Back in March 2005, Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC business, including the rights to put the IBM name on their products for a period of five years, caused quite a sensation worldwide. In November 2007, Lenovo once again aroused the wonder of both the industry and the market when the company announced that it would end its use of the IBM brand ahead of schedule. From a marketing perspective, Lenovo's decision to abandon the IBD brand is in fact a successful feat in brand marketing - for free.

Some corporate mergers are based on considerations of proprietary rights, some on channel resources, and others on brand image. Obviously, Lenovo's acquisition of IBM's PC brand has revolved around the latter two factors. From the perspective of brand marketing, Lenovo's abrupt announcement to give up the IBM brand served to reinforce the connection between the two brands and won Lenovo a free opportunity for large-scale publicity. Taking into account Lenovo's sales growth in recent years, the upcoming Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, and potentially more strategic deployments ahead, Lenovo's announcement that it will abandon the IBM brand arguably could not have arrived at a more opportune time.

Such large-scale, free publicity that facilitates information dissemination and brand marketing presents an opportunity too good to be missed for many a small-sized brand. Perhaps, ever since the moment that Lenovo took over IBM's considerably larger PC brand, the company has secured for itself not only an economy of scale but the capability to attract media attention. Global press, industry, and market alike constantly devote bushels of time and ink to covering Lenovo's development for free, this article included. The recent announcement by Lenovo, to the company's credit, is yet another successful publicity stunt.

Global desktop PC shipment volume is forecasted to see continued growth in the second half of 2007, owing to the following factors.

Judging from various macroeconomic indexes, the global economy is projected to see promising development in the second half. The emerging markets in particular, which feature relatively high demand for desktop PCs, is expected to sustain strong economic growth, thereby bolstering the demand for desktop PCs. The subprime mortgage crisis recently plaguing the United States luckily did not significantly affect consumption ability, as revealed in related surveys. Nevertheless, the potential negative effects of high oil prices and interest rates remain and warrant close attention though posing no immediate threat in the second half of 2007.

Due to the implementation of various industry policies and supplementary measures, demand for IT infrastructure and PCs in the emerging markets has been on the rise, driving up the global desktop PC shipment volume in tandem. In addition, with the rollout of new CPUs (Central Processing Units) and chipsets as well as the price reductions of old products, both new-machine and replacement demands are expected to see significant growth.

The shortage of certain key components has caused the lead time to extend, which is likely to curb the rapid growth of the desktop PC market. Therefore, the capability to deliver shipments on time is seen as a decisive factor in desktop PC makers' second-half shipment performance. First-tier makers are noticeably superior to their second-tier counterparts in the procurement of key components for motherboards and require shorter lead time as well. Overall, the inability to deliver shipments on time has not proved much of a problem for first-tier makers. Second-tier makers, on the contrary, have much less secure access to key components and may encounter problems in shipment delivery. As a result, second-tier makers may have to yield some of their market shares to first-tier makers boasting relatively sufficient resources.

All told, the global desktop PC shipment volume is expected to meet the annual goal, with market shares further concentrated on first-tier makers though.

Online gaming, online music, online video, and blogs are among the most popular online entertainment services among Taiwanese Internet users. Of these, online gaming, online music, and online video are the services for which Internet users are most willing to pay, indicating that all three have significant growth potential.

Looking at how long Internet users have been using paid services, the top three services are online gaming (4.7 years), online music (10.5 months), and online video (8.3 months); the top three in terms of average monthly expenditure are online gaming with NT$334 (US$10.2; US$1=NT$32.8), online video with NT$178 (US$5.4), and online music with NT$117 (US$3.6); and the services for which consumers are willing to pay the most in the future were online gaming with more than over NT$334 (US$10.2), online video with NT$268 (US$8.2), and online music with NT$173 (5.3).

Role playing games still dominate online gaming, but gambling games and music based games are gradually becoming more popular. Gamers are also turning away from monthly payment methods towards games that charge software or network based fees. Many gamers also complain that piracy of in-game valuables is a serious issue. Correcting this problem will require an increased focus on security among service providers and increased awareness on the part of gamers.

In contrast to online games, fee based online music and video services are relatively recent. But Internet users are increasingly willing to pay for such services, and price restrictions are decreasing. The biggest problem facing these services is lack of content, something of particular concern for online video.

The entertainment function of blogs evident as indicated by the sources of blog traffic (mainly friends and friends of friends), and uses (writing and sharing online diaries). By providing platforms for social interaction as well as support for photos, music, and virtual products, blogs will continue to expand their entertainment functions.

Based on frequently used features and advantages, instant messaging is currently used mostly for communication, especially between friends, and secondarily for work/study. File transmission is also an important instant messaging feature, but blogs and photo albums with instant messaging applications are not yet very popular.

Compared with 2005, the shares of Taiwanese hardcore gamers (gamers who play online games for more than four hours a day) and frequent gamers (one to four hours a day) in 2006 fell slightly, at 27.5% and 35.9%, respectively, while that of casual gamers (less than one hour a day) rose to 36.6%.

69% of hardcore gamers are male; most of them are high school or university graduates. They are mainly aged between 15 and 24. Hardcore gamers spend an average of NT$516 (US$15.4; US$1 =NT$32.8) a month on online gaming, and prefer games using a monthly subscription fee payment model.

Hardcore gamers' main motives to play online games are the desire to become a respected expert gamer and to make money from gaming. Game content, image quality, and sound effects are the key factors when hardcore gamers choose a game title.

67.4% of frequent gamers are male, and the majority are high school or university graduates. They are mainly aged between 20 and 29. On average, frequent gamers spend NT$335 (US$10.0) a month on online gaming, and prefer games with no monthly subscription fee.

Frequent gamers are more concerned about game storyline/content. Other factors that affect their game selection are the image quality and sound effects, the connection speed and stability, the price, and friends' recommendations.

51.5% of casual gamers are male; a high percentage of them are junior high school graduates (or not yet graduated from junior high school) or people with graduate degrees. Casual gamers are mainly aged between 15 and 29. Casual gamers spend an average of NT$195 (US$5.8) a month on online gaming, and prefer games that do not have a monthly subscription fee.

Casual gamers place a high emphasis on game storyline/content when choosing an online game. They are very price-oriented, caring about special promotions and any supplementary services.

Taiwan's enterprise software market is expected to maintain 9.2% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) from 2006 - 2010 and reach NT$8 billion (US$1=NT$32.8) in total value by 2010. The market will be driven mainly by growth of SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprise), platform architecture integration, and corporate demand for instant decision analysis. At the same time, the Basel II Accord, Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and Taiwan's the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 7 will also have impacts on the market and stimulate some degree of growth.

Companies in the manufacturing sector will supplement their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and SCM (Supply Chain Management) software with BI (Business Intelligence) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management), while companies in the telecom, finance, and retail sectors will focus on CRM and BI. Traditional industries that have relied on ERP in the past will begin using BI as well.

Over the next three years, enterprise software will come to be seen as not just a part of the operating process, but as a tool for management and decision making. Software implementation times have shortened and interfaces have become easier to use. As the SME market develops rapidly, ERP and CRM continue to see steady growth, and companies are turning to BI as well. Enterprise performance management is becoming more important, SaaS (Software as a Service) is emerging and integrated platform architectures are becoming more popular as well. All these things will be important development trends in the Taiwanese enterprise software market.