Have you ever used Google, Skype, YouTube or MySpace? Well if you have, you are part of a future which will be increasingly web-based with voice data and video services delivered in an open model. It’s goodbye to paying locked-in subscriptions.

A new report shows that Skype has changed telephony from a telecoms service to a web application. Obviously, this has not resulted in everyone throwing away their handsets, but it has put those involved in the industry on guard.

Continue reading “Skype Nudges Slow Telecom Market Forward to the Web” »

If you’re American and a fan of your home look out for HIPsters or “HomeTrend Influentials” in the next coming year. Apparently these are the people influencing the rest of American “mainstream” home-owners.

According to a new report “HIPsters” pick up new home-related trends and embrace the latest home goods much sooner than the rest of the US population.

Continue reading ““HIPsters” Make Americans Improve their Homes” »

If your one-stop answer to everything from the capital of Burma, to the meaning of life comes from a broadband connection and the Google search toolbar, it’s time to read a new report.

There’s been a media buzz about Google’s ‘multi-pronged strategic approach’. (Read the company may be interested in doing more than searching and organising the internet. Light Reading suggests it might be dropping hints, it wants to become a global telecom powerhouse.)

Continue reading “Google’s New Incarnation: Moving From Search Engine To Telecoms Operator?” »

The 2008 Olympics in Beijing will be instrumental in boosting the number of tourists visiting China. The world’s most populous nation is rapidly becoming a much-preferred tourist destination, having completely recovered from the signs of a slowdown in 2003 and 2004 caused by the SARS outbreak.

A new report has revealed that tourism in China has outstripped the GDP growth rate since 1990. It finds that China is now Asia’s largest outbound tourist source nation, having outranked Japan, the previous leader in the Asia-Pacific region.

Continue reading “Beijing Hopes Olympics Will Significantly Boost Inbound Tourism” »