Stories by Len Rust

A weak US deflates global PC markets


Slowing consumer demand and a softening business climate in the US have led to disappointing PC sales, according to a report released by International Data Corp (IDC). Worldwide sales rang up at 365.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2000, down 0.3% over the same period of 1999, and a 3.6% drop from the third quarter of 2000, IDC found.

At-work broadband audience a big mover


The number of people with access to broadband connectivity at work will more than double from 24 million in 2000 to 55 million by 2005, according to a report released by Jupiter Research. The company's analysts warned, however, that companies offering broadband applications to the at-work audience will continue to face constraints even as overall corporate broadband penetration rates increase.

Innovation and ideas


Over the past half century, computer technology has evolved in three large lumps followed by an explosion of new companies, a period of rapid change and then the gradual emergence of a few dominant species that rule until the next digital disturbance.
Although there is an easy consensus about the need to develop a common information technology vision in Australia, there has been much less of a consensus on how to get there and what that vision would entail in terms of practical policies.

Bluetooth sales to fly in 2001


Products featuring the Bluetooth wireless technology are expected to generate worldwide revenue of $US2.5 billion in 2001, according to a new study by the UK branch of Frost & Sullivan. The company predicts that 11 million products using the Bluetooth technology will be sold by the end of this year.

Internet becoming greater challenge for CEOs


The impact of the Internet has become a major challenge for CEOs around the world, according to a far-reaching study by Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting) and The Conference Board. The study revealed that the percentage of CEOs concerned about the impact of the Internet more than doubled from last year.

IT job growth falls short of developing world


A report by a United Nation agency on world employment in the information economy found the IT revolution and the job opportunities it brings are largely leaving vast swaths of the globe behind. The report, says that despite the revolution in IT and communications, increasing numbers of workers in poor countries are "technologically disconnected,"

Welcome to tomorrow

If there is one certainty in the mercurial IT world, it is simply that those who anticipate the changes and who sensibly act upon them will indeed succeed. Those who attempt to ignore the changes will stagnate and whither. But if we are to survive, let alone prosper and serve our organisations and country well, we will have to create a mindset to anticipate the likely changes and a mechanism to act upon the changes.

New economy challenges old laws

Increases in B2B exchanges in the "new economy" have created a number of legal challenges, especially in relation to the laws regarding competitive practices, according to law firm Baker & McKenzie.

New service providers challenge existing players

The addition of an e-business model into the IT infrastructure has begun to transform the traditional network and desktop outsourcing services distributed management model to one that is centered on the Internet.

Asian Internet users approach 200 million

The number of Internet users in Asia is expected to quadruple to 188 million by 2004, encouraged by decreasing access fees and the wider availability of local content.

Richard Freemantle retires from Cisco


After 10 years with Cisco Richard Freemantle has decided to end the fruitful association by retiring. At other places new managing directors are being signed on including, here and there, the odd industry veteran, although Ezenet bucked the system by deciding it doesn't need a CEO at all

Rust's law of escalating challenges

Whatever your challenges have been this year, you can be certain they will be greater in 2001. There are no time-outs in this game. The action is continuous and -- even more importantly for the vendors, the users, the managers and the employees -- the traditional rules for determining winners and losers are changing rapidly. Any attempt to regroup, to step aside or to reflect on what is happening brings the risk of irretrievable loss.

Just contemplating the choices


The most important opportunity facing this community today is choice. We have more choices than we know what to do with, choices that are suitable for and scalable for practically any size, need, industry or enterprise. How can IT cope? Len Rust explores the options

Lionel Singer: larger than life no longer

Lionel Singer was always larger than life, yet it seemed that he never bit off more than he could chew, was always in control. His presence energised the IT scene of the ‘70s and ‘80s and his influence has remained in the marketplace thanks the host of people who had came in one way or another under his spell. Now Lionel Singer has died in the US and the Australian IT scene has lost a legendary figure

Telecom's changes drive Nissen out of AAPT


Just as Telecom New Zealand (TCNZ) began to stamp its mark on AAPT, Ron Nissen found other interests that prevented him from continuing in the top job at Australia's third-largest telco. The Richter scale showed a jolt of equal magnitude at Telstra when CFO Paul Rizzo announced that he was going back to school, while around the traps the incoming traffic seemed to overwhelm the departures

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