Seeking to better enable Philippine programmers to develop software to penetrate world markets, IBM Corp. formally opened recently its IBM Innovation Center at the UP-Ayala Technopark in Diliman, Quezon City; it is Big Blue’s 40th globally and third in Southeast Asia.

At the press briefing inside the UP-Ayala Technopark compound, top IBM Corp. officials led by its General Manager for independent Software Vendors and Developer Relations James Corgel told reporters that the site would primarily be a testing center for Philippine-based developers to test their programs to determine if they were world class enough technically and could therefore be marketed abroad.

The tests would be done with the aid of IBM technical experts and computers and other IT equipment that ran the programs under various operating conditions expected if used worldwide. The developers would be registered as IBM business partners with varied terms for partnership agreements even as the testing would be free.

Corgel told reporters that opening of the center was the natural consequence of the Philippines having achieved a solid reputation globally as a provider of BPO services. IBM would now help the country achieve one-step higher the value chain by offering customers abroad quality software.

Corgel added that the IBM Innovation Center would open its doors to all kinds of developers in the Philippines, including technically savvy teenagers with innovative ideas for new computer programs. As such, they would first have to be accredited as IBM business partners, but this could be done even online.

In a brief interview with The Manila Times shortly before the briefing, IBM Philippines country leader for ISV and developer relations, Iris Hester Tan Chiu, said many small information technology enterprises in the Philippines had complained about the lack of sufficient testing facilities in the country to assure the quality of their computer programs. Thus, the need for facilities such as the IBM Innovation Center.

Meanwhile, information contained in press kits furnished to reporters said the center would enable development of world-class software in several sectors such as banking, energy, telecommunications, transportation, retail and government.

Corgel explained that there would be different degrees of arrangements of terms with IBM Corp. A check by The Times of the innovation center’s Website showed the highest level would involve joint marketing strategies.

The intermediate level would involve enhanced marketing and training support while the basic level would mean information and enablement tools for the partner.

Corgel said the IBM Innovation Center in the Philippines formed part of the US $2.5 billion IBM Corp. had invested worldwide since 1989 in the formation of such centers.

At the briefing, Corgel said that Big Blue had signed up 250 business partners for its innovation center at a recent event at the Asian Institute of Management and said they were young as well as innovative.
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Lenovo Group Limited (SEHK: 0992), the world’s No. 4 personal computer (PC) maker, plans to make the recently repurchased mobile phone operation another profit generator as part of a business optimization.
The decision to buy back Lenovo Mobile Communications was made to smooth the series of adjustments in product lineup and profit model in the mobile Internet era, said Liu Chuanzhi, chairman for the Hong Kong-listed company, on November 30.

Lenovo had no other choice but to sell the mobile phone unit in 2003, according to Mr. Liu, explaining that Lenovo Mobile, underperforming when put up for sale, would possibly spiral into bankruptcy in two years if it were kept in hand.

On November 27, 2009, the PC giant announced its plan to spend USD 200 million buying back the mobile phone unit it sold off a year and half ago, a move market observers described as a signal that the Lenovo PC business would rely heavily on a mobile Internet strategy in the future.

Lenovo will take mobile Internet as a strategic division while expanding its global PC operation, striving to make mobile Internet another growth engine after the PC business, said Yang Yuanqing, chief executive officer for the company.

“Lenovo is likely to cut into the mobile Internet market by rolling out mobile Internet device (MID), similar to the new-generation products to be released by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL),” predicted an analyst specializes in the Chinese mobile Internet industry, “the only product series that can lie between mobile phone and PC now is MID, and the company will find it difficult to snatch the MID market from its rivals provided that it walks away from the patch now.”

However, executives for Lenovo declined to make a comment on such an analysis. The company will make its strategy for the mobile Internet segment known in two to six months, said Mr. Liu.

The sparkling iPhone and netbooks just serve to prelude the mobile Internet era, according to Mr. Yang, adding that a variety of terminals will make their presence as the 3G network become more fledged. Some market observers regarded the reacquisition of Lenovo Mobile as the PC maker’s attempt to come up with the rising demand for netbooks in China in the wake of the 3G era.

It will be easier for the Lenovo mobile phone unit to go public as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lenovo, pointed out an industry insider. Lenovo Mobile sets a goal to get listed on the renminbi-denominated A share market in 2011, a mission difficult to complete when it was under the control of companies registered out of Mainland China.

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