India’s PC Market May Have Bottomed Out, Says IDC
India’s PC market may be on the rebound, with unit shipments up 7.4 percent in the first quarter of this year from the previous quarter, mainly on stronger buying by the government, education, and state-owned banks, research firm IDC India said on Wednesday.
“This is small indication that the market has bottomed out,” said Kapil Dev Singh, country manager at research firm IDC India.
Total PC shipments in the first quarter were 1.68 million units, up from 1.56 million in the previous quarter, IDC said.
Units shipped in the first quarter were however down by 19 percent from the over 2 million PCs shipped in the country in the first quarter of last year, suggesting that the Indian PC market has yet to recover fully.
The current year will continue to be challenging, with growth either flat or negative on a year-on-year basis, Singh said. A return to firm growth can be expected only by the third quarter of next year, Singh said.
The government sector had the potential to spend more in the first quarter, but government purchases slowed down in the run up to the federal elections in the country which ended this month.
India’s PC Market May Have Bottomed Out, Says IDC
India’s PC market may be on the rebound, with unit shipments up 7.4 percent in the first quarter of this year from the previous quarter, mainly on stronger buying by the government, education, and state-owned banks, research firm IDC India said on Wednesday.
“This is small indication that the market has bottomed out,” said Kapil Dev Singh, country manager at research firm IDC India.
Total PC shipments in the first quarter were 1.68 million units, up from 1.56 million in the previous quarter, IDC said.
Units shipped in the first quarter were however down by 19 percent from the over 2 million PCs shipped in the country in the first quarter of last year, suggesting that the Indian PC market has yet to recover fully.
The current year will continue to be challenging, with growth either flat or negative on a year-on-year basis, Singh said. A return to firm growth can be expected only by the third quarter of next year, Singh said.
The government sector had the potential to spend more in the first quarter, but government purchases slowed down in the run up to the federal elections in the country which ended this month.
Apple Quietly Bumps White MacBook Specs
The $999 MacBook may not feature the same swank aluminum togs as its older siblings, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t get its share of the family love. On Wednesday, Apple marginally bumped the specs on the base configuration, giving customers a little more bang for their sub-thousand bucks.
Strangely enough, the white polycarbonate MacBook actually now sports a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor — faster than its nearest relative, the $1300 aluminum MacBook. Other specs on the $999 configuration have been brought closer to the mid-range model: it now sports 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM (up from the previous incarnation’s 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM) and a 160GB SATA hard drive instead of the last model’s 120GB drive.
Otherwise, though, the MacBook remains unchanged, retaining a mini DVI port instead of the aluminum’s mini DisplayPort connector, the Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics it added a few months ago and — we’re sure you’ll all be happy to know–keeping its FireWire 400 port. Clearly Apple isn’t ready to put the white MacBook out to pasture just yet.
Stop Eulogizing the Netbook
New sales figures show that shipments of Atom chips, which power netbooks, slumped 33% last quarter, leading some to say the heyday of netbooks is over. But pronouncements about the death of the netbook are premature. Here’s why.
IDC reports that Atom shipments slumped 33% in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the final quarter of 2009. That’s certainly worrisome. But it’s not as bad as you might think. First of all, shipments almost always slump between the last quarter of one year and the first quarter of the next, after the holiday season ends. IDC notes this about the decline of all chips in the first quarter of 2009, not just Atom chips:
“While the decline was slightly more than typically occurs between fourth quarter and first quarter, IDC believes that the market’s decline is slowing.”
Other factors are at work as well. There’s a new generation of Atom chips on the way, and so some consumers may be waiting until netbooks arrive with those chips in them, which might have helped kill demand. And Intel competitors are coming out with netbook chips as well, notably to build ARM-based machines.
The upshot? Netbooks will continue to sell, and you can expect to see far more variety among them. Even the least expensive of them, at under $300, will get a bit more power. And the more expensive ones will begin to add larger screens, better keyboards, and touch screens.
That 33% drop is likely a temporary blip. Netbooks are here to stay.
HP Still Getting Heat on Nvidia Graphics Chips
Months after the issue first surfaced, Hewlett-Packard laptop owners continue to complain about defective Nvidia graphics cards that could cause laptops to fail.
Some customers say that they have been treated unfairly by HP, in part because their laptops are not included on a list of affected machines that was issued last July by HP, so they are ineligible for a free repair or an extended warranty.
One laptop model with overheating problems is the Pavilion dv9500 line, with screens going blank or overheating, leading to system failure, customers wrote on one HP board. The laptop model isn’t on HP’s list of affected laptops, and in some cases HP is asking users to pay for repairs.
HP isn’t moving quickly to add new laptops to the list of affected PCs, customers wrote. Users are asking HP to examine and update the list of laptops affected by the issue. Laptop failure may also result from components unrelated to the issue with graphics cards, but a trend among posted complaints points to laptops with Nvidia parts, said Matthew Hilsenrad, an HP laptop owner.
“I hadn’t seen any post of ATI chips going bad, only Nvidia chips going bad,” Hilsenrad said. “A whole lot of people [on the boards] who bought the laptop around the same time seem to have the same problem.”
Hilsenrad owns a Pavilion dv9500 model with a Nvidia GeForce 8600 series graphics card, which he bought in September 2007. Many laptops not included in the list — including the HP Pavilion dv9500 and dv9600 series — bought in 2007 are now experiencing similar problems, Hilsenrad said.
He was asked to pay around US$400 to replace a motherboard when overheating rendered his laptop screen dysfunctional. He called HP to request a fix, but the PC didn’t fall under the extended warranty that HP issued for affected laptops.
After haggling with an HP case manager, he got the laptop repaired for around $215. However, the case manager said the affected laptop list could be updated to include the model he owned, in which case he would be refunded the amount.
Another poster, Salman Fateh, reported system failure and a blank screen on an HP Pavilion dv9500 with a Nvidia 8600 series graphic chip, which was purchased in October 2007.
“HP will not honor the extended warranty for this model. HP should honor customers and replace all laptops with defective Nvidia GPUs,” Fateh wrote in a separate HP forum.
Customers echoed Fateh’s opinion, saying that unless HP addresses the issue quickly, their laptops would become paperweights.
“HP needs to add the rest of these bad GPU units on the list, get them all repaired,” wrote a poster with the screen name Sarah Locker on HP’s board. “I don’t want to blame HP for Nvidia’s manufacturing fault, but it appears now that HP is the one that is dragging their feet.”
HP didn’t immediately comment on this story. Officials from Nvidia were not available to comment either.
Nvidia last July said that some of its graphics chips were overheating due to packaging material and the thermal design of some laptops. HP subsequently issued an advisory warning of possible laptop failure and a list of models affected by the Nvidia parts.
HP also issued a BIOS patch to keep system fans running longer to prevent overheating, and offered to repair laptops depending on certain symptoms. The affected laptops included some HP Pavilion dv2000, dv6000, dv9000 models and Compaq Presario V3000 and V6000 series laptops. HP also offered a 24-month warranty extension to affected customers in North America.
Other PC vendors, including Dell and Apple, had to address issues related to faulty Nvidia graphics cards. Like HP, Dell issued a software patch to control heating problems, but it attracted a fierce response from unhappy users, who accused Dell of shying away from addressing a larger problem of bad hardware. Apple offered a free repair of laptops with faulty Nvidia graphics cards.
Laptop Hunters Ad Wars: Apple Strikes Back
Apple released today three new Get A Mac ads in reply to Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters campaign. The ads take a stab at the prolific Lauren from the first Laptop Hunters ad and ridicule customer care (or the lack of) for PC users.
One of the ads, titled Elimination, suggests that there are no PCs immune to viruses and crashes — that is, according to Apple. Megan, Apple’s version of Lauren, gives her list of specifications for the computer she wants (ding dong!) until all that’s left is a Mac. And no, Megan does not mention a price limit. Here’s the ad:
The second ad, called Customer Care, finds the PC character trying to get customer service while the Mac character flaunts one of the Mac Geniuses next to him. The third ad in the series is called PC Choice Chat, where PC is running a radio chat show and gets flooded with “prank calls” from wannabe Mac switchers. Here are the other two ads:
What we’re now seeing is an ad war between Microsoft and Apple, targeting each other directly in their campaigns. Interestingly enough, Microsoft was criticized for not mentioning Windows as an operating system in its campaign, but this time around Apple doesn’t mention it either (unless you count the Mac computer and Mac OSX as one item).
Meanwhile, Microsoft attacked Apple again today — the iTunes Music Store, more precisely. The new Zune advert find Apprentice star Wes Moss pointing out that filling the latest iPod with music can cost you up to $30,000, and that you should get a monthly Zune Pass. The truth in this claim is discussed largely in this post. But here’s the ad for you:
To say that Microsoft or Apple has a better campaign out there would be like getting into the Mac VS PC debate. So I’m going to ask you: Which of the two campaigns is more effective? Apple’s or Microsoft’s? Please sound off in the comments.
Is Your PC Ready for Windows 7? This Tool Lets You Know
Microsoft has released the beta version of its Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, a free utility that tells you if your PC is ready to run Windows 7. It scans your computer, checking internal components, external peripherals, and programs, and alerts you to potential compatibility issues. It also offers upgrade suggestions, such as which drivers to replace, should you make the move to Windows 7.
It’s a good idea to run Upgrade Advisor, which takes only a few minutes, if you plan to install Windows 7 Release Candidate, which is also available as a free download. (The RC expires August 1, 2010.)
After downloading and installing Upgrade Advisor, you’ll see an opening screen that advises you to connect all of your external devices, such as hard drives, cameras, MP3 players, and so on:
I ran the Upgrade Advisor on a 2-year-old Gateway MX8734 notebook that with a 1.6GHz Intel Pentium T2060 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive. This system runs Vista sluggishly-no surprise given the 1 gig of memory-and based on initial reports from Redmond, I thought it might perform better with Windows 7. However, a recent PC World Test Center report says that may not be the case.
The compatibility check took about 6 minutes and found a few potential issues. While the Gateway’s processor, memory, and hard drive met Windows 7’s minimum requirements (I expected this), Upgrade Advisor recommended that I download the latest driver for the Realtek Wireless 802.11b/g USB 2.0 network adapter before installing Win 7. It didn’t find potential conflicts with any installed programs.
Upgrade Advisor also pointed out that Windows 7 doesn’t include Web filtering (Windows Mail and Parental Controls), and it included a link to Microsoft’s Windows Live Essentials site, where you can download the free Family Safety utility.
Upgrade Advisor runs on Windows Vista and Windows XP Service Pack 2.
Acer Working on Several Android Devices
Acer is already working on several different devices using Google’s Android operating system and software, and plans to launch a smartphone using the software later this year.
“The entire industry is looking at Android,” said Acer president and CEO Gianfranco Lanci at the company’s first-quarter investor’s conference in Taipei on Wednesday.
“We are testing Android on a lot of different solutions,” he said. “We are working on an Android solution for the smartphone, [but] I think it’s too early to say if we’re going to see Android on a netbook in the near future.”
He said Android is “very, very good for communication and Web access and so on,” but he’s not sure yet if it’s right for traditional PCs.
A smartphone with Android makes a lot more sense than a netbook with the OS, he said.
Google’s Android software has become a popular topic due to its success so far in smartphones.
T-Mobile USA, the first mobile network operator globally to launch an Android handset, the G1, has sold one million of the smartphones in the first six months since it went on the market.
Although that’s far less than the number of iPhones Apple sold in its first two quarters on the market, it’s still a big start for a brand new operating system.
Several more Android smartphones have been announced recently, including a few more from the G1’s developer, High Tech Computer (HTC), the first one from Samsung Electronics, and two for Far EasTone, a Taiwanese mobile network operator.
Netbooks are a new frontier for Android.
Hewlett-Packard earlier this year confirmed rumors that it had been testing Android on netbooks and China’s Guangzhou Skytone Transmission Technologies said its Android netbook is undergoing final testing before it launches.
Developed by Google, Android is a smartphone operating system that is meant to make Web browsing easy, especially on Google sites such as YouTube and Google Maps. The majority of netbooks today use Microsoft’s Windows XP OS.
MacBooks Sweep Consumer Reports Laptop Ratings
Apple’s scored itself a trifecta with the release of the June issue of Consumer Reports. If it weren’t for the magazine’s legendary reliability and highest ethical standards, we might have gone so far as to say that CR had a little crush on the Infinite Loop folks. The venerable publication gave the company top rankings in three of its notebook categories: 13-inch machines, 14-inch to 16-inch laptops, and 17-inch models.
The MacBooks bested their competitors, despite the lower cost of many of the Windows machines rated. The US$2,000 15-inch MacBook Pro, for example, scored a 75 out of 100 compared to the runner up, a $700 Toshiba Satellite that scored only 64 points.
The 13-inch category in particular was dominated by Apple’s laptop line, topped by the unibody MacBook and followed by both the MacBook Air and the white, polycarbonate MacBook. The 17-inch MacBook Pro also got the highest rating of any notebook reviewed by Consumer Reports, scoring 80 points out of the magazine’s 100 point scale, and nabbed “Excellent” or “Very Good” in every tested category.
Apple’s desktops didn’t fare quite as well, but both the Mac mini and iMac took home silver medals in their respective categories, falling behind an Hewlett-Packard Pavilion and a Dell XPS One, respectively. The company also earned the highest marks for computer tech support in both the desktop and notebook categories.
Last month, Apple topped Forrester Research’s list of computer companies in customer support and came in first for J.D. Power’s list of customer satisfaction in smart phones. The Consumer Reports review gives Apple yet another notch in its belt and certainly seems to make it the company to beat in the consumer arena.
Consumer Electronics Help Nudge Economy
The federal government last week reported a 6.1% contraction in the U.S. economy during this year’s first quarter — a grim headline in the making. But economists and IT industry analysts saw some hopeful signs in the latest numbers, as did Wall Street, where stock prices staged a midday rally.
The U.S. Department of Commerce, in its quarterly report on gross domestic product (GDP), said that consumer spending increased by 2.2% in Q1 on a sequential basis, after falling 4.3% in last year’s fourth quarter. Consumers account for about two-thirds of overall spending in the U.S., so the first-quarter jump was seen as a good omen for the economy as a whole.
“If consumer spending is starting to recover, that means you’ve got signs that the economy is starting to recover,” said Andrew Bartels, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc.
Bartels and other analysts said shrinking business inventories that also were cited in the Commerce Department report may spur increased production to meet the growing consumer demand. Moreover, the federal government’s economic stimulus spending under the $787 billion bill signed by President Barack Obama in February has yet to fully kick in.
The first-quarter decline in inventories “is a classic sign of reaching a bottom, because now the shelves are empty,” said Frank Scavo, president of Computer Economics Inc., a market research firm in Irvine, Calif.
But overall, the first quarter was rougher than expected for the economy, and the drop-off in GDP followed a similarly sharp 6.3% decline during the fourth quarter of last year.
Tech Firms Report Tough Quarter
IT vendors were among the businesses that had a tough time in Q1. For instance, Microsoft Corp. reported a 6% revenue decline year-to-year, while IBM said its revenue fell by 11%. SAP AG Wednesday reported a 33% drop in software sales; its total revenue declined by only 3%, but that was thanks largely to increases in software support fees that took effect Jan. 1.
The data released by the Commerce Department explains why the revenues of tech vendors were down during the first quarter. The agency’s report shows that spending on software dropped by 8% in Q1 and that purchases of computers and peripherals were off by 25%, Bartels said.
But with the consumer-spending data suggesting that the economic downturn is flattening out or perhaps even coming to an end, Bartels expects businesses to revisit their capital investment plans and decide that they might have overreacted in making spending cuts. And although federal spending was down 4% in the first quarter, the stimulus plan “is going to turn government spending from negative to positive very quickly,” he said.
The Federal Reserve, in a statement issued this afternoon, said it also has seen signs of improvement in the economy, although its comments were guarded. The Fed said that “the pace of contraction appears to be somewhat slower” and that since March, “the economic outlook has improved modestly.” Household spending “has shown signs of stabilizing but remains constrained by ongoing job losses, lower housing wealth and tight credit,” the Fed said, adding that weak sales prospects have prompted businesses to cut their inventories, investments and staffing levels.
Swine Flu an Issue
One wild card is the possible economic impact of the swine flu outbreak, especially if the World Health Organization determines that it amounts to a pandemic. Such a declaration might increase demand for technologies that support telecommuting, but it would hurt the travel industry and other businesses. Overall, Scavo said, a full-blown pandemic “could lengthen the recession, and that in turn could suppress demand for IT equipment and services.”
There is one economic sector that may be unaffected by the downturn: lobbying. Tech vendors spent $29.5 million in the first quarter lobbying Congress and the White House, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. That amount is on track with last year’s levels, when the IT industry spent about $118 million on lobbying efforts for the year as a whole.
