Autumn 2013 Newsletter
It is alleged that in 1943, Thomas Watson the
chairman of IBM boldly claimed "I think there is a world market for
maybe five computers". I personally own four so I'm curious who
owns the fifth.
Today, we can laugh about how wildly incorrect
that seventy year old prognostication turned out to be, from the
purview of history. In fairness to Thomas Watson he was in fact
talking about very expensive computing technology only affordable
by governments.
Even Bill Gates' vision of a computer in every
home some forty years after Watson is modest by today's
standards.
The integrated circuit that can accommodate
several billion transistors and other electronic components in an
area smaller than a fingernail has revolutionised and reshaped our
thinking on the use of technology.
We can certainly thank the power of computing
for the avalanche of emails that bombard our inboxes daily. At last
count 145 billion emails are circulated daily. About 500 thousand
emails every time you blink. Almost one third of the world's
population, approximately 2.2 billion people are email users. When
I was a child, the title millionaire was an extravagance few people
could lay claim to hold. Today our bytes and our wealth are
measured in billions.
There have been a number of interesting new
developments at FBS over the past few months, including teaming up
with Experion QAS to ensure the accuracy of the emails populating
the customer database.
We have an interesting article on JAM Payment
integration with WinPOS. Jam Payments allows a customer to purchase
finance on the spot whilst being able to take the items they
purchased home.
FBS now provides integrated online marketing solutions. With
Australian online retail expenditure set to reach $27 billion by
2016 (and $5.4 billion in New Zealand) there is a compelling
argument for us to provide these services to our customers. We have
spent an enormous amount of time and energy strengthening our
online services through strategic recruitment and partnerships. We
now offer website design, development and hosting, search engine
optimisation, pay per click management and media buying, as well as
social media communication and advertising.