Led by a holiday season featuring price cuts of unprecedented duration, the US PC market established a new record of nearly 20.7 million units shipped in the fourth quarter of 2009, resulting an on-year growth of 24%. Other regions also experienced solid growth, particularly emerging markets in Asia/Pacific and Latin America, leading the global market to 15.2% on-year growth for the quarter, according to IDC.

This marked the first quarter of double-digit volume growth since the third quarter of 2008. The fourth quarter results cap a strong second half of 2009, further cementing signs of a market revival and ending the year with on-year growth of 2.3%. (continuare…)

Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 90 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009, a 22.1% increase from the fourth quarter of 2008, according to preliminary results by Gartner. It was the strongest on-quarter growth rate the worldwide PC market has experienced in the last seven years although it should be noted that the numbers are compared to a very weak quarter a year ago due to the economic downturn at that time, Gartner pointed out.

“These preliminary results indicate the recovery of the PC market on a global level,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. “The US and Asia Pacific had already shown positive indicators last quarter, however the fourth quarter 2009 results were more concrete evidence of the recovery. The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region entered the economic downturn later than the US and Asia Pacific, so it has been slower to recover. The EMEA region returned to positive shipment growth for the first time in three quarters, and Latin America and Japan also recorded shipment increases.” (continuare…)

Apple

Apple reportedly plans to launch a 22-inch touch-enabled all-in-one PC in 2010, in addition to the current non-touch 21.5- and 27-inch iMacs, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report.

Apple will outsource production of the 22-inch model to Quanta, with Taiwan-based Sintek Photronic supplying the touchscreen panels.

US PC vendors may gradually be replaced, says Acer founder

Acer founder Stan Shih has responded to comments that Acer can only compete in the US market using a low-price strategy and cannot effectively develop its brand value by saying that the US PC brands may gradually be replaced by brands from other regions as PC prices continue to drop, resulting in lower overall gross margins.

Shih used the example of the TV industry pointing out that originally US brands were ahead, but as the industry advanced, US-based brands such as RCA have mostly been replaced by TV brands from Asia.

Shih added that when the US share of the global PC market starts to drop, Taiwan’s IT industry will play an even more important role in the global market with cheap and good quality own-brand PCs.

Google employee Sara Rowghani stands next to an enlarged model of the Nexus One phone at a demo in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

If you thought that the world would change with the release of a Google-branded phone on Tuesday, be assured that sadly it did not.

At least not yet. It just got one more cool phone.

You can buy the Google Android OS phone, dubbed Nexus One, unlocked directly from Google, but in the U.S. the only place you can really take it is to the U.S.’s fourth largest carrier, T-Mobile. Or you can buy it through T-Mobile for a hair under $200 and pay about as much per month as a Palm Pre owner and about $20 a month less than an iPhone user.

What would have something revolutionary looked like?

How about a smart phone starter plan, deeply subsidized via ads, that offered with a cheap data plan to entice the “I don’t need a smartphone” crowd into joining the revolution? Even better, would have been an order form where you could buy the Google phone and then choose from three or more carriers who are competing to provide you with a data and voice plan — just like you do when you buy a laptop. Instead, there’s just the one option — T-Mobile, which costs basically the same as all the other smart phones.

Google clearly wants the mobile phone world to look different, it’s just not clear that this phone or its current manufacturing strategy will actually bring about the changes in the telecom world that Google is looking for. (continuare…)

Quanta

Global all-in-one PC shipments are expected to grow from 6.5 million units in 2009 to an estimated 10-13 million units in 2010 and Quanta Computer, while aiming to ship four million units, is expected to ship five million units and achieve the largest global market share, according to industry sources.
Taiwan-based Wistron and TPV-Inventa Technology, a joint venture between TPV Technology and Inventec, each aim to ship more than one million all-in-one PCs in 2010, the sources indicated.

The sources believe dropping prices of all-in-one PCs and Windows 7’s native support for touchscreen functionality will become the major drivers for shipment growth. (continuare…)

A design concept for the Apple tablet

The speculative madness surrounding Apple’s rumored tablet computer has finally reached its frothy peak.

Tech’s chattering classes are obsessed with the unconfirmed product, which Apple (AAPL) may announce at an event in January, or February, or March, depending on which set of reports you adhere to. Apple, not surprisingly, is mum.

The hunger for information – and misguided speculation – reminds me of the mistaken prognosticating about the iPhone before its introduction three years ago. It may be time to step back and realize that Apple may uncork a product so surprising that the company again leaves the tech industry scrambling to catch up to its products’ smooth operation and sleek design.

Documented facts about the tablet are few. This much we do know: In November 2008, Apple took control of the trademark name TabletMac from a company called Axiotron, which converts MacBook laptops into tablet computers running Apple’s Mac OS X. (continuare…)

Taiwan-based notebook brands are expected to see further shipment growth in 2010 with a chance to advance their rankings, according to sources from notebook players.
Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Acer are both estimated to ship more than 40 million notebooks in 2010 with Acer having a chance to surpass HP and become the largest vendor worldwide, the sources noted. HP is estimated to ship 44 million notebooks in 2010.
Dell will ship close to 25 million notebooks in 2010, ranking the third largest globally, benefiting mainly from a recovery of the business notebook market. (continuare…)

Rumors are that these netbooks will be out by October

Moblin beta2 GUI

The OS (operating system) wars have just started to gain momentum, companies like Microsoft, Google, and many more, are developing new and improved versions of operating systems that enhance user experience, improve performance, improve boot times, etc. There is another battle raging between the likes of Microsoft (who has not till date disclosed the source code of Windows) on one side and the open source developer community on the other side. (continuare…)

First-tier notebook makers Compal Electronics and Inventec have both announced increases in revenues and notebook shipments for July 2009.

Compal posted consolidated revenues of NT$53.21 billion (US$1.62 billion) for July, a new historical record with an on-month increase of 23.9% and 44% growth on year. Combined consolidated revenues for the first seven months of 2009 reached NT$289.33 billion, up 22% on year.

Compal shipped over three million notebooks in July, higher than its expected 2.7-2.8 million units, and shipped 300,000 LCD TVs. Combined LCD TV shipments for the first seven months reached 1.75 million units.

Compal expects its notebook shipments in August to drop to 2.7-2.8 million units and will later pick up in September.

Inventec has announced revenues of NT$37.24 billion for July, up 2.5% on month and 20% on year. Combined revenues from January to July 2009 totaled NT$224.37 billion.

Inventec shipped around two million notebooks in July, holding level on month.

PC shipments in Western Europe totaled 13.3 million units in the second quarter of 2009, a 3.3% decline from the same period in 2008, according to Gartner.

“The Western European PC market saw a diverging trend,” said Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner UK. On one side, the market saw a 21% decline in the professional market and on the other it recorded a 21% growth in the consumer market. The strength of the mini-notebook (netbook) market, which now constitutes more than a quarter of all consumer shipments, gave the market some momentum. (continuare…)

Acer will have a chance to surpass Hewlett-Packard (HP) to become the leader in the global consumer notebook market in the third quarter of 2009 as the two companies’ shipments gap is getting smaller, according to market sources.

HP shipped around 4.86 million consumer notebooks in the second quarter with Acer trailing closely behind with shipments of 4.75 million units. Consumer segment market shares were separated by only 0.5pp, the sources noted, citing figures from research firm IDC. (continuare…)

Nokia plans to launch an ARM-based netbook that relies on the Google-pioneered Android mobile operating system in 2010, writes Lazard Capital Markets analyst Daniel Amir in a research note issued this morning. In the same note, he predicts that the total number of netbooks sold worldwide will reach 25 million in 2009 vs. 10 million in 2008, with the majority of them being Intel-based machines running Windows. Amir said he expects the Nokia notebook to be sold through carriers, which fits with Nokia’s distribution system for mobile phones.

The market is dominated by PC players, but Nokia has teamed up with Intel, which means that if an ARM-based netbook fails, it has an alternative design in the works. Also its decision to sell through the carriers will help Nokia reach an audience that may be looking for the characteristics of a larger smartphone rather than a smaller PC. (continuare…)

The U8230 smartphone allows users to switch between full and half QWERTY keyboards and to navigate programs via a 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen.

Huawei’s U8230 uses the Google Chrome Internet browser which supports a variety of Google applications including Google Maps, Google Search, and Google Talk.

The company claimed that It is also fitted with a battery which has a capacity of 1500mAH – the longest battery capacity of any Android-powered handsets currently available.

The device will be available in the second half of 2009.

In the China market, the total number of mobile Internet-access subscribers stood at 151.82 million at the end of the second quarter of 2009, increasing by 9.39% from a quarter earlier and by 183.44% on year, according to China-based consulting company Analysys International.

China Mobile Communications was the largest provider of mobile Internet service with 67.5% of the user volume, followed by China United Telecommunications with 26.7% and China Telecom with 5.8%, Analysys indicated.

Sony has released two new Readers, one of them being the PRS600 with a touch screen. It will be available at the end of August, the company said.

The new e-book reader features a 6-inch touchscreen that enables navigation, page turning, highlighting and note taking with the swipe of a finger or by using the included stylus pen, Sopny said. Users can take handwritten notes with the stylus pen or type with the virtual keyboard. All notes can be exported and printed out for reference.

The PRS600 includes an onboard Oxford American English Dictionary, and offers five adjustable font sizes, as well as expansion slots for both Memory Stick PRO Duo and SD card.

Through the e-book store from Sony (ebookstore.sony.com), users can access more than one million free public domain books from Google, the Japan-based vendor said. It comes in red, black or silver and will retail for about US$299.

Toshiba has begun volume shipments of solid-state drives ranging up to 512GB in size, as these hyper-fast storage options bulk up on capacity.

Drives are also offered in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities and are built on a 43-nanometer manufacturing process using multi-level cell (MLC) technology. MLC technology allows drive makers to increase capacity while keeping production costs under control.

All drives come in either a 1.8-inch enclosure, typically used in ultraportable laptops, or a 2.5-inch housing, the standard size for mainstream laptops.

Toshiba said in December that it would begin shipments of a 512GB drive this year. And this drive became available exclusively on Toshiba laptops in May. (continuare…)

Notebook outsourcing from Hewlett-Packard (HP) to Taiwan makers dropped from above three million units in June 2009 to around 2.7-2.9 million units in July despite that the third quarter is normally the traditional peak season for the PC market, according to sources at notebook component makers.

HP’s notebook partners including Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron and Inventec have all seen their shipments to HP drop on month, the sources noted.

However, sources at notebook makers explained that HP will outsource more new orders later in the third quarter and therefore HP’s order reduction is merely an inventory clean up.

In additional news, HP shipped around 7.75 million notebooks in the first quarter of 2009, 7.92 million units in the second. The vendor is expected to ship 36 million units in 2009, and 40 million in 2010, the sources noted.

Acer Inc, the world’s third-largest maker of personal computers, will expand into televisions and electronic books within five years as the PC industry slows, founder Stan Shih said.

“The PC actually is a mature industry,” Shih, 64, said in an interview yesterday in his Taipei office. “PC extending to TV, of course, there’s room.”

The Taiwanese company will pit itself against Samsung Electronics Co. and Kindle-maker Amazon.com Inc., who lead the growing markets for TVs and digital readers. Acer, the world’s fastest-growing major PC maker, plans to expand beyond computers as the industry slows, with this year’s sales forecast to drop for the first time since 2001. (continuare…)

Toshiba’s announced a new card based on the SDXC spec, which will eventually allow SD cards to reach 2TB capacities. Microsoft owns the file system used by the new cards, so it’s unknown when, if ever, the new format will be supported by OSX.

The continuing capacity ramping of Secure Digital cards will continue basically uninterrupted through the next few years, as the flash card vendors introduce yet another extension to the SD specification, called Secure Digital Extended Capacity. This week, Toshiba announced the first card to launch on the new specification, a 64GB module expected to ship next spring. Prices have not been announced, but the new card capacities typically ship at prices slightly higher per unit capacity than existing cards, so it’s reasonable to speculate that a cost of about $100-$150 is likely. Panasonic and PreTec had previously SDXC announced cards with unknown launch dates. (continuare…)

PC vendors include Asustek Computer, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell and Micro-Star International (MSI) are all preparing to launch new tablet PCs as Apple is expected to release a 9.7-inch tablet PC as early as November 2009, according to industry sources.

MSI is scheduled to launch a 10-inch tablet netbook at the beginning of 2010, while HP also plans to launch an Inventec-manufactured tablet netbook in April or May 2010. Both netbooks are expected to adopt Intel’s Pine Trail-M platform.

Asustek has already released its tablet Eee PC T91 and will launch 10-inch model along with Windows 7.

With the new tablet PC category covering both 4- to 6-inch mobile Internet devices (MIDs) and 7- to 10-inch netbooks, sources believe the entry-level price tablet PC market will become a new battlefield for PC vendors starting in the fourth quarter.