Monday, May 19, 2008

Venture Capital Perspective on the Mobile Industry

In the afternoon I took a break from the MobileMonday Global Summit, and toured the exhibition halls of the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. One computer exhibition looks much like another, but this one had some features different to Australia. There were real estate promotions for high technology developments, most notably Cyberjaya. Malaysian state governments were prominent in the displays.

Also prominent was the national government, with its "MyKad" Government Multipurpose Card (GMPC). This is a compulsory identity smart card which also offers some consumer ePayment functions. Apparently the non-compulsory functions are not widely used, which supports the Australian Government's decision to scrap a similar project.

There were large displays from Microsoft and Intel, but a curiously tiny display from IBM. There also large display by Asian region government and one from Holland.

There were also some devices from companies which did not make a lot of sense to me, such as a special touch screen computer for farmers. This device was not rugged and I couldn't see the point.

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