According to an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) statistics on mobile phone subscribers 97 persons out of every resident in developed countries have a mobile phone. In the case of developing countries, the number is 45 per 100 residents. In the latter case, the mobile phone is practically the only means of practicable contact with the outside world for the vast numbers of inhabitants in remote areas.
Being able to reach these vast numbers of mobile phone subscribers in remote areas in a way that helps to bring them into the mainstream can definitely help businesses. This was the motivating factor for the IBM initiative for mobile Web. The initiative includes working with partners in research and investing in software, hardware and services.
One such partnership is with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mumbai. IBM has joined an Open Collaboration Research (OCR) project with the Industrial Design Center (IDC) of the IIT. The “research collaboration will focus on the development of new designs for mobile device interfaces that can easily be used by people who are semiliterate or illiterate, as well as individuals who have limited or no access to information technology.”
Read the news release at PR Newswire.
