+, in Korea. These three companies have their own characteristics and strategies, compete against each other, and develop there on after. Recently, 4G commercialization is the main topic for these companies. SKT launched its LTE test frequency at 2 A.M. on April 16th, and LG U+ at 4 A.M., just two hours later. This was a neck-and-neck race that changed "the first in Korea," with a difference of two hours.

SKT has been leading the market as it announced LTE payment system and began the sales of Samsung "Galaxy S2 LTE," the first LTE smartphone in Korea, on September 28th. SKT has a strategy that focuses investment on LTE on the capital area and adjusts the balance with 3G. LG U+ is trying to reverse the atmosphere of the whole market through LTE. It has the determination to take the leadership in the LTE realm by covering the national network, even though it trails behind SKT’s initial release in terms of commercialization.

KT, which is even a bit later than its competitions in the LTE race, would be the first to take action through Wibro. The number of 4G Wibro members, which was 365,000 at the end of the last year, reached 642,000 now, increasing 75.9% (277,000) during nine months.

Telecommunication companies that dream of leaping to be media companies

Korean telecommunication companies try to take a leap as media companies instead of simply remaining as network business. Recently, SKT moved the department of contents and platform business to 'SK Planet,' beginning to make full-scale investment. SK Planet will operate NateOn, Korea's number 1 messaging service, Cyworld, Number 1 in SNS, 11th St., online shopping mall, T Map, which is map service, and 'T Store,' which is an app store. T Store is a distribution platform that is counted to be having 9.2 millions of recent members, accumulated sales of 32 millions, and 0.17 millions of the registered contents.

KT, which fell behind SKT in the field of media, introduced iPhone for the first time in Korea, playing the service strategy centered on app. It is aggressively developing mobile applications such as Olleh map, Olleh navi, Olleh talk, Olleh music, and applications only for smart pad such as Olleh kindergarten and Olleh magazine. LG U+ is entering new service that combines SNS and LBS such as Waggle, placebook, and Dingdong.

Competition is enjoyable. Competition makes more for a developing environment

KT, LG U+ , SK Telecom, these three telecommunication companies are having extremely fierce competition in construction of new network, design of payment system, and marketing. This kind of competition naturally becomes a profit for consumers. The reason for unlimited payment system, decrease of basic fee, construction of LTE network, and smartphone service to get built fast and made is due to all this competitive system.

One regrettable thing is that since corresponding speed is made as the priority in the fast-changing environment, there are no permanence in service and no investment for basic technology. Also, the fact that there is no successful case in foreign market in this kind of global era seems to be an assignment that Korean telecommunication companies should solve eventually.

cheonjiin  

 the author by Seung Yul Kim