Acer Beat Asus in Netbooks Last Year, to Ship 12M This Year
Acer edged out rival Asustek Computer to lead the world in netbook shipments last year.
The world's third largest computer vendor shipped just over 5 million netbooks last year, said Gianfranco Lanci, Acer's president and CEO, during the company's first-quarter investors' conference in Taipei.
The company expects to ship between 10 million and 12 million netbooks this year, he added.
Asustek, which pioneered netbooks with its popular Eee PCs, has said it shipped 4.9 million units last year.
Acer managed to win the 2008 netbook title despite Asustek's six month lead in the market. Acer didn't start shipping its first netbook, the Aspire One, until the second half of last year. The device was a hit, and sales soared mainly because Acer was able to launch globally, analysts say.
The victory for Acer, however, was incomplete. The company missed its own target of shipping 6 million netbooks last year because the global economy soured.
Lanci said sales of the Aspire One were strongest in the U.S. last year, despite a brighter start in Europe. Netbook sales have been less successful in other regions, such as Asia.
Netbooks were a big help to Acer during the first quarter of this year.
Instead of dragging on the company by hurting laptop PC sales, Acer chairman J.T. Wang said that without the Aspire One, Acer's revenue and shipments would have been much lower.
Consumers were spooked by the financial crisis, he said, causing them to look for deals such as netbooks instead of more expensive products.
Netbooks are mini-laptop PCs designed for mobility, typically sporting 7-inch to 10-inch screens, weighing less than 2 kilograms and costing under US$400. They are designed with less powerful components and chips than full-fledged laptops and do not carry DVD drives.
Market researcher Gartner estimates that mini-notebook shipments will increase to 20.2 million units this year, up from 11.7 million units last year.
Oracle Snags Sun, Microsoft Earnings Dip
Oracle kicked off a busy week in IT news, announcing plans to buy Sun Microsystems for US$7.4 billion. We'd quip that Oracle will put Sun out of its misery, but it's a good guess that the misery for some Sun employees is still to come given Oracle's penchant for big layoffs after big acquisitions. Speaking of misery, Microsoft's revenue was down from a year ago, which had until now been unheard of. The week also brought cloud news, netbook slamming and changes at MySpace and Facebook, among other things.
1. The downfall of Sun Microsystems, Oracle expected to axe jobs -- perhaps 10,000 -- after Sun deal and Is Java as we know it doomed?: Far more interesting than the actual terms of Oracle's offer to buy Sun are all of the questions that the deal raises -- what happens to Java? What happens to MySQL? And Sun employees certainly have the biggest questions given that Oracle will undoubtedly trim Sun jobs, with analysts saying that the total could hit 10,000. Then there is the retrospective of what happened to the once high-flying Sun.
2. Microsoft earnings down over last year: So, we know the economy is in the toilet, but even so it was jarring to hear that Microsoft missed analyst forecasts for its third fiscal quarter and its quarterly revenue dropped for the first time in its history as a public company. Special charges sent net income down, too.
3. VMware vows to overhaul data center with 'cloud operating system' and VMware vSphere: Does it solve IT's biggest worries about cloud?: VMware's vSphere was unveiled to corporate fanfare, seven months after the company started to create buzz about what it now calls a "cloud operating system." Whatever it calls vSphere, the launch was indeed viewed as a big one for VMware, which aims to keep its leadership status in the virtualization market.
4. Apple to netbooks: Drop dead and Apple doesn't get netbooks? Too bad: Apple's Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook trash-talked netbooks during the company's quarterly conference call with financial analysts. "I see cramped keyboards, terrible software, junky hardware, very small screens," he said. But he also sure made it sound as if Apple may be thinking about creating its own kind of product that is something like a netbook, only better in that uniquely Apple sort of way.
5. With MySpace CEO out, it's time to reinvent the company and MySpace's new CEO is former Facebook executive: MySpace owner News Corp. said late Wednesday that the social-networking site's co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe would be leaving his job in the "near future," which prompted analysts to suggest now is a good time for the site to be reinvented so it can pick up ground on hot rival Facebook. Turns out that when News Corp. says "near future" it means it -- the next day it announced that former Facebook Chief Revenue Officer Owen Van Natta would be taking over as MySpace CEO immediately.
6. Cisco CEO: Cloud computing a security nightmare, RSA conference kicks off on somber note and Has RSA jumped the shark?: Cisco Systems Chairman and CEO John Chambers provided one of the more attention-grabbing stories out of the RSA conference, calling cloud computing "a security nightmare." There was a smattering of other news out of the show, which was smaller than in past years, what with the recession in full throttle. CSO's Bill Brenner found that even though the breaking news was slim, there was still plenty to write and podcast about, with more ideas brewing for future stories.
7. Update: US judge to extend Microsoft consent decree: U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly extended for 18 months, until May 2011, parts of the antitrust decree governing Microsoft. The extended portions involve technical documentation for Windows communications protocols and middleware distribution. The company has made progress dealing with problems in technical documentation, but will not be finished with that work by November when the judgment had been set to expire.
8. Facebook moves ahead with new terms of use and Facebook to adopt new governing documents: Facebook will implement revised rules for its operation (technically called the Facebook Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities) after changes it tried to make provoked user backlash earlier this year. Facebook had said its new rules would be binding if 30 percent of its users approved them, but only about 600,000 of 200 million registered users voted. Instead of sticking with the 30 percent goal, the company said that if an outside auditor confirms the vote tally it would follow the time-honored (if not entirely honorable) tradition of just implementing the new rules anyway.
9. With six-core chips and a road map, AMD preps for stimulus money fight: Advanced Micro Devices released an aggressive chip road map and is undoubtedly going to be angling for a piece of the U.S. economic stimulus money that will be handed out to technology companies. But AMD had better move fast -- rival Intel's CTO Justin Rattner has been making the rounds in Washington, D.C., drumming up interest in his company's wares.
10. Criminals pay top money for hackable Nokia phone and Nokia: We don't know why criminals want our old phones: This week's eyebrow-raising story comes from the Netherlands, where a fraud investigator finds that criminals will pay a lot of money for a particular discontinued Nokia mobile phone with a software problem that can be used to hack into online bank accounts. Nokia says it has not identified any such software problem and it does not know why anyone would offer up to €25,000 (US$32,413) for a Nokia 1100 phone that originally cost less than €100.
Apple Dismisses Netbook Trend
An Apple executive on Wednesday lashed out against netbooks, calling the small and light laptops unusable.
Netbooks have cramped keyboards, small screens, "junky" hardware and bad software, said Tim Cook, chief operating officer of Apple, during a fiscal second-quarter earnings conference call on Wednesday. They don't offer the "consumer experience" that Apple wants to offer through its Macintosh hardware.
"It's not a space ... we're interested in," Cook said. "It's a stretch to call them a personal computer."
People who want to use e-mail or surf the Web can instead buy products such as Apple's iPhone or an iPod Touch, Cook said.
Netbooks are small and low-cost laptops that are designed for people to run basic applications such as Web surfing. Netbooks are priced between US$300 and $500, with screens anywhere between 7 inches and 12 inches.
Apple's cheapest laptop costs $999, and it would rather focus on offering quality through its Mac products, Cook said.
In the fiscal second quarter, Apple's desktop sales rebounded with new products, and its lower-end laptop sales picked up as prices dropped. But despite those gains, Apple saw its overall PC shipments fall. It sold 2.22 million Macintosh computers, a 3 percent decline from a year earlier, the company said on Wednesday.
"We feel great about our performance, and the pipeline looks fantastic," Cook said.
Apple reacted strongly to netbooks because the increased adoption of that type of product is annoying them, said Roger Kay, founder and president of Endpoint Technologies Associates.
"If they didn't bother about [netbooks], they wouldn't comment about it," Kay said. Netbooks may not be ideal today, but there is plenty of room for them to mature, he said.
"They get in as a poor cousin like any disruptive technology, but the quality will improve," Kay said.
Netbooks are already being considered the bright spot in an otherwise tumbling PC industry. In the first quarter of 2009, which roughly corresponds to the quarter Apple reported on Wednesday, worldwide PC shipments totaled 63.4 million, according to IDC. That was down 7.1 percent from a year earlier. Some vendors, including Hewlett-Packard and Acer, saw shipments grow, partly due to sustained demand for netbooks, according to IDC.
Apple doesn't worry about the ebb and flow of PC shipments, but wants to develop a reputation around quality of products, Cook said.
"Cycles come and cycles go," Cook said. "What we are about is making the best computers in the world."
How Green Is Apple? Series
At the request of Macworld, the stories headlined "How green is Apple?" "How green is Apple: Good citizenship or good business?" and "How green is Apple: Where does the e-waste go?" all posted on Tuesday, have been removed from the wire. Online editors are asked to immediately remove the stories from Web sitesle
Toshiba Jumps to 10-inch Screen on New Netbooks
Toshiba is refreshing its netbook line-up and with the new machines is switching to more spacious 10-inch screens.
The UX-series netbooks are based on the N280 version of Intel's Atom chip that the chip maker began shipping in February, and come with 1GB of memory and a 160GB hard disk drive.
The display is a 10.1-inch LCD with 1,024x600 pixel resolution. Toshiba's previous Atom-based machine, the NB100, sported a similar resolution but on an 8.9-inch LCD. Many netbook vendors have been switching to the larger displays as consumers prefer them.
Battery life has also been extended in the new machines. Toshiba said the standard battery should last up to about 4 hours, compared with 2.9 hours for the NB100.
Despite its larger screen the new model is smaller, at 26.3 centimeters by 19.2cm by 3.1cm. The computer weighs between 1.2 kilograms and 1.3kg depending on the configuration.
The UX-series computers will be launched in Japan on Friday and follow in other markets, although precise international launch dates have not been decided, said Toshiba. Prices for the computers range from around US$606 to $707 in Japan.
MSI Wind U123, X-Slim X320, and X340 Netbooks Announced
This better not be some wacky April fool's joke: MSI Computer's Wind netbooks are about to receive a couple of interesting new features. Namely 3G/WiMAX support and even a TV tuner. That is just some of the news to slip out of this week's CTIA show (the International Association for Wireless Telecommunications convention), currently under way in Las Vegas.
I'm expecting to lay hands on the MSI Wind U123 and X-Slim X320 and X340 within the next few months. In the meantime, let's go over what each means for your mobility and whether it's even worth going beyond the press release. (Advance conclusion: It kind of is worth it. Kinda.)
First, the Wind U123. No price has been mentioned as yet for this newest, cool breeze, but the big deal here is what I already mentioned--support for 3G/WiMAX and a TV tuner input. Otherwise, you'll see what one expects in the current crop of netbooks: an Intel Atom processor (the 1.66GHz N280), Windows XP, 1GB of RAM, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, a 10.2-inch screen, and a crummy integrated GPU. With the standard 6-cell battery, it weighs just under 3 pounds.
Slightly larger options are the X320 (starting at $700) and the X340 (starting at $1000). The first machine rocks an Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz CPU while riding that fine line between netbook and notebook. In this case, you start with a low-end chipset and GPU, up to 2GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive.You want the 3G/WiMAX option? It's here, as well as 802.11n Wi-Fi support and Bluetooth.
The higher-powered (that's all relative) X340 packs Intel's 1.3GHz Core 2 Solo CULV SU3500 CPU. It differs from the X320 by offering more RAM (up to 4GB) and a larger hard disk (320GB). Otherwise, both share the same specs. Both promise to run Vista Home Premium on the 13.4-inch screen (1366 by 768 native resolution), and both weigh about 2.8 pounds with a 4-cell battery.
I'm interested in kicking the tires on these portables if only because the 16:9 aspect-ratio screens promise a whole lot of flexibility. You see, some of our PC WorldBench 6 tests often crash on netbooks. They stumble because some of our test programs require a minimum of a 1024-by-768-pixel resolution just to run. With the higher resolution on these new netbooks, we should be able to run more more of our test suite on these tiny machines. And, come May, when MSI promises to deliver review units my way, I'm looking forward to putting these laptops to the test