By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Despite tightening budgets, Filipino buyers are becoming more selective when buying electronic appliances. They want both a mix of function and design rolled into their equipment and some are willing to pay some extra.

This was the principle behind Korean appliance maker LG’s rebranding strategy in the Philippines. The company launched its new set of “lifestyle appliances” aimed at choosy buyers.

LG Electronics Philippines Head of Brand Marketing Raymond Hernandez said the company has studied the Philippines market for electronics and noted a growing market of younger generation of users who want a balance of aesthetics and performance.

“These are the ‘premium seekers’. They are a new market that we’re expecting to generate more income from for the company,” Hernandez said.

Nevertheless, Hernandez said the company is still sticking to their bread and butter business, which is the mass market, commodity segment that is also cost conscious.

In the Philippines, the most popular gadgets for all market segments are LCD TVs, mobile phones, refrigerators and air conditioning units, he added.

“We’re not alienating the commodity segment because they are our biggest market. But we’re seeing a shift from commodity to the new premium seekers in terms of revenues and this will happen starting this year,” Hernandez said.

LG manufactures over a dozen product types from LCD TVs, home theater equipment, to vacuum cleaners, air conditioners, washing machines, microwaves, and refrigerators.

The Korean firm has a division that makes mobile phones.

By Agence France-Presse

BEIJING, China — Apple said Friday they were investigating why access to iTunes appeared to be blocked for users in China after a pro-Tibet album became a hit on the online music store.

The iTunes download site has been unavailable for many users within China in the past week, but Apple’s Beijing-based spokeswoman Huang Yuna said she did not know why music fans were unable to log on.

“We’ve noticed the problem. It’s true that users may fail to log in to iTunes store right now,” she told AFP.

“We are still investigating,” she said, but would not confirm if the company was in contact with Chinese authorities.

The restrictions come after “Songs for Tibet”, a pro-Tibet album featuring songs by artists such as Sting, was released on iTunes just before the Olympic Games started on August 8.
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By Lawrence Casiraya
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – Globe Telecom announced it will sell the iPhone 3G via prepaid at P37, 599 or around P4, 000 less than its initial introductory price, the company said Friday.

Globe said in a statement iPhone 3G prepaid kits will be available at P37, 599 and P43, 799 for the 8GB and 16GB, respectively.

Globe said the new pricing will apply to all subscribers — even to those who have made reservations. Globe earlier said Apple’s latest iPhone device will be available starting August 22.

The prepaid plans come with P1,000 load spread over 5 months, or P200 per month. Also, the first 1,000 phonekit purchases will get another P1,000 discounts off the purchase price.

Earlier this month, Globe said it will see the iPhone 3G via prepaid at P41,899 (8Gb) and P48, 899 (16Gb). The iPhone 3G is likewise available through postpaid plans ranging from P1,599 to P4,999 a month, inclusive of free WiFi via Globe Wiz.

Globe added zero-interest purchase plans in partnership with local banks still apply.

The Apple iPhone 3G, which operates on the third-generation (3G) mobile network, will also come with a built-in global positioning system (GPS) for location-based mobile services.

The iPhone 2.0 software includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, apart from hundreds of third-party applications built with the recently released iPhone software development kit.

Globe Telecom has more than 21 million mobile subscribers to date.

MAKATI City, Philippines – Google is offering online tools to fans who want to follow news and medal tallies in the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Google said users of iGoogle, Google’s personalized homepage, can add news feeds, games, and other content that match their interests.

Google also offers tools to find out where events are happening and even tour the stadiums virtually with 3D images on Google Earth.

“We’ve always been interested in providing tools for people to find out about the things they care about” said Derek Callow, Google marketing manager for Southeast Asia, in a statement. “This set of tools provides a great way for fans to stay on top of everything that’s going on in this year’s summer games, from beginning to end.”

Google also offers the same online tools in Filipino.

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – “Kodakan” is a Filipino slang for taking pictures. In the past, Kodak was the only brand that stuck to people when talking about photography. The brand has been very popular that we often refer to candid photo shots as “Kodak moments.”

Today, “Kodakan” is rarely used. In fact, the film-based photography business where Kodak once dominated is slowly ebbing away, thanks to the availability of digital cameras and mobile phones with integrated camera functions.

Couple that with the inexpensive photo printers that allowed people to print only the photos they wanted and not an entire roll of film. There are also online services that allowed users to upload their photos. Slowly, the photo-printing shops are finding it more difficult to sustain their business.

Amid these developments, Kodak is not going away yet. It has in fact seen strong business in the Philippines, as the company decided to adopt new digital printing technologies because of the expected increasing demand for shop-based photo printing.

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