I thought that swapping phones to my new 3G iPhone (which I LOVE) would be easy this time because I had finally signed up to zyb. I was going to be able to move my contacts and calendar across from my Sony Ericsson P1i with the greatest of ease, not having to worry about how many contacts I’d have to delete first etc. I was feeling very smug.

Phase 1 – easy – moved everything onto the zyb platform easily, no problem synching etc. Phase 2, click on the iPhone, *&(%$#@, no 3G version. I’ll be checking back regularly in the hope that they will be upgrading soon. Think the product is great but the need to get to market as, or before, the latest phones come out or it’s a complete waste of time.

I know, an unrealistic demand given the pace of mobile development but a girl can dream.

If I’ve missed the update keep me posted.

It is timely to ask where global innovation starts. Five years ago, the US Patent Office issued 170,000 patents;

- 80% were from the US, Japan or Germany;

- 15% from Europe, Taiwan, South Korea, Israel or Canada.

- Just 0.4% originated in India and China.

Fortunately, these numbers do not reflect the truth of Asian creativity and innovation. A UC Berkeley study of Silicon Valley start-ups since 1990, found 1/3 were founded or co-founded by Chinese or Indian entrepreneurs creating US$20 billion in annual revenue and more than 70,000 jobs.

Largely due to making Asia the “offshore” operations for MNCs, a generation of “micro-multinationals” have built a critical mass of engineers and managers around these operations. This is beginning to impact the creativity and innovation as talented engineers and managers across Asia join emerging businesses or build their own.

Asia is creating entrepreneurial centres of rapid innovation and a multitude of venture resources are providing the entrepreneurial infrastructure.