Has mobile working come of age?

Has mobile working come of age?

By Iain Mackenzie Technology reporter, BBC News,

Watch the video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12417713

Has mobile working come of age?

I call it my lifeline," says Fernando Ferrufino, showing off his new 4G datacard.

The Washington DC-based real estate agent has just started using the latest mobile broadband system and says the increased speed makes a big difference to how he works.
"It is definitely noticeably faster than 3G," he notes.

Mr Ferrufino is busy ploughing through his e-mail inbox, while listening to voicemail messages on speakerphone.

His office this morning is a comfortable two-bedroom apartment that one of his clients hopes to buy. Later in the day, he may find himself working from the passenger seat of his car.
Times have changed, he explains, since he first started in the property business. Agents would return to their office several times a day to collect documents, keys and catch-up on paperwork.
Mr Ferrufino's employer, Redfin, like many companies, is facing the challenge of picking the right hardware and software solutions to equip its staff for remote working.
A deluge of new devices, including smartphones and tablets, has brought fresh challenges for corporate technology managers.

Surveys show that allowing staff to work remotely improves productivity

A 2010 study, carried out by Cisco systems, found that 45% of IT professionals were unprepared or struggling to implement mobile workforce systems.
However, the need to get it right, from both a staffing and productivity standpoint, is apparent.
The same Cisco study found two-thirds of employees desire work flexibility, with more than half of respondents claiming they would take a lower-paying job that offered more flexible working.
Yet responses to the demand for mobile working are mixed, according to Prof Kevin Rockmann, of George Mason University.
"I think organisations are struggling to know which technologies to support," he said.
"A lot of people that I know have multiple cellphones or laptops. They have an iPad that is theirs and one that belongs to work.
"How does the organisation decide what it is going to take care of?" he added.
Trying to set broad policies is less effective than ad-hoc solutions, according to Prof Rockmann.
"Let your employees innovate and use the technologies they want to use. Help them do that and don't restrict," he said.
Security concerns
The most significant barrier to allowing staff to drive innovation and bring their own mobile devices of choice is security.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

"Let your employees innovate and use the technologies they want to use”

End Quote Prof Kevin Rockmann George Mason University

Among IT decision makers, surveyed by Cisco Systems, 57% rated security as the biggest challenge to enabling remote working.

Traditionally, companies have chosen to issue staff with customised, secure laptops.
In many cases, employees find their user experience is severely compromised by the many layers of protection needed to safeguard corporate networks.
One potential solution, being put forward by security firms such as Citrix, is to host office software in the cloud.
Instead of running locally on the user's machine, they log on to a virtualised work environment through dedicated applications or a web browser.
"We really can provide access to all that information while keeping it within our infrastructure - behind the firewall, if you will," says Tom Simmons, area vice-president, US Public Sector at Citrix.
New devices
Mr Simmons explains that such an approach allows staff to access a common user interface from a wide range of devices.
Among those is the seemingly ubiquitous iPad.

Three quarters of companies say they plan to make use of the iPad

According to research by Forrester, three quarters of companies in Europe and North America are already using or planning to make use of Apple's handheld device.
In some cases, the iPad will displace existing laptops. However, the study found that many companies plan to make use of it for tasks where no electronic device is currently involved.
Supporters of the cloud-based model claim it is the best way to deal with an ever-changing hardware market.
"It is that ability for the technology innovators on the device side to keep coming out with new capabilities, new formats, and yet not put the pressure on the IT organisations that have to service the user community," said Tom Simmons.
Beyond the technical challenges, there remain simpler, more human, obstacles to mobile working.
Lazy workers
For some, there is still a stigma attached to those colleagues who shun the office, with a perception that "working from home" is shorthand for "taking it easy".
"You find a lot of middle and upper managers don't feel comfortable letting people out of their sight," says Prof Rockmann.
The reality, he points out, is quite different: "When employees get more autonomy, they work harder, they are more grateful, they'll stay connected and you can be even more productive."
That assertion is supported by the boss of mobile estate agent Fernando Ferrufino.
"I can see exactly what they are doing," said Karen Krupshaw, market manager for Redfin.
"I am very connected real-time through some wonderful systems that allow me to understand exactly what my agents are doing.
"It's not a concern at all," she said.

Business Language to go

Learn more with BBC and listen to the Podcasts: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/talkaboutenglish/2009/02/090211_tae_bltg.shtml

"This is a partnership born out of both party's fear of marginalization at the hands of Apple and Google but there is no silver bullet."

Quotes of the Day »

GEOFF BLABER, of CCS Insight, on the news that Nokia has teamed up with Microsoft in what they're calling a "broad strategic partnership"

http://www.time.com/time/business#ixzz1DefwBQEF

Web Words That Lure the Readers

Web Words That Lure the Readers

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Published: February 10, 2011

The Huffington Post has hired veteran journalists to beef up its news coverage. But a significant chunk of its readers come instead for articles like one published this week: “Chelsy Davy & Prince Harry: So Happy Together?”

Multimedia

Graphic

The two-sentence article was just a vehicle for a slide show of photographs of the couple and included no actual news. But “Chelsy Davy” was one of the top searches on Google that day, and soon after the article was published it became one of the first links that popped up in Google’s search results.
It was an example of an art and science at which The Huffington Post excels: search engine optimization, or S.E.O. The term covers a wide range of behind-the-scenes tactics for getting search engine users to visit a Web site, like choosing story topics based on popular searches.
Because Google is many Internet users’ front door to the Web, S.E.O. has become an obsession for many Web publishers, and successful ones use the strategies to varying degrees. But as newspapers, magazines, blogs and online-only news sites increasingly compete for readers, they are making it more of a priority than ever and adopting new techniques, like trying to maximize pass-alongs on social networks.
The Huffington Post’s skill at using these tactics to increase readership and revenue was one of the ways it made itself worth $315 million to AOL, which acquired it this week. And Demand Media, which runs sites like eHow and Answerbag.com and values search engine optimization perhaps more than any other publisher, raised $151 million in a public offering in January.
Models like these could pave the route toward profitable journalism in a postprint world, some analysts say — or, others worry, drive online media to publish low-quality articles that are written to appeal to search engines instead of people.
S.E.O. is “absolutely essential,” said Rich Skrenta, chief executive of the search engine Blekko. Still, he said, it can turn into a “heroin drip” for publishers: “They had this really good content at the beginning, but they realize the more S.E.O. they do, the more money they make, and the pressure really pushes down the quality on their sites.”
There is a whole industry of search engine optimization and social media experts, and many of them have found jobs at Web publishers. Their standard strategies include things like filling articles with keywords that people might search for, writing teaser headlines that people cannot help but click on and including copious links to other stories on the same site.
In addition to writing articles based on trending Google searches, The Huffington Post writes headlines like a popular one this week, “Watch: Christina Aguilera Totally Messes Up National Anthem.” It amasses often-searched phrases at the top of articles, like the 18 at the top of the one about Ms. Aguilera, including “Christina Aguilera National Anthem” and “Christina Aguilera Super Bowl.”
As a result of techniques like these, 35 percent of The Huffington Post’s visits in January came from search engines, compared to 20 percent for CNN.com, according to Hitwise, a Web analysis firm.
Mario Ruiz, a spokesman for The Huffington Post, said search engine optimization played a role on the site but declined to discuss how it was used.
Though traditional print journalists might roll their eyes at picking topics based on Google searches, the articles can actually be useful for readers. The problem, analysts say, is when Web sites publish articles just to get clicks, without offering any real payoff for readers.
“You’re not really crossing the line if you’re creating content for the sake of disseminating information, like HuffPo,” said Vivek Wadhwa, visiting scholar at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. “The problem is these other players producing content based on what people click on.”
Those publishers, which many dismissively refer to as content farms, include Demand Media, Yahoo’s Associated Content and AOL’s Seed.
Demand Media uses software that looks at activity on search engines, Facebook and Twitter; generates headlines based on it; and assigns freelancers to write corresponding pieces. The result is articles like “How to Lose Weight in Your Face,” which is a top Google result for related searches and includes tips like “drink plenty of water.”
But that approach might not be so effective for long. In recent weeks, there has been swelling criticism in technology circles of these types of Web sites, and of Google for listing the articles as top results.
Blekko, a search engine that limits results to an edited list of sites, removed all links to eHow and Answerbag. Google said it was working on changes that would push such links lower in search results.
“We definitely have heard feedback in the last two weeks that people are concerned about the low-quality content farms in Google, and we’re working on a variety of algorithms to try to address that,” Matt Cutts, a principal engineer at Google who leads the Web spam team, said in an interview. He declined to single out any specific sites.
A Demand Media spokeswoman would not comment because the company was in a mandatory quiet period after its stock offering, but Richard Rosenblatt, its chief executive, has said that Google’s planned changes are not directed at its sites and that his company helps Google fill gaps in content.
Google blocks or penalizes sites that violate its guidelines, like including hidden text or loading up pages with irrelevant keywords, practices known as black hat S.E.O. (as opposed to the white hat variety). But Mr. Cutts acknowledged that some sites might not qualify as spam but could still annoy users.
“One piece of advice I give to S.E.O. masters is, don’t chase after Google’s algorithm, chase after your best interpretation of what users want, because that’s what Google’s chasing after,” he said.
The ultimate prize for most Web publishers is loyal readers who go directly to their site, without passing through a search engine. They are more likely to visit on a regular basis and stick around.
Some Web publishers say that these days, the most effective way to build that following is to find readers on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, an approach known as social media optimization. That could improve the quality of articles, they say, because the best way to get links on Twitter is to write a story people want to share with friends.
“Search is, in my mind, yesterday’s story,” said Lewis Dvorkin, chief product officer at Forbes, which recently redesigned its Web site to make it more social. “You’re finding that today’s audience is much more interested in the filter of their colleagues and friends who they trust than an algorithm produced by someone else.”
The Huffington Post also incorporates social media by doing things like running Twitter posts about breaking news alongside the articles.
These techniques blend traditional journalistic instincts with an Internet business model, and they are paying off for sites that use them, said Joshua Benton, director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University.
“HuffPo went from being extremely focused on tactics that a lot of news organizations didn’t like, but they’ve started making money, built up an audience, and now they’re moving into more sophisticated territory,” he said. “What they’ve been successful at is creating the kind of brand that other sites have or would love to have, so that people want to type in ‘Huffington Post’ in their browser.”

A version of this article appeared in print on February 11, 2011, on page B1 of the New York edition.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/business/media/11search.html?ref=business

In China, Tentative Steps Toward Global Currency

In China, Tentative Steps Toward Global Currency

Ym Yik/European Pressphoto Agency

A currency exchange in Hong Kong. China’s currency is used in some international deals.

By DAVID BARBOZA

Published: February 10, 2011

SHANGHAI — Now that it has passed Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy after the United States, China is considering the next step as a world power: making its money a global currency.

Kevin Lee/Bloomberg News

American companies that do business in China, like McDonald’s, have financed local projects by selling bonds in renminbi.

No one expects that to happen immediately. And even the Chinese government is wary of making some of the free-market moves that would enable the renminbi to take its place alongside the dollar, euro and Japanese yen as a fully convertible reserve currency.
Still, over the last year Beijing has begun to gradually loosen its tight currency controls. For the first time, for example, American companies like McDonald’s and Caterpillar have been allowed to finance their China projects by selling renminbi-denominated bonds in Hong Kong.
Richard Lavin, a group president at Caterpillar, said his company’s $150 million Hong Kong offering last November was less expensive than taking out a loan in China or raising the money in dollars and then converting those dollars into renminbi. The bonds were issued to help finance Caterpillar’s equipment leasing business in China.
“This was a successful issue,” Mr. Lavin said. “Before, we were funding our operations by bringing in dollars and changing them to RMB.”
Meanwhile, in Russia, Vietnam and Thailand, some cross-border trades with China can now be settled in renminbi, so that trading partners do not have to convert in and out of dollars. One pilot program lets Russian companies like Sportmaster, a retail chain based in Moscow, buy or sell goods using Chinese currency.
And in New York, the Chinese government has permitted an overseas branch of Bank of China to accept deposits in renminbi. That enables depositors outside China to bet on a currency that is widely expected to appreciate against the dollar over the next few years.
“This is all encouraging the internationalization of the renminbi,” Kelvin Lau, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank who is based in Hong Kong, said of Beijing’s recent moves. “They want to make the Chinese currency a popular currency.”
At Thursday’s exchange rates, renminbi were trading just below 6.59 to the United States dollar — a level that many experts say values the Chinese currency artificially low, as a result of Beijing’s intervention efforts. Five years ago, the renminbi was trading at slightly more than 8 to the dollar.
Beyond mere bragging rights, China has economic motives for trying to go global with the renminbi. Analysts say the moves, if successful, could strengthen China’s influence in overseas financial markets and begin to erode the dollar’s dominance. Beijing could also eventually reap the rewards, like cheaper debt financing, that come with being recognized as a world reserve currency.
Global investors eager to bet on China’s growth story, meanwhile, could find that looser controls on the renminbi make it easier to invest directly in bonds and other assets denominated in renminbi.
And importers and exporters could reduce their currency-fluctuation risks by settling China-related trade deals in renminbi rather than dollars or euros.
Robert A. Mundell, a Nobel laureate economist whose research is credited with helping develop the euro, says the renminbi’s rise is all but inevitable.
“The RMB is likely to become a reserve currency in the future, even if the government of China does nothing about it,” Professor Mundell said in an e-mail response to questions. He noted that the renminbi was already a regional currency in Southeast Asia, where China had become the dominant trading partner of many countries.
If China does eventually open its capital market by eliminating currency exchange controls, he said, “the progress of the RMB as an international currency will be assured.”
But analysts caution that right now the renminbi is far from ready to mount a serious challenge to the United States dollar as the world’s leading reserve currency. For one thing, China needs to assure investors that its political system is stable and that its economy still has plenty of growth ahead. For all its rapid growth over the last 30 years, China remains relatively poor compared with the United States, the Europe Union or Japan.
As an influence on global financial markets, the renminbi is “still a distant, distant, distant fourth,” said Albert Keidel, a China specialist at the Public Policy Institute at Georgetown University in Washington. “People are going to start holding more renminbi, but it will be at least a decade or two for it to become a leading world reserve currency.”
China is the world’s largest exporter and one of the biggest destinations for foreign direct investment, but the Chinese government still maintains strict control over its currency and banking system and the flow of money in and out of the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/business/global/11yuan.html?_r=1&ref=business

Youth unemployment: A smouldering fuse?

7 February 2011 Last updated at 01:04 GMT

Youth unemployment: A smouldering fuse?

By James Melik Reporter, Business Daily, BBC World Service

There is a danger that youths without work or training will lose all connections with the job market

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Abdul Tahir is in his final year at university and fully expects to get good results when he takes his exams in June.

His expectations are much lower for his future prospects, however.
Speaking at his campus in West London, he acknowledges that his chances of landing a job when he leaves university are very slim.
"There will be 200 of us leaving at the same time," he says, "and we will all be chasing after the few positions that might be available."
Looking for a job is a plight all too familiar to millions of young people around the world.
According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), youth unemployment has been rising dramatically and the trend is set to continue in 2011.
Experience required
The average level of youth unemployment among 15 to 24 year olds has traditionally been double that of over-25s.
It is a global phenomenon, with many countries experiencing youth unemployment figures in the region of 17-25%.
In countries such as Yemen it is even worse, with youth unemployment figures estimated to be closer to 40%.
Youth unemployment has been one of the underlying causes behind the political upheaval across North Africa, which began in the middle of December.

“Companies are looking for someone to start and be very productive from the first minute on the job”

Jeff Jeorres CEO Manpower

 

"Youth unemployment is a serious problem which governments must urgently tackle," says Glenda Quintini, an economist with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

It is a problem the OECD has flagged up for several years, one it feels will remain for many more years, not least as it was exacerbated by the financial crisis.
As governments slash budgets in the aftermath of the financial crisis, about 25 million people across the European Union (EU) have been made jobless.
Global prospects for jobs are bleak in these difficult times, particularly for the next generation of workers - those who are leaving education now.
Jeff Jeorres, chief executive of the employment agency Manpower, says that during the economic downturn, companies have been looking for experience when they hire people.
"Companies are looking for someone to start and be very productive from the first minute on the job," he says.
"That is a disadvantage for a youth who maybe comes with a great degree and a willingness to work," he explains. "Companies can find that without having to go to the youth workforce."
One of the perennial problems is that companies cannot afford to hire and then train young people.

Many young people think their education was a waste of time if they cannot find work afterwards

This is especially difficult for manufacturers.
"While they would like to hire at that younger range, they are finding that they can get very productive experienced workers to plug the gaps a lot faster," Mr Jeorres points out.
He is fully aware that the problem is not going to be easy to solve.
"We know how many 13-year-olds are going to be working in five or six years from now and we know there is going to be a hole in the labour market," he says.
"That hole is going to be even more exaggerated because that part of the workforce is not going to have the experience required to take up the slack of retirees and the normal course of what is happening with an ageing workforce across the world."
He points to countries such as Japan, Italy and France, where there are some severe demographics where you have an ageing population and a birthrate that is not going to keep up.
More focus needed
There are forward-looking companies, in particular those that have the financial wherewithal to make sure their internship programmes and university recruitment programmes are intact and improving.

“I know it is going to be difficult to find a job, so I will stay on at university and take a Masters degree”

Abdul Tahir, University student

But the majority of companies are facing a challenge to offer similar schemes because of the affordability.
'A bachelor is not enough'
Studying subjects that have no direct application to commercial life, makes it more difficult for young people to find work or develop the right skills.
"We still talk to companies that say they would like the critical thinking and problem solving that comes with a noble arts degree," Manpower's Mr Jeorres says.
"At the same time, however, they are looking for more specifics."
Ms Quintini at the OECD maintains that young people should be more aware of the options open to them before continuing their academic pursuits.
"Teachers and job advisers should explain more thoroughly what is needed in the workforce," she says.
"Some young people might be better prepared if they chose a vocational course rather than a university degree," she says, "whilst others might benefit from studying a degree with a specific focus."
Her sentiments are echoed by Abdul Tahir, who will graduate with a bachelors degree in the summer.

“First we have to start with the three Rs - which has not been the focus of the education system”

Laveesh Bhandari, Indicus Analytics

 

"I know it is going to be difficult to find a job," he says, "So I will stay on at university and take a masters degree."

He intends to concentrate on one particular aspect of his chosen subject, a move he believes will give him an advantage over his peers when searching for a job.
There is the belief that a bachelor degree is not enough, that a masters degree is needed, then an internship to understand the company, and then there might be an offer of a job.
Whatever the situation, there are still more students globally than there are jobs.
Back to basics
Much of the sharpest pain is being felt in the developing economies.
In India, job creation dwindled during the financial crisis, but has since picked up after the government introduced measures to get the nation into work.
The economy is predicted to rise about 8% over the coming year, yet getting hired is not always straight forward.

Companies in India complain that students are not suitably qualified for the jobs on offer

India's growing population is expected to be the largest contributor to the global labour force in the fist part of this century. Some estimates show that the number of people able to work will grow by a third in the next 15 years.
The country will need those people to help fuel its growing economy, but although the supply seems secure, there are worrying areas of weakness.
Many employers complain they cannot find graduates with the right skills to fill vacancies.
"One of the problems of labour shortage in India has to do with the fact that a large part of the people in that age group are not really well trained," says Laveesh Bhandari from Indicus Analytics.
"Right now it is a three-to-five year problem in India," he says, "but we expect that to improve over the next decade as the education establishment gets its act together."
Unrealistic expectations
One important factor the country has experienced is that agriculture is no longer the defining sector in the Indian economy.
And as the service sector becomes more and more mature, the types of jobs on offer have changed.
One particular concern for Mr Bhandari is that poorly trained and educated people are graduating with degrees .
"First we have to start with the three Rs, which have not been the focus of the education system," he says
"The next critical problem has to do with the absence of vocational training, which is currently absent in the public sector-controlled universities and schools," he adds.
He also notes that young people do not have realistic expectations with regards to the workplace
"They think any degree will get them a white-collar job," he says.
Those people might be better advised to choose a vocational qualification, or to follow Abdul Tahir's example and become more focussed on one specific sector of their chosen career.

Spain's economy grew 0.2% in last quarter of 2010

Watch the video on http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12428684

The Spanish economy expanded by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to official estimates, boosted by exports.

For the whole of 2010 the National Statistics Institute estimated that the economy had contracted by 0.1%.
In September, the Spanish government approved an austerity budget, designed to cut public debt and regain investor confidence.
Analysts said that growth in the fourth quarter was largely down to increased demand for exported goods.
"I think growth was driven by a high contribution from both final domestic demand and exports," said Tullia Bucco, an analyst at Unicredit.
Pension reform
The Spanish government is under pressure from investors and other eurozone governments to reduce its deficit.
Eurozone governments are all aiming for deficits which do not exceed 3% of gross domestic product, in order to contain the bloc's debt problems.
To help meet its target, the Spanish government recently announced reforms to the pension system after reaching agreement with unions.
Under the agreement the compulsory pension age will increase from 65 to 67, one of the highest in Europe.
The increase will be phased in from 2013.
Public spending
The budget approved last September included an overall cut in public spending of 7.7%, including a pay cut of 5% for public sector workers.
The government has also increased personal income tax for those earning above 120,000 euros ($162,000; £102,000) a year.
This increase is expected to raise about 170bn-200bn euros.
Madrid has promised its European counterparts to cut its deficit to 6% of GDP in 2011, from 11.1% in 2009.

Nokia and Microsoft form partnership

11 February 2011 Last updated at 09:41 GMT

 

Nokia and Microsoft form partnership

 

Stephen Elop was at Microsoft before taking over Nokia in September 2010

Nokia has joined forces with Microsoft in an attempt to regain ground lost to the iPhone and Android-based devices.

The deal will see Nokia use the Windows phone operating system for its smartphones, the company said.
It means that Nokia's existing operating systems will be sidelined.
Speaking at the launch of the partnership, Nokia's chief executive Stephen Elop revealed that there would be "substantial" job losses as a result of the tie-up.
Nokia will remain "first and foremost...a Finnish company. Finland is our home and will remain our home," he said.
But job losses around the world, including in Finland, will be inevitable, he added.

Analysis

Rory Cellan-Jones Technology correspondent, BBC News

---

"So Stephen Elop has pushed Nokia off that now infamous burning platform he described to staff some days ago and into the unknown.
His chosen lifebelt is Windows Phone 7, a new smartphone operating system that has won critical praise but, so far at least, only a tiny share of the market.
So Nokia is moving from an ailing system Symbian - which still has a large chunk of the market - to a fledgling which has yet to prove itself, made by a firm with a poor track record in mobile.
Why then, did Mr Elop not opt to go with Google's Android, the operating system with momentum behind it? Perhaps he feels more comfortable with the culture of Microsoft, where he worked until joining Nokia.
The cruel verdict from some is that two turkeys don't make an eagle - but you can't fault Mr Elop for his audacity. This is a huge moment which could shape the future of an industry."

Windows first

Speaking about the new partnership with Microsoft, Mr Elop said that "the game has changed from a battle of devices to a war of ecosystems".

"An ecosystem with Microsoft and Nokia has unrivalled scale around the globe," he said.
Microsoft's chief executive Steve Ballmer was also present at the launch, underlining the importance of the deal to the computing giant.
"Nokia and Microsoft working together can drive innovation that is at the boundary of hardware, software and services," he said.
Microsoft's Bing will power Nokia's search services, while Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft's mapping services.
The new strategy means Nokia's existing smartphone operating systems will be gradually sidelined.
Symbian, which runs on most of the company's current devices will become a "franchise platform", although the company expects to sell approximately 150 million more Symbian devices in future.
"It is a transition from Symbian to Windows phone as our primary smartphone platform," said Mr Elop.
Windows may not be the exclusive operating system for Nokia tablets though.
"We reserve the right to introduce tablets using other platforms, including ones we may be working on internally," he said.
There was no specific announcement about when the first Windows-powered Nokia phone will be available.
Mr Elop revealed that the firm did consider a tie-up with Google's Android operating system.
"We spent time with our colleagues at Google and explored the Google ecosystem but we felt we would have difficulty differentiating within that ecosystem," he said.
It was also revealed that talks with Microsoft only began in November, illustrating how quickly the deal has been pushed through.
Future clashes The move away from Symbian is a brave decision for Nokia, according to experts.
"This is a clear admission that Nokia's own-platform strategy has faltered," said Ben Wood, an analyst with research firm CCS: Insight.
"Microsoft is the big winner in this deal, but there are no silver bullets for either company given the strength of iPhone and Google's Android," he added.
Nokia's share of the smartphone market fell from 38% to 28% in 2010, according to monitoring firm IDC.
Nokia's upcoming Meego operating system will also be sidelined.
According to the company statement: "MeeGo will place increased emphasis on longer-term market exploration of next-generation devices."
The new platform was expected to form the core of Nokia's future smartphone and tablet strategy.
The company says it still plans to ship one Meego device by the end of 2011.
For Magnus Rehle, the Nordic managing director of research firm Greenwich Consulting, Nokia may have difficulty juggling its three operating systems: Windows, Symbian and MeeGo.
"Three platforms is a lot to work with. I'm not sure there is room for so many platforms," he said.
And, as with any tie-up, there could be clashes between the two firms, he said.
Earlier this week Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop sent a memo to staff warning that the company was in crisis.
The memo, published first by technology website Engadget, said that the mobile giant was standing on a "burning platform".
"Elop has to convince the best people to stay and some people will inevitably be jumping off the burning platform," said Mr Rehle.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12427680

A word or two about non-verbal communication by Bob Dignen

Do business English trainers do it? Should we be doing it in the classroom? Are we qualified to do it? What am I talking about? Well, today’s topic is curiously interesting for language-oriented trainers – it’s non-verbal communication (NVC), in other words, what we communicate without the use of words.
I’ve become curious about NVC again after receiving some feedback on a piece I wrote for a new book. The feedback, I should point out, was less than complimentary. And it made me think again – are we as trainers of communication skills for adult professionals getting our clients to think strongly enough about NVC issues, and are we sufficiently qualified to provide the right kind of feedback?
I guess we know that NVC is an important part of the communication process. We’ve probably all quoted at some time ‘that quote’ which claims that the verbal makes up around 7% of the message and the non-verbal 93%. The percentages are fairly spurious but there’s no denying that things like facial expression, tone of voice, movement, posture, dress and even aspects such as height and skin colour are going to contribute significantly to how our messages are received.
So how do we deal with all of this in the ELT classroom when participants arrive wanting words and grammar? My usual route is to introduce it as a discussion topic – fluency practice – posing questions which serve to clarify the scope of the topic itself, arouse interest, and create a framework for ongoing reflection and feedback. I usually start by discussing four key areas of NVC using a number of questions to stimulate reflection.
1. Dress and appearance
We need to become sensitive to the fact that the way we appear physically to others and how we present ourselves in terms of dress will generate positive / negative interpretations which will affect how people listen to us.
Questions
What is your preferred dress code? Why?
What do people think about you when they see you at work?
2. Place and space
Human beings are territorial and mark and protect their space in all manner of ways. Explore that sentence with students and then ask a few more questions:
Questions
What does your office desk tell people about you? 
How do you monitor and manage the space between you and other people? For example, how do you know if you’re standing too close or too far? What is too close for you?
And what about virtual space – are you more effective when people are close to you in the office or located on the other side of the world? Or no difference?
3. Body language
Body language has many dimensions. Take a look at the following list with examples. Which of the example behaviours do you see as positive and which negative? Why?
Gesture:  pointing with a single finger, clenching a fist, giving a thumbs-up sign.
Eye contact:  maintaining gaze for a long period, looking down.
Facial expressions: smiling, having one’s mouth open when eating, closing one’s eyes when listening.
Posture: standing facing other people, sitting with one’s feet on the desk, holding one’s hand in front of one’s mouth.
Touch: shaking hands firmly, hugging, patting someone on the back, placing an arm round someone’s shoulder.
Movement:  walking quickly, nodding when listening, shaking the head strongly from side to side to indicate you disagree.
4. Paralanguage
The speed at which people talk, the volume of their voice and the kind of tone which comes across (soft or hard, friendly or critical etc.) will affect how others listen and hear. High speed may be heard as nervousness; it may be heard as dynamic. Loud volume may be heard as arrogant, or may come across as confident.
Questions
What impact does your voice and general delivery have on others?
Which aspects of your voice do you think you most need to improve? Why? How can you do it?
The general approach is explorative. It’s not saying that there is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ body NVC, simply that NVC exists, we all do it and we need to be aware how to generate more positive impacts and minimize any negative impacts with our behaviours. What do you think?

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 BOB DIGNEN is a director of York Associates. He specialises in intercultural skills programmes and international team seminars which he delivers to clients in Germany, Switzerland, Iceland and Sweden. He is accredited to use The International Profiler (an intercultural profiling tool) and is also an advanced practitioner of TMP (Team Management Profile – an international team profiling tool). As an author, he worked on English365 for Cambridge University Press and has written 50 ways to improve your Presentation Skills in English. He is also co-author of Developing People Internationally, a multimedia international team training resource.

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