In the coming year, there will be a wide selection of me-too minis. Viagra, Pfizer's little blue impotence pill. This year it demonstrated how pharmacological advances can enhance lives as well as save them. Viagra is not widely available in Asia yet, but regulatory approval is expected in 1999 in Hong Kong, South Korea, the Philippines and Taiwan - none too soon, given the recession and the region's severely deflated assets. Sales jumped to 1.2 million units in 1998, up from 372,000 units in 1996.
Glossy prints are possible with inexpensive desktop printers and special paper.
Meanwhile, companies are bringing to market compact models that, unlike clunky predecessors, slip easily into a shirt pocket. It helps if you have a liberal expense account. Just one more, perhaps. Unlike CD players, the devices contain no moving parts. Using a computer, you can also copy your favorite tunes from your CD collection to the Rio, which is about the size of a cigarette pack and weighs a mere 2.4 ounces.