Problem or profit?

Depending on how they are handled, discarded electronic products and components — or e-waste, as they are collectively known — can represent either a major environmental dilemma or a massive potential economic windfall. If treated properly, much e-waste may be reclaimed or recycled for future use and converted into a significant new revenue stream. Improperly treated e-waste, on the other hand, poses a massive threat to the world’s ecosystem and can result in contamination to the soil, air and water, while also exposing workers, nearby residents and wildlife to a multitude of health hazards.

A market study by ABI Research, “e-Waste Recovery and Recycling,” forecasts that the worldwide market for e-waste recovery will grow from $5.7 billion in 2009 to nearly $14.7 billion by the end of 2014. This figure represents money generated through reclamation of valuable materials from e-scrap. Spurs to growth include rising e-waste collection and recycling rates; the increasingly greater availability of innovative and cost-effective recycling technologies; the strengthening recycling infrastructure and legal framework worldwide; global electronics markets and their significant growth in developing economies, and the integration of formal and informal recycling markets in key Asia-Pacific locations.“The combined impact of the ongoing global economic recovery and strengthening e-waste recycling legislation worldwide will drive improved recycling/recovery rates in each of the next five years,” said ABI Research Practice Director Larry Fisher. Although the legal framework for e-waste recycling remains strongest in Europe, efforts made on behalf of non-profit groups are driving improvements in many other regions of the world.

Student MS competition

Certiport has launched the 2010 Certiport Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office, a competition that provides a platform for students to showcase their expert skills using Microsoft Office tools. Students, including those in Saudi Arabia, who pass a qualifying exam and are enrolled in an approved, degree-seeking academic institution are eligible to compete. The World Champions of Word and Excel will receive a grand-prize package of $6,500 in scholarships and prizes. Details about the competition are available through www.officecompetition.com. The competition boasts more than 80,000 students who will vie for the title of “World Champion.” Over 53 countries from around the world will host local competitions to determine country and regional representatives based on exam scores and completion times. Selected students will then compete in this year’s World Championships held in Park City, Utah, in August 2010. The Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office has grown steadily since its inauguration in 2002 as a regional event in Asia. All told, more than 250,000 students from all over the world have competed. Participants who outperform their peers to make the final round of the Competition generally have perfect or near-perfect exam scores and completion times well below the allotted examination time.

iPad not for enterprise

The new iPad aims to bridge the gap between an iPhone and a MacBook. Nemertes Research believes that the tablet computing device demonstrates that the lines between smartphone, netbook and laptop are erased.

However, although the iPad may succeed as a consumer device, challenging Netbooks and book readers including Amazon’s Kindle, Irwin Lazar, Nemertes VP, Communications and Collaboration Research thinks the device will find it harder to penetrate business operations.

According to Lazar, the iPad’s greatest weakness is that it runs the iPhone’s operating system, giving it access to hundreds of thousands of iPhone applications, but failing to support multitasking or most key enterprise MacOS applications. With the addition of software like Citrix’s Receiver, the iPad could find entry in some mobile worker environments, such as hospitals. Lazar stated that the iPad will be most challenging for Netbook manufacturers including Hewlett-Packard, ASUSTek and Dell for consumer/entertainment market share.