MIT's Selker says voters could use equipment they own, such as telephones, computers, even interactive television.
Unlike fat and happy middle-class America, the developing world has a lot of unmet needs and pent-up demands--not for faster Internet connections and SUVs (yet), but for simple stuff such as telephones and cosmetics.
It's design is intended to minimize problems caused by loss of sight or hearing or reduced mobility with gadgets such as telephones with extra-large easy-to-read numbers, voice-activated appliances, locks operated by fingerprint scanners and talking kitchen scales.
Fish caught in a sustainable manner can be labelled electronically, so modern technology, such as mobile telephones or smartphones, have now made it possible for consumers to check exactly where the fish they buy comes from, he says.
Mark Roberts of Montgomery Securities, a San Francisco investment bank, points out that the one soon to occur in the Internet will be particularly savage because it depends on the fickle and cut-throat consumer market (businesses such as mobile telephones and fax machines began in the corporate market).
ECONOMIST: Internet service providers: Making a business of the bit buffet | The
In the past two years there has been a rush of new advertising that uses racial reconciliation as a marketing device to promote such things as mobile telephones and beer.
They also give detainees more rights, such as access to telephones, religious services, law libraries, typewriters and computers.
Wi-Fi exploits the spectrum used by such gadgets as cordless telephones and microwave ovens--airwaves that haven't been auctioned or allocated to an exclusive user.
And just a few years hence, wireless interactive access devices, such as smart mobile telephones and handheld computers, are expected to offer easy Internet access on the move.
The firm's well-off consumers are becoming ever more interested in buying other (digital) electronic gizmos, such as personal computers and cellular telephones.
At the same time they want to diversify from commodity chips into advanced chips such as processors and chips for mobile telephones.
Despite the smaller displays of mobile telephones and devices such as the PalmPilot, users will be able to send and receive e-mails, perform e-commerce transactions and get real-time updates on such things as share prices, travel, weather, news and sporting events.
The idea is to embed a sliver of Java software in the chip brains of devices such as printers, digital cameras, mobile telephones and television set-top boxes.
Western firms have found that morale improves with widely applied economy drives, such as ending business-entertainment allowances or replacing mobile telephones with pagers.
Rival chip makers such as Texas Instruments and Motorola, which are strong in digital signal processing (a technology used in mobile telephones that is particularly suitable for intelligent appliances) welcome the chance to compete in a market that Intel does not dominate.
应用推荐