The Economist writes:

Young Asians are already struggling to find jobs. Those between the ages of 15 and 24 make up a fifth of the workforce, but half the unemployed. In Sri Lanka, younger workers are six times more likely to be unemployed than older ones.

Asia's growth, in other words, is simply not creating enough jobs: and not only is the ratio of employment growth to economic growth low, but it also appears to be falling pretty much across the board. This may seem odd. In countries where labour is cheap, growth should be more labour-intensive than capital-intensive. But in Asia, argue Jesus Felipe and Rana Hassan, the authors of the ADB's report, modern, export-oriented firms, which have underpinned much of the recent growth, are likely to use the same technology as their first-world counterparts. That may explain why, in 2000, the number of jobs created in China for each unit of economic growth was less than a quarter of what it was in 1990. Only subsistence farming and simple urban services are highly labour-intensive, and these are not thriving industries.

From a Business Week interview: "Apple may think the proprietary iPod is their competitive advantage, but it's temporary. In the future, what will matter will be the software inside that lets users find exactly the kind of music they want to listen to, when and where they want to, with minimal effort."

MocoNews.net writes:

# As the news that mobile telephones are becoming increasingly common in developing nations, far more common than computers, efforts to connect populations to the internet will switch from computers to mobile handsets. There’re already some efforts like this underway, but these will increase to projects such as translating mobile services to local languages.
# Linux will move onto mobile phones with the attendent hype and arguing on the merits in various forums. Although the biggest effort will be in the OS the big success will be in niche areas (such as indigenous languages) which may not be appealing to the big companies.
# The hype about personalization will give way to hype about customization (well, this isn’t so much of a prediction but a hope). By customization I mean users adjusting the funcionality of their handset to suit themselves, such as the ability of users to arrange the menus on their phone as they see fit, as well as which network to connect to and when, the homepage for their mobile internet, and everything else to do with their mobiles. I adjust my computer to suit myself, and I’m sick of wading through other people’s preferences on mobile phones.

Forbes writes:

Microsoft's Irving views the future of e-mail in the context of a wider array of digital communications with a person's contact list functioning as the central point around which their communications occur.

"During the next ten years, this is all about unifying the communication experience and having it all come together in a way that makes mail just another activity that hangs off the contact list," he says.

Considering how much digital communication mediums are changing and evolving, that makes sense. Once people only had e-mail, but now they also can place phone calls over the Internet, and they have instant messaging and cellular text messaging. The latter two especially have become preferred communication mediums versus e-mail for younger populations.

So establishing e-mail as just one integrated and versatile tool in a stocked box of digital applications means that the ability to allow communications over a myriad of devices and networks, with whomever and whenever you want, is paramount. And not just today, but tomorrow as well.

Jason Calacanis thinks Google will offer an Office suite in 2006:

I don't think Google will make a PC. I think Google will:

a. launch calendar and office suite in the next six months.
b. by the end of the year they will come out with a Linux-based OS and offer it for free to PC makers. Those PC makers will love Google for giving them a free OS and Google will love extending the reach of their money maker: google Adsense.

The big win: Google can offer PC makers something they have never had: reoccurring revenue. Not only can Google give a free OS and office suite, they could offer them 10% of the Google Adsense revenue of that computer/user--FOR LIFE!

Can you imagine if Dell or Compaq could not only sell a computer for $500 with $50 in profit, but also make another $25-50 a year in Adsense revenue? The person keeps the computer for another two years and Dell makes more from the Adsense than the computer.

The Google Desktop is the greatest growth opportunity for Google right now, and Google needs to find growth if they are going to live up to their valuation. For those reasons I think this is a done deal.

Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley wrote last October about one factor that’s been driving companies into India – the domestic market. “Over a span of four days, I met with a number of corporate executives, investors, and senior government officials. Everywhere I went, the focus was on the Indian consumer. I met with the managements of a good cross-section of India’s major consumer companies -- Hindustan Lever (softgoods), Pantaloon (retail), Raymond Textiles (clothing), and McDonald’s (fast food). I also spoke with executives from banks and drug companies -- all of whom have important consumer businesses. And I met with leading industrial companies such as Reliance, where a major five-year initiative has just been announced for the development of nationwide chain of hyper-stores and super-markets. I even went to the Phoenix shopping mall in Mumbai, which was bustling with activity. I have made similar trips to malls in China. There was one key difference between these two experiences -- the locals were buying in India. This is consistent with what I heard from most of the consumer companies I saw -- solid acceleration in same-store sales comparisons over the past six months.”

The Wall Street Journal wrote a story recently on the growing spend by Indian consumers:

India has long beckoned as the next big market -- and for just as long, has dashed such hopes. But the prediction may finally come true in 2006, thanks to the Indian consumer.

A decade ago, buying a motor scooter in India could take years and a stack of paperwork. These days, companies and banks court the consumer through instant mobile-phone messages. A buyer can plunk down just $22 and come away with a scooter on credit. Sales of two-wheelers -- a hallmark of India's emerging middle class -- jumped 16% in the year ended March 31.

The sales are the latest example of why global executives are paying more attention to India, after decades of relative neglect. The nation's deep pockets of computer programmers have spawned deep-pocketed urban consumers, now at the core of the consumer boom. Many younger Indians are more confident than their parents about the country's economic direction, say executives, and are more willing to buy expensive foreign brands.

India currently has about 17 million households -- or 90 million people -- that belong to the country's middle class, but earnings range between $4,500 and $22,000, according to the National Council for Applied Economic Research. The New Delhi think tank classifies an additional 287 million people as "aspirers," or those that hope to join the middle class. Their household income is between $2,000 and $4,500. By 2010, these two groups combined will number 561 million people, predicts the economic council.

The widening of India's middle class has a lot to do with the nation's hot information-technology industry. The industry is expected to employ nine million relatively young workers in the next five years, almost triple current levels, according to a study from McKinsey & Co. and the National Association of Software and Services Companies, an Indian software lobby group. If you add in families, the study estimates that 90 million people will be riding the industry's growth by 2010. In powering the nation's exports and rising wealth, the study predicts, India's IT sector will play a role similar to that of autos in Japan, luxury goods in France and microchips in Taiwan.

A lot of the new money is beginning to show up at the mall.