Gartner Says Worldwide PC Market Grew 13 Percent in 2007

Hewlett-Packard Widens Its Position as Leading Vendor of Worldwide PC Shipments

Centredaily.com

STAMFORD, Conn. — Worldwide PC shipments totaled 271.2 million units in 2007, a 13.4 percent increase from 2006, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. The industry ended the year with fourth quarter PC shipments of 75.9 million units, a 13.1 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2006.

"The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region continued to be the largest PC market in 2007, helped by robust Eastern Europe and Middle East and Africa growth," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst for Gartner's Client Computing Markets group. "Asia/Pacific took over as the second largest PC market during the fourth quarter. 2007 showed a clear indication of the worldwide PC market landscape: strong growth in emerging regions such as Asia/Pacific and slower growth in markets such as the United States."

Hewlett-Packard was in a virtual tie with Dell for the No. 1 position in worldwide PC shipments in 2006, and HP extended its lead in 2007 as it accounted for 18.2 percent of global PC shipments (see Table 1). "HP established a solid number one position in 2007. Robust consumer and mobile PC sales across all regions were two main drivers of HP's overall growth," Ms. Kitagawa said. "The company experienced the strongest growth among the top 5 vendors in fourth quarter of 2007, as its shipments increased 23.3 percent in the quarter (see Table 2)."

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Update: Apple airs out 'world's thinnest subnotebook'

Jobs also touts movie rental downloads, new AppleTV and wireless backup hardware

January 15, 2008 (Computerworld) -- Apple Inc.'s CEO Steve Jobs took center stage at the Macworld Conference and Expo today to introduce what he called "the world's thinnest notebook," dubbed the MacBook Air.

The new laptop, which is priced starting at $1,799 and will ship in two weeks, was the final, and flashiest, of the new products and upgrades that Jobs touted in a 90-minute keynote at Macworld, which opened yesterday in San Francisco. He also talked up a new wireless backup device called the Time Capsule, spelled out changes to the iPhone that will be delivered later today via a firmware update, and announced the relaunching of Apple TV, which now features a lower price and movie downloads via iTunes.

"There were no surprises today," said Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research Inc. "But it was execution, execution, execution. Apple's listening to its customers and then executing."

None of the announcements could have come as a shock to Apple fans who had followed the rumor and gossip mill during the past few weeks, and as several analysts noted last Friday, the MacBook Air was the biggest of the bunch.

The new laptop, small enough for Jobs to pull from a manila envelope, takes the tape at just 0.16-in. at its thinnest on the keyboard-side edge, and no more than 0.76-in. at the hinge. It weighs about three pounds.

The MacBook Air is only 0.75 inches thick at the hinge.

Even Jobs recognized the big-ticket price of the flash drive.

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New screen technology may hit stores Dec-designer

By Jim Finkle, Fri Jan 11, 2008 1:07pm EST

BOSTON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Computers and cell phones with screens that can be read in direct sunlight could be on store shelves by the end of this year, the designer of the breakthrough display technology said.

The high-resolution monitors switch from color to black and white, allowing the screens to be clearly viewed in direct sunlight, a feature unavailable in current high-end laptop computers that cost thousands of dollars.

The display was developed by Mary Lou Jepsen while she was working for the One Laptop per Child Foundation, which produces low-cost computers for poor children around the world.

Jepsen left her post as chief technology officer at the foundation at the end of last year to start her own company, Pixel Qi, which will license the display technology.

"My target is first screens in stores by end of 2008," Jepsen said via e-mail late on Thursday.

Pixel Qi will also develop and license technology that extends the battery life of laptops by reducing power consumption, she said.

"I don't want to sell last year's technology next year," Jepsen said. "Both the price and performance of display and power management technology can be improved. They need to be made in different sizes and shapes and for different platforms with different goals."

Analysts said they expect the world's top computer makers to be eager to incorporate some of Jepsen's technology into their products as easily readable displays and long-lasting batteries are highly coveted features for any laptop.

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Can Macs conquer the enterprise? The time is ripe ...

The field is wide open for a Macintosh insurrection on the business desktop. It could happen, but probably won't. Here's why.

Robert L. Mitchell

January 10, 2008 (Computerworld) -- If Apple Inc. were a football team, the New England Patriots would have had some serious competition this year.

The company is the undefeated king of cool in the consumer electronics and home computer markets. It is rapidly gaining yardage in the broader personal computing market and is experiencing a resurgence of popularity in traditional Macintosh niches such as education, marketing and creative departments.

With all of this momentum, you'd think that the Mac might be ready for a come-from-behind win in the enterprise. But on that field of play, Apple remains 1st and 10 at its own 10-yard line.

That's ironic, because corporate interest in a broader role for Macs is up dramatically among IT executives, driven by changes in what the Mac has to offer, by Apple's success in the consumer market and its other niches, and by corporate trends where, thanks to virtualization and a migration to Web-based applications, Windows' grip on the desktop may be starting to loosen just a bit.

"I'm getting more and more questions about bringing Macs into the enterprise and what it would take," says Tim Bajarin, president of strategic consulting firm Creative Strategies Inc. in Campbell, Calif.

Charles Smulders, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn., says he too has experienced a substantial increase in Mac inquiries from corporate customers.

There's just one problem. "Apple will tell you that they are focused on [the commercial business market], but at the end of the day, it's not a big priority for them," says David Daoud, an analyst at IDC.

An Apple spokesperson said the company does support corporate customers but declined to articulate a corporate strategy, saying only that Apple "tend[s] to focus on the product, not the strategy behind it."

That ambivalence is a concern for IT managers like Dale Frantz, CIO at Auto Warehousing Co. (AWC) in Tacoma, Wash., which last year began a corporatewide project to migrate to Macs across 23 locations. "The biggest weakness at this point I'd say is the lack of a cohesive enterprise strategy on the part of Apple," he says.

Outside of a few large media and advertising firms, corporations are simply not one of Apple's core markets. "There is no pretense on their part that the next mountain they have to conquer is the enterprise," says Bajarin.

Apple's attitude is simple, says Charles Edge, director of technology at IT consultancy 318 Inc. in Santa Monica, Calif. "Their strategy is to make a great computer that's standards-compliant. If enterprises want to use it, great, but if they don't, that's fine too."

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Review: Eee Laptop PC Shreds the Rules

Review: Eee Laptop PC From Taiwan Is Quick, Easy to Use and Ultra Small, Lightweight

Yahoo Finance, Thursday January 10, 1:15 pm ET

By Daniel Sorid, Associated Press Writer

Taiwanese computer parts maker Asus obviously didn't get the memo.

Didn't Asus know notebook computers need hard drives? Or that they're supposed to run Windows -- and the pre-loaded software must bloat the boot-up process to the length of a long weekend? Don't they know you don't just go selling laptops for less than $750 -- let alone $400 -- unless the hardware has been aged like whisky?

Asustek Computers Inc. went ahead and broke the rules with the Eee PC. And we should all be thankful.

A scrappy, aggressively priced two-pound notebook with a surprisingly broad set of features, Eee is a no-brainer purchase for tech-savvy travelers who want to downsize their luggage at low cost. It also makes a great gift, at least as practical as Apple Inc.'s iPhone and about the same price.

In the month I've owned an Eee, I've used it to watch movies on an airplane, read my favorite blogs and news articles -- archived automatically -- and update my online calendar while on the road. Its quick boot-up has made it perfect for writing quick e-mails (and this review) whenever I had a moment of inspiration.

I'm not tossing my larger notebook computer, which I'll continue to use for editing photos and for other tasks that feel constrained on the Eee PC's tiny, 5-inch screen. But it's hard not to be impressed with a full-service laptop light enough to be carried along with sunscreen and a magazine in a flimsy plastic bag, as I did during a recent trip to Cancun.

As it refines the software and instructions, Asus -- better known as the world's largest maker of computer motherboards -- could garner a following among mainstream computer users who right now might be puzzled by some of the eccentricities of Linux.

The $400, seven-inch Eee PC is a new entrant in a fast-growing market for ultra-portable PCs. All such computers, including the Eee, require sacrifices. Its keys may seem painfully small. For people used to a desktop or a standard notebook, its screen makes you feel like you've just moved from a McMansion into a studio apartment. (Tricks for maximizing screen real estate when Web surfing can be found on the helpful user forum, Eeeuser.com.)

Unencumbered by Windows, the Eee boots up so quickly I didn't bother counting the seconds. Its Wi-Fi chip links with the Web in a flash, and its webcam -- a feature missing from many laptops triple the price -- turns it into a video messaging device with the help of eBay Inc.'s Skype, which comes pre-loaded. There are USB ports for peripherals, a port to connect to a monitor, and -- most essential -- a flash memory slot to expand its meager storage. Battery life is advertised at 3.5 hours.

The Eee's custom version of the Linux operating system has a simple user interface that takes some getting used to. It organizes the software by tabs -- Internet, Work, Learn and Play -- but many users on the Eee forum dislike its look. An upgrade to a more familiar, Windows-like interface is available in "advanced" mode, which can be activated with a few minutes of careful programming. (But you'll do that at your peril. On my second day, a badly written command crashed my system. I had to reinstall the original software.)

The Firefox Web browser, Adobe Acrobat Reader and OpenOffice -- the open-source equivalent to Microsoft Corp.'s Office -- come pre-installed, as do a music player, a video recorder and some addictive games. Google Docs -- an online document suite for storing files remotely and sharing them -- is also configured.

Links to Yahoo Mail, Gmail and other e-mail programs are already on the desktop. A messaging program called Pidgin worked with AOL Instant Messenger and Google Talk. Skype, the voice and video calling program, also worked well when I called home from the international airport in Hong Kong.

Users willing to learn a few Linux commands can add the Picasa photo sharing program, Google Earth and Audacity, a free audio editing program beloved by bloggers.

The Eee runs quickly, despite a low-power processor. A disk drive made of memory chips is fully functional, but the four gigabytes installed on my model was insufficient for my needs. A memory card I purchased separately for around $30 doubled the space. Its software package leverages recent advancements in open source and online software. It may be hard to believe, but you won't miss Microsoft Word, or Windows, for long.

While much of the computing world was focused on Windows Vista (or spending hours trying to navigate its upgrade process), big software companies were releasing new and upgraded versions of familiar software packages for Linux.

The Eee can be retrained to run Windows. But it can feel like a major commitment. Asus's exhaustive instructions include a 12-step installation, a four-step "optimizing" process and another 25 steps to get the operating system to play nice with the Eee. (I'm thinking of giving my friends copies of one of the instructions, "Deleting unnecessary Windows components.")

The Eee is not easy to find. At a large Manhattan computer store in November, a clerk told me the store was out of stock. And why wouldn't he? If a $400 PC sat next to higher-priced competitors on the shelf, would so many people spend $2,000? I made him check the store's inventory in front of me, and there were more than 40 Eees in stock.

Asus, in fact, may have gotten the memo -- and shredded it. Even if this Linux PC doesn't become a mainstream hit, rivals are certainly taking notes.

The Asus Eee.

Compact printers are mobile, require no ink

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer

Tuesday, January 8, 2008, Courierpress.com

LAS VEGAS— Once celebrated for cameras that made their own prints, Polaroid Corp. plans to update the concept this year by selling a portable printer for images on cell phones and digital cameras.

And like those old Polaroid instant-film cameras, the new printers should have a wow factor: they require no ink, because they employ a thermal printing technology from startup Zink Imaging Inc.

Polaroid's Distal Instant Mobile Photo Printer, is demonstrated at the Las Vegas show.
Once connected to a phone or camera by Bluetooth wireless or the USB port,
the printers need less than a minute to churn out 2-inch-by-3-inch picture.

The 8-ounce printers, a bit bigger than a deck of cards, are due to go on sale around back-to-school time for about $150, Polaroid and Zink announced Monday at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

Once connected to a phone or camera by Bluetooth wireless or the USB port, the printers need less than a minute to churn out 2-inch-by-3-inch pictures, which can be peeled off a backing and used as stickers. Sheets of paper for the device will cost about 40 cents each, less if bought in bulk.

The Zink technology, which uses heat to activate minuscule dye crystals embedded in the photo paper, won raves at the influential Demo conference a year ago.

But until the CES announcement, Zink had not lined up any partners who would bring its technology to market.

Polaroid is a natural fit, and not just because of its photo-printing history. Zink was founded in 2005 by private investors who bought many technologies from Polaroid as it was coming out of bankruptcy. Now Zink and Polaroid are based in the same complex in Waltham, Mass.

Zink also announced that Tomy Co. would be its partner in Japan. Prices and availability dates were not disclosed.

Another mobile printer with thermal paper debuted at CES, though it is much larger and designed for business people.

The $300 Printstik from Canada-based Planon Systems Solutions Inc. is less than 2 pounds but prints in black and white, in the familiar 8-by-11-inch paper dimension.

After a connection via USB cord or Bluetooth wireless, the Printstik can churn out paper copies to ease the task for people who tire of reading text on the small screens on devices like BlackBerrys.

Logitech diNovo Mini Keyboard Eases PC-TV Link

Yahoo Tech,

Sat Jan 5, 2008 7:01PM EST

So, you've hooked up your PC to your TV a few times, maybe to watch TV shows and movies you've downloaded or to listen to music through a home theater system. It works well, but you need to access media through your laptop keyboard.

What if you had a keyboard to run your PC through the TV from anywhere in the room? You'd be able to do so much more: browse the web, check email, play PC and online games. Great idea, but you may not want another bulky piece of gear for the family room, and the wireless range would be limited.

Logitech has an answer: The diNovo Mini palm-sized keyboard, which it unveiled today. Using a Bluetooth USB connection, the handheld keyboard, about 6 inches wide by 3 1/2 inches, makes simple work of navigating your PC on a bigger TV screen. A scroll wheel that doubles as a touchpad controls the cursor on the screen; click it with your thumb when you want to select an option.

There's a full, nice-sized QWERTY keyboard that makes typing emails or IMing simple and fun for nimble hands. Backlighting makes seeing the keys easier in dim lighting.

Slide a switch, and the keyboard goes into media-remote mode (green indicator). The scroll wheel becomes a directional pad, which allows you to choose which media to access. Volume, channel, and play controls allow you to watch and adjust DVDs and recorded shows.

There are just the right amount of keys on the compact keyboard—one of Yahoo! Tech's Last Gadget Standing finalists—including some blue-outlined function keys that serve as shortcuts to Internet Explorer, iTunes, and some oft-used symbols. Of course, it's best for younger eyes but not impossible for older ones, either. I liked using it.

For Sony PS3 owners, there's a switch in the battery compartment that allows you to move between PS3 and PC controls. The keyboard works with Windows Vista and Windows XP Media Center PCs. Alas, it does not work with Macs nor Xbox 360s.

It is plug-and-play easy. It worked from every angle in our family room, and Logitech says it will work up to 30 feet away from the PC. A rechargeable Li-ion battery provides up to a month of battery life, Logitech says. It makes the PC-TV family-room connection far less clunky. If you're not ready for wireless room-to-room streaming of PC media to your big-screen TV, this little $150 keyboard makes the physical PC-TV connection everyday viable.

Fighting Reputation of Waste, Electronics Show Goes Green

By Kim Hart, Washington Post Staff Writer

Saturday, January 5, 2008

The International Consumer Electronics Show will open in Las Vegas tomorrow night with the usual fanfare, talking up new gadgets and technologies and setting this year's stage for the $148 billion industry.

More than 140,000 people are expected to flock to the nation's largest trade show, all hoping to catch a glimpse of newfangled contraptions promoting new ways to watch television, listen to music and talk on cellphones -- or perhaps all three at once. CES is the premier venue for tech companies launching products and striking deals amid the incessant glow of extravagant displays and casinos.

But this year, the show's organizers say they're trying to take steps so that the glow may leave less of a dent on the environment. It's part of a broader public relations campaign to mitigate the industry's reputation as an energy-guzzling business that produces gizmos that aren't easily recycled. Offsetting the environmental impact of the show means eliminating the creation of more than 20,000 tons of carbon.

The show uses as much energy as it takes to power 2,600 homes for a year and the equivalent of 2.3 million gallons of gasoline.

"It's pretty ambitious, considering we're larger than the Super Bowl and all the political conventions," said Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the Consumer Electronics Association, the Arlington-based group hosting the show.

Recycled carpet, biodegradable plastic utensils, pamphlets printed with soy ink and energy-efficient light bulbs will be used, he said.

Carbonfund.org, an organization in Silver Spring that helps companies reduce their carbon use, calculated the amount of energy consumed at the show. Through Carbonfund.org, CEA has invested in wind farms, solar energy and reforestation projects to try to compensate for the power used by dozens of shuttle buses, the 600,000 hotel rooms and for cooling a show floor the size of 35 football fields.

Efforts to be more eco-friendly will likely extend to many of the 2,700 exhibitors trying to sell their products to consumers willing to pay a premium for sustainable devices, said Albert Lin, an analyst with American Technology Research and a veteran of CES.

"The consumer electronics world is characterized as one of the most ungreen," he said. "The industry is trying to work hard to turn around that perception."

This year, companies will be pushing low-energy devices that replace the lights with long-lasting, light-emitting diodes, TVs that contain more eco-friendly chemicals and a host of recycled cellphones. One company, TrendNet, is selling upgrades to extend the life of wireless routers. And the Environmental Protection Agency has reserved display space to urge people to recycle their electronics.

But the offset does not compensate for the thousands of flights needed to get people to the Nevada desert.

Shapiro said people use the show to network and hold meetings. He estimated that each flight to Las Vegas cuts 156,000 miles of additional air travel attendees would otherwise have had to log in order to meet.

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Japan's PM Greets World on YouTube

Japan's PM Debuts on YouTube in Bid to Raise International Profile

Yahoo Finance, Wednesday January 2, 8:25 am ET

By Hiroko Tabuchi, Associated Press Writer

TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's prime minister has begun posting English-language messages on the video-sharing Internet site YouTube in an apparent bid to raise his country's international profile.

In his online New Year's message for 2008, Fukuda speaks in English about the challenges facing the world in the coming year and promises to play a leading role in finding solutions.

"Of these challenges, those that concern the environment seriously affect all who live on this earth. Japan's mission is to play a major role in this area," Fukuda says in the video set against a backdrop of leather-bound books at his official residence.

"We will contribute to creating a world where people can live peacefully," he says in the five-minute clip -- rarely smiling, in line with his dour image.

As of Wednesday morning, the English video clip had been viewed 385 times, while a Japanese-language version had been viewed 1,465 times. Neither had yet prompted any viewers to post comments on the site.

The clip is part of the "YouTube LDP Channel" launched last month by Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party. It features official party videos designed to reach a younger, wider and more global audience.

English is widely used throughout Asia as an international language of diplomacy, commerce and general communication.

The channel hosts about two dozen video clips, including messages from LDP executives, a video summarizing the party's history and a lawmaker playing a traditional Japanese banjo.

Fukuda will also make frequent appearances on the channel, according to LDP multimedia chief Taro Kono.

"The LDP is the very first Japanese party to launch a channel on YouTube," Kono said in another clip. "I hope you tune in when you have nothing else to do."

Fukuda already sends out a weekly e-mail magazine in English and Japanese outlining his beliefs and policies.

The initiative comes amid recent efforts by Japan -- which is trying to win a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council -- to boost its international clout.

Tokyo sent troops to Iraq on a non-combat humanitarian mission in 2003, and joined rescue efforts after a tsunami devastated large parts of southern Asia in 2004. It withdrew from Iraq last year, but maintains an air force presence in Kuwait.

New Year's Greetings from Yasuo Fukuda:

New Year's Greetings Yasuo Fukuda_1.1.2008

Boom times for hi-tech criminals

By Mark Ward, Technology Correspondent, BBC News website

Starting a career as a cyber criminal got much easier in 2007.

So say security experts looking back on 12 months in which hi-tech gangs took control of the net's underground.

The economy supporting these groups has matured so much that now everything from virus-writing kits to spam-spewing zombies are available for rent or hire.

This has helped to fuel, say security professionals, rapid growth in the methods criminals use to catch out PC users and steal saleable data.

Money game

"2007 was a fairly interesting year," said Joe Telafici, vice president of operations for McAfee's Avert Labs, "cyber crime continued to fuel most of the security attacks we saw."

It was a year, he said, which saw the effective extinction of young hackers who wrote viruses and other malicious programs for fun.

Now, he said, Windows malware was all about money.

Some attacks, such as phishing runs, were clearly about stealing cash from victims either from a credit card or bank account.

But, he said, many others that looked more innocuous were done with money in mind. For instance, he said, trojans placed in banner ads that try to hijack a home PC were all about getting hold of resources that can be rented out for a fee to spammers or other net-based criminals.

"There's a real eco-system built around this," he said.

Paul Henry, vice president of technology evangelism at Secure Computing said the tool of choice for many hi-tech criminals was the botnet - a collection of hijacked home PCs.

"Botnets are now a well-organised tool," he said. "They are at a point now where they are creating smaller botnets from larger ones."

This was being done, he said, because like all businessmen criminals were keen to make the most of their assets.

2007 saw news break about one of the biggest botnets ever created. The network got its name from spam e-mails sent in January that capitalised on interest in a series of severe European storms to infect a large number of Windows PCs.

Successive spam campaigns added to the numbers of machines in the Storm botnet and, though estimates vary, many believe it was made up of more than 1 million machines.

A ready market for the buying and selling of time on a botnet and the tools needed to put it to good use had sprung up, said Mr Henry.

"Commercial exploitation has brought the real value of these tools to the vast majority," he said.

One of the most widely known tools was the MPack kit which was created by a Russian hacker gang. Anyone buying it got included in the price a year of technical support that updated them with the latest vulnerabilities so it could be used time and again for attacks.

But, said Mr Telafici, this had created problems for some makers of malicious software.

"One kit developer recently threw in the towel because they could no longer get the margins they used to," he said.

"Instead they opened up the source and gave it away. There were just too many players in that space, it's too crowded."

Novel threats

This busy market was driving innovation, said Simon Heron, managing director of Network Box.

Windows XP on sale, PA

Windows remains the biggest target for hi-tech criminals

"We've seen attacks move away from sending e-mail with poisoned attachments to groups doing drive-by downloads," he said.

Some of those that used to send huge numbers of phishing e-mails were now indulging in "spear phishing" which brought together lots of bits of data to make the messages they send look much more convincing.

Mr Heron said he had seen campaigns targeted at a few hundred people such as the senior managers in a large firm.

"It's just fascinating seeing that this is happening," he said.

The move away from the old attack vector of e-mail meant troubled times for users, he said.

"The bad guys are becoming more sophisticated and that means its becoming more difficult to stay safe," he said.

Summing up Paul Henry from Secure Computing said 2007 was the year that hi-tech crime became firmly established and entrenched.

"I see no end to this," he said, "until we effectively reduce the value of personal information to the point where for the hackers it is useless."