Meet Jorgen Jetson--Swedes Take Lead in ‘Smart’ Living

There’s a limit to how long Rosemary Uppgard’s 10-month-old daughter, Caroline, will put up with grocery shopping, and once that siren sounds, Mom needs to flee fast.

Like other harried young mothers, Uppgard doesn’t want to stand in line at the checkout counter for 10 minutes--or even two--as fussiness escalates into a tantrum and customers start casting reproving glances her way.

And now that the B+W supermarket chain has introduced a scan-as-you-go alternative to the traditional wait at the cash register, Uppgard is able to escape to her car at a moment’s notice with her child, her groceries and her dignity all with her.

Hand-held grocery scanners no bigger than a cordless phone allow shoppers to pay for their purchases with a credit card as they select them--and the option of deleting them if they change their minds--one of many ways technology is being applied to everyday tasks to make the living even easier in Sweden.

As the country with the world’s highest penetration of Internet access and mobile phone use--both upward of 70% of the population--Sweden’s 9 million citizens are enjoying the first refreshing splashes of the “smart”-living wave that analysts say will eventually engulf the developed world.

Sales began in March for a 155-unit apartment complex here that will offer Internet-driven conveniences already available in an “intelligent home” enclave in the bedroom community of Varmdo, about 15 miles east. Even easier than the self-scanning shopping option, the homes here and in Varmdo feature refrigerated lockboxes accessible from each unit’s carport, allowing delivery of Internet-ordered groceries even when the consumer isn’t home.

The single-family houses in Varmdo--selling for nearly $600,000--have computer-run geothermal heating and air-conditioning, security systems tracking every door and window, and mobile-phone-operated remote controls for the appliances. They even have self-propelled lawn mowers that roll out of their storage sheds at preset intervals and mow the grass by following sensors embedded in the ground.

“[The mower] runs around like a little dog,” said Suzana Jakopovic, marketing manager for the Jon Matsson construction company’s smart-living division. The builders developed the Varmdo houses in cooperation with an Ericsson-Electrolux joint venture, E2Home, offering other Swedes--and soon, other Europeans--their services in networking existing houses.

Sweden’s lead in smart living is bolstered by information technology spending per capita that is third in the world behind Switzerland and the United States. Its investment of 4% of GDP in IT research and development is the world’s highest.

The country also benefits from a long education history--Uppsala University opened its doors in 1477--reliable and affordable energy supplies and a high comfort level with communications gadgetry among 9 million people scattered across a territory somewhat larger than California.

Part of Sweden’s success can be traced to its early embrace of communication technology. By 1895--less than 20 years after Alexander Graham Bell’s famous invention--Stockholm already had 4,000 phones in operation, noted Ann-Marie Nilsson, general manager for the Assn. of the Swedish IT and Telecom Industry.

Huge Investments Create Synergies

Sweden is also profiting from huge U.S. investments creating synergies between American software and desktop developments and the Nordic countries’ lead in wireless communications. U.S. companies have invested more than $20 billion in Sweden in each of the past four years, mostly in partnerships with companies such as Ericsson, Volvo and ABB Group. But many of the 700-plus U.S.-owned companies here are smaller, little-known start-ups.

The power of foreign capital driving Sweden’s economy is apparent on the stock exchange, where 43% of shares are foreign-owned, said Mats Engelmark, head of the IT marketing project for the Invest in Sweden Agency.

“Swedes have gotten used to the internationalization of business. When Ford bought Volvo, there was no uproar here,” Engelmark said. “People feel the benefits of these changes in their pocket.”

Engelmark sees big growth potential in services through mobile phones--the third-generation handsets that give users access to the Internet and all the e-commerce and information they now get on their desktop computers.

“Having such a high penetration of mobile phone use enables the next level,” he said. “If you think back, the people who developed television sets didn’t make as much money as those who developed soap operas to run on them.”

Mobile phone Internet users worldwide numbered zero two years ago but are expected to reach 1 billion by 2005--as many users as for fixed telephone lines and more than the number of Internet users on PCs, said Staffan H. Johansson, director of Ericsson’s corporate marketing and business development.

Wireless Business Continues to Grow

The number of wireless companies in Sweden nearly doubled last year, from 167 to 300, and Norway and Finland saw similar growth. Start-ups continue to proliferate this year despite the dot-com crashes afflicting fixed-line Internet activity around the world, said Lee Wermelin, manager of BrainHeart Network, a venture capital group founded last year by a Swedish technology magnate.

Among the projects BrainHeart has backed is Wireless Opinion, a polling agency that conducts instant surveys among mobile-phone users. Respondents are compensated with online credit, and with mobile penetration almost 100% in the targeted 12-to-59 age range, wireless survey results are more reliable than fixed-line interviews because people are easier to catch on their mobiles than at home, said manager Bjorn Roting. “It would take you six to eight weeks to get as many responses by mail as we can get in an hour with mobile phones,” he boasted.

In showing off Sweden’s technology prowess during the country’s current European Union presidency, government hosts are using the instant polling system to take drink orders from visiting ministers from the 14 other EU countries during their summits that run through June.

Keeping products and services easy to use is what Swedes believe is driving their technology revolution.

“Our main task is to see that IT is reflected in Swedish society, that it makes life easier for average people,” said Bo Beckestrom, senior project manager for the state-funded Information and Communications Technology Commission. The eight-member team tracks what it calls the three A’s--awareness, access and adoption--and targets barriers to broader use. For instance, daily Internet use among rural residents and pensioners shot up after the commission recommended and won tax write-offs for home computer purchases.

The nationwide embrace of technology is also helping employers cut costs by allowing more telecommuting, which lets young parents work from home and spares the environment the extra exhaust fumes. Sweden has one of the most heavily organized labor forces in Europe, but loopholes allow companies to sidestep union edicts such as last-in-first-out layoff policies to retain newer workers if they are socially desirable telecommuters.

The biggest drag on technology development in Sweden is the country’s legendary tax bite, said Nilsson of the IT association. Personal income is taxed at 55% and businesses at 28%, chasing some successful entrepreneurs abroad, where they can keep more of their earnings.

Like other countries in the high-tech vanguard, Sweden also suffers a “skills gap” and will have to import tens of thousands of specialists to keep up the IT boom. Industry Minister Bjorn Rosengren said the government is seeking to attract some of Russia’s underemployed engineering and programming talent, as well as to make better use of university-educated immigrants.

Rolling with the technology juggernaut is paying off for many companies. Consider B+W supermarkets: Customers who use the self-scanning technology spend an average of 60% more than those who go through the checkouts, and they visit the stores four times for every three trips made by the others, said Thomas Timbaeck, sundries manager for the superstore in the Stockholm suburb of Bromma.

Stores in the capital region have witnessed a 25% rise in revenue since the scanners were installed at a cost of about $315,000 per store. That’s even more striking considering that the whole thing works on an honor system, with only very infrequent spot checks. “They paid for themselves within a few weeks--it’s been a great investment,” said Bromma store manager Jeans Lundstrom.

But the technology could be bad news for the publishers of the tabloids that clutter B+W checkout lanes. In the new age of self-scanning, they’re getting less attention because shoppers no longer have the excuse of a boring wait for the cash register to surreptitiously catch up on the latest movie star gossip.

Beyond that, perhaps the only negatives to IT services spreading to daily chores may be for those--and apparently they do exist--who consider vacuuming, supermarket lines and traffic backups forced down time and a chance for introspection.