The company estimates that the equipment will cost under £200 per box to produce.The Government wants to give free laptops or PCs to those who cannot afford them, but such schemes have been set back by high costs and by computers intended for free distribution ending up on the black market. A recent study by the Economic and Social Research Council found that four out of five middle-class children have a computer at home, compared with just 54 per cent of their working-class peers.TechDawn has made initial approaches to the Government about its TV-to-PC technology. Its chief executive, Neil Cloughley, also intends to approach digital TV suppliers such as Sky with the aim of including the technology in standard set-top boxes.The system stores all data in outside servers, so that once work has been saved via the TV, a user can access any of his or her files via the internet.Sun Microsystems' Star Office Suite, a rival to Microsoft Office, is currently the only package that can be used on the system, but in future it will be possible to use any applications and also to play games.The product is currently at the prototype stage and trials are due to be conducted in around 1,000 homes in the coming months. TechDawn is meanwhile looking for over £2m in funds from venture capital houses.. If you were irritated by filling in the census form under threat of a £1,000 fine, then you'll be even more annoyed to discover what a huge favour you were simultaneously doing for the advertising industry. If you were irritated by filling in the census form under threat of a £1,000 fine, then you'll be even more annoyed to discover what a huge favour you were simultaneously doing for the advertising industry. When the results of censuses come out, statistics about the size of the population provide a moment's interest for the household, but for advertisers, they offer the ultimate snapshot of their target audience, allowing them to tweak their strategy accordingly.British advertisers have got another 12 months to wait until the results of our census come out, but a glance across the Atlantic could give them a good idea what to expect.
The results of the US census, held in 2000, are just now filtering into the public domain, and Madison Avenue has suddenly realised that modern America is a long way from the America it thinks it is selling to.The list of surprising statistics is long, but two findings stand out. The first is that the proportion of the population aged between 35 and 54 has soared faster than any other bracket, and the second, much to the dismay of the Republicans, is that the traditional nuclear family now represents less than a quarter of all US households. Even in the 1960s, the decade of "free love", it represented nearly 50 per cent.This gives an almighty strategic headache to the advertisers The 35-50 market is notoriously difficult to sell to. They have plenty of money, but the industry has spent so long trying to grab the attention of the teenage market that it is ill-prepared to mount huge campaigns aimed at their parents.Worse still is the decline of the nuclear family.
The more inappropriate it becomes to show happy families enjoying a particular product, the closer the advertisers are forced towards the supposed taboo target groups. Gay couples, single mothers and divorcees are, according to the census, a major portion of the US population, but they are also groups that Madison Avenue has traditionally steered clear of.The advertising industry, with its focus groups and market research, likes to think of itself as the great analyst of society, but something as old-fashioned and simple as a census has upset the apple cart. One Charles Schwab advert aimed at getting single mothers to trade online has Sarah Ferguson explaining what to do when fairytale princess dreams don't work out.In Florida, retirement homes are, in a huge marketing drive, re-branding themselves as "active adult communities", in a so-far redundant attempt to cash in on the swelling 55-60 age bracket.What they'll think of for a community of multi-ethnic, single sex couples over 35, heaven only knows.. Britain's largest rail freight operator, EWS, has warned that its international operation faces insolvency as a result of a new Home Office penalty scheme and hefty Channel Tunnel toll charges.
