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 DIGITALeurope
TIME's latest reports on technolgy and innovation.
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Start-up of the Week
New entries onto the European tech stage
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MARIA
MARCED:
Intel General Manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa |
| THOMAS
EINBERGER/ARGUM-COVER |
Posted Sunday, Oct. 13, 2002; 2.15 p.m. BST
Fåhraeus is out to create a de facto global
standard for paper-based digital communications. The Logitech
io pen invented by his company uses camera technology to convert
handwriting into digital information, allowing anything inscribed
on specially formatted paper to be sent to PCs or mobile phones.
The device, which is being produced in partnership with computer
peripherals giant Logitech and is due in shops in November,
lets you upload handwritten copies of your notes to your PC.
The handwriting is stored as graphics, so it looks exactly like
your original notes. In addition, handwriting recognition software
can transform the notes into typewritten text. The pen can also
be used to send e-mails, which appear in the
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INGVAR ANDERSSON/ PRESSENS BILD |
sender's own handwriting. Last April Anoto Group launched another
version of the pen in Sweden, in partnership with Sony Ericsson
and Vodafone Sweden. This device, called the Sony Ericsson Chatpen,
syncs with a mobile phone rather than a PC. Telecom Italia is
expected to launch a commercial trial of the pen before the
end of the year. Fåhraeus — who has a degree in mathematics
and physics from Lund University in Sweden and a master's degree
in bioengineering from the University of California, and completed
three years of medical school — has also launched two biotech
start-ups, Precise Biometrics and CellaVision. A nature buff
who enjoys golfing, tennis, skiing and running, he hopes one
day to finish the work he started on a Ph.D. in neurophysiology.
The Vision Thing: "We are turning paper into digital screens and pens into digital input instruments."
Forward Spin: The pen could be used to process business forms. Anoto Group has a deal with Japan's Hitachi to use the technology for things like processing overnight mail and supply order forms.
Breton, who was named CEO of France Telecom last week,
is a turnaround wiz. In 1996 French consumer-electronics manufacturer
Thomson was such a mess that the government tried to sell it
to South Korea's Daewoo Group for one franc. The sale didn't
go through. Instead the government recruited Breton, an engineer
who wrote science fiction and previously worked at troubled
French tech company Groupe Bull. Breton shed noncore businesses
and focused the company, now called Thomson Multimedia, on "the
video image chain," everything from commercial equipment
for professional
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PASCAL SITTLER/REA |
broadcasters and moviemakers to dvds, dvd players and television
sets. The strategy worked. Last year Thomson posted sales of
€10.5 billion, it's sitting on over €1 billion in
cash, and has no debt. Breton faces a very different
situation at France Telecom, one of the world's most heavily indebted public companies, with debt forecast to exceed €75 billion by the end of the year. The company's financial problems stem in part from the terms of the deals it struck with Orange and Mobilcom, its estranged German mobile partner.
Breton is expected to come up with a debt-reduction strategy within the next two months.
The Vision Thing: "My ambition is not limited to the indispensable lowering of debt. I want to assure a dynamic development that leverages the company's strengths in the areas of fixed telephony, mobile and Internet."
Forward Spin: To get the company back on track, analysts say Breton is likely to undertake some form of state-based rights issue and sell some shares in Orange.
Borel formed Logitech, a computer peripherals company,
in 1981 when he and Pierluigi Zappacosta, a friend from Stanford
University, won a contract from Japan's Ricoh to develop a desktop
publishing system that included an early form of the computer
mouse. Soon the partners began selling the mouse on its own
and won deals with big computer makers, such as Apple and Hewlett
Packard. Today, the Swiss company is tied with Microsoft for
first place in U.S. retail mouse sales, according to researcher
NPD Group. But Logitech — which reported net income of
$75 million on sales of $944 million
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GAETAN BALLY/KEYSTONE |
last year — has moved way beyond the humble desk rodent.
The firm holds 45% of the world market for Webcams and makes
plenty of other computer peripherals as well, including trackballs,
keyboards, joysticks, game steering wheels, headsets, speakers
and the io, a personal digital pen that captures handwritten
notes and uploads them into personal computers (see No. 10).
This year Logitech branched out into other types of mobile devices
as well, launching a cloth keyboard for personal digital assistants
that doubles as a Palm Pilot case. And this month the company
is due to release a line of wireless and wired headsets for
mobile phones.
The Vision Thing: "We want to be king of the last inch between human fingers and the digital world."
Forward Spin: Borel is working to see that more European inventions and products reach the rest of the world through SwissUp, a forum for entrepreneurs.
In 1984 Courtois was working for a tiny French software
company in Nice when he was approached by a headhunter about
a job at Thomson, then a stodgy, state-run company. There was
an opening in a division that made low-cost personal computers.
At a meeting in Paris the headhunter decided Courtois might
instead fit better at the European division of a fledgling U.S.
software company: Microsoft. Now responsible for about 28% of
the company's overall revenues, Microsoft-Europe under Courtois
is driving into three new areas: software for small-to-medium-sized
enterprises (SMES), gaming and mobile devices. In July Courtois
helped orchestrate the €1.4 billion purchase of Navision,
a Danish company that makes software that automates administrative
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XAVIER LAMBOURG
- METIS/EDITING SERVER FOR TIME |
tasks for smes. Microsoft is also pushing hard to promote its
new X-Box in Europe and in late September bought a 49% stake
in the British game developer Rare. And it is aggressively pursuing
deals with European telecom operators as part of its bid to
become the platform of choice for mobile services. There's one
catch. Microsoft's reputation has suffered owing to an investigation
by the European Commission for anti-competitive practices.
The Vision Thing: "I consider it a personal challenge to change [negative] views of Microsoft."
Forward Spin: If Microsoft is found guilty of using its power to hamper rivals, it could face fines and be forced to unbundle products. But it is too powerful to be slowed down for very long.
Soon after joining Intel in 1984, Marced — a telecom
engineer turned on to personal computers — orchestrated
the company's move into the European consumer market. Now head
of Intel's Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, which
generates some $6 billion a year, she is spearheading the drive
to put Intel inside all kinds of mobile Internet-access devices.
Intel's chips are still found in most European desktop PCs,
but these products are becoming more of a commodity and margins
are getting slimmer. One area that could help make up the difference:
the mobile sector. Intel has introduced energy-efficient
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THOMAS EINBERGER/ ARGUM-COVER |
memories for cell phones, and its XScale processors are used
in Symbian's operating system for data-enabled mobile phones.
The company is also pushing products that enable wireless broadband
connections for desktop PCs, handhelds and laptops. Under Marced's
leadership, Intel Capital Europe remains active. Recent investments
include MobileAware, an Irish company that sells software that
integrates Web, wireless, interactive television and voice services.
The Vision Thing: "These are tough times, but the digital revolution is here — and it is going to require silicon."
Forward Spin: Analysts say Intel needs to get agreements in place for mobile to dislodge strong competitors like Texas Instruments, Qualcomm and STMicroelectronics.
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