Author: Nick Farrell

Tablet and Chromebook sales have peaked

Posted on February 8, 2022 by - News

Global tablet shipments reached 46 million units during the fourth quarter of 2021, posting a decline for the second time since the pandemic began in 2020, according to IDC beancounters.

Shipments dropped 11.9 percent year on year as demand slowed. For the full year 2021, total tablet shipments were up 3.2 percent, reaching 168.8 million units, the market’s highest level since 2016.

Chromebook shipments plummeted 63.6 percent year on year in fourth quarter, but managed to grow 13.5 per cent for the full year.

IDC Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers senior research analyst, Anuroopa Nataraj said that  2021 was a great year for tablets but shipments have begun to decelerate as the market has moved past peak demand.

BullGuard to change to Norton

Posted on February 8, 2022 by - News

London-based antivirus software provider BullGuard has announced that its name for its “consumer and channel activities” will become Norton.

Last year, BullGuard was bought by German cybersecurity firm Avira, which itself is owned by US-based cyber security outfit NortonLifeLock.

BullGuard revealed it has now begun transitioning its products, services, customers and partners to Norton and it will abandon the BullGuard logo or branding.

BullGuard’s sales team remains largely in place, along with some new additions from Norton that the company plans to reveal in due course.

Business leaders think COVID is on its way out

Posted on February 7, 2022 by - News

 More than two-thirds of business leaders believe the COVID-19 pandemic will become endemic this year according to a survey released Thursday by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The professional services firm conducted an online survey of 678 C-suite executives, which included CEOs, CFOs, COOs, tax and audit executives, and corporate board members. Two-thirds of those surveyed were from Fortune 2000 corporations and 69 percent said they believe this is the year the pandemic will wane.

About a third require vaccinations for on-site work and will continue to do so. Almost a quarter require it now, but will reconsider in the future. And 16 percent have dropped the vaccine requirement in response to labour shortages. Companies are also divided on automatic contact tracing: 38 percent  have implemented it (with half of them likely to revisit it) while 29 percent have no plans to require it.

Semiconductor buyers increased spending

Posted on February 7, 2022 by - News

The top ten semiconductor buyers increased their chip spending by 25.2 percent in 2021 amid an ongoing semiconductor shortage.

According to Gartner beancounters the chip shortage prevented original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) from increasing production of a broad range of products, such as vehicles, smartphones, games consoles, and various other electronic devices.

However, the shortage significantly increased chip selling prices, resulting in buyers spending considerably more on acquiring chips than in previous years.

The research firm found average selling prices of semiconductors increased by more than 15 percent or more in 2021 – which included microcontroller units, general purpose logic integrated circuits (ICs), and a wide range of application-specific chips.

Cloud spending tops $50 billion for first time

Posted on February 7, 2022 by - News

It seems that the world can’t get enough of spending on cloud infrastructure, according to beancounters at Canalys.

Worldwide cloud spending was more than  $50 billion for the first time in the final quarter of 2021 and total spending grew 34 percent to $53.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021, up to  $13.6 billion last year.

For the full year, total cloud infrastructure services spending grew 35 percent to $191.7 billion compared with $142 billion in 2020, which Canalys said was down to the “reopening of economies post-lockdowns and growing customer confidence during the year”.

Jigsaw24 staff sign up for electric car

Posted on February 4, 2022 by - News

Jigsaw24 claims over a quarter of its staff have already shown an interest in its Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice Scheme.

The Nottingham-based tech solutions provider introduced the scheme three months ago, in partnership with Octopus Electric Vehicles, as part of a wider push to reach net-zero carbon.

Jigsaw24 claims over 33 of its employees have already ordered vehicles through the initiative, which promises savings of between 20 and 40 percent against showroom prices. The outfit installed two electric vehicle charging points at its HQ car park in September.

Jigsaw24 founder and director John Hughes said Octopus was a good fit and makes a good partner.  The scheme was straightforward for both employer and employee.

 

Government crackdown on MSPs was a little too late

Posted on February 4, 2022 by - News

The UK government crackdown on MSPs with poor security has come “many years too late”.

For those not in the know, MSPs could be fined up to £17 million under new proposals published a few weeks ago if they are found to have failed to put in place effective security measures.

The move is supposed to counter a surge in supply chain attacks which are expected be massively up compared to 2020.

The UK government is to expand its Network and Information Systems (NIS) regulation – which covers companies that provide essential services such as water, energy, transport, healthcare and digital infrastructure – to now include managed services providers.

Channel urgently needs to sort out its webpages

Posted on February 4, 2022 by - News

Adtech firms including Google, Amazon and Microsoft must delete data gathered through Transparency and Consent Framework meaning that most channel webpages will need a rethink.

The Belgian data protection authority (DPA) has found that the Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), developed by advertising body IAB Europe, does not comply with the GDPR.

TCF, which is responsible for the pop-ups that greet users of 80 per cent of European websites and is used by Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other advertisers to obtain consent, contravenes a number of provisions of the GDPR, the DPA found. The OpenRTB real-time bidding system used by advertisers, which is closely entwined with TCF, will also be affected by the ruling.

IAB Europe argued that the TCF pop-ups enable users to make informed choices about what happens to their data and are compliant with GDPR. It also claimed it was not a ‘data controller’ under GDPR when it came to processing user consent.

OEMs increase their chip spending

Posted on February 3, 2022 by - News

Beancounters at Gartner have added up some numbers and divided them by their shoe size and worked out that the top ten OEMs increased their chip spending by more than 25 percent last year.

The big 10 accounted for 42.1 percent of the total market in 2021.

The price increase spending was due to global shortages which “prevented OEMs from increasing in production” and “significantly increased selling prices”, Gartner said.

IBM improves hybrid cloud with Sentaca buy out

Posted on February 3, 2022 by - News

Biggish Blue has snapped up Sentaca to enhance its hybrid cloud capabilities.

IBM Consulting vice president Steve Goetz said the acquisition will bring Sentaca’s personnel and skills into IBM Consulting, formerly known as IBM Global Business Services.

“Sentaca’s cloud-native application development, testing, and future network capabilities are a great complement to what we’ve been embarking on in the last couple of years. Sentaca specialises in cloud-native, future networking, and automation. We’ve worked in these areas and have skilled people, and have been building our own capabilities for a number of years. So Sentaca is complementary to what we are doing. We believe this will accelerate us in the marketplace.”

Google Cloud helped by partners

Posted on February 3, 2022 by - News

Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai claimed his outfit’s cloud business was in the position it is today due to the hard work by the company partners.

Google Cloud’s sales surged 45 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter despite the public cloud giant making an operating loss.

Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2021 hit $5.5 billion for Google Cloud, parent company Alphabet’s results show, but it racked up losses of $890 million – cut from $1.2 billion compared with the fourth quarter of 2020.

Nuvias joins Global Technology Distribution Council club

Posted on February 2, 2022 by - News

Nuvias has announced an elite club of channel players called the Global Technology Distribution Council (GTDC).

The consortium members include Exclusive Networks, Exertis, Ingram Micro, Infinigate, CMS Distribution and Arrow Electronics are responsible for more than $150 billion of sales of products, services and solutions.

Nuvias is a $750 million company with offices across Europe, it claims.

Tech IPOs raise more cash

Posted on February 2, 2022 by - News

The number of tech IPOs on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) raised a record £6.6 billion last year more than doubling the figure that was raised in 2020.

Last year saw 37 tech and consumer internet companies going public on the LSE last year out of of the 126 companies.

Figures from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)  said the 37 tech IPOs compare with just eight in 2020, which raised £3.1 billion.

Digital minister Chris Philp said: “2021 was a brilliant year for UK tech and it’s great to see just how many companies have grown from start-up to scale-up, to finally becoming publicly listed businesses on the London markets.”

UK businesses warned about Russian cyberattacks

Posted on February 2, 2022 by - News

The UK government is warning companies and organisations to sort out their defences against potential Russian cyberattacks.

Moscow is massing military forces on the Ukrainian border and the UK has been hacking off Putin by pointing out that this is a bad idea. As result, it is expected that Russia’s hackers will start targeting business.

Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre has directed organisations to take action “in response to the malicious cyber incidents in and around Ukraine,” saying recent attacks are “similar to a pattern of Russian behaviour seen before in previous situations”.

Neil MacDonald runs HP’s UK and Ireland channel biz

Posted on February 1, 2022 by - Moving People, News

HP has tipped Neil MacDonald to run its UK and Ireland channel business.

MacDonald has been with the HP business since 2011. He was the vendor’s consumer director for the UK and Ireland for almost five years before taking a new role in March 2020 as EU head of excellence for marketplaces and Amazon.

He will begin the new role today.

MacDonald will be responsible for go-to-market strategy and sales performance for HP’s print, personal systems, services and solutions business across the region, as well as leading the commercial, consumer and distribution sales teams along with the relationships with HP’s channel partners.