Monthly Archives: September 2008

According to the latest report of CCID Consulting, in the first half of 2008, China’s MP3 player market realized sales of about 2.5 million MP3 players and revenue of CNY1.223 billion (nearly 180 million US dollars), year-on-year decreases of 43.76% and 43.56%, respectively. Li Ying, a consultant from the consumer electronics industry research center of CCID Consulting, says that as the MP3 player markets in big Chinese cities are close to saturation, a negative growth began to appear in its sales in the first six months of 2008…

In the Olympic spirit, TrendSpotting has drilled down on the dynamics of the Internet in China in a new report entitled ‘Handbook of Online China‘. The report focuses on three key themes – China as an online leader, the competitive landscape, and business in online China – that are key indicators of the ongoing development of the dynamic Internet market in China [...]

A Shanghai city court began hearing criminal charges recently against a gang accused of global trading in pirated software – at US$10 million-plus, the biggest case of copyright violation in Shanghai’s history. Nine defendants were brought before the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court in a trial that is expected to last two days…

Some of us may not be trained as interaction designers or usability engineers, however, an eye for details and reasoning is always needed for awaken our design sense and build expertise. How do we make a product that is important to the user, clear for comprehension, and with a purpose? OK, start look around and double think if what you see is really what it should be. Watch Bill DeRouchey‘s ‘Learning Interaction Design From Everyday Objects’ talk given at Adaptive Path‘s UX Week 2007 in Washington DC:..

The number of phone users in China had exceeded 960 million as of July/2008, including over 600 million mobile phone users, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said on recently. Fixed-line subscribers dropped 10.6 million from January to July/2008, or a reduction of 1.35 million monthly, with the total at 355 million as of July/2008…

In the first half of 2008, China’s total advertising launch reached 244.9 billion yuan (over 36 billion U.S. dollars) , an increase of 17% compared with the same period last year, according to well-known global media and information group Nielsen latest report of ad information services, Xinhua News reported. Among the three types of major media Nielsen monitored, television continued to lead with 83% of the advertising market share, a total of 204 billion yuan; and print media advertising made progress with an increase of 14 percent. Among them, newspapers and magazine ads amounted to 36 billion and 5 billion yuan [...]

To spur greater interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in schools across the globe, Innovation First, Inc. (IFI), a leader in educational and competitive robotics products, and Autodesk, the world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets, have released a new curriculum that is now included in the popular VEX Robotics Design System Classroom Lab Kits. Based on Autodesk Inventor software, the curriculum is designed to encourage students and educators to explore the exciting world of robotics by bringing real-world experience and hands-on learning to STEM teaching and lessons.

The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has announced its approval on China Mobile’s (CHL) nationwide commercial trial network based on TD-SCDMA technology. A spokesman from China Mobile confirms that the group has already received the formal approval from the MIIT, but insists it does not mean a 3G license has been issued. The 3G licensing has been continuously delayed in China in the past few years, mainly because the TD-SCDMA technology is not mature…

Caijing Magazine shares some startling statistics on cancer in China, where smoking, poor diet, water pollution and environmental problems have caused the nation’s cancer death rate to rise 80 percent in the past 30 years. The statistics come from an exhaustive survey conducted by the Chinese Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Science and Technology. According to the survey, cancer is now accountable for 25 percent of all urban deaths and 21 percent of all rural deaths [...]