A previous post touched on Korea’s growing mobile phone market share. Computer Sweden (in Swedish) cites analysts who believe LG will overtake Motorola in 2008, becoming the world’s number three mobile phone supplier.
The battle for mobile phone market share rages indefinitely. In the wake of Motorola’s plunge last year, Samsung has built a strong second place after undisputed leader Nokia. Once again LG overtakes Sony Ericsson and ends up as number four, just a hand’s breadth after Motorola after the first quarter 2008.
It’s interesting that fairly small countries like Finland and Korea maintain such strong positions in this knowledge intensive, high tech game.
Ubiquitous computing. If English isn’t your first language you probably scramble for a dictionary. The ubiquitous entry would say something like this:
found or seeming to be found everywhere; ever-present
So, ubiquitous computing literally means computing everywhere. The concept could have been buried in the sediment of time and forgotten, had there not been some startling development in East Asia.
The newcomer to Korean or Japanese information and telecom technology will immediately notice the u-words. They are sprinkled all over presentations, descriptions, and reports. There is u-Korea, u-Japan to begin with. Other than that almost every aspect of life seems to have its u-version: u-city, u-home, u-tourism, u-business, u-government, to name a few.
Here is our report, a kind of linguistic introduction to this hot topic: U-Korea, U-Japan, U-Fever
You may think you know about ubiquitous computing. Find out how Korea and Japan have added a visionary touch and lots of energy to the concept. These countries are now re-exporting their u-vocabulary to baffled Westerners.
On the grand opening day of this site we are sorry to learn that Namdaemun, the ancient south gate and landmark of Seoul, has been burnt down. Arson is suspected.
This photo from September 2006 shows ancient Namdaemun in stark contrast to modern steel-and-glass high-rise buildings.