Japan Economy – an interesting analysis

Nikkei has an interesting interview on Japan economy with Bill Emmott, former Economist editor.

 

My take: reform of the Labor Market :

 

I think the big thing that needs to be done is to have a single labor law that applies to everyone, so to reduce the amount of protection for regular workers to make it easier to fire people, but then have the same protections for the irregular workers, so there should be one law for everyone.

Delivery dates

End of year sales? Tablet wars?

Kindle whitepaper delivery date moved from November 2012 to January 2013! Seems like I am going to see many kindles in the train in the near future.

And the iPad Mini, how is it doing?
From Nov. 2nd delivery, it is now “Two weeks”.

At least we know that Apple supply chain is working better than Amazon

Finally!!! Amazon Kindle in Japan

Almost there…

Finally, Amazon will release Kindle for the Japanese market.
After the Nexus 7 Fiasco, Kindle Fire HD is definitely the first runner up for my new tablet.

Only two small issues/questions:

  • Can I connect my Amazon.com Kindle to Amazon.co.jp?
  • Kindle will be available in November, while Fire HD in December

 

 

Alvarion 2010 report

Alvarion just released their 2010 report:

Highlights:

  • Q4 decrease – revenues and shipments
  • 2010 shipments “increase” of 0.4% – let’s call this “flat”
  • 2010 revenues down 16.3%

Management comment:

“We continue to see attractive, profitable business in the 4G RAN market, albeit on a smaller scale than we previously expected

2011 Guidance is not provided

I wish all the best to Alvarion, but they keep bleeding money while future is not promising.

WiMAX is not being deployed as it was supposed to; Can’t see Alvarion competing in the LTE market against the Giants.

Damage Control 101 – Blow out of proportions

I may be speculating here, but the Iran Virus story and media coverage made me think.

Facts:

  1. Siemens SCADA systems around the world were hit by Stuxnet virus.
  2. Some of the systems are in Iran
  3. From BBC report: “Stuxnet was first detected in June by a security firm based in Belarus, but may have been circulating since 2009.”
  4. “Siemens was neither involved in the reconstruction of Bushehr or any nuclear plant construction in Iran, nor delivered any software or control system,” he said. “Siemens left the country nearly 30 years ago.”
  5. “Siemens said that it was only aware of 15 infections that had made their way on to control systems in factories, mostly in Germany.”

Yet the Media speculates:

  • “The sophisticated super virus Stuxnet” – Deutche Welle
  • “One of the most sophisticated pieces of malware ever detected was probably targeting “high value” infrastructure in Iran, experts have told the BBC.”
  • “Stuxnet’s complexity suggests it could only have been written by a “nation state”, some researchers have claimed”
  • “The fact that we see so many more infections in Iran than anywhere else in the world makes us think this threat was targeted at Iran and that there was something in Iran that was of very, very high value to whomever wrote it,” Liam O’Murchu of security firm Symantec, who has tracked the worm since it was first detected, told BBC News.

Facts seem to contradict the speculation, but the story becomes more interesting, doesn’t it?

However, Mr O’Murchu and others, such as security expert Bruce Schneier, have said that there was currently not enough evidence to draw conclusions about what its intended target was or who had written it.

And now my speculation:

As Siemens are obviously do not actively involve themselves in the PR and reports of  “some researchers have claimed”, it looks like Symantec are doing all they can do to blow this story out of proportions. This is not a story of “Symantec software failed to identify and stop a malware”, but “Symantec cannot possibly identify and stop such a sophisticated Super Virus written by a Nation State”.

Open Network Lab with HootSuite

Open Network Lab is a new incubation lab for Internet based Startups.

I joined last week’s meeting with Ryan Holmes, HootSuite CEO and Japanese Shinnichi Fujikawa, founder of Movatwi.

Open Network Lab goal is to encourage innovation and Internet based Start-Ups, which may explain the 40 minutes long panel on “How Engineers can start Companies”.

HootSuite recently launched a Japanese version of their service,with the aid of Digital Garage which is heavily invested in the Twitter phenomena and related tools/services.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4650441303_46d0d1c8cd.jpg
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4006/4650441303_46d0d1c8cd.jpg

To me it seems Open Network Lab is the right tool for the current economic and social situation in Japan. In the past few months I have met many Engineers, Innovators excited to start their own companies, but fail in two things:

  • How to market their services to the mass market
  • How to go Global