Computer Hardware Update: 2/7/09

TOSHIBA INDIA ROLLS OUT NEW NOTEBOOK PCS
Chennai
The Hindu

Toshiba India has launched its new line-up of notebook PC products. The range comprises two mini-notebook PCs and four mainstream notebook PCs. The new range is loaded with design features, says a release.

PC PLAYERS REJIG PLANS TO TIDE OVER SLOWDOWN
Surabhi Agarwal, New Delhi
The Financial Express

After a deep lull in the PC market that lasted for almost six months, the desktops and laptops space has been witnessing renewed action in the last few weeks. While there have been several product launches from the stable of leading players like HP, others like Acer and Lenovo are carrying out major re-branding exercises in order to rejig their India strategy.

According to market analysts, the slowdown in demand has forced major players to re-look their overall India strategy and they are seeing this as a perfect time to plug loopholes and carry out the necessary changes before the market picks up again.

"The consumer market is showing some signs of recovery and players want to create enough excitement in the market right now. They want to be ready with the right kind of offerings," said Diptarup Chakraborti, principal research analyst at market research firm Gartner Research. He added that India continued to be hugely under-penetrated in terms of its overall PC penetration, which also explains the action in the space.

While HP launched six notebooks (including one priced at Rs 23,000) recently, Lenovo topped it by introducing seven new products, which included an all-in-one desktop and a netbook. According to Lenovo India's managing director Amar Babu, the company has so far focused largely on the premium end of the segment. It is now aggressively looking at the entry level and the value-for-money segment. Levono will introduce 50 new products in India, which will span the entire range of the spectrum.

LENOVO WANTS TO DO A CHINA IN INDIA
New Delhi
The Times of India

Personal computer (PC) manufacturer Lenovo, struggling at the fifth position among PC makers in India, is looking at emulating its China success in other emerging markets including India.

"We have restructured our global business and have divided markets into the emerging and developed market categories. Our thrust remains on the emerging market because of the tremendous potential, and we will bring in the best practices from China to these markets," Lenovo India managing director Amar Babu said.

"India remains on the top of the pack in our emerging markets business," he told reporters here.

Lenovo, which started off as Legend in 1984 in China, commands over 30 percent of the computer market there. The big deal which sprang the regional player into the international arena was the acquisition of IBM's personal computing division in 2005.

"We have grown over a 100 percent in terms of market share after we took over IBM," Babu says.

According to technology research firm IDC, Lenovo's market share slipped from 6.6 percent of the Indian PC market in the last quarter of 2008 to 4.7 percent in the first quarter this year when the Indian PC market contracted 19 percent year-on-year.

SAMSUNG LAUNCHES NEW CHANNEL FOR SALES
Hyderabad
The Hindu Business Line& The Economic Times (Mumbai edition)

Samsung, a leading consumer electronics products company, has opened a new channel for sales by opening its first ‘IT brandshop’ here on Wednesday. .

“Most of our sales, up to 95 percent, come from channel and government business. We have decided to give a big push to direct retailing through the branded IT shops,” Ranjit S. Yadav, Director (IT Business), of Samsung India, said.

The exposure to channel and government business helped Samsung from being hit by slowdown. He, however, refused to spell out the financial figures for Samsung India.

Yadav, along with Jung Soo Shin, President and Chief Executive Officer (South West Asia), Samsung, was here in connection with the launch of the maiden IT retail shop.

Yadav said the company would next go to eight top cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, to set up branded outlets.

The outlets would sell all consumer products from Samsung ranging from mobile phones, cameras, notebooks and printers. The wi-fi enabled outlets would let customers “experience the products,” Yadav said.

 

Computer Industry Update: 1/7/09

LENOVO TO LAUNCH 50 PRODUCTS IN CONSUMER SEGMENT THIS YEAR
New Delhi
Business Standard  Mint  Financial Chronicle  

Bullish on the consumer segment, Chinese computer giant Lenovo today said it will launch 50 new products this year to strengthen its product portfolio.

"India is a very important market for us and we will launch a series of products in the market here... The consumer segment has seen a strong demand and we will launch 50 products in this segment this year," Lenovo India Managing Director Amar Babu said here.

Lenovo today launched seven new notebooks and netbooks in the Indian market in the price range of Rs 22,500 - Rs 1.04 lakh as a part of the consumer segment, which comprises about 40 percent of the Indian revenues. The company sells about 150,000 units quarterly.

"The notebooks would currently be imported, but as the demand increases, we can look at production here," Babu said.

The company has a manufacturing facility in Pondicherry with a capacity of three million units annually.

According to IDC's report on PC shipment for the January-March 2009 period, Lenovo's market share came down to 4.7 percent in the said period from 6.6 percent in Q4 in 2008.

"This was a result of the slowdown in PC shipments in general as well as enterprise purchases being slow. But, over the next quarters we expect the demand to rise on the back of government buying and also a strong demand from the consumer segment," Babu said.

SMARTPHONES, LAPTOPS HELP EMPLOYEES BOOST PRODUCTIVITY: SURVEY
New Delhi
Mint

Majority of the employees in the Asia-Pacific region feel that new technology devices like smartphones and laptops have boosted their productivity, says a survey.

According to a recent survey conducted by global workforce solutions provider Kelly Services, 62% of employees in the Asia-Pacific region said that their work productivity is “much better” due to new technology devices.

About 24% felt that their productivity was “slightly better” with such technologies.

The survey revealed that 75% of the respondents worldwide consider the opportunity provided by devices such as smartphones and laptops to remain in constant contact with work, as a positive development.

About 1,00,000 people in 34 countries covering North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, participated in the survey.

George Corona, who is Kelly Services’ executive vice president and chief operating officer said that the spread of mobile technologies is transforming the way that people interact with their work and their attitudes towards employment.

“There is an overwhelming view that the technology provides greater flexibility in working arrangements, and a better balance between work and personal life,” Corona said.

FREE AND USEFUL...DOES YOUR PC HAVE THESE?
Ashish Bhatia
Mint

- With an alphabet soup of media file formats floating around, it’s tough to figure out what you need to play the video you downloaded last. VLC is probably the only multimedia player that can play virtually any video or audio file. Apart from being able to grapple with various popular and unpopular formats, it also handles DVDs, VCDs and various streaming protocols without sending you back to the Net to search for external codecs.
- Need to convert video for your portable media player or squeeze that humongous file into a more lightweight, portable format? Download the humbly-named, though very capable, all-in-one video converting tool, Any Video Converter.
- If editing, tweaking, tuning audio files is what you want to do, the easy-to-use Audacity is simply the best free audio editor around.
- Don’t think that only an expensive program such as Adobe Photoshop can manipulate images so magically. Get GIMP, a close equivalent. It may not be as sophisticated as the world’s favourite application, but it’s robust and competent. If you want a more Photoshop-like feel, get GIMP shop.
- Lastly, to find, organize, manage, tweak and share your collection of images, there is nothing on planet earth as slick as Picasa.

Security

Even as the news of pop culture phenomenon Michael Jackson’s death ricocheted around the world, developers at Google and Yahoo were panicking.

The reason? They thought that the sudden upsurge in traffic was a virus attack. If technology behemoths such as these can fear attacks on their servers, you surely need to be doubly certain of your security options.

- If you are looking for a good antivirus to keep gremlins at bay, download the AVG Free Edition.
- You need further protection in the form of Spybot—Search and Destroy. This is a great free tool for detecting and removing all sorts of spyware that find their way into computers.
- Also get Ad-Aware, a tool for the detection of, and protection against, malicious intruders such as spyware, trojans, rootkits, hijackers and keyloggers, among others.
- You can’t ignore Secunia Personal Software Inspector. This tracks security vulnerabilities in well-known applications and monitors your PC for known exploits. When found, PSI points you to a security patch.
- Now, this one is for all of us who use multiple passwords for our different accounts. You can save yourself the trouble of remembering all these passwords by installing KeePass. An iron-clad, little master key, cubby hole safe, it caches all your passwords in one place very securely encrypted.

Office Productivity

- Instead of cajoling your vendor to install a pirated copy of Microsoft Office on your PC, download OpenOffice. This almost equally competent, multi-platform, multilingual office suite gives you word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics and database management for free.
- Top that with TinySpell, a spellchecker that monitors your spelling in all text that you input in any program. This download’s replacement suggestions are drawn from an American-English database of 110,000 words that you can append your own words to as well. A major drawback of the free version is that it doesn’t highlight mistakes within the text, but gives you suggestions only as you type.
- Windows’ default notepad was born when dinos roamed the earth. Well, almost. Download the powerful and eminently usable Notepad++ with its tabbed multi-doc interface, drag and drop support, and macro recording capabilities, among others, instead.
- Postbox, with its Web 2.0-ish feel and tabbed interface, is a good desktop email alternative that also allows you to upload to Twitter, FriendFeed, MySpace, Delicious and Google. It offers great search capabilities—even for images. - Don’t mindlessly download Adobe Reader just because everyone has it. Try Foxit Reader first. It’s much faster on its feet and weighs only about 3.5MB, against Reader’s 25.5MB.

Utilities

- One of the biggest irritants on a new PC are craplets—pre-installed adware and trialware—that come with big brand PCs. The PC Decrapifier is a diagnostic utility that searches for known craplets on your PC and lists such instances. You can peruse this list and uninstall whatever you want.
- And because Windows Add and Remove doesn’t kill all components—files, folders and registry keys—efficiently, you need something as lethal and painless as Revo Uninstaller to do the job.
- Talking of searches, a good search tool is an essential program sorely missing on all PCs. Try Everything, a superfast local search engine that locates files and folders almost instantly. You have to use it once to realize how fleet-footed it is. - For a file compression/decompression application, fetch 7-Zip. This tackle-all archiving/unzipping program integrates with your right-click menu and even handles Mac-formatted archives, multi-file RAR packages, ISO images and more.
- Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology saves us a lot. And the king of all programs VoIP is Skype. A must-download for everyone using the Net for video and voice chats, this top-drawer, peer-to-peer program boasts instant messaging (IM), screen sharing, contact sharing, as well as birthday reminders, among other features.

NEW WEB GADGET FROM DELL
Bengaluru
The Asian Age

Dell, the world’s No.2 PC maker, is developing a pocket-sized device for tapping into the Internet, the Wall Street Journal said citing people familiar with the company’s plans.

The gadget would run on Google’s Android software, the people said.

According to the paper, two people who saw early prototypes described the device as slightly larger than Apple’s iPod Touch, which is similar to the iPhone but does not have cellphone capabilities.

Another person who was briefed on the firm’s plans said, that Dell may begin selling the device later this year, though this person said the plan could be delayed or scrapped entirely. A Dell spokesman declined to comment on any plans for the product category.

Dell may use chips based on designed licensed from ARM Holdings PLC, people familiar with the firm’s plans said.

 

Computer Industry News: 30/06/09

INNOVATION DOESN'T SLUMP
Nishant Ratnakar
DNA

In a challenging business environment that we find ourselves today, innovation has become the major differentiator in the marketplace. DNA got together seven prominent industry players cutting across the semiconductor ecosystem to see what sets apart the successful innovators from the also-ran. Not surprisingly, the consensus was on customer-led innovation.

- S Janakiraman, president & CEO (product engineering services), Mindtree Ltd
- Sanjay Nayak, MD & CEO, Tejas Networks
- Arindam Sen, GM (south Asia ops for Performance Technologies), GE Health Vijayaraghava Chitti, manager (systems & processes), Conzerv
- Ajay Vasudeva, head of R&D, Nokia India
- Poornima Shenoy, president, India Semiconductor Association
- Bobby Mitra, president & MD, Texas Instruments India

Excerpts:

Can you give us an overview as to how companies are integrated into the semiconductor value chain.

Poornima Shenoy: Semiconductors are two stages removed from the customers. But if you look at it, the bulk of customers are the systems companies, some of whom are represented here. The role of systems companies in the semiconductor space is important because if change has to happen, it has to be driven by them.

Bobby Mitra: As Poornima rightly said, the semiconductor industry in India has been looking at innovation as an important agenda. There is no other way for the semiconductor companies to be successful other than anchoring innovation on the customer. Look at any segment that comprises the semiconductor ecosystem -- mobile handsets, telecom infrastructure, the energy sector, or software companies involved in writing code for semiconductors -- the bottom line is that the system level innovation is tied to customers.

Talking of system level innovation, how do ideas get translated into products?

S Janakiraman: I look at it more like the Mindtree organisation. Ten years ago, it was very different when the West was looking at India. The drivers at that point were whether I can get a cost arbitrage or a talent advantage. But in the last ten years, the industry has matured to a level where it is delivering a notch above customers' expectations.

The second thing is that customers in the semiconductor industry want us not just to design the integrated circuit, but also to help them take it to the market. Similarly, system companies are asking us if we can take them to the service providers and system integrators.

Companies are making products and services for a market larger than their own backyard. How do they arrive at this matrix?

Ajay Vasudeva: Nokia's philosophy is to inspire innovation. Organisations need to spend time, money and resources on creating a culture of innovation. So we want to know what's on our customers' minds and mine data accordingly. We have a huge role to play in rural mobility. For instance, Nokia Life Tools Agriculture services aim to plug the information gaps and needs of the farmers by providing information on seeds, fertilizers, market prices, and weather via mobile phones.

How important is innovation during the downturn?

Arindam Sen: Innovation doesn't take a vacation in a downturn. Companies often miss the clinical need in the healthcare space. There is a skewed ratio when it comes to healthcare spends. Only 10% of the population gets 80% of the healthcare benefits. In India, over 700 million don't have access to healthcare. GE's priority is to drive access and reduce costs. We are putting aside a $5 billion global fund to drive healthcare innovation.

We have two different approaches at play here. Conzerv is delivering niche technology globally and Texas Instruments is offering solutions to cater to the local market. How is innovation fuelling this drive?

Vijayaraghava Chitti: Conzerv realised the need for a better consumer connect. After conducting internal studies, we found that there might be a pattern and timing to the economy, and we could align some of our initiatives in this direction. As part of online monitoring systems, we came up with the dashboard, which gave us an accurate capture of customers' perception on what we were delivering vis-à-vis what they required.

Mitra: Over 1. 6 billion people in the world lack access to electricity and 25% of them live in India. To narrow the gap, we have developed a solution based on the LED (light-emitted diode). There is economics behind it.

What is the engagement model between the systems companies and the semiconductor firms?

Sanjay Nayak: The good news is that the ecosystem in India has evolved as co-creators of innovation. It all started with the services companies building a huge base of talent. Then MNCs like TI and Synopsys brought technology to India and systems players put it all together. India has emerged as a strong market for consumer technologies in the last 5 years.

The cost arbitrage is important for India. But there is a dilemma when it comes to volume versus price. How do you tackle this?

Nayak: Let me give you an example. India adds 11 million subscribers every month whereas the population of Israel is 7.5 million. We add an Israel every month. Does that count? Not much. The momentum is coming from the emerging markets. Look at what Nano has done to world. It's about creating a disruptive affordability benchmark.

Janakiraman: Previously, to sell some product in the third world market, companies would downsize the product and remove some of its features. But today, that's not the case. The demands of the customer is on par with the rest of the world. Innovation starts with how you can amortise costs over volumes rather than addressing a few niche customers.

Mitra: I will give you an interesting example. Tampering meters is rampant in India. We have come up with electronic meters which are tamper-proof with advanced features like the remote meter reading. From a semiconductor point of view, it is important to know whether the chip has right interfaces required by customers.

What is Nokia's stand?

Vasudeva: I think we are driven by consumer insights. Then we start working with our partners within the ecosystem to come up with a unique handset. On the software side, how we drive our people to think differently starts from the non-hierarchical structure. We encourage risk-taking. We believe in fail fast and scale fast philosophy.

Mitra: We have identified India as a very important growth market. We may have the best chips, but how to use them in the systems context is a big part of innovation. That's where the role of applications engineer comes in. In TI, we have created a footprint of 14 offices in India that are close to the customers with the intent of supporting sales and application.

Chitti: At Conzerv, we have set up the iLabs for pursuing R&D. iLabs has benchmarked the future of energy management through standards defining research and evolving technologies to develop products that are characterised by accuracy and reliability.

 

SEMICONDUCTOR ACT, 2000
The Economic Times

Layout designs of integrated circuits (ICs) cost organisations a great deal. There is a continuous demand for more advanced strains of layout design. Since integrated circuits are now commonplace in mass-produced electronic appliances such as television sets, sound systems, etc, there is a greater need to protect innovative and meticulously developed technology from duplication. Replication by means of photocopying each layer of an integrated circuit and using these to prepare masks is a peril that has been addressed by the Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Layout-Design Act, 2000.

The Act calls for the maintenance of a registry wherein the details of designs such as the name, address and description of the proprietor are to be recorded. A layout design is considered original if it is the result of the creator's intellectual effort and is not commonly known to similar creators and manufacturers at the time of its creation. Where a layout design has been created as a result of the execution of a commission or an employment contract, the right of registration belongs to the person who commissioned the work or the employer.

However, registration will be valid only for a period of ten years from the date of filing the application for registration or from the date of the first commercial exploitation, whichever is earlier. A registered layout design is infringed by a person who, without being the registered proprietor or user, reproduces or incorporates the design or imports, sells or distributes it for commercial purposes. Penalties for design infringement include imprisonment for a term, which may extend to three years, or a fine varying between Rs 50,000 and Rs 10 lakh or both. It may also include the forfeiture of assets related to the offence to the Government.