Journal: News & Comment

Shifting tides

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David Strom thinks that:

Maybe it is time to acknowledge that the new brain trust of the computing universe has shifted from the San Andreas fault line of California to the other side of the Pacific Rim, and that Taiwan may be where real innovation is happening. After all, most of the world's motherboards, components, and notebooks are made in Taiwan. But Taiwan isn't just about building expansive new fabrication plants due to the low wages and cheap materials and real estate costs. It is about having a capitalistic economic engine that is driven by the onrushing demand for cheap Chinese computers, as mainland citizens ramp up their demands. All of this means that the next round of interesting software will be written in Mandarin, not English.

It only makes sense. China gains the equivalent of Canada's entire population every three or four years. Even if only a tiny proportion can afford computers, that's a massive market.

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