Here’s a quick quiz: Which country has the most mobile-phone connections in the world? According to the International Telecommunications Union, China is by far the largest, with an estimated 641 million mobile subscribers as of the end of 2008 — more than twice the number five years earlier and easily double the market in the U.S.
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China’s growing telecom sector is just one example of how emerging economies are taking on a larger role in the technology industry. The latest annual Global Information Technology Report, released on Mar. 25 by the World Economic Forum [WEF] in Geneva, finds that such countries as India, Malaysia, and Vietnam are among the fastest-growing centers for IT anywhere in the world.
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The WEF ranks countries on such factors as public- and private-sector use of technology, consumer access to the latest gadgets, and the quality of infrastructure, such as 3G mobile networks and broadband connectivity. While Western countries — especially the Nordic nations — still dominate the top rungs, the developing world is rising fast.
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Europe and North America will have to innovate to stay ahead, says Soumitra Dutta, professor of information systems at French business school Insead, who co-authored the report. It won’t be long before someone like China or India breaks into the top 20.
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Leapfrogging Development
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The emerging giants’ success isn’t due to luck, of course. From Beijing to Bombay, policymakers have spent billions of dollars to upgrade or subsidize development of domestic phone lines and Internet connections to give local businesses an edge. That has allowed certain regions, such as financial center Shanghai or outsourcing capital Bangalore, to match rival cities in developed countries. The fast-declining cost of technology, particularly mobile phones and other computing devices, also has allowed many countries to leapfrog generations of IT. With access to the latest technology, local companies…