New job fair
The e-recruitment site, Careertunity.com, reports that its "Job Arena," held last week in Dubai, was well attended. Ten corporations offered positions in media, retail, banking, IT, logistics, services and education to about 3,000 job seekers. Most companies shortlisted candidates for further rounds. One participating company, Haward Technologies, rolled out more than a dozen offer letters - six of which were accepted & closed on the spot. Haward is confident that all 30 positions they had on offer would be closed by the candidates they met with at the Job Arena. The next Job Arena is scheduled for January 2009. For more details see www.careertunity.com.
Iraq mobile potential
Zain Group has increased its ownership stake in the mobile provider Zain Iraq from 30 percent to 62 percent through exercising a pre-agreed call option between Zain and the owners of Atheer National (Bahrain), which is one of the three founders of Atheer Telecom Iraq Ltd. (Zain Iraq), for a total consideration of $34.477 million. Zain Iraq has over 8.5 million active customers.
Zain has been providing mobile telephony in Iraq since December 2003, previously under the name of MTC-Atheer. In August 2007, the company acquired a 15-year nationwide license for $1.25 billion, shortly thereafter followed by the acquisition of Iraqna for $1.2 billion on Dec. 31, 2007. On Jan. 5, 2008 Zain Group merged Atheer with Iraqna under the new brand name Zain.
Zain Iraq has recently invested heavily in finalizing the integration of both Atheer and Iraqna's networks, at the same time upgrading the network and expanding mobile services to the northern parts of Iraq. The country has witnessed significant growth rates in mobile users over the last few years, with penetration rates now reaching 50 percent, still significantly lower than neighboring Gulf countries where rates have exceeded 100 percent. This means that the potential for rising profits remains high in the Iraqi market.
Community designed PCs
Consumers become product designers at WePC.com, a joint effort from Intel and ASUS. At WePC.com consumers can collaborate with each other and with Intel and ASUS to design innovative new products. The plan is for the two companies to deliver to market what could be the world's first community-designed PCs.
WePC.com will enable a global conversation about the ideal elements of PCs. Visitors to the site can share ideas, vote on submitted concepts and engage in discussions with other community members about the qualities of the "dream" PC. The WePC community is divided into three conversation groups, addressing three of the most popular consumer PC categories: netbooks, notebooks and gaming notebooks. Intel and ASUS hope to bring to market a consumer-inspired product that simplifies and enhances computing needs with Intel and ASUS technology in each category. The PCs will be powered by Intel Atom, Intel Centrino 2 and Intel Centrino 2 Extreme processors.
Future mobile growth
Revenues from mobile phone sales are expected to grow at 6.8 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2007 and 2013, and should exceed $200 billion by the end of 2013, according to Informa Telecoms & Media in its latest Future Mobile Handsets report. Emerging markets, including Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) and Africa, will make up the majority global handset market value, with 60 percent share in 2013. Growth disparities between developed and emerging markets will become apparent within the next five years.
Growth will not exceed 2 percent CAGR in developed markets according to the report. Handset market value growth rates are slowing significantly in developed markets and, if the current economic slowdown persists, could even turn negative after 2009. Revenues from smartphones will represent more than 55 percent of total handset market value in North America, Western Europe and Japan. However, this growth will only help offset the sharp decline of non-smartphone market value. Looking forward, in developed markets, handset vendors will have to look at other opportunities instead of mobile phone sales, for example getting involved in content creation and service offerings.
According to Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media and co-author of the report, the value of the global smartphone market will grow from almost $39 billion in 2007 to more than $95 billion, 47 percent of the total handset market value in 2013. This impressive potential is encouraging device vendors to prepare strong strategies to tap into this lucrative market. A number of vendors are increasing their involvement in open mobile terminal software, which is a core foundation in the development of smartphone devices. Open source will play an essential role in bringing smartphones to the mass market. A number of mobile open source foundations have been created within the last two years; including the Symbian Foundation (SF), the Open Handset Alliance (OHA) and the Linux in Mobile foundation (LiMo). Virtually all original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the leading operators are actively working within these organizations and preparing themselves to compete strongly in this market segment.
CE booms in India
According to Research and Markets, the consumer electronics (CE) market in India is exploding. India has an increasingly affluent middle class population that, on the back of rapid economic growth, has made the country's consumer electronics industry highly dynamic. The consumer electronics industry in India has been witnessing significant growth in recent years due to several factors, such as retail expansion, growing disposable income and the availability of easy finance schemes. But consumer electronics goods still have low penetration rates outside India's cities. There is vast potential for future growth and this is attracting many foreign majors to the country.
The report “Booming Consumer Electronics Market in India,” finds that the penetration of certain products such as TVs and refrigerators are reaching saturation in the urban areas and now the markets for these products are shifting to the semi-urban and rural areas. Propelled by a growing middle class population, changing lifestyle and rapid urbanization, the Indian consumer electronics industry is forecast to grow at a rapid rate of 10 to 12 percent in the coming few years.
The market for televisions in India is changing rapidly from the conventional CRT technology to Flat Panel Display Televisions (FPTV). Currently, the split between CRT and FPTV is around 97 percent and 3 percent respectively, and the share of FPTV is projected to increase at robust rate in near future. The air conditioning market in India is projected to grow at 30 to 35 percent for the coming few years. Driven by a young population, demand for MP3 players and digital video appliances are anticipated to surge at double-digit rates in near future.
