Manila, 25 May 2010 — More than a year ago, WD® devised the WD Caviar® Blue™, WD Caviar® Green™ and WD Caviar® Black™ hard drive series, designed to help consumers make better informed choices in selecting their digital storage solutions. Now, in the Philippines, these hard drives have faces and personalities in the forms of Brent, Gus and Blake.

Brent represents the WD Caviar Blue hard drive, which is built for everyday computing. Gus represents the WD Caviar Green hard drive, engineered to be cool, quiet and eco-friendly for reducing carbon footprint and saving our Planet Earth. Blake represents the WD Caviar Black hard drive, which is built to be fast and powerful for gaming enthusiasts and overclocker fans who want speed at their fingertips.

Brent, Gus and Blake are fast gaining popularity and teasing chuckles out of netizens as their animated episodes pick up tens of thousands of views. Following the launch of the trailer episode last Christmas, the story of Brent continues with his misadventure with his extremely spontaneous girl. In episode three, Gus consults his disk doctor about his non-nature loving girl who is driving him up the wall. And in episode four, Blake is in therapy with his disk doctor and complaining of his girlfriend who is unable to appreciate the victory that he had achieved through his passion in racing. They all have something in common. Visit WD’s The Power of Choice website here to see Brent, Gus and Blake in action.

Together with the launch of episode four, WD introduces the new WD Blue, Green and Black Photo Hunt Contest. This is the 2nd online marketing campaign following the success of the BGB Photo and Digital Art Contest which had just announced the winners last April. Contestants for the Photo Hunt Contest are required to spot all the differences between the two photos before the time runs out. Pit against the clock for a high score and stand a chance to win attractive prizes like Canon EOS 550D digital SLR camera, Apple® iPad™ 64GB with Wi-Fi + 3G, Mac mini 160GB and more. Click here for the contest mechanics.

About WD

WD, one of the storage industry’s pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users’ data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and media products.

WD was founded in 1970. The company’s storage products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company’s Web site to access a variety of financial and investor information.

[Media Release]

Western Digital, WD, the WD logo and WD Caviar are registered trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. in the US and other countries; Black, Green and Blue are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. All other trademarks herein are property of their respective owner. As used for storage capacity, one megabyte (MB) = one million bytes, one gigabyte (GB) = one billion bytes, and one terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.

Microsoft Corp.

It wasn’t mentioned in the official announcement, but this generous offer could most certainly be a response to SMEs’ clamor for more affordable business software applications.

Software has never been a priority among SMEs, most of whom consider such expense non-essential and even frivolous (and so resort to piracy). This new financing deal from Microsoft, whose programs are used by more than 90% of businesses, should therefore be a very welcome development.

Included in the deal are MS Windows, MS Office, and other applications that fall under Open License, Open License with Software Assurance, and Get Genuine Windows Advantage SMO. In short, most of the software needs of virtually all SME companies are covered.

In this financing program, Filipino companies need only make a down payment of 30% of the total purchase. The balance will then be payable across 9 months at 0% interest. To give you an idea, let’s say your company purchases software licenses valued at P250,000. The payment up front will be P75,000. For the next 9 months, you will be paying only a little over P19,000 per month.

Such a package could include several licenses for MS Windows Vista Business, and those for the Office suite (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint).

This financing program is available to registered businesses only. The Microsoft Philippines website lists SEC registration papers as one of the requirements; however, according to Lane Systems’ Rodney Jao, DTI-registered companies may also apply for it. Lane Systems Inc is one of the accredited ISV Partners of Microsoft in the Philippines.

The Microsoft Financing Program runs from 1 October 2008 to 31 March 2009.

Abreeza will be a multi-use commercial center that will house a mall, entertainment areas (including natural open spaces, comprising about 20% of the total project area), and locations reserved specifically for business-process outsourcing (BPO) operations. In fact, there are two buildings planned solely for BPO companies, according to the representatives of Ayala Land.

The first building is scheduled to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2009 and will have a total gross leasable area of 10,000 sqm. While ALI has not yet signed any particular BPO firm for Abreeza, they do have existing locators in their IT parks and buildings in Metro Manila and Cebu.

At the press conference following the groundbreaking rites Tuesday last week, ALI President Jaime I. Ayala explained that they do maintain a loyal group of BPO locators who may very well be expected to follow them to Davao once the facilities are in place. He further expounded that this was the case in the Ayala IT Park in Cebu City.

The groundbreaking of this much-awaited development, which is a joint venture between ALI and Anflocor, is a very clear and resounding signal of strong investor confidence in Davao City. The ALI executives expressed their approval of the region’s peace-and-order situation, as well as of the overall favorable business climate in the Philippine South. Hence their preparedness to sink in up to Php5 billion in the Abreeza project.

During the press conference, which was held at the Pearl Farm Marina in Lanang, ALI and Anflocor decision-makers made themselves available for interview by local media, as well as by a couple of bloggers – Ria Jose and yours truly. Sidebar: I am glad that more and more business entities are now recognizing the usefulness of blogs as an effective communications medium.

Being an active member of the city’s IT industry as well, I was particularly interested in the ICT component of Abreeza. Upon introducing the existence of organized ICT groups in Davao, both presidents of ALI and Anflocor immediately expressed an interest in interfacing with the Association of Solution Integrators in Davao (ASID) and ICT Davao Inc.

ASID is the organization of software development houses and companies offering software-based solutions. ICT Davao is the umbrella group of all ICT-related non-profit organizations in the city (of which ASID is a founding member). I act as the executive director of ASID.

It is indeed beneficial for Davao to be the investment destination of more foreign BPO companies that will locate in Abreeza. On the other hand, it is my hope that this Ayala development will also spell success for the local ICT industry of Davao.

Judging by the keen interest and enthusiasm of the ALI executives when they inquired into ASID and ICT Davao, I’m convinced that Abreeza will be able to contribute directly to the progress of Davao’s IT sector.

Already, Ayala Businesscapes representatives, as well as Anflocor President Alexander Valoria, have communicated their intent to participate in Davao’s IT associations. Their contributions are certainly very welcome!

“Apart from being one of our most important markets,” said Bernadette Nacario, Country General Manager of HP Philippines’ Personal Systems Group, “Davao will always be a significant market for HP here in the Philippines.”

A visible sign of our being an HP City is this technology company’s sponsorship of the upcoming Kadayawan sa Dabaw festival. Already we are seeing banners and streamers bearing the familiar HP logo all over the city. According to Bebi Reyes-Guzman, Marketing Communications, there will also be taxi cabs that will sport the HP emblem.

HP is one of the world’s leading providers of personal computers (desktops and laptops), servers, and imaging equipment. This global company has also been noted for their entry into the mobile market, especially with their iPaq line and the HP Mini-Note PC.

During the press conference hosted by HP’s team led by Nacario, an HP desktop computer and laptop were turned over to Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, ostensibly as a sign of more goodies to come. Nacario expressed an interest in the city’s unique 911 emergency response service, and has indicated that, as an HP City, Davao will be the recipient of more significant computer donations from HP Philippines.

Duterte, as he is wont to do in such situations, apprised the HP executives of the state of affairs in Davao City, especially on the peace and order situation. It was icing on the cake, however, since Nacario and her team are already apparently convinced of the potentials of Davao and her fast-growing IT industry.

To further their commitment to the city, HP Philippines is set to expand their presence in the city. Aside from strengthening ties with local channels, and beefing up their service center, the company is now on the lookout for a territory representative for Davao and Cebu.

“Building Davao as an HP City is our own way of helping the city grow and be recognized as one of the IT centers not only in the Philippines but in Asia,” Nacario said. “We see a great potential for Davao to become a major cyber city in the region. By bringing the widest IT portfolio available today to Davao City, we are already helping it anticipate and address all its needs as a major IT hub.”

Nacario estimates that HP’s market penetration stands at around 5% in Davao, with bulk of the remainder belonging to the “white box” suppliers. She was referring to the largely inexpensive computer ‘brands’ emerging and proliferating out of Taiwan.

HP’s strengths lie in what the brand stands for: quality assurance, excellent after-sales service and systems scalability. According to Grace San Juan, VSDB Lead of HP’s Personal Systems Group, her company believes that Dabawenyos are now beyond mere price consciousness. Precisely why they have decided to bring their marketing and promotions to the Philippine South: to create more awareness of the worth of HP’s technology products and services.

Lane Systems Inc. is a 12-year old company that has been involved in foreign projects, long before outsourcing and offshoring became buzzwords in the Philippines. Lane Systems (LSI), spearheaded by CEO Rodney Jao, is Davao’s showcase of success in the field of software development, and they are showing no signs of slowing down.

They call their best offerings “mobility solutions”. Centered mostly on inventory and related applications, LSI has developed and deployed programs for barcode- and RFID-based business requirements. For example, currently, they are building an application that will run on a handheld rugged computer. Their application will make it possible to gather data contained in two-dimensional barcodes, as well as process such data for use as decision-making business information.

This gadget LSI is working on, an Intermec CN3 Mobile Computer (shown in photo), is capable of electronic data collection and processing for entire warehouses. It’s a remarkable piece of equipment: a very durable handheld computer with Bluetooth and barcode scanner (one- and two-dimensional), WiFi-enabled, plus it has a slot for a SIM card. It runs on Windows Mobile, and LSI is currently developing an application that will run on it and take advantage of the hardware’s functionalities. The project is for a client in the United States.

In the field of telephony, LSI counts a number of call centers in Metro Manila and Cebu as clients. BPO companies, especially call centers, have very demanding requirements for contact management, and the people at Lane Systems have delivered to their customers’ satisfaction.

Lane Systems’ motto speaks of their business culture: Process Improvement Through Technology. Here’s a quotable quote from their website: “Lane Systems is unique in several aspects; among them is the unparalleled ability to examine a business challenge, apply appropriate technology solutions, and effectively articulate the solution to our own teams and the customer from start to finish. We guarantee customer satisfaction as we go the ‘extra mile’ to see that our customers know we mean business when we say we are committed to them.”

More than just their clients, LSI also takes care of their employees. Operating much like their Silicon Valley counterparts, LSI believes that the talent pool that they have is as much capital as money in the bank. That’s why their people are some of the better paid technology workers in Davao, as well as the more fulfilled in their careers.

Lane Systems is hiring! For more information, please visit their Web site, or call 221-3344. You may also submit your résumé to Davao Tech Jobs.

In a recent article in this bastion of traditional journalism, NYT’s Joe Nocera published a scathing "open letter" addressed to Yahoo! CEO, Jerry Yang. It’s entitled "Oh Jerry, It’s No Longer Your Baby" and alludes to Yang’s incomprehensible behavior during the months when Microsoft Corp. was batting for a Yahoo!-Microsoft merger.

Yang co-founded Yahoo! 14 years ago and, before the emergence of Google, it was the coolest outfit that hackers and users alike idolized. Perhaps Yang just couldn’t let go of his paternal sentiments for his company, even after it went public in 1996. Which was to his detriment, because it would seem (as NYT put it) that he never made the transition from owner to caretaker (i.e., servant to his stockholders).

Yang made two bizarre moves that were clearly predicated on his desire to avoid being merged with Microsoft. First, when Yahoo!’s board was already ‘forced’ to sit down and actually talk to the software giant, Yang put in place a generous but wacky severance package for full-time employees who would opt to leave the company in the event of a corporate takeover. Basically, it stipulated that employees who walked out after Microsoft takes over Yahoo! would be free to leave and pocket a hefty sum for their trouble.

Second: Yang got in bed with Google for a search ads deal that would surely bleed the Yahoo! search business dry. And good old Jerry publicized the deal as a means to ensure a healthy Internet. Who was he kidding? Serving Google’s ads in Yahoo! search engine results pages… and his business model was what again?

Let’s put things into perspective here.

Google revolutionized — and subsequently dominated — Internet search, Web-based email and other online services. Let’s tackle email, because I’m sure everyone can appreciate how Google became a household name because of its search engine.

When Google launched its email service, Gmail, it offered an unprecedented amount of inbox space as well as a cleaner and faster interface. As soon as I got my Gmail account, I completely abandoned my Yahoo! email address. Many of my friends did the same thing. Today, it’s much more hip to have an @gmail.com address.

It took awhile before Yahoo! and Hotmail could catch up, but history had already been made, and Google was already the biggest cahoona of them all. So, by this token alone, isn’t it extremely obvious that Yahoo! and Google are competitors?

And yet, Yang was willing — no, eager — to strike a losing bargain with the Big G, just so he could avoid being devoured by "the Evil Empire" (which was how Silicon Valley types viewed MS way back when).

He had a good run… but he botched it. Yang failed to keep his company in the lead and let Google overtake Yahoo! in the search space, not to mention in the search advertising business, among others. Yang botched it when Microsoft walked out of the merger bid, which could have given Yahoo! the chance to be competitive again.

Now his stockholders are irate and feeling betrayed. It’s not going to be long before he’s forcibly replaced or he opts to step down, preserving what little dignity he’s got left. What a waste! What a way to end one’s formerly brilliant career.

I’d like to quote Nocera, who laid it out quite succinctly when he said:

Jerry, you’re a billionaire because people all over the world bought your stock, and trusted you to do right by them. That’s the compact you make when you take a company public: you get to be really rich, but in return, you have an obligation to do everything you can to ensure that shareholders get a healthy return on their investment. It doesn’t matter that you would like Yahoo to remain independent, or that you can’t stand Microsoft. Your feelings aren’t supposed to get in the way of your fiduciary duty.

Today, the world’s #1 search engine (among other things) is a multibillion-dollar company with well over 16,000 employees. It has become the single biggest item on everyone’s mind when using the Internet. In other words, Google is now constantly under close scrutiny by critics and regular users alike.

Google has been branded as “evil” by many industry watchers, due to some decisions it has made that have impacted a few holy-grail-level beliefs held by Internet users. Privacy: the Google Maps service is seen by some as an intrusion to privacy. In the U.S. and soon in Australia, you can see photographed views of streets from the ground; and there have been complaints of actual faces and plate numbers being visible.

Censorship: When Google entered China in 2006, it complied with censorship restrictions imposed by the Chinese government. The censorship effectively blocks search results that displayed — in the Chinese government’s perception — politically sensitive information. Google CEO Eric Schmidt came under fire for acceding to this blatant disregard for free access to public information. Schmidt was quoted as saying, “We actually did an evil scale, and decided not to serve at all was worse evil.”

If you think about it, “Don’t be evil” is a rather impossible dictum to follow. As with any publicly listed company, the priority of a business is to provide ever-increasing returns in favor of its shareholders. This could — and often does — conflict with any company’s perceived core values.

Apparently, Google is using its shareholders as an excuse for dealing with totalitarian regimes. But more and more lately, people are holding Google to its self-imposed maxim. The corporate motto has encouraged the public to hold Google to a higher standard.

Why? Because people have not forgotten why Google became so widely accepted in such a short time: that it wanted to change the world. And it has. For example, its email product, Gmail, was the reason for Yahoo’s and Hotmail’s scampering to increase their inbox space allotment. Do you remember that Yahoo! Mail only let you have 4 megabytes to store all your emails and attachments? That’s just 2 high-quality photos and your inbox is done for.

Its flagship search product, of course, revolutionized the way people found information on the Web. In no time at all, the expression “Google it!” became a household word all over the world.

People won’t let Google forget its roots. Internet users are increasingly disappointed about the direction the search giant is taking. In fact, in many instances, it has been labeled as ‘the next Microsoft’. And this is uttered unflatteringly, mind you.

Being the new big kid on the block — nay, the whole neighborhood! — is certainly tough. It can only go either of two ways in the eyes of the public: Google becomes the hero of the Internet, or it becomes the bully.

Very recently, two analysts from Gartner, a research services firm, asserted that Microsoft is now on shaky ground due to the state of Windows Vista, which they described as “collapsing”. The analysts, Michael Silver and Neil MacDonald, practically assessed the latest version of the Windows OS as a failure due to disappointingly low market acceptance. According to a rival firm, Forrester Research, by the end of 2007, only a little more than 6% of enterprise-level PC users had migrated to Vista.

The main reason cited for the poor sales performance is the lack of understanding among general users of what makes Vista so much better than Windows XP. And for those who do know, many of them are turned off by the resource-hungriness of Vista. Also, it’s reported that most of those who have adopted the latest OS were users of the nearly-extinct Windows 2000; apparently, Windows XP users (like me) are staying put.

Gartner is now widely quoted as saying that Microsoft is in an “untenable” situation. It predicts that Microsoft Corp. could be in financial straits by 2011 due to a presumed thinning of the latter’s market base. The firm further forecasts that a large number of technology users will be shifting to “OS-agnostic applications” (computer programs not dependent on what operating system is installed), thereby adversely affecting another area that has been dominated by Microsoft: office productivity suites. A prime analogy would be Google Apps, which competes with Microsoft Office.

The Google Apps suite — documents, spreadsheets, presentations, calendar, email, and even more to come — is deployed over the Web, and so is made available to anyone for free, regardless of what’s making his or her computer run. Increased acceptance of such systems could very well erode Microsoft’s revenues from MS Office, reportedly $16 billion in 2007 (including Exchange Server, which allows Office applications to be deployed utilized across the Internet, among other things).

Gartner then proceeded to explore the notion that this is what’s inducing Microsoft to get its hands on Yahoo: to finally capture, and capitalize on, the Internet-ads history (and potential) of the first search engine to gain worldwide attention.

True, virtually every Web venture is targeting Internet advertising as a source of huge revenue. Even Google is in the bandwagon (if it’s not, in fact, the horse). Microsoft, however, has remained staunchly a software publisher and provider, and has ruled over this landscape for a couple of generations. Therefore, isn’t it rather a stretch to assume that this particular Goliath will just keel over and die?

The points made by Gartner are worth looking over. But, in my opinion, MS Office and Windows (perhaps not Vista but the keenly-anticipated Windows 7) are here to stay for longer than anyone might care to imagine.

So, why does Microsoft want to have Yahoo!? At this point, it’s still anybody’s best guess. My take on this is: isn’t it but natural for a business to proceed into further territory?

What is even more admirable is that, Ted not only teaches, he also does. When I interviewed him recently, he told me that he is now embarking on an ambitious series of projects involving Adobe Acrobat and how we deal with documents and forms: legal, medical, official and all sorts of record-keeping requisites. Basically, he and his partners plan to introduce to government, schools and businesses an enhanced method of accomplishing workflows that will result in the streamlining of operations.

Let’s take a university for example. Imagine a student living an hour or so away. To enroll, he will have to commute to the school to submit requirements and fill out an application form, which administrative staff will have to encode into a computer program before filing. What if this student can simply go online and fill out a fillable form from the school’s website? He would be able to transmit all required information via this electronic interface –– even attach his photo and signature –– and save on travel time and fare.

What about a government office? Say, the bureau that handles business permits. It is very possible to host all necessary forms on the Web for interactive use. Can you imagine the dramatic reduction in processing and waiting time an automated system will be able to provide? Not to mention the benefits to our ecology.

Adobe’s PDF document can be deployed for such functions. While website-embedded HTML forms may also be practical for this purpose, PDF files with fillable forms are much more portable and scalable (and can be designed to be truly user-friendly). Of course, these forms may also be printed out if a hard copy is necessary.

Ted’s new company, ApoVisions Inc., is based out of Davao City, but will be engaging in IT services all over the nation. Already, he and his associates are in the process of negotiating with various entities –– suppliers and beneficiaries / clients –– who will all make the goal possible. This company envisions digitalized and Internet-enabled workflows being implemented in all sectors of society. Ted says that, for their bold designs to pan out, they will have to be embraced by all concerned. If it’s only a few organizations deploying PDF fillable forms, we wouldn’t be maximizing the true power of Adobe’s Acrobat software.

It should be plain to see that this grand plan, though highly feasible, will not be an overnight solution to red tape. The people behind ApoVisions Inc. do realize that it will take awhile to get government offices and private companies up to a comfortable level of acceptance. But Ted Padova is here to stay. He calls himself “ang Amerikanong Pinoy”. He has fallen in love with Davao and, like many foreigners here, has decided to make our city his new home. This translates to the sustainability of ApoVisions and its objectives.

More good news: ApoVisions Inc. will be hiring skilled IT workers here and from other parts of the country. Depending on the number of projects and their scale, this new IT firm will be initially hiring between 20 to 100 designers, data management experts, Web developers, graphics designers, project coordinators, as well as administrative personnel. From the several training sessions in Adobe Creative Suite products that Ted has conducted (all at the Feliz Beach Resort in Matina Aplaya), he is aware of the presence of talent in Davao. And, he said, it is his company’s intention to make them productive members of Davao’s IT industry.

Ted’s dream and ultimate aim is to see the Philippines take a lead role in the Asian technology sphere. He has high hopes for this and believes that it can happen.

This rather huge increase will necessarily mean that domain registrars and resellers will have to increase the retail prices of these domain names. I use ctcd.com, and they currently sell domain names for $8.94 per year. This rate is indeed a far cry from the time when Internet addresses sold for $35 per year, but — in Internet time — that was ages ago when Network Solutions held the monopoly.

In their press release, Verisign cites the deployment of technical upgrades, necessitated by heightened traffic volume and cyber attacks, as the reasons for the price jump. Below is a quote from the official press release:

Since 1999, the volume of Internet traffic and domain name system (DNS) queries on VeriSign’s global infrastructure has increased from an average of 1 billion queries per day in the year 2000 to nearly 30 billion queries per day today. Traffic volume continues to increase with the emergence of consumer-driven services, the surge in web-connected wireless devices and the proliferation of DNS-centric technologies and services. In addition, the .com and .net infrastructures are continually being fortified and scaled to defend against increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Security exploits have grown by 700 percent since 2000 and are projected to increase by 50 percent in 2007 and 2008.

In other countries, on the other hand, country-specific TLDs are getting cheaper. Country-specific TLD, or ccTLD, refers to the set of domain names that end in a two-letter extension that is unique for each country. In the Philippines, we have .ph domains; in Japan, it’s .jp; etc. Some countries have given up their exclusive right to their TLD, such as Tuvalu, which began offering its .tv domain names to the international market in 1998.

In China, .cn domains are now sold much cheaper at an unbelievable 1 yuan (about $0.13) per year. The China Internet Network Information Center reports that the reason for this move is to encourage their citizens to veer away from dependence on overseas Internet servers. This might seem alarmist on the part of the Chinese government, but on the other hand, it will certainly spell a sharp rise in the usage of .cn addresses.

The Filipino company that administers our ccTLD, dotPH, still retails .ph domains at $35 annually. What’s more, two years is the required initial purchase. This is an archaic system, a throw-back to the era of 28.8kbps modems.

Still, the allure of the .com domain, in that it produces much higher name recall and brand attractiveness than any TLD can, will mean that individuals and businesses will most likely prefer mycompany.com over mycompany.ph. This is probably what Verisign is banking on.

But I expect that there will be much complaining and clamoring for status quo, especially from Web warriors and Netizens, especially bloggers.