Irish Internet usage is only one-third that of the United States and well behind that of other European countries, according to a survey released by Amβrach Consulting at Internet World '98 last week. Only 11 per cent, or around 300,000, of Irish adults use the Internet at home or at work, compared to 35 per cent of Americans and Dutch. Ireland lags in tenth place in a European league table of 16 countries, almost 10 per cent behind the British. The survey attributes its disappointing findings to the slack home Internet access market which hovers around the 2 per cent mark - a whopping 11 per cent behind the US. However, Amβrach estimates that Internet use here will grow exponentially over the next 7 years: it is forecasting over 1 million users by 2005 and an e-commerce market worth £400 million by 2001.
Pay-Per-Use Service: Esat is turning up the heat in the telecoms market with the introduction of a new "Pay-AsYou-Use" Internet service for home users. Users will be charged on a per-minute basis and bills will be issued monthly from the launch of the service in December. This single low-price perminute charge includes both the cost of the call and the cost of Internet access, eliminating ISP subscriptions. Esat say that it's a direct response to the recent government call for low-cost Internet access.
Macs Off The Rack: Following Apple's impressive 4th quarter results, it's not a surprise that it sold almost five iMacs a minute, or 278,000 in the first six weeks of the new product release. This brings total sales of its computers to a whopping 834,000 in the last quarter. Better still, 29.4% of those buying iMacs are buying their first computer, and another 12.5% of customers are PC users. Results showed earnings of $106 million and, significantly, a drop in inventory to a slim six days' worth, better even than Dell's best of eight days' worth.
Net Strike: The placard-wielding, traffic-stopping construction workers might learn a thing or two about effective protesting from the antics of a German group, which is staging what is thought to be the first strike held entirely on the Internet. The OeTV trade union said that 120 researchers at First, a Berlin software group, had rendered a sizeable chunk of the company's Web site unreadable by filling 13.5 per cent of pages with dollar symbols to protest against a 13.5 per cent wage cut by their state employers. Proportion in everything.
Musical Tim: A unique pilot initiative aimed at expanding the use of music technology in schools has been launched in five Cork schools by Cork's own Minister for Education and Science, Mr Michael Martin. The Technology in Music (TIM) programme has been developed by Apple Ireland, the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) and the Department of Education. Each of the schools will be given free iMacs (what else?), educational software and interactive workstations. But it's not all money for (ahem) jam for the five schools: the organisers are hoping to choose a school suitable for the permanent location of the National TIM Centre of Excellence.
Consumer Care: The debate on the regulation of e-commerce is warming up with an attack on the European Commission's proposed e-commerce directive from the European Consumers' Association. The Association has rejected the new directive, which proposes the regulation of the providers of goods and service in their country of origin, on the basis of the uneven consumer protection laws across Europe. But the EC's internal-market directorate, which says that it is impossible to design Web sites that comply with very distinct national laws in 15 countries. Caveat emptor?
Martello Towering: Sandycove-based Martello Multimedia won two major categories in British National Heritage's Museum of the Year awards. For a taste of Martello's work, sample the 1798 Exhibition in Collins Barracks.
Waiting Lists Cut: Tallaght Hospital has installed a new digitised x-ray system which reduces patient screening time by allowing medical staff speedy access to x-ray images via a high speed network. 3Com's Gigabit Ethernet Network is capable of delivering 100MB/second to every client on the network. Medical imaging removes the need for photographic film and chemicals - images can be stored in digital format and sent electronically to diagnostic staff.
Software Awards: The Irish Software Association is looking for nominations for this year's Annual Software Industry Awards which will be presented at a function in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on 13th November. Details - email: isa@ibec.ie or Tel: (01) 605 1566.
In Brief...Internet music retailers CDNow and N2K are to merge in a bid to compete with book and music seller Amazon.com. . . Intel is to take a $500 million equity stake in top U.S. computer memory chip maker Micron Technology, putting its acquisition of Shiva Corp. for $185 million firmly in the junior league. . . Microsoft has announced revenue of $3.95 billion for the first quarter ended September 30. . . Irish software house Millennium Solutions has been appointed by CIBA Speciality Chemicals to ensure the latter's Y2K compliance in over 200 sites worldwide. . . TCAM Systems has used Iona Technologies' Orbix as a key component of a Stock Exchange order management system, Meteor. . . Dublin-based company, International Financial Systems (www.ifs.ie) has announced a major contract with Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) to install its MarginMan risk management system in RBC's trading centres in London, Toronto, New York, Singapore and Sydney. . . Hewlett-Packard has announced that it will integrate Intel's Merced processor technology into its next-generation HP NetServer products. . . Corel and Seiko Epson are to collaborate on creating a range of language versions of Corel Print House. . . RealNetworks is to integrate its audio and video software into the new Netscape browser, Communicator 4.5. . .