Email more popular than social networking in India

Facebook, Twitter might be flavour of the season, but email remains more popular than social media as a method of internet communication for Indians, says a survey.

According to global research firm Ipsos, 68 per cent of people across India, who are connected online, send and receive emails while about 60 per cent communicate via social networking sites.

“Internet penetration in India has been very good in recent years, however, relative to country like China, India still does lack behind,” Biswarup Banerjee, Head of Marketing & Communications, Ipsos in India said.

Only 25 per cent use voice-over IP ( VOIP) for audio conversations conducted via an internet connection.

The Indian trend of communicating online is largely similar to the global scenario, as a strong majority (85 per cent) of online-connected global citizens in 24 countries use the internet for emails. Globally, 60 per cent use it for social networking, and little over one in ten use the internet for connecting with people through voice-over IP.

According to industry estimates, 103.6 million people will go online in 2012, and the number of users is expected to more than double to 221.6 million by 2015.

“This along with proliferation of internet access through smart phone will further increase the usage of email, social networking sites and other online communication tools,” said Banerjee.

Incidentally, according to another Ipsos survey, around 40 million Indians access the internet through their smart phones, 56 per cent of smartphone users in the country access the internet multiple times a day. Nearly 40 per cent surf the net at least once a day and only 6 per cent never use their phone for connecting to the Web.

Internet users in Hungary (94 per cent) are most likely to say they use the web for emailing, followed by nine in ten of those in Sweden (92 per cent), Belgium (91 per cent), Indonesia (91 per cent), Argentina (90 per cent) and Poland (90 per cent).

Meanwhile, 83 per cent of Indonesians access the net for social media, in Argentina the figure stands at 76 per cent, Russia (75 per cent) and seven in ten of those in South Africa (73 per cent), Sweden (72 per cent), Spain (71 per cent) and Hungary (70 per cent).

“Although Facebook and other popular social networking sites, blogs and forums, were founded in the United States the percentage of users was lower at six in 10, and in Japan it fell to 35 per cent, the lowest of the 24 countries in the global survey,” added Banerjee.

Ipsos interviewed a total of 19,216 adults in the month of February in an online survey across 24 countries.

PC maker, inspiration for Microsoft, dead

Atlanta: Henry Edward Roberts, a developer of an early personal computer that inspired Bill Gates to found Microsoft, died on Thursday in Georgia. He was 68.

Mr. Roberts, whose build-it-yourself kit concentrated thousands of dollars worth of computer capability in an affordable package, inspired Bill Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen to come up with Microsoft in 1975, after they saw an article about the MITS Altair 8800 in Popular Electronics.

Mr. Roberts, an ex-military man, later went on to build careers as a farmer and a physician, but continued to keep up with computer advances.

According to hi son David Roberts, he recently told Mr. Gates that he hoped to work with new, nanotechnology-enhanced machines.

“He did think it was pretty neat, some of the stuff they’re doing with the processors,” said Mr. David Roberts, who confirmed that Mr. Gates rushed to Georgia on Friday to be with his mentor.

According to his family, Mr. Roberts died in a Macon hospital after a long bout with pneumonia.

“Ed was willing to take a chance on us — two young guys interested in computers long before they were commonplace — and we have always been grateful to him,” Mr. Gates and Mr. Allen said in a joint statement released on Thursday .

“The day our first untested software worked on his Altair was the start of a lot of great things. We will always have many fond memories of working with Ed.”

The man often credited with kick-starting the modern computer era never intended to lead a revolution.

Born in Miami in 1941, Mr. Roberts spent time in the U.S. Air Force and earned an electrical engineering degree from Oklahoma State University in 1968.

He later parlayed his interest in technology into a business making calculators.

When large firms like Texas Instruments began cornering the business, Mr. Roberts soon found himself in debt, Mr. David Roberts said. Meanwhile, he was gaining an interest in computers at a time when hulking machines were available almost exclusively only at universities.

A funeral is planned Monday, in Cochran.