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112 - World:
GM
Taps China to Push Hydrogen Fuel
China Is Challenging DVD Format
With EVD
-----
The new disk may allow Chinese
companies to avoid paying
licensing fees to patent
holders.From Associated Press
-----
Seeking to compete on its own
terms in the lucrative
entertainment industry, China
announced a government-funded
project Tuesday to promote an
alternative to DVDs and "attack
the market share" of the global
video format.
-----
The rollout of the long-planned
project, known as EVD, or
enhanced versatile disk, was
timed to coincide with the
beginning of what China calls the
"golden sales" period known
elsewhere as the Christmas
shopping season.
-----
EVD would give Chinese
manufacturers and technology
consortiums a home-grown platform
to sell and build on. It also is
aimed at relieving Chinese DVD
producers from paying licensing
fees to the companies that hold
patents to the DVD format.
-----
It was not immediately clear if
any elements of EVD would help
China battle the
intellectual-property theft it
has been promising to eradicate
since joining the World Trade
Organization in 2001. Pirated
Hollywood movies on DVD are still
everyday sights on the streets of
Chinese cities.
-----
Nor did the Chinese government
say whether it had contacted
major film producers about
eventually releasing their films
and other productions on EVD.
That would be a pivotal factor in
any new format's success.
-----
A spokesman for the Motion
Picture Assn. of America did not
immediately return a message
seeking comment.
-----
Development of the new,
high-definition compression
format has been sponsored by
China's State Trade and Economic
Commission and its Ministry of
Information Industry, two
powerhouses in the country's
efforts toward high-speed
economic and technological
growth.
-----
Research on EVD began in 1999. It
was developed by Beijing
E-World Technology Co.
using video-compression
technologies licensed by Clifton
Park, N.J.-based On2
Technologies Inc.
-----
Shares of On2 slipped 1 cent to
$1.84 Tuesday on the American
Stock Exchange.
-----
Because large parts of China's
economy are still controlled by
the state, it is in a better
position than most countries to
ensure such new technology will
take hold in the domestic
market.
-----
More uncertain is the
international market, which has
moved toward DVDs as the
standard.
-----
On the surface, it would seem
that EVD's international effect
could be huge, because China
makes about 60% of the world's
DVD players, said Vamsi Sistla,
senior analyst with Allied
Business Intelligence, an Oyster
Bay, N.Y.-based research
firm.
-----
But there is no guarantee that
standards bodies and Hollywood
will endorse EVD, meaning that
EVD machines also will need to
play DVDs thereby forcing Chinese
manufacturers to keep paying DVD
royalties, Sistla said.
-----
Also, while EVD is designed to be
better than DVD at recording and
showing finer-quality images for
high-definition TVs, the HDTV
market remains small and already
is the focus of competing
standards, such as Blu-Ray and HD
DVD-9, developed by leading
electronics companies in Japan,
South Korea and Europe.
-----
In China, though DVD is the
upper-end standard, many people
still use VCDs, or video compact
discs, a differently coded
format. VCDs never caught on in
the U.S., where a shift from VHS
videocassettes to DVDs has been
underway for several years.
Hydrogen Fuel / November 19,
2003 IN BRIEF / AUTOS / From
Associated Press
-----
General Motors
Corp. is trying to
enlist the Chinese government in
promoting cars that run on
hydrogen fuel cells instead of
gasoline, in hopes that the
nation's potentially huge market
might generate enough sales to
make the new technology
profitable.
-----
GM officials in Beijing said
China could jump straight into
alternative-fuel cars if it
begins setting up special
hydrogen filling stations now
perhaps alongside new gas
stations as they are built.
-----
Mainland Chinese have only just
started buying regular
gas-powered cars in large
numbers.
-----
GM hopes its hydrogen-fuel-cell
cars will be commercially viable
by 2010.
•
112 -
China
Approves 3Com's Huawei Joint
Venture
-----
November 18, 2003 - SAN
FRANCISCO Network equipment maker
3Com Corp. said
Monday that it had received
approval from the Chinese
government for a joint venture
with Huawei Technologies
Co. that analysts expect
to challenge No. 1 network gear
maker Cisco Systems
Inc. especially in
China.
-----
Huawei-3Com Co.
would be based in Hong Kong, have
its principal operations in
Hangzhou, China, and have sales
offices throughout China and
Japan for marketing networking
gear such as routers and
local-area-network switches,
according to Marlborough,
Mass.-based 3Com.
-----
Analysts said the joint venture's
goal was to grab some of San
Jose-based Cisco's large share of
the network equipment market by
offering resellers better
margins.
-----
"The whole idea behind the
3Com-Huawei partnership is to
develop a product line attractive
to resellers," said William
Becklean of Oppenheimer &
Co.
-----
"Cisco owns the market," Becklean
said. "They have a 70%
share."
-----
The joint venture, announced in
March, would sell its own and
3Com products in China and Japan;
3Com has rights to market and
support the joint venture's
products under its brand in other
countries.
-----
Shares of 3Com fell 12 cents to
$7.11 on Nasdaq.
03h
•
112
-
World:Baffled about how we get our
news?
TVI
Magazine stays on top of the new
'digital world' order.
TVI
utilizes its almost half a
century of experience in
gathering its International
Television and current affairs
news. TVI Magazine news sources
include, Google, High Tech
authorities, educators,
economists, world famous
investment advisors, a few
intelligence agents and many
political figures. Our Current
Affairs newsroom is continuously
being updated on our
tvinews.net
front page by major news sources,
such as the White House, BBC, and
Der Spiegel, among others.
Today's
Puzzle:Who
said that . . . "The news is old
news again, it repeats itself
like a bad habit."
03h
/ Category
Define •
112
-
World:Baffled about how we get our news?
TVI
Magazine stays on top of the new 'digital
world' order.
TVI
utilizes its almost half a century of
experience in gathering its International
Television and current affairs news. TVI
Magazine news sources include, Google,
High Tech authorities, educators,
economists, world famous investment
advisors, a few intelligence agents and
many political figures. Our Current
Affairs newsroom is continuously being
updated on our tvinews.net
front page by major news sources, such as
the White House, BBC, and Der Spiegel,
among others.
Today's
Puzzle:Who
said that . . . "The news is old news
again, it repeats itself like a bad
habit."
Part
06h
• Acknowledgments ®™© /
NBS
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