<IT WORLD>
Domain doors open to dot chaos
By Martin J Young

HUA HIN, Thailand - Possibly the biggest shakeup on the Internet for many years went on this week as web regulator ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) voted on new names at its annual general meeting in Paris.

"Apart from the .com, .net or .org, the 1.3 billion web users will be able from early 2009 to acquire generic addresses by lodging common words such as .love, .hate or .city or proper names," ICANN president Paul Twomey told French media.

It is unlikely these new names will come cheap or be readily available to individuals and the general public. As we have seen,the domain registrars, which are private companies, get in first to snap up the best names with the intention of reselling them at inflated prices. Network Solutions already has a reputation for this.

Corporations will also have precedence to preserve their trade names - they will be able to register .intel or .nokia for example. Some may have to register thousands of names to protect their brand identity and prevent crooks setting up fraudulent websites using their name. Asia Times Online currently suffers from a number of unscrupulous individuals using its branding and similar domain names to deceive readers into thinking they are getting the genuine article.

Prices for the new names have yet to be confirmed, but they could be in the region of US$100,000 for high-level, or desirable, domains. The high price could discourage cyber-squatters from sitting on other people's domains and inflating prices, a common practice with dot coms, which are available to anyone.

Twomey also stated, "It's a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of the Internet." But he failed to acknowledge the fact that the average web developer or citizen will have trouble taking advantage of this expansion. New naming conventions such as the recent .asia extension seem to be aimed at governments and corporations, with regular people being left at the bottom of the pile with only cyber-scraps to choose from.

The adoption of these new domain names is expected to take time and they are unlikely to knock "dot coms" off the top of the most desirable domain list. Most organizations will only change out of necessity and this move is likely to cost them thousands of dollars if they do. All will be to the benefit of the all-controlling domain registrars and further confuse web surfers, who will be faced with myriad variations of what they are trying to find.

Telecoms
Search giant Google denied this week that its keenly anticipated Android powered gPhone faces delays. According to an announcement last November, the mobile software platform and new phones should be ready for launch by the second half of this year - a second half that is getting longer as time goes by. A number of mobile phone carriers have delayed plans to release new models as they are still experiencing teething problems with the technology.

Apple caused a stir this month with the release of its latest 3G iPhone. However, Google's system will be operational across multiple platforms and hardware configurations, unlike the Apple, which will only work with its own. Android's other competitors include Microsoft and BlackBerry creators Research in Motion.

One big plus point for Google is that its platform will run on an open source Linux platform, which means it can be sold far cheaper than its closed-door rivals at Apple and Microsoft. Symbian, another of the big players in mobile phone software, recently switched its operations to open source. On Tuesday, companies including Nokia, Motorola, NTT DoCoMo, LG Electronics, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, AT&T, Texas Instruments and Vodafone announced they would work together on open source Symbian, which currently runs on about 60% of the world's smartphones, primarily Nokias.

One thing is for sure, the next 12 months will introduce smartphone users to an entirely new array of products, programs, platforms and playthings all competing for their slice of the mobile market.

Industry
Bill Gates' big day has finally come as he prepares to step down from daily operations at Microsoft. Once the world's richest man - he slipped to third in the most recent Forbes' list - he will be handing over the chairman's reigns to his chief executive officer Steve Ballmer, who will now head the world's largest software company.

Love them or hate them, Gates' products have had an influence on almost everyone who has used a computer in the past 20 years. The founder of Microsoft will now focus on working with his wife on their own charitable projects, led by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is funded largely by his own fortune.

Ballmer will not have an easy road, especially if he is to claw back some of that lost market share from rival Google, which has been using the Internet to chip away at Microsoft's dominance in the software department. Ballmer's unsuccessful bid for Yahoo this year emphasized some of the failings in his company, which has almost 90,000 employees compared with 30 in 1980.

Some analysts say it has been stifled by its bulging bureaucracy and its lack of innovation is highlighted by its constant quest to buy up the competition. The business model has also changed, Microsoft offers computer software for a license fee whereas its competitors now offer theirs online for subscription or under advertising-based models for free.

The number of personal computers in use around the world has passed a billion, Research firm Gartner stated on Monday. Strong growth in emerging markets is set to double this figure by 2014, while the 58% share of installed PCs held by mature markets will drop to 30% over the next six years. "Rapid penetration in emerging markets is being driven by the explosive expansion of broadband and wireless connectivity, the continuing fall in PC average selling prices, and the general realization that PCs are an indispensable tool for advancement," Gartner said.

One unpleasant side effect from all of these computers is the by-products when they are scrapped. Most of what is commonly known as e-waste ends up in landfills, where toxic components such as mercury go straight into the environment. Gartner estimates 180 million computers will be replaced this year, much of the scrap being shipped to developing countries for recycling or simply going into landfills.

Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.