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Motorola’s Dumb Phone
Mobile phones in the United States are more power-hungry and complicated than ever. But one of the latest phones from Motorola, aimed primarily at other markets and due out by the end of the year, is just the opposite. Looking for more customers, the company did extensive market research in poor countries. The result: the company’s slimmest phone yet, boasting cutting-edge technology that--rather than adding complexity--extends battery life and makes the phone simpler to use. Call...
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African Governments Asked to Plough Back Cell Phone Taxes
Telecommunications experts say mobile networks have the capacity to provide coverage to 90 per cent of the world’s population by 2010. But this could happen only if governments spend all the tax collections from telecoms industry on improving the mobile infrastructure. Speaking in Cape Town yesterday, experts urged Governments to complement mobile operators towards achieving this goal instead of watering down their efforts through ill-advised policies of subsidising rol...
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Microcredit not working in China, new initiative needed
Without a microcredit of 20,000 yuan, Shan Xinhui, a laid-off woman, would not have been able to start her own business and today boast fixed assets worth more than two million yuan. At the 2006 China Banking Association-Citigroup Micro-entrepreneurship Awards Ceremony, Shan, from the western city of Yan’an in Shannxi Province, showed her appreciation for the government and the microcredit fund that gave her the seed money. But, in obtaining a microcredit, Shan was one ...
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Efforts geared up to introduce mobile banking
The ministry of information technology has directed the country?s telecom regulator and services providers to work closely with the central bank and remove hurdles in the way of introduction of electronic mobile banking in Pakistan. Mobile banking facility is in place in many developing countries consisting of comprehensive banking services including money transfer, cash-in, cash-out, person to person transfer, bill payments, on-line purchases etc. However, the lack of coor...
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In pursuit of sustainable business
Vanessa Hill is no naive optimist. She believes corporate America should develop a greater social conscience, but she also knows that business executives are driven by an overriding goal: maximizing profits. She also knows that Wall Street judges those profits every quarter. And that such a short-term outlook makes embracing sustainable values, which may not pay dividends for years, all the more difficult. Ultimately, it will take public pressure to push corporat...
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Regulation Pushes SMEs to Non-Compliance
Many Small to Medium Enterprises (SME) become illegal because of excessive regulation, an expert with the South African-based Strategic, Business Partnerships for Growth in Africa said on Tuesday. Speaking at the Bifm/FinMark Trust Forum, Douglas Irvine said that SMEs usually fly under the radar and operate hiding from the law and end up being harassed and becoming non-compliant. Irvine said that this excessive regulatory network is not good for business. ...
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At Nokia, Handset Sales Jump But Revamp of Unit Hurts Profit
Nokia Corp.’s net income fell 4.1%, despite a sharp rise in revenue and cellphone shipments, as strong demand for low-end handsets hurt the Finnish company’s profit margins. Nokia, the world’s largest cellphone maker, said it shipped 88.5 million phones in the third quarter compared with 66.6 million units a year ago. But average selling prices declined to ?93 from ?102 due to an increasing proportion of sales of low-priced phones in emerging markets.
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NetCore CEO Rajesh Jain Interview
Excerpt of an interview with NetCore CEO Rajesh Jain: Knowledge@Wharton: You were among the first entrepreneurs in India to recognize the potential of the Internet when you launched the IndiaWorld portal and websites like khoj.com, samachar.com, and khel.com. What was your assessment of the infrastructure of the web at that time, and how does it compare with your view of the Internet in India today? Jain: When we launched IndiaWorld in March 1995, commerci...