MANILA, Philippines -- If you’re reading this column, it means we (as in the planet Earth) did not get too intimate with 2005 YU55, an asteroid about the size of an aircraft carrier. Astronomers forecast the asteroid to fly within some 317,000 kilometers (197,000 miles for our non-Metric friends) from Earth.

I know most of you would say the chances of that asteroid hitting Earth are quite remote, to say the least. In the field of astronomy, however, that is uncomfortably close for an asteroid. In fact, that is even closer than the moon’s orbit.

Anyway, this corner is quite thankful for this event turning out to be a near miss. Also, this should remind the planet’s leaders and thinkers to speed up the development of Earth’s anti-asteroid defense.

Or not.

Going Midmarket, Windows Phone?

When Microsoft first unveiled Windows Phone 7, the software giant made it quite clear it had some strong hardware requirements for smartphones running the mobile OS. Those requirements have always pointed to Microsoft’s desire to compete in the high-end portion of the smartphone market.

Recently, however, Microsoft has made some revisions to this list of hardware requirements. Primary camera and front-facing camera are now considered as optional.

Some analysts believe that this revision means Microsoft is now also targeting the midmarket, a portion of the smartphone market that is increasingly being dominated by handsets running on Google’s Android platform.

Nokia’s Lumia 710, a smartphone powered by a 1.4GHz processor and sporting a 5-megapixel camera, best illustrates this policy shift.

Mobile Data Surge

Ericsson, Sony’s erstwhile smartphone partner, forecast mobile data traffic to increase 10 times its present volume in the coming five years.

According to the company’s Traffic and Market Data report, “global smartphone traffic” is forecast to grow three times its current size in 2011. Meanwhile, mobile broadband subscriptions are expected to reach about 5 billion in 2016, a huge jump from the expected 900 million in 2011.

My Age Group Doesn’t Like Smartphones

A study by Nielsen shows that U.S. consumers my age are not that into smartphones. Results of the company’s age demographics study reveal that about 54 percent of smartphone owners belong to the 18–24 and 35–44 age groups.

Among mobile subscribers from the 24–25 age bracket, smartphone ownership is even higher at 62 percent. On the contrary, among teenagers and mobile subscribers who are 45–54 years old, only about 40 percent own a smartphone.

The most likely reasons for this lower smartphone penetration? Nielsen believes teenagers do not have the money to buy a smartphone. Older consumers also do not have the money; they are still paying for their children’s education.

I believe it is partly because older consumers are having a hard time figuring out all those bells and whistles that most smartphones come loaded with.

That’s all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.