Singapore Air launches first Asian all-biz class flights 22 March 2008
Posted by Michael in Innovation, News, Services, Singapore.add a comment
Singapore Airlines will begin operating all-business-class services to Los Angeles and New York in May, in a move it says will create an airline-industry first. The initiative will represent the first time any airline has operated an all-business-class service between Asia and the United States, Singapore Airlines (SIA) said. SIA plans to convert the five Airbus A340-500 jets it currently operates on nonstop flights to both U.S. cities into all-business-class configuration. At present each A340-500 seats 181 passengers in two classes — business class and SIA’s ‘Executive Economy’ class — but will replace this configuration with a single-class interior that contains 100 of the airline’s new business-class seats.
[From World of airline news]
Toshiba innovates ‘invitation-only’ mobile phone 22 March 2008
Posted by Michael in Branding, Innovation, Japan, News, Products, Services.add a comment
This set of handsets from Toshiba targets the ultra-luxury segment who want to be seen with the rarest of personal devices. Although Toshiba brought some interesting things together, none are terrifically unique. A high-profile designer, a long wait for exclusivity factor, some concierge services and a hunt-for-it availability. The ‘invitation-only’ is a bit misleading as it is available to people who seek out a special code in a magazine. What could have been more interesting, and perhaps even more lucrative, is to make it truly invitation only.
[From InventorSpot]
China about to get web innovative 20 March 2008
Posted by Michael in China, Innovation, Observation.add a comment
Companies like eBay and Google know that Chinese tech firms are forces to be reckoned with. Both Web giants have tried to push into the Middle Kingdom’s tech industry only to be shoved back by local competitors who were faster to market and better tuned to the tastes of the local audience.
But in each of those cases, the American companies could console themselves that imitation is the best form of flattery. The search engine Baidu may hold 60% of China’s search market, compared with Google’s 26%, according to Chinese Web research firm Analysys, but its site design and search algorithm largely mimic Google’s.
Alibaba’s Taobao.com has maintained dominance over eBay in China, but only by virtue of a few new features aimed at the local audience, like allowing real time bartering on prices–not by coming up with a smart new business model. So far, tech startups have outdone their U.S. counterparts in China through careful mimicry and adaptation–not innovation.
Author Rebecca Fannin, who has been covering China since 1992 and is the international editor of the Hong Kong weekly Asian Venture Capital Journal, says that’s about to change. In her new book Silicon Dragon: How China is Winning the Tech Race, she argues that businesses like Baidu and Alibaba foreshadow another generation of Chinese startups–those with their own highly competitive and homegrown ideas.
Taking a break from her book tour of Asia, Fannin spoke with Forbes.com from Hong Kong about the newest crop of entrepreneurs in China, why they’re poised to outthink and outspend Silicon Valley, and how they deal with local problems like corruption, censorship and piracy.
[Read the Forbes.com interview]
Hong Kong’s own brand turns tipsy 20 March 2008
Posted by Michael in Branding, Hong Kong, News.add a comment
Little success has sprung from Hong Kong’s efforts to rebrand itself since it lost its exclusive status as the only gateway into a closed and secretive China, and some of its East-meets-West allure departed with the British in 1997. The development of Cyberport to attract innovative high-tech industries turned out to be a classic Hong Kong real estate deal dressed up in gobbledegook. The much ballyhooed Disneyland turned out to be, well, Disneyland of a sort. Other ideas for keeping Hong Kong a world class city by making it a centre for contract arbitration services, gold futures, education and — the flavour of the moment — carbon trading have all failed to achieve altitude. But in his latest budget, financial secretary John Tsang has come up with a much more earthy and credible drive for municipal fame. Tsang wants Hong Kong to line up along side London and New York as a global centre for trade in fine wines. To that end he has dumped the tax on imported wines, which were 80 percent of the price last year but only brought him about HK$500 million in revenue. Tsang reckons this loss will be outweighed by the new jobs and income as Hong Kong becomes the “gambay” capital of Asia.
[From The Vancouver Sun]
Taiwan’s Acer keeps three brands, but should they? 20 March 2008
Posted by Michael in Branding, News, Opinion, Products, Strategy, Taiwan.add a comment
Taiwan PC brand Acer conducted a splashy, first-ever US press conference last week while also announcing the acquisition of Packard Bell. Last year Acer picked up US PC-maker Gateway. Now, with three challenger brands with footholds in different regional markets, Acer is pushing a strategy of supporting all three. Additionally, they announced they would keep the designs relatively the same. Although they certainly reviewed the optional brand strategies extensively, it seems like viable alternative approaches are to: One, make a clear bold investment in building a single, world-class brand leveraging the IP and assets of all the brands or Two: Better addressing design, performance or usage segments using the different three brands. More from PC World.
India get innovative for more ‘girl power’ 20 March 2008
Posted by Michael in Culture, India, Innovation, News.1 comment so far
India has found an innovative and provocative way to address one of its biggest challenges. It intends to pay for girls.The government plans to offer as much as $5,000 to poor families to give birth to girls and raise them. The aim is to reduce a cultural preference for boys that’s throwing the nation’s gender balance out of whack and threatening the long-term outlook for Asia’s third-largest economy.
Sex-ratio imbalances also are a growing problem in China, where sons are often preferred over daughters. The concern goes beyond young men with no prospects of finding mates in the decades ahead. Economists say the gap may undermine Asian growth and productivity, and lead to bigger budget deficits.
[From app.com]
“Brand China” moving up the quality ladder 20 March 2008
Posted by Michael in Branding, China, Observation, Products, Strategy.add a comment
For nearly two decades China has been the world’s low-cost factory. Although this remains a strong component of the world’s economic dynamic, China is beginning to see that fray at the edges. Energy prices, increasing wages and protectionist posturing from trading partners is putting pressure on certain industries. Especially vulnerable among these are many light industry areas which are seeing new direct investment and existing production moving to even lower-cost markets like Vietnam. This trend will increasingly spread across the production spectrum forcing Chinese manufacturers to move up the quality ladder rather than being a pure quantity/cost play. When they move in this direction it will be an even more tempting opportunity to properly develop and export Chinese brands. More from Xinhua.
Thai hospital strengthens international brand 16 March 2008
Posted by Michael in Branding, Services, Thailand.add a comment
Thailand’s Bumrungrad International Hospital has been in the news a couple of times this week and has got a “first”. Already known throughout Asia as a first choice for medical services ranging from dental services to breast implants to sex changes, the hospital is further building the brand to international markets.
The hospital will operate a complete packaging, storage and dispensing system that barcodes unit-dose medications onsite. This state-of-the-art, fully-automated drug management system by Swisslog — often called a ‘Pharmacy Robot’ — is the first of its kind in Asia. Bumrungrad International will use it to improve care and safety for its patients. [From PRWeb]
Secondly, the hospital increasingly receives international patients, including from the US, as insurance companies there resort to “patient outsourcing” in the face of the stratospheric cost of surgical procedures. A heart by-pass in the US goes for around $125,000 while at Bumrungrad it can be a reasonable $16,000. [From Businessweek]
Google turns to ‘Lab Japan’ 15 March 2008
Posted by Michael in Innovation, Insight, Japan, News, Telecom.add a comment
Japan’s handset-toting masses, it seems, have a lot to teach the Net giant. The country has become a vast lab for Google as it tries to refine mobile search technology. That’s because Japan’s 100 million cell-phone users represent the most diverse—and discriminating—pool of mobile subscribers on the planet. While Google also does plenty of testing elsewhere, the Japanese are often more critical because they are as likely to tap into the Net with a high-tech phone as a PC and can do so at speeds rivaling fixed-line broadband. And because Japanese carriers have offered such services for years, plenty of Web sites are formatted for cell phones.
[From Businessweek]
CK stands tall in Hong Kong 15 March 2008
Posted by Michael in Branding, Hong Kong, News.add a comment
Calvin Klein has picked Hong Kong to launch its biggest outdoor campaign in the world, a 27-story billboard across the former Ritz Carlton Hotel in Central. Kennis Chan, Calvin Klein marketing executive, said the main focus for this billboard is to “create noise and increase brand awareness” in the market.
[From Marketing]
