Emerging countries’ emerging consumers … Email for road warriors … Households go digital … Bling with memory …

Developing consumers

The depth of latent consumerism in the developing world has been revealed in a landmark study into the attitudes and beliefs towards brands and purchasing by people at the bottom of the socio-demographic pyramid, writes The Sydney Morning Herald’s Julian Lee.

Research firm Synovate surveyed 13,000 consumers in 20 emerging markets, excluding the very poor and the very rich. Those surveyed had less access to credit and less debt than comparable people in the West, but their aspirations were very similar. They want consumer brands – and will spend on them what money they have.

Households go digital

About a quarter of all households now have the capability to receive digital transmissions, according to preliminary figures compiled by GfK Informark for the Digital Broadcasting Australia lobby group, reports The Australian.

The figures suggest there is now a marked move away from digital set-top box sales to digital hard disc drives and recorders as consumers understand the benefits of integrated digital receivers. The Government plans to switch all transmission services to digital from 2010. Currently 93% of Australians can access digital broadband services.

You have mail, on the road

As smoking loses its cool we need fancy new gadgets in our cars to plug into that almost obsolete lighter socket.

From entrepreneur.com comes news of the latest gizmo to fill that void – the iLane “the world’s first hands-free and eyes-free email solution for in-vehicle use”. Soon to be launched by Intelligent Mechatronic Systems, this gadget will not only receive email for you but read them to you “in the language of your choice”.

Gone are the days of taking your eyes off the road to translate the emails on your phone into Spanish. And escaping the office just became a little harder.

Mega-glam

Want to carry large digital files, but only if you can do so in style? akihabaranews.com has found a solution: a USB stick covered with Swarovski gems.

What better way to make up for forgetting Valentine’s Day than with 512MB, 1GB or 2GB of memory glammed up with enough bling to make Dolly Parton cringe?

If that’s not your style, the Japanese maker Solidalliance also makes a rubber-ducky USB, perfect for when you’re writing that important memo in the bath.