Author: Eva Glass

Eva Glass first rose to prominence in The INQUIRER. She continues to work behind the scenes to dig out the best stories.

Android market share falls

Posted on February 2, 2015 by - News

330ogleData from market research company ABI Research indicates that Google’s Android operating system is losing share in the smartphone market.
The data shows that certified Android smartphone shipments fell in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to the third quarter.
Cerified Android shipments fell to 205 million in the fourth quarter, down from 217.49 million – a drop of around five percent.
The clear winner in the quarter was Apple’s iOS – while it only shipped 74.50 millions during Q4, that was up by 90 percent compared to Q3 2014.
Microsoft also managed to increase its market share in the fourth quarter, rising to 10.70 millions – up 19 percent compared to the third quarter.
Others – by which we can infer operating systems by Blackberry and the like, saw growth decline by 26 percent.

 

Intel buys German chip company

Posted on February 2, 2015 by - News

Intel Q4_14_ResultsGiant US microprocessor combine Intel has paid an unknown amount of money to snap up a Germany chip company.
Lantiq, owned since 2009 by a private equity company makes semiconductors used in different applications including broadband, wi-fi, and fibre connections.
Lantiq was sold to private equity company Golden Gate for a quarter of million euro. Lantiq was originally a wing of Infineon.
It’s believed that the Intel acquisition is part of its attempt to be a major player in the much hyped “internet of things”.
But while there is no doubt that the internet of things will generate a lot of revenue, there is no one standard and other companies, including Qualcomm and Google want to grab a share of that market too.

 

UK makes Google change privacy policy

Posted on January 30, 2015 by - News

OgleThe Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has made Google sign an undertaking to improve information about how it collects personal data in the UK.
The ICO said that following an investigation it found that Google’s search engine was “too vague” in describing how it used personal data it had collected.
The ICO said Google has signed a formal undertaking to make changes to its privacy policy so that it meets the needs of the UK Data Protection Act.
The ICO worked with other European data protection authorities, it said.
The enforcement officer at the ICO, Steve Eckersley, said: “This investigation has identified some important learning points not only for Google, but also for all organisations operating online, particularly when they seek to combine and use data across services.”
Google will have to make agreed changes by the 30th of June this year, and take even more steps over the next two years.
Google’s undertaking can be found here.

 

Big data has serious risks

Posted on January 30, 2015 by - News

server-racksScientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said just four pieces of vague information can open the door to crackers and hackers.
The researchers said the dates and locations of just four transactions can identify 90 percent of people in a data set recording three months of credit card transactions by 1.1 million users.
For example, say the MIT scientists, that someone with copies of just three recent receipts, or one receipt, an Instagram photo of you, and a tweet about the phone you just bought will have a 94 percent chance of extracting your credit card records from a million other people.
The implications are serious, because both public and private entities see aggregated digital data as a source of insight.
Big Data, however, holds socially beneficial implications, the researchers said.
They are looking at other ways to protect peoples’ data from being filched.

 

IBM opens UK services centre

Posted on January 30, 2015 by - News

IBM logoBig Blue said it will open a services centre for its clients that will generate 300 IT jobs.
The centre will be based in Leicester and will supply application development and maintenance, and test and system management services.
IBM is pushing services for the cloud, for big data analytics, and for mobile, social and security technologies.
As well as the full time jobs, IBM said it will also offer internships and apprenticeships at the centre.
IBM is inviting interested candidates to submit their CVs to recruitment-isc@uk.ibm.com
David Stokes, CEO of IBM UK and Ireland commented: “The investment in job creation aims to inspire the next generation workforce from local technical colleges and universities.”

 

Smartphone shipments boom

Posted on January 30, 2015 by - News

smartphones-genericOver 375.2 million smartphones shipped during the fourth quarter of 2014 – that’s up by 28.2 percent compared to the same period the year before.
Apple had been the number two vendor in 11 previous quarters before Q4 2014, but, according to IDC, it was close to a tie with Samsung, the market leader.
IDC now predicts that Samsung could well outstrip Samsung during 2015.
It’s not just Apple that is challenging Samsung – as we’ve reported before, is under challenge from small Android OEMs selling products at much lower margins.
Growth in 2013 represented 40.5 percent but according to IDC, “the market clearly still has legs”. It estimates growth will fall to a mid teen figure during 2015.
The top five vendors for the fourth quarter were Samsung, Apple, Lenovo, Huawei and Xiaomi.  The last showed growth of 178.6 percent during Q4 2014, compared to Q4 2013.

 

Cloud becomes less nebulous

Posted on January 30, 2015 by - News

Clouds in Oxford: pic Mike MageeA survey of 125 UK based IT managers and chief information officers (CIOs) has revealed that cloud apps are more widely used than often thought.
Centrix Software hired market research firm Vanson Bourne to undertake the survey.
Even though 90 percent of the organisations surveyed have cloud based apps, the IT folk are concerned about managing cloud apps and about duplication of app features.
The survey showed that over three quarters of organisations have a plan for leveraging the cloud this year.
Over a third were however worried about the growing cost of cloud subscriptions.
The top feature the IT managers are interested in is office productivity – only two percent thought marketing automation was of much use.
Financial services and government are lagging behind in adopting cloud apps – 20 percent said they had no cloud based apps and 24 percent in the financial sector said they had no plans for cloud apps at all this year.

 

Dell leads commercial monitor market

Posted on January 29, 2015 by - News

Dell logoWhile there were shortages of monitor panels last year that caused only 133.6 million units to ship, some vendors have done better than expected.
Those are vendors that bundle monitors with desktops, according to research outfit WitsView.
And Dell is one those that does just that.  Replacements for Windows XP had a knock off effect that put Dell on top with a market share of 15.8 percent worldwide.
Another PC manufacturer, Lenovo, also had a boost from the enterprise market and had 9.7 percent market share.
The top 10 vendors are Dell, Philips, Samsung, HP, LGE, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Viewsonic and Benq,
Philips had a particularly good year in China.
Samsung, which was top vendor for four clear years, only managed to make it to number three with 11.9 percent market share.
HP had 10.7 percent commercial monitor market share, so it’s breathing down Samsung’s neck.

 

Microsoft in big Office give away

Posted on January 29, 2015 by - News

Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEOSoftware giant Microsoft has decided that people who use Android tablets will be able to download Office applications for nothing from today.
Office includes Excel, Word and Power Point.
Microsoft had already made versions of the software available for people with iPads.
But it has today also released a version of email client Outlook for Apple’s iPads and iPhones.
Microsoft realises that the market is slipping out of its reach and this is a gamble by CEO Satya Nadella to broaden the software offerings on mobile devices.
What it wants to do is to persuade people to upgrade to its fully blown Office 365 which costs about £5 a month if you sign up for it.
Microsoft also released a beta version of the Outlook app for people using the Android operating system.

 

Intel pins its hopes on enterprise market

Posted on January 29, 2015 by - News

Intel Q4_14_ResultsFaced with stiff competition at the mobile end of the market, it appears that Intel is hoping sales of expensive machines to enterprises will set the company back on track.
Talking to Reuters, Tom Garrison, an Intel VP, said that sales of its vPro microprocessors represent a fifth of the corporate PC business.
Garrison said that there are over 100 million vPros in enterprises worldwide and sales of these particular processors are particularly lucrative.
It introduced what it described as a fifth generation vPro today.
In overall terms, Intel said earlier this month that the PC market will be flat in 2015 with prices falling.

 

Samsung shows profit drop

Posted on January 29, 2015 by - News

Samsung HQ Silicon Valley - MM picMassive South Korean combine Samsung said its earnings fell for the first time in three years.
And it’s blaming the decline on mobile phone sales, which fell by 21 percent in its financial year.
The company’s net profit fell to $21.3 billion for the year, down by 27 percent compared to its previous financial year.
Many are agreed that competition from homegrown Chinese manufacturers have nibbled into Samsung sales in the country.
It also missed a trick in the second half of last year by not having anything to compete with Apple introductions.
Samsung is predicting an increasing decline for smartphones in the first calendar quarter of this year.

 

People keep taking the tablets

Posted on January 29, 2015 by - News

ipad3Despite reports suggesting that the market for tablets is in decay, fresh data shows that it ain’t necessarily so.
Digitimes Research said that overall global tablet shipments in the fourth quarter last year grew by 16.9 percent to total 74.77 million units, mostly down to Apple and first tier vendors good performances.
But so-called “white box” tablets declined in the fourth quarter.
The survey said these white box tablets, using the Android operating system, offer very slim margins and many vendors have given up on manufacturing.
Apple managed to ship 21.9 million iPads in Q4 2014 and was the largest tablet vendor.
Samsung failed to introduce new tablet products in the second half of last year and so it say some stagnation.
Third in line was Amazon, displacing Lenovo from that position in the marketplace.

 

School failure linked to computer use

Posted on January 29, 2015 by - News

dutch-childrenAn extensive study by the University Autonomy de Barcelona (UAB) sampled 5,538 secondary school students to gauge the effect of technology in their lives.
And it’s discovered clear links between school failure and excessive use of computers at home.
It also finds that an intensive addiction to ICT is linked with the consumption of toxic substances.
The survey, conducted in 2010/2011 in a region of Catalonia, collected information on after school activities, school performance, consumption of toxic substances, family relations, use of ICT and parental control.
It also had questionnaires completed on the children’ experiences with the internet, with mobile phones and video games.
While 98 percent of the students had internet at home, 89 percent owned a mobile before turning 13.
For internet access, 87 percent used the web for social networks, 52 percent for chats, 68.3 percent for email  and 50 percent for school work.
Failure at school amounted to 29 percent if a computer was used more than three hours a day.

 

HP won PC battle in 2014

Posted on January 29, 2015 by - News

HPThings went better for the notebook industry last year, according to a report from Taiwanese research house Trendforce.
That was largely due to people replacing Windows XP systems and the market itself promoting low priced notebooks.
The survey said shipments of notebooks in 2014 hit 175.5 million, a year n year growth of 3.6 percent.
The leader in the X86 pack was HP, followed by Lenovo, Dell, Asus and Acer.
But the real stellar performer in 2014 was Apple, because it lowered some prices.  It showed year on year growth of 46.4 percent, and increased its market share to 9.3 percent.
Here, according to Trendforce, are the top runners and riders in the notebook race.

Screen Shot 2015-01-29 at 14.25.58

 

Flat panels judged by area

Posted on January 29, 2015 by - News

oldtvWhere once the global flat panel industry focused on unit growth, it appears that it is now taking a bigger interest in area demand.
Market intelligence company IHS said that last year, display panel shipments grew to 168.9 million square metres.
That’s up by nine percent compared to the year before, and will grow at five percent CAGR to reach 223.6 million square metres in 2020.
Bigger is now better, according to Yoshio Tamura, director of research for IHS.  “There were four major driving forces,,, consumer demand for larger LCD TVs, soaring demand for five inch and larger smartphones, larger automotive display screens, and larger tablet PCs.”
Major players in the PC business including Apple, HP, Lenovo, Acer and Asus have launched notebooks with larger screens.
Smartphones, particularly in the Chinese market and developing market, are fuelling demand for bigger screen sizes.