China Tops US as World's Biggest PC Market

Jakarta Globe, August 24, 2011

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China eclipsed the United States as the world's largest personal-computer market in the second quarter, and is set to capture the full-year title in 2012, International Data Corporation said Tuesday.

PC shipments in China rose to about 18.5 million units in the quarter, compared to 17.7 million units in the United States, research firm IDC said.

The shipments were worth $11.9 billion and $11.7 billion, respectively.

During the April-June period, China's market share of global PC shipments increased to 22 percent, surpassing the 21 percent share held by the world's biggest economy.

The data includes desktops, portables and mini--notebooks, but not handhelds, such as tablets, the research firm said in a global quarterly report.

IDC forecast that 85.2 million units will be shipped in China in 2012, compared to 76.6 million in the US.

"There are of course still risks ahead for China, including not just inflation but also the impact of economic conditions in the US and Europe," Kitty Fok, vice president for Greater China Research at IDC, said in the statement.

"But in the meantime, the Chinese government's 12th Five-Year Plan should help large enterprises... to continue to move along, not to mention of course the ongoing efforts to increase consumer penetration in lower-tier cities." 

AFP 

HP sinks as investors flee business revamp

Reuters, By Sinead Carew and Sayantani Ghosh, NEW YORK/BANGALORE, Fri Aug 19, 2011

A HP Invent logo is pictured in front of Hewlett-Packard international offices
 in Meyrin near Geneva in this August 4, 2009 file photograph.
(Credit: Reuters/Denis Balibouse/Files)

(Reuters) - Shares of Hewlett-Packard slumped by more than 20 percent to a six-year low on Friday as investors wiped about $16 billion off the market value of the world's biggest PC maker in a resounding rejection of its plan for a major shake-up.

Investors also appeared to lose confidence in Chief Executive Leo Apotheker after a flurry of HP announcements on Thursday including an $11.7 billion acquisition offer, a shuttering of its mobile efforts and the potential spin-off its PC business.

This was on top of disappointing financial guidance for the third quarter in a row. HP may also be risking future PC sales as its customers could flee to rivals like Dell Inc in the uncertainty, one analyst said.

"They're doing too many things at the same time," said Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu.

Even if it makes sense in the long term, HP should not have told the world it was thinking of getting rid of its PC business, which brings in 16 percent of its profits, Wu said.

"Why would anybody want to do business with them if it's up for sale," he said. "To have this in limbo for 12 months is going to be pretty material."

On top of this, investors worried that HP's offer of nearly $12 billion for British software company Autonomy Corp was too high and questioned why it was giving up so soon on the mobile business it bought for $1.2 billion from Palm Inc, Wu said.

HP shares fell as low as $22.76 on Friday making it the biggest loser on the New York Stock Exchange. Before the announcements its shares had closed at $31.39 on Wednesday. Investors fled to rivals like Dell, pushing its shares up nearly 3 percent, as it is expected to profit from HP's chaos.

"There's not a lot of confidence in (Apotheker's) management," said Wu, noting that he had to lower guidance every quarter since he joined HP. "This is just further proof,"

At least two brokerages downgraded Palo Alto, California-based HP, and five cut their price targets, mainly citing uncertainty and expenses related to the restructuring.

"Last night HP may have eroded what remained of Wall Street's confidence in the company and its strategy," Needham & Co said in a research note.

Gleacher & Co analyst Brian Marshall cut his price target for the stock to $39 from $50 saying he "materially underestimated the magnitude and timing of this metamorphosis."

He said however that HP "is undergoing a sound strategy transformation by focusing on high-growth, high-margin opportunities in the enterprise/commercial markets."

With a forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 5.6, the company is trailing its peers, including Dell, Apple and IBM according to Starmine SmartEstimate.

Before Thursday's news HP's stock had already lost nearly a fifth of its value since it reported quarterly results in May.

HP said it has already stopped production of its WebOS-based devices like its TouchPad tablet, which failed to attract buyers.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp -- the main supplier of touch controllers for TouchPad -- will also hurt if the company pulls the plug on the product, brokerage Collins Stewart said.

Cypress' shares fell 1 percent to $16.93 on Friday.

HP has been struggling with its once hugely popular PC business, as niftier gadgets like Apple's iPad have eaten into its business.

Thursday's weak forecast follows smaller rival Dell's lowered revenue outlook earlier this week that dragged down both stocks.

Both companies have been venturing out of traditional comfort zones and into enterprise solutions and services, but continuing soft sales have been a constant source of trouble.

Brokerage Robert W. Baird said HP is no longer a "safe haven" stock and expects it to lose market share.

HP's decision to spin off the PC business reflects commoditization, as consumers change the use of computers, and this may hurt Intel, the world's largest supplier of PC chips, brokerage Nomura said in a note.

"A reversal in average selling prices would remove a key revenue driver over the last six quarters (for Intel)."

(Additional reporting by Rachel Chitra in Bangalore; Editing  by Don Sebastian, Joyjeet Das, Dave Zimmerman)

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Social media: don't blame the Messenger®

RNW, 19 August 2011, by Robert Chesal

 (Photo: ANP)

             

Britain's response to last week's riots - a proposed clampdown on social networks and modern telecommunications - caused widespread anger. It sets a bad example for countries like China, say civil rights activists. But was it an attack on democracy, a desperate measure by an embattled politician, or a reasonable response?

When British Prime Minister David Cameron addressed parliament in the wake of last week's riots, he blamed Facebook, Twitter and RIM (the maker of Blackberry) for the content posted on their networks. He said people would be banned from social networks if suspected of inciting violence. His call for a temporary communications shutdown was unheard of in the West.

Rethinking democracy

China's state-controlled press was thrilled, calling it a “bold measure” and warning the developing world against “blind worship of Western democracy”.  The call on Chinese “advocates of an unlimited development of the internet” to “think twice” was especially striking.

Surely, China’s approval was not what Cameron was hoping for. Clamping down on social networks? The very tools that helped the Egyptian masses bring down Mubarak? Was this what he wanted to achieve?

Wrong measures

Criticism of Cameron's proposal was sharp here in the Netherlands, the first country to enshrine consumers' right to internet access in law. “First of all, shutting down communication networks doesn't stop social unrest,” argues Ot van Daalen, internet rights activist at Bits of Freedom.

He points to the 1992 race riots in Los Angeles which erupted after police were acquitted of brutality for the beating of black man Rodney King - an incident captured on video by a passerby. Internet and social media did not exist at the time.

And in Egypt, he says, the uprising continued after the internet was cut off. According to Mr Van Daalen, the authorities should use measures that don't affect law-abiding citizens and leave privacy and freedom of communication intact. A good example?

"Monitoring tweets or court-ordered tapping of internet traffic by suspected criminals. But not cutting off entire networks."

Ignorance

Dutch Labour Party politician Diederik Samson disagreed with the activists. In defiance of his own party's policy, he posted a widely-read tweet supporting local shutdowns of Ping, Blackberry's free messaging service, during public disturbances. Internet is grown up now, he argued, so it's time for a realistic discussion on public order and safety.

Calls like these raise the eyebrows of security experts. Not because they overstep civil rights, but because they reveal an ignorance of technology. Blackberry Messenger, supposedly the rioters' favourite way to send encrypted messages, is in fact easy to scan, says security researcher Ross Anderson of Cambridge University in the UK. In other words, there's no need to shut it down.

“If you've got a normal Blackberry that you bought in a shop and you use it to send messages to others in furtherance of a crime, the police can get all the traffic.”

Irrelevant measures

So why do Mr Cameron and Mr Samsom blame the messenger? In Mr Anderson's view, “politicians everywhere feel the need to be seen to be doing something,” even if those initiatives are “impractical and irrelevant, and the following day they're forgotten”.

He compares the British Prime Minister's approach to France's new three-strikes law, which allows the authorities to ban people from the internet for repeated illegal file-sharing. It's part of a growing disregard for judicial rights in Western Europe, Mr Anderson says:

“Several countries in Western Europe have a disgraceful record. France with its three-strikes law, and Denmark with its proposals for really vigorous censorship of the internet, are on the side of China in this. And Britain is showing signs of joining the French, the Danes, the Chinese and the Iranians.”

Censorship

According to Mr Anderson, the United States stands out as a defender of the constitutional right to freedom of expression. However his comparison between European measures and the policies of China is firmly rejected by Courtney Radsch at Freedom House, a pro-democracy watchdog in Washington, D.C.:

“In the UK they're discussing whether they have the right to shut down specific social media. But they're discussing it in a democratic context where people can express their opinions about whether the government has the authority to do that. That's where there's a fundamental difference with a country like China, Burma or Cuba where there are broad restrictions on freedom of expression and information technology.”

Ms Radsch points out that what’s being discussed in the UK are targeted, temporary measures to address an imminent threat of violence. And that, she says, is a far cry from what happened in Egypt during the Tahir Square uprising, when the nation's entire communications network was shut down.

Building a healthier, greener Google

Google Blog, 8/17/2011

(Cross-posted on the Green blog)

When it comes to greening our office buildings, we apply the same focus that we use for any of our products: put the user first. We want to create the healthiest work environments possible where Googlers can thrive and innovate. From concept through design, construction and operations, we create buildings that function like living and breathing systems by optimizing access to nature, clean air and daylight.

Since I arrived at Google in 2006, I’ve been part of a team working to create life-sustaining buildings that support the health and productivity of Googlers. We avoid materials that contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other known toxins that may harm human health, so Googlers don’t have to worry about the air they’re breathing or the toxicity of the furniture, carpet or other materials in their workspaces. We also use dual stage air filtration systems to eliminate particulates and remaining VOCs, which further improves indoor air quality.

Since building materials don’t have ingredient labels, we’re pushing the industry to adopt product transparency practices that will lead to real market transformation. In North America, we purchase materials free of the Living Building Challenge Red List Materials and EPA Chemicals of Concern, and through the Pharos Project we ask our suppliers to meet strict transparency requirements.

We also strive to shrink our environmental footprint by investing in the most efficient heating, cooling and lighting systems. Throughout many of our offices, we’ve performed energy and water audits and implemented conservation measures to develop best practices that are applied to our offices worldwide. To the extent possible, we seek out renewable sources for the energy that we do use. One of the earliest projects I worked on at Google involved installing the first solar panels on campus back in 2007. They have the capacity to produce 1.6 megawatts of clean, renewable electricity for us, which supplies about 30 percent of our peak energy use on the buildings they cover.

With a little healthy competition, we’ve gotten Google’s offices around the world involved in greening our operations. Our internal Sustainable Pursuit program allows teams to earn points based on their office’s green performance—whether it’s through green cleaning programs, water efficiency or innovative waste management strategies. We use Google Apps to help us track progress toward our goals—which meet or exceed the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standards—and share what we’ve learned among our global facilities teams.

We’re proud of our latest LEED Platinum achievement for the interior renovation of an office building at the Googleplex. While we have other LEED Platinum buildings in our portfolio, it’s a first for our headquarters and a first for the City of Mountain View. The interior renovation was designed by Boora Architects and built by XL Construction, using healthy building materials and practices. In fact, we now have more than 4.5 million square feet of building space around the world on deck to earn LEED Certification.

Looking ahead, our team will have many more opportunities to redefine how we green our buildings and workspaces. It’s a win for Googlers, our business and the environment.

Posted by Anthony Ravitz, Green Team Lead, Real Estate & Workplace Services

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Dutch student raises thousands for London riot victim

RNW, 16 August 2011

An Internet appeal started by Björn Conradi, a student from Den Bosch, has raised over 35,000 pounds (about 40,000 euros) for an elderly London barber whose shop was destroyed in last week’s riots.

“The door was smashed in and they even nicked my chairs,” said Aaron Biber, who had been working at his Tottenham salon for over 40 years before he found it ransacked and destroyed on 10 August. “I will probably have to close because I haven’t got insurance and I can’t afford the repairs.”

Conradi was touched by Biber’s story and launched the charity website, Keep Aaron Cutting. The total funds were raised from donors all over the world in the span of just three days.

The result is much more than Biber needs to restore his salon. Speaking to Dutch newspaper Brabants Dagblad, Conradi said he hopes to see the extra money shared with other businesses in the area affected by the violence.

Samsung to launch banned tablet on Dutch market

Google/AFP  – Aug 15, 2011

South Korean electronics giant Samsung will launch its Galaxy Tab 10.1
on the Dutch market (AFP/File, Park Ji-Hwan)

THE HAGUE — South Korean electronics giant Samsung will Tuesday launch its Galaxy Tab 10.1 on the Dutch market in the midst of a legal stand-off with rival US-based Apple and sales banned elsewhere in Europe.

"The Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be on sale from Tuesday" in a large electronics chain around the country, Tamara Villani, Samsung spokeswoman in the Netherlands, said on Monday.

From August 23, the tablet will be available in various other stores, she added.

Apple's lawyers last week asked a Dutch judge to ban the sale of three different types of Samsung smart phones as well as three tablets, including the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

It filed papers before the Hague district court on June 27, asking for an injunction and accusing Samsung of infringing on its design and patents.

The court was expected to give its decision by 15 September.          

Samsung's spokeswoman said she could not comment on how sales in the Netherlands would affect the trial's outcome.

"Whatever the decision, we can continue our business as planned until October 13," Villani said, referring to the date the judge would set for Samsung to remove offending products from the shelves if an injunction was granted in Apple's favour.

The case before the Dutch court is the latest episode in the battle between Samsung and Apple, manufacturer of the iPad, who have been pursuing legal action against one another since April over design rights.

Earlier this month, Apple also launched legal proceedings in Australia against Samsung, accusing it of infringing its patents with the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

A Dusseldorf court a week ago granted a separate injunction halting the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 across Europe, with the exception of the Netherlands.

Samsung indicated that it would appeal the decision.

IBM Marks PC's 30th Anniversary By Hailing Post-PC Future

Jakarta Globe, Andy Goldberg, August 12, 2011

(AFP Photo) 

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San Francisco. Thirty years after IBM first introduced its personal computer, one of the designers of that landmark machine has marked its anniversary by declaring the twilight of the PC era.

Mark Dean, IBM's chief technology officer for the Middle East and Africa, said in a blog posting that personal computers were "going the way of the vacuum tube, typewriter, vinyl records, CRT and incandescent light bulbs," as consumers moved on to tablets, phones and other internet-connected devices.

His blog was posted to mark the 30th anniversary of the IBM 5150 personal computer, which debuted on August 12, 1981. It was preceded by computers including the Apple II and Commodore PET, but the combination of IBM's reach with Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system is widely seen as marking the start of popular computing.

"Little did we expect to create an industry that ultimately peaked at more than 300 million unit sales per year," Dean said.

The company had foreseen the decline of the business, he pointed out, and IBM sold its PC business to China's Lenovo in 2005: "While many in the tech industry questioned IBM's decision to exit the business at the time, it's now clear that our company was in the vanguard of the post-PC era." Dean, who confessed that his primary computer is now a tablet, said he was surprised by the demise of the PC.

"When I helped design the PC, I didn't think I'd live long enough to witness its decline," he said. "But, while PCs will continue to be much-used devices, they're no longer at the leading edge of computing." Microsoft rode the PC wave to technology pre-eminence, as its software, in the long run, proved vastly more lucrative than the hardware it ran on.

Frank X Shaw, Microsoft's vice president of corporate communications, wrote in a blog to mark the anniversary that the PC era had evolved into the PC-plus era, given that more than 400 million PCs will be sold worldwide this year.

"Some time ago, we extended our ambitions beyond the PC ... to the Web and to screens that fit in your pocket, your backpack and your living room," he said. "In some cases we build our own hardware (Xbox, Kinect), while in most other cases we work with hardware partners on PCs, phones and other devices to ensure a great end-to-end experience that optimizes the combination of hardware and software." 

DPA

IBM PC

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Apple crowned world's most valuable company

Apple crowned world's most valuable company

Yahoo Finance, Thursday 11 August 2011

Culture-changing technology outshined crude oil with iPhone and iPad maker Apple eclipsing ExxonMobil as the most valuable company in the world based on the value of its stock.

Despite an overall dismal day on the stock exchange, Apple ended trading with its stock priced at $363.69 per share for a total "market capitalization" of $337.2 billion.

ExxonMobil's stock price slipped to $68.03 per share to give the international petroleum giant a valuation of $330.8 billion.

Apple dethroned software giant Microsoft in May of last year to become the largest US technology company in terms of market cap -- the number of shares outstanding multiplied by the stock price.

Apple stock has risen steadily over the past few years as chief executive Steve Jobs piloted the release of a string of hit products starting with the iPod in 2001, followed by the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad last year.

Apple's ascension to most valuable company was seen as remarkable given that the California company was floundering and seemingly heading into oblivion before Jobs returned to the helm about 15 years ago.

Tiger on the Loose: The Microblogging Revolution in China

Jakarta Globe, Andreas Landwehr,  August 08, 2011

China is experiencing a micro-blog revolution. In the space of just a few months, Twitter-like micro-blogging sites have turned into a social explosion that seems to have the Communist Party on the back foot. 

(JG Photo/Jurnasyanto Sukarno)

The weibos, as the Chinese versions are generically known, are shattering the state's monopoly on information, with almost one in two of the country's 485 million internet users signed up. At the end of last year, it was just one in 10.

The potential of the platforms was illustrated by the wave of indignation over the government's reaction to the collision of two high-speed trains that caused 40 deaths and 200 injuries in July.

"The first to spread news of the tragedy were the passengers on the train," the editor-in-chief of a communist propaganda organ said requesting anonymity.

The new media "definitely have an enormous influence," and "have triggered large social changes," he said, adding they could even bring about a "new era" in some respects.

How does the party deal with the phenomenon? The editor-in-chief is cautious. "Weibos are new, and we have yet to measure their influence," he said.

He is, however, adamant about his own task and that of his publication: "We must steer public opinion." As Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are blocked in China, web portals such as Sina and Tencent have filled the niche. China's answer to Twitter is censored but has more functions: Posts can be forwarded with one's own comments to allow conversations to develop.

The 140-character limit is not nearly as limiting in Chinese, because a single character can be a whole word. Images and video can be shared as well.

Censorship is circumvented by turning text into a photo or by forwarding screen shots of deleted posts. It's a cat-and-mouse game and the state's watchdogs can barely keep up. Weibos spreads information more effectively and more quickly than it can be censored.

Their rapidly increasing user base has reached a critical mass, reminiscent of the Chinese saying: "He who rides a tiger finds it difficult to dismount." The first news of the train accident was forwarded tens of thousands of times. The responsibility was discussed millions of times.

To the micro-blogging nation, the collision was a culmination of the mismanagement around the country's much--vaunted rail system, currently being upgraded at breakneck speed.

The railway ministry, seen as powerful and arrogant, has long been a target of complaints.

After the last railway minister was dismissed for corruption in February, his successor uncovered a mountain of undeclared debt.

The operation of the high-speed route between Beijing and Shanghai, which is plagued by problems and tardiness, has also been widely criticized.

Since the July incident, the ministry has not been enjoying as much protection in the media. Even the state-controlled outlets appear to have had more room for negative coverage.

And journalists have been publishing their thoughts and information more widely than just in the papers. Weibo reports by media professionals have indicated that local authorities warned lawyers not to accept any civil cases from victims of the accident.

As the social media echoed to rumbles of public anger over the revelations, the authorities said they had been "misunderstood," and never instructed the lawyers as alleged.

The next wave of indignation rolled in as one of the carriages involved in the accident was simply buried. Accusations of a cover-up rang out across the weibosphere, and the carriage was dug up for forensic tests.

Micro-bloggers also poked at premier Wen Jiabao's excuse for not visiting the site of the accident earlier. They dismissed his claim of illness, pointing out that he had still received official guests at that time.

How the party deals with the new threat to its control over public opinion is still an open issue.

Some commentators in the state media have dismissed the new wave of social media as propagating "rumors" and "false information," in a bid to undermine their credibility and limit their impact.

But even the party's own propaganda organ, the People's Daily, has said in an editorial that weibos can serve to "better understand the concerns of the people and solve their problems."

DPA

Companies Learn to Use Internet, Social Media to Stand Out

Jakarta Globe, Andy Vuong, August 01, 2011

In an increasingly digital world, traditional businesses and service professionals
 are finding that old-school sales and marketing strategies no longer cut it. (AFP Photo)  

   

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New York. Just over a year ago, Arvada West Decorating and Flooring in Arvada, Colo., didn't have a website, much less a Facebook fan page.

Now a Google search for "Arvada flooring" returns the 30-year-old store's website as the No. 1 result. The top listing for "Arvada decorating" is the shop's Facebook page.

That's not by accident.

Store owner Matt Vagts, whose family has been in the flooring business since 1954, hired a full-time search-engine and social-media expert three months ago to bolster Arvada West's online presence.

He believes the strategy has helped the shop win roughly four out of five recent bids for contracting jobs.

"I'm getting 80 percent of the work because of my credibility on the Web," Vagts said. "You take a little mom-and-pop- owned shop like mine, and I can now compete with the big shops."

In an increasingly digital world, traditional businesses and service professionals are finding that old-school sales and marketing strategies no longer cut it.

Door-to-door pitches have given way to Facebook and Twitter social media postings. Receptionists and cold calling are out, while do-it-all smartphones and online lead generators are in.

And Yellow Page display ads have been replaced, or at least supplemented, with so-called search engine optimization strategies to bolster rankings in online search results.

"If I was selling a vacuum cleaner 50 years ago, I'd walk door-to-door and shake someone's hand and look them in the eye," said Ryan Estes, Arvada West's tech guru. "We want to do the same thing and do that on social media."

Posts on Arvada West's Twitter and Facebook accounts go beyond sales announcements to messages about the community and other topics to create a dialogue.

That's aimed at improving the store's rankings in search results, Estes said, because Google tweaked its search algorithm in February to find more "high-quality sites" with fresh content. Other search-ranking factors may include the location of the person posting the query and a site's traffic.

"I try and shape all that together to drive Google's search results," Estes said. "If someone is in Arvada and they type in 'tile floor,' we want to be No. 1."

A Google spokeswoman wouldn't disclose whether certain social media activity can affect a site's ranking, stating that results are "automatically determined by computer algorithms using hundreds of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query."

"We can't divulge the actual ranking signals used in our algorithms because we don't want to give people a way to game our search results and worsen the experience for all users," she said in an e-mail.

Other businesses are using social media to raise their profile with potential clients. Jason Wagner, owner of Denver-based Sonic Conscious Studio, has been mixing music for about 10 years but only recently set up a blog on Tumblr and a Facebook page.

"What I'm working on is the reputation," Wagner said. "There are mix engineers that get $2,000 to $5,000 a song. I'm nowhere near that. That's my goal — to have a reputation, have people come to me and have enough work and demand to raise my prices."

In the past year, Golden, Colo.-based ServiceMagic, which provides leads for thousands of service professionals, doubled the number of employees who develop mobile sites and Facebook pages for businesses in its network.

"Facebook is certainly something they're aware of," said ServiceMagic chief executive Chris Terrill. "They're using it personally, but they're beginning to realize the benefits of it professionally."

Beyond social media and search, businesses are leaning on mobile technology to streamline their operations.

ServiceMagic conducted a survey of professionals in its network in May and found that 63 percent use a smartphone for their business. That's nearly double the 35 percent of American adults who use smartphones, according to a report by the Pew Internet Project. As such, ServiceMagic recently hired 10 workers to focus on mobile application products. The company employs roughly 1,100, with the bulk in the Denver area.

"I pretty much run my day through my iPhone," said Arvada West store owner Vagts.

To manage contracting estimates and appointments, Vagts uses the cloud-based Google Docs, where everything is stored on remote computer servers and can be accessed via the Internet.

"Mobile is taking the desktop into your hands," said Daniel Rogers of Cañon City- based MyAppToGo, which develops mobile apps and websites for businesses. "That's why you have apps. It's simplicity. It's convenience."

NY Times Syndication