Microsoft monoculture hurts tablet users

Korean users of the Apple iPad may find it frustrating to see a large number of local websites will not function properly on the tablet computer. / Korea Times

By Kim Tong-hyung

It appears the Apple iPad is going to be a huge hit here. It’s hard to imagine, however, Korean consumers being all smiles once they begin using their trophy gadget.

This has nothing to do with what Apple’s new tablet can’t do, but rather how the local computing environment has users stuck with badly-aged Microsoft technologies in computer operating systems and Web browsers.

Those who have expected iPads to replace their everyday laptops or ``netbooks (mini-laptops)’’ may have a rude awakening after finding most Korean electronic commerce, online banking and e-government services rendering their new devices useless.

The iPad appears to be the clear-cut consumer choice among the slew of tablets, or touch-screen mobile computers, technology companies are rushing to the shelves. KT, the mobile-phone operator that provides the iPads here, is beaming after receiving tens of thousands of preorders since Thursday.

SK Telecom, the country’s biggest wireless carrier and KT’s bitter industry rival, is countering with the Samsung Electronics Galaxy Tab, which it promotes as a smaller and smarter alternative to the iPad.

Tablets certainly have stunningly good lucks and versatility, but it’s hard to ignore that they are overpriced and underwhelming compared to most netbooks that are currently available. KT charges 635,000 won for the cheapest 16-gigabyte iPad with cellular connectivity and SK Telecom charges 200,000 won more for Galaxy Tabs with the same capacity.

It becomes harder to justify tablets as a smart buy when, at least for now, the lack of a content ecosystem and the country’s crusty Internet regime appear to be restricting them to underused ornaments.

``The Active-X centered Korean web environment restricts tablet users from accessing online banking and electronic commerce. And as it was with the case of the iPhones, the current regulations on location-based services, privacy and games content could prevent users from fully taking advantage of their tablets,’’ said a researcher from Digieco, KT’s in-house economic research unit.
``The country’s lack of e-book content, with less than 100,000 locally-made e-books, is also a letdown.’’

Tablets represent an optimized form of the mobile computer to laptops, using mobile operating systems and mobile processors and ditching physical keyboards in favor of virtual ones. And this is precisely what reduces their usability for Korean users.

The iPad runs on Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, while the Galaxy Tab is controlled by the Google-backed Android operating system. This severely limits their accessibility to the larger number of Korean websites designed to rely on aging Microsoft technologies.

Over the past decade, the Korean Internet regulations required all encrypted online communication, including e-commerce and online banking, to rely on electronic signings based on public-key infrastructure.

And since the fall of Netscape in the early 2000s, Microsoft's Active-X, used on its Internet Explorer (IE) Web browsers, remains the only plug-in tool used to download public-key certificates onto computers.

This has prevented users from moving beyond the decade-old Microsoft technologies of Windows XP and IE6, a situation that seems even more awkward as Microsoft has been moving to ditch Active-X due to security vulnerabilities.

Neither Apple nor Google will touch Active-X with a barge pole, and this limits an enormous number of websites for Korean iPad and Galaxy Tab users. Aside of securing transactions, Active-X is also used by many Korean websites to enable multimedia functions like video and music.

The flash-happy designs of Korean websites are also a letdown for iPad users. Apple has generated much debate for its decision not to support Adobe Flash, which is central to many Web pages and services here, from its mobile operating systems.

This prevents Korean iPad users from accessing the online video services of Korean sites like Naver (www.naver.com) and Daum (www.daum.net), as well as a wealth of Flash based online games.

Instead of a security-based model, Active-X relies on simple ``yes or no'' signatures to allow users to judge whether to download a control. This is a risky arrangement, since Active-X controls require full access to the Windows operating system, and could be abused by cyber criminals to compromise the user's control of the computer.

The Korean reliance on Active-X became a hot topic again last year when a massive Internet attack left more than 80,000 Korean computers crippled. It was pointed out that Active-X provided an easy route for cyber criminals spreading malware for the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

마이크로소프트 `모노컬쳐' 태블렛 유저를 힘들게 하다

애플아이패드가 한국에서 엄청난 히트상품이 될 것으로 보인다. 그러나 유저들이 이 제품을 막상 써보기 시작하면 마냥 좋지 만은 않을 것이다.

이는 아이패드의 기능과는 관련이 없는 문제다. 오히려 마이크로소프트의 낡아가는 컴퓨터 운영시스템과 웹브라우져 기술에 유저들을 묶어
놓은 한국의 인터넷 환경을 탓할 일이다.

아이패드를 일상에서 쓰던 랩탑컴퓨터나 ``넷북 (미니랩탑)''를 아이패드로 교체기기로 생각했던 유저들은 예기치 않은 낭패를 경험할지 모른다. 대다수의 전자상거래, 온라인 뱅킹과 전자정부 서비스들은 아이패드에서 제대로 작동되지 않기 때문이다.