The Straits Times Blogs - Chua Hian Hou

Good service, but at a price

2009-07-21T08:38:00Z

Chua Hian Hou trials StarHub's new mobile broadband and likes it.

STARHUB'S new 21Mbps mobile broadband service is easy to use, convenient and pretty speedy, although its not what I would call cheap.

Singapore's second largest telecommunications company loaned The Straits Times a mobile broadband modem to test out its service just before its commercial launch last week. SingTel and MobileOne are expected to launch similar services later this year.

The first, slower incarnation of the service was launched in 2007, and since then such services have become increasingly popular amongst notebook computer users that want Internet access on-demand, for instance, going online in areas not covered by wireless networks like the Wireless@SG service.

Setup was a breeze. Insert the finger-sized device into a USB port, double click on the icon for it, and double click one more time to install the software.

Once this is done, the mobile broadband icon now appears on the desktop. To get connected, just click on it and select "connect".

The modem connects users to StarHub's 3G cellular network for Internet access. This means that users should be able to get online as long as there is 3G service – pretty much all of Singapore at this point in time.

During the trial period, I was able to use the service across a good range of locations, from Ulu Pandan Road to Yio Chu Kang to the Suntec Convention Centre.

Getting a connection was never a problem; I always connected on the first try.

As I was also concurrently on a work-from-home trial, I also occasionally used it in place of my home fixed broadband network.

It performed admirably here as well, at times outperforming the wired connection.

That said, reliability was not perfect, and the connection dropped several times through the two-week trial. Nonetheless, there were days when I would use it for four-hour blocks or longer without problem.

Within that trial period, I uploaded some 12GB of data, and downloaded slightly less using it for a range of activities, from accessing my office secured network to check my e-mail, to working on stories, reading news articles, updating my Facebook status and playing web-based games.

YouTube videos, a good gauge of latency, also did fairly well, and I could watch most videos without stutter.

In short – the service is good and convenient.

This though, comes at a price - $118 per month, to be exact. Customers who sign up for a two-year plan now get a 30 per cent discount, so they effectively pay slightly more than $80 a month; the modem itself comes free.

So, who should get this? At this price, probably those who depend on high-speed mobile access for work – insurance agents or mobile sales teams, for instance.

Another possible use scenario: as a replacement for fixed home broadband.

This would work well for those that do not use it during work hours or those who do not need to access the Internet at home urgently and thus can afford to wait for the person who has the modem to come back.

Shopping rather than shoving

2009-06-12T06:18:00Z

Chua Hian Hou gives his tips and tricks on how to survive the PC Show.

IT'S JUST after 9am and there are already people waiting patiently outside the PC Show.

The show, held at Suntec Convention Center, only opens at noon, nearly three hours after this picture was taken.

Waiting for the best deals at the Singapore PC Show.
PICTURE: Chua Hian Hou

While this is clearly overkill, it does bring up a good point: When is the best time to go to Singapore's four annual tech bazaars, if you want to actually shop rather than shove or get shoved by sweaty geeks?

On Thursdays and Fridays, typically the first two days for such shows, the showfloor is noticeably less quieter if you go between two, when the office crowd return to their cubicles, and before five thirty, the time early birds clock out.

On weekends, there is really no good time, period.

Expect crowds from the opening bell until the "show will be closing" announcements.

For weekends, it might actually be good to go during lunch, in the hope that some of the crowd might actually feel physical hunger pangs over the more primal new-toy-must-buy urges.

If you know it's going to be bad, some advance preparation can help.

The layout of the showfloor is usually available, and if you can narrow down the shops you want to hit, it can pay to plan out your route in advance, to avoid backtracking in a six-deep crowd.

This has worked for me in the past, although I must admit that I've avoided going to such events on weekends.

Are there other successful shopping strategies that work out for you? Share them with The Straits Times Blogs below.

An accidental restoration

2009-06-05T09:19:00Z

Chua Hian Hou has his faith in his fellow man restored after an accident.

IT TOOK an accident to restore my faith in my fellow drivers.

I’ve had a driving licence for 16 years now, and bought my own vehicle six years ago. Within months I was involved in a hit-and-run.

The other driver had cut in front of me. He misjudged and grazed my bumper. He raced off, and I gave chase, finally cornering him in a cul-de-sac.

He didn’t deny what happened. But he was defiant, and taunted me.

His exact words escape me, but it went along the lines of: “So I did it. But I’ll lie to my insurer, and it’ll be your word against mine. Given the option of going to court or making you pay for my mistake, guess what your insurance company will do?”

I was taken aback. Speechless. Furious.

Suffice to say events panned out exactly as he predicted, and I repaired the (minor) damage at my own cost since it amounted to than the excess anyway.

There's no honour with Singapore drivers, I would say whenever the topic of accidents or car insurance came up, and trot out this story as proof of that.

Fast forward six years to last Monday night, when another driver reversed into me.

In the weeks preceding the accident, The Straits Times had published a number of stories about scammers making false medical and workshop claims, something that has resulted in escalating insurance premiums and blood pressure on the part of Singapore car owners, it was probably not surprising that my first thought was: I’m screwed.

Just three days ago, in fact, The Straits Times published another story about a car owner who sent his car in for repairs.

The repairs though, cost almost the same price as the car would had fetched if sold, and resulted in the owner’s insurance premium shooting up from $970 to more than $5,000.

Luckily, this experience was very different to my first.

The other driver — let’s call him Mr R — was instantly apologetic. He had been driving an unfamiliar car and did not notice me parked behind him, he said.

He admitted that he was at fault and offered to fix the damage to my car, which had sustained a slight dent to its bumper.

Nonetheless, I regret to admit I was suspicious, demanding he show some form of identity and taking copious photos of the two vehicles.

The next day, we ended up at a workshop to get some quotes. The first asked for upward of $400. The second asked for “$100 plus”. We settled for the latter.

On Thursday, my dented bumper was repaired for $180, at Mr R’s cost, and he even paid for my taxi rides that day.

We shook, and parted on friendly terms.

Thanks to Mr R’s honourable conduct, my faith in my fellow drivers has been restored.

Thanks to him, I will have another story to tell when the topic of accidents and insurance comes up.

Hopefully this is a sign of a more gracious society, and in future more drivers here will have similar tales to tell.

What Singapore does on the web

2009-03-20T22:15:00Z

Chua Hian Hou reviews S'pore's top 100 websites - all work-related, of course.

I LOVE visiting web traffic analysis company Alexa's list of top 100 websites every now and then.

It’s a fascinating peek into what my fellow Singaporeans are up to online, irresistible and admittedly voyeuristic all at the same time.

Unsurprisingly, news, information and reference sites like Wikipedia and AsiaOne came up tops amongst local users, comprising 16 of the top 100 sites.

I’ve arbitrarily decided to exclude search engines like No.1 site Yahoo or No.4 site Google, as they can be used for a variety of purposes, as well as some of the more boring, pedestrian sites - sorry, boring, pedestrian websites.

Here's another easy conclusion: Singaporeans love staying connected to their friends via the Web: nine blog and social networking sites like Blogger and MySpace made it to the list.

Yep, Facebook too.

I mean no, of course I don’t go there during work hours.

Hardcore Internet pornography sites are also a hot favourite amongst Net users, with five such sites making the list.

And this is after repeat culls of such sites by the Media Development Authority in previous years, following complaints about them.

PS, to SPH internal audit folks: I was forced to click onto these sites for research purposes to do this story, to verify their content. Yep, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Singaporeans are also big fans of pirated movies and software, if their visits to three sites notorious with the file-sharing community – Mininova, Rapidshare and MegaUpload – is any indication.

Beside this trio, here are a significant number of sites within the Alexa list that serve up pirated materials including Baidu and Crunchyroll, although these sites do offer legit content as well.

Many are also going online to buy and sell products, with four e-commerce sites including Amazon and Golden Village making Alexa’s hit-list, and a number using the Web to make online banking transactions, check share prices and adjust home loan payments.

These broad categories aside, individual entries also offer a glimpse into some Singaporeans’ interests and tastes.

Like gossip rag Gutter Uncensored (No. 86), where the indiscretions of celebrities, tycoons and politicians around the world can be found.

And, do check out Adult Friendfinder (No.77) – the site name should explain what its users want – but don’t do it in the office unless you have an ironclad work-related reason to visit it.

Ahem, like me.

Music for free, finally?

2009-02-27T10:57:00Z

Chua Hian Huo wonders if S'poreans will take up Nokia's new music service.

NOKIA’S global head for music Liz Schimel hit the nail right on the head.

In a recent phone interview with The Straits Times, she said that the best way to reduce Internet piracy was to "offer desirable legal alternatives".

Desirable though, means different things to different people.

At a guess though, desirable for Singaporeans is cheap and hassle-free, since respect for intellectual property doesn’t appear to have quite taken root here despite our Government’s best efforts.

And while the Government can take action against end-users for Internet piracy, let’s just say that this is unlikely to go down well with Singaporeans, considering about one quarter of Net users here regularly download music and movies.

So, “desirable legal alternatives”.

Nokia’s Comes With Music service, which will be launched on Saturday, falls short on a few fronts *cough* copy-protection, limited to Nokia handsets *cough*.

But it is a tremendous leap from what was available just a few years ago. Then, the only legit music was pay-per-track, copy-protected, platform - Apple or Microsoft, pick only one - specific services.

Today, there are many more services, and existing ones have become much more consumer-friendly.

Per-track services like Apple’s iTunes – which by the way, is still not officially available here, five years after its April 2003 American launch, and despite it being available in New Zealand which has a similar population size to Singapore – have become cheaper and some songs are no longer copy-protected.

Other services like music subscription service Rhapsody are also available in some markets – just not here, unfortunately - and while local services like SoundBuzz exist, they have seen limited success.

Nokia’s Comes With Music is a move in the right direction.

The download-all-you-want model is a huge draw in the local context. You also have to give Nokia props for not holding the consumer hostage to continuing to pay user charges if he no longer wishes to continue after the first year, yet is still able to enjoy previous downloads.

In fact, I’ll stick my neck out and say, this is a great model for the Singapore market.

Unfortunately, the service won’t work for the non-Nokia user who is willing to pay for legit music to listen on his computer, car stereo, or MP3 player.

And this is where most of the world enjoy their digital music.

In other words, a decade after Napster, pirated music still reigns supreme compared to legit offerings, not to mention, “free”.

For many Net users, who have long since figured out that there is no real penalty for end-user piracy, this is where the rubber hits the road.

If the music industry is serious about wanting more consumers to go legit, they need to stop complaining about piracy’s impact on them and how it is illegal – I’m sorry, Net users know, they just don’t care – and come up with a Comes With Music – for all devices.

Such a service may well be the only way to make inroads into the entrenched pro-piracy Internet culture, and more importantly, to make money.

This time next year I will probably be reporting how 30, 40, 80 per cent of Singapore Net users are downloading music.

The only unanswered question will be whether it is pirated or legit music.

Read more about Nokia's new music service for mobile phones.

First to hit Level 80? Sshhhh...

2008-12-24T16:00:00Z

Chua Hian Hou weighs the pros and cons of admitting you're a gamer.

APPARENTLY, sharing your devotion to games like World of Warcraft (WoW) and EverQuest with a headhunter isn’t necessarily the best way to score a new job.

Earlier this month, a technology reporter recounted a conversation between himself and a recruiter friend on gaming message board F13, in which the latter said a client had told him to avoid candidates who play WoW.

This conversation has since spawned dozens of follow-up articles from sites like the BoingBoing to the Times of London.

Many of the biggest fans of these games are, unsurprisingly, indignant over the alleged discrimination.

What may be surprising, however, is the number of gamers who have acknowledged that there is basis for such employer behaviour, going by their own gaming experiences.

For many of us who grew up playing games like WoW, EverQuest and their ilk, the heart of the issue – that hardcore gamers who play all night and then surf gaming sites in the office often don’t make the model employees – really isn’t a huge surprise.

This doesn’t apply to everybody, of course.

I’m sure there are some truly casual online gamers who play 20 minutes a day from the time they click “sign-up” to when they hit the “quit” button - although I’ve yet to meet such a player in 15 years of online gaming.

And yes, there were periods when I was playing far too much myself – making me a less-than-ideal candidate for operating heavy machinery or calculating complex mathematical formulas.

Do I regret this?

Well, I certainly could had used the time I spent collecting magic swords and gold improving my Mandarin or exercising.

But it wasn’t all wasted time, and studies have shown that online games like these can teach skills from leadership to project management.

Well, I don’t know about leadership and project management, but my computer skills definitely went up several notches trying to learn how to play MUDs (multi-user dungeons, the text-based predecessor of online games like WoW).

More recently, I learned something of the psychology of stock market trading, via playing the virtual economy in games like EverQuest 2, to the point that my character was, for several months last year, the fifth richest character on his server. Hopefully, this learning will translate to real life gains in the stock market IRL (in real life).

But the most important lesson I learned while dragon-slaying is self-control.

I’ve gone to the addiction abyss and hurled myself in - and managed to climb back out again.

That day - over a decade ago today – was when I finally realised how addicted I was and quit for good.

"For good" didn't last very long, however, and I eventually picked up gaming again.

But online games had lost the strangle-hold they had over me.

And I suspect the lessons I’ve learned from that episode will stand me in good stead when confronted by other lures life throws at me.

Read the full report on employers attitude towards gamers by Chua Hian Hou, Level 72 Templar, in The Straits Times today.

Collateral damage of the WiFi kind

2008-11-20T06:49:00Z

Chua Hian Hou locks up his wireless network to avoid trouble.

UP UNTIL two years ago, I left my home wireless network unlocked.

It wasn’t by accident either.

I had simply thought it would be a nice, neighbourly gesture, since I live on a second floor apartment that overlooks the children’s pool.

This meant my network should be in range of parents there keeping an eye on their kids at play.

Might even keep those cute girls in bikinis sun-tanning there longer… I kid, I kid.

But there were people there every weekend with their notebook computers open, and I’m sure some made use of the free Internet I offered. Watching them from my window gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Then, in 2006, I covered the trial of then-17-year-old Garyl Tan, accused of illegally tapping his neighbour’s wireless network.

Overwhelmingly, the reaction online was: Tan did nothing wrong, people who did not secure their wireless networks are “asking” others to use them.

Later that same year, the police raided the homes of seven users for downloading music.

This created another online uproar, with many pro-file-sharing users recommending that those who want to continue downloading music and other materials do so using someone else’s network, to make someone else their fall-guy.

Several days after those recommendations began appearing online, I removed my wireless network.

I got the message: Few, it seem, are likely to have any sympathy for those who do not lock up their WiFi.

Since then, there have been more reports of crooks abusing unlocked WiFi networks to commit crimes, and many hacking and file-sharing sites recommend using such networks to pin the blame on someone else.

Now, I’ve no issue with people that want to flame their bosses online, post naked pictures of an ex, download Quantum of Solace, hack some video game account to steal magic swords or run Nigerian scams.

These events happen all the time anyway, as anybody who spends any time online would know, and I could not care less. It's their business, and who am I to judge their actions anyway?

But leaving my WiFi open means that I might get caught in the crossfire if their boss, ex – or worse, the police – decided to take action.

And while I would probably be able to clear myself eventually, it’s certainly trouble I can live without.

So call me chicken, but no thanks.

I might be less neighbourly now, I might not get that warm and fuzzy feeling anymore. But at least I won’t be collateral damage either.

Practising cyber sense

2008-10-08T08:23:00Z

Chua Hian Hou gets lured by the promise of freebies.

THE offer sounded really good: 250GB of online storage, for free, forever.

A friend had e-mailed me the link, urging me to sign up quickly, before the offer expired last month.

The service certainly sounded useful.

A place to upload my holiday snaps, screenshots of income tax declarations, the e-receipt for my dog’s licence, just in case my computer hard disk and external hard disk backup both fail.

After all, one can never have too much insurance – especially if it’s free, I thought.

I hit the site, skimmed through it, and promptly signed up.

Registration was a breeze.

It was, in fact, the most fuss-free registration process I’ve ever experienced in over a decade of Internet use. I just picked my preferred login name, entered a password, and I was done.

No verification that I was a legit user, no personal details needed, no need to check any boxes confirming that I had read all 8,376 or so pages of may-as-well-be-pig-Latin legal notices, and best of all, no need to wait for that pesky “confirmation email” to start using the service.

No way.

That was just too easy.

A more detailed check on the site turned up some signs that I’d probably been suckered into signing up for a scam, possibly to capture passwords – people tend to reuse user-IDs and passwords after all, maybe in hopes that the hapless user might upload confidential documents which can be used for blackmail.

For instance, there was no way to change or reset forgotten passwords, no email or phone contacts for any problems, and a blank text file I uploaded to test the service was listed as 10GB in size.

If it is a scam, then it was a decent one, baiting greedy users like me with the promise of freebies.

But it was particularly galling for me, a technology reporter for some years now.

I’ve written many a story on phishing, scams, and viruses, and how to avoid them – especially those that offer too-good-to-be-true deals.

In fact, just last month, I wrote about how an online scammer sold genuine baby strollers at a loss, in order to try and bait the buyer into a bigger order.

Only to fall prey to a too-good-to-be-true offer myself.

I was reminded of this incident when I attended yesterday’s GovernmentWare infocomm security event, where the guest-of-honour, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee stressed the importance of “public awareness and education” in the fight against these cyber-threats.

He's absolutely right.

More than anti-virus and firewall programs, it is people’s awareness of infocomm security that needs to be upgraded, to successfully defend against these new threats.

I certainly had an anti-virus and firewall program, but that didn’t save me from falling for the promise of freebies.

At the end of the day, it’s not what and how many security programs you install – sure, these might help, but they won’t save you from yourself, not if you decide to over-ride the anti-virus’ advice not to open that zip file promising to be that Edison Chen sex video you so desperately wanted to catch.

So listen to your common sense, and remember that old adage: if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

I'm nursing a bruised ego, and reminding myself to remember that every day.

Read Chua Hian Hou's article Facing down cyber threats in today's edition of The Straits Times.

Too many can afford Apple?

2008-09-11T10:44:00Z

Chua Hian Hou asks if Apple's mass market strategy will work against it.

NOT many companies inspire the level of cult-like devotion Apple, maker of iPods and iPhones, does amongst its fans.

In recent years though, Apple has moved to try and grab a slice of the mass market, with the launch of products like the iPod Shuffle and more recently, the iPhone 3G.

This mass market strategy may yet work against it.

And signs of this may be showing up in the recent fall-off in grey-market iPhone 3G demand.

From $1,600 during and just after its Aug 22 launch, the higher-end 16GB iPhone 3G are now going for about $1,200. Meanwhile, the low-end 8GB sets are going for under $1,000, from $1,200 previously, according to handset resellers and online classifieds.

Will Apple lose its appeal if too many get to enjoy its products?
Photo: AP

Is anybody going to disagree when I say that a huge part of Apple's appeal was its inaccessibility and exclusivity, that having an iPod meant membership into some "in" crowd?

Thought so.

And during the early iPod days, Apple designed and priced its products to capitalise on this.

It worked, and the iPod was the epitome of brand cachet and desirability, a case study trotted out at pretty much every single marketing and branding seminar I went to last year.

There were even reports of how those who could not afford an iPod would buy its trademark white earphones, connected to a cheaper player, simply to fake the look.

These reports usually emerged because the poseur had been beaten to a pulp by a disappointed robber who thought he had scored an iPod. Ouch.]

2005's iPod Shuffle marked a departure from this.

At US$100, it was cheap - by Apple standards anyway - a product clearly targeted at the mass market.

It has pursued this strategy consistently since, all the way to its newest product to hit our shores, the iPhone 3G.

But in going downmarket, Apple appears to have lost some of its original shine, to its original fans.

"Today," said an analyst who declined to be named, "every Ah Beng and Ah Seng can afford to buy and has an iPod."

"If Apple is not careful, this will be the case for the iPhone, and other future products, too," he said.

And this cannot be good for a company that made its fortune by being synonymous with "cool".

Apple still makes desirable, sexy products. But they are also clearly no longer as "cool" as they used to be.

Is the unexpected crash in grey-market demand for a new, limited distribution yet heavily marketed product could be an early sign that Apple has lost its deathgrip on the tech consumer?

Maybe.

The dollars and sense of online piracy

2008-08-22T11:36:00Z

Chua Hian Hou analyses the impact of online piracy on pay-TV pricing.

THE widespread availability - and popularity – of pirated copies of hit drama serials online might well benefit pay-TV consumers.

Many now expect providers SingTel and StarHub to price their upcoming video-on-services affordably, instead of turning it into a premium service only a few can afford to enjoy.

At the launches of their respective services, both of which will kick off next month, SingTel and StarHub executives noted that the main competitor to the service is - for once - not each other, but “free” versions of the programmes downloaded via file-sharing systems like BitTorrent.

Once the domain of geeks, the advent of user-friendly file-sharing services like BitTorrent has turned online piracy into a relentless competitor media and content players can no longer ignore.

Make no mistake: Piracy is wrong and an offence under the Singapore Copyright Act.

But while every industry claims it tries to do better, there is no doubt that piracy has forced media companies to do better by their customers.

Today, Singapore movie-goers enjoy same-day releases as their American counterparts. Music CDs and movie DVDs generally cost less, are available earlier, and offer more than when they were originally introduced.

SingTel and StarHub will offer popular shows like CSI, Grey’s Anatomy and Lost, within 24 hours of their American premiers. This is an unprecedented service, and would have had no competitor in the past, allowing pay-TV operators to charge fans what they wanted for it.

Even organised pirated syndicates in the region would wait until the season ends to create their bootleg “box sets”, giving pay-TV operators an exclusive window.

But online piracy has stripped this protection away.

Within hours after their US premier, copies of the shows are already circulating on the Internet.

While downloads are not immediate, entire episodes have to be downloaded before they are viewable, some users with good connections are reportedly been able to download an hour-long episode of popular shows like Prison Break within five hours - beating the pay-TV operator’s 24-hour window by a wide margin.

And Singapore fans of these shows are clearly doing this, if discussions on forums like HardwareZone and around the office water-cooler are any indication.

According to file-sharing site TorrentFreak,
Lost enjoys about 10 million downloads per episode.

Having acquired the rights for these shows – The Straits Times understands that they didn’t come cheap - it doesn’t makes sense for SingTel and StarHub to try and milk a few customers at the expense of larger numbers who are quite likely to pay – just not as much.

It bears repeating that the competition is free, easily available – and potentially more immediate. Pirated content also doesn’t impose any conditions to the consumer's use – pirated copies don’t limit when a consumer can watch it, how long he has to watch it for, or try and charge him again when he feels like watching it say, a year later.

There's no way to eradicate online piracy, and it is high time media and content players, including pay-TV operators, accept this social and business reality.

Sometime in the next two weeks, SingTel and StarHub are expected to announce pricing for their new service. Hopefully they will offer fans an easy and affordable way do the right thing.

Not really the apple of their eyes?

2008-08-21T14:10:00Z

Chua Hian Hou checks out the scene at SingTel's launch of Apple's 3G iPhone.

UNLIKE iPhone 3G launches elsewhere, which saw fans queue up for days beforehand of the queue, Singapore’s launch event appears to be shaping up to be kinda tame.

By 4pm, there was just a trickle of people – five to be exact. In fact, there were more burly men in black tight-fitting “Security” shirts than customers.

SingTel, which had scored an exclusive deal to sell the device months ahead of rivals StarHub and MobileOne, had clearly learnt from the fiascos in other launch sites, swamped by over-anxious iFanatics and plagued with activation problems.

They managed it perhaps too well, to the point that the event was missing the spontaneity and buzz such events should have, and that I came expecting.

To ensure a smooth launch event, SingTel’s launch was reservation-only, that is, only those who had been contacted would get the device. No others would get the iPhone, no matter how early you came.

And those who would get the device were also given time slots at which to turn up to get the device.

This likely contributed to the paltry turnout.

Despite this, more people trickled in. By 7pm, there were 17 in the queue, including a Thai and Bangladeshi worker who told The Straits Times they were there on behalf of their bosses. They didn’t say if they were getting paid.

The number doubled by 8pm, and by 10pm there was, according to SingTel – 81.

Finally, a decent crowd!

Security promptly herded them from the original queue site, to the actual launch site, a custom-built glass and steel cube at SingTel’s Comcentre headquarters.

I think there are might still more burly security men than customers, though.

Too slick, too well managed.

"Uniquely Singapore lah," said Straits Times photographer Mugilan Rajasegeran.

Sounds about right.

1am Update

It’s just after twelve, the first iPhone has been sold, and the rest of the 300-strong crowd is eager to get their hands on their set too.

Hey, bragging rights only work if the person you’re trying to show-off doesn’t have a set yet, right?

At this time, the VIPs and media have mostly left, what’s left now is the business of making sure these customers go home happy.

And SingTel has this part locked down tight.

Even before customers enter the glass-and-steel cube SingTel had custom-built to sell the iPhone at its Comcentre headquarters building, its staff have already worked the crowd, explaining the different plans explained, answering customers queries, making sure that when they hit the store proper, customers just need tell the retail staff what colour and model of iPhone, and the price plan, they want.

Done in minutes, no bottleneck due to as far as I can see.

OK, so it wasn’t as spontaneously festive or rowdy as Straits Times photographer Mugilan and myself were hoping for - a catfight or better still, a riot, would make a nice story and picture for today's paper and website.

But perhaps the people there past midnight in hopes of laying their hands on an iPhone aren’t looking for a party or to hang out with other iPhone fanatics.

Maybe they just want an iPhone.

And SingTel, say what you will, is doing a good job making sure that happens.