Tablets to outsell PCs by year end

Posted on July 26, 2013 by - News

cheap-tabletsIt appears that worldwide shipments of media tablets will outpace PCs by the end of the year. Speaking at Google’s breakfast event on Thursday, head of Android and Chrome Sundar Pichai shed light on some impressive tablet shipment figures. His claims are backed up by IDC’s latest reports.

Pichai said tablet sales by the end of the year should hit 225 million, with a total of 70 million Android tablet activations, up from 40 million last year, reports Slashgear.

However, Android is gaining ground on iOS and Pichai claims one in two new tablets is based on Android, not iOS.

This basically means tablets will start outselling PCs soon. Sales of corporate PCs won’t be as affected as sales of consumer PCs. Many consumers are apparently shunning their PCs and using tablets to perform basic tasks. Of course this doesn’t apply to users who use productivity applications on their computers.

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However, the PC market seems to be bottoming out. Tablet shipments should hit 300 million units by 2015 and 400 million units by 400, but PC sales should stabilise at current levels and start recovering next year.

Although tablets are disrupting the PC industry, the trend can’t go on for much longer. Over the next couple of years anyone who could completely replace their notebook with a tablet would have done so, hence PC shipments should remain relatively stable, although they’ll still be short of 2011’s record.

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Interestingly, the forecasts don’t show any slowdown in tablet sales through 2017. As tablets mature, sales should start cooling down, but as things stand now, tablets still have a lot of potential for long-term growth.

The real question is how many tablets in 2015 and 2017 will be hybrids. Intel is pitching its 2-in-1 concept and PC vendors will be eager to embrace them. Hybrid tablets will effectively blur the line between tablets and ultraportable notebooks. If Intel has its way, much of that 400 million figure forecasted for 2017 will belong to hybrids.

However, we are not entirely convinced Intel and Microsoft can pull it off without sacrificing a few sacred cows in the process.

Dell’Oro predicts further growth in WLAN

Posted on July 25, 2013 by - News

onedollarNetworking and telco analyst house the Dell’Oro Group believes Wireless LAN market revenues could be worth as much as $12 billion in 2017.

The figure is 50 percent larger than revenues for 2012. Key drivers will be deployment of Service Provider Wi-Fi, 802.11ac, cloud managed WLAN, plus additional growth in consumer video using wi-fi and Bring Your Own Device.

Companies such as Cisco, understanding that new LTE networks may be under a great deal of strain in the near future, are also strongly pushing wi-fi to ease the burden.

Dell’Oro group veep Chris DePuy noted that enterprises understand wireless LAN access is critical, however, in the past they have been installing wireless as an overly network, separate from the ethernet network.

When faster 802.11ac wireless systems are installed, DePuy expects there will be an increased understanding that the interaction between ethernet edge switches and enterprise WLAN is worth looking at. So there’s cash to be made for enterprise edge vendors.

The claims are from a recent Dell’Oro report, which also looks specifically at future revenues for cloud managed equipment and services.

UK GDP grows 0.6 percent

Posted on July 25, 2013 by - News

ukflagThe latest data from the Office for National Statistics estimates the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 0.6 percent sequentially in the second quarter, and have predictably been jumped on by both the Conservatives and Labour.

The biggest contribution to GDP was the services industry, growing 0.6 percent or 0.48 percentage points to the 0.6 percent increase. Productive industries also grew with a contribution of 0.08 percentage points, as manufacturing increased 0.4 percent after negative growth in the first quarter. However, all of these industries are well below their pre-crash levels.

The GDP growth, the ONS says, now puts the UK at 3.3 percent below the peak in Q1 2008, before the worldwide economic crash.

The growth was expected by the market and did not affect the London Stock Exchange, the BBC reports.

GDP was growing steadily between 2000 and early 2008 before the financial market crashed. Services continued to grow but production was largely flat, although construction was experiencing a boom at the beginning of the decade. The 2008 crash had an effect on all industries, particularly construction and production.

Economic growth did pick up late 2009 but at a far slower rate than prior to the crash. The crisis in the Eurozone swelled in 2010 creating further economic uncertainties and slowed growth again. According to ONS data, because construction and production has only managed to approach 2009 levels, GDP growth since then is attributable to services instead.

Although GDP growth has been welcomed, it does not necessarily translate into standards of living in real terms, and has its own set of criticisms as a measure of economic wellness.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said “families on middle and low incomes are still not seeing any recovery in their living standards,” noting that wages have not risen with prices. Coalition chancellor George Osborne admitted “things are still tough for families”.

The creeping growth – nowhere near pre-2008 levels and after years of remaining flat – is terrifically vulnerable in a very uncertain global economy.

It’s not time to put the Tesco Value Cava on ice just yet: EU countries are increasingly volatile, austerity policies are being demanded all across the world, shocks to the markets could happen at any moment and in private industry, the prevailing attitude is one of caution.

All-in-one PC shipments to see strong growth

Posted on July 25, 2013 by - News, Products

dell-aioAlthough the PC industry has fallen on hard times, there are some notable exceptions and the market for all-in-one (AIO) PCs is one of them. Shipments of AIOs are expected to grow by 17.3 percent year-on-year.

All-in-ones are hardly a new concept, they have been around for years and Apple has already made a killing with the stylish and pricey iMac series.

However, in recent years PC vendors have also joined the market, with mixed results. Apple’s iMac still leads the way, but other brands should see 4.9 percent growth, according to Digitimes Research.

Although it is doing well in just about every other market segment, Lenovo is expected to experience a small drop in shipments. HP will see a bit of growth, but Dell and Sony should see strong gains. Interestingly, all big players are expected to increase their market share, which means they are pushing small vendors out of the market. This is not surprising, as AIOs tend to be quite a bit more difficult to design and produce than regular PC boxes, hence big brands with plenty of resources are at an advantage.

Quanta and Wistron should remain the leading manufacturers of AIOs, with shipments of seven and three million units respectively. Pegatorn and TPV Inventa should ship upwards of two million units each.

The numbers reveal that the market is still relatively small, but it seems to have a lot of potential. AIOs boast a number of advantages over regular PCs. Most of them use mobile chips and drives, which means they are a lot more efficient than traditional PCs. They also take up a lot less room and since they don’t have a bundle of dusty cables sticking out of them, they tend to look sleek and modern. Lower electric bills and less real estate taken up by ugly hardware are the most obvious selling point.

There are a few downsides though. Mobile components cost a bit more than the usual desktop bits and pieces, which means AIOs tend to have a lot higher bill of material. They are harder to service and  many components cannot be upgraded at all. However, the PC is already very mature so frequent upgrades are slowly becoming a thing of the past. Over the past decade millions of users migrated from desktops to notebooks, so they should be used to a lack of upgradeability by now.

Besides, vendors don’t mind planned obsolescence – they thrive on it. On the other hand, if AIOs really take off, they could have an impact on a number of component makers, ranging from AIBs to peddlers of various peripherals and monitors.

Hard drive prices to remain high despite slow demand

Posted on July 25, 2013 by - News

hdd-hugeThe hard drive market has sailed through a lot of turbulence over the last two years, and when we say sail we are obviously referring to the 2011 floods in Thailand.

The floods wreaked  havoc on a number of component fabs catering to leading HDD producers. As a result hard drive prices skyrocketed and did not stabilize for almost two years.

In fact, hard drive prices remain stubbornly high, despite the fact that the floods hit in October 2011. According to IT Wire, prices of desktop 3.5-inch drives are still up 12 to 14 percent, which is also indicative of soft demand for desktops. Although notebook sales remain slow, prices of 2.5-inch drives are going down.

However, prices of solid state drives have tumbled over the past two years, although they seem to be stabilizing. Demand for NAND remains strong, propped up by tablets and smartphones, hence SSDs are experiencing massive price drops, which were expected by some observers a few years ago.

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Although SSDs are a lot cheaper than two years ago, they are still too expensive for many applications. Small solid state drives are starting to squeeze out small hard drives, but this is a painfully slow process. Due to their size and power efficiency, SSDs are doing particularly well in notebooks. Hybrid drives are also becoming a very interesting choice for desktops, cheap notebooks and even enterprise applications.

The consolidation of the hard drive industry, which is now practically a WD – Seagate duopoly, also has the potential to drive up prices. Luckily, SSDs should keep hard drive prices in check, as their increasingly competitive pricing will leave very little wiggle room for hard drive makers.

European retail property market stays busy

Posted on July 25, 2013 by - News

warehouse-openAlthough Europe is going through the worst economic crisis in decades, the retail property market is still showing signs of life – and it’s getting better. It is estimated that €16.3 billion of retail property was traded in the first six months of the year, up 31 percent compared to the first half of 2012.

Demand is strong and it’s coming from various sectors, with increased spending on cross-border deals. There is a lot more interest from institutional investors, including Asian funds. The focus appears to be on the more traditional shopping centre market rather than out of town locations.

Britain remains Europe’s biggest retail investment market, with an impressive market share of 32 percent. Volumes are up 94 percent over the first six months of 2012, reports Property Magazine. Other big markets are also doing well, especially in Northern Europe. Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and France have all experienced a rally. Oddly enough, there is more interest in troubled markets like Greece, Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland. The temptation of low prices and volatility seems to be attracting risk loving investors with nerves of steel.

Michael Rodda, head of EMEA Retail Investment at Cushman & Wakefield, said some investors are starting to look further afield, while others are contemplating taking on more risk, usually via development.

“The Nordics were strong again in H1 and we expect this to continue into the second half of the year but we are beginning to see increased activity outside such core markets,” he said. There have been some notable transactions in Central and Eastern Europe for example, such as Atrium’s acquisition of Galeria Dominikanska in Poland, and there is also now real momentum building up in Iberia, where we expect to see a surge in activity as rental re-pricing looks to have bottomed out and improving availability of finance appears to be on the horizon.”

David Hutchings, Head of EMEA Research at Cushman & Wakefield, said retail property remains in demand across Europe and buyers seem undeterred by the stresses and strains of the market, and the increasing competition from online retailers.

Hutchings believes supply levels are likely to improve toward the end of the year, and investment in the retail sector is expected to increase 8 percent on 2012.

EE raises 4G customer base

Posted on July 24, 2013 by - News

eeTelco EE, the result of a merger between Orange and T-Mobile, has managed to boost its first half earnings to £734 million.

EBITDA margins rose to 22.9 percent, compared to 20.3 percent in the first half of 2012. The main drivers were postpaid customer growth and progress in both retail and improving its network. Second quarter revenues fell 2.3 percent year on year to £1.61 billion while customer numbers dropped 2.4 percent to 27.5 million.

EE had a lead on 4G coverage, being awarded spectrum before rivals and raising subscriptions to nearly 700,000 to date – from 500,000 at the beginning of June. It is currently the only operator that has launched LTE all across the UK, and is pursuing an aggressive growth strategy to cement its position as top dog.

Postpaid customers grew 6.3 percent to 14 million, with such customers making up over half of all EE’s subscriber base.

Analyst company IHS notes EE’s monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) fell 1.6 percent year on year to £18.4 on the back of regulation and increased competition.

EE’s chief executive Olaf Swantee would not confirm whether the company would go public, but did say the reason for rumours it will are because margins are being driven up, the Telegraph reports.

Haswell tablets might show up this year

Posted on July 24, 2013 by - News

Intel-logoAlthough Intel has failed to cash in on the tablet craze so far, things may be about to change later this year. In addition to Silvermont-based Atoms, the chip maker plans to roll out the first Haswell chips with extremely low TDPs, perfectly suited for high-performance Windows 8 tablets.

Of course, the most obvious challenge facing Intel is the lack of market opportunities for Windows 8 tablets, but that might change.

Seagate launches enterprise hybrid drives

Posted on July 24, 2013 by - News, Products

enterprise-turbo-composite-hero-313x313Seagate has upped the ante in the enterprise hard drive market with a new range of hybrids (SSHDs) designed to meet the needs of server makers. Until now, vendors had a choice of speedy 15,000rpm mechanical drives or pricey SSDs, both of which had their drawbacks.

Seagate’s new Enterprise Turbo drives aim to deliver the best of both worlds. The flagship 3.5-inch 600GB drive features a spindle speed of 15,000rpm, but it also has 32GB of flash cache.

Seagate says it should cost just a bit more than a 2.5-inch 15,000rpm drive, but it should be up to three times faster than a plain 3.5-inch 15,000rpm drive.

“Typically the most demanding mission critical applications for 15K drives have improved performance by compromising on capacity and cost per GB,” said Rocky Pimentel, Seagate executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer.

Seagate already put the new drive through its paces, as it spent the better part of a year testing enterprise SSHDs in IBM System x servers. The tests revealed that a 10,000rpm SSHD boasts IOPS over two times greater than a standard 10,000rpm drive. Seagate claims Enterprise Turbo SSHDs deliver a threefold random performance improvement over HDDs in mission critical tasks, while the price remains similar.

Seagate says the new drives will ship in capacities of up to 600GB and the prices should be comparable to regular hard drives, but we still don’t know the specifics. In any case the first drives are already shipping to vendors and resellers, so the exact numbers should be out soon.

Startup conjures up social network for escorts

Posted on July 24, 2013 by - News, Products

slixaGood business ideas are few and far between. Coming up with an interesting service in a cash strapped economy is tough, unless that service happens to be the oldest profession in the world.

Social network Slixa is doing just that. It is a social network for sex workers, ranging from escorts, fetish workers, erotic masseuses to dominas.

The members have their own profile pages, with all relevant information, including biographies, pictures and rules of behaviour.

The site is free, it includes all the relevant contact information and registration is not required, which is hardly surprising given the nature of the service.

Slixa told Business Insider that the service has already signed up more than 3,000 entertainers over the last seven months and it’s not slowing down.

“Escorts and other adult entertainers continue to join at a rapid rate, which of course we’re very happy about. The really significant thing is that we’re more interested in quality over quantity,” said spokeswoman Lee Ann Jennings.

The emphasis on quality becomes more evident when you check the pricing. A New York escort listed on the site is charging $1,800 for two hours of “get to know you” time, $6,000 for a five-hour dinner or $10,000 for “overnight bliss”.

UK will have £1.8bn internet trade surplus

Posted on July 24, 2013 by - News

DelThe United Kingdom is expected to end the year with a healthy £1.8 billion internet trade surplus, thanks to British internet retailers who adapted to online faster than their continental counterparts.

In a report called Modern Spice Routes, the Nielsen Company and PayPal worked out that the UK is going to spend £8.5 billion online internationally, but it will also sell £10.3 billion worth of goods and services. There’s more good news, as the figures are expected to reach £18 billion and £24 billion by 2018, generating an impressive surplus of £6.4 billion, reports The Wall Street Journal.

British internet retailers are obviously doing something right, but more importantly the Germans aren’t. Germany is expected to have a €4.7 billion trade deficit this year and the UK should have a positive internet trade balance with Deutschland. German shoppers are expected to buy €1.7 billion in UK goods, while Brits will spend just €619 million on German products.

PayPal Senior Vice President for EMEA & Asia Pacific, Rupert Keeley, said UK retailers have adapted more quickly to international buyers than their German counterparts. He also stressed that China represents a huge opportunity for global traders.

“Once China does crack its customs and import challenges, and they get through the logistical issues, it will become a huge market, particularly for British goods,” he said.

However, we have a Eurozone caveat of our own. There is a very good reason Germans are flocking to British shops and it’s not the nice lass behind the virtual counter – it’s the euro. The pound has lost quite a bit of ground over the past five years, making many products in Britain significantly cheaper than on the continent, even with VAT and shipping. This was not the case five years ago and for British retailers to do well across the Channel, the pound needs to stay weak.

IBM shows off zEnterprise BC12

Posted on July 23, 2013 by - News

ibm-officeIBM has announced the zEnterprise BC12 – the zBC12 mainframe, built with analytics, cloud, and mobile computing in mind.

Big Blue claims this server, priced at a cool $75,000, is one of the most secure and technologically advanced of its kind. It’s got a 4.2 GHz processor and twice the memory of its predecessor, the z114. IBM boasts it’s cheaper at the acquisition point than the closest competitor.

The zBC12 can handle 40 virtual servers per core or 520 in a single footprint, possibly for as little as $1 per day per server.

There will be a Linux-only version, too, called the Enterprise Linux Server. It includes hardware, a z/VM Hypervisor, three years of maintenance, and can be extended with ELS for Analytics and Cloud-Ready for Linux on System z. IBM says it can run a portfolio of more than 3,000 Linux applications.

IBM has included new hardware functions on the zBC12, such as providing CPU and storage savings by compressing data on the server. Management, IBM says, is simplified through z/OSMF.

The z/OS 2.1 operating system has improvements in performance and scalability. The OS now sports what IBM calls Crypto as a Service, meaning Linux applications can use z/OS to encrypt data.

General manager of IMB System z, Patrick Toole, said analytics, cloud and mobile are changing the way businesses operate.

“IBM’s zEnterprise technologies address these challenges by providing clients with a powerful and highly secure platform to manage new and emerging workloads,” Toole said, “helping speed time to market, reduce costs and stimulate business growth by making stronger connections with customers.”

 

Trend Micro shuffles channel approach

Posted on July 23, 2013 by - News

tmicroSecurity company Trend Micro is reshuffling its channel program with a view to boosting access to its cloud and Data Centre Security offerings.

Updates to Deep Security are included in deal registration and specialisation programs, plus an on demand marketing platform that opens up assets for partners. Deep Security offers enterprise class protection to the mid market specifically to prevent data breaches and other possible business disruptions in physical and cloud servers.

It’s an all in one that brings anti malware, web reputation and firewall together, as well as intrusion prevention, integrity monitoring and log inspection. It lets companies virtually patch their critical systems and cut out vulnerabilities before they wreak havoc, as well as helping business make sure they’re up to speed with regulatory requirements such as HIPAA and NERC.

Now, partners will be able to use the deal registration program to simplify their margin structure and make registration easier. The specialisation program will open up additional revenue streams for specialising in specific areas.

The on demand marketing program makes more marketing content available to customers through a dashboard platform, giving them access to co-branded emails and web content.

Veep of US channel sales, Partha Panda, said that there is a lot of money to be made from mid market companies. They “present a tremendous business opportunity for our channel partners and we want to support them with one of the most reliable security solutions available,” Panda said.