The U.S. Commercial Service has issued a new report on Mexico’s digital media sector, which sets forth possible opportunities for U.S. companies in triple-play, mobile and wireless, pay-TV, consumer electronics and video games, and internet and broadband services sectors.  The report also includes an informative section on obstacles to market entry, including Mexican import requirements for hardware and software products.

KIO Networks and Google, Inc. have announced the formation of an alliance in which they will collaborate to market and sell Google Apps, according to a report in today’s El Universal.  Kio Networks is a Mexican company founded in 2001 that operates data centers and related services in Mexico and other Latin American countries.

KIO will contribute its experience in technology and data center management and integration to the alliance. 

Google will contribute its Google Apps platform to the alliance.  Google Apps is a web-delivered software application and collaboration system that includes tools for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, a shared calendaring system, and access to a flexible intranet system.  It is also the only application and collaboration system that guaranties information back-up through multiple data centers. 

Google Apps is known in the IT industry as a SaaS (Software as a Service), a software depoloyment model in which applications are hosted by a service provider and delivered to customers via the internet in exchange for a subscription fee.

Be prepared for the arrival of more SaaS programs from software vendors: the Google Apps platform appears to be the wave of the future.   

The Mexican government will spend US$65 million this year on its software industry development program, according to a report in today’s Business News Americas.

El Universal reported today that three U.S. franchisors will expand their franchise networks to Mexico.  The franchisors are Seattle-based smoothie maker Emerald City Smoothies (who doesn’t love a good smoothie?), Palm Springs-based water, sewer, and pipe leak repair service company American Leak Detection (we all have leaks), and U.S./India based computer and software training services provider Aptech (which appears to be U.S./India-based).

The expansion of U.S. and other international businesses into Mexico continued its rapid pace in the fourth quarter of 2007 and first and second quarters of 2008, including moves by:

• Honda Aircraft Company, Inc. (Greensboro, NC; light aircraft), which opened a retail sales and service outlet at Mexico City’s Toluca International Airport for HondaJet light aircraft through a joint venture with Servicios Aéreos Estrella, S.A. de C.V. (Press release here);
• Aquentium, Inc. (Palm Springs, CA; food safety, low income & disaster relief housing, energy, automotive and recycling), which formed a Mexican subsidiary, Aquentium de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. to provide low-cost and prefabricated housing (Press release here);
• Tata Consultancy Services (India; information technology), which expanded its Global Delivery Center in Guadalajara to provide IT consulting services (Press release here);
• GW Plastics (Bethel, VT; plastics), which expanded its Querétaro Mexico plant (Press release here);
• InterContinental Hotels Group, which opened its first Hotel Indigo brand hotel in a historic 100-year old hacienda in Merida (a second hotel will open in Mexico City in 2009);
• Wendy’s International, Inc. (Dublin, OH; burgers), which entered into two development agreements with two franchisees to open more than 60 Wendy’s restaurants in Monterrey and Mexico City (the existing Wendy’s Mexican franchisee, Wenco-Mexico, S.A., currently operates 12 restaurants in the northern Mexico cities of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua) (Press release here); and
• BIAS Corporation (Atlanta, GA; Oracle systems integration and resale), which opened a Mexico city office to provide consulting service, IT staffing, and Oracle software sales.