In terms of tech, Myanmar is heating up. It’s uncharted territory. It’s a digital wasteland. And everybody wants to get in on the action before their business rivals can do so.

Singaporean, Norwegian, Malaysian and Vietnamese telcos are already rushing in – and the latest is Cisco, the networking and telecoms giant.

Cisco revealed today that it’s planning to open up two network training centers in Myanmar by an unspecified date. It’s very possible that these training centers will be targeted at getting SME’s and large businesses set up with networks.

Foreseeably, by the end of next year, the technosphere of Myanmar will explode – in a good way.

Today, SIM cards cost anywhere from $300 to $500, leaving only one in every ten people in the country with mobile access. Internet penetration sits far below ten percent, and most people in Myanmar still only have a laptop if someone brings one in from abroad. And yet, at the same time, BarcampYangon is the biggest technology conference in the world. That means Myanmar is ripe for the pickings and the big tech companies know it.

With over 90 companies bidding for telco licenses to operate in the country, and companies like Google, Microsoft, HP, Intel, and Cisco visiting and possibly planning to open offices, by the end of 2014 we’ll be looking at a completely different Myanmar. It’s hard to imagine how a country will fare with extremely rapid technological development. If, for example, SIMs come down to a regular Southeast Asian level of pricing, about $5 each, we’ll see Myanmar’s citizens joining the mobile web. By 2014, I’m guessing eight out of ten people in Myanmar will have a mobile, and they’ll be keen to jump on social networks and try out mobile commerce.

(Source: Associated Press)

photo via dientutieudung.vn

It all started in 2010. Intel built its $1 billion chip manufacturing plant in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. Vietnam’s electronic manufacturing dream had arrived. Gone would be the days of textile and food exporting. People were saying hello to a hi-tech Vietnam.

But later in 2011 and early 2012, the dream was dwindling, as the economy was shot and there was an environment that didn’t play well for foreign investors, and that was turning people off.

The latter half of 2012 has seen a change, with electronics factories popping up everywhere as you can see in the list below (dollar figuress indicate amount each company has committed to its Vietnamese factory):

• Bujeon Electronics (from South Korea), $10 million, October 2012
• Brother Vietnam (Japan), $25 million, December 2012
• Nidec Seimitsu (Japan), $40 million, July 2012
• SOC Vietnam (Japan), $62.5 million, November 2012
• JBL (USA), $100 million, June 2012
• Terumo BCT (USA, Japan), $94 million, May 2012
• Fuji Xerox (Japan), $120 million, November 2013
• Nokia (Finland), $300 million, early 2013
• Samsung Electronics (South Korea), $2.2 billion by 2020, November 2012

Of course, the most significant newcomers in this list are Samsung and Nokia. Nokia is still the dominant player in the Vietnamese mobile market and Samsung contributes 10 percent of Vietnam’s exports.

Besides Nokia, most of these electronics manufacturers are from South Korea and Japan. The main draw for companies from these two countries is the low labor wages. In some cases, Vietnamese workers can be paid as little as one-third of Chinese labor costs. Cheap labor is Vietnam’s new brand.

And so armed with this low-cost labor, Vietnam will soon become known for hi-tech manufacturing. Textiles are no longer Vietnam’s biggest export. With small companies like Setech Viet building small consumer domestic products and bigger companies like TOSY building robots for the global market, we’re on the cusp of a hardware-oriented Vietnam. I wouldn’t be surprised if by 2016, a major Vietnamese hardware maker will build and operate its own factory.[1]

[1] This of course assumes that Japanese managers and technicians will transfer knowledge and experience to their Vietnamese counterparts.

Photo: 360buy

There have been numerous reports out there today that Lenovo is going to announce its Intel-powered, Android-rocking smartphone, the K800, in the next few days. But any shoppers out there who are eager to get their hands on it might have noticed that the much-anticipated handset is already available for pre-order right now on 360buy.com.

Headlining the hardware specs, of course, is the 1.6 GHz Intel Medfield processor. After Lava International launched its Xolo X900 smartphone in India just over a month ago, the K800 is the second smartphone in the world to be powered by an Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) processor, and the first one for Chinese consumers. It has a 4.5-inch 720 x 1280 HD display, and an 8 megapixel camera on the on the back, with a 1.3 megapixel camera around front.

It is currently priced at 3,299 RMB, or about $520 over on 360Buy.com.

It will be interesting if the K800 can find a niche to settle into though, with high-profile smartphones like the iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy already out there. Will consumers see it as an attractive alternative at that mid- to higher-end price point?

[Via PCpop]

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) has announced today, in cooperation with Lava International, that the XOLO X900 will go on sale on April 23 in India. This will mark the first time that Intel, the maker of processors for most PCs, will see find its way inside a smartphone.

Overall the specs are, well, ok. There’s a 4.03-inch LCD screen (1024 x 600), an 8-megapixel camera, 1 gigabyte of RAM, and 16 gigabytes of onboard storage. It will run on Android Gingerbread, with an ICS upgrade to come later.

The centerpiece however, is Intel’s 1.6 GHz Atom Z2460 processor, which brings with it the promise of high-speed performance and better multi-taskings, as you can see in the demo video below. Interestingly, the camera can shoot in bursts of 10 shots in less than a second, and I’m looking forward to seeing if any new innovative photo apps will spring from such a feature.

As for battery life, Intel says confidently that it is as good or better than current market alternatives, claiming up to five hours for 3G browsing, 45 hours of audio, and eight hours of talk time.

The device will cost INR 22,000 (or about $425), available for purchase first from Croma and Xolo.in, with other retailers to follow in May. Bloomberg has a hands on video where the Xolo looks very impressive indeed. Check it out for yourself, and let us know what you think.

Intel’s (NASDAQ:INTC) new China chairman, Sean Maloney (pictured right), took to a live chat with Chinese netizens yesterday to explain how the company is focusing on the “incredible” growth in China, and how it’s developing mobile-oriented and lower-powered processors to power Android and Windows 8 mobile devices. Sean emphasised: “Our strategy in China now is to win with smartphones and tablets.”

Speaking via an interpreter, the new Intel China chief also spoke of his recent move to Beijing, his recovery from serious illness, and joked that his kids are learning Chinese a lot quicker than him. Anyone on Weibo could submit questions, and they elicited some straight-forward answers from Sean. When asked about Intel’s new push into mobile processors, he outlined the US company’s competitive advantages:

The smartphone and tablet growth is stunning. However, there are fewer and fewer companies in the industry can continue to deliver Moore’s Law in a sustainable business model. Intel is on top of the list.

Intel’s first partner for its new Medfield chip is China’s Lenovo (HKG:0992), which will launch the K800 Android smartphone and IdeaPad K2110 tablet (pictured below) later this summer. Medfield is a lower-powered, Atom-based processor. Sean explained to netizens:

Medfield inside: Lenovo's upcoming IdeaPad K2110 tablet (image source: The Verge). Click to enlarge.

Latest Intel mobile CPU sets remarkable industry benchmarks, like power-consumption, browsing and Java performance. Power consumption we had got down a really low level, we will get the power down even more in next generation.

During the Weibo chat, Sean also referenced other new chips on the horizon for Intel, with an emphasis on getting tinier:

Next year we will do 22nm [nanometers; Intel’s Ivy Bridge already is 22nm], and we will do 14nm soon after. We are passionate about doing the smallest products that are available. We also have a large team of software engineers on Android […] Smartphone and tablet growth has been amazing, driven by video, SNS, gaming. This requires strong processing power and this is where Intel’s silicon strengths come into play.

A question from a blog dedicated to Windows Phone prompted Sean to say that Intel’s “only focus in smartphone is Android,” thereby ruling out a Medfield-powered WP7 or WP8 phone in the near future. On tablets the upcoming chip will be put to work for both Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows 8.

Intel’s Sean also repeatedly mentioned notebooks and ultrabooks, and how they cannot be ignored or sidelined:

Remember, Notebooks are still growing well. Not many people choose a notebook because of service provider’s offerings. I believe that the notebooks and the tablets are very complementary.

And added:

I’m really optimistic about the potential of the ultrabook. It is not just another product. In the future, ultrabooks will become the majority of all [notebooks]. It is not meant to be high-end only. It will come down over time.

Sean will be back in action tomorrow and Thursday at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing.

The chat session is archived on this Weibo Talk page; or follow Sean Maloney on Weibo.

I have been hearing a lot about Fashionandyou.com from some of my friends in India. It is one of the most socially savvy e-commerce sites in the country.

Today, we have heard direct from the luxury fashion e-commerce company that Smile Group Venture and Goldsquare Sales India (the owner of Fashionandyou.com) have raised US$40 million, led by Norwest Venture Partners and also participated in by Intel Capital, Sequoia Capital India, and Nokia Growth Partners.

Sequoia Capital India previously invested $8 million in Goldsquare in 2010.

Fashionandyou currently has 2.7 million members and growing. With $40 million in the bag, the self-styled “shopping club” is looking for ways to expand to offer more product categories – and to other countries. And acquiring smaller e-commerce sites was hinted at as a possible way moving forward.

That sure sounds familiar, as it adopts the same strategy as Homeshop18 and Flipkart — I mean, how else can it expand?

Unfortunately, the company remains tight-lipped when asked about its expansion and acquisition strategy.

Social Shopping

For Fashionandyou.com, growing its business via social channels has always been the core of the company’s strategy. Laksh Arora, a Fashionandyou.com rep, explained to us that since the company was launched in November 2009 it has grown to have the largest Facebook page in India in terms of the luxury retail sector with almost 0.9 million members.

“We were the first company in India to offer a real-time customer care platform to our members on both Facebook and Twitter,” she says.

Oh… and not forgetting that Laksh also states that Fashionandyou is the first Indian brand to be on Google Plus. That I wouldn’t be too sure of, since we have received several pitches from India who told us that they were the first.

The e-commerce warfare in India — with Homeshop18 and Flipkart — seems to be getting more fun with Fashionandyou now bagging $40 million. Grab your popcorn and enjoy the battle. And for small e-commerce companies, you could be the lucky (or unfortunate) ones who might get acquired.

As one of the sponsors of the Indonesian Youth Conference 2011, Intel Indonesia was committed to spreading inspirational stories for young people. Through the company “Warnai Hidupmu” (Color Your Life) movement on Twitter, Intel persuades its @komunitasintel followers to use PC as a productivity and creativity tool.

Several days before the conference, @komunitasintel started the initiative by conducting a live Twitter interview with Yoris Sebastian, a young entrepreneur who founded Oh My Goodness Creative Consulting agency. Yoris (@yoris) shared not only his hope for young people but also his experience with computers. He explained, “Technology made my life easier. It made me more creative in cost efficient way.”

The company did the same thing with Alanda Kariza, founder, sponsor and advisor of Indonesian Youth Conference (IYC). In one of her tweets, Alanda suggested that young people should take advantage of their opportunities and make their dreams come, because “the future starts now” she said.

At the D-day of the IYC, which was held on July 16, a quiz was held. @komunitasintel asked its followers to describe how computers can ‘color your life.’ As Alanda said, “Through IYC, Intel shows that we can optimize computers to expand our social network and create interesting contents such as video and websites.”

IYC is a national forum that was created for young people to voice their ideas and develop their creativity. It was held for the first time in July 2010 as Alanda’s project assignment after she’s elected to represent Indonesia at the British Council Global Changemakers 2009.

Courtesy of Intel Indonesia

Surely the creators of this campaign over at Tribal DDB and DDB Hong Kong, have made some special arrangement with YouTube to enjoy this kind of customization. Once logged in, you are greeted with a mission brief and trailer which will subsequently lead you to a login page. If you login via Facebook you’re “entitled” to invite two friends to join your adventure. They will become come in handy later in the video.

Because the campaign is flash-based, the scroll bar isn’t that user-friendly and it did take me quite some time to select my friends. From a user-experience perspective, it’s still not a very good experience at this point. But that’s probably the only significant flaw in this campaign.

The audience is asked to solve puzzles and make decisions throughout the video adventure. It’s very much like playing an engaging first-person action game on YouTube. The visual experience is pretty awesome but unfortunately there isn’t an option to enjoy it full-screen.

Here’s what Stephanie Gan, the regional manager of advertising and digital programs for Intel Asia Pacific, said in the statement:

“We wanted to connect with consumers in a personal, engaging and interactive way while demonstrating the visual capabilities of the 2nd Generation Intel Core processor family. While YouTube offered the perfect stage for creating this experience, it was important to make some of the interactions social with Facebook integration.”

“Just as Intel’s 2nd Generation Core processors transform your computing experience, this campaign will transform the way you look at the YouTube platform. You’ve never seen YouTube quite like this,” she added.

The campaign also involves a media buy in India and Australia. I’ve included some images so you can get a preview. But you can log on here to experience Intel’s YouTube marketing effort for yourself. Enjoy!

To date, Tencent’s has made a total investment worth about 2 billion yuan. Some of these investment include U.S-based Riot Games, Huayi Brothers Media, and Elong, a China-based online travel company.

But that doesn’t seem to be enough for Tencent as Bloomberg reported this morning that the Internet behemoth will allocate an additional five billion yuan to its investment fund. For the math-impaired out there, that totals a whopping sum of 10 billion yuan.

This boost in funds demonstrates Tencent’s commitment towards expansion by acquiring and investing in potential firms. It is also worthy to note that Tencent is one of the investing partners in A-Fund, together with companies like GREE and KDDI. A-Fund is a fund focusing on Android-based applications. Other notable partners for the company include Groupon, Nokia, and Intel.

India Bollywood lovers listen up! You can now watch Bollywood movies on YouTube for free. Under the YouTube Box Office channel, fans in India can watch both popular and new Bollywood movies every month. Unfortunately, IP address outside of India will not be able to access these Bollywood videos.

More than 1,500 titles of Bollywood blockbuster movies are available in this channel. These films can be watched in full HD (1080p) and are made free because each film is inserted with a 15-second ads at every 10 minutes interval. The ads cannot be skipped.

Intel is the main sponsor for this new initiative, which allows consumers to enjoy these Bollywood movies on their big-screen HDTV with Intel Wireless Display (WiDi).

As an effort to reduce the level of film piracy in India, YouTube’s initiative was well received by Indian film producers. Yash Raj Films’ General Manager, Anand Gurnani said that YouTube not only offers the ability to reach more people, but it also monetizes films through online ads.

This isn’t the first time that YouTube has implemented such an initiative in India. Previously, it has also partnered with Indiatimes to bring live-stream Indian Premier League Cricket games on YouTube, monetizing the content through advertisements.

Source: Economic Times

This application can notify BlackBerry users various information about Intel in six features. The Intel Updates feature gives info on Intel’s latest news and promotions. Get Powered Up! discusses the technologies and benefits of Intel products. Where to Get Us will show Intel’s resellers located within 5km radius from the BlackBerry users. Game On! feature provides quizzes, games and weekly competitions, while Me Here! Now! will connect the user to Intel’s Facebook and Twitter pages. And What Powers You? is featuring professional leaders such as movie directors or celebrity who will share information and experiences about using Intel technologies.

Navin Shenoy, vice president of Sales and Marketing Intel Corporation Asia Pacific said, “Mobile applications can be used to access the latest information about Intel, including press releases, promos and the latest Intel technology to come.”

Intel is not the first to take advantage of BlackBerry fever in Indonesia. IBM also has an application for the handset that is geared towards events promotion.

antaratv

The chip-maker’s Senior Vice President Renee James explained at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing that the company is moving further into the personal computing space with a focus on “delivering compelling user experiences across a range of personal computing devices.” According to The Wall Street Journal, Intel’s partnership with Tencent aims to create new innovations through mutual cooperation:

Around 60 engineers from Intel and Tencent will also work together in the China research center on other products and services such as for tablets and gaming. The companies expect to eventually increase the number of engineers to 200, and to expand their areas of research to technology related to online services that can integrate multiple devices including handsets, personal computers, televisions and vehicles.

For Intel, the new focus on tablets is an interesting one. The chipmaker announced yesterday at the Developer Forum in Beijing that it would be rolling out a new Atom Z670 processor to compete with ARM whose design is currently well ahead of Intel in the tablet and mobile space.

Plenty of partners, not just Intel

The partnership is giving us flashbacks to 2010 when Tencent announced a similar “joint partnership” with Novell to establish a cloud computing research laboratory in Shenzhen.

In the last couple of months, we’ve seen Tencent aggressively expanding its business portfolio. In January, it started a $760 million investment fund to invest in technology start-ups focusing on gaming and e-commerce. It also plans to launch its HiQQ android powered smartphone which will be pre-installed with its QQ services. Tencent, together with Sina, also partnered with Nokia to provide a location-based service powered by Finland’s popular Ovi Map in China. In February, it partnered with Groupon to form Gaopeng.com in China, although the pair did have some conflict along the way.

And just this month, we’ve heard news that the company is building a new data center near Tianjin, and they’ve already inked a deal with ASUS to produce a QQ EeePad.

This technology is supposedly built to help you navigate through social sites and web applications like Facebook, Twitter and Picasa, and to perform web search in a breeze, all while watching your favorite TV programs.

Though it is true that this service isn’t something new, Google TV plans to differentiate itself through its open TV platform. This would not only maximize software developers’ creativity but also open up new windows of opportunities; probably an identical path Apple took when the iPhone was first launched.

Frequent online video viewers would also welcome this. YouTube and Hulu are both available through this new Google TV platform, where viewers have the luxury of both the large screen and web freedom. If Google TV catches on, it could boost the fame of current YouTube celebrities (like Shane Dawson and iJustine) to a higher level. We could even expect to see user generated drama TV shows!

Google Ads on your TV

Like any other Google products, the Google TV is introduced to provide value to consumers. In exchange, consumers should be prepared to get bombarded with ads. That is just the way Google does business. With both our online and TV behavior data, ads would be more targeted and effective than ever before.

Would you mind?

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Image via listsoplenty

Charlene Li, Analyst from Wetpaint and the Altimeter Group has the answer. A study on brands’ social media engagement was conducted on the top 100 brands featured on BusinessWeek’s “Interbrand Best Global Brands 2008″ publication. This study spans across more than 10 social media sites such as Facebook, Wikis, Forum, Flickr and content distribution sites such as Facebook Connect and ShareThis.

Before we show you the top 10 brands, you might want to briefly understand how companies go about gaining engagement credits. Companies only receive credits if they are actively creating and promoting presence and consistent participation within the channel. On the other hand, partial credit is given if corporate presence is created by external parties (e.g. consumers, third party affiliates).

Engagement Profile

Each brand is classified under an Engagement Profile, according to the brand’s magnitude of presence and engagement. Those with high engagement and many channels (on the top right quadrant) are called mavens while those with one channel and low engagement (lower left quadrant) are named wallflowers. Interesting names!

Top 10 Engagement Score

And here it is! The top 10 most engaging brands; led by Starbucks® with a score of 127.

Bonus: Engagement Scores by Industry

These 100 companies are grouped into their respective industries to calculate the industry average engagement scores and channels. With that, the Media and Technology industries stood out with a score of 76.7 and 70.0 respectively.

Media Companies: Google, Yahoo, Thomson Reuters, MTV, Disney, GE
Technology Companies: Dell, Microsoft, SAP, Intel, Blackberry, Oracle, Cisco, HP, Samsung, IBM, Xerox, Motorola

Via Techcrunch