By Peter Burrows September 3, 2009
For the first time in years, the PC market is starting to draw serious attention from Wall Street. Dell shares surged after the company beat earnings expectations for the second quarter. The next day chip giant Intel gave the sector another lift by raising its forecast for PC processor sales. Hopes are building among investors that the industry will see a revival in growth as Microsoft unveils its new operating system, Windows 7, on Oct. 22 to replace its troubled Windows Vista. "I think the uplift is going to be significant," says Brian Blair, an analyst with equity research firm Wedge Partners. The question is how significant. Before Vista, a new Windows release could set off a corporate and consumer buying binge—not only for PCs, but also printers, mice, and software. Some analysts have pointed out that the Windows pop this time could be especially pronounced, since many people never bothered to buy Vista and some 600 million PCs are running the nine-year-old Windows XP. But the tech bulls may be disappointed. Given the weak economy, PC unit sales are expected to rise 6.9% worldwide in the fourth quarter, according to research firm IDC. That would be the first quarter-over-quarter increase this year, but far short of the boost from releases such as Windows 95. "A lot of people are going to have to rethink their assumptions," says IDC analyst David Daoud. The firm expects PC sales to rise 6.1% in 2010.
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Thursday, September 3, 2009
E-Readers at $50: A Best Seller, Says Report
By Jeff Bertolucci, Sep 3, 2009
If you don’t already own an e-book reader like the Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader, how much would you pay for one? For these devices to attain mass-market appeal, they’ll need to be priced as low at $50, according to a new report by Forrester Research. Problem is, today’s e-reader costs more than $50 to manufacturer, the report says. A 6-inch e-ink screen alone runs about $60. Larger displays, like the Kindle DX’s 9.7-inch slate, naturally cost more. E-reader manufacturers will have to find innovative ways to bring costs down, such as adopting the subscription model common among wireless carriers and mobile phone manufacturers. Newspapers and magazines, desperate for a workable business model, would be likely partners. “Device makers should partner with companies that have incentives to subsidize the device in exchange for a content subscription (newspapers like the Detroit Free Press) or service subscription (mobile carriers like Verizon, which already has a similar model for mobile phones and now netbooks),” the report says.
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If you don’t already own an e-book reader like the Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader, how much would you pay for one? For these devices to attain mass-market appeal, they’ll need to be priced as low at $50, according to a new report by Forrester Research. Problem is, today’s e-reader costs more than $50 to manufacturer, the report says. A 6-inch e-ink screen alone runs about $60. Larger displays, like the Kindle DX’s 9.7-inch slate, naturally cost more. E-reader manufacturers will have to find innovative ways to bring costs down, such as adopting the subscription model common among wireless carriers and mobile phone manufacturers. Newspapers and magazines, desperate for a workable business model, would be likely partners. “Device makers should partner with companies that have incentives to subsidize the device in exchange for a content subscription (newspapers like the Detroit Free Press) or service subscription (mobile carriers like Verizon, which already has a similar model for mobile phones and now netbooks),” the report says.
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ATI Radeon 5850, 5870, 5870X2 pricing revealed?
by: Theo Valich 9/2/2009
Next week, AMD will reveal its top-to-bottom DirectX 11 lineup, with the top three parts heading out to the stores. As ATI Evergreen family of graphics cards is taking its shape as multiple parts that cover top to bottom of world's PC line-up. As it usually goes, the availability won't be on the same date, but ATI will do a multi-part launch targeting hard availability in the whole world for the each part. We managed to learn some interesting details about the top-end, Radeon 5800 series. Unlike some inaccurate publications that toyed with the name "Radeon 7", the Radeon 5000 series is a natural continuation of trend started with X1K series. The top dog carries the name Radeon HD 5870X2, and we are talking about single-PCB, dual-GPU card that will retail for cool $599. This is still $50 cheaper than GTX280 at the time of its debut [do you remember the outrageous $649?], but bear in mind that this is a top dog part. For some odd reason, the $499 bracket will remain without a card. We expect that slot will be filled with a water-cooled edition of 5870, or more likely - 5870X2 once that nVidia launches their competing products. Afore mentioned Radeon HD 5870 is set to go on sale for $379-399, while the cheapest entry into the 5800 series, the Radeon HD 5850 is priced in the $279-299 bracket. We expect that the first batch of products will come without any MIR [Mail-In-Rebates], so priced at 299-399-599, but with the launch of GT300, market incentives will go into action and this time around, AMD does not want to stop its momentum and wants to rule the roost. According to sources close to the heart of the company, they want to firmly beat nVidia and establish themselves as the kings of GPU market.
Read more here -->Link
Next week, AMD will reveal its top-to-bottom DirectX 11 lineup, with the top three parts heading out to the stores. As ATI Evergreen family of graphics cards is taking its shape as multiple parts that cover top to bottom of world's PC line-up. As it usually goes, the availability won't be on the same date, but ATI will do a multi-part launch targeting hard availability in the whole world for the each part. We managed to learn some interesting details about the top-end, Radeon 5800 series. Unlike some inaccurate publications that toyed with the name "Radeon 7", the Radeon 5000 series is a natural continuation of trend started with X1K series. The top dog carries the name Radeon HD 5870X2, and we are talking about single-PCB, dual-GPU card that will retail for cool $599. This is still $50 cheaper than GTX280 at the time of its debut [do you remember the outrageous $649?], but bear in mind that this is a top dog part. For some odd reason, the $499 bracket will remain without a card. We expect that slot will be filled with a water-cooled edition of 5870, or more likely - 5870X2 once that nVidia launches their competing products. Afore mentioned Radeon HD 5870 is set to go on sale for $379-399, while the cheapest entry into the 5800 series, the Radeon HD 5850 is priced in the $279-299 bracket. We expect that the first batch of products will come without any MIR [Mail-In-Rebates], so priced at 299-399-599, but with the launch of GT300, market incentives will go into action and this time around, AMD does not want to stop its momentum and wants to rule the roost. According to sources close to the heart of the company, they want to firmly beat nVidia and establish themselves as the kings of GPU market.
Read more here -->Link
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