epages News [Computer Hardware Shops, September 2003]

Global chip sales up by 2.9% in July

Sep 02, 2003: Amsterdam: Global semiconductor sales were $12.905 billion in July, rising 2.9 % from the previous month and 10.5 % versus July 2002, a global industry group said. Sales in Japan jumped 4.8 % from June, while sales in Asia Pacific were up 2.9 %. In Europe they rose 2.3 % and in Americas by one % from June, the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) group said.

Server market logs 33% revenue growth

Sep 02, 2003: New Delhi: Server revenue in Asia/Pacific outside Japan totalled $1.21 billion in the second quarter of 2003, representing an 8% increase compared to the same period last year, according to Gartner. The Indian server market experienced revenue growth of 33% in the second quarter of 2003, compared to the same period last year. China continued to occupy top slot for server revenue in Asia/Pacific with a 31% market share. The country experienced an 11% rise in revenue compared to the second quarter of 2002. The impact of SARS was experienced mainly in the services sector. Other sectors have remained fairly resilient. Continuous investment by the government in building the IT environment has helped to contain the overall impact on server revenue for China.However, Hong Kong seemed to be the worst affected by SARS, recording a revenue decline of 29%. South Korea registered a marginal rise of 2%, showing little or no signs of recovery.

IBM targets laptop market in India

Sep 03, 2003: Bangalore: IBM India is betting on a combination of technology, sales and support to grow market share for ThinkPad — its notebook computers. The company wants a sizeable share of the promising notebook market. Notebook usage in India pales in comparison to mature markets. While the ratio between laptop and desktop usage is 1:2 in countries like US, it is 1:30 in India. High-cost is one of the prime obstacles for increased usage. Customers also pay a higher 40% duty on laptops. Market research firm IDC said the number of laptops sold in the country during second quarter of 2003 was 18,289. Of this, IBM India sold 5,165 ThinkPads — second to its rival Hewlett Packard which sold 5,619 units.

IBM India’s share in the competitive laptop market space is expanding. In the first quarter of 2002, 1,729 ThinkPads were sold compared to 5,165 now. He expects laptop market to grow from 49,000 units last year to 65,000 by end 2003. Further, he said notebooks which last year cost around Rs 90,000 now cost Rs 75,000.

IBM India announces ISV initiative

Sep 04, 2003: Bangalore: IBM India announced the Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) Advantage Initiative, reinforcing its commitment to deliver solutions to the small and medium business (SMB) market. The initiative is designed to provide ISVs with technical and marketing support to help meet the needs of SMB customers. As part of the initiative, ISVs work with IBM India to port their applications to IBM's open infrastructure, with a special focus on IBM WebSphere Express and IBM DB2 Express running on Linux, as well as IBM WebSphere and IBM DB2 Universal Database.

IBM India intends to broaden the scope of ISV advantage program over time to include new IBM Express software, hardware and services offerings as they become available. This will further enable ISV Advantage participants to build comprehensive solutions to better serve SMB customers.

MS unveils new hardware line-up

Sep 04, 2003: New Delhi: Microsoft India announced the launch of a new hardware range including wireless peripherals to offer advanced computing experience to PC users. The 2003 hardware range includes Microsoft's largest line-up ever of wireless peripherals, which include “Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer, IntelliMouse Explorer, Wireless Optical Mouse, Wireless Optical Desktop Elite, Optical Desktop Pro, Optical Desktop and Basic Wireless Optical Desktop", according to a company release. Microsoft Hardware Group is involved in engineering, industrial design to enhance software experience and strengthen the connection between consumers and their PCs. All the products will be available on the web and from retail stores.

Sony licenses optical technology for robots

Sep 04, 2003: Los Angeles: Robotics Technology Company Evolution Robotics Inc. said it had licensed its visual-recognition software to the unit of Sony Corp. that produces the Japanese conglomerate's Aibo robots. Privately held Evolution Robotics, based in Pasadena, California, said Sony's Entertainment Robot Co. would use the "ER Vision" software in future "entertainment robots." Financial terms of the licensing agreement were not disclosed. Evolution Robotics sells a kit on its Web site that lets hobbyists with a laptop create a robot for $499.

In demonstrations last year, ER said its goal for the vision software wasto allow robots to do simple domestic tasks like being shown a can of a particular brand of soda, going to the refrigerator, opening it, selecting the right can from a number of different brands and carrying that can to the user.

Computer with 3-D display planned by Sharp

Sep 11, 2003: Tokyo: Notebook computers that show images in 3-D are to be put on sale in Japan and the United States next month by Sharp Corp, it said on Thursday. The 3-D feature, which does not require special glasses, is a world first, said Sharp, Japan's largest maker of liquid crystal displays. It said the 3-D feature can be used for video games and such purposes as architectural design, and users can switch to 2-D for normal use such as word processing by just pressing a button.

The 3-D feature will be in computers with a 15-inch display and Intel Corp's Pentium 4 processor, and will hit store shelves on October 27 in Japan. The US launch is set at around the same time.

Computer with 3-D display planned by Sharp

Sep 12, 2003: Tokyo: Notebook computers that show images in 3-D are to be put on sale in Japan and the United States next month by Sharp Corp. The 3-D feature, which does not require special glasses, is a world first, said Sharp, Japan's largest maker of liquid crystal displays. It said the 3-D feature can be used for video games and such purposes as architectural design, and users can switch to 2-D for normal use such as word processing by just pressing a button. Although Sharp is the dominant player in the fast-growing market for flat-panel LCD TVs with a global share of about 50 %, it holds less than 10 % of the domestic notebook computer market.

The 3-D feature will be in computers with a 15-inch display and Intel Corp's Pentium 4 processor, and will hit store shelves on October 27 in Japan. The US launch is set at around the same time. Sharp said the computers are expected to sell for about 350,000 yen ($2,989) apiece, 60,000-70,000 yen higher than conventional 2-D models with similar specifications. It targets developers of 3-D content and other corporate users at the initial stage, and aims for monthly sales of a little more than 1,000 computers. But it plans to launch models targeted at general users by the end of the year to boost sales. Sharp already makes cell phones with similar 3-D displays for Japan's dominant wireless firm NTT DoCoMo Inc.

Dell expects to offer flat-panel TVs, electronics

Sep 12, 2003: Los Angeles: Dell Inc., the No. 1 personal computer maker, plans to begin offering a broad range of consumer electronics products and could start selling flat-panel TVs fairly soon. Dell's move into consumer electronics comes as both it and rivals target the market for televisions and other products, a market dominated by Panasonic, Sony Corp., Thomson's and Philips. Facing slower demand for personal computers, PC makers are turning to personal entertainment devices, such as digital cameras, MP3 players, and high-definition TVs, which are seen as key growth areas in the $100 billion consumer electronics market.

Gateway Inc., for example, sells flat-screen TVs and low-cost digital cameras sporting the Gateway brand. Dell, meanwhile, has done well with its Axim line of personal digital assistants and Dell-branded printers, which are manufactured by Lexmark International Inc. It recently started selling plasma televisions.

Matsushita to expand chip plant in Singapore

Sep 13, 2003: Tokyo: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, maker of Panasonic products, said it would invest S$150 million ($85 million) over the next three to five years to expand its semiconductor factory in Singapore. One-third of the investment, or S$50 million, will go towards the start of production of charge coupled device (CCD) image sensors, used in digital cameras and photo-snapping mobile phones. Handset makers have struggled to meet booming demand for camera phones because production has been hampered by the lack of supply for essential components such as CCDs.

Matsushita, the world's second-biggest consumer electronics maker, said it expected CCD sales to comprise 30% of its total semiconductor revenues over the next three to five years. The plant, Matsushita Semiconductor Singapore Pvt. Ltd, will be the first factory operated by a Japanese company to manufacture CCDs outside of Japan. It plans to invest the other S$100 million to expand the production of LSI (large scale integration), or "system" chips that combine multiple functions onto one piece of silicon, and optical readers used in DVD and CD players. Shares of Matsushita rose 0.13% to 1,492 yen by midday, compared with a 0.69% rise in Tokyo's electric machinery sub-index.

HP leads Asia-Pacific blade server market

Sep 18, 2003: Singapore: Hewlett-Packard has announced that it has reinforced its leadership position in the blade servers market in the Asia Pacific region with a continued strong customer demand for its ProLiant Blade Servers. It leads the race ahead of players like IBM and Dell with a vendor revenue market share of 65.6% in the Asia Pacific blade server segment for the second quarter of 2003, according to a recent study done by Gartner Dataquest recently. The Blade servers with their potential ease of deployment, cost and space saving advantages are expected to continue to mature into a viable architecture to meet these changing infrastructure requirements.

The HP ProLiant BL blade server line exemplifies how HP technology can enable an adaptive enterprise based on industry standards, modularity, simplification and enterprise integration. The integration of ProLiant Essentials management software with HP’s intelligent blade architecture and management features allows customers new levels of flexibility, efficiency and automated control. ProLiant BL architectures allow rapid deployment, provisioning and re-provisioning of resources as demands change.

More PC makers to sell machines with Java

Sep 24, 2003: San Francisco: Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. said that PC makers including Acer Inc., Gateway Inc. and Toshiba would start selling laptop and notebook personal computers loaded with the latest Sun Java software. Sun, seeking to establish its Java programming language as a brand name and wrest market share from rival Microsoft Corp., said its agreements with PC makers to date increase the latest version of Java to 50% of the PC desktop market. Sun announced similar agreements in June with No. 2 computer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. and No. 1 PC maker Dell Inc.

Introduced by Sun in 1995, Java is used to write software applications that run on many different types of computers, electronic devices and operating systems. Found in everything from Java smart cards to printers, computers, servers and cell phone, Java has spawned a community of 3 million software developers. Santa Clara, California-based Sun has largely pitched Java as an instrument to blunt Microsoft's efforts on the Internet, handheld devices and other technology sectors. Until recently, most PCs were shipped with Microsoft's version of the Java Virtual Machine, software needed to run programs written in Java. Sun had filed suit against Microsoft alleging that the world's biggest software maker had altered Java to make it work best only on Windows machines. Toshiba will ship its entire notebook product line with Java, and Samsung will ship a broad range of its business and consumer desktop and notebooks PCs starting in December.

Global chip sales up 4% in August - SIA

Sep 29, 2003: Amsterdam: Global chip sales increased by four % to $13.42 billion in August against July, keeping the hard-hit industry on track for a healthy recovery, a US-based industry body said. Revenues grew 12.5% compared with the same year-ago period, the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) said, quoting statistics from the WSTS world chip industry. The increase was led by chips for consumer electronics, computers and mobile phones, SIA said. The SIA as well as many industry and financial analysts believe the chip industry can grow by 10% or more this year after rising marginally in 2002 and declining sharply in 2001.

The FTSE European semiconductor index climbed 1.2% at 216.7 points, slightly underperforming the 1.8% higher DJ Stoxx Eurotech index, which was led higher by index heavyweight Nokia. Revenues from microprocessors and DRAM memory chips that go into computers rose the most, up 7.8% and 11% respectively, as back-to-school demand and recovering company investments led to PC sales growth after three flat years. Chips that go into DVD players and digital cameras did well too, with sales of application-specific-standard products (ASSP) up 5.3% and sales of flash memory for storing pictures and MP3 songs in portable devices up 6.9%. Sales of digital signal processors used in mobile phones were up 4.7%.

 
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