One Signature Away From A Recovery?
AMR analysts believe a significant number of software deals are on ice, waiting for executive approval. If so, and top execs can be persuaded to sign, a recovery could be on the way.

The Street Corner: Q2 Selections Surge, but Executives Stall [AMR Research] 

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E-Mail Advertising Assuming Room Temperature?
Not much of a surprise here, but the article is worth reading for the stats. The Wall Street Journal's Vanessa O'Connell looks at a survey by researcher eMarketer that reveals an average click-through rate of only 1.8% in email advertisements. DoubleClick reports that the June average was only 0.84%. How low we've fallen from the heady days when a link in an e-mail would be clicked by 15% of the recipients - even last year's average was 3%. Why the decline? Two reasons. First, like anything, the ads were initially interesting simply as a novelty. Even if you didn't have an interest in something, you might click just to check it out. Second, the advertising community loves a good thing - and has proceeded to beat people senseless with a never ending stream of commercial messages - 430 billion e-mail advertisements this year, according to the piece. By 2006, that figure is expected to reach more than 960 billion.

Online ads, e-mail don?t click. Consumers aren?t clicking on banners, buttons and other annoying Internet ads-and now, they aren?t responding to special e-mail links either. The latest data regarding online marketing show a sharp decrease in the consumer response to e-mail advertisements and promotions, and represent yet another bout of bad news for the recession-plagued online advertising industry.. [WSJ/MSNBC] 

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Chinese Software Market Trends
Speaking of China - nicely detailed story about the country's development efforts. Key competitive differentiation for Chinese developers is price, prompting Symantec to sell their antivirus product for half what it costs in the United States. No good news for Microsoft - the article underscores the government's devotion to Linux as the operating system of choice.

Software comes of age. A new crackdown on piracy has given Chinese companies a chance to compete effectively in the software market for the first time. [CNET News.com] 

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Another Gartner piece in the Register, pointing to expectations that China and India will generate $27B in software and application development revenue by 2006. Maybe. But it's not all smooth sailing, as recent tensions in South Asia demonstrate. As India and Pakistan stood toe to toe and threatened war, software developers fled India. The country now finds itself trying to woo those companies back. China will face similar problems - business rules are more liberal, but political concerns remain very near the surface.

Software in China, India to top $27bn by 2006. And China to pass India, says Gartner [The Register] 

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