China, India seen to lead Asian technology revolution
Asian behemoths China and India played prominent roles in the Asian and world affairs. Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mao Zedong and Chou-En-Lai became prominent figures in the world stage for espousing not only Indian and Chinese views but also the Asian perspective. In this century, China and India will still play a prominent role in a new frontier—technology.
In the technology revolution, China and India are expected to lead this type of revolution in Asia, the world’s largest continent, according to Bo Ribbing, strategic marketing director of Ericsson AB. “Information and telecommunications are the next ones to experience a turning point because innovations are going to be expected,” said Ribbing in his recent media presentation held in Makati.
With its sheer size of the market, Ribbing said China is going to be the expected leader in this revolution.
“China, the world’s biggest telecom market with about 800 million mobile subscribers and 380 million Internet users, will be a key player in making 50 billion connected devices a reality. Contrary to some perceptions, the Chinese telecoms market is a lot more than voice—it is very diverse. Voice is indeed the main use of the mobile in rural China, where an estimated 30 percent of the population now has access to mobile services. But rural China is also connecting to the Web, with almost 107 million Internet connections in early 2009, an increase of 26 percent from 2008,” said the company on its web site.
According to TRENDSnIFF (http://trendsniff.com/2009/02/22/mobile-subscribers-china-india-2009/), India welcomed 15.41 million new mobile subscribers in January 2009, bringing the country’s total number of wireless subscribers to 362.3 million, up from 233.63 million in the same month a year ago.
According to the data provided by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the number is the largest monthly growth ever. India reported 10.81 million cell-phone subscriber net additions in December 2008 and 10.35 million new subscribers in November.
“Reliance Communications, India’s second-largest mobile company by users, registered the highest growth rate in January at 8.1 percent, followed by Idea at 5.4 percent, Aircel at 4.3 percent, Vodafone and Spice Telecom at 4 percent each and Bharti at 3.2 percent,” according to the report posted on TRENDSnIFF.
With China and India experiencing rapid growth in their economies, Ribbing said a bigger middle class will emerge in Asia, which will result in a drastic shift in consumption patterns and choices.
Based on Ericsson’s projections, there will be 1 billion middle-class consumers in 2020, the majority of whom will come from Asia. As a result, Ribbing said this will require new innovations in technology.
“The power shifts from the West to the East, led by China and India,” he said.
Of all the technologies available in the market, Ribbing pointed out that broadband, particularly mobile broadband, is going to have a key role in the technology revolution, particularly in China and India.
The proliferation of broadband is going to be the inflection point which is posed to bring radical improvements in societies around the world, according to Ribbing.
Ribbing said the huge deployment of broadband will be felt in the fields of transportation, energy, education, retail and finance, among others. For instance, Ribbing said the method of learning will change radically once devices become interconnected, particularly with high-speed packet access switch.
By 2014, Ribbing said the long-term evolution technology will drive the telecommunication revolution faster because of its powerful speed. BusinessMirror
