Apple’s latest Mac Mini desktop computer comes at a premium and bears higher component costs due to the Mac Mini’s use of parts designed for mobile PCs, according to a dissection conducted by iSuppli.

The entry-level version of the new-generation Mac Mini carries a bill of materials (BOM) of US$376.20, which increases to US$387.14 when manufacturing costs are added. This low-end model of the Mac Mini is priced at US$599, reflecting the relatively thin BOM/manufacturing margins generated by Apple’s PCs in relation to its lower-cost consumer items, specifically the iPod line, iSuppli noted.

The total materials and manufacturing costs reported in iSuppli’s teardown analysis of the new Mac Mini mirror only the expenses for direct materials, manufacturing and basic tests. Not included in this analysis are costs above and beyond the material manufacturing of the core device itself including the cost of intellectual property, royalties and licensing fees – as well as those expenses not already included into the per component price, software, software loading and test, shipping, logistics marketing and other channel costs. (continuare…)

Quanta

Taiwan-based notebook makers Quanta Computer and Inventec are expected to benefit from Hewlett-Packard’s (HP’s) recent increase in notebook orders, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.HP recently increased its annual notebook shipment guidance for 2009 from 34 million units originally to 38 million units, an increase of around 12%.

Don’t look now, but Acer—yes, that Acer—is on the verge of unseating Dell as the second-largest PC maker.

Acer’s rise to the number two spot behind Hewlett-Packard was fueled in part by netbooks and other low-cost PC models, as well as what people in the biz call “vision” as it pertains to introducing new PC features months before the competition even knew consumers wanted them. The souring economy has helped too, notes the New York Times, as consumers were naturally inclined to reward PC companies that could sell them cheaper hardware. (continuare…)

Hewlett-Packard unveiled a new line of printers that allow you to access and print Web content from partners Google, Nickelodeon, and USA Today without a PC. The new printer line, unveiled at an event in San Francisco today, is part of a new HP printer technology called TouchSmart Web.

The printers take advantage of the HP’s TouchSmart screen and software technology, first seen in the TouchSmart series of all-in-one PCs. Printers outfitted with this TouchSmart Web will feature a Web-connected touch LCD display mounted on the front of the printer, allowing you to navigate a list of HP applications for printing maps, Snapfish photos, or coupons. (continuare…)

AMD Opteron

At least one store in Tokyo, Japan has started selling six-core AMD Opteron microprocessors code-named Istanbul. The chips are intended for 2-way servers, but customers may install them into high-end dual socket workstations compatible with with socket F central processing units.

According to Akiba PC Hotline web-site, Advanced Micro Devices sells two six-core AMD Opteron 2400-series microprocessors in Japan, including 2.20GHz (2427) and 2.40GHz (2431) models, whereas the model 2435 (2.60GHz) is not currently available. The price of the lower frequency version is ¥60 690 ($632.5), whereas the higher-end central processing unit costs ¥93 240 ($971.8). The chips should be installed in pairs. (continuare…)

AMD

AMD is scheduled to announce a new open platform strategy dubbed “AMD Vision Technology” in September, along with the launch of its next-generation notebook platform (Tigris), according to sources at notebook makers.

AMD’s current Better by Design strategy, which places a label with platform specifications on notebooks, will be phased out as the new strategy hits the market.
AMD’s Vision Technology strategy will separate notebook products into three levels based on their processor and GPU – AMD Vision Ultimate, AMD Vision Premium and AMD Vision – and each notebook will receive a label indicating the given level.
AMD declined the opportunity to respond to this report saying it cannot comment on unannounced products.

Worldwide PC shipments in the first quarter of 2009 fell by the largest historic rate in the seven years iSuppli has been tracking the market, as weaker-than-expected desktop sales dragged down the industry, according to iSuppli.

PC shipments in the first quarter of 2009 amounted to 66.5 million units, an 8.1% decline from 72.3 million units during the same period in 2008, and a 14.4% drop from 77.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2008.

“The worldwide recession sparked by the credit crisis slammed PC shipments for the second quarter in succession during the first three months of 2009,” said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst for compute platforms research at iSuppli. “The first-quarter performance of the worldwide PC market was worse than iSuppli had expected in its prior forecast, which called for a 4% decline in shipments compared to the same period in 2008. After a long period of immunity to the global downturn, the economic crisis finally has begun to impact the PC market.” (continuare…)

Looking back at the product offerings at the recently concluded Computex Taipei 2009, you couldn’t help notice that companies highlighting mobile DTV solutions based on the DVB standard were focusing on free-to-air solutions (DVB-T) as opposed to solutions targeting the subscription-based DVB-H standard, despite the latter being the technology standard developed specifically for digital mobile DTV.

While DVB-H (the H is for handheld) has several advantages over DVB-T for mobile TV solutions, such as time slicing to reduce power consumption, system makers indicated that issues still need to be overcome before DVB-H ecosystems can be successfully developed. (continuare…)

Hewlett-Packard’s (HP’s) PC market share in Taiwan reached 11.5% in first-quarter 2009 and the company expects to maintain the share in the second quarter, according to Monty Wong, president of HP Taiwan citing figures from IDC Taiwan.

HP’s notebook market share in Taiwan also grew from 11% in the first quarter of 2008 to 14.8% in the first quarter of 2009, Wong added.

HP has announced two new desktop PC series in Taiwan – the Pavilion Slimline 5000 series, made by Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and Compaq Presario 3000 series, shared by Foxconn and Pegatron Technology.

HP also recently announced the 12-inch Pavilion dv2 notebook series, made by Flextronics, 13-inch Pavilion dv3 and 14-inch Pavilion dv4 series manufactured by Compal Electronics, and 15.6-inch and 16-inch Pavilion dv6 made by Quanta Computer.

Quanta

Quanta Computer has recently gained back manufacturing orders for Apple’s MacBook, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report citing component makers.

Quanta is expected to become the sole manufacturer of the MacBook in the second half of 2009 and is estimated to ship a total of around 10 million units to Apple for the year.

Inventec Multimedia & Telecom, a member of the Inventec group, has started shipping camera modules for notebooks to Toshiba and the company expects its products to also receive verification from Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP) later in 2009, according to Tom Cho, chairman of the company.

The company entered the camera module business in 2008 and shipped around 28 million units. However, most of the modules were for handset-use, Cho noted. 2009 shipments will be higher than last year’s.

Inventec Multimedia’s current major client is still Inventec, it accounts for 30% of Inventec’s total notebook shipments, however the company is also looking to land orders from other notebook makers.

The guessing game is over: Apple’s iPhone 3G S has arrived. Don’t let appearances fool you. On the outside nothing looks much different with the 3G S. The real difference is what’s inside. So how will Apple’s iPhone 3G s compare to the Palm Pre? I

The main difference is quite obvious — for the same price as a 16GB iPhone3G S you only get a 8GB Palm Pre. In comparison, the current generation 8GB iPhone 3G dropped in price to $99, going after Pre’s lower capacity storage.

For just $100 more than the Palm Pre (that is if you get your $100 mail-in rebate) you can get a top-notch iPhone 3G S with a whopping 32GB of storage (four times more than the Pre).

However, the Palm Pre offers a better deal against the iPhone 3G S when it comes to the data plan. AT&T did not reduce its iPhone tariffs, so the Pre on Sprint still offers more for the buck when it comes to data, voice and text plans. (continuare…)

Revenues for the SSD market (including low-cost PC solutions) worldwide totaled US$585 million in 2008, rising over 100% from US$259 million in 2007, according to a recent report released by Gartner. PC applications contributed around 58% to the total market for SSDs last year.

Samsung Electronics led the market with 31.7% revenue market share in 2008, up 14.8 percentage points from 16.9% in 2007, the Gartner report shows. The research firm attributed the significant share growth to increased adoption of Samsung’s drives in mainstream PC models.

STEC was second with 15.7% last year, according to the report. In addition to OEM orders placed by EMC and Sun Microsystems, STEC has recently cut into the supply chain with SSDs used in Apple’s products. Meanwhile, SanDisk came in third with 9.4%, facing tougher competition from recent entrant Intel. Intel climbed to fourth with 6.9% in 2008, compared to less than 1% that it took in 2007. (continuare…)

With Microsoft Windows 7 in its rearview mirror, Apple is making Snow Leopard an inexpensive operating system upgrade for Mac users.

Philip Schiller, senior VP of worldwide marketing, told attendees at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco Monday that for $29 they can upgrade from the current Mac OS X, Leopard. The new version boasts better performance and a number of enhancements, most notably delivery of a full 64-bit kernel. Apple also is offering a “family pack” of up to five Snow Leopard licenses for $49.

Schiller also announced September availability of the new OS, a month before Microsoft releases Windows 7. Analysts have been impressed with Microsoft’s follow-up to Windows Vista and say Windows 7 is likely to present the greatest challenge to Mac OS X. (continuare…)

Netbook vendors are considering keeping their Intel Atom N270 and N280-based netbooks using Windows XP and will not offer upgrades to Windows 7 due to increasing costs and low consumer demand, according to industry sources.

The current price of Windows XP OEM version is only around US$25-30, but the latest quotes from Microsoft for the netbook version of Windows 7 is around US$45-55 and therefore first-tier vendors are unable to transfer the cost to the netbooks’ sales price due to the fierce competition.

The first-tier notebook vendors are still negotiating with Microsoft hoping to bring the price down.

Since most consumers think Windows XP is enough to handle their needs in a netbook, the Upgrade to Windows 7 Program will provide less incentive to attract consumers to purchase netbooks.

Currently, most netbook vendors are focusing on only adopting Windows 7 in their next generation Atom N450-based netbooks, while some vendors are considering offer upgrades for their N280-based products.

In additional news, Intel plans to announce the single-core Atom D410 and dual-core Atom D510 for nettops in October 2009 replacing the current Atom 230 and 330. Atom 230 and 330 will be phased out in the first quarter of 2010.

Un articol interesant despre Clevo se poate citi pe blogul Marketonline, aici.