Pinboard (guardiantech)

Global notebook sales tank in recent months >> The Register

guardiantech — 2012-10-15T20:03:04+00:00

Global notebook shipments took it on the chin in the third quarter of this year, with Acer, Asustek, and Toshiba seeing sales plunge by 15% to 25% when compared to the previous quarter.
One notebook vendor, however, bucked the trend, with sales of its notebooks climbing nearly 30% during the same period. Care to hazard a guess as to which company that might be?

Year-on-year, total notebook sales were down 11.6% and sequentially by 4.5%. Notebooks make up about 75% of all PC sales.

GRiD Compass 1101 computer >> Old Computers

guardiantech — 2012-09-10T21:46:23+00:00

Designed to be the ultimate portable computer, the clamshell-style GRiD Compass 1101 is the grand-daddy of all present-day laptop computers.
The Compass is very high-tech, with its flat-black, die-cast magnesium-alloy case, and bright, sharp electroluminescent display (ELD). No other system packed so much speed and power in as small a case, and none had such a unique and large, easy-to-read screen, allowing full 80x24 text.
Of course, all of these great features raised the price significantly. At $8150, the GRiD Compass 1101 was the most expensive personal computer you could buy.
Originally developed for business executives, GRiDs were also used by the U.S. military 'in the field', and by NASA on the Space Shuttles during the 1980's and 90's. It's even been said that the US President's "nuclear football" at one time included a GRiD computer.

RIP Bill Moggridge.

Notebook makers hit hard in pre-Ivy Bridge lull >> The Register

guardiantech — 2012-04-18T20:09:39+00:00

Taiwanese ODMs which produce notebooks for some of the world’s biggest brands including Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo are set to see shipments fall by up to 20% in April as the transition to Intel’s much anticipated Ivy Bridge platform takes hold.
The new chips are set to land later in the month, but large scale shipments of notebooks based on the processors are not likely until the end of the quarter, according to Digitimes.

But expected to rise in May and June. You know what this means? New laptops in May.

CES 2012: Intel Lays Out Its 2012 Ultrabook Strategy, Concept Laptops - Tested

guardiantech — 2012-01-09T21:36:37+00:00

Services such as PayPass—which will allow users to make payments by tapping their credit cards to the device using NFC—and Nuance speech recognition are being incorporated into new Intel partner devices. The goal, said the chip giant, is not only to produce thinner and lighter machines, but laptops that are both fast and capable too, thanks to Intel’s forthcoming Ivy Bridge chipset.

Lean, Green Tablet Prototype Promises Mobile Computing for $100 | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

guardiantech — 2012-01-09T21:08:28+00:00

OLPC’s XO 3.0 tablet is encased in lime green plastic like its laptop counterpart. It has a solar panel cover that can generate four watts of power (which delivers two hours of usage) after charging for an hour. It can also be powered using a hand-cranked power supply. Six minutes of cranking will net you two watts of power, or one hour of usage.

Chart of the day: The striking collapse in the growth of PC notebook sales >> Business Insider

guardiantech — 2011-07-12T20:53:22+00:00

Interesting how HP, with its big corporate sales, is faring worse than the industry average.

Apple strangleholds worldwide battery output >> The Register

guardiantech — 2011-06-24T05:14:17+00:00

"Ultrathin notebooks may be all the rage these days, but there's one big barrier standing in the way of their seemingly unstoppable march to market dominance: Apparently, Apple has a stranglehold on the batteries needed to power them."

Stop just a minute and think about this, though (it's based on a report in Digitimes). Apple has about 4% of the entire PC market; slightly more of the overall laptop market. It ships about 10m per year.

If Apple has cornered the market for ultrathin laptop batteries, you'd have to conclude that it's a very tiny market if the other makers of the 95% of laptop PCs can't get a look in. It's possible this is right, but surprising if so.

Acer to dump 3m laptops onto European market >> Channel Register

guardiantech — 2011-06-13T20:13:28+00:00

"Expect some great deals on Acer laptops in coming weeks. The Taiwanese giant has huge amounts of unsold stock to shift and looks set to flood Europe with more than three million machines.
"Where will the stock be dumped and at what cost? We will we know only when they turn up in store at prices too true to be good - for rival notebook vendors. But we understand that negotiations with large retailers have already started."