PLDT and Smart Communications, obviously the country’s largest telecommunications conglomerate, held a technology update get-together with Davao’s I.T. industry last 25 April 2007. It was part of a nationwide roadshow that the PLDT Group is conducting in order to touch base with existing and potential clientele in key cities. Davao’s was co-hosted by the Davao Chamber and ICT Davao Inc.

Most of the products and services presented were nothing new to us, but the speakers were able to apprise us of developments and enhancements that will certainly prove interesting to the market. Businesses will definitely have a use for, say, PLDT’s Mobile Eye service — in a nutshell, this service lets you monitor your shop from anywhere as long as your cellphone has video capability.

We all know about PLDT WeRoam, right? Well, they’ve taken this service further with their F.A.S.Track offering. Basically, as a manager or business owner, it lets you keep track of your field assets (personnel, vehicles) in near real time. I don’t want to sound like a brochure for PLDT, so if you’re interest is piqued, just give them a ring.

What PLDT Group can be really proud of is their position in cutting-edge technology. In case you haven’t noticed, PLDT and Smart are always at the forefront in the deployment of newfangled techie stuff. In mobile alone, Smart has consistently led the way. And one more first that this mobile provider has deployed is what they call ‘Decode’.

‘Decode’ is a step up from the barcode system. It looks like a square with a pattern of dots (called mcodes), and this pattern stores a sizable amount of data. For instance, it could store your name and contact details. You could then have your mcode printed on your business card. So, instead of your clients manually inputting your mobile number etc., they could simply scan your mcode with their phone’s camera and (via a special piece of software that you can download from Smart’s portal) save the information into their phonebook.

I could think of a myriad other applications for Decode. And I predict this system will be widely accepted and used in the Philippines very soon.