WebOS: Are we there yet?
It looks like the 600 employees in Hewlett-Packard’s WebOS division will only have to wait a bit longer to know their fate.
New Chief Executive Meg Whitman told French newspaper Le Figaro that she plans to announce her decision on the operating system in the next two weeks.
“This is not an easy decision, because we have a team of 600 people which is in limbo,” she was quoted as saying in French, as per the translation by Google Translate.
HP, which acquired WebOS when it bought Palm in 2010 for $1.2 billion, has been looking to sell the mobile software platform, sources have told Reuters.
WebOS employees have been in a limbo ever since HP decided to kill its webOS-based TouchPad tablet following poor sales.
Whitman, in the interview, also acknowledged that HP may lose its crown as the No.1 computer seller next year to Silicon Valley neighbor Apple, thanks to roaring sales of iPads. Apple will be anointed No.1 only if tablets are counted as PCs, of course.
The former eBay CEO, who has so far gained points for making quick decisions and communicating more clearly with investors, expects any significant changes that are implemented at the company to translate to visible results in three to five years, given the size of HP.
Michael Dell: We’re hiring, but show me your skills
Michael Dell says — in no uncertain terms — that his company, which shed thousands of jobs over the past few years, is hiring. There’s only one problem: it can’t find enough qualified people.
“I’m amazed at this,” he said in an interview with Reuters on Thursday at the company’s Round Rock, Texas headquarters. Dell employs around 100,000 people.
“We go in our meetings and we need more of these, and more of these people –hiring, hiring, hiring. And then you look at 9.7 percent unemployment and you say: ‘whats going on here?’ The people and skills we’re looking for, they’re not there. And so, the educational institutions need to do a better job creating these new skills.”
Dell’s solution? It has so-called “universities” it uses to train its own workforce. But the company is still short of skilled workers.
Dell, one of the world’s richest men, founded his namesake company in the 1980s while still in college. In 1992, at age of 27, Dell became the youngest CEO of a company in the Fortune 500.
He said the company’s torrid growth in the early days saw huge amounts of hiring of skilled workers.
“How did Dell grow 80 percent per year for the first eight years and 60 percent a year for the six years after that. No acquisitions. We hired and trained a lot of people. So we know how to do that. There aren’t enough of them out there. I just find it fascinating that you have this high unemployment yet we’re hiring and we’re not finding them.”
It’s all good and well to push positive PR for the world Michael, how about treating your current employees fairly?
What about better pay, to catch up with the industry rates + inflation?
And can we have our benefits back? Stock Participation Plan for one.
CES: HP demos Android smartbook
The nascent smartbook market got a big nudge forward on Friday, courtesy of Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest personal computer maker.
Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP’s PC division, turned up on stage at the Consumer Electronics Show during a keynote address by Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs to demo a device based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip and running Google’s mobile Android software.
There was no formal product unveiling, but HP showed off a smartbook with multitouch capability, and Bradley spoke with apparent interest on the category, which is just beginning to build steam.
“We’re not going to make any announcement today but you know how interested and focused and frankly committed we are to this space,” Bradley said.
Smartbooks run on low-power ARM-based processors like Snapdragon or Nvidia’s Tegra, as opposed to netbooks, which run on Intel’s x86-based Atom platform.
There was certainly some buzz around smartbooks at CES, following the unveiling of Lenovo’s innovative Skylight device, and its IdeaPad U1 (which also run on Snapdragon.) Nvidia showed off a number of prototype mobile computing devices, but made no formal announcements about any products, as some had anticipated.
Intel likely isn’t sweating just yet; its dominance of the traditional PC CPU market isn’t under imminent threat. It remains to be seen how consumers will react to the smartbook phenomenon. The battery-friendly devices offer less processing power than Atom, but plenty of juice to do things most folks want to do, like surf the Web and watch movies.
ARM Holdings is a rising star in the field of Micro Processors to power the Mobile Internet Device. ARM have an advantage over it competitors such as AMD and Intel. ARM only design it the processors and the license the technologies to host of other vendors, such as ST Micro Electronics, Toshiba, Nokia, Apple, Nvida and to many, many more companies. The list can really go on and on.
Source:
http://www.contract-mobile-phones.org
HP refreshes touch PCs
Hewlett-Packard took the wraps off its latest line of touchscreen PCs, a category that seems to be edging its way into the consumer consciousness.
The growing popularity of smartphones means people are much more comfortable computing via touch — rather than typing — and new devices are crowding into the market. Touchscreen computers also allow companies like HP to innovate on the traditional PC paradigm, offering fresh applications and stretching the limits of what a traditional PC can do.
“This is not just a gimmick, you have to make it something that’s would be useful for people,” said John Cook, vice president of marketing in HP’s consumer PC unit.
HP’s TouchSmart line was first introduced in 2007, and the company now sells a laptop model along with two all-in-one desktops. The TouchSmart tx2 laptop features a multi-touch screen that can swivel to lie flat. The company’s latest desktops, a 20-inch and 23-inch model, will ship in the U.S. with a number of pre-installed apps–another smartphone feature that has migrated to PCs–including Hulu, Netflix and Twitter. Many people using the all-in-ones on the kitchen counter as an entertainment hub of sorts.
HP also unveiled traditional business laptops, the ProBook 6545b and 6445b, that may not be touch, but still offer users innovative features–namely a spill-resistant keyboard with a drain underneath. When liquid goes in, it comes spilling out a hole in the bottom, rather than sloshing around inside for weeks. The new ProBooks also feature HP Power Assistant, an intuitive program that helps a user to better manage power and extend battery life.
Man, that picture totally missed the point. How about a shot of someone on the couch watching hulu. That’s how touch goes. That’s how I use my iphone.
Apple reveals new data in green effort
Apple on Thursday unveiled an overhauled environmental Web page and green strategy, complete with some interesting new data. Most notably, the Mac and iPhone maker is now calculating what it calls its entire carbon footprint–including emissions generated by its products. As the company puts it, “what happens when we design them, what happens when we make them, and what happens when you take them home and use them.”
The approach is different from that used by PC rivals HP and Dell. Apple puts its greenhouse gas emissions at 10.2 million metric tons–a total that includes energy used by folks typing away on on their Macs.
In fact, by Apple’s calculations a majority of the company’s environmental footprint — 53 percent — comes from users plugging in Apple devices and using them. An additional 38 percent comes from manufacturing, with 5 percent from transportation.
Given that half its carbon footprint comes from the juice used by its products, Apple is keying on energy efficiency as the main challenge. It touts innovations — such as a Mac operating system that regulates the machine’s processor between keystrokes, reducing power — that Apple says separates it from Windows-based PCs.
Green has emerged as new area of competition among technology companies, particularly PC makers, and Apple’s new approach adds an intriguing component to the rivalry.
Netbooks, Goldilocks and Nvidia
Netbook makers say the small laptop computers are perfect for Goldilocks – not too big, not too small, just right. But Nvidia wonders if smaller Internet-connected smartbooks might make the netbooks line look like a fairy tale.
“I wonder if the netbook is not enough satisfaction for a PC, not enough battery life to be mobile? I kind of feel like the netbook is a ‘tweener’,” Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang said on Monday on the sidelines of a conference on the Stanford University campus, later adding that he thought netbooks would be replaced by “smartbooks.”
That would be great for Nvidia Corp, since it is making ARM-based chips for smartbooks while its rival Intel Corp’s Atom powers most netbooks. The bet on lower-power ARM chips is that consumers will privilege battery life over computing power.
But Nvidia’s chief spoke in the face of big headwinds: Mobile phone maker Nokia said it would enter the low-cost, low-power PC market with a “booklet” using Intel’s Atom chip.
Nvidia so far has announced only one device based on its ARM-technology Tegra chip– Microsoft’s Zune HD — but Huang has said 50 more designs, 35 of which are “smartbooks,” will be announced in the second half of 2009 or in early 2010.
Nvidia also sells an Ion chipset that can be paired with Intel’s Atom in netbooks.
(Reporting by Clare Baldwin)
Green PC registry is expanding
In a relatively short time, the EPEAT system (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) has become the green standard for computer products in the U.S. And now the rating program — which ranks PCs and displays based on 51 environmental criteria and compiles the information into a searchable database — is expanding its reach internationally.
With the expansion, buyers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Mexico will be able to assess products based on environmental performance in their country. Jeff Omelchuck, EPEAT’s executive director, said the program’s rapid progress is a sign of the growing importance of green in the consumer electronics industry.
“When the registry launched in 2006 on opening day we had 3 participating manufacturers…we had 30 or 40 products,” Omelchuck said. “Today we have the participation of all leading multi-national manufacturers: HP, Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Toshiba Fujitsu, Acer, Asus, really anybody you can name. And a larger number of small local manufacturers.”
EPEAT’s registry features roughly 1,300 products and more than 30 manufacturers. Omelchuck said more than $60 billion worth of purchase contracts now require that the products be EPEAT-registered. U.S. federal agencies are required to buy EPEAT-registered products for at least 95 percent of their needs.
EPEAT rates products “gold,” “silver” or “bronze,” and Omelchuck said progress in the industry can be seen by the improved ratings. When the standard launched, he said it was a roughly 50/50 split for silver and bronze rated products, with no gold. Now, he said, around 25 percent of products carry the gold rating.
EPEAT, which is looking to eventually expand its coverage to products such as printers, servers and smartphones, is managed by the Green Electronics Council, a nonprofit based in Portland, Ore.
Gotta be a member of the club to be able to sell your product. Lame
Ballmer skeptical of Apple share gains
Never one to let an opportunity pass to tweak a competitor, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer got off a few zingers at long-time rival Apple at the software giant’s analyst meeting on Thursday.
“Share versus Apple, you know, we think we may have ticked up a little tick, but when you get right down to it, it’s a rounding error,” he said. “Apple’s share change, plus or minus from ours, they took a little share a couple quarters, we took share back a couple quarters. But Apple’s share globally cost us nothing. Now, hopefully, we will take share back from Apple, but you know, Apple still only sells about 10 million PCs, so it is a limited opportunity.”
Shipments of Apple’s Mac PCs rose 4 percent in the June quarter, while the global PC market shrank 5 percent, according to Gartner.
Ballmer also touched on the advertising war that has blossomed between Microsoft and Apple, and said the Windows ads have proven to be “quite effective”:
“Starting about two years ago, I started to get the question, what’s up with the Apple ads? It was one of the few places where I had a lot of investors pushing me to spend money as opposed to constrain the spend of money. Well, those folks ultimately won.”
Microsoft, of course, also plans to open its own chain of branded branded stores, some right next door to Apple’s outlets.
In consumer markets, Microsoft has underperformed the competition for 9 years. Any credibility that Ballmer ever had has long since evaporated.
Contrary to the prior posters, however, i don’t see Google as the saving grace. While Google and MS are desperately trying to convince consumers to house all their data on remote servers (so that MS and Google can datamine it), Apple is content to offer integrated hardware, software, and services that allow the consumer to easily manage his/her own data. Much more secure, much easier to use.
No amount of Google’s “we’re not evil!” claims and Microsoft’s “look at all the cheap hardware that uses Windows!” claims will change the fact that both companies put customer data integrity and propriety last on their list of priorities.
AMD gains on Intel as intrigue swirls
New data from research group IDC shows Advanced Micro Devices gained on arch rival Intel in the first quarter PC microprocessor market. There is of course still a huge gap between the two — Intel earned a 77.3 percent unit global market share, a loss of 4.7 percent, while AMD held 22.3 percent, a gain of 4.6 percent — but it’s all the more interesting given the intrigue swirling around the two companies.
EU antitrust regulators are expected to issue a ruling Wednesday that Intel illegally paid PC makers to postpone or cancel the launch of products using chips made by AMD, sources have told Reuters. The European Commission believes the violations occurred during a period stretching back eight years, the sources said. Intel could be hit with a sizable fine.
Intel, with revenue of $37.6 billion in 2008, dominates the microprocessor market. AMD posted revenue of $5.8 billion in 2008.
Also of note in the IDC research is fresh data on Intel’s Atom netbook processor. Shipments fell 33% quarter-over-quarter, indicating that equipment manufacturers held plenty of Atom inventory coming into the new year, IDC said. The group estimates Atom made up 21 percent of Intel’s mobile PC processor shipments in the quarter and 6.5 percent of its mobile PC processor revenue.
Overall, PC microprocessor unit shipments declined 13 percent from last year, while market revenue slid 25.1 percent, IDC said.
The news is that the European Commission imposed a record €1.06 billion fine on chip maker Intel, Intel supposedly gave illegal rebates to customers and tried to squeeze rival AMD out of the European market.
Apple and the netbook question
Given the phenomenal success of netbooks — small, cheap, lower-performance PCs — everybody wants to know what plans Apple, the only major PC player that doesn’t have a netbook offering, might have for the space. Netbooks are one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak PC landscape.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs openly dismissed netbooks. And when the company was asked again asked about them on the conference call following its quarterly results Wednesday, Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook sounded similarly unimpressed. Current netbooks, he said, suffer from “cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware.”
“Not something that we would put the Mac brand on, quite frankly. And so, it is not a space as it exists today, that we’re interested in. Nor do we believe that customers in the long-term would be interested in. It is a segment we would choose not to play in.”
Cook continued: “We do look at the space and are interested to see how customers respond to it. People that want a small computer, so to speak, that does browsing and e-mail might want to buy an iPod Touch or they might want to buy an iPhone. So, we have other products to accomplish some of what people are buying netbooks for. So, in that particular way, we play on an indirect basis.”
And finally: “Then, of course, if we find a way where we can deliver an innovative product that really makes a contribution, then we’ll do that. We have some interesting ideas in the space.”
Apple is widely rumored to be developing some sort of small touchscreen PC or similar device.
I have always fancied a mac, but when they are twice the price of a pc I have never been able to justify buying one. I have recently had some success with Linux on an old laptop & discovered that you can put OSX on a netbook via the “hackintosh” community. I now have an MSI (Advent 4211) netbook running OSX & am becoming a convert. Might be a way to gain more customers like me Apple ?
