China's central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan has written a rare essay about his desire for a world currency, other than the dollar, to be be administered by the IMF.  His rationale is that the world is no longer "unipolar," implying that the US no longer a single superpower.

According to a new study, Apple Mac computers registered a 8.2% marketshare in October 2008. The research firm conducted a survey of 40,000 websites and tracked the web browsers used.

With growth in its iPhone products, iPods and new Mac products, Apple now offers a robust product portfolio to which its customers are responding.

One of Microsoft's main challenges has been to convince the public to upgrade from XP to Windows Vista.

Singapore Air has revealed its All-Business Class flights on its A345 flights, with stunning images of luxury in the air. It will be of interest to know how this new service fares in the global economic recession.

eHarmony.com offers an online dating service that connects males and females in the hopes of creating loving relationships.

Expatriate Arabs and Expatriate Asians, who compose the vast majority of the population in the UAE and a large proportion of the population in the rest of the GCC, keep in contact with their families back home via VOIP and through their mobile phones.

An interesting insight to report from our analysts on-the-ground in the GCC countries in the Middle East. Family members back home often place "Missed Calls" to the expatriates working in the GCC, where they hang up and expect to be called back. Despite it being cheaper for family members to call from India, Pakistan and from Levant countries, the underlying psychology behind family placing Missed Calls is to see that their family members in the GCC care about them and that the expatriates have enough love to call them back.

As part of our investigation into the changing US consumer, SIS International sought to examine the potential future of consumerism and shopping behavior in the United States. Given the trends, SIS International noticed the following:

The consumer Goods sector is being driven to cost efficiencies by Wal-Mart through the company’s recent greener moves. Wal-Mart will be soon forcing all its suppliers to monitor and manage carbon emissions. The company will sell only concentrated laundry detergents in all its stores by May 2008, thus saving 400 million gallons of water, 95 million pounds of plastic resin and 125 million pounds of cardboard. Wal-Mart had experimented this with Unilever first. Unilever has been estimated to save about 5 million pounds of plastic, 26.3 million square feet of cardboard and 25,000 gallons of diesel fuel through the introduction of Small & Mighty in the past 2 years. Developing markets are showing greater preference for anti-ageing, moisturizing, and whitening creams.

Male personal care products are the fastest growing segment in skin care. Proctor & Gamble's grooming segment which includes male products like blades, razors, and shave preparation products, generated revenue of $2 billion in Q307. Estee Lauder recently launched Aveda Men pure-Formance products in US Market. Henkel's "taft elastic gel" styling products for male have been increasing its market share of overall cosmetics segment in Europe. The Male Cosmetic industry in Latin America registered $3 billion in sales in 2006 and is gradually rising, driven by strong demand in Brazil which accounts for 47% of regional consumption.

The Music industry continues to notice a seismic shift from a traditional, controlled brick-and-mortar model to a model increasingly coping with erratic, global forces amidst the age of the internet. While the industry must safeguard its products from theft, the industry has made little progress adapting to the changing wants of consumers.

A 2007 Credit Suisse survey indicates that by 2015, China will overtake developed countries to become the world's second biggest consumer goods market, accounting for 14.1% of global consumption (currently 5.4%). The US is expected to account for 37.7% (currently 42%) in 2015. The Credit Suisse survey also stated that China’s market share will grow to 21.8% by 2020. The 84 domestic FMCG enterprises have realized $46.9 billion in sales. Currently, China is estimated to have approximately $1 trillion in domestic savings. The country’s household consumer sector has been projected to grow to $3.7 trillion by 2015.

Shanghai is setting up a cosmetics safety registry where consumers can complain about unqualified products. The National Cosmetics Quality Management Work Commission and Shanghai Municipal Beauty and Hairdressing Association will have to compensate for the use of unqualified brands. The Chinese cosmetics and personal care markets have contributed to strong retail sales in the country. Government statistics show strong growth in FMCG goods. TNS suggests that the Chinese market might become the world's largest cosmetics sector by 2009.