Multichoice`s 500 000 subscribers will be the first South Africans to gain access to interactive TV and t-commerce. Soon, they`ll be able to e-mail and shop from the comfort of their lounges, using their television sets.
The Green Paper on E-Commerce raises many questions, and the answers will become law. They will have a massive impact on life and business in SA. In the first of four features, ITWeb examines the legal and regulatory issues.
More South Africans shopped online this festive season than ever before. Profits are up, and confidence is strong that 2001 will prove more lucrative than previously expected.
ITWeb asked industry players to predict the hottest IT trends and technologies in 2001. Mobile, wireless and convergence topped the "hot list", while enterprise resource planning and in-house application development found a much colder reception.
When asked why Internet access in Africa outside SA is so prohibitively expensive, experts at the Highway Africa conference in Grahamstown cited competition and regulation as major factors. But solutions may already be at hand.
Suggestions for a communications satellite owned and operated by SA, SADC or a group of African countries abound. But commercial birds with megabyte capacity to spare might fly before any development proposal is accepted.
Microsoft has firmly thrown the gauntlet at the feet of existing enterprise software platform leaders with its release of Data Center Server, but is the software giant up to the challenge?
How feasible is online broking in SA, where day trading has yet to take off in any significant way? Bronwen Kausch investigates.
Hewlett-Packard believes services will drive mobile Internet growth and is incubating start-ups to grow infrastructure demand. Wireless Application Protocol may be a disappointment, but killer apps may woo consumers back soon.
In an ideal world, local telephone calls are free, voice-over-IP makes international calls inexpensive and telephone network operators scramble to deliver the best service. Will this happen in SA in 2002? Don`t hold your breath.
A lottery prediction software package has caused much controversy, with some calling it "Snake Oil" and others authoring their own high-tech programs to ensure lottery luck. ITWeb investigates.
It all started with an idea to trade Pez dispensers over the Internet. That idea snowballed into a proliferation of auction Web sites, most of which base themselves on the granddaddy of them all - eBay. Where will it end? Financial editor Iain Scott investigates.
Home networking is taking off. It may be a while before we see fully automated households, but network specialists claim we have the infrastructure and potential. It`s all about shared resources and "intelligent" appliances.