October 2009

Movie studios, desperate to return their home entertainment divisions to growth, are scrambling to shape the post-DVD era. While DVD and Blu-ray will remain a huge profit center for years to come, studio executives are finally confronting an uncomfortable reality: little silver discs — for reasons of convenience, price and consumer burnout — may never recover their sales power. To grow, studios need to figure out digital distribution. Everyone is trying to solve one problem: consumers, the industry believes, will be reluctant to open their wallets for digital movies and TV shows until they get more portability and can watch the same content on several devices. Studios want to make consumers collect digital entertainment the way they would DVDs or books.

Companies have been monitoring our online behavior for almost as long as there's been an Internet, often using our online footsteps (cookies) whenever we search, browse or buy online. Tracking technology has advanced so much that everything from how long we linger over a product description to whether we are searching for sexual-dysfunction drugs can be collected and stored on individual profiles. Our profiles are numeric descriptions, not our real names, but in some cases, it's not hard to determine personal information behind the numbers. Privacy concerns abound, and several privacy and consumer groups are urging Congress to enact laws on what can and can't be collected and for how long. But the tracking continues in earnest, in few places more avidly than among retailers. With the approach of a holiday season that even the most hopeful of industry analysts think will see only a 1% sales increase, retailers are increasingly turning to the Web for answers — and sales. Even retailers beating the odds, such as thriving teen retailer Aeropostale, find their online growth far surpasses that in their brick-and-mortar stores.

India will launch auctions on Jan. 14 to allot radio bandwidth for third-generation, or 3G, telecommunications services. The government will hold a separate bandwidth auction for broadband wireless access, a document on the Department of Telecommunications Web site said Saturday. The telecom department said it will auction about four blocks of radio bandwidth in most of the nation's 22 telecom service areas. The government is validating the frequency available across all circles for the auction, the department said. "Final details of the frequencies to be auctioned will be notified in the notice [that invites applications for bidding]," the note said. The department will also auction one block for telephony services on code division multiple access, or CDMA, technology. Indian companies holding licenses to offer telephony services would be allowed to bid for 3G bandwidth, the department said. Companies without an existing Indian license will be allowed to bid, but will have to procure a license before they launch their 3G services.

The White House on Friday invited private equity fund managers to submit proposals for the establishment of a fund that will invest in technology access in countries with large Muslim populations. The so-called Global Technology and Innovation Fund fulfills a promise Obama made during his June remarks in Cairo on America's relationship with Muslim communities worldwide. The administration will finance between $25 million and $150 million in capital for each fund selected. The funds will focus on, among other tech markets, IT, healthcare and telecommunications to benefit countries throughout Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.