JULY 8 — CommunicAsia 2011, the region’s information and communications (ICT) industry trade show, was held in Singapore just last month and after missing a couple of years, I was given the opportunity to attend it this year.
Held at the much-publicised Marina Bay Sands Convention and Expo Centre, the event showcased the usual suspects in ICT including industry giants like Nokia, Huawei, NTT DoCoMo and many others.
Amidst a slew of announcements made at the event, one significant observation I noted at this year’s show was the emphasis on consumer electronics devices and mobile broadband. While it’s true that these two themes are not new, I can’t help but feel that the battleground has intensified in the last year.
Smartphones do continue to dominate the conversation but the new hot topic must be that of tablet computing. Even before the conference proper started on June 21, Huawei made its announcement that it’ll be bringing its tablet computer, the MediaPad.
The MediaPad is the Chinese powerhouse’s attempt to get into an increasingly lucrative market, currently dominated by Apple’s iPad line of products. Powered by Google’s latest operating system, the Android 3.2 version, the MediaPad is a seven-inch tablet that will be released in August, including in Malaysia, says one of the Huawei executives I spoke to.
Speaking of smartphones, Nokia also got into the act releasing what it believes to be one of its finest products, the N9, MeeGo-powered devices, giving us a taste of what’s to come from the once leading name in mobile phones later in the year when it is slated to release its Windows Phone 7-powered devices.
The device is indeed an exponential leap from its previously Symbian-based products and also represents a fine piece of industrial design.
Along with this, the Finnish giant also launched two other mid-range phones, the Nokia C-200 and the C-203, based on its age-old Symbian operating system. Besides Nokia, Anglo-Japanese phone maker Sony Ericsson also launched two phones, the Xperia Ray and Xperia Active, two of its Android-powered mid-range phones slated to arrive in the third quarter of this year.
There was also a lot of talk about the up-and-coming wireless network technology called Long Term Evolution (LTE), the next generation wireless standard that touts the ability to ramp up wireless broadband speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps).
And while many delegates at the conference were talking about how to get there, one of Singapore’s mobile operators, M1, announced that it will be launching commercial LTE networks by year-end in parts of Singapore’s central business districts. It will initially offer theoretical download speeds of 75Mbps and upload speeds of 37.5Mbps.
On the fixed network front, much of the island-state is already covered with fibre-based high-speed broadband connections. In one conversation with my fellow journalists I discovered that they not only had fibre connections in place but I was surprised with the speeds they’re getting for the price they’re paying.
One of them told me that a base package she could subscribe to costs only S$39 (RM94) but for 25Mbps line! She then asked me how much it costs across the Causeway, and I embarrassedly said, “For a base package of 5Mbps, free local calls, and some Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) channels would set me back at about SG$60!”
Singapore is no stranger to making big advances in the ICT space. In its initial plan to wire up the island with capabilities of up to 1Gbps and drafted back in 2008, it stated that its target to do that would be by 2015. But some time last year, the government revised its targets and noted that this would be achieved by 2012.
While one can make a case that Singapore has a much smaller land mass and is a city-state, where there are hardly any rural areas, and that it’s much easier to reach its massive apartment-based communities with fibre connectivity, it doesn’t change the fact that its government and civil service agencies such as the InfoComm Development Authority (IDA) are fully committed to making it an Intelligent Nation in the shortest time possible.
Underpinning this resolve is really the political and social will to get things done in the most cost-effective and competitive way. Which begs the question — what is the state of our government and respective ICT agencies’ resolve to move the country forward?
Malaysia started off well, with projects such as the Multimedia Super Corridor in 1996 and with various forward-thinking legislations, notably the government’s promise not to censor the Internet, which many have argued has already happened.
More recently, we’ve begun wiring up the nation with fibre. And yes, we’ve made great strides in the mobile arena bringing the latest and best into the markets.
But as I think about it further, I ask myself where are we really when we benchmark ourselves against the best of the best, and mind you not in the world, but merely in the region?
Yes, Malaysia has made much progress in the ICT space, and I’m sure there are many triumphs that we can rejoice in. Just only last week, a deputy minister in his speech reminded us of this fact, which he attributed to the progressive government policies and implementations by the industry.
But I can’t help but wonder if we can push ourselves further or have we begun resting on our laurels and are we just contented to pat ourselves on our backs for the achievements we’ve made after such a long time?
While it may be good to celebrate and remember the achievements we’ve made over the years, we must be careful not to let this trap us into living on our past glories.
Malaysia is priming for the new digital economy and will soon be drafting a master plan to chart our steps into this new journey. I wish that for our sake, and the sake of our children, we’ll be focussing our eyes forward and not living off our past glories.
For doing so means that we’ll be taking one step forward and two steps back — and that’s a shame as, ultimately, we’ll be effectively retarding from the rest of the world.
* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.
