The Irish software industry has been one of the drivers of economic growth over the last five years but must adapt to new global challenges if it is to repeat this performance in the future, according to the Chairman of the Irish Software Association, Gerry Jones, speaking at the opening of the Association's 11th Annual Conference last week.
At the conference, "Evolution - Will the Fittest Survive?", Mr Jones warned that the industry's faces the threat of wage inflation with the danger that jobs could move overseas and called for new taxation measures to be introduced to enable the industry to achieve its goal of 40,000 software jobs and exports worth £10bn by 2002.
Charges Hamper Growth: The number of European households using the Internet will reach 47 million over the next five years, helped by an increase in free Internet services, yet the amount of time spent online is not expected to rise unless local call charges are cut, according to Jupiter Communications. "Telephone usage is metered and that alone will continue to hold back the growth of online advertising, content, and commerce ventures in Europe by inhibiting Internet usage," a report by the media research firm has said.
Training Partners: CBT Systems, the Dublin based educational software company which employs over 1,300 staff worldwide, has signed a three-year agreement with Robert Half International to provide interactive education software. RHI specialises in staffing services with more than 240 locations throughout North America, Europe and Australia. Under the terms of the agreement, RHI's temporary, project, and full-time job candidates will have access via CBTCampus to 500 courses from CBT Systems' library of interactive software education titles.
Gateway To Cheaper PCS: Gateway will continue to turn its focus to high-profit services such as financing, Internet service and computer training, CEO Ted Waitt told shareholders at the company's annual meeting last Thursday. The company also plans to introduce more low-cost computers, which represent the fastest growing segment of the market, he said.
New Netscape: Netscape has released a new version of its Internet browser and email software that offers security improvements, additional search features and dozens of bug fixes. Netscape Communicator 4.6 also adds enhancements to speed page loading.
Future Investment: Hewlett-Packard Company has announced that it has committed $20 million to the Intel 64 Fund, an equity investment fund of approximately $250 million. The fund, which includes investments from leading platform suppliers as well as corporate users, will be used to invest in technology companies developing innovative IA-64-based solutions.
Telephone Book: The first book on telecommunications law in Ireland since the liberalisation of the market last December has been launched. Lawyers and telecoms operators with an interest in the Irish market will find it a useful source of reference on various aspects of the Irish regulatory regime. It is available only from Mason Hayes & Curran Solicitors.
Mastering The Web: Telecom Internet and the Interactive Avenue have announced details of a new Web Master Training Program in association with NewMediaCV. The course is an industry recognised webmaster course and covers the essential technologies required by web masters and web managers like Flash, Java and ECommerce solutions.
MS Gains: Almost 60 per cent of US companies now use Microsoft's Internet browser, an important trend that could be a Pyrrhic victory for the software giant. Microsoft push to persuade consumers to use its Internet software rather than one made by Netscape is at the core of the government's antitrust trial, scheduled to resume on June 1st. A survey in October from the same research company, cited as evidence in the trial, indicated 60 per cent of companies used Netscape's software.
Faster Chips: Hitachi and the University of Cambridge have developed a computer chip that could mean the introduction of smaller, faster computer equipment and mobile phones. The semiconductors, called PLEDM chips, could be available within the next five years and will pack information into a smaller space than conventional DRAM chips and retain their memory even without power.
In Brief: Decision Support Systems, who employ 60 people in Dublin, have announced the availability of Comshare BudgetPLUS, version 3.0, an integrated application for planning, budgeting, management reporting and analysis for relational and multidimensional databases. Hewlett-Packard Company has reported a 34 percent increase in net earnings, a 3 percent increase in net revenue and a 10 percent increase in orders for the 1999 fiscal year's second quarter. Lotus Development has announced the delivery of Release 5 of the Lotus Notes client, Lotus Domino servers and Lotus Domino Designer. 3Com 's Palm Computing division are to announce the availability of the wireless version of the Palm Pilot today, it's expected to be priced at $599 in the US. MTV Networks has made a move to increase its presence on the Internet by buying online music network SonicNet.