AMD's Notebook Line Up for the Back to School season looks sexyer than ever!
In a private event in San Francisco, Calif., yesterday, AMD showcased the Fall fashion lineup of notebooks and desktops based on its VISION technology; mostly dual-core machines with an integrated ATI graphics chips.
AMD designed the VISION programme to simplify the PC buying experience by making it easier for consumers to choose the right computer for them based on what they want to do with the product.
“It wasn’t so long ago that if you wanted to find notebook computer with an AMD processor they were all uniformally very plain – I would hesitate to say ugly but they were plain. But now, the system OEMs (like HP, Dell, Sony, Toshiba, Acer…) have put much effort into designing really pretty boxes that have AMD processors as much as they have moved to have attractive designs around the Intel-based processors… It’s clear now that AMD is now equipped to compete non only the basis of their technology but also on the base of their OEMs design,” explains Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight64.
AMD’s Vision strategy found useful in retail PC shopping
“I think it [Vision] has worked. It’s made it easier for people to go into a store and figure out what kind of computer they want. And to calibrate their own needs with the system capabilities,” adds Brookwood who finds AMD Vision most successful in retail. “The salespeople don’t get a lot of training… and the Vision programme guides people into making smart choices and not under buying or over buying… and from that standpoint I think it [Vision] had simplified the purchasing process and taken some of the mystery about multi-core and discrete GPU out of the equation. And that’s basically good.”
The personal computer market topped expectations in the second quarter as resilient consumers shopped for portables, and shipments to China and other Southeast Asian economies reversed course and grew.
The overall market continued to shrink during the three months. But the decline was smaller than anticipated and it gave some analysts hope the market would once again expand by the fourth quarter.
Research firms Gartner and IDC released quarterly numbers on Wednesday afternoon that offered similar market assessments. IDC said the global market fell 3.1 percent, or less than the 6.3 percent decline it expected. Gartner said the market slipped 5 percent, a better performance than the 9.8 percent drop it projected.
“The results can be interpreted as a small sign of a PC market recovery in terms of shipment volumes in some regions,” said Gartner principal analyst Mikako Kitagawa. Asia/Pacific and the U.S. came in better than forecast while weakness continued in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Hewlett-Packard widened its lead as the world’s largest PC vendor with almost 20 percent of the market. Dell saw shipments drop sharply, but held the number two spot with an almost 14 percent share.
Acer continued to rival Dell in size with its strategy of selling low-cost portables and netbooks. Toshiba also gained ground.
The two research firms offered differing views on Apple’s place in the U.S. market. Gartner said Apple advanced modestly to 8.7 percent of the market while IDC said Apple lost ground and held 7.6 percent of the U.S. market. Apple generally prices its machines above comparable Windows models.
The Acer Aspire Revo is the first NetTop combining Nvidia's ION graphics chip and Intel's Atom processor
Nvidia delivered on its promise to bring its low-cost, green, full-featured ION platform to market, with the help of the Acer Aspire Revo mini-PC.
Pricing has not been confirmed yet, but expect the system to be much cheaper – perhaps close to $300 – than Apple’s $600 Mac mini computer or Dell’s $449 Studio Hybrid.
Despite using Intel’s low cost Atom chip, the Acer Aspire Revo is no larger than a typical hardcover book, but yet is a fully capable desktop running Windows Vista, the latest video games and playing BluRay movies.
“ION is 10 times faster than comparably priced PCs… at 1 liter it’s 1/30 the size of standard desktops… Consumes one-fourth the power of traditional desktop PCs,” says a Nvidia spokesperson.
According to the Santa Clara, Calif.-chipmaker, the on-board ION graphics performance is 5 to 10 times faster than PCs with Intel’s integrated graphics.
“The Revo can be compared to an Atom-based desktop systems [NetTop]; it has similar size and thermals, similar components, except for graphics,” adds Nvidia.
If the price is confirmed, the craze for netbooks could soon reach the PC desktop market with those new affordable nettops.
The full hardware specifications of the Acer mini-PC after the jump.
Earlier this week, we published a post lamenting the coming app store chaos as operators, hardware makers and software writers jump into the mobile applications pond.
The Android Market is only one of the rush of app stores as consumer chaos is seen
On Thursday, Compete echoed the notion that the app store rush is on. The research firm in a blog post began a list of coming stores, with online proprietors eager to duplicate Apple’s success with its iPhone App Store.
All this enthusiasm could create confusion for consumers unsure of where to find applications for their phones.
Apparently, that hasn’t held back any of the up and comers. Here’s the list Compete started. Please add to in the comments section below:
IPhone App Store
Google Android Market
Microsoft Skymarket
Nokia’s Ovi Store
Blackberry App World
Acer’s app store (speculation)
The Mobile World Congress just opened this morning (Europe time) in Barcelona, Spain, and the mood is still upbeat despite the recession.
Nokia, HTC and many other mobile vendors were inviting loads of reporters/bloggers to the event, all expenses paid of course!
The GSM Association which organizes the yearly event expects over 1,200 companies to show off their new wares in the Catalan capital and more than 60,000 attendees.
Smartphones: the bright spot in a declining mobile phone market
A slew of smartphones make up the main attraction of this year’s show. Gartner expects the smartphone category to grow 32% this year despite a 4% to 5% drop of the overall mobile phone devices market in 2009; the first in 10 years!
Here are some of the smartphones unveiled at the show: Sony Ericsson’s Symbian-based 10-megapixels prototype Idou; Acer’s first ever touchscreen smartphones; GPS smartphones from Garmin (Nuvifone) and Inventec; Toshiba TG01; HTC Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2; LG Arena; Nokia’s E75 and solar panel phones from LG and Samsung.
No words yet on Dell’s eventual entry in the smartphone business.
Intel's cheap quad-core mobile processor would fit perfectly in Apple's 17-in Macbook Pro
Intel wants to persuade anyone willing to listen that 2009 will be the year of quad-core processors in laptops.
And what better way to make this prediction happen than to actually launch a quad-core CPU so dirt cheap that OEMs will be dumb not to take it.
How cheap? Well, what about pricing a quad-core processor cheaper than its dual-core little brother!
That should certainly make things moving, don’t you think?
Apple could use Intel’s cheap quad-core processor for its 17-inch Macbook Pro
And that’s exactly what Intel did over the weekend, when it introduced a new mobile quad-core chip, the 2-GHz Core 2 Quad Q9000 for $348 in batches of 1,000; at the same price it sells its current 2.66-GHz Core 2 Duo dual-core processor!
Acer is the first PC maker to introduce a high-end laptop with Intel’s bargain quad-core chip at less than $1,800. Other PC OEMs will surely follow suit including Dell (perhaps in the Adamo line), H-P and Apple which did not update the 17-inch MacBook Pro when it refreshed its MacBook Pro line last October.
One more week before we find out if our prediction was correct!
Capitalizing on the consumer interest in cheap laptops, or netbooks, Acer outgrew many of its peers in the third quarter and closed in on Dell for the number two slot in the PC market.
Netbooks helped fuel Acer's growth
In the loss column, Apple’s market share slipped almost half a point. The company held 3.2 percent of the global market at quarter’s end, according to iSuppli.
Acer’s shipments in the quarter rose 79 percent to 9.7 million, with 3 million of them notebooks, iSuppli said. The majority of the notebooks, were netbooks.
That left Acer trailing Dell by less than 2 percentage points and claiming 12.2 percent of the market. Dell held onto a 13.9 share, with 11 million shipments. Hewlett-Packard is the number one PC maker.
ISuupli sees 4.3 percent growth in the PC market next year.
German wireless carrier T-Mobile offers the Acer one netbook with 3G for €1 or about $2!
Frankly, the rip-off has to stop. Especially in these recessionary times.
Earlier, I noted that carriers in Europe were heavily subsidizing the iPhone; some simply giving away for free Apple’s smartphone; while in the U.S. AT&T still charges a minimum of $199 for the 8GB model.
Radioshack's Acer one 3G offer at $100!
The steep disparity between U.S. and European wireless prices manifests again with this “first ever” subsidized Netbook offer by Radio Shack. Over this weekend, the U.S. retailer is selling an Acer Aspire One netbook for $99 with an AT&T AirCard 3G data plan of $60/month.
Sounds like a good deal right? Not so, if you know that T-Mobile of Germany is charging €1 or about $2 for the same deal!
In both cases, it appears that AT&T is not willing to subsidize as much as its European counterparts.
Some say the U.S. carrier is overcharging, which unfortunately will not be the first nor the last time. But no matter how you call it, this must stop. Now. Please.
Laptops are hot; much hotter than desktop PCs. So where are most consumers directed when they use a major search engine to scout a purchase?
Dell is the vendor receiving the most traffic from searches with the word “laptop,” says Compete. Hewlett-Packard was the vendor next in line. Apple was 12th on the list.
According to the Compete study, consumers frequently use shopping sites to investigate or make purchases, such as Amazon, eBay and Yahoo. They also are turning to review sites like CNet and notebookreviews.
Among vendors, Dell topped the list receiving 5 percent of the referrals. H-P got 2.5 percent or referrals. Apple was 12th on the list followed by Toshiba, Lenovo and Acer.
Search engines most frequently direct laptop shoppers to Dell
The mini is H-P's latest netbook. But will consumers keep it?
Rumour goes that half of all netbooks are being returned back to their manufacturers.
Early last month, Taiwanese PC maker MSI revealed that returns of netbooks was higher than regular notebooks, primarily because of Linux unease; Linux netbooks return rate was at least four times higher than Windows XP netbooks. And that’s “because they weren’t positioned properly in the first place,” says Roger Kay, President of Endpoint Technologies Associates.
“Netbooks are appropriate only for email, chat, browsing, shopping, information gathering. Unfortunately, the killer application for consumers is video, and these things aren’t up to it,” confies Kay.
Intel Atom processor will always be a low performer to avoid cannibalizing its high-end chips
The analyst adds that netbooks are not just cheap notebooks; they’re a different class of machines. “And Intel wants to keep it that way because its higher priced, higher margin parts optimized for performance would otherwise be cannibalized,” prompts Kay.
So, are netbooks real? Sure there are according to Kay and one big driving factor is Intel’s Atom. “In order to make these new parts pay, Intel has to drum up a lot of volume for them. But PC hardware OEMs [like Acer, Asus, Dell or H-P] are also seeing a way to keep the flow of consumer notebooks going with lower price points,” says the analyst.
There’s little doubt netbooks will be a hot item this holiday season. But the multi-billion dollar question is “will consumers keep them after being disappointed by their performance?”
Can anyone @IBM fix the WiFi network at #IOD11 ? It's been terrible for the past 2 days and everybody I talked just can't stand it anymore 4 months ago
Posted by TechPulse 360 
