Seoul Digital Forum/ World ICT Summit 2006 'The Seoul Digital Forum 2006 was held at the Sheraton Grande Walkerhill hotel from May 24 through 26. This was the third such Forum, sponsored by SBS and the Ministry of Information and Communication. The main theme of the event this year was "Being Intelligent: The Next Evolution - Smart Devices, Robotics and the Future. " And its sub-theme was "ICT's Role and Prospects as a Driving Force for Social Change." The 3rd Seoul Digital Forum was composed of three main events: 'the Annual Conference', 'the World ICT Summit' and 'the Global Mobile Content Awards.' Participants were leaders from various fields of society, especially specializing in ICT. At the forum, they have discussed ICT's new trends and emerging issues around the world. The total number of participants in the forum is approximately 1,600 persons per year. This forum's goal was to catalyze the entire society. During this period a high-level Ministerial Meeting was held, and various ministers, deputy ministers from 18 countries such as France, Israel, Norway, Malaysia, etc., visited the IT powerhouse, South Korea. An official from the Ministry of Information and Communication said, "Through this Conference, we had a chance to boost South Korea's image as a high technology nation, and we publicly announced Korea' s global vision of IT" For this session, Roh Jun-hyong, Minister of Information and Communication had meetings with experts from several countries in a bid to publicly show the brilliant creativeness and preeminence of Korea's DMB and WiBro technology. Especially, for Korea, it was a meaningful conference. Prominent specialists from around the world, such as Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corp., Klaus Kleinfeld, CEO and president of Siemens AG, Paul Jacobs, president and CEO of Qualcomm Inc. praised Korea's IT industry and anticipated great things for the IT powerhouse's future. Domestic high-profile participants included Nam Joong-soo, President & CEO, KT Corporation. Kim Young-se CEO & Founder, INNODESIGN, and Hwang Chang-gyu, President & CEO, Semiconductor Business, Samsung Electronics etc. "South Korea is losing market share and leadership to overseas competitors in several segments." At the Seoul Digital Forum 2006, which was held at the Sheraton Grand Walkerhill hotel from, May 24 through 26, Derek Lidow, President and CEO of iSuppli forecasted a gloomy outlook for Korea's IT industry. He pointed out that latecomer, Taiwan, which is threatening Korea's reputation as the longtime leader in LCD panel production, has already overtaken Korea. In the first quarter of 2006, Taiwan recorded a 52.2 percent share of shipments, compared to only 37.4 percent for Korea. This reversion is worthy of note, considering in the first quarter of 2005, when South Korea still held 'the world's largest LCD-making country's title, at that time, Korea outnumbered Taiwan about 7% percent in sales volume. Lidow predicted, "Taiwan will remain the leader in LCD panel production for the foreseeable future," and added "South Korea is being out-spent and out-maneuvered by competitors on multiple fronts. To remain competitive, the nation must change its approach to the high-tech industry, focusing more on entrepreneurial innovation and less on lower-margin commodity products." As for LCD TV production industry, in 2003 South Korea was holding the world's second LCD TV producer's position after Japan, at that time a market share of 26 percent. However, around 2005, Korea's share had slipped to 20 percent, and consequently dropped behind Japan and Taiwan, China. That figure is based on the iSuppli's Television Systems Market Tracker service. Not only this, he also pointed out that Korea's mobile-phone industries are now slackening. In 2004, South Korea emerged as the world's second-largest mobile phone manufacturer, following Europe, but Korea's mobile-phone market has remained sluggish since 2005, comparing its rivals, the United States and Europe, which have been recording superb growth in their mobile industries. "Recent European and U.S. product successes have halted Korean market-share gains," Lidow noted and explained about the situation "The reason why European and U.S. mobile-phone makers are outperforming Korea's is they are concentrating on the effectiveness of target marketing for the global leaders in the mobile-phone business. So the pace of improving is definitely faster than the top Korean manufacturers," He also urged Korea to find solutions to prevent their loss of market share and power. "Korea must encourage entrepreneurial innovation through the creation of more competitive private investment funds and industrial incentives, including both venture capital and private equity investment funds," Lidow said. "This will result in a gradual shift away from lower-margin, capital-intensive and slower-growth consumer-electronics hardware and toward more innovative products and services. It also will stimulate more innovation and investment in local firms." Lidow is one of the eminent experts on the world electronics industry. Executives and key government officials all over the world, pay much attention to his analysis of the electronics value chain. His specialized comments always have received extensive media coverage and have a strong influence over electronics circles. Lidow has been participating in the Seoul Digital Forum every year since 2004. Every year his comments hit the world media's headlines. He is characterized as an outspoken speaker; therefore many media from around the world spotlighted his frank and specializing comments in multiple ICT fronts. "Outlook for the South Korea's IT industry is optimistic!" On the other hand, CEO of Microsoft Corp., Steve Ballmer told participants in the Seoul Digital Forum 2006, that he had a favorable feeling toward Korea and noted Korea brought an epoch making revolution in the IT world, specifically, it proved a prelude to an upheaval in the IT sector. "Microsoft Corp. will invest US $60 million in South Korea over the next three years in a bid to nurture innovation in South Korea, Microsoft is very committed to really helping more growth in the market...more entrepreneurial activity and more thoughtful start-ups," Ballmer told participants at the Forum. "We are going to focus on working to help develop 60 companies in home-network software, digital contents, embedded mobile software, telematics and RFID, all important areas, because we think more successful companies there are in Korea," and added "The future of Korean IT industry is built on intellectual property created by local companies. Microsoft is committed to fostering that innovation by nurturing software companies that can help Korea realize its U-Korea vision," he noted. In a similar vein, Ballmer agreed to work in close shoulder to shoulder with Samsung Corp., and asked about outlook for Korea's IT industry, he predicted "It is optimistic", considering Korea's many astute consumers who has a fluent adaptability go with the current of new ICT, high willingness of investment in technology, lots of conglomerates which have valuable technological know-how such as Samsung, and prestigious universities like KAIST. Regarding his company's new Windows Vista operating system, he predicted its launch will be "on track" in January next year, dismissing concerns over a possible delay due to technical problems. Asked about Microsoft's future business takeover plans, Ballmer said the firm has made 22 acquisitions in the past year and the pace would continue to rise. He predicted, "Over the past 10 years, people have been through many innovations, so now we can access to all kinds of information just one click. In 10 years, people would have a conversation with their friends in cyberspace, or appear innovative materials that substitute for a paper." And he was emphatic about protection of intellectual property rights, saying the Korean IT industry's success depends on its intellectual property rights creation. In a similar vein, to create more job opportunities, decisive protection of intellectual property rights is required worldwide. During the forum, Ballmer had discussions with other experts on the development of the IT sector. "Fusion Technology will mark a new era in Korea's IT history" Hwang Chang-gyu addressed the Seoul Digital Forum 2006, and the theme of his speech was "The era of Fusion Technology (FT)." He noted that in the FT era, new visions would be created in a bid to enhance the public's quality of life, and catalyze entire society. Fusion Technology will integrate disparate fields, such as energy, robot, environment etc. the era is totally different from the IT era, only exist simple technology and devices' convergence. Hwang predicted that "In the next 5~10 years, 'fusion' will emerge as a pivotal role to break down barriers, in such disparate fields as Information Technology (IT), Bio-Technology (BT) and Nano-Techonology (NT)." As for the semiconductor technology, he noted "Semiconductor technology continuously leading FT era as well as now" and adding "By 2015, 20 terabyte memory cards will appear, with the capacity to store all the stocks in the U.S. Library of Congress", "...even though the semiconductor business recorded a disappointing score in the first quarter, but the situation will improve, in the second half of the year, consumer demand for flash memory will be greater than now," he concluded.