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IT Research & Development Dwindles In OZ

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Expenditure on research and development by Australian business dropped 3 percent in 2009-10, compared with 2008-09, the Australian Bureau of Statistics has reported. And the IT and communications industries were among the lowest performers.

ABS’s report of R&D Down Under, published yesterday,  put total expenditure on R&D by Australian businesses at $16.68 billion, down from $17.26 billion in 2008-09.

However human resources devoted to R&D over the same period rose 6 percent to 57,447 person years of effort.

Expenditure as a percentage as a proportion on GDP also dropped – from 1.38 percent to 1.3 percent.

Australia now ranks 14th among OECD countries in the ratios of R&D to GDP: Israel tops the list at 3.42pc, followed by Finland, Sweden, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, USA, Denmark, Austria, Germany, Iceland, France and Belgium – all ahead of Australia.

In terms of human resources devoted to R&D, Stats found the information, media and telecoms industries ranked only seventh out of 10 industry groups. Manufacturing and professional, scientific and technical services led the way followed by finance and insurance, mining, wholesale trade, construction – and finally IT and telecoms.

Edelman PR Dumped By Symantec

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Just over a week after revealing it had appointed the Edelman agency to handle public relations for its Norton subsidiary (CDN, Aug. 18), Symantec Australia has dumped the agency.

“On behalf of Norton’s PR team, I would like to inform you that Edelman will not be representing Symantec’s consumer business, Norton, in Australia with immediate effect,” in-house PR manager Natalie Connor announced to press via e-mail on Friday.

“Due to an unresolved commercial conflict of interest and timing, we have agreed not to continue with the partnership. Norton’s PR activity will continue to be conducted in-house.”

Text 100 handed spin for Norton up until April, when Symantec ended that arrangement due to what it called ” changing business and communication requirements.” Appointment of Edelman was revealed in mid-August.

Oz Wireless Seen As World Beater

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SYDNEY – NBN’s fixed wireless service stacks up against the best in the world, according to a new report conducted by Ovum, which compared its performance to that of 21 overseas wireless broadband providers.The research looked at operators’ data allowance,

download speed, upload speed and price per GB of data, finding that few

operators will be able to match NBN’s upcoming 50Mbps up/20 down maximum

wholesale speed, currently in a nationwide pilot.

The report also found NBN was superior to its peers for data allowance, price

per gigabyte of data and upload speed performance.

NBN’s upload speed performance for its forthcoming up-to 50/20 Mbps fixed

wireless product was 33 per cent higher than its next best peer, Ireland’s

Meteor.

“Our research demonstrates the combined technical performance with high levels

of affordability of the NBN fixed wireless network make it a world-leading

broadband service,” said Ovum research director David Kennedy.” –

Channel News

Tesla Takes Market By Storm

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Tesla is cranking out electric cars, aiming to reach 500,000 customers every year, starting in 2018. That’s 10 times the number of vehicles it produced in 2015, and enough to ensure that all 400,000 customers who have put down a $1000 deposit on the forthcoming Model 3 will qualify for a significant US subsidy.The latest pledge is to develop a faster production

growth rate than Henry Ford’s  Ford Motor Co managed in the early 1900s.

A century later, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wants the Model 3, pictured, to be the

Ford T’s electric grandchild. He’s now aiming for close to a million sales by

2020.

“My desk is at the end of the production line,” Musk said in an

earnings conference call on Wednesday. “The whole team is

super-focused.”

Come On, Malcolm: PM Urged To Speed NBN Construction

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New Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is being urged to fast-track construction of the National Broadband Network, bringing Australia closer to the advantages being enjoyed by Internet users in connected cities such as Singapore and Hong Kong.

Under the two-year Abbott Government, Australia has actually not only fallen behind other OECD countries in the rankings for Internet-enabled offices and homes, but has lagged behind the – admittedly not very fast – construction schedule of the previous Australian Labor Governments, urged on as they were by then Comms Minister Stephen Conroy.

Laurie Patton, CEO of Internet Australia, a peak body representing Internet suppliers, yesterday called on the new PM to fast-track construction as a matter of urgency.

“Over the past two years” – in which Turnbull has been in charge – “Australia has fallen behind other OECD countries in the rankings for Internet-enabled offices and homes. We cannot allow this to continue,” said Patton.

He also said Internet Australia is concerned that ad hoc legislative changes designed to address specific issues – such as site blocking – are at odds with good policy making “because they risk unintended consequences that can impact on the trust and the efficiency the underpins the Internet.”

“We believe that blocking access to international Web sites will be largely ineffective, being relatively easy to bypass. The costs to the Internet industry – and ultimately passed on to consumers – will be significant, disproportionate and unjustifiable,” he said.

These matters were presumably not high on the new PM’s mind yesterday, as he underwent the swearing in ceremony at Government House and mulled over the likely make over of his ministry.

But they will increasingly become major issues in the months ahead. If significant progress on the NBN rollout has not been made ahead of next year’s election, Labor leader Bill Shorten – or a possible successor – will have much to bang on about.

HFC Hits 10Gbps At Nokia

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Nokia has demonstrated 10Gbps symmetrical data speeds over traditional hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) cable networks.Nokia’s prototype technology, called XG-Cable, is

still at the proof-of-concept stage, but should easily integrate into the

DOCSIS 3.1 suite of specifications focused on providing cable operators with

technology innovations to transform the industry.

DOCSIS is the set of standards governing data access over cable TV networks,

and DOCSIS 3.1 was designed to enable capacities of 10Gbps downstream, but only

1Gbps upstream. Nokia has taken this a step further by demonstrating that

symmetrical speeds of 10Gbps are possible.

– In Australia, NBN has announced plans to launch DOCSIS 3.1 services in 2017.

Ad-Blockers ‘Should Be Blocked’

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The newspaper industry rarely shies away from a fight and it’s no different when it comes to ad-blockers that cruel their revenue.The Newspaper Association of America, which represents

2000 US newspapers, has filed a federal complaint against the ad-blocking

industry. It claims software companies which enable users to block ads are

misleading the public.

The papers want US trade practice authorities to bar ad blockers that offer

so-called “paid white-listing” – services which charge advertisers to

bypass ad-blocking software.

Other services have been found substituting ad blockers’ own advertising for

blocked ads.

BlackBerry Z10 Bids Hit $1775

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SAN FRANCISCO – BlackBerry’s new Z10 smartphone is attracting bids of as much as US$1775 on eBay’s auction site, in a possible indication of demand for the device in the US where it doesn’t go on sale till next month.
Alternatively, some cynics suggest, dummy bidders acting on BlackBerry’s behalf, may be bidding the items up, in order to attract publicity and attribute value to the new model.)

The Z10 is expected to go on sale in Australia in March, soon after the US launch.

BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion, unveiled the new phone late last week and made it available to UK wireless subscribers through Vodafone and other carriers.

Bernie Ticks Clicks ‘N Bricks Mix

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MELBOURNE – The head of the Myer department store chain says the company can beat its online retail rivals by offering both clicks and bricks.

Myer CEO Bernie Brookes, pictured,  told the Annual Stockbrokers Conference in Melbourne that Myer’s new “omni-channel” service would let customers buy online but collect and try on items in-store, according to a Herald-Sun report

Myer and David Jones both make less than one per cent of their earnings online while their global peers – such as Macy’s, Marks and Spencer, and John Lewis – have far higher Internet sales volumes, the report says.

Brookes believes Australia’s large retailers will soon catch up.

Apple To Grow Services Business

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Apple’s services business is set to double by 2020, according to a Credit Suisse analyst.The upbeat report comes as analyst sentiment around

Apple has been improving. In the company’s latest quarterly report, services

accounted for just eight percent of total revenues at roughly US$6.1 billion.

But the segment has been expanding, with sales up 26 percent from the same time

a year ago.

Already gross profits from internet services, AppleCare, Apple Pay and

licensing have grown to $14.5 billion a year from $3.2 billion in 2010,

analyst Kulbinder Garcha said.