SMS and RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury)

If you like to SMS, be careful as you may be suffering injuries to your thumbs and fingers.

Some facts from UK:

• 93.5 million sms sent in a day
• 38% suffer sore wrists and thumbs
• 3.8 million complain of text-related injuries each year
• 12% send 20 texts per day
• 10% send up to 100 texts per day

Read this article from Yahoo!News.

LONDON (Reuters) - Mobile telephone text messaging has become so popular in Britain that millions of users now suffer injuries to their thumbs and fingers because of their love of keeping in touch, according to a survey on Tuesday.

Over 93.5 million text messages are sent every day but all this digit action has lead to an explosion in people reporting cases of repetitive strain injury (RSI).

Thirty-eight percent more people suffer from sore wrists and thumbs due to texting than five years ago and 3.8 million people now complain of text-related injuries every year.

The survey for Virgin Mobile found the texting phenomenon shows no sign of slowing. Over 12 percent of the population admit to sending 20 texts per day and 10 percent confess to sending up to 100 texts every day.

While psychologists say it is important for people to communicate there is a danger that using arms-length tools like texting and email is making people uncomfortable with more intimate face-to-face conversations.

There has even been concern voiced that some people run the risk of becoming addicted to excessive texting.

Russia - The next country for 3G

After China, the next country that is going to offer 3G services is Russia - another giant country with a huge market for 3G. Read the news below from Yahoo!News.

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia will this year begin offering licenses for third generation (3G) mobile telephones, Telecommunications Minister Leonid Reiman said.

The traditional market for mobile phones was approaching saturation in Russia, meaning that the time had come to begin granting 3G licenses, he said in remarks carried by the Novosti news agency Monday.

On January 1 "there were around 120 million mobile phone subscribers in Russia and it is obvious that with a population of 150 million we must soon reach saturation level," Reiman said.

Third generation mobile phone technology allows operators to offer such services as music, TV, video and Internet access to customers with compatible handsets.

Chicago to become WiFi city

Chicago, being one of the largest city in US, has hundreds of Wi-Fi hotspots in places like coffee shops, bookstores and libraries, where anyone can walk in, sit down and connect to the Web. Hoping to extend that wireless blanket to all 228 square miles, the city plans to ask technology companies this spring to submit proposals for the project.

If all goes smoothly, the system could be running as soon as 2007. That would certainly leave the city behind Philadelphia, which hopes to have its entire system in place late this year or early next year. But the size of a Chicago network would dwarf Philadelphia's planned 135-square-mile network or anything now in place.

Cities besides Philadelphia that have put Wi-Fi projects out for proposals in the last four months alone include Portland, Oregon; San Francisco, Anaheim, Pasadena and Long Beach, California; Denver and Aurora, Colorado; Minneapolis; Milwaukee; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Pittsburgh; Arlington, Virginia; and Brookline, Massachusetts.

The full story can be obtained here.

It would be nice if the whole Bandar Sg Long and Bandar Mahkota Cheras can be a WiFi-enabled 'city' where we can access Internet from everywhere including from our rooms, houses, shops, classrooms, restaurants and etc for just a minimal fee each month.

Do you like to wear ID card?

Since Monday this week, the university is embarking on a security campaign where all the students and staff need to wear their ID card the moment they step into the campus. This is to prevent unauthorised people from entering the premises. I believe this exercise should be put into action very long time ago.

How to encourage everyone to wear the ID card?

I'm wearing it because I have inserted the magnetic access card for staff room in the ID card holder together with my ID card - I need to use the acess card to enter into my office.

Some of my suggestions: (These ideas are already being practiced in some of the organisation as well as the educational institutions)

Incorporate the smart chip into the ID card

• to be used for entering the each lecture and tutorial rooms as an attendance marking tools (attendance report will be generated upon request by lecturers and tutors or being viewed online)
• library books loan can also be implemented
• e-cash systems for printing, cafeteria and as well as library fines
  

• Information kiosk can be provided around the campus for students to check all the relevant information by using the ID card on information such as examination results, time-table, attendance record and etc

Do you have anymore ideas? Or may be you can share with me whether you prefer to wear ID card or not.

This is an opinion from a student of mine:

My opinion about wearing our ID card:
I guess its kind of 'gaya' hanging our ID's round our neck.
Besides, aren`t we proud of ourselves and proud of our name....so why hide your ID.
At least the management didn't ask us to wear name tags like those in primary school.

As for what can our ID be used for besides the ones mention above:
I think it can be serve as a touch an go for our parking....
I guess everyone would wear their ID if they need to swipe it at the toilet doors in order to have excess to the toilets. hahahah.....good idea right

Are you surfing Internet for fun?

According to the latest survey conducted in US by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, nearly 1/3 or the users are actually surfing for fun. This is a twist from the common perceptions that Internet users go online to check e-mails or to look for relevant information.

How about you? Why you go online? Share with us the reasons for you to go online.

Implication:

• Behavioural pattern which can be used for marketing purposes
• More efforts are needed to make your products or services to be more attractive to order to capture their attention
• New products or services may emerge from this pattern

Below is the news clip from CNN.com

Poll: Web a fun place to hang out

Thursday, February 16, 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly one-third of American Internet users surveyed said they go online just for fun rather than to check e-mail, read news or use a search engine, a sharp increase from a year ago, the Pew Internet & American life Project said on Wednesday.

"This tells us the Internet is another place where people increasingly go to while away their time or just to hang out," said Deborah Fallows, senior research fellow at the nonpartisan research group which examines the social impact of the Internet.

"That has potentially big consequences for the way people spend their time," she added.

A survey of 1,931 Internet users conducted by Pew in late November and December 2005 found 30 percent of respondents said they went online "for no particular reason" on the previous day. That was up from 21 percent in a November 2004 survey.

Pew credited the increase on growing availability of broadband access and expanding Web content.

The survey also showed that 34 percent of online men were surfing for fun on an average day in December, compared with 26 percent of women.

When it comes to other online pursuits, Pew said that sending or receiving e-mail ranked highest with 52 percent of Internet users saying they did this on a typical day. Using a search engine ranked second with 38 percent, while reading news online was third with 31 percent.

Pew said the margin of error on the survey was plus or minus 2 percentage points.

3G spreading its wing to China soon

3G in China? With Beijing 2008 Olympic Games is coming, analysts predicting that China will experience its 3G services as early as the 1st half of this year.

What's the effect to the world market of the mobile devices? New market worth US$ 12 billion is waiting for the major 3G equipment vendors such as Siemens, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia.

For more information, read this article: Telecoms world looks to China for 3G boost (Yahoo! News)

Hotels is gaining control on online booking

In our Lecture 6, we discussed the type of travel and tourism services website such as Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, Priceline.com and others. Indeed, the extablishment of such new intermediaries has benefited a lot of consumers. However, it did had some impacts on the hotel operators.

This article is on how the hotel operators gaining the control of the online sales from the independent website like expedia.com and priceline.com.

Hotels corner market on online bookings (Source: Yahoo! News)
By Kyle Peterson Wed Feb 15

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -

Hotel companies have gained control of online sales despite fears years ago that independent Web sites would take the majority of business.

Hilton Hotels and Marriott International executives, speaking this week at the Reuters Hotels and Casinos Summit held in Los Angeles, said they are not dependent on travel agencies for sales but find such outlets helpful to unload last-minute bookings that otherwise would have gone unsold.

Hilton in particular takes pride in its Web site, claiming that 90 percent of its total online sales are made there.

Third-party travel sites led by Expedia Inc's Hotels.com were powerful forces in the travel industry a few years ago as hoteliers in the midst of a downturn struggled to attract guests, and Web sites delivered.

But as the industry's fortunes have improved, hotel companies have wrested back control of inventory and room pricing and focused on building their own Web sites.

Consumer perceptions of supplier direct sites operated by hotels, airlines and car rental companies have improved, especially among customers who prefer to avoid the booking fees charged by third-party travel agencies.

Travel agencies like Priceline.com and Expedia Inc. have become entrenched in the online travel market, but executives at the top hotel chains see them chiefly as a way to move extra rooms, keeping the bulk of their inventory for themselves.

The agencies' strength lies in their ability to provide price comparisons for shoppers and to book package deals that may be cheaper than booking lodging and transportation separately, analysts say.

Some agencies send phone messages on flight status, customer reviews of destinations and similar services to make the booking process easier and more enjoyable.

Priceline Chief Executive Jeffery Boyd, however, told Reuters on Monday that his company will continue to concentrate on providing customers with the lowest fares.

Additionally, Priceline and its rivals are working hard to penetrate European markets where Internet shopping is blossoming.

"We're establishing a very serious business in Europe for Priceline," Boyd said. "If you're looking at purely online reservations, we are now one of the biggest players in Europe."

Priceline reported $165 million of gross bookings for hotels in Europe in the third quarter of 2005, representing about 30 percent of its overall gross bookings.

Questions:

1. What's the impact of E-Commerce on Tourism in Malaysia?
2. How effective is the local web-based tourism services in Malaysia so far?
3. What are the incentives should be given to the local tourism industry, especially in promoting the use of online booking among the hotels and resorts in Malaysia?

JPJ and its three e-ways

Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan (JPJ) is working on three e-ways to improve its delivery systems. These new electronic applications will cover:

• E-health - for commercial vehicle drivers applying for or renewing their goods driving licence and public service vehicles, to enable drivers to get their medical certificates in a more systematic way
• E-kiosk - for drivers to check on the status of, as well as renew, their road tax and driving licence
• E-enforcement - using speed cameras in accident prone areas to nab traffic offenders

Note: Kindly refer to today's (13 Feb 2006) headlines from TheStar - "Danger on the road as unfit drivers buy forged certs to go on working"

Question: Could the implementation of e-Health can prevent the forged certs scam from happening?

Contact-less payment card launched

Taken from TheStar, 10 February 2006, page B2.

This news article discussed the launching of the contactless payment card, Pay Pass by MasterCard, a payment method beside the EMV card which was introduced since last year.

This article is related to Lecture 5 - Electronic Payment Systems.

MasterCard unveils contact-less payment card

By SHILING WOON

KUALA LUMPUR: MasterCard International has launched the world's first globally interoperable contact-less payment card, PayPass, to enhance the efficiency of payment solutions in Malaysia, said vice-president and senior country manager Malaysia and Brunei, Jim Cheah.

The dual-interface contact-less Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) payment solution combines both contact and contact-less interfaces on one chip to widen the usage of the card internationally.

“PayPass is all about convenience and speed whereby cardholders only need tap on the payment terminal to complete a transaction. We are optimistic about the take-up rate in Malaysia as the card's unique features will attract cardholders' interest,” he said after the launch of the MasterCard PayPass yesterday.

Currently, the card is available in the US, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines.

“MasterCard International intends to expand the PayPass service to more countries to increase the usage of the card globally,” Cheah said, but declined to elaborate.

Malaysian merchants that accept the PayPass card include Carrefour, KLIA Express, Starbucks Coffee, P & Co and Vincci.

Financial institutions such as MBF Cards (M) Sdn Bhd, RHB Bank Bhd and Southern Bank Bhd are currently issuing credit cards with the new feature.

“This indicates that issuing banks, merchants and cardholders are seeing the benefits of PayPass and that the idea of tap and go is certainly compelling,” he added.

G-CASH - Mobile Payment Systems: The Philippine's Experience

A very successful application of Mobile Payment Systems using SMS in Philippine. Information displayed is from the official website of the G-Cash.

This story is related to Lecture 5.

G-CASH: Bringing Philippine schools into the m-commerce era

With the introduction of G-Cash, the world's first cashless and cardless mobile commerce service, Globe has brought m-commerce to the Philippines. Now, Globe brings G-Cash to the country's schools and encourages young students to explore the service's limitless possibilities.

G-Cash transforms cellphones into mobile wallets, allowing Globe subscribers to make payments or send remittances, all with a simple text message. It is already accepted as payment in various establishments like fast food chains, bookstores and drugstores. Now accredited by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, G-Cash can be used as a means of payment for renewal of business licenses and income tax.

Early this year, G-Cash won the first award for Best Mobile Messaging Service at the prestigious GSM Association Awards in Cannes, France. Just recently, it won the Most Innovative Mobile Operator Service at the Asian MobileNews Awards in Singapore and was also chosen as the Best M-Commerce Application or Service at the Global Messaging Awards in London.

Questions:

1. Why G-Cash can be successfully being implemented in Philippine?
2. How does this method can be transferred to Malaysian context?
3. Can Mobile Money fulfilling it's promising role in promoting mobile payment in Malaysia?

SMS: I am the KING!

According to The Handphone Users Survey 2005 conducted by Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC):

For Malaysian, SMS emerged as the highest usage in 2005 as compared to other more advanced services such as 3G, mobile commerce and Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP).

• 84.9% of the users sent at least 1 SMS a day
• 49.6% sent out at least 5 SMS a day

Besides,

Number of cellular phone subscriptions in Malaysia grew from 12.32 million in 2004 to 16.24 million for 2005.
Those under 20 - 13.1% of the users.

Typical cellphone user in Malaysia is

• a working adult
• Living in Selangor, Johor or Kuala Lumpur
• earning up to RM3,000 a month
• use prepaid phone account