Tag: Windows 8

Microsoft channels Surface to businesses

Posted on July 2, 2013 by - News, Products

surface-rtIn what can only be described as a last ditch effort to keep Surface tablets from flopping, Microsoft has launched a new channel programme in the United States. The programme should push sales of Surface tablets to businesses and other organisations. 

For the time being, the programme is limited to the US, but it will expand over the next few months. Under the programme, Microsoft’s channel partners stateside will offer the Surface RT to schools and universities at steep discounts, reports PC World. Private sector companies and government agencies are being pursued as well.

The partners will also be able to offer technical support, on-site assistance, data protection, recycling and asset tagging. Independent software vendors are also being encouraged to develop apps for Windows RT and Windows 8. The latter just crossed the 100,000 app milestone, but on the whole the choice of RT and Win 8 apps remains rather limited when compared to competing platforms. The software part of the programme is called AppsForSurface and developers who sign up will receive Surface devices and funding.

Ingram Micro, Synnex and Tech Data, CDW, CompuCom, En Pointe, Softchoice and Zones are already on board, while Citrix, Airstrip and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt have signed up for the software part of the programme.

However, although businesses don’t tend to shy away from Microsoft, they aren’t exactly lining up for Redmond’s tablets. Demand remains soft and enterprise adoption is anything but spectacular. Windows tablets have one thing going for them, IT departments seem to like them a bit more than Android gear when it comes to BYOD. But many love Apple even more.

Security concerns hamper BYOD adoption

Posted on June 27, 2013 by - News, Products

Keep taking the tabletsAlthough BYOD is one of the hottest trends in the industry, it seems that the adoption of BYOD policies and gear is still being hampered by security concerns.

According to Insight UK’s latest survey, security, or more specifically data loss, is still the biggest problem concerning IT departments, at 72 percent.

However, although security is the top concerns, 55 percent of respondents said they have no plans for the introduction of BYOD policies designed to inform employees of how they should protect themselves. Three quarters of businesses questioned issuing mobile devices themselves, while one quarter allow employees to bring their own devices and access corporate networks and documents, allowing the data to leave the company every single day.

“It’s interesting to note that a year down the line almost three quarters of those businesses surveyed have seemingly moved to tackle this trend by issuing their own devices to employees and you’d think that means those allowing BYOD would now have their ducks in a line when it comes to policies surrounding this,” Ashley Gatehouse, VP EMEA Marketing, Insight, said. “To hear almost half have no plans to create a policy is clearly at odds with the raft of measures we know businesses already have in place to protect the flow of data within the corporate network. Failure to implement a policy or define rules regarding the use of personal devices at this stage of proceedings is tantamount to leaving the backdoor wide open and hoping you don’t get robbed.”

The survey also found that support for iOS and Windows is increasing, while Android and BlackBerry devices are becoming second tier. A total of 26 percent of IT departments support just iOS and Windows and going forward the divide will become even more apparent, as 38 percent plan to support Apple products and 29 percent are betting on Microsoft. Android and BlackBerry are in a different league, with 17 and 16 percent respectively.

In terms of actual support and implementation of BYOD policies, 82 percent of IT departments view security as the top concern, while device integration into existing infrastructure ranks second at 60 percent. Providing support to BYOD users is the third biggest concern, at 52 percent.

Unsurprisingly, the survey concluded that sales teams and new business teams are most likely to adopt personal devices. This probably has something to do with age, or the fact that they are on the go more often, or both.

Although not every staff member is keen to take the BYOD route, 60 percent of companies say they are implementing BYOD strategies that cover all staff, regardless of job function or status. However, 22 percent believe BYOD should be a privilege available only to senior executives.

Firms face XP migration nightmare

Posted on June 24, 2013 by - News

framedwindowsWindows 8.1 is around the corner – a reshaping of Windows 8, which received a lukewarm reception since its October 2012 launch. However, critics warn that the key question for businesses will be migration from Windows XP, when support for that operating system ends in early 2014.

Considering the poor economic conditions of much of the world, particularly in Europe, there are plenty of companies who simply cannot afford to, or do not want to, upgrade from their Windows XP boxes. But they will have to.

UK based IT efficiency company, Sumir Karayi, believes that Windows 8.1 could well be the post-XP iteration of Windows that businesses will seriously consider.

As support runs out for XP, these organisations will be faced with sky-high support costs or migration to a newer operation system, and as such, most should be planning a migration strategy, Karayi says.

Aside from the daunting financial risk in keeping XP on life support, Microsoft will no longer be patching critical security flaws. As such, companies still running XP could find themselves exposed to disaster.

“Most large enterprises are unaware of all the software applications they already have, let alone how many are actually being used, and how many licences they should pay for during a migration process,” Karayi warns. “The licensing issues surrounding software applications are complicated”.

“There is little consistency in the agreements and businesses are often left paying for far more than they actually require,” Karayi says.

As companies upgrade, then, they should make sure their migration strategies are compatible with their software licences.

The message, then, is “loud and clear” according to Karayi – if IT decision makers are to avoid shooting themselves in the foot, organisations must move away from XP before the deadline’s up.

Customers warned about XP now

Posted on June 17, 2013 by - News

winxppro-2-1Infotech has called it “imperative” for industry to move fast to upgrade companies from Windows XP to Windows 7 or 8 immediately.

Hardeep Singh Garewal, President of European Operations at  Infotech, has warned that many are underestimating the process of upgrading their operating systems to Windows 7/8 could land companies in a compromised position when Microsoft ends support for Windows XP.

He said that it is not a small job which can be performed quickly either. Companies will have to completely change their operations.

ITC Infotech is therefore urging organisations to address without any delay, the conflicts that may arise from the switch to a new operating system.

ITC Infotech is worried that many firms, particularly SMEs, don’t have a mature enough IT estate to roll out Windows 7/8.

But those who don’t begin the migration period now could overshoot the April 8 deadline next year and end up with machines that can suddenly become a huge cost centre instead of being assets for the company

Garewal warned that businesses are in a race against time to upgrade their operating systems to Windows 7/8, with Microsoft announcing that it is ending its support for Windows XP in under a year’s time.

Most have to upgrade their hardware first and then arrange support and a transition to help staff to acclimatise to their new IT environment.

Garewal said that the move from Windows XP to Windows 7/8 is a transformation than migration because the look and feel of the Graphical User Interface, the operating system behaviour and the architecture of Windows 7/8 are completely different.

Industry prays for the death of XP

Posted on June 13, 2013 by - News

tombstoneHP executives have been revealing that the maker of expensive printer ink did not think that things would get better until Microsoft pulled the plug on XP.

Hardware makers had been hoping for a boost to their PC bottom lines because of Windows 8’s release. When this happened, initially they blamed Microsoft’s awful interface.

But it turns out that the calmer heads in HP see the problem as a global market thing.

Windows 8 did seem to suck up the usual number of consumer PC sales, but what it did not manage to do was make a big splash in the more important business market.

The business market, particularly in the EU, has been locked down by poor economic factors. Many companies have insisted on using ancient machines running XP, rather than running newer software which requires new hardware.

Microsoft prolonged the agony by extending the life of Windows XP by providing extended support. It did this for the best of motivations. There was a fear that cash strapped companies would not upgrade anyway and just leave their networks open to attacks by running insecure versions.

However, for all Microsoft’s good intentions, it also gave businesses no reason to upgrade their hardware for another couple of years.

Now Microsoft has confirmed that XP’s time really is up now, and businesses are starting to see that their computers which must be getting on to a decade old really do need to be put out to pasture.

HP confirmed that it was starting to get new orders for PCs from upgrading firms who see that the writing is on the wall, and some other resellers who ChannelEye has talked to have confirmed the same things.

The more conservative of them are going for Windows 7 machines, but there is also a move towards Windows 8 from companies who want more future proofing.
It is an interesting potential sales pitch for channel partners who need to find new customers, or to dig up their sales lists from customers who did not return their calls seven or eight years ago.
If HP is right, then this could be the stimulus that the PC market desperately needs to get itself moving.

 

Citi sees more gloom in PC market

Posted on June 10, 2013 by - News

pc-sales-slumpIt’s no secret that things are bad in all facets of the PC market and Citi Research believes things are about to get even worse. In a note to investors sent late Friday, the outfit revised its previous forecasts downward. It originally expected the PC market to contract 4 percent this year, but now it expects a 10-percent slide.

The dire predictions indicate that Windows 8.1 and Haswell won’t have much of an effect on overall shipments. It cited sub-seasonal demand in the first quarter and a slowdown in notebook production as contributing factors. Citi also noted that the benefits from Haswell and Windows Blue will be muted and that PC-end demand will remain soft. Computex didn’t help and emerging market aren’t coming to the rescue, either.

“We do not see any meaningful catalysts near-term supported by our product and company meetings at Computex in Taiwan last week which revealed a focus on convertible & higher-end Ultrabooks running Haswell, which addresses the smaller premium notebook market,” Citi said. “We also believe investors will be disappointed when they learn that low-priced touch-capable notebooks (sub-$600) will not be available to consumers until 4Q13.”

Citi forecasts notebook shipments of 179 million units this year, down from 201 million in 2012. Desktops are down as well, 137 million units vs. 148 million units last year. Meanwhile tablet shipments are expected to hit 237 million units, up from 144 million in 2012, reports CNET.

It gets worse. Citi says it previously modelled +2 percent growth year-on-year in PC shipments in 2014 and 2015. That figure has gone out the window.

“We now expect cannibalization from tablets…to more than offset any ‘stabilization’ in demand resulting from stretched replacement cycles or more compelling notebooks,” Citi said.

Compelling seems to be the key word in the PC industry, nowadays. There are no compelling new products or form factors, no compelling OS upgrade or compelling new features. PCs are becoming so mature that they are starting to resemble household appliances, with no apparent need to upgrade until they die.

Chip revenues down

Posted on May 22, 2013 by - News

arm_chipRevenues for the global semiconductor market dropped two percent year on year to $295 billion in 2012, IDC’s latest semiconductor application forecast reports.

Consumer spending slumped in the second half of the year which had a significant impact, but this was also combined with a slowing down in industrial and other market segments too. Europe’s economic crisis leaned on the PC market and China, too, was not spending as much as had been hoped. IDC notes the “lackluster” Windows 8 launch did not prove to be the boon for PC sales manufacturers were praying for.

Cheaper Chinese suppliers pressured average selling prices and dragged down overall revenues.

Just 17 companies with revenues of a billion or more, of the 120 that IDC tracks, managed growth of over five percent for 2012. Most saw declining revenues, including the majority in the top ten. Qualcomm, Broadcom, NXP, Nvidia, MediaTek, Apple and Sharp were the few in the 25 largest companies that registered positive growth.

Intel, IDC points out, saw revenues plunge $50 billion for the year, a drop of three percent, attributed mainly to weak PC demand and failing to make significant inroads into the tablet and smartphones market. Samsung saw revenues fall six percent. Texas Instruments , at number four, saw a decline of six percent.

Qualcomm, however, was a winner – ranking third in 2012 and growing revenues 34 percent to reach $13.2 billion. IDC states that this is largely due to Snapdragon and its prevalance in modem technology.

Altogether, the top ten vendors – including Broadcom, Renesas, Hynix, STMicro and Micron, held 52 percent of global semiconductor revenues, seeing a three percent decline compared to the previous year. The top 25 companies overall declined three percent, bringing in revenue of $206 billion.

Semiconductor device types were a mixed bag. Fastest growing were sensors and actuators, but these made up just two percent of overall revenues. ASSPs represented 32 percent of overall revenues and grow four percent thanks to media, graphics, and application processors, as well as RF and mixed signal ASSPs. Optoelectronics made up six percent of the revenues, growing five person on the back of image sensors and LEDs. Microcomponents declined five percent, while memory declined ten percent, holding 17 percent of all industry revenues. Analogue declined by seven percent to account for seven percent of all revenues.

IDC’s semiconductors research manager Michael J Palma said in a statement that the challenge is to “zero in on their key value propositions”.

“Whether that is in modem or connectivity technologies, sensors, mixed-signal processing or power management, there are areas of the market showing strong potential,” Palma said. “However, competing in crowded segments with little differentiation has contributed to the slowdown in semiconductor revenues”.

Windows 8 gear set to get cheaper

Posted on May 9, 2013 by - News, Opinions, Products

pc-sales-slumpThe PC market is in the middle of its worst slump ever, but there might be some light at the end of the tunnel. PC makers believe prices of Windows 8 devices will fall dramatically in the not so distant future. 

On Wednesday Acer President Jim Wong said Microsoft is becoming increasingly considerate to its hardware partners and that it is finally starting to listen to their suggestions and ideas. Shifting the focus to cheaper products seems to have been the loudest suggestion. Wong also pointed out that touch enabled devices will open up a lot of possibilities for PCs, but he also warned that many simply don’t need touchscreens on their trusty PCs.

On the other hand, more touchscreens and mouth-watering price points could spell more competition in the cutthroat tablet market, dominated by Apple and Android gear. A number of manufacturers are already working on smaller Windows 8 tablets as well. The success of the iPad mini and even cheaper 7-inch ARMdroids did not go unnoticed, but it will take some effort to make Windows 8 truly competitive in this market, which is already becoming overcrowded.

First of all, Windows 8 is a bloated operating system by tablet standards. This means Windows 8 tablet designs need a lot more storage than their iOS or Android counterparts, which tends to drive the price a bit higher. Windows 8.1, or Windows Blue, could try to tackle this shortcoming. Secondly, they need very efficient x86 chips to be economically feasible, but upcoming x86 SoC designs from Intel and AMD should go a long way towards addressing this issue. Finally, Redmond has to cut Windows 8 prices, plain and simple.

However, Asus CEO Jerry Shen warns that there is no quick fix for Microsoft’s tablet woes. Windows 8 tablets are quite a bit pricier than their Android counterparts and they cost at least $150 more. Shen believes the price gap could narrow to about $50 this year, which should considerably improve Microsoft’s competitiveness.

Acer Chairman J.T. Wang said Microsoft’s willingness to adapt to change is a good sign for the PC industry, reports the Wall Street Journal.  He was rather blunt about it, too.

“In the past we consider they (Microsoft) live in heaven,” he said. “But now they go down to earth and they start to learn how people living on earth think.”

Although tablets are generating all the buzz lately, there are some changes on the PC front as well. An increasing number of all-in-ones and more powerful mini-PCs are hitting the market. Ultrabooks sales are still failing to impress, but there is some good news to report on the notebook front as well. Prices of Ivy Bridge notebooks are seeing double-digit cuts, as Intel partners gear up to introduce Haswell-based models over the next few months.

Tech Data creates European reseller Windows 8 event

Posted on April 29, 2013 by - News

Windows-8Tech Data has teamed up with six OEMs to allow resellers to stay and play with Windows 8.

The event, in connection with Microsoft, Intel, Samsung, Toshiba, Asus, Fujitsu, Lenovo and HP will allow resellers to get hands-on experience and see for themselves a range of different devices for both personal and business use running the operating system.

EMS was called upon to design and build a presentation and product demonstration space as well as manage an intensive pan-European tour schedule.

The company said fifty events had been planned over 25 days and the tour was expected to attract thousands of visitors.

Nigel Judd, Marketing Services Director at Tech Data Europe, said EMS had helped Tech Data with the opportunity to give thousands of resellers across Europe a hands-on experience of the latest devices running on the Windows 8 platform from leading vendor partners.

EMS will manage the 10-week tour that starts in April 2013 and will target Brussels, Rotterdam, Gothenburg, Copenhagen, Berlin/Cologne, Zurich, Milan, , Ferrara, Barcelona, Madrid, Munich, Paris, London, Birmingham.

Intel confirms $200 Android notebooks

Posted on April 26, 2013 by - News, Products

Intel-logoIntel is working on $200 notebook designs, powered by cheap chips and Google’s free Android operating system.

Dadi Perlmutter, Intel VP and chief product officer told CNET that $200 notebooks will predominantly be Android products based on Atom chips.

Now the ball is in Microsoft’s court, if Redmond wants to gain a toehold in the ultra cheap notebook market it will have to make its operating systems a bit cheaper.

Perlmutter said the price of Windows 8 gear depends on how Microsoft prices the OS, and it could end up slightly pricier. In addition, Perlmutter pointed out prices of notebooks based on Core processors should go down to $399 to $499.

As netbooks are about to die a quiet death, $200 droidbooks might be the best way to replace them. Upcoming Atom chips are roughly on a par with ARM SoCs in terms of power consumption and performance per watt, so from a technical standpoint Intel should have everything covered.

The big question is software. Android is a good operating system for touch enabled devices, but it has yet to prove itself on more traditional form factors, that is,  notebooks.

Disties stick up for Windows 8

Posted on April 11, 2013 by - News, Opinions

Windows-8A recent report laying a fair chunk of blame on Windows 8 for the demise of PC sales has been queried by distributors.

Speaking with ChannelEye the sources have said it was unfair to lay the blame just on Microsoft and Windows 8, pointing out other factors such as Apple kit and the ongoing economic crisis.

Their comments come as IDC published its latest Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, where it pointed  the finger at Windows 8 for disrupting the market in tough trading conditions.

It found that shipments totaled 76.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013, a decline of 13.9 percent compared to the same quarter in 2012.

The Windows 8 launch was blamed partly for the decline. Bob O’Donnell, IDC Programme  Vice President, Clients and Displays said it not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but had also slowed down the market as a result of the “radical changes” to the UI. This included the absence of the Start button, plus the costs associated with touch had made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices.

However, disties have stuck up for the company.

One told ChannelEye: “I don’t think it’s fair to put all the blame on Microsoft for disrupting the market, PC sales were flagging long before it bought out Windows 8 to the forefront. If you really want someone to blame then look towards Apple, which has totally changed the landscape with its fancy products.

“It’s tablets, not PC innovation that’s disrupted the pace of PC life.”

Another pointed to the economic climate, saying the recession has a huge part in the slow growth and decline of PC sales as consumers opt for laptops that can be used by everyone in their family.

“Businesses are also cutting down on IT spend, usually opting to repair or reuse their current kit,” the distie said.

However, there were a few choice words for Microsoft’s OS.

“Windows 8 has a small part to play in the way it has disrupted the landscape, offering people touchscreen products and making older, less feature-based PCs seem less glam,” the distie said. “Maybe people are waiting for other operating systems to come out mimicking this, hoping that competition will drive down the prices and get them the bargain they are looking for.”

Windows 8 drags down PC sales

Posted on April 11, 2013 by - News

Windows-8The first quarter of 2013 was the worst for PC sales since 1994, IDC said.

In its Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker, the company pointed the finger at Windows 8 disrupting the market amongst tough trading conditions, reporting that shipments totalled 76.3 million units in the first quarter of 2013, a decline of 13.9 percent compared to the same quarter in 2012.

The dismal figure was also even worse than the forecast decline of  percent 7.7 percent IDC had predicted, with the company adding the extent of the year-on-year contraction marked the worst quarter since it began tracking the PC market quarterly in 1994.

The results also marked the fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year shipment declines.

Despite some mild improvement in the economic environment and some new PC models offering Windows 8, PC shipments were down significantly across all regions compared to a year ago.

IDC said fading Mini Notebook shipments had also taken a big chunk out of the low-end market while tablets and smartphones continued to divert consumer spending.

And it seems innovation has also hindered rather than helped the PC industry with IDC pointing out that efforts to offer touch capabilities and ultraslim systems have been hampered by traditional barriers of price and component supply, as well as a weak reception for Windows 8.

It added that the PC industry was struggling to identify innovations that made PCs stand out from other products and encourage people to buy.

The Windows 8 launch was blamed partly for the huge decline with Bob O’Donnell, IDC Programme  Vice President, Clients and Displays claiming it  not only failed to provide a positive boost to the PC market, but had also slowed down the market .

He said the “radical changes” to the UI including the absence of the Start button, plus the costs associated with touch had made PCs a less attractive alternative to dedicated tablets and other competitive devices.

“Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market,” he warned.

And other vendors have also been blamed with the restructuring and reorganisation efforts of HP and Dell claimed to have hampered the market.

In fact it seems only Lenovo has come out smelling of roses, with IDC claiming it continued to “execute on a solid “attack” strategy”,

It said to keep up with the rat race, vendors had to revisit their organisational structures and “go to market strategies” – whatever that means, as well as their supply chain, distribution, and product portfolios in the face of shrinking demand and looming consolidation.

And regionally there wasn’t better news. Across the pond, the United States contracting 12.7 percent year on year, with a drop of -18.3 percent for the first quarter of 2013 compared to the fourth quarter of 2012 and quarterly shipments reached their lowest level since the first quarter of 2006.

In Blighty and the EMEA region, the news remained bleak with IDC claiming that the area
posted a stronger double digit decline than anticipated in the first quarter of 2013.

Results fell short of expectations in the consumer segment as softness in demand persisted amid a continued shift to tablets and budget pressures. Meanwhile, the market response to Windows 8 and touch-enabled devices remains slow, leading to cautious “sell-in” from most vendors.

Japan fared a little bit better, with PC shipments in line with expectations in the first quarter. IDC said this was down to some economic improvement, which was helping to support commercial replacement demand ahead of the scheduled end of support for Windows XP next year.

However, consumer shipments remained very weak.

And Japan’s friends in the Asia/Pacific region didn’t have much to celebrate about with PC  shipments declining  sharply, dropping a record 12.7 percent.

IDC also pointed out that this was the first time the region had experienced a double digit decline. Although much of the earlier Windows 7 stock had cleared, a lukewarm reception toward Windows 8 hampered new shipments.

China’s inactivity contributed heavily to the decline, as public sector spending continued to be constrained.

HP remained the top vendor, but posted a substantial double digit decline in shipments after an aggressive fourth quarter kept growth flat during the holidays. HP’s worldwide shipments fell more than 23 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2013, with significant declines across all regions, as internal restructuring continued to affect commercial sales. Although HP maintained its leadership position in the United States, the company saw US shipments fall -22.9 percent from a year ago.

Lenovo remained second in global shipments and nearly closed the gap with HP, while Dell saw shipment decline by 10 percent globally and 14 percent in the United States. The vendor continued to face tough competition and struggled with customer uncertainty about the direction of its restructuring.

Apple fared better than the overall US market, but still saw shipments decline as its own PCs also face competition from iPads.

Notebook shipments in Q2 to remain weak

Posted on April 8, 2013 by - News, Products

notebooksIncreasing demand for tablets, coupled with weak demand from China, is expected to hit notebook shipments in the second quarter.

According to Barclays Capital, global shipments will tumble 17 per cent from Q4 2012, traditionally the strongest quarter for notebook shipments. Notebook sales in Q2 usually grow by about 6 per cent, but Barclays believes shipments will grow only 4 per cent this year. Yang attributed the decline in demand from China to the ever increasing demand for tablets.

Barclays analyst Kirk Yang believes the weaker than expected growth also reflects delays in the introduction of new models. Both Intel and AMD are about to introduce new mobile processors and a new generation of touch enabled Ultrabooks is also on the way.

Taipei Times reports that Quanta, the world’s leading notebook ODM, is simply not receiving many orders. International brands are reluctant to place large orders, as better gear is just around the corner.

The really bad news is that things will not pick up anytime soon. Weak demand will plague the market well into the fourth quarter of 2013.

There are some technical challenges as well. Next generation hybrids and convertibles aren’t making much of an impact on the market yet. A shortage of touchscreen panels means that the production of touch enabled notebooks won’t pick up until later this year, which will roughly coincide with the rollout of new Intel mobile chips. SSDs remain prohibitively expensive for some market segments and they are still reserved for quite pricey SKUs. The same goes for high definition 1080p screens in sub 14-inch market.

In other words, consumers who don’t opt for high end devices really don’t have much of an incentive to upgrade.

On Monday, just a year before XP goes

Posted on April 5, 2013 by - News, Products

framedwindowsThis coming Monday will mark just one year until Microsoft ends extended support for Windows XP. Vista was a joke – but Windows 7 is quite good, and companies are being urged to upgrade their OS before exposing themselves to unnecessary risk.

Microsoft has itself advised companies to upgrade to 7 or 8, but according to a report from 1E, under a quarter of surveyed companies had migration in place. Just under half said they were in the process of upgrading – meaning headaches for IT departments if they do not get their upgrades guaranteed in time. 1E warns that with just a year left to complete that migration, it won’t be long before budgets are complicated by costly extended IT support.

In a statement, Sumir Karayi, CEO of 1E, said businesses will be under threat of security risk unless they upgrade their IT systems in time – and the migration should be done with as little disruption to the business as possible.

“Organisations that are not yet off the starting blocks or only a little way down the track are highly unlikely to complete before the Microsoft deadline,” Karayi said. “Whether the delay is because they misunderstood the sheer scale of the project, or that they are coming across technical hurdles, it means they cannot confidently predict when they will finish or how much it will cost them”. The prospects, Karayi warns, are a little grim – “few IT teams will have ever experienced such a complex migration,” he said.

Karayi said 1E leans toward fully automating the process on as many as machines as possible instead of partiallyautomating the process for every machine, because it can lead to 80 to 90 percent less desk visits. Using a totally automated approach “means organisations can deploy literally thousands of machines per day,” which is the “only way to get migrated within the available time”.

Camwood, a migration services company ‘s CEO Adrian Foxall said IT knows full well that the end of Windows XP is around the corner, but business isn’t paying as much attention.

“In these tough economic times, it is not surprising that business leaders do not want to invest a substantial amount of money in something that essentially isn’t broken, as is the case with Windows XP today,” Foxall said. “But with an estimated 40 percent of business desktops still running Windows XP and with the clock ticking, IT and the board need to join forces and work together to migrate to a new OS that will support their organisation now and into the future”.

If they don’t, companies will be putting themselves “in jeopardy”.

Microsoft starts selling Surface tablets in bulk

Posted on March 20, 2013 by - News, Products

surface-rtMicrosoft’s Surface tablets are off to a rather unimpressive start, but Redmond now believes that it can woo more business users by selling its gear in bulk. The new service allows business users to place volume orders for Surface tablets, reports ZDNet. We are, however, not convinced it will help Microsoft’s cause.

The Surface Commercial Order service is only available to authorized partners and volume licensees, which means smaller outfits can’t take advantage of it. The real question is whether anyone will take up Microsoft’s offer. Microsoft is still not saying much, but it seems the bulk rollout will be very limited indeed.

Surface sales are another thing Microsoft is willing to talk about. Analysts reckon that it manage to shift upwards of one million Surface RT tablets, along with 400,000 units of the pricier Surface Pro. The figures are unimpressive to say the least.

Microsoft still believes that Surface tablets, and especially the x86 based Pro version with Windows 8, are the right choice for businesses. The decision to make it a bit easier for partners and volume licensees to order heaps of Surfaces seems like a logical move in that direction, but Microsoft might have missed the boat already.

Apple’s iPad still reigns supreme in the business space, and it is being challenged by Android tablets, not Microsoft gear. BYOD is another worrying trend that should be taken into account. Few people will buy Surface RT tablets for personal use and even fewer will go for the chunky and expensive Pro version. They will try to use their iPads and Android slates at work and most companies will be happy to let them do so.