The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Colombian “futbol” telenovela is a ratings GOOOOOOOOL! Posted: 25 Sep 2013 08:56 AM PDT The soap opera - known simply as La Seleccion (marketed in English as Football Dreams, a World of Passion) - is an undeniable runaway smash hit. The series focuses on the personal struggles and love stories of the national team's four main players - Carlos "El Pibe" (The Kid) Valderrama, goalkeeper Rene "El Loco" (Madman) Higuita, striker Faustino Asprilla and midfielder Freddy Rincon. These players formed the backbone of the team that played in World Cup tournaments in Italy in 1990, the United States in 1994, and France in 1998. "These characters are representative of Colombia, and rich from a dramatic point of view," said series co-director Ricardo Coral. Valderrama, known for his trademark bushy blond afro, was the team captain and a born leader. Internationally he played for Montpellier in France, Real Valladolid in Spain, and later with US soccer teams. Higuita, who sported long, curly black hair, was the goalkeeper known for his spectacular "scorpion kick" and for daring forays far from his goal posts. He also played for Real Valladolid, and for Veracruz in Mexico. Striker Asprilla, a media diva, played internationally in Italy and Britain, while midfielder Rincon, who played for SSC Napoli, Real Madrid and teams in Brazil, was known for his tenacity and determination, Coral said. Fed up with "narco-dramas" Colombian soaps in the past years have focused on the usual fare of steamy love stories as well as "narco dramas" – stories about the country's decades-long conflict involving drug traffickers, leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary forces. "We wanted to state – loud and clear – that Colombia is not only made up of drug traffickers and paramilitary fighters," Coral told AFP. "We want to change that view and give a fresh one that shows high personal values, hard work, and massive effort, which also represents us." Coral acknowledges Colombia's dark side, "but we're fed up with seeing it." The decision to shy away from drug trafficking led producers to cut out a scene in which Higuita meets Colombia's most famous drug lord, the late Pablo Escobar. Colombian football clubs were soaked with drug money in the 1980s and 1990s, so it was impossible to avoid the topic. "We mention it, but it's not a main part of the storyline," said Coral, who acknowledged taking some artistic liberties. "The story is based on their lives, but it's not a fully accurate portrayal. We had to introduce changes to create more tension for dramatic purposes," he said. Nevertheless there is plenty of humour, and real-life drama worthy of a Garcia Marquez novel – like the time that Higuita was courting a young woman who turned out to be his half-sister. "His father shows up and tells him: 'she is your sister, you can't get involved with her,'" Coral said. "It sounds like fiction, but it's true." Part of the success of the series relies on the physical similarities between the actors and the football stars. Edgar Vittorino, the actor who portrays Valderrama, said he was terrified to represent a national icon. People would "love or hate me for the rest of my life because I was portraying their idol," he told AFP. Vittorino was studying in the United States when he was approached by the series producers. He prepared by buying a blond afro wig in New York and watching videos of Valderrama interviews. Later he visited the neighborhood where Valderrama grew up, in the northern coastal city of Santa Marta, and spent an afternoon with the football great. "Every year there was a telenovela about narcotrafficking and violence. Now, not just parents, but children too, can sit down and watch this show," Vittorino said. The first part of the series ends with the 5-0 blowout Colombia dished out to Argentina in Buenos Aires in a 1993 World Cup qualifying match, and with players visiting Higuita in prison, where he spent six months for helping negotiate the release of a friend's kidnapped daughter. The prison sentence meant that Higuita missed the 1994 World Cup tournament in the United States. Filming for the second part of the series begins in early 2014, and will take the team through the qualifying round and into the 1998 World Cup in France. - AFP, September 25, 2013. |
| BlackBuried — Indonesia failings offer lessons for Apple, Samsung Posted: 25 Sep 2013 01:26 AM PDT Indonesia is still one of BlackBerry's biggest markets, accounting for about 15% of global users but its share of smartphone sales in Southeast Asia's biggest economy has fallen fast to 21% in the second quarter from 39% a year earlier, according to data from telecoms consultancy IDC. Industry experts say BlackBerry was too slow to capitalise on its handsets' popularity with ordinary Indonesians, a clientele far removed from its traditional corporate and government "CrackBerry" users, a mistake that offers lessons for rivals like Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. "Indonesia was an opportunity lost — and at what cost," said a former BlackBerry executive familiar with the company's strategy, who declined to be identified as he did not want to jeopardise business ties with his ex-employer. As smartphone prices fall and the number of global users rises, companies must either focus on niche markets, like Apple does with its high-end devices, or rapidly roll out a wide range of products at prices that would appeal to all customers, a strategy market leader Samsung has wielded with much success. BlackBerry's stuttering approach meant it did neither. After failing to spark interest with its upgraded operating system and devices, BlackBerry said last week it would step back from the consumer market and focus on enterprise customers. It also agreed to go private in a $4.7 billion (RM15.2 million) deal led by its biggest shareholder. Turning its back on the mass market follows a series of missteps BlackBerry made in lucrative emerging markets like Indonesia, where telecom networks and users embraced the devices long before the firm acknowledged their potential, and the need to tailor its business to make the most of that opportunity. Too little, too late Indonesia was once known as "BlackBerry Nation", a testament to the devices' popularity. The handsets started gaining market share around 2007, when telecom networks became the first in the world to adopt pricing plans that offered basic services at a fraction of the cost of the usual enterprise-focused schemes. Unlike BlackBerry's mainstay developed markets, where devices are subsidised by the networks, most users in Indonesia buy their own handsets and then pay upfront for services. The other key difference in places like Indonesia is how the devices are used: for most Indonesians, the main attraction was the BBM messaging service, a group-based network open only to those who own a BlackBerry, and not the secure email features. But by the time BlackBerry's leadership grasped the value of understanding Indonesia, if only to counterweight falling sales in developed markets, the wave had already crested. Only in late 2011, almost a year after it set up an Indonesia office, did BlackBerry pick Jakarta for the global launch of one model, triggering a mad rush for the devices. It has since invested $5 million (RM16.12 million) in educational funding in partnership with a local university, built a flagship store in Jakarta and this week expanded its Bali-based global centre for verifying software submitted to its app store. These investments, however, did not address a key requirement to boost sales in any emerging market: a range of devices that match the varying budgets of clients. Prashant Gokarn, chief strategy and planning officer at Indosat, said his carrier was one of two chosen for the domestic launch of devices running BlackBerry's new BB10 operating system earlier this year. The Z10, however, debuted with $750 (RM2, 426.25) price tag, putting it beyond the reach of all but the most well-heeled Indonesian. "There was a lot of excitement at the time, but somehow the excitement did not translate into large numbers," Gokarn said, adding that most customers are now likely to use a second-hand BlackBerry, and carry it alongside another smartphone. The Z10 helped lift shipments in Asia in the second quarter of 2013, but it wasn't enough to counter the fall in shipments of older devices in markets such as India and Indonesia, said Kiranjeet Kaur, Singapore-based analyst at consultancy IDC. And while the appeal of the BBM remains strong, messaging services such as WhatsApp, Kakao Inc's KakaoTalk, Naver Corp's LINE and Tencent Holding Ltd's WeChat are increasingly popular alternatives. BlackBerry has said it would shortly release an Android version of its BBM application, a move likely to further slow sales of its handsets in emerging markets. An early version of the app that was leaked online was downloaded more than a million times. "Sales of Samsung or other Android phones will increase once they make BBM available on Android," said Eko, a BlackBerry retailer in Jakarta. BlackBerry intends to continue catering to some non-enterprise customers, a company spokesman said, but he declined to give details, citing the company's quiet period ahead of its full quarterly results on Friday. This lack of clarity has left the network operators that helped pioneer BlackBerry in emerging markets like Indonesia questioning the company's future in their country. "Maybe they don't want to tell us they're shifting, but my reaction is to ask whether it's feasible to keep their device business going," said Joy Wahyudi, chief marketing officer of XL Axiata, one of Indonesia's biggest telecoms networks. "That's going to be a challenge." - Reuters, September 25, 2013. |
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