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Friday, February 25, 2011

Facebook Platform: Social Networking As A New Marketing Tool?


New social networking tools from Facebook that make it easy to recommend products to online friends is turning the legions of Facebook users into Web-based marketers' newest sales and advertising arms.
Facebook on Wednesday used its f8 conference, held this week in San Francisco, to introduce the next version of Facebook Platform, which includes new features that make it easier than ever for users to share their online experience in the form of new social plug-ins.
Those plug-ins, which are buttons that appear on customer Websites, include Like, Activity Feed, and Recommendations.
Those buttons, which are already starting to appear on popular Websites from such companies as the New York Times, CNN, Time, Levis, Univision, and ABC, let Facebook users instantly share their experiences and recommendations across their social network.
However, there were no "Unlike" or "Not Recommended" buttons introduced, which also makes it easier for businesses adopting the new Facebook technology to benefit from it via potential sales through online word-of-mouth or even possibly viral marketing.
Facebook Co-founder Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday wrote in his blog that Facebook has made it easy to share not only links to Web pages but also information on the people and things they care about.
The new version of Facebook Platform puts people at the center of the Web by building an open graph of the connections that users make on-line, Zukerman wrote.

HP Networking Boss: 3Com Perfect Match To Take On Cisco


It's been less than three weeks since HP (NYSE:HPQ) first detailed integration plans for its 3Com acquisition, but its top executives have wasted no time telling HP and 3Com partners exactly how they should be thinking about it. From CEO Mark Hurd on down, HP has spent much of the past two weeks, especially at the HP Americas Partner Conference and Interop, telling partners that there's a new networking sheriff in town and it's time to saddle up.
Of course, being that new sheriff means going toe-to-toe with networking titan Cisco (NSDQ:CSCO), and in that sense, it's one more front in the increasingly contentious war between HP and Cisco over domination of the data center and share of channel minds and wallets. HP will be tested in the coming months as it attempts to convince skeptics that 3Com was the right acquisition at the right time and that a channel some say was left for dead can find new life as part of the brand new HP Networking group.
VARs are excited at the possibilities. But Cisco isn't exactly a shrinking violet.
Earlier this week, with the partner conference and Interop hype dying down a bit, CRN Networking Editor Chad Berndtson caught up with Marius Haas, senior vice president and general manager of HP Networking, to pick over some lingering acquisition and channel issues. Excerpts of the conversation follow.
You said during your keynote at Interop that HP was "amazingly surprised" by what you found in 3Com's technology. Was it that much of a surprise? The knock on 3Com for years has been great technology and that legacy of R&D, but a channel that fell by the wayside.
We realized we hadn't spent that much time looking at the H3C portfolio as much as we should have from a competitive standpoint when we competed with 3Com. It's a perfect combination for us, and we're committed to educating people on the history of 3Com, how robust it is and how well proven it is in some very competitive markets. A lot of that hadn't really migrated over into the Americas markets and the European markets as of yet, that they were building out an enterprise-class channel program and just embarking on it. It takes time and effort.
Once we looked at it and saw what we had, we were very excited. That portfolio is best in class performance, power management, all at a total cost of ownership model that's very complementary to our open architecture. It works in heterogeneous environments. It was the perfect combination for an enterprise go-to-market standpoint for our thousands and thousands of partners. Having the full portfolio, edge to core, switching to routing to security, and marrying that up to partners with capabilities, it's really what we needed.
What are you hearing from the longtime 3Com partners who don't already partner with HP? The ones I've connected with are excited but still weary after what they've been through with 3Com and they have a lot of questions for HP Networking.
I think there's two stories. One story is the really loyal, long-term 3Com players that migrated toward having more voice-type solutions. They're asking the questions: where are you going withVoIP and how do I fit into the mix. Then there's the new generation of 3Com partners that have invested in higher-end data center type capabilities. We're going to fold both of those types into our overall program, and we will have a new CIE, converged infrastructure elite, category where networking will be a core component but the partners expand beyond networking and do servers and storage and the full spectrum of capabilities. It's very attractive because we're embracing all partners, but unlike other competitors, we have not saturated the market on a coverage side.
How are you bringing 3Com partners into the HP fold?
We're grandfathering them in. We understand they already have certain levels of certifications; you have 3Com, maybe you're already a Cisco gold with x-number of CCIEs. You're not going to start from scratch, you're going to start with the level of investment you've made and make sure you get opportunities in line with what you have. It'll be enticing for them.

HP Steps Up Networking Offensive To Win Over Cisco Partners


Hewlett-Packard has launched an all-out offensive to recruit long-timeCisco Systems partners to carry the full, newly mintedHP networking product portfolio.
HP (NYSE:HPQ), Palo Alto, Calif., is targeting everyone from the top 10 VARs, top 10 systems integrators and top 10 carriers in the country to the growing regional superpower VARs and fast-growing SMB networking solution providers.
The HP networking partner recruitment offensive was on full display at Everything Channel's VAR500-CIO50 Conference in New York on Tuesday where the company was courting VAR500 powers with big Cisco practices such as Dimension Data, Worldwide Technology, Presidio and CompuCom. Everything Channel is the parent company of CRN.
HP Enterprise Storage Server Networking Vice President Channel Sales Frank Rauch declined to comment on which specific VARs he was meeting with at the VAR500 conference, but he acknowledged that HP is pressing partners to carry the full HP networking product line.
Rauch said HP is aiming to get a bevy of partners certified on networking products at the HP TechForum 2010 in Las Vegas June 21 - 24. The forum marks the first time that HP will be providing certification on its newly acquired end-to-end networking product portfolio.
Fueled by its $2.7 billion acquisition in April of networking vendor 3Com, HP is aiming to entice partners with what it is calling a more profitable networking product sale for them. That means going after what it calls Cisco's 80 percent margins with what it claims is an HP networking portfolio that features 50 percent better performance at a 30 to 50 percent lower cost than the Cisco networking products.
San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco (NSDQ:CSCO), for its part, has recently downplayed the Cisco-HP rivalry. Executives at its Cisco Partner Summit in April said the company is focused on "market transitions," not other companies.
As part of HP's stepped up partner offensive, the company has named Armughan Ahmad, who helped build out the 3Com enterprise networking channel, as vice president, Americas Channel Sales, HP Networking. Ahmad, who reports to Rauch, is leading the recruitment effort attempting to bring more partners on board to carry the core HP networking router/switches line (Advanced Series, Essential Series, Value Series and the Security Product line).
Ahmad, who started in his new job June 1, said his message to partners is that HP has "twice the performance, 50 percent less energy usage, [is] 35 to 50 percent less expensive and [is] easier to manage" than the Cisco networking portfolio. "We have the full gamut of networking products," said Ahmad. "My message is 'let's go win some deals together.'" HP is also touting its own Cisco-free network, which is the central nervous system for the $123 billion company.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Nokia opens the Microsoft Window, Intel bluffed?


The game has changed; Nokia is going the Microsoft way it has decided. Meego has been almost abandoned by Nokia. 

The Meego, an operating platform for Nokia Symbian was at one time considered a big development for Nokia, and huge expectations were laid on the software being made by Intel and Nokia in a joint venture.

Rumors were afloat since long that Nokia would take this step, but the surprising part is Intel who is Nokia’s partner on Meego was unaware that the world’s largest phone maker by volume could take such an extreme step without taking them into confidence. 

Nokia’s market share was falling continuously because of the increasing severity of the battle for the smartphones segment, to counter these falling numbers it had planned a smartphone in collaboration with Intel last year. At that time this venture was considered a mighty deal.

But Meego did not sprinkle the magic it was supposed to, it failed terribly in front of rivals like Apple’s Macintosh, Google’s Android and HP’s WebOS. All these tablets raced ahead of Nokia, and carved a niche for themselves, Nokia’s symbian all the time just observed from the sidelines.

Nokia in such a case had to take a detour even if it meant bluffing Intel it seems. The future of Nokia seemed to be dark if it resided with Meego and did not soon opt for a change. Investors were losing faith and Nokia’s shares were falling drastically. In fact when rumors of Nokia taking Microsoft Windows 7 abyss came to surface, its shares saw a slight revival.

Intel in turn was pinning hope to this deal to get a head start of inserting their chip into smartphones, tablets and other types of converged devices and create a market for them, beating rival Nvidia who leads this particular segment by specially designed chips for these portable and smart devices. But Intel’s smartphone dreams got shattered with Nokia’s marginalization of the Meego.

Nokia in a way cheated on Intel but looking at the firms deteriorating condition, probably it did not have much choice. The only relief they could have provided Intel was to let them know about their intentions.

After all it is said Honesty is the best policy, but then cynics would say “Who’s honest in this era of cut throat competition.”

Will Microsoft succumb to Google inflicted injuries?


Apple became the world’s most valuable tech company only last year, Microsoft was pushed aside to become the second. 

This was bound then, and why not Apple had all the ingredients to reach the top, its iPad, iPhone and iPod created a revolution. The hype was so much that this year an array of tablets and smartphones were launched; it even emerged as the fate deciding factor for all major mobile vendors.

But, the more important issue to discuss is, will Microsoft sustain its second position? Yes, it is a dilly dally situation. The gap between it and Apple has increased to $100 billion. It’s almost the value of another company say HP, which values the same amount. Apple stands at a mighty $330 billion value while Microsoft is at $228 billion.

When Apple had surpassed Microsoft they both stood at $227 billion which indicates Microsoft has only achieved a dollar billion increase in its value, and Apple multiplied to another 100 billion dollars. Amazing isn’t it?

Now to talk about the catch, Google. The search engine giant is slowly and steadily inching in close to Microsoft, it is just $28 billion away from the software expert.

With Google’s Android becoming a rage amongst mobile vendors and its search engine becoming ever so popular, they might just pompously sneak into Microsoft’s pedestal.

IBM is another contender to the second slot where it values at $202 billion, and IBM too has shown tremendous rise in terms of profits and innovation which gives it a fair chance of reaching the top of the leader board.

Microsoft was once the kingpin, now it is at the edge of falling apart, why is it not waking up to the smartphones segment at immediate effect? Why is it not launching a new smartphone? Why is it only providing operating systems?  Is Microsoft choosing to ignore or does it really not care?

Well if Microsoft doesn’t find an answer to these questions soon enough it shall be in deep murky waters with no escape whatsoever!!

BlackBerry Playbook: All set to leave Apple iPad behind


2010 was the year of tablet PCs; hands down.  It was the pioneer Apple who brought out the glorious iPad, the first ever tablet which took the world by a storm. It was one of a kind product which couldn’t fit into any existing categories of computers. Neither was it a desktop, nor a laptop. It gave rise to an era of the all new “Tablet PCs”. It sure was one of the best selling products of the year 2010. People preferring a portable PC happily bought an iPad for themselves. But how can we forget? This is the world of technology; one starts, the rest follow the suit. Many companies started planning a tablet for their own brand.

A new tablet PC which is being greatly touted by the IT industry as the next best tablet is the BlackBerry Playbook.  This tablet PC introduced by RIM may even overtake market sales of Apple iPad it is said! With some awesome features and some even better than the iPad, it sure has a great future. Let’s have a look.

The Operating System:
What makes Apple iPad popular and user-friendly is the Apple iOS which is used in iPhones also. On the other hand BlackBerry Playbook runs on an exclusively made QNX based Operating System. This OS was especially designed for the RIM Tablet.

Processor and RAM:
Apple iPad has a 1GHz Processor and a 256 MB RAM; while the BlackBerry Playbook boasts of the same 1 GHz Processor but with a 1GB RAM. The winner is clear!

Camera:
Where Apple iPad does not come with an inbuilt camera, BlackBerry comes with a 5 megapixel rear camera and a 3 Megapixel front facing camera! Now that sure is the silver lining on RIM’s cloud.

Display:
This is an area where the iPad takes away the glory. Apple gives us a 9.7 inch screen with a 1024 x 768 resolution; whereas we get a 7 inch screen and a resolution of 1024 x 600 from BlackBerry. Playbook certainly has a very small screen which sometimes leaves the critics wondering whether it would really be able to express all that it has.

The tablet browser:
Now this is something which would earn Playbook its brownie points. It comes with a browser which is built on Open Web Browsers hence supporting the Flash which the apple iPad does not. So that definitely means that you can access your favourite videos on YouTube when you have a Playbook but not when you have an iPad. Similarly iPad wouldn’t allow you to play your favourite games (which are usually Flash based) and send instant messages.

Apart from this, both the tablets come with a connectivity option through Bluetooth.

Needless to say, from all the things discussed above Playbook certainly has a better future. It certainly is better than iPad in several aspects. Until and unless you are really enthralled by Apple iPad’s user-friendly interface, BlackBerry Playbook seems to be much better a choice. 

The 5 IT moghuls who hit the bull's eye!!


The last decade has been a roller coaster ride for the IT industry, it has seen unprecedented growth, especially post globalization and liberalization. But who were the key drivers of this speedy vehicle which is everyday exploring new avenues? There are many, from various industry verticals, enumerating a handful is difficult.  But taking in perspective the revolutionary changes some leaders got about, their mention becomes a must.

Listing some industry heads who swept the IT sphere by storm-

Manoj Chugh : The man with the Magic Potion
He is the one who successfully pulled India’s 2 most IT firms to the top, Cisco and EMC. When Cisco had stepped into India it was compared to the likes of 3Com, Extreme and Bay Networks which are hardly anywhere in the scene now. Whereas Cisco has voraciously climbed up the ladder to boast of 3 times the market share it possessed then, whereas EMC which Chugh joined after leaving Cisco is now one of the biggest tech vendors in India.

Nandan Nilekani : The Infosys Inspiration
The man who stepped into Narayan Murthy’s shoes has much to his credit of Infosys’s success in the last 10 years. He not only supervised Infosys’s largest acquisition Expert, he also helped the firm reach the billion dollar top line mark in 2004 and the revenue only increased thereafter. Not only that he contributed to Infosys’s growth he also value added to associations like Nasscom and TiE, he founded the Bangalore vertical for the latter. He also according to Tom Friedman was the inspiration for his much appreciated book “The world is flat”. But arguably the biggest step for which Nandan Nilekani should receive accolades for is his entry into the Unique ID card committee for Indian citizens, which he joined on PM Manmohun Singh’s behest.

Subramaniam Ramadorai: The Acquisition Champ
He has spent half his life at TCS, where he built in the first 2 decades followed by growth in the third. The CMC acquisition adds to his grandeur along with the Tata infotech achievement. And as part of his grandiose, he formulated the acquisitions of Comicron, Pearl BPO, AFS and FNS amongst others. He is also the person who facilitated Tata to become an IPO from a privately held firm. If this wasn’t enough under his vision TCS became the first company to touch the billion dollar mark. This was only possible because Ramadorai had a vision to expand beyond Indian confines identifying the right areas with the best opportunities. It shows in the exemplary numbers where TCS has a presence in more than 47 countries with employees of more than 67 nationalities.

Neelam Dhawan: The Lady Warrior
She can also be called as the first lady of the Indian IT industry. She has some excellent achievements to boast of in a male dominated industry. She has headed some of the biggest IT companies like Microsoft and HP. She currently is the India head for HP. At the time she joined HP, the economic downturn was glaringly present which led to economic stagnation during her first year of stay at HP, but gradually she found her way where HP saw a 33% growth in the next fiscal. One of her biggest contribution has been her integration of the EDS operations and using it to HP’s advantage.  She has not got much newspaper coverage but her laurels are no less than any prominent business person in today’s time. For Microsoft too she meant business where the software firm only progressed under her supervision. In the smallest words of appreciation she is a benchmark for all Indian women entrepreneurs.

R Chandrasekhar : The Emperor of E-Governance
The father of E-governance says that the technology is 20% 'e' and 80% 'governance'. It is R Chandrashekhar who holds the opinion, and nothing could be more accurate because he s the force behind E-governance in India. His journey with e-governance started in Andhra Pradesh; when Chandrababu Naidu was setting up the e-gov structure for India and christening Hyderabad into 'Cyberabad', He also formulated some of the most unique and innovative efforts including the public-private partnership(PPP) concept in e-governance projects. E governance was only a concept, before Chandrashekhar delved in to convert it into a reality, in fact he defined for other states to how the structure had to be built and executed. He holds all credit for the planning and conceptualization along with driving growth for the last decade. He truly belongs to a genre of trusted bureaucrats in the time of shallow corruption and instability. It shows in his longevity of work both under the NDA and UPA governments.

What Indian IT companies are expecting from Budget 2011?


The Indian IT industry is rife with expectations from the union budget, which is about to be announced shortly.  The IT sector is one of the most important tax pillars for the government. and hence high hopes from budgetary policies, so what is it that IT's are demanding this budget.

The IT's are growing and they are going to contribute immensely to India’s overall development, but it is always a give and take relationship. If the government earns tax from the IT industry, the industry too expects benefits in return. And what time could be better to give them a return gift than the budget.

Like all years the IT fraternity is expecting a lot from the finance ministry this year too. They don’t have a comprehensive wish list but a compact and effective one.


The wish list has some prominent features, but there are things which are on top priority enlisting some of those:

Extending the STPI
STPI was a society set up by the Ministry of Information Technology in 1991 to increase software exports. The STPI scheme provided a USP of a 10-year income tax exemption for firms situated in software technology parks. The Indian IT sector is demanding an extension for this scheme pointing to the huge revenue it generates for the economy along with their contribution to the overall infrastructure in areas where they setup their units. This is applicable for SEZ’s which are away from the main cities and require additional investment by IT’s in form of infrastructure and transport.  But experts see extension of the STPI as a bleak possibility. But they also think that SME’s and SMB’s need this tax benefit to empower them. The industry is also looking towards a minimum alternate tax rate being rolled back to 15%, but analysts feel that the government shall remain neutral on the issue. Increasing the STPI time would attract IT’s to setup units in India which currently due to non extension of STPI are shifting to other countries of the world.

Refund of Service Tax
Many IT’s are facing a grave problem of getting service tax back from the government on very lame excuses, like taking away the exporters tag from some company suddenly when it has been exporting for years. Therefore the tax assessment structure has to amended, and the legal procedure against such injustice should be coherently put together.



SOP’s for employment generation and increased expenditure on education, e-governance and defense sectors
Experts are of the opinion that the Indian IT has lost out to countries like Philippine and China, which necessitates skill development commission and the Government of India to give training grants to many small companies.Also looking at the number of employment opportunities IT’s pose, the government should give them whatever they want, IT professionals believe. The government just looks at the profits and the resulting tax from IT’s but they don’t look at what they are contributing. If they change their purview probably they will see reason to why the IT segment needs more tax benefits. 

On the education front the IT industry needs more and more niche skill set which the government to a certain level is barring from happening by setting a limited number of seats in good institutions. They should raise the numbers bar, i.e. undertake Brownfield expansion in technical terms to facilitate larger number of students studying in institutions which excel. Other sectors like defense and e-governance would lead to overall development of India and shall also add to IT sectors profits, as these areas would need technical help to expand and grow.

Some other specific IT expectations of the budget are extension of tax holiday provisions for STPI units, choice of transition from STPI to SEZ units, exemption from MAT and DDT for SEZ setups and litigations for IT Industry for 10A/Transfer pricing provisions.

With the budget due very soon, it will be interesting to see how the government meets the IT sector’s expectations.

Cisco-- Cisco to acquire Pari Networks


Networking gear vendor Cisco announced that it will acquire privately-held Pari Networks, a provider of network configuration and change management (NCCM) and compliance management solutions, for an undisclosed amount.
Based in Milpitas, California, with part of its employee base in Hyderabad, India, Pari Networks' technology will integrate into Cisco's smart services.
"As business functions become more reliant on devices and applications that run over their networks, customers realize that maintaining the health and performance of the network is critical," said Joe Pinto, senior vice president, Cisco's Technical Services. "Pari Networks will help Cisco and our partners to deliver smarter, more proactive services that help our customers to identify potential network problems before they occur and optimize the performance, management and efficiency of their networks." 

Ericsson --Ericsson demos 168Mbps over HSPA network


Networking equipment vendor Ericsson demonstrated multi-carrier HSPA with 168Mbps on the downlink and 24Mbps on the uplink.
The demonstration was done using a prototype consumer device and commercial network equipment, along with telco SingTel
.

The same will be also showcased at GSMA Mobile World Congress, later this month.
Tay Soo Meng, executive vice president, SingTel Networks, says: "SingTel has been driving the growth of mobile data services with the introduction of new smartphones, tablet devices and rich multimedia applications. We expect to see greater demand for higher speeds and bandwidth in the near future. In 2010, we were one of the first in the world to demonstrate 42Mbps "live" on our networks, and it is a natural progression to continue improvements in HSPA with 84Mbps and beyond."
Ericsson also showcased dual-carrier HSPA with 84Mbps using commercial network products, using two 5MHz carriers in the connection to the same consumer.
The networking company also demonstration single-carrier HSPA with 42Mbps using end-to-end commercial products including a consumer device on a single WCDMA frequency carrier of 5MHz by using multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) technology.
The first commercial network implementations of single-carrier HSPA with 42Mbps and dual-carrier HSPA with 84Mbps can be expected during 2011, followed by higher HSPA speed implementations.

IEEE 1901 IEEE publishes 1901 BPL standard


The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) announced that it has published IEEE 1901 Broadband over Power Line (BPL) standard, which was finalized in December 2010.
Sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society, the BPL standard is designed for use in a wide range of applications including smart energy, transportation and local area networks (LANs) in both the home and the enterprise.


Networking products that fully comply with IEEE 1901 will deliver data rates of up to 500 Mbps in LAN applications.
In first-mile/last-mile applications, IEEE 1901-compliant devices will achieve ranges of up to 1500 meters. The technology specified by IEEE 1901 uses sophisticated modulation techniques to transmit data over standard AC power lines of any voltage at transmission frequencies of less than 100 MHz.

Extreme Networks Extreme intros M-LAG Direct Attach architecture


Network infrastructure provider Extreme Networks Inc. announced that it has launched a new M-LAG Direct Attach architecture that addresses high-performance switching for virtualized environments.
The architecture integrated Extreme's Direct Attach Virtual Machine (VM) switching with Multi-System Link Aggregation (M-LAG).
"Integrating the M-LAG Direct Attach architecture with Extreme Networks’ data centre portfolio serves as an important evolution of our 'Four Pillar' data centre strategy for migrating networks from physical to virtual to cloud," said Shehzad Merchant, senior director of strategy for Extreme Networks.
With data centre solutions such as BlackDiamond and Summit switches running ExtremeXOS operating system, Extreme Networks claims that it can double the performance when compared to the traditional 'Spanning Tree' architectures and provide a cost-effective solution over pre-standard TRILL implementations, which would require a rip-and-replace of the existing network. 
"For the majority of virtualized data centre architectures, the M-LAG Direct Attach architecture eliminates the drawbacks of spanning tree while providing the benefits of TRILL (Transparent Interconnect of Lots of Links) without having complete disruption to the network and enormous capital expense," he added.
With the release of ExtremeXOS version 12.5, Extreme Networks enables software-loadable support for direct attach architecture, network-level support of Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator (VEPA), and M-LAG across its portfolio of high-performance BlackDiamond modular switches and Summit fixed stackable switches.

Mobile data traffic to increase 26-fold in five years


Global mobile data traffic would increase 26-fold by 2015, reaching 6.3 exabytes per month or an annual run rate of 75 exabytes, finds Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2010 to 2015.
This traffic increase represents a compound annual growth rate of 92 percent over the same period. Trends such as, surge in mobile-ready devices such as tablets andsmartphones, and widespread mobile video content consumption are driving the mobile data traffic growth.
The Cisco study predicts that by 2015, more than 5.6 billion personal devices will be connected to mobile networks, and there will also be 1.5 billion machine-to-machine nodes -- nearly the equivalent of one mobile connection for every person in the world.
Mobile video is forecast to represent 66 percent of all mobile data traffic by 2015, increasing 35-fold from 2010 to 2015, the highest growth rate of any mobile data application tracked in the Cisco study.
Mobile traffic originating from tablet devices is expected to grow 205-fold from 2010 to 2015, the highest growth rate of any device category tracked.
Facts and Projections
The updated research projects that annual global mobile data traffic will reach 6.3 exabytes per month, or an annual run rate of 75 exabytes, by 2015. That amount is the equivalent of 19 billion DVDs or 536 quadrillion SMS text messages or 75 times the amount of global Internet Protocol traffic (fixed and mobile) generated in the year 2000.
Global mobile data traffic increased 159 percent from calendar year 2009 to calendar year 2010 to 237 petabytes per month, or the equivalent of 60 million DVDs.
Global mobile data traffic grew 4.2 times as fast as global fixed broadband data traffic in 2010.
Global mobile data traffic in 2010 was three times the size of all global Internet traffic (fixed and mobile) in the year 2000.
According to the updated forecast, the Middle East and Africa will have the highest regional mobile data traffic growth rates, with a compound annual growth rate of 129 percent (63-fold growth) over the period. Latin America anticipates a 111 percent CAGR (42-fold growth), followed by Central and Eastern Europe, with a 102 percent CAGR (34-fold growth), and Asia-Pacific, with a 101 percent CAGR (33-fold growth).
Western Europe is forecast to experience a 91 percent CAGR (25-fold growth); North America, an 83 percent CAGR (20-fold growth); and Japan, a 70 percent CAGR (14-fold growth).
India has the highest national mobile data traffic growth rate, with a CAGR of 158 percent (115-fold growth) for the forecast period, followed by South Africa, with a 144 percent CAGR (87-fold growth), and Mexico, with a 131 percent CAGR (66-fold growth).
Comparatively, the United Kingdom will see an 84 percent CAGR (21-fold growth), and the U.S. an 83 percent CAGR (21-fold growth), according to the updated forecast. 

32pc use others' Wi-Fi network: Survey


The Wi-Fi Alliance, a global, independent, non-profit trade organization that works to deliver Wi-Fi connectivity experience, urges consumers to resolve to protect their Wi-Fi networks and devices.
A recent poll conducted by Wakefield Research in conjunction with Wi-Fi Alliance, finds that "borrowing" Wi-Fi access is still a somewhat common practice. The poll showed that 32 percent of respondents said they have tried to get on a Wi-Fi network that wasn't theirs - up 18 percent from a December 2008 poll. 
Fourty percent of respondents said they would be more likely to trust someone with their house key than with their Wi-Fi network password.
With an estimated 201 million households using Wi-Fi networks and as many as 750,000 Wi-Fi hotspots available worldwide, more personal data is being carried by these networks, making Wi-Fi security paramount in importance.
More than one quarter of those surveyed said sharing their Wi-Fi network password feels more personal than sharing their toothbrush.
"Most consumers know that leaving their Wi-Fi network open is not a good thing, but the reality is that many have not taken the steps to protect themselves," said Kelly Davis-Felner, marketing director for the Wi-Fi Alliance. "Consumers can usually activate Wi-Fi security protections in a few simple steps, but much like the seatbelts in your car, it won't protect you unless you use it."
Here are a few key things that Wi-Fi users can do to secure their Wi-Fi devices and personal data:
Set home Wi-Fi networks for WPA2 security - Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2) is the latest in network security technology. It controls who connects to the network and encrypts data for privacy.
It is important to note that the security level of a home network is determined by the least capable device and many devices ship with security options disabled as the default. For the most up-to-date protection, a network should include only products capable of WPA2 security. 
Look for Wi-Fi Certified products - Wi-Fi Certified devices are required to implement WPA2 security.
Look for devices with Wi-Fi Protected Set-up - With an action as simple as the push of a button, new devices can be added to an existing network securely.
Create strong passwords - Ensure that your network password is at least eight characters long, does not include any dictionary words or personal information, and is a mix of upper and lower case letters and symbols.
A tip that might make password management easier is to create an acronym from easy-to-remember phrases.
For example, "my daughter's birthday is July 7, 1987" could become the password "MDBi7787."
Be smart about hotspot use - Most public hotspots leave security protections turned off, so while connecting to a public Wi-Fi hotspot is great for general Internet surfing, users should not transmit sensitive data, such bank account login information.
Turn off automatic connecting - Many products such as mobile phones and notebooks are set by default to sense and automatically connect to any available wireless signal. Users should turn off automatic connecting and only connect to and from networks and devices they are familiar with.