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Worldwide PC Shipments 4.9 Percent Decline in Q4 2012 Signals Structural PC Market Shift - Gartner
Why Use Dropbox As Your Documents Folder?
UCLA Prof. Says Computers Are "Electronic Cocaine" For Many
Lenovo Planning Intel And ARM-based Android Notebook/Tablet Convertibles Rollout In 1H13
Spinning Disks: Goodbye And Good Riddance?
You Know Flash Is King When Disk Giant Seagate Grows Its SSD Line
Seagate's Magical Traveling Box And Hybrid Laptop Drives Coming
Protect Against Latest Java Zero-day Vulnerability Right Now: Mal/JavaJar-B
How to Password Protect Your AirPort's Wireless Network
Worldwide PC Shipments 4.9 Percent Decline in Q4 2012 Signals Structural PC Market Shift - Gartner
Worldwide PC shipments totaled 90.3 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, a 4.9 percent year-over-year decline from the fourth quarter of 2011, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. Analysts said the PC industry's problems point to something beyond a weak economy.
"Tablets have dramatically changed the device landscape for PCs, not so much by 'cannibalizing' PC sales, but by causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than replacing older PCs," says Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. "Whereas as once we imagined a world in which individual users would have both a PC and a tablet as personal devices, we increasingly suspect that most individuals will shift consumption activity to a personal tablet, and perform creative and administrative tasks on a shared PC. There will be some individuals who retain both, but we believe they will be exception and not the norm. Therefore, we hypothesize that buyers will not replace secondary PCs in the household, instead allowing them to age out and shifting consumption to a tablet."
"This transformation was triggered by the availability of compelling low-cost tablets in 2012, and will continue until the installed base of PCs declines to accommodate tablets as the primary consumption device," Ms. Kitagawa said. "On the positive side for vendors, the disenfranchised PCs are those with lighter configurations, which mean that we should see an increase in PC average selling prices (ASPs) as users replace machines used for richer applications, rather than for consumption."
During the holiday season, consumers no longer viewed PCs as the number one gift item. Given a burgeoning variety of increasingly more attractive devices and services, consumers directed their attention elsewhere. Analysts said there was uptake of very low priced notebooks as a part of mega holiday deals, but this uptake did little to boost holiday PC sales.
Neither did the launch of Microsoft's Windows 8 have a significant impact on PC shipments in the fourth quarter. Analysts said some PC vendors offered somewhat lackluster form factors in their Windows 8 offerings and missed the excitement of touch. New products are coming to market, and this could drive churn within the installed base.
HP regained top position in worldwide PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2012 (see Table 1), however the company's shipments did not grow compared to a year ago. Analysts said HP most likely gave up a certain margin level to gain market shares. HP was successful in managing large retail deals targeting Microsoft's Windows 8 launch and holiday sales in selected regions.
Note that Gartner data includes desk-based PCs and mobile PCs, including mini-notebooks but not media tablets such as the iPad.
Lenovo dropped to the No. 2 position in the fourth quarter of 2012, but experienced the best growth rate (8.2 percent) among the top five PC vendors worldwide. Lenovo's growth exceeded regional growth rates in North America, EMEA and Asia/Pacific, but was lower than the industry average in Latin America and Japan. In North America, Lenovo performed well by expanding in the retail market and protecting professional market.
In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 17.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, a 2.1 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2011 (see Table 2). Due to the tight inventory control and preparation for the Windows 8 launch, most PC vendors were able to ship Windows 8 PCs to the retail space. However, Gartner notes that PC sell-through was rather weak, which leaves some level of inventory concerns for vendors in the consumer market.
"Consumer's holiday spending went into other products and services, and U.S. holiday sales became less important for PC sales. For professionals, the fourth quarter is typically a good sales season because of last minutes PC purchases before the tax year-end. Our early research indicates that there was good growth in professional PC sales," Ms. Kitagawa said.
PC shipments in EMEA totaled 28.1 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, a 9.6 percent decrease from the fourth quarter of 2011 (see Table 3). Western Europe remained the weak point across EMEA, as Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa saw growth quarter-on-quarter.
"The PC market continues to face many headwinds. The launch of Windows 8 had no impact on PC demand, especially as Ultramobile products were both limited in supply, as well as being priced too high," says Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "The holiday season mostly saw retailers clearing Windows 7 notebook inventory or driving volume of low-end notebooks. Furthermore, the increasing choice of tablets at decreasing price points no doubt became a favorite Christmas present ahead of PCs."
"In the fourth quarter of 2012, mobile PC shipments decreased 11 percent while desktop PC shipments declined 6 percent year-on-year," comment Isabelle Durand, another Gartner principal research analyst. "However, all-in-one form factor models from Asus, Lenovo and HP look like a promising platform for the future."
HP retained the No. 1 position in the fourth quarter of 2012, thanks to good results across all products in the professional PC segment. Dell performed weakly, losing nearly 2 percent share in the fourth quarter of 2012. Among the top five vendors, only Lenovo showed year-on-year growth and its strong performance in the quarter helped it displace Acer from the No. 2 position.
In the second half of 2012, the EMEA PC market experienced two consecutive quarters of decline, resulting in overall shipments for 2012 declining 2.8 percent from 2011. Western Europe lost another 10 percent of volume, indicating likely structural changes to the market rather than weak demand.
PC shipments in Asia/Pacific totaled 29.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012, a 1.8 percent decline from the fourth quarter of 2011. Vendors struggled to offer compelling products to convince buyers to upgrade and attract new buyers as consumers' interest continues to be on smartphones and tablets. The introduction of Windows 8 met with lukewarm response and availability was primarily on the higher-end models, which were priced beyond the mainstream price point for volume sales.
For the year, PC shipments were 352.7 million units, a 3.5 percent decline from 2011 (see Table 4). HP retained the top spot in the global PC market, accounting for 16 percent of the market. Lenovo was the No. 2 vendor with 14.8 percent market share. Asus showed the strongest growth among the top five vendors, with shipments increasing 17.1 percent.
These results are preliminary. Final statistics will be available soon to clients of Gartner's PC Quarterly Statistics Worldwide by Region program. This program offers a comprehensive and timely picture of the worldwide PC market, allowing product planning, distribution, marketing and sales organizations to keep abreast of key issues and their future implications around the globe.
For more information, visit:
http://www.gartner.com
Why Use Dropbox As Your Documents Folder?
MacGroup's Terry White, like many of us an avowed Dropbox.com fan, says he uses Dropbox daily to sync files and to share files with others. White says that after initially signing up for Dropbox's free service, he liked how well it worked so much he decided it was worth paying for so he went with a 100GB plan.
White, who has a MacBook Pro for work and a MacBook Air for personal use and non-work travel says he's had always hesitated against having two computers because he knew the day would come when he'd be frustrated that a document I wanted to work on was on the other Mac left behind. However, with his 100 GB Dropbox account, he's have enough space to use his Dropbox folder as my "Documents" folder, so that whenever he was working on a project and saved it to Documents folder inside my Dropbox Folder it would automatically be synced to the Dropbox cloud AND more importantly to any of his other Macs signed in to the same Dropbox account.
White has now upgraded again from 100GB to 200GB (plus all the free space he's accumulated for referring people and says he still couldn't be happier with this solution, which not only gives him access to his documents on all of his Macs, but also can access from my iPhone or iPad as well as a web browser on any connected device.
[Editor's note: I pretty much use Dropbox the same way, with my Dropbox folder displacing my Documents Folder and other folders as default repository for work-in-progress and files I might want to reference. I'm still getting along fine with the free service, which is up to 8GB or so thanks to Dropbox's referral dividend. That's ample for synching work on three Macs and my iPad, but as the Cloud matures, I can see the advantages of having all of one's data stored and accessible with Dropbox, although I can't imagine ever not keeping regularly updated and redundant backups on local media. Ed.]
White also explains that with Dropbox he doesn't migrate any more. For years whenever he'd get a new Mac he'd migrate from the old Mac to the new one, a great feature of Mac OS, but with the downside being that you accumulate a lot of old junk on your drive. With Dropbox, he's switched to doing "clean" installs, keeping his data files on Dropbox in the cloud regaining tons of disc space and enhancing system stability.
For the full report visit here:
http://goo.gl/a7GKQ
You can sign up for a free Dropbox account at:
https://www.dropbox.com
UCLA Prof. Says Computers Are "Electronic Cocaine" For Many
"The computer is electronic cocaine for many people," UCLA professor Peter Whybrow tells the Pacific Standard's Mary A. Fischer. "Our brains are wired for finding immediate reward." Which is why we can't stop."
British-born endocrinologist and psychiatrist Dr. Whybrow, director of UCLA's Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior contends that modern American culture has outrun the biology of our brains, with Internet expansion riding a dangerously rising tide of growing psychosocial stress and shrinking physiological balance, historical constraints that prevented people from doing things 24 hours a day like distance and darkness falling away, and our fast new lives manifesting symptoms of clinical mania: excitement over acquiring new things, high productivity, fast speech - followed by sleep loss, irritability, and depression, and contributing to epidemic rates of obesity, anxiety, and depression.
You can read more about this alarmingly lugubrious but difficult to gainsay analysis, and Dr. Whybrow's prescription for remediation at:
http://goo.gl/nCuz9
Lenovo Planning Intel And ARM-based Android Notebook/Tablet Convertibles Rollout In 1H13
Digitimes' Monica Chen and Steve Shen report that having unveiled its IdeaPad Yoga 11S notebook/tablet convertible mobile device at CES 2013, Lenovo now reportedly plans to expand its IdeaPad Yoga family by also launching Intel or ARM-based convertibles running on Android OS in the first half of 2013, according to industry sources.
Chen and Shen's informants say Lenovo's planned offerings will target the Android tablet segment, fulfilling Intel's commitment to rolling out Android-based tablets through joint efforts with Lenovo.
The report says Lenovo's Yoga 11S will be powered by an Intel Core i5 processor running Windows 8 with an 11.6-inch HD IPS panel and 10-point multitouch support, with June availability anticipated.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20130114PD206.html
Spinning Disks: Goodbye And Good Riddance?
InfoWorld's Paul Venezia thinks life will be much improved by casting off the alleged shackles of ancient storage technology. Your editor disagrees, retaining affection for the experienced (no critical data loss from hardware failure over 21 years use) reliability and economy of HDD storage, but Venezia makes an interesting case hypothesis, arguing that within a decade, we may find ourselves in a post-storage world devoid of what in his estimation is the painfully outdated yet ubiquitous spinning disk.
He notes that there are already terabyte SSDs on the market for under $600 - solid state capacity and price point that were unthinkable even a few years ago, and maintains that performance and reliability of SSDs continue to increase eventually yielding extremely affordable, blazingly fast, and ultrareliable SSD storage arrays that all but eliminate many of the classic problems presented by spinning disk.
But this is still now, and SSDs capacities are much smaller and more expensive than with spinning disks' almost 60 year old technology which offers amazinlgy large storage capacities at relative bargain prices.
Venezia acknowledges that Cloud storage operations may continue to leverage spinning disk technology for archival storage, but will necessarily have massive amounts of solid-state storage on the front line in order to deliver data at expected speeds, envisioning an era when cheap, persistent, and indefatigable storage will be largely ignored and taken for granted, with losing data a thing of the past with no crashed disks, no lost pictures or projects or reports, no hours of effort suddenly gone. Storage will be so available,. I, for one, am very much looking forward to that reality.
That of course assumes that solid state storage will turn out to be as reliable as Venezia and other SSD advocates imply.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://goo.gl/I9gXU
You Know Flash Is King When Disk Giant Seagate Grows Its SSD Line
The Register's Chris Mellor reports that leading HDD maker Seagate is going to expand its solid state drive (SSD) line this year using co-developed Samsung controller technology and introducing its first multi-level cell drive.
Mellor cites Stifel Nicolaus analyst Aaron Rakers who has talked to Seagate execs who informed him that Seagate will launch a refreshed line-up of SATA and SAS solid state drives, based on joint co-development work with Samsung on controller technology, and suggested the company also plans to launch its first MLC-based PCIe SSDs in 2013.
The article notes that Seagate bought Samsung's disk drive business a year ago as response to Western Digital's purchase of Hitachi's GST storage media manufacturing and marketing operation, and is now disk drive market revenue leader.
Mellor observes that both Seagate and Western Digital appear to now realise that the performance data access market is moving away from fast spinning hard drives into a high-end pure-flash market and a mid-range/low-end hybrid solid state hard drive (SSHD) market - Flash being where future growth prospects lie.
For the full report visit here:
http://goo.gl/oerzl
Seagate's Magical Traveling Box And Hybrid Laptop Drives Coming
Barrons' Tiernan Ray reports that Seagate has developed a yet-to-be named gizmo that is both a MiFi-style cellular router at 4G speed and a half-terabyte drive in a single highly-portable package - sort of a "MiFi"-plus. The device, which uses 2.5-inch, 5400 RPM HDD technology can serve as both a mobile personal drive, and a wireless access point, and additionally, through a partnership with startup firm Poltek, will also will let people you invite connect to your drive over the Internet.
Ray says he recently spoke with Seagate's chief marketing officer, Scott Horn,who thinks many in the industry and on Wall Street have over-estimated how NAND flash memory technology, in the form of solid-state drives (SSDs), will devastate conventional drives (HDDS) which have been Seagate's the bread and butter. However, by buying Samsung's storage drive business Seagate has gained a much deeper partnership with Samsung for flash that it's leveraging to sell more and more hybrid drives with a few gigibytes of flash memory cache piggybacking massive amounts of main storage on spinning disks, (a la Apple's new iMac and Mac mini "Fusion" drive option) allowing both speed and capacity at a competitive price. Ergo, Ray says Horn thinks hybrid drives turn out to be popular in Ultrabook laptop PCs, with Seagate planning 2.5-inch hybrid drivesfor users who don't want to be limited to the solid-state drive's maximum affordable capacities of around 128 gigabytes or 256 gigabytes.
For the full report visit here:
http://goo.gl/D9VEs
Protect Against Latest Java Zero-day Vulnerability Right Now: Mal/JavaJar-B
Sophis Naked Security's Fraser Howard reports that a new zero-day vulnerability for Java has been found, reported to be infecting even those running the latest Java version (7u10).
Unfortunately, it has been found in some of the most prevalent crimeware kits being used to infect users with malware, so it is being targeted NOW.
Howard says Sophos strongly recommends that users consider whether or not they require Java to be installed at all, and if yes, whether it needs to be enabled within their web browser.
A single check-box can be used to disable the web plugin entirely, protecting you not just against this latest zero-day, but also against the ones we're likely to see during 2013.
Naked Security's Chet Wisniewski has put together simple instructions for users of the most popular browsers, explaining how Java can be disabled:
How to disable Java in Firefox
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/how-to-disable-java-firefox/
How to disable Java in Chrome
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/how-to-disable-java-chrome/
How to disable Java in Safari
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/how-to-disable-java-safari/
How to disable Java in Opera
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/how-to-disable-java-opera/
How to disable Java in Internet Explorer
http://goo.gl/Vy2JY
To read more, click here.
http://goo.gl/hWkCY
How to Password Protect Your AirPort's Wireless Network
Macinstruct's Matt Cone says:
If you own an AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, or Time Capsule, you should consider protecting your wireless network with a password to prevent other individuals from accessing it. Enabling password protection is easy and can provide peace of mind. You probably don't want others stealing your bandwidth or, in a worst-case scenario, using your network to do something illegal.
You can check it out at:
http://www.macinstruct.com/node/505
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