By Lucas Mearian
Computerworld (US)
March 9, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - EMC today announced an upgrade to the management software on its Celerra network-attached storage (NAS) arrays that will allow administrators to apply deduplication, thin provisioning and business continuity tools to data stored in VMware environments.

EMC’s new Celerra Plug-Ins for VMware Environments adds several new capabilities, including an automated failback process for VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager software. When one offsite Celerra array fails, it automatically fails over to another Celerra array — either at the same site or in the primary data center.

EMC had previously been offering the upgrades for Fibre Channel and iSCSI storage area networks (SANs), but it is now offering those capabilities for NFS [Network File System protocol] environments, too.

Brad Bunce, director of unified storage marketing for EMC, said the free upgrades also allow storage deduplication for individual virtual machines, reducing the amount of storage required on Celerra arrays supporing them by as much as 50%.

“When you deploy VMware over Celerra an administrator can select which machines should be configured in compressed mode and which should run in full-sized mode,” Bunce said. “The greater flexibility is that a VMware administrator can also selectively uncompress VMware data stores as well.”

The new plug-ins also allow for thin provisioning — the ability to add storage capacity as an application requires it — as well as data cloning, or data snap shots of virtual data stores on Celerra, Bunce said. “People like to do clones of virtual machines for tests,” he said. “So when you want to deploy a thousand new virtual machines through cloning…, that’s a couple of hours of time saved.”

The plug-ins also automate the failback process for VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager software in NFS environments, which is unique to the industry.

The EMC Celerra Plug-Ins for VMware Environments are available for download to EMC Celerra customers with current maintenance arrangements. All enhancements are available from EMC, Dell and its authorized partners.

In addition, customers leveraging the new Celerra software can work with EMC Global Services to accelerate their VMware deployments with EMC’s end-to-end consulting, implementation, residency and education services.

Lucas Mearian covers storage, disaster recovery and business continuity, financial services infrastructure and health care IT for Computerworld . Follow Lucas on Twitter at @lucasmearian or subscribe to Lucas’s RSS feed . His e-mail address is lmearian@computerworld.com .

Read more about storage in Computerworld’s Storage Knowledge Center.

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By Carrie-Ann Skinner
PC Advisor (UK)
March 3, 2010

LONDON - Micro-blogging service Twitter is thought to be preparing to serve adverts to its users.

According to story on the Wall Street Journal’s AllThingsD website, the ads will be linked to Twitter searches. For example a search for ‘laptop’ may generate an ad from Dell.

AllThingsD also said the 140 characters or less adverts will only be shown in search results, or add-on services such as TweetDeck that have agreed with Twitter to display the ads.

“Everyone I’ve talked to cautions that the plans are evolving and that there are plenty of details to work out,” said Peter Kafka on the AllThingsDsite.

However, Twitter has yet to reveal pricing and a launch date.

Twitter engineer Alex Payne added to the speculation when he revealed that the Micro-blogging service is set to get some new features.

“If you had some of the nifty site features that we Twitter employees have, you might not want to use a desktop client. (You will soon),” he said in a tweet, which has since been removed.

Payne then added that the “web client team is building cool stuff. It’s going to inspire desktop app developers. Same data, new perspectives”.

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By Dan Nystedt
IDG News Service (Taipei Bureau)
March 2, 2010

TAIPEI - New low-cost smartphones running Google’s Android software have been launched in Taiwan recently and the good news is they should start showing up just about everywhere soon.

A new group of companies, electronics contract manufacturers, are starting to make high-end mobile phones, including smartphones, for mobile network operators around the world, and these are companies adept at slashing prices.

These manufacturers are companies many people in the West have never heard of, such as Quanta Computer, which makes laptop PCs for global giants including Hewlett-Packard and Dell. Quanta made an Android smartphone for network operator Taiwan Mobile, which launched on Tuesday. Another company, Commtiva Technology, a subsidiary of the world’s largest electronics contract manufacturing company, Hon Hai Precision Industry, built an Android handset for Far EasTone Telecommunications, another Taiwanese network operator.

Taiwan has traditionally led the way with cost cutting in everything from PCs to game consoles and mobile phones, through low cost manufacturing on the island and in China. The prices of the two new smartphones are around half that of comparable models from major handset vendors. Taiwan Mobile next week will start selling the TWM T1 smartphone for NT$8,990 (US$280) with no service contract.

With a contract, the TWM T1 is still about half the price of comparable Android smartphones from major vendors, such as Samsung Electronics and High Tech Computer (HTC).

Taiwan Mobile offers the TWM T1 for NT$4,880 with a minimum monthly handset payment of NT$401 added to a user’s phone bill over 12 months, which compares to a Samsung Galaxy i7500 for NT$11,100 with the same monthly payment, and the HTC Tattoo for NT$8,190 with the NT$401 monthly payment.

The price difference is partly caused by specifications on the phones. The TWM T1 sports a 3.2-inch touchscreen and a 3-megapixel camera, while the Samsung Galaxy has a better 3.2-inch AMOLED (active matrix organic light emitting diode) touchscreen and a 5-megapixel camera. The HTC Tattoo comes with a 2.8-inch touchscreen and 3.2-megapixel camera.

One example of the price of a full-featured Android smartphone is Google’s Nexus One, which retails at US$530 without a contract.

Far EasTone unveiled the Commtiva T1 earlier this month for NT$9,990 (US$311) with no contract, billed as the first Android smartphone available in Taiwan for under NT$10,000. The device has a 3.2-inch touchscreen and 5-megapixel camera.

Far EasTone plans to launch four or five Android smartphones exclusively made for the company this year, according to Alison Kao, a spokeswoman at the company. Far EasTone expects its smartphone sales overall to rise as much as 30 percent this year compared to last year.

Angela Lu, a Taiwan Mobile representative, said the company became interested in Android handsets as a way to provide low-cost phones with features its customers want and the Taiwan Mobile brand on the phone. She declined to say how many own-brand Android handsets Taiwan Mobile might launch this year.

The arrival of the smartphones heralds the beginning of price reductions on Android smartphones for consumers. The contract manufacturers developing the handsets are experts at making electronic devices and normally operate on slim profit margins, often below 5 percent, which is far less than, say, HTC, which reported a 32 percent gross profit margin in the fourth quarter.

The trend is in its early stages. Smartphones, handsets, mobile Internet devices and other communications accessories make up less than 1 percent of Quanta’s total sales currently, according to Carol Hsu, a company representative. The laptop maker is working on smartphones with a few different operating systems, not just Android.

Commtiva declined to comment for this report.

A new wave of even lower cost Android smartphones should hit store shelves later this year due to the efforts of chip vendors around the world to create inexpensive hardware packages that include just about the entire insides of a mobile phone. Chips are among the most expensive parts in a smartphone so the work of chip makers, from Qualcomm to Infineon and Taiwan’s MediaTek, to lower prices is important. These companies have been rolling out low-cost reference designs for smartphones, sort of like generic smartphone-making kits, based on their chips.

Indeed, the Mobile World Congress, which wrapped up last week in Spain, highlighted opening smartphones to the masses by introducing low-cost devices, according to Gartner analyst Jon Erensen.

“Lower-cost smartphones will be required to reach the mass market,” he wrote in Gartner’s Semiconductor DQ Monday Report. “At Mobile World Congress, semiconductor vendors highlighted lower-cost, highly integrated, entry-level smartphone solutions designed to significantly reduce the bill of materials for smartphones and enable handset vendors to reach new price points.”

Infineon, for example, launched its XMM 6181 package of chips and other hardware, focused on making Android smartphones that cost around US$150, during the Mobile World Congress.

Earlier this month, MediaTek and Microsoft announced a package of hardware based on MediaTek chips and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile OS aimed at electronics manufacturers in China. The hope is that companies in China will make cheap smartphones for people around the world, particularly in emerging markets. A similar package with MediaTek hardware and Google’s Android software is due out in the second half of this year.

In the near term, the work Taiwanese contract manufacturers are doing will drive an initial wave of smartphone price reductions. Over the longer term - it takes several months to design a handset based on new chips - chip vendors will keep prices moving lower.

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By Nora Terrado

Despite the prevalence of conspiracy theories and climate change skepticism, man-made global warming is a widely accepted fact, and one that most scientists agree upon. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading body for the assessment of climate change, established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), suggests that the observed increase in global temperatures is very likely due to observed increase in human greenhouse gas concentration.

Green computing, the practice of efficient and ecofriendly IT, is becoming today’s norm. Addressing the need to minimize the environmental impact of computing resources, which accounts to three percent of the world’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, has become even more crucial as computers play increasingly important roles in our daily lives.

Coincidentally, pundits believe that IT itself is the answer to addressing the eco-compliance needs of the remaining 96% to 97% of GHG contributors.

The work has already been started as IT companies the world over tread on the green path. Many corporations are adapting environmentally sustainable ways to conduct their business, with some even going great lengths to accommodate full ecological compliance. Citing a survey, Jose Iglesias of Symantec Corporation writes, “of more than 1,000 large enterprises in 15 countries, nine out of 10 IT organizations see their role in minimizing their company’s environmental footprint as very or extremely significant.”

The high-tech industry, during the 2009 Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen, has pledged substantial reduction of its carbon footprint. According to TheDailyGreen.com’s Brian Clark Howard, technology titans Google, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, Yahoo and Sun Microsystems have all joined with the EPA, the World Wildlife Fund and others to develop an ambitious industry-wide goal of slashing the amount of energy computers consume. The Climate Savers Computing Initiative has the goal of reducing computer energy use by 50% by 2010.

“If there’s follow-through, the scheme is expected to save $5.5 billion in energy costs and cut emissions by 54 million tons a year, the equivalent of 11 million cars or 20 coal-fired power plants,” writes Howard on 5 Signs the Computer Industry is Going Green.

Philippine companies are not far behind the green trend. Across sectors, Filipino organizations have followed, and in some cases, are leading the new green revolution.

In real estate, Ayala Land is developing the country’s foremost eco-sustainable community. Nuvali, located 40 minutes south of Metro Manila, is touted as the country’s largest and most environmentally friendly business district.

One of Nuvali’s first tenants is relationship management service provider, Convergys. Its Nuvali TechnoHub features green architecture and boasts an abundance of trees and shrubbery for better environmental air quality and habitat enhancement.

The energy sector also fronts key players in the sustainability practice. One of the more popular companies in this industry is Solar Electric Company (Solarco), developers of the E-jeepney, which is known as pioneers of home solar system in the Philippines.

On the other hand, ECHOStore leads the retail sector in promoting the use and consumption of environmentfriendly products. Located at Fort Bonifacio, the store doubles as a hub where people can exchange ideas about sustainable living.

From the corporate to the individual level, green computing is slowly being adapted by Filipino users.

Forecasts on green computing point upward as manufacturers take notice of the increasing environmental awareness of consumers, prompting further research and development of earth-friendly products.

A study by the US-based Consumer Electronics Association indicates that more consumers are inclined towards buying “green” electronics, with 89% expecting their next purchase to be “green.”

Cost poses as a huge hurdle for Filipino consumers. However, the practice of green computing and eco-friendliness in general enjoys continually growing support in the country.

In 2009, 15 million Filipinos in 647 cities and towns participated in the hour-long lights off initiative of Earth Hour, a considerable jump from a year earlier which garnered one million participants. The 10-fold jump in the number of participants was attributed to the Filipinos’ increasing awareness of climate change and its effects, according to Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Thanks to the media, particularly the Internet, the global citizenry is becoming more aware of the adverse effects of climate change. With the effective tools of mass communication, it is only an issue of doing away with apathy and adopting genuine concern for Mother Nature that separates us to a greener future.

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By James Niccolai
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
February 3, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - Dell is hatching a plan to take some of the custom servers designed by its Data Center Solutions division for Web giants such as Yahoo and Facebook and sell them to a wider range of companies, including large enterprises, Dell executives said.

The DCS unit was formed about three years ago to help Dell get more business from large Internet firms. Its engineers often spend several weeks on-site with those companies to design low-cost, low-power systems that meet the special requirements of their search, social networking and other Web applications.

That hands-on role means the DCS group designs servers only for large companies, such as Ask.com and Microsoft’s Azure division, which order tens of thousands of servers per year. But that’s about to change, Dell executives said in an interview.

Later this year Dell will turn some of those custom servers into standardized products and sell them to companies that order lower volumes of systems, including enterprises building “private cloud” environments in their data centers, and a second tier of smaller Internet companies. They will likely be sold under a new brand, CloudEdge.

“What we’ve found is, there are a whole bunch of other customers who want access to those designs but who are not buying in those types of quantities,” said Andy Rhodes, a director with Dell’s DCS group. “So the big thing we’re solving now, and we’ll talk more publically about over the next couple of months, is how to provide more of that capability to many, many more customers.”

Dell isn’t discussing specific products yet and is still working out details, such as whether the servers will be sold by DCS or through Dell’s standard server channels. But the goal is to offer the designs to a wider market, even while DCS continues to do custom work for very large customers. “We’re not announcing anything right now, but that is definitely something we will announce this year,” Rhodes said.

DCS aims to build highly energy-efficient servers that pack a lot of computing power into a small space. The systems often forego redundant power supplies and fans, for example, which saves on component costs and energy bills.

That also makes the servers less resilient to failure — a trade-off large Internet companies are willing to make for lower operational costs. Companies such as Google and Yahoo design their Web applications to run on such “fail in place” architectures, so that workloads are rerouted around failed servers with little or no disruption to services.

“The main thing with these hyperscale systems is that the availability and resiliency are baked into the customers’ applications rather than into the hardware,” said Barton George, cloud evangelist for Dell.

That means the servers aren’t suitable for most enterprise applications, and it remains to be seen how Dell will position the new servers for enterprise use.

“We’re going to be very clear to our sales force and our customers that these are for those rarefied environments where you have this type of software infrastructure,” George said. “If you were to run SAP or a database or a file server on one of these systems it would be a disaster. It wouldn’t work.”

Dell is likely to bundle the CloudEdge systems with software tools for a variety of usage scenarios, including building and managing public and private clouds. Rhodes suggested that tools from Microsoft and VMware will be offered, as well as provisioning and orchestration software from Dell partner Scalent Systems.

“The markets we’re looking at are people building public clouds, but one tier below what we’ve been focusing on,” George said. Large enterprises will also be a target, he said.

The systems could help Dell compete better with Hewlett-Packard, which last July announced a similar line of Extreme Scale-Out systems, and with IBM’s highly dense iDataPlex servers. SGI and other vendors also target this market.

Dell doesn’t break out the DCS group’s financial results so it is hard to know how well it is performing, but Rhodes said the division has “grown massively in terms of revenue and units.” The group is working closely with 20 customers, mostly household Internet names in the U.S. and China, he said.

That’s fewer than the number of companies DCS has said it was engaged with in the past.

“What we found was, when you’re developing a customized business, you really want to create customer intimacy and go deeper and partner much more with them. To do that, we scaled the customer list back slightly and we’re going to serve the rest of the markets with these mainstream products when we announce them,” Rhodes said.

The group hasn’t disclosed many of its server designs, in part because its large customers demand secrecy. It has published details of one server that uses Nano processors from Via technologies, and crams 12 server boards into a 2u chassis. Most systems use Intel and Advanced Micro Devices processors.

Forrester analyst Frank Gillett said it makes sense for Dell to market its custom designs to other customers, but noted that “they’re not designed for standard IT stuff and you need to know exactly what you’re doing with them.”

“It sounds like something for the oil and gas guys who need a bunch of servers to crunch seismic analyses, or the guys on Wall Street doing risk analysis,” he said. “It’s for the companies running applications that look like Web-scale or cloud-scale compute problems, which are not conventional applications.”

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By Veronica C. Silva
Computerworld Philippines
January 19, 2010

The local office of computer maker Dell, Inc. is hoping to grow its business this year with a focus on the small and medium-sized business (SMB) market.

Taking its cue from market forecasts that global economy recovery is expected in the second half this year, Dell Philippines is optimistic that the SMBs would be more willing to invest in information technology, particularly for their own servers.

Dell Philippines launched on Thursday its 11th generation of servers geared for SMBs. The Intel Xeon-based servers are specifically designed for the SMBs,. said Dell Asia Pacific director and country manager Barry Bunyi, who debunked industry claims that there is such a thing as “one size fits all” for servers.

“After last year’s economic downturn, there is no reason to look backward anymore,” said Bunyi, referring to a recent forecast that the second half will show more promise for the IT industry.
Bunyi is also optimistic for the second half of the year since that time, the May 2010 elections would be over.

“We look forward to 2010 with initiatives in certain markets (such as) the SMBs,” he added.

Bunyi said Dell’s commercial business, which includes the servers, make up “majority” of its business. The other business segment for Dell is consumer, which includes laptops and desktops.

Dell’s SMB server line-up is a complete solution in a box to include email, internet connectivity, internal websites, remote access, mobile device support, file and printer sharing, backup and restore, data protection and more. These servers are the PowerEdge line with models T110, T210, T310 and R510.

Bunyi said these 11th generation servers are 60 per cent to 80 per cent better than the previous released servers.

Dell processor partner Intel said the Xeon 5500 series processor supports dual processor server and workstation configurations.
Intel’s Prakash Mallya, regional manager for Dell Asia Pacific with Japan Account Team, urged SMBs not to decrease in IT spending at a time of an economic downturn.

But he remains optimistic that SMBs will invest in IT this year as he cited an Intel-commissioned study which showed that 85% of SMBs studied in 2009 believe that the economy will pick up this year.
Dell and Intel added that the Xeon servers are giving SMBs another option aside from outsourcing their IT needs to third party service providers.

Mallya said that for SMBs that cannot outsource their IT requirements due to constraints such as high-speed connectivity to a data centre, regulatory requirements and security, SMBs can opt to set up their own server environment.

Bunyi added that Dell, after listening to the market, has made these technologies available to SMBs now to give them options for their IT requirements.

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By Computerworld Philippines Staff
January 7, 2010

Local players in the Philippine ICT industry recently took the stage in December during the 2nd CyberPress ICT Choice Awards given out by the country’s association of IT journalists.

Three persons and entities were honored in the event as they made their mark despite the financial crisis that hit 2009 affecting individuals and companies alike.

The awarding ceremony, which was conducted alongside the group’s Christmas party, picked this year’s achievers in five categories, namely: IT Story of the Year, IT Product of the Year, IT Startup of the Year, IT Executive of the Year, and IT Company of the Year.

It was also the start of the Lifetime Achievement Award by CyberPress meant to honor personalities who contributed immensely to the development of the local IT industry. The first recipient of the award is Dr. William “Bill” Torres, hailed as the “Father of Philippine Internet.”

As cofounder and former CEO of Mozcom, the country’s first commercial ISP, Torres spearheaded the negotiations with the US government in the 1990s to bring Internet to the Philippines. He also holds the distinction as the first Filipino to acquire a PhD degree in computer science in the US.

In his acceptance speech, Torres said it is important for the country to take advantage of the benefits offered by technology. He cited, in particular, the cloud computing model, which he said is ideal for a developing nation like the Philippines.

Voted as IT Story of the Year was “Smartmatic-TIM undertakes 2010 election automation project.” It won over four nominated IT-related stories such as the IBM-GSIS feud, Cloud Computing, Unlimited Mobile Services, and the Explosion of Social Networking particularly during the Ondoy typhoon calamity.

Windows 7, Microsoft’s newest operating system bagged the award for IT Product of the Year. It outvoted the iPhone 3GS, iPod Nano, Globe Tattoo and Canon 500D products. The IT press acclaimed it as light and efficient, saying the OS was a big improvement by Vista. Microsoft Philippines country manager John Bessey accepted the trophy.

The IT Startup of the Year was Inovent Inc., a new Filipino tech company that unveiled in 2009 a prototype of an LCD interactive television (iTV) set, claiming to be the first of its kind to be produced in the Philippines. The categories other nominees were Sulit.com.ph and ANTS.

Chosen as IT Executive of the Year was Ricky Banaag, who has become a virtual institution in the local tech industry by leading Intel Microelectronics Philippines for the 12th straight year. He has also provided a steady hand to Intel despite the closure of the company’s manufacturing arm in 2009.

Banaag outvoted three IT executives, namely Ramon Arteficio, president and CEO, Canon Marketing (Philippines) Inc.; Manuel Wong, general manager, Acer Philippines; Vicky Agorrilla, country manager, Lenovo Philippines; and Ryan Guadalquiver, managing director, HP Philippines.

Finally, the IT Company of the Year award was given to Acer Philippines as it exceeded expectations in 2009 by becoming the top PC vendor in the country. Globally, it now threatens HP after knocking out Dell at number two, the IT press said.

The list of nominees for the awards was drawn up during the CyberPress leadership seminar last December 5 to 6 in Baras, Rizal. CyberPress members, composed of journalists from the print, online and broadcast media then voted for their choices via an online poll.

The CyberPress ICT Choice Awards follows the lead of other press groups which have been bestowing awards over the years in their respective sectors. Examples include the “Athlete of the Year” award of the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) and the “Car of the Year” award of the motoring press corps. 

Officially named as IT Journalist Association of the Philippines (ITJAP), CyberPress is the first IT press club established in South East Asia (SEA) in mid-1996 and remains to be the only IT media organization in the Philippines. – Tom S. Noda

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By Jason Cross
PC World (US)
December 25, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Thinking about picking up one of those Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbooks? Good news! The company has announced that the product line has been refreshed to include the new Intel Atom N450 processor (the newly announced Atom that previously went under the code name Pineview). The N450 clocks in at 1.66 GHz and incorporates a new integrated graphics processor.

The new CPU promises better performance and battery life - Dell claims about 9 1/2 hours using a 6-cell battery. You can further get the new Mini 10 with a standard (1024×600) or high res (1366×768) display, an optional TV tuner, optional mobile broadband and GPS, and a 160GB or 250GB hard drive. One disappointing note: it looks like the systems will still be limited to 1GB of DDR2-800 RAM.

The new integrated graphics processor may be a step up from the one Intel bundled with its previous netbook platform, but it’s still not powerful enough to run most 3D games and it’s lacking in video decoding capabilities. Dell will offer an optional Broadcom Crystal HD decoder option to enable smooth video playback, so you can watch those HD YouTube and Hulu videos without stuttering.

Don’t look for the new systems on Dell.com just yet - the reconfigured models go on sale in January, with some of the options coming on board later in the first quarter of 2010. Prices will start at $299, as with the current Mini 10, but expect to pay up to $499 for lots of optional features.

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By Anuradha Shukla
MIS Asia
December 15, 2009

SINGAPORE - Dell entered the social media space more than three years ago and this move has enabled the computer giant to expand connections with customers, says Lionel Menchaca, the chief blogger for Dell’s virtual community.

When Dell forayed into this arena, it did not realise that social media would gradually become a way to listen and learn from its customers. What started out as a way to connect and respond to customers has now become a powerful customer engagement channel.

One million views on Flickr

Menchaca said that Dell moved on to IdeaStorm after starting with a blog, and then decided to tweet on Twitter as well as connect on Facebook. She noted the huge popularity of Dell’s Flickr page, which has seen more than one million views.

The company then decided to use a YouTube channel to share pictures and video content it was producing for Dell’s virtual community, Direct2Dell. The success of Dell.com support.Dell.com and the Dell community forum convinced the company’s execs that the Web was the right tool for connecting directly with customers.

Social media allowed Dell to share with customers what the company was all about and how its people focused on making technology work to improve the lives of people.

US$6.5 million in revenue from Twitter

According to Menchaca, Dell’s global community boasts more than 3.5 million people across the social web, but is still only a small part of the 2 billion connects it has with customers worldwide every year via phone, e-mail, et cetera.

While @DellOutlet announced US$3 million in revenue from Twitter in June, in total, Dell’s global reach on Twitter resulted in more than US$6.5 million in product revenue. The company has experienced growth in its Brazilian and Canadian accounts also. Twitter enthusiasts in Canada requested Dell Canada to come online and the company obliged.

The @DellnoBrasil site has generated about US$800,000 in product revenues in less than a year of its launch, and @DellHomeSalesCA has already surpassed US$150,000. Menchaca suggests that Dell streamline its presence in social media networks in future and continue growing the number of connections with its customers in those places.

Menchaca suggests that Dell build tighter integration between its Dell community sites and continue focusing on scaling support of social media initiatives into the Dell business units.

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By James Niccolai
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
December 1, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - IBM retained its narrow lead over Hewlett-Packard in the worldwide server market as sales began to stabilize during the third quarter, Gartner said Monday.

IBM took 31.7 percent of server revenue in the three months to Oct. 31, up a fraction from last year, while HP’s share stayed more or less flat at 30.2 percent, Gartner said. They were followed at a distance by Dell, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu.

Server revenue overall dropped 15.5 percent from the third quarter last year, to $10.7 billion. But it was up by 10.2 percent compared to the second quarter this year, Gartner said.

“It is important to put the yearly declines into perspective,” Gartner Research Vice President Jeffrey Hewitt said in a statement. The server market is “showing signs of stabilization as we move toward the end of 2009.”

All the top vendors bar one saw their server revenue improve from the second quarter. The exception was Sun Microsystems, whose business has been hit by uncertainty surrounding its acquisition by Oracle.

Sun’s server revenue was down 32.3 percent from the third quarter last year, much more than its main rivals, according to Gartner. It remained the top seller of Unix systems by volume, but its lead was pared down from a year earlier as shipments declined by almost half.

In terms of dollars spent, HP overtook Sun to become the second-largest Unix vendor behind IBM. HP grew its share of Unix systems revenue from 28 percent to 29.3 percent, while Sun’s declined from 29.2 percent to 24.2 percent, Gartner said. IBM’s share increased from 36.4 percent to 40.9 percent.

The Unix server market overall was worth $2.6 billion, a drop of 21.2 percent from the third quarter last year.

Industry-standard servers fared a little better. Sales of x86-based systems declined by 11.4 percent from last year, to $6.3 billion. HP retained its dominant lead, followed by Dell, IBM, Fujitsu and NEC

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Style-minded people who place a premium on precision craftsmanship and design can now add Adamo to their list of must-have items for 2009. Dell unveiled the world’s thinnest* laptop as a kick off to the new Adamo by Dell brand.

Adamo, derived from the Latin word meaning “to fall in love,” will serve as a flagship in a line of products created to disrupt the personal computing space with the combination of new design aesthetics, personalization choices and sought-after technologies.

The News:

* Adamo is the pinnacle of craftsmanship and design and features:
* A chassis milled from a single piece of aluminum featuring precision detailing and a scalloped backlit keyboard
* Striking high definition edge-to-edge glass display
* Fully connected with WiFi, Bluetooth™ and optional integrated mobile broadband** and full complement of connectivity ports with no compromises
* Cool, quiet and robust solid state drives
* Available in Onyx and Pearl colors with a broad range of complementary accessories

Quotes:

* “Great design needs to be timeless and evoke emotion in people”, said Alex Gruzen, senior vice president of Dell’s consumer products. ”While a premium computing experience was assumed for Adamo, the intent was for people to see, touch and explore Adamo and be rewarded by the select materials and craftsmanship you would expect in a fine watch.”
* “Dell continues to signal a commitment to design and personalization across its entire product line and has made significant strides forward in the past year,” said Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst, Enderle Group. “The Adamo laptop is a showcase for this commitment and a flagship product that will draw buyers to the brand.”

People who choose Adamo will be offered a unique color matched collection of Adamo by Dell branded peripherals and accessories including, in the U.S. an exclusive line of bags from TUMI. Choices will include:

* External storage option with 250GB*** or 500GB*** external hard drive.
* External DVD+/-RW or Blu-ray disc™ drive.
* 8GB*** USB drive.
* Connectors and cables including DisplayPort to HDMI, DVI, and VGA.
* Adamo Premium Service (US Only):
* 24/7 access to Dell’s best trained technicians
* Consistent communication with a dedicated personal team

The Adamo by Dell brand is being supported by innovative and new approaches to marketing and promotion for Dell. Designed to challenge people’s perceptions of what a computer is, the Adamo by Dell brand was inspired by fashion, luxury brands and timeless design.

Dell has looked beyond traditional approaches to reaching computer shoppers and launched a provocative campaign featuring:

* A stylish worldwide print campaign shot by acclaimed British-based photographer Nadav Kander and featuring high-fashion models that reinforces the “fall in love” positioning. Kander, whose work is celebrated in galleries worldwide, also shot the moving portfolio, “Obama’s People,” which appeared in The New York Times Magazine earlier this year.
* AdamoByDell.com, the centerpiece of the campaign and a highly stylized site where viewers can learn about Adamo, register for updates and, beginning today, place orders. Since its launch last month, AdamoByDell.com has attracted nearly 800,000 unique visitors from around the world and more than 1 million page views.
* Artful packaging in which the product arrives “floating” in a clear box with minimal clutter - a beautiful experience for a sophisticated product.

Product Specifications:

* Intel Core 2 Duo processors with Intel® Centrino® technology
* DDR3 system memory
* 13.4-inch 16:9 HD display
* Draft-Wireless N
* High-performance solid state drives standard
* Bluetooth 2.1
* Mobile Broadband* option
* Up to 5+ hours of battery life (preliminary)****
* 2 USB ports, 1 USB/eSATA combo port, Display Port, RJ-45 port
* Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit

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Hard-core gamers and technology enthusiasts will find much to celebrate with the new Alienware M15x from Dell. The new Alienware M15x is the most powerful 15-inch gaming notebook in the universe and delivers a pulse-pounding, life-like experience.

In support of the launch, Dell unveiled a new “All Powerful” marketing campaign to reach gamers throughout the universe and that it will expand Alienware’s presence from six to 35 countries. Just as Dell’s Adamo brand represents premium craftsmanship and design, Alienware represents premium performance in the Dell consumer product portfolio and is the new standard-bearer in the broader gaming and technology space.

The News
As the newest member of Dell’s premium performance brand, the Alienware M15x features:
· Striking design – including anodized aluminum casing, aggressive lines and a unique chassis – that definitely makes a statement in public;
· Uncompromised technology that sets the benchmark within the industry and makes it a key pillar within Dell’s consumer product portfolio; and
· The unique visual ID of the Alienware brand.

Gamers around the world will have access to Alienware’s powerhouse system which includes:
· New Anodized Aluminum Industrial Design with color options and personalized laser engraved nameplate
· Up to Dual 1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 280M graphics processing units (GPUs)* with SLI™ technology
· Configurable with Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme Quad-core overclockable Mobile Processor*
· Up to 8GB DDR3* 1333MHz Memory
· 1TB* 7200RPM or 512GB of Solid State Storage Capacity (Raid 0)
· Optional Beyond HD resolution with a WUXGA 1200p (1920 x 1200) Edge-to-Edge LCD design
· Internal Wireless a/g/draft-n with MIMO (2×2) Technology
· Exclusive Alienware Command Center Software Solution
· Exclusive designed AlienFX® Illuminated Keyboard
· NVIDIA® GeForce® 9400M G1 GPU with HybridPower™ technology
· Microsoft® Windows Vista® (64 bit)

Quotes
“The Alienware M15x is a gamer’s dream and sets the universal standard for 15-inch laptops that enthusiasts worldwide will love,” said Michael Tatelman, vice president of sales and marketing for Dell’s consumer business. “Alienware’s premium performance is critically important to the larger Dell consumer product portfolio, and our new ‘All Powerful’ branding campaign conveys the brand’s technological strength as much as Adamo conveys precision craftsmanship and design.”

“With the introduction of the Alienware M15x and our aggressive expansion into new countries and new languages, everyone will be able to experience the most innovative and immersive gaming experience,” says Arthur Lewis, general manager of Dell’s Gaming Group. “The M15x sets a new benchmark for combining out-of-this-world performance with the industrial design our customers have come to expect.”

“ Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme Quad-core Mobile Processors are the natural next step in gaming laptop performance innovation,” says Randy Stude, director Consumer PC Group, Intel Corporation . “With the combination of this forward-thinking technology and Alienware’s propensity for cutting-edge performance and design, Intel and Dell are setting a new standard for gaming systems worldwide.”

“Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M GPUs with NVIDIA SLI Technology is the fastest notebook graphics solution available, so the Alienware M15x is out of this world for gaming,” says Rene Haas, general manager of notebooks at NVIDIA. “Add the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M GPU designed for battery saving operation into the mix, and the M15x is truly a groundbreaking system with its three NVIDIA GPUs.”

‘All Powerful’

Anticipation for the new Alienware landing began a few months ago with the launch of www.allpowerful.com. The site, which heralded the arrival of something new, big and game-changing, attracted nearly 100,000 visitors in its first two weeks, with more than 25 percent registering to witness the arrival of the M15x and become part of the Alienware/Dell gaming community.

Written in Alienware’s custom “alien language,” the site featured a countdown clock timed with the debut of the laptop at U.S. gaming conference, E3, and was available in multiple languages to reflect the brand’s global expansion. In addition, Alienware’s BREED 3D animated short video encouraged gamers to check out the future of Alienware with a preview of ‘All Powerful’. Previous BREED videos introduced these same gamers to the origins of Alienware through the company’s Alien Network and AlienwareChannel on YouTube.

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Computerworld Philippines Staff
November 17, 2009

Malayan Colleges Laguna (MCL) has recently announced its deployment of an IT infrastructure system designed and installed by computing firm Dell, which aims to streamline the college’s operations through automated solutions.

The infrastructure setup by Dell included the installation of an online student enrollment system, an antivirus solution for the entire network infrastructure, servers for MCL’s data center and the provision of Dell Vostro laptops and Dell Optiplex desktops for its employees and computer laboratories.

“We had three months to search for an IT solution to equip our staff, IT labs, and data center,” according to Rolando Bitor, officer-in-charge, MCL Development Office for IT. “Once Dell received confirmation from us to proceed, they worked swiftly to help us meet our targeted rollout date, greatly exceeding expectations.”

Dell consultants installed a series of Dell PowerEdge energy-smart servers in the MCL data center, which enables maximum optimization of power resources because the servers required 25 percent less power than the previous generation models.

A Dell PowerVault MD 3000, a modular disk array, was also installed to back up stored data and assure availability of software within the infrastructure for efficient and effective operations.

Bitor said the IT infrastructure was installed and operational in time for MCL’s opening for its pioneer batch of students, which currently numbers to around 2,600 since it first opened in 2007.

“We saved almost six months’ worth of systems applications integrity tests as a result of the ease in deployment,”he said, adding that the series of tests and dry runs to assure that the software, hardware, and other components of the infrastructure properly meet the computing needs they were intended for. – John Mark V. Tuazon

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By Gregg Keizer
Computerworld (US)
November 10, 2009

FRAMINGHAM (11/09/2009) - Dell and Hewlett-Packard customers are angry that they have not yet received the Windows 7 upgrades promised them when they purchased new PCs earlier this year, according to messages on the companies’ support forums.

The grumbling is reminiscent of criticism in 2007, when Vista upgrades were delayed by weeks .

Last summer, Microsoft announced “Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program,” which would deliver free or discounted Windows 7 upgrades to people who bought new Vista PCs between June 26, 2009, and Jan. 31, 2010. The program is administered by computer manufacturers, which set the price and delivery dates. 

“I honestly think that this whole windows 7 “FREE!!!” upgrade is total BS,” said a user identified as “mdr322″ in a message Monday posted to a thread dedicated to upgrade complaints. “It took me 1 month to register my service tag and now my delivery date has been delayed by 2 Weeks!!!!!” 

“Dell is behaving very unprofessionally!” said someone labeled “Vlad G” on the same thread. “I am sure this will cost them customers.”

On the HP support site, users were also frustrated by the delay.

“Inept does not do justice to this royal screw-up,” ranted “littlewhizkid” in a message last week on an HP thread. “Total incompetence is closer, but without using language that would lead my message to being deleted I do not think I could adequately describe how poorly managed this process has been. HP has certainly lost any shred of loyalty I may have had.” 

A Dell representative explained the delay. “These are estimated ship dates,” said “Jesse L,” who was tagged as a Dell employee in the forum, referring to complaints from some users that the delivery date for their upgrade kept being pushed back. “The reason they keep changing is because [of] issues with the shippers’ inventory. They got behind and are working to catch up.”

Other users urged patience. “Did everyone forget that the copy is free, not including possible charges to shipping and taxes?” asked “ravenneangelle” last Wednesday. “And how high in demand this product is? I’m sure Dell is doing their best in getting it all out to us in time.” 

That argument didn’t sit well with some.

“Really? This is Dell doing their best? Not having the software ready to go?” countered Jack Dusty on Friday. “Not having a functioning tracking system? Not providing a download link which would’ve been the easiest solution? This is them doing their best? When they knew Windows 7 was going to be in demand? When they knew before [Oct.] 22 the names and addresses of the people who needed the upgrade? When they had months to prepare? Their best? I don’t think so.” 

Although several users on the Dell support thread said that they had received their Windows 7 upgrade, no one on the HP forum reported that they had gotten theirs. A user tagged as “oldmike” on the HP thread claimed he had e-mailed HP, and gotten a reply that included the line, “We have checked the status of your order. Arvato has received all the required information from your side. It will take some time to complete the process.” 

HP is using California-based Arvato Digital Services to fulfill the Windows 7 upgrade orders.

“What a bunch of baloney!!” said oldmike. “I wrote back to them and asked if they had a clue what ’some time’ meant. I haven’t heard from them since.”

The delays have exhausted the patience of some users. “I got tired of waiting & [and] purchased a copy of Vista Ultimate with the Windows 7 Upgrade Offer,” said “SpeedStep” on the Dell thread. “I purchased the software, logged into Microsoft and put the offer key in. Got the Win7 Ultimate Upgrade DVD in the mail within 5 days with no charge.”

Dell did not reply to a request for comment about its Windows 7 upgrade delays. An HP spokeswoman, however, acknowledged that the upgrades were behind schedule. “There has been a delay in shipping consumer notebook upgrade kits due to extra efforts made by HP’s consumer notebook business to ensure customers will have an easy upgrade experience.” She added that HP would begin shipping upgrades this week.

The free upgrade program has come under fire before. Last month, a consumer watchdog site slammed computer makers for charging as much as $17 for shipping the discs to consumers.

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By Agam Shah
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
October 29, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Dell on Tuesday started shipping its first rugged laptop with a multitouch display, which can operate in extreme environments and withstand drops, dust and spills.

The Latitude XT2 XFR is also the company’s thinnest and lightest rugged touch-screen laptop, the company said. The laptop measures 1.2 inches (38.1 millimeters) at its thinnest point, and weighs 5.4 pounds (2.45 kilograms) with a four-cell battery and solid-state drive. Dell already offers a rugged single-touch-screen laptop, the Latitude E6400 XFR, which has a 14.1-inch screen and weighs 8.5 pounds (3.87 kilograms).

The Latitude XT2 XFR laptop, priced starting at US$3,599, comes with a 12.1-inch four-finger-input multitouch display that can be used to record data, manipulate images, zoom into maps or scroll through documents. The screen has a protective layer so that it resists impact damage.

The laptop is designed to meet the U.S. military’s MIL-810G standards, which define a minimum set of conditions under which such laptops can operate.The laptop can withstand rain and a 3-foot (30.48 centimeters) drop and will operate in temperatures ranging from -10 degrees Fahrenheit (-23 degrees Celsius) to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius). The screen also can be flipped for use like a tablet PC.

Touch and stylus interfaces could help field workers such as sales and service technicians complete forms, create status reports or obtain customer signatures, said Jeremy Bolen, a Dell spokesman.

“Touch screens come in very handy in patrol cars and service vehicles where users can easily interact with the system without it becoming a distraction, unlike a keyboard or mouse,” Bolen said. “Essentially, touch makes data accessible and collection faster in many cases.”

Companies like Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard are shipping PCs with multitouch displays for businesses. The laptops are designed to input or retrieve customer data or manipulate objects that require higher levels of precision, such as sharply edged images in engineering and design applications.

Dell’s laptop is powered by an Intel ultra-low-voltage Core 2 Duo SU9600 chip, which runs at 1.6GHz and includes 3MB of cache. It supports up to 5GB of RAM with solid-state drive storage of up to 160GB. With a six-cell battery the laptop can run for up to six hours. The laptop includes multiple wireless communications options including Wi-Fi networking, mobile broadband options and GPS.

The laptop comes with Microsoft’s Windows Vista OS for now, but the recently released Windows 7 will be added as an option “very soon,” Bolen said.

The XT2 XFR has started shipping in U.S., Canada, France, Spain, the U.K., Germany and Italy, Bolen said. Dell did not immediately comment on worldwide availability.

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By Agam Shah
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
October 15, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Acer overtook Dell as the world’s second-largest computer vendor during the third quarter, as the PC market showed signs of coming back to life, IDC said on Wednesday.

Global PC shipments grew 2.3% from the same quarter a year earlier, to 78.1 million units. It was the first quarter this year in which PC shipments have grown, IDC said.

Acer’s shipments grew by a whopping 25.6% to reach 10.96 million units, outpacing Dell, whose shipments declined 8.4% to 9.95 million units. Acer “outperformed the market in virtually all regions,” IDC said.

Acer benefited from strong shipments during the back-to-school season, as prices for laptops fell and netbook shipments gained momentum, said Jay Chou, research manager at IDC.

Dell has not embraced low-cost netbooks as enthusiastically as Acer, Chou said. Acer benefitted more from the competitive pricing environment for laptops and netbooks.

Acer ended the quarter with 14% of the market, compared to Dell’s 12.7%. Both companies trailed Hewlett-Packard, which retained its spot as the world’s top PC vendor. HP held 20.2% of the market after shipping 15.79 million PCs, a year-over-year growth rate of 9.3%.

HP is stronger in retail sales than Dell, which helped it generate stronger back-to-school sales.

Dell is stronger in sales to businesses, and it could rebound during a corporate PC refresh cycle that could happen in 2010, Chou said. Until then, Dell may struggle to keep up with competitors in unit shipments. The company saw solid growth in emerging markets, IDC noted, which was a positive sign.

Ever since Dell lost its market share lead, founder and CEO Michael Dell has insisted he is more concerned with profits. “If we wanted [market share], we’d go and sell a whole bunch of netbooks,” he said in a recent earnings call. Netbooks carry lower profit margins than full-fledged PCs.

Lenovo recorded strong growth of 18.2%, giving it the fourth-place spot with PC shipments of 6.99 million. Toshiba was fifth, with shipments growing 6.9% to 4.04 million.

“The continued strength of both the U.S. and worldwide PC business in the face of difficult economic environments underscores the value that both consumer and corporate buyers place on PCs,” Bob O’Donnell, vice president for clients and displays at IDC, said in a statement.

PC shipments in the U.S. grew by 2.5% during the third quarter, while shipments in Asia-Pacific “grew nicely,” IDC said. Shipments in Japan declined by a double-digit%age as consumer and corporate spending remained weak. Shipments also declined in EMEA, IDC said.

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By Leo King
Computerworld UK
October 5, 2009

LONDON - Dell is pushing its software as a service business, with a strict
focus on infrastructure management and business continuity. The company is traditionally known as a hardware vendor but last week vastly expanded its services portfolio with the $3.9 billion acquisition of Perot Systems, and plans to draw on this new capability for its SaaS offerings. It will also draw on Perot’s datacentres to help boost supply of its SaaS services.

Dell additionally acts as a hardware supplier to other cloud providers, selling its servers and datacentre technology to them. Cary Gumbert, senior manager at Dell’s SaaS unit, told Computerworld UK that in terms of the cloud, offering pure technology-related services gave it differentiation from many competitors that tend to sell strategic IT project services or business applications in the cloud.

“Our biggest competitor in software is on-premise solutions,” he said, “but they don’t offer the quick deployment, low upfront cost, easy management and scalability.”

“Other SaaS people make noise, but they either focus on strategic services or they’re not multi-tenant and scalable.” The services are open to customers of all hardware vendors, but Dell hardware customers have the advantage of being able to select PCs and laptops that are “services-enabled” — with the basic platform ready to connect to its cloud services, without any complex configuration.

Dell’s SaaS focus would remain, at least for the time being, on infrastructure management, because “it’s well known that for every pound customers spend on new systems, they spend eight or more just keeping the lights on”.

Its offering covers three areas, “managing distributed devices, managing datacentres, and business continuity”, he said. In each of those three areas, Dell offers specific SaaS products or a whole ‘module’ as customers choose.

Its distributed device management tackles areas such as patch management, and applying changes remotely across devices. One of Dell’s UK customers, in the oil and gas industry, uses this service to manage its sales team’s laptops running over 3G wireless.

In datacentre management, Dell addresses remote infrastructure monitoring, including performance and fault management. One of its retail customers deployed this system in the cloud to avoid the costs and time required to apply it on-premise in its buildings around the world, Gumbert said.

In the third area, business continuity, Dell offers business instant failover — at the touch of a button — to hosted versions of Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes. This is for use by firms already running those systems on premise, in the event of an outage, and can be used to provide email access until businesses’ own servers are running.

Dell as a whole is now focusing on being a hardware supplier, software services supplier and higher-end IT services firm, Gumbert noted. It will continue to work with application partners to help “complete the stack”, and Perot Systems will principally aid with providing a range of services, including process outsourcing and custom applications.

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By Agam Shah
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)

SAN FRANCISCO (09/29/2009) - After comfortably residing for years in mobile devices like cell phones, chips based on the Arm design are finding their way into commercial laptops.

However, Arm processors could be relegated to co-processor status alongside Intel CPUs in commercial laptops unless the chips are able to run full-featured, Windows-based PC applications, analysts said.

Though Arm can run multiple flavors of Linux and the Windows Embedded CE platform, Microsoft has said its upcoming Windows 7 OS would not support the Arm architecture. Microsoft said Arm is suited for specialized devices like smartphones and e-readers. As such, only the mobile version of Windows has been ported to the Arm architecture.

Nevertheless, Dell’s move on Tuesday to use Arm chips in its latest business offering, the Latitude Z, raises the possibility of the processor architecture being used in more laptops.The Arm processor is a secondary CPU that sits alongside an Intel low-voltage CPU intended to run Windows-based applications. Dell is also offering Arm CPUs as an option with its ultraportable Latitude E4300 and E4200 business laptops.

The PC maker decided to use Arm processors because they add a smartphone element to the laptops, said Steve Belt, vice president of business client engineering at Dell.

The Latitude Z has a special motherboard with an Arm-based chip on it, which is designed to run the quick-boot capability called Latitude On. In addition to booting in just a few seconds, Latitude On gives the laptop “always-on” capabilities similar to those in smartphones. The environment provides quick access to commonly used applications such as e-mail clients, contacts, calendar and a Web browser. The feature helps avoid the longer boot times that versions of Microsoft’s Windows OS undergo to run such applications.

Arm designs processor cores that are licensed to chip makers. The processors can be found in billions of mobile devices and are making their way into low-power devices such as netbooks. Arm recently boosted the speed of its processor cores to reach 2GHz in an attempt to show that the processors are scalable and provide the performance needed to run demanding applications like multimedia.

However, it was the power-saving feature of the Arm processors that attracted Dell to use the chip in Latitude Z, Belt said. The PC maker is placing the Arm at the heart of the quick-boot environment, as it consumes much less battery life compared to Intel processors, Belt said.

“Here you get a great power-management story. That’s how you get an instant-on story, because I have the power to burn,” Belt said. The future of Arm CPUs in Dell laptops is partly tied to how customers respond to the quick-boot feature, Belt said.

“A lot of that is going to be driven by the acceptance of what we’ve built here. If we see people really like this and use it, trust me, I’m super-excited about this capability. But I’m not going to spend time building things people don’t want, either,” Belt said.

Many vendors have talked about including Arm processors in PCs. Asustek Computer, for example, has shown a laptop with Arm and Intel processors running in tandem.

Dell’s laptop is a step in the right direction for Arm, which is trying to establish a larger presence beyond the smartphone space, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.

However, Arm may struggle to replace Intel CPUs as the main processors in laptops, since the PC version of Windows has not been ported to the Arm architecture, Gold said. Most fully functional laptops today ship with Intel CPUs and a version of the Windows OS.

Software is more important than hardware in commercial laptops, said Dan Olds, principal analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. But Arm chips could work in laptops if there is a move toward Web applications and adoption of the Linux OS grows.

Arm processors are already being used as an alternative to Intel CPUs in small, low-cost laptops based on the Linux OS. Those devices are designed mainly for people who do most of their computing on the Internet. Chip companies like Freescale and Qualcomm are expected to deliver chips for such devices, which they call “smartbooks,” based on the Arm architecture.

Still, Windows 7 needs to be ported to Arm to get more consideration from PC makers as a replacement for Intel CPUs, Gold said.

“Dell has essentially relegated Arm to a co-processor,” Gold said. “I can’t see Arm replacing Intel or Advanced Micro Devices — x86 architecture — in notebooks. Arm will run Linux so in netbooks it makes sense,” he said.

Laptop makers may continue to adopt Arm CPUs as co-processors to run specific functions like scanning Internet data for malware and viruses, Gold said. The power-saving capabilities and low cost of Arm chips make them a good choice as co-processors.

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By Agam Shah
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)

SAN FRANCISCO (09/28/2009) - Dell introduced the Latitude Z business laptop, which includes a new wireless charging technology that could eventually find its way into other Dell systems, the company said on Tuesday.

The Latitude Z can be placed on a special stand that generates an electromagnetic field to recharge laptop batteries wirelessly. The technology, which Dell calls inductive charging, takes the same amount of time to recharge laptop batteries as an AC adapter, said Steve Belt, vice president of business client engineering at Dell.

“There’s a coil in the bottom of the notebook and then there’s a matching coil in the stand. You set them next to each other and it generates a current that flows and charges the battery,” Belt said.

This is the first time Dell has included wireless recharging in its laptops. The recharging stand must be purchased separately, however, as an optional extra. The technology could help reduce the dependency on power adapters traditionally used to recharge laptops.

Dell is also adding new hardware that will allow the laptop to boot quickly while giving it “always-on” capabilities similar to those in a smartphone. The laptop includes an Arm processor — a type of chip more often found in smartphones — to boot a laptop quickly for fast access to commonly used Web applications like e-mail and a Web browser. The processor is included alongside an Intel processor, which is used to run the Windows OS.

The laptop is a vehicle to demonstrate some of the latest mobility features Dell could ultimately put in more of its business laptops, Belt said. Inclusion of some of those features in further laptops will depend on how the market responds to the technologies, Belt said.

Wireless charging is already being used in some consumer electronics like mobile phones. For example, Palm sells a kit to recharge its Palm Pre smartphone using inductive charging, also known as inductive coupling. Similar technology is being used to recharge electronic toothbrushes and even power tools.

The quick-boot environment, called Latitude On, boots the laptop in a few seconds, after which users have access to applications include e-mail, contacts, calendar and the Web. Based on a lightweight version of Linux, the environment reduces the need to fully boot into Windows to run certain applications.

Dell adopted the Arm chip for the quick-boot environment as it morphs the laptop into a smartphone-like device, Belt said.

“Because it doesn’t run Intel and it doesn’t run [Windows], it get gobs of battery life. It’s like taking a big battery and strapping it to my Blackberry.” Belt said. The quick-boot battery life could range from 12 hours up to two days if the laptop is often in sleep mode, Belt said.

The laptop can also connect to an optional wireless dock via ultrawideband technology, allowing users to move around the room with the laptop without being tethered by wires. The dock, in turn, connects to peripherals using wires. It has a DVI (digital visual interface) port to connect to a monitor, and USB ports to connect to peripherals like keyboards, printers and mice.

The Latitude Z has a 16-inch screen, weighs 4.5 pounds (2 kilograms) and measures one inch at its thinnest point. It runs on Intel’s Core 2 Duo low-voltage dual-core chips at speeds of 1.4GHz to 1.6GHz. The laptop supports up to 4GB of RAM and 512GB of storage through two solid-state drives. Dell offers multiple wireless options including Wi-Fi 802.11 a/g/n and mobile broadband connectivity through 3G or WiMax networks.

The laptop starts at US$1,999 and is available in the U.S., Canada and certain countries in Europe and Asia, Dell said.

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By Peter Sayer
IDG News Service (Paris Bureau)
September 22, 2009

PARIS - Dell has agreed to buy Perot Systems for around US$3.9 billion in cash, and intends to make the company its global services delivery division, the companies said Monday.

The deal will allow Dell to expand its range of IT services, and potentially allow it to sell more hardware to existing Perot customers, it said.

It will also allow Dell, in the future, to address customer demand for next-generation services including cloud computing, said CEO Michael Dell in a conference call with analysts.

Dell is counting on its international reach to turn Perot into a global services company, Dell CFO Brian Gladden said during the call.

Perot Systems is one of the largest services companies serving the health-care sector, from which it derives about 48 percent of its revenue, its CEO Peter Altabef said during the call. Around 25 percent of revenue comes from government customers, he said. Perot is already working at increasing its international revenue: on Friday it announced a 10-year deal to outsource IT operations for Indian hospital group Max Healthcare.

Dell’s rival Hewlett-Packard expanded its own global services unit with the acquisition of EDS for $13.9 billion in May 2008. EDS was founded by H. Ross Perot, who sold the company to General Motors before going on to found Perot Systems, of which his son is now chairman.

Over the last four quarters, Dell and Perot together had revenue of $16 billion from enterprise hardware and IT services, with $8 billion coming from enhanced services and support, Dell said. Perot’s contribution to that is relatively small: In 2008, the company reported total revenue of $2.78 billion.

At $30 per share, Dell’s offer represented a significant premium over Friday’s closing price of $17.91 for Perot Systems shares. In after-hours trading, the stock traded at $29.70 early on Monday morning.

The boards of Dell and Perot agreed to the terms of the transaction on Sunday, they said. Dell expects to complete the deal in its November-to-January fiscal quarter.

Dell expects that overlaps between the two companies will allow it to cut Perot’s costs by between 6 percent and 8 percent, Gladden said during the conference call.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Dell plans to make Perot Systems its services unit, and will put Altabef in charge of the unit. It also expects Ross Perot Jr., chairman of the Perot Systems board, to be invited to join the Dell board of directors.

The services unit will fit alongside Dell’s existing divisions for selling to large enterprises, government customers and small and medium-size businesses. Dell created the three divisions in a major reorganization of its business sales teams last December, shifting from a geographic structure to one aligned with customer types.

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By Sumner Lemon
IDG News Service (Singapore Bureau)
September 17, 2009

SINGAPORE - Dell will pay US$4 million to settle charges of fraudulent and deceptive business practices brought against the company by New York’s Office of the Attorney General.

The New York attorney general filed suit against Dell in 2007, charging that the company misled customers by charging high credit rates when they were promised cheap financing. The suit also alleged Dell didn’t provide customers with full details of its next-day service program and didn’t deliver promised rebates and warranties.

In May 2008, New York’s Supreme Court ruled on the lawsuit, finding Dell guilty of fraud, false advertising, deceptive business practices and abusive debt collection practices.

In addition to the $4 million payment, Dell also agreed to change its advertising, sales and finance practices. The settlement requires Dell to disclose detailed information about the level of service customers will receive and the estimated percentage of customers who qualify for low-cost financing.

“Today’s announcement is the final step in ensuring New Yorkers harmed by Dell’s deceptive and illegal business practices are fully compensated,” said Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said in a statement announcing the settlement.

New Yorkers harmed by Dell’s business practices covered in the lawsuit can file an application for restitution online, the Office of the Attorney General said.

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By Agam Shah
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
September 11, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Dell on Wednesday said it would start selling uninterruptible power supplies with its own brand name as it tries to expand its reach in the server space.

This is first time attempt by Dell to sell UPS systems with its own brand name, said Sally Stevens, vice president of platform marketing at Dell.

UPS systems are external devices that provide power protection to systems like PCs and servers by identifying issues like power outages or voltage fluctuations. The systems can correct the problems by activating an alternate power source like a battery inside the UPS to keep hardware running. The systems can be key in data centers to keep systems up and running.

The company will sell 28 UPS products ranging from 500 watts to 5600 watts for rack or tower servers. The devices will be available through the Dell’s UPS Web site, with prices starting at US$269.

The UPS systems deliver 95 percent or greater efficiency rating, leading to less dissipation of heat and reduction in cooling costs, according to the company.

Dell is targeting the UPS line at servers in datacenters and other areas like telecommunication equipment. The line will be manufactured by Eaton in partnership with Dell, which is helping determine the product specifications. A number of selection tools based on wattage will be available on the Web site to help customers select the right UPS system.

The UPS systems can be configured to work with servers from different companies, Stevens said. Management software bundled will allow the UPS systems to be remotely managed either through console software like Dell’s OpenManage. The management software monitor battery and systems connected to a UPS. LCD displays on the boxes show details like actual battery run time and fault codes that make troubleshooting possible without logging into a console.

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By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
September 7, 2009

SMBs have proven to be a lucrative market in the Philippines, prompting IT solutions provider Dell to shift its country offerings to this segment of the market after serving large enterprises since setting up shop in the country.

The shift, according to Dell executives, is a strategic move towards growing the business in the country, citing SMBs as a key factor for driving their business forward. “More and more, small and medium companies are looking for vendors to help them grow without investing too much,” explained Ng Tian Beng, general manager, Dell South Asia.

Dell’s SMB offerings, Beng said, banks on its ease of use and varies widely depending on unique needs of individual companies. “Our Vostro line, for example, is focused solely on SMBs,” added Barry Bunyi, country general manager for Dell Philippines. “It is bundled with video conferencing and other software that are essential to small yet growing businesses in the region.”

Beng noted that following the recent economic downturn, SMBs have changed their views regarding technology by becoming more critical and careful in handling investments and resources.

“They have a lot of contradictory concerns, such as growing their IT staff yet having to make do with the little resources they have,” he said, adding that Dell is determined to assist SMBs in this kind of situation.

Even if Dell has started to target local SMBs only last year, Bunyi noted that they are seeing positive results with their endeavor. While refusing to cite numbers to prove this claim, he said they are “very confident and optimistic” about this effort.

Despite the shift in focus, Bunyi noted that Dell is still pulling strong on another spaces of the business, particularly in the notebook category. “The mobility market posted a negative growth of 13% last year,” he explained. “But our notebook offerings registered as much as 48% growth.”

Bunyi attributes this stellar growth to their E Series line of laptops, which, he said, has raked in most of the company’s growth in the notebook market.

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By Agam Shah
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
August 28, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Dell said it was willing to work with carriers worldwide to develop more mobile devices, suggesting that another phonelike prototype like the one it developed with China Mobile could be on the cards.

The company recently showed off a prototype mobile handset it developed with the Chinese mobile service provider, though neither has commented on when it will be available.

Dell collaborates with major telecommunication carriers worldwide, including AT&T and Vodafone. It is willing to make products with various screen sizes to suit the needs of the carriers it works with, said company founder and CEO Michael Dell on a conference call Thursday.

“We’ll go and build products those carrier partners want to see.” Dell said. “The [China Mobile] prototype … is one of those [products].”

Few details are available about the China Mobile device, though it is rumored to come with the Android operating system, a digital camera and support for a 2G network.

Dell already offers mobile devices like netbooks to customers as part of wireless carrier bundles. Netbooks are low-cost PCs that offer basic PC functionality and are characterized by small screens and keyboards.

However, company officials said they would like to try and focus more on enterprise products like servers and storage, which deliver better margins.

But if Dell decides to dive deeper into the mobile-phone space, it faces stiff competition against competitors like Nokia, Samsung, Apple, Research in Motion, Sony Ericsson and Palm.

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By Agam Shah
IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
August 14, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - In an effort to expand its Linux offerings, Dell is researching new netbook-type devices and will soon offer netbook Linux OS upgrades, a company official said on Wednesday.

The company is researching the possibility of offering new Linux-based mobile devices called smartbooks, said Todd Finch, senior product marketing manager for Linux clients, at the OpenSourceWorld conference in San Francisco. The company will also upgrade its Ubuntu Linux OS for netbooks to the latest version in the next few weeks, he said.

Smartbooks are netbook-type devices that are powered by chips designed by Arm. The devices mostly support the Linux OS and are designed for those who rely on the Web for most of their computing. Dell couldn’t say whether it would ultimately offer a smartbook.

Smartbooks have similar characteristics to netbooks, including cramped keyboards and small screens. No major PC vendor has yet announced an interest in smartbooks, though small vendors are pushing them as an alternative to netbooks, which are mostly based on Intel’s Atom chips and come with Microsoft’s Windows OS. Many vendors, including Qualcomm and Freescale, are providing Arm chips for smartbooks that could hit shelves by the end of this year.

Smartbooks with Arm chips have inherent advantages over x86 chips like Atom, such as lower power consumption and longer battery life, Finch said. The chips are also becoming more powerful, as indicated by the growing number of applications on smartphones, he said.

“I think it’s natural and reasonable for us to begin looking at them as they begin scaling their processors up,” Finch said.

Putting an Arm chip — mainly found in smartphones — inside a lightweight PC could provide an early entry point for Dell into the smartphone space, said Jay Chou, research analyst at IDC. Dell has hinted at entering the smartphone area many times, but no product has materialized yet.

While netbooks are the craze, smartbooks are hard to ignore, Chou said. Interest in the device will grow over time because it enables lightweight and low-priced computing devices, which could interest PC makers. Pricing is also a major criteria for buyers, and Linux netbooks are cheaper than their Windows counterparts.

But smartbooks could struggle as Windows remains the dominant OS for netbook-type devices, with a strong software ecosystem around it, Chou said. Smartbooks may have a hard time gaining traction, and much of their future success will depend on the software ecosystem.

The target market for smartbooks will be no different from Linux-based netbooks as they both have the same usage scenario, Dell’s Finch said. Like smartbooks, Linux-based netbooks are targeted at those looking for quick access to Web-based applications. “The more [Web-based] applications there are, the better it is for Linux,” Finch said.

The growing interest in Linux is partly driven by Dell’s success with Linux on its netbooks. Close to a third of all netbooks Dell ships during certain quarters are preloaded with Linux, he said.

Dell is currently the fifth-largest netbook vendor worldwide, according to IDC’s Chou. Linux-based netbooks made up about 5 percent of overall worldwide shipments during the last quarter.

However, a bulk of Dell’s netbooks today ship with Windows XP, which remains the OS of choice for consumers, Finch said. The popularity of Windows won’t change overnight, he said.

“There are still a large percentage of people that prefer Windows, even on a netbook,” Finch said. Many are familiar with the look and feel of Windows, and are unwilling to trade in for the longer battery life offered by Linux. He couldn’t comment about the possible adoption rates of Windows 7, which is due for release on Oct. 22.

Dell currently offers Ubuntu Linux version 8.04 with the Mini 10v netbook, which is being upgraded to the latest 9.04 version — code-named Jaunty Jackalope — in the next few weeks. Dell will be pre-loading the Web-centric Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which is designed for small screen sizes, on future netbooks. Its Web-centric design provides quick access to online applications, and the OS builds in support for a larger number of drivers.

The company is also researching Google’s Chrome for use in netbooks. The OS is a thin version of a Linux-based operating system that also will provide quick access to the Web and online applications.

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Computerworld Philippines
July 20, 2009

Cramped spaces and overcrowded desks are a headache for business owners. That is the conclusion of a Dell online poll of small businesses in China, India, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and United States about their desk space challenges. In response, Dell has announced the Vostro All In One, the company’s first all-in-one desktop computer designed exclusively for small businesses.

“Small businesses around the world are constantly looking to do more with less, and IDC predicts that by 2013 small form factor, all-in-one and ultra-small form factor desktops will make up nearly 38% of the overall desktop market,” said Richard Shim, research manager for IDC’s Personal Computing program.

The Vostro All In One’s clutter-free design minimizes the amount of space the computer takes up on the desk to provide business buyers with a powerful, stylish and affordable desktop computer. What’s more, the computer’s full desktop processing power is backed with Dell’s worry-free small business support.

The system is easy to set up, going from box to business in less than four minutes, and, when using the optional VESA mount, saves customers as much as 79% of their desk space versus a traditional desktop and monitor set-up. When combined with optional integrated Wi-Fi and a wireless mouse and keyboard, the result is a wire-free desk. The new Vostro also offers Intel Core 2 Duo processors and an integrated webcam that enables businesses to enjoy remote collaboration.

“Small businesses are waking up to the fact that saving space is a critical requirement for their desktops and the Vostro All In One is the first-of-its-kind solution for small businesses wanting a cleaner, more productive workspace at an amazing value,” said Sam Burd, global vice president, Dell Small and Medium Business. “This is a perfect example of how Dell is expanding the Vostro line to bring customers innovative design and productivity based on their unique needs and business environments.”

Vostro features standard gigabit Ethernet plus optional integrated Wi-Fi 802.11 for wireless connectivity; optional Dell Backup and Recovery Manager for simplified data protection; support for older peripherals that require serial or parallel ports; and optional video conferencing system with integrated camera and included software.

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By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines

Going green is the growing trend nowadays, and even small and midsize businesses (SMB) can keep up with the pace, according to global computer manufacturer Dell who recently presented a host of energy-saving technologies and free resources targeted at SMBs.

Once a small business itself, the company said it realizes the impact of going green to business functions and environmental awareness. “Going green is not only good for the environment, but it is fundamental for small businesses in today’s tough economy,” said Erik Dithmer, vice president and general manager of SMB, Dell Americas.

On top of its energy-efficient green technologies, the company is offering the SMB market a lineup of online resources that promote environmental responsibility and cost-efficient business process, which include solutions for asset recovery, mobile computing, energy calculators and customer care studies.

“With challenging economic times, we’ve seen a significant uptick in green technology interest from small and medium businesses across the globe. This isn’t ‘tree hugger’ green, this is ‘save money’ green, driven by the cost-saving benefits of adopting greener technology. Investing for long term efficiency is part of it, but so is the real near term benefit of lower energy costs,” said Raymond Boggs, vice president for small/medium business and home office research, IDC.

The company said SMBs have started to pickup from the upsurge of green technology, with organizations such as Earth Rangers, an environmental education group, creating virtualized environments that save as much as 90% office space and cut energy costs by the same rate. Robertson Homes, a Florida-based green home builder who benefited from Dell’s cost-efficient Smart OptiPlex 960 desktops, reduced their energy bill by 51%.

“SMBs are feeling the economic squeeze more than other segments and are looking to save money where ever they can, and if there are environmental benefits as well, so much the better,” added Boggs.

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