Amid rumors that Apple is making adjustments in its iPad 2 design and is also facing issues over the device’s touch panel yields, sources from upstream component makers pointed out that the announcement of the iPad 2 is still expected to be in the second quarter, but mass production volumes are expected to drop. However, both Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and Apple declined to comment on the rumors.

The sources pointed out that Apple still maintains its plans to mass produce the iPad 2 by the end of February; however, affected by low touch panel yields and an adjustment in specifications, Apple’s production volume forecast for the first quarter is expected to drop from 400,000-600,000 units originally to only 300,000-400,000 units.

Although most market watchers currently have strong concerns over Apple’s panel yields and supply stability, the sources pointed out that since Apple currently has LG Display, Samsung Electronics and Chimei Innolux (CMI) to backup its panel supply, the company is unlikely to delay its iPad 2 shipments because of the insufficient panel supply.

The sources pointed out that most upstream component makers still have not yet received notification from Apple to delay shipments; therefore they believe the mass production schedule is still as originally planned.

The sources pointed out that there were about 1-1.5 million units worth of iPad inventory in the channel in January and since Apple only ordered about 1.8-2 million iPads in January, it indicates that Apple is already set to phase out the first-generation iPad and let iPad 2 take its place. However, if iPad 2′s mass production does not go as expected, the channel may face strong inventory pressure.

First-tier notebook brand vendor Hewlett-Packard (HP) is set to start selling its WebOS 3.0-based tablet PC, TouchPad in April with shipments to start delivery by the end of March, according to sources from HP’s upstream component partners.

The sources pointed out that HP internally is aiming to ship 45-48 million notebooks and tablet PCs combined in 2011. After deducting the volume of HP’s notebook shipment forecast, HP’s TouchPad series product shipments in 2011 are forecasted to be around 4-5 million units.

Since HP has adopted panel that support 1024 by 768 with aspect ratio of 4:3 for its tablet PC, different from most of Android’s 16:10 design, the sources believe if HP fails to challenge Apple’s iPad, the company will have great difficulties to regain its pace in the tablet PC market in the future.

In addition to tablet PCs, HP is also expected to start coordinating its smartphone products with WebOS platform to allow the platform to function with the company’s different products

Apple

In order to achieve its internal goal of shipping 40 million iPad products in 2011, Apple has occupied close to 60% of the global touch panel capacity causing tight supply among Apple’s competitors, according to sources from upstream component makers.

Sources from tablet PC makers also pointed out that the component shortage is causing their shipment volumes to be unable to catch up with their orders, especially for second-tier players. Touch panels are currently suffering the most serious shortage due to Apple holding control over the capacity of major touch panel makers such as Wintek and TPK, and with US-based RIM, Motorola and Hewlett-Packard (HP) also competing for related components, second-tier players are already out of the game, the sources noted.

The sources pointed out that glass capacitive touch panels are the part that the second-tier players are unable to acquire, although thin-film capacitive touch panel makers are already capable of making their products fit onto tablet PCs, since thin-film technology still has obvious differences in terms of durability and feel compared to glass technology, despite that thin-film panels will still see demand from smartphones, tablet PCs are expected to be dominated by glass panels.

Sources from iPad distributors pointed out that in 2010, Apple’s order forecasts to its OEM partners were all high and the biggest problem on the supply side was not capacity, but low yields of touch panels. In 2011, Apple’s strategy of taking up most of the capacity should help the company quickly expand its sales, while reducing its competitors’ shipment growth.

Several notebook brands such as Samsung Electronics, Acer and HP have all started turning to smaller touch screen suppliers helping players such as Sintek Photronic, Egalax-empia Technology (EETI), AimCore Technology and J Touch to see increasing utilization. Samsung’s recent cooperation with Sintek was also meant to secure related supplies to avoid shortages ruining the vendor’s product plans.

Deals website Groupon Inc. appears to be making preparations to start operations in China, a move that could shake up the market for group buying, even though challenges lie ahead for the young U.S. company.

Chicago-based Groupon, which opened in 2008 selling discounted products and services from local merchants such as restaurants and nail salons, faces a huge Internet market that has confounded some of the world’s biggest players.

China has more than 450 million Internet users, more than any other country.

In a Beijing office adorned with a large Groupon sign, staff are conducting job interviews. A person in the office on Saturday said the company operates Gaopeng.com.

The website, which appears to come from a Chinese phrase meaning “cherished friend sitting around the table,” is listed as registered by someone at Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., of Shenzhen, China, a 10 per cent stakeholder in Russian Internet firm Digital Sky Technologies, one of Groupon’s backers.

Groupon would be entering a market as hundreds of other domestically run websites are racing to take advantage of the growing popularity of group discounts on the Internet.

One China-based group-buying search engine, Tuan800.com, estimates transactions on such websites will surpass 16 billion yuan ($2.4-billion U.S.) this year.

Though well-established U.S. companies including Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and eBay Inc. have opened sites here, Chinese companies such as Alibaba Group and Baidu Inc., with their limited international reach, dominate the market, which is fast-growing but tightly regulated.

Meanwhile, job listings for sales, marketing, finance and other staff for Groupon have been posted by headhunters on Chinese job and university sites in recent weeks.

Sony is expected to launch tablet PCs with multimedia functionalities in the second quarter of 2011, and is likely to outsource production to Quanta Computer, according to industry sources. Quanta declined to comment on the reports.

While running on Android 3.0, Sony’s tablets will enable digital games, music and e-book reading, said the sources, noting that the tablet already has received PlayStation verification.

Meanwhile, Quanta said its clients for tablet PCs include vendors in the handset, telecom and PC segments and that its shipments of tablet PCs are likely to reach several million units in 2011.

Backed up by the fast growing PC market in China, Lenovo has emerged as the second largest brand for all-in-one (AIO) PCs in the global market, giving the company a chance to compete for the number one title with Apple in the segment.

Lenovo saw shipments of its desktop PCs grow 23% on year to 4.22 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010, with AIO models contributing significantly to the shipment growth.

Apple took up an over 30% share of the global AIO market in 2010, positioning it as the top vendor in the segment. While other brands have also been pushing sales of their AIO models to the North America market, Apple currently still holds a 75-80% share of the AIO market in the region.

Thanks to the dominance of their home markets in the US and China, respectively, Apple and Lenovo are likely to develop into two super brands in the AIO PC segment with Apple seeing shipments of AIO PCs increase 15% on year to 4.6 million units in 2011, while Lenovo will see its AIO PC shipments grow 54% to two million units during the same period, according to an estimate by Digitimes Research.

Lenovo will continue to outsource the bulk of its AIO PCs to Taiwan-based ODMs, including Quanta Computer, Inventec, Wistron and Compal Electronics, with a small proportion going to Singapore-based Flextronics International.

A doua zi dupa ce Apple a lansat oficial detalii cu privire la noul abonament App Store, in baza caruia compania incaseaza 30% din venituri de la editorii care isi vand continutul prin intermediul aplicatiilor Apple, Google a anuntat lansarea Google One Pass, serviciul online pentru ziare si reviste.

erviciul oferit de Google se diferentiaza de abonamentul Apple App Store prin doua lucruri: furnizorii de continut vor pastra pentru sine 90% din veniturile provenite din vanzari si editorii vor pastra controlul asupra datelor utilizatorilor.

Eric Schmidt, care va deveni presedinte executiv al Google in luna aprilie, a anuntat Google One Pass in cadrul unui discurs tinut la Universitatea Humboldt din Berlin, Germania. Un asemenea sistem de plata online a fost vehiculat de luni de zile, insa Google si-a intarziat anuntul pentru a se promova, prezentand termeni mai favorabili decat Apple.

Schmidt a declarat ca One Pass va fi initial disponibil pentru editorii din Marea Britanie, S.U.A, Canada, Franta, Italia, Germania si Spania, cu planul de a se extinde in viitor.

Pe masura ce piata dispozitivelor mobile precum smartphone-uri si tablete continua sa se dezvolte intr-un ritm alert, mizele sunt foarte mari, iar lucrurile ar putea degenera in ceea ce priveste relatiile dintre furnizorii de continut si Apple, cu Google incercand sa produca o ruptura intre acestia. Pana in prezent, companii precum Amazon, Netflix si Hulu nu au comentat asupra termenilor noului abonament Apple, insa vor folosi serviciul rival al Google.
Sursa: Smartnews

After weeks waiting for Apple to process iPad application, the biggest news this month at NewspaperDirect is that PressReader for iPad is now available on iTunes!   The feedback on the blog, in the media and through emails has been astounding!

Here are just a few of the many accolades from media and readers who have been waiting patiently for this game-changing application… (continuare…)

Hewlett-Packard’s upcoming tablet PC could use video conferencing, at least one camera module, and support for Adobe Flash and removable SD memory cards as potential differentiators from Apple’s bestselling iPad. A 30-second video released by HP shows these and other functions at work in the device, which will debut on an as-yet-unannounced date later in 2010. The sales success of the iPad in its first weekend raises the stakes for other competitors looking to carve out market-share in the burgeoning consumer tablet PC market.

Hewlett-Packard is ramping up its own tablet PC efforts in the wake of Apple’s iPad launch, releasing a new official blog posting and video that shows an upcoming slate product capable of video conferencing,

“Think about the last time you chatted with friends over Skype on your notebook,” Phil McKinney, vice president and chief technology officer for Hewlett-Packard’s Personal Systems Group, wrote in an April 5 posting on the company’s Voodoo Blog. “Or uploaded a picture from your mobile phone to Facebook or Flickr. How about the last time you viewed images or video from an SD card or a USB device. We know that you expect to be able to capture and share digital content on your mobile devices.” (continuare…)

NVIDIA has released a new Verde driver for notebook PCs, version 197.16.

In addition to claiming to offer dramatic gaming improvements, these drivers add support for connecting 3D Vision-ready displays to your notebook!

These new drivers support the following NVIDIA notebook GPUs:

• GeForce 8M, 9M, 100M, 200M, and 300M-series notebook GPUs
• ION notebook GPUs
• NVS-series notebook GPUs
• Quadro NVS-series notebook GPUs (DirectX 10 or later GPUs)
• Quadro FX-series notebook GPUs (DirectX 10 or later GPUs) (continuare…)

Computex Taipei 2010, which will take place during June 1-5, is expected to have a total of 1,750 exhibitors and 4,700 booths, up from last year’s 1,700 and 4,495, respectively, while e-book readers, cloud computing, 3D technology, mobile network and digital signage will be the spotlights of the show, according to the organizer, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA).

The government-sponsored TAITRA also expects the number of visitors to the show will surpass that in 2009, with more business opportunities than last year’s US$20 billion.

Players such as Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Microsft, Asustek Computer, Acer and Micro-Start International (MSI) are all expected to expand their booths this year.

Asustek, MSI and BenQ are also expected to reveal more details about their tablet PCs, and Acer is expected to showcase its Chrome-based notebook/netbook.

Motherboard makers are expected to demonstrate their USB 3.0 as well as their latest technologies.

Several China-based IT players such as Malata, Hanwang Technlogy and BYD will also exhibit their latest products at the show.

Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.3, the latest update to Mac OS X Snow Leopard. The update is recommended for all users of Snow Leopard, and brings a number of fixes, improvements, and security patches. The update’s size may vary depending on the configuration of your Mac.

Included in this latest update are many fixes and improvements, for issues as far-ranging as updated Daylight Savings Time rules for Antarctica to improved reliability of iDisk syncing. Apple also specifically calls out one larger change: Mac OS X 10.6.3 can automatically collect diagnostic and usage information from your Mac and send it to Apple for analysis, with the end goal of improving Apple’s products and services. The data submission–which is prompted by actions like force quitting applications, kernel panics, and system errors–is sent anonymously to Apple and is only collected with the user’s explicit consent. This seems to be an extension of Apple’s current system for submitting information upon program crashes. (continuare…)

Even as the buzz builds toward the April 3rd ship date of the iPad, Apple is preparing to announce its “next big thing” — a new personalized, mobile advertising system that could well be called the “iAd” — Online Media Daily has learned. The new ad platform, which will be officially unveiled to Madison Avenue on April 7th, has been described as “revolutionary” and “our next big thing” by Apple chief Steve Jobs, according to executives familiar with the plan.

Precise details of the system and its features could not be discerned at presstime (and calls to Apple had not been returned), but it is believed to have been built on top of Quattro, the mobile advertising developer Apple acquired in January for nearly $300 million, and it is expected to be the first real battle of a Silicon Valley Holy War between Apple and arch frenemy Google that is shifting its front line to Madison Avenue. (continuare…)

According to one report, the Wall Street Journal could charge $17.99 a month for access to an Apple iPad-friendly edition of the business broadsheet. Some bloggers say the price tag – no matter how high the quality of the iPad content – is too steep.

Rightly or wrongly, the Apple iPad, which hits store shelves in a little over a week, has been linked to the salvation of the media industry. If the iPad succeeds, the logic goes, newspapers and magazines across the globe could have a ticket out of years of slumping newsstand sales and plummeting ad revenue. But today, some tentative details of the first major subscription plan for the Apple iPad were revealed – and not everyone is impressed.

According to new reports, the Wall Street Journal will charge $17.99 a month for access to an iPad-friendly version of the popular business broadsheet. That’s cheaper than a monthly subscription to the print edition of the Journal, which currently costs about $29 a month, but significantly more expensive than plain old online access to the Journal, which will set you back $1.99 a week.

Over at MacWorld, Marco Tabini speculates that the discrepancy between the Web and iPad subscription models could have something to do with content.

“[P]erhaps the iPad version of the Journal will sport some exclusive features that are not available anywhere else,” Tabini writes. “Or the final pricing model may include special offers and different subscription options (such as an annual subscription for an even lower rate); or maybe Rupert Murdoch has simply decided that iPad users will be willing to pay a premium to get his publication’s content on their brand new devices.” (continuare…)

The battle for mobile operating system (OS) dominance is spreading beyond the smartphone arena and into other mobile and consumer devices, forcing developers to create applications and content that can be enjoyed across multiple platforms, according to iSuppli.

“Mobile OSes, from Google’s Android, to Symbian, to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, have been fighting it out for leadership in the burgeoning smart-phone market,” said Jagdish Rebello, senior director and principal analyst for wireless research at iSuppli. “However, with wireless carriers supporting more types of devices on their networks, the mobile OS battle now is spreading beyond the smartphone arena and is entering the larger realm of mobile Internet devices (MIDs), a category that includes netbooks, portable navigation devices (PNDs), MP3 players, automotive infotainment systems and integrated access devices (IADs). With the carriers also supporting multiple OSes, the challenge for developers is to offer application and content that is compelling on multiple platforms.” (continuare…)

Sprint and HTC have jointly announced summer availability of what they claim is the world’s first 3G/4G Android handset – HTC EVO 4G – exclusively from Sprint.

The HTC EVO 4G delivers a multimedia experience at 4G speeds making it possible to download music, pictures, files or videos in seconds, and watch streaming video on the go with a 4.3-inch display. The new Android-powered smartphone runs on the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, and has dual cameras – an 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with HD-capable video camcorder and a forward-facing 1.3 megapixel camera.

With built-in mobile hotspot functionality, HTC EVO 4G also allows up to eight Wi-Fi-enabled devices, including laptop, camera, music player, video player and any other Wi-Fi-enabled device, to enjoy the benefits of 4G speeds on the go.
Customers will be able to purchase HTC EVO 4G through all Sprint channels and through national retail partners, RadioShack, Best Buy and Walmart, this summer. Pricing will be announced at a later date.

Quanta Computer is the maker of Sony’s latest VAIO M series netbook, which has just been launched in the UK with a price of 300 pounds (US$460), according to industry sources.
Sony Taiwan pointed out that the Sony VAIO M series netbook currently does not have a launch schedule for Taiwan.
The VAIO M series netbook adopts 10.1-inch LED display and Intel Atom N450 processor, while will offer consumers two color options – black or white. The netbooks will be available at the end of March in the UK.

Stereoscopic 3D image

At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, ATI’s owner AMD shed some more light on its Open Stereo 3D Initiative. The company said it will partner with more companies on producing stereoscopic 3D solutions, while at the same time speeding up the adoption and lowering the cost of hardware. The solutions include 3D-enabled ATI Eyefinity technology for computers, 120Hz 3D-ready displays, as well as notebooks, active shutter glasses and passive polarized ones.

ATI also promises stereoscopic 3D support for DirectX 9, 10 and 11, quad-buffered OpenGL, and Blu-ray media. The attached slide reveals ATI partnered with DDD and iZ3D on 3D gaming middleware to help implement the technology, along with ArcSoft and CyberLink for Blu-ray 3D support on Windows PCs. The graphics chip designer is also said to be establishing standards to help improve compatibility with existing hardware and help encourage other hardware makers to adopt the standard. When ATI’s Stereo 3D hardware comes out for sale wasn’t officially revealed, but some hints indicate this summer will see initial shipments. [via 3DVisionBlog]

Intel has launched its Xeon 5600 series processors that feature Intel’s Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions (Intel AES-NI), and Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology (Intel TXT) – that enable faster encryption and decryption performance for more secure transactions and virtualized environments, providing data centers with a stronger foundation for cloud security.

These are also the first server and workstation chips based on Intel’s 32nm logic technology, which uses the company’s second-generation high-k metal gate transistors to increase speed and decrease energy consumption.

The Intel Xeon 5600 series processors support up to six cores per processor and deliver up to 60% higher performance than the 45nm Intel Xeon processor 5500 series, Intel noted.

Data centers can also benefit from the power efficiency of the Intel Xeon 5600 series as the series’ Xeon L5640 processor can deliver the same performance as the Intel Xeon X5570 processor, which is the top-end model of the previous series, but with up to 30% lower platform power, Intel pointed out. (continuare…)