Hardware Update: 22/05/09

BHARTI TO LAUNCH SUB-RS 8,000 NET PC
Leslie D'Monte,New Delhi
Business Standard

Low-cost computing and broadband penetration in the country is expected to get an added boost, with India’s largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, launching a low-cost online computer powered by Microsoft and Nivio.

The Airtel Net PC is a plug-and-play online computer, inclusive of a 15-inch LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse and Nivio companion (which enables the PC to connect to a backend Linux-run server for storage and applications) and priced at Rs 7,999 exclusively for Airtel broadband customers.

It will initially be available at Airtel Stores and NEXT Electronic Stores in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida from tomorrow. If customers do not want the monitor, the package costs Rs 4,999.

The hardware and software (genuine Windows XP) for the Net PC is being provided by Nivio, while the internet connection provided by Airtel. The Net PC consumes only around 5-10 watts of electricity. Airtel will provide 10 GB space to store documents, photos, presentations at a central location (Airtel’s own data centres), and regular original software upgrades, according to K Srinivas, joint president, Bharti Airtel.

The Net PC (also referred to as the Network PC) is an industry specification for a low-cost personal computer designed primarily for internet use and small businesses. They are also sometimes known as thin clients, since they are light weight and lack CD-ROM drives or hardware expansion slots. There are limitations, though. Users, for instance, cannot download software on the Net PC nor are these low-cost machines meant for playing games.

“It costs only around Rs 9,000 (including taxes and installation) as a one-time investment with no recurring costs on maintenance/upgrade, etc. Moreover, there are no upgrades required, since the computing power is provided by the globally distributed NivioGrid. There are no data loss worries since all the data is backed in the NivioGrid in real time. And it’s really portable, since the user can also access any work s/he does from any internet-connected computer around the world. It is like accessing a web-based email,” says Srinivas.

Airtel, according to Srinivas, is initially targeting around 1 million subscribers (its existing broadband customer base plus new customers). “We expect first-time buyers of computers to go for these Net PCs. Additionally, households that have kids may opt for these machines instead of investing in pricey computers. Moreover, there are small businesses which can use these Net PCs to only pay for services and applications they need. They need not worry about viruses, crashes or security since we take care of the backend,” says Srinivas. Airtel expects to have a pan-Indian rollout (beginning with the metros and 25 towns) once “we gauge the initial response and iron out the glitches, if any”.

Chennai-based Novatium Solutions had earlier launched the Nova netPC and has tied up with BSNL, MTNL and Tata Indicom for broadband services. It expects to have 200,000 subscribers nationally for its Nova netPC by the end of this fiscal. Nova netPC is currently available in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bangalore, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Haryana, Lucknow and the North East telecom circle. It is also available in some regions of New Delhi through a tie-up with MTNL. The company hopes to roll out the service across the country soon.

The product uses a globally-patented desktop utility delivery model (DUDM) and supports Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems. The netPC is priced at Rs 2,999 excluding taxes, installation charges and the cost of the computer monitor (which works out to a pricing that’s similar to Airtel’s).

Hardware Update: 21/05/09

COMMUNICATION IS BECOMING MORE PERSONALISED AND TARGETED IN INDIA
Surabhi Agarwal
The Financial Express

Only 3-5 percent of the world’s printing market is digital. The figures for the Asia region are even lesser. Companies like Hewlett-Packard (HP) are at the forefront of the shift towards digital driving its adoption among larger enterprises and SMBs. Though the global economic crisis has put a spanner in the adoption rate, India continues to be a high growth rate market for HP, says VS Hariharan, vice-president, graphic solutions business, imaging and printing group, HP APAC & Japan. In a chat on the sidelines of HP Graphics Odyssey event in Beijing, Hariharan talks about how companies are going increasingly digital in marketing and branding.

Excerpts:

India and China are clear growth markets for you. What are the major trends that you see in this space?

One of the biggest trends is that people are moving towards short-runs as they are doing more targeted communication. Secondly, Web is being aggressively used. In India, we have been talking about digital for the last several years. If I break-out by category, signage is already very digital in India. All the billboard, posters that you, except for some in the villages, are all printed out of large-format machines. However, on the consumer side, India is pretty much offset. The US has converted a lot to digital, China has also seen the shift towards digital in the last few years. But, the trend in India in the last one-two years is very encouraging. This year, we have sold a lot more Indigo presses in the first few months, than we sold last year.

How much of the world’s printing market is already digital?

On an average, between 3-5 percent is digital. So, there is a long way to go. Asia is only two-thirds of that. India and China are far behind the US. Roughly, 95 percent of the market is non-digital, which is basically our potential market. In value terms, the worldwide market is around $800 billion. And for Asia, that number is roughly around $250-280 billion. So, Asia becomes 30 percent of the worldwide printing market.

What is driving the adoption in the Asia market?

Personalisation is the key demand in the market. The more it is all-pervasive, the growth of digital will be higher. For instance, everybody needs to print a lot of business cards today. And if you are working for a SMB, you need fancy business cards, which stand out. Today, mass campaigns are becoming less and less. People are trying to be more personalised and targeted.

How are sales figures looking in the backdrop of the global meltdown?

In the first half, our Indigo business grew by double digits. The impressions on Indigo grew by 40 percent. We think that we will do better in the second half. We see things stabilising now. Sentiment has gone away and it is more about what is real now. Some of the new presses, new printers that we are launching are going to be more productive, more cost efficient. So, HP will share results for the Q2 very soon, but the last one and one and half months has been very good for us. We are positive about the coming months. We see a clear recovery in China, India, Australia, New Zealand and some parts of South East Asia.

 

HP LAUNCHES NEW DESKTOP
Bangalore
Deccan Herald

HP on Wednesday announced its latest consumer desktop innovation with the launch of its new HP Pavilion p6000 PC.

Powered by Intel Core2 Duo Processor, this desktop has monitor with features like Backlit OSD, aqua-white LED indication and EasyClip that command your attention, the company said.

Announcing the launch Ketan Patel, Country Category manager Consumer Desktops, Personal Systems Group, Hewlett-Packard India said, “The Pavilion p6000 PC encapsulates digital entertainment, opening doors for the family to live it up - with photographs, music, video and surfing, all rolled into one.”

Priced at Rs 29,990, this PC is designed for essential tasks and available with advanced technology options.           

 

QUALCOMM'S MANTRA: ALWAYS-ON WIRELESS ACCESS AT LOW COST
Shyamal Majumdar, Mumbai
Business Standard

Kanwalinder Singh, president, India and South Asia, of the world’s largest CDMA (Code division multiple access) chipset maker, Qualcomm, has reasons to feel happy. Despite late entry into Indian market, CDMA 2000 has over 92 million subscribers and enjoys a quarter of the market share. In recent months, CDMA 2000 has averaged subscriber net additions of over 2.7 million per month.

But Singh says the time has come to go beyond voice. “Indian mobile companies have been obsessed with the voice subscription game. It’s time to look at value-added services that can significantly transform society,” Singh says, adding 3G wireless broadband is an opportunity coming their way to make high-speed wireless Internet access more widely available and affordable. According to the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), for every one percent increase, Internet connectivity has twice the impact of voice on GDP growth.

Singh says globally 2G (GSM) is rapidly transitioning to 3G and Qualcomm will drive a similar trend in India and bring in “affordable tiered solution” to stimulate mass-market adoptions. Reasons: 3G feature phones will bring better voice clarity and multimedia experience to users, opening new services revenue streams for wireless operators; 3G USB modems, dongles and data cards will bring ‘always on’ wireless broadband connectivity to laptops and desktops that are already experiencing accelerated growth; and affordable 3G smart phones will bring in a new dimension to enterprise connectivity.

Affordability is the key word here. Singh says computing devices are getting smaller (last year, 2 million laptops were sold in India compared to 3 million smart phones) and the San Diego-based company is ready with technologies that can change people’s lives, particularly in emerging markets like India. For example, Qualcomm-powered wireless Internet devices can remove the need to carry a mobile phone, if the computing device is small enough.

For example, the Kayak platform developed by the company Kayak, is essentially a portable computing device that leverages 3G chipsets and can also be connected to the internet even in small villages where connectivity is difficult to access or is unaffordable. Kayak fills the niche that exists between desktop PCs, which normally require landlines or separate accessories for connectivity, and internet-capable wireless devices.

Qualcomm will not make the Kayak PCs, but will offer the software specifications and reference design to device manufacturers. Devices based on the Kayak design will offer a full-featured Web 2.0-capable browser to perform at desktop resolutions; access via the browser to Web 2.0 productivity applications; support for both television sets and computer monitors to be used as displays and/or for a built-in display; compatibility with a standard keyboard and mouse for input; and music player and/or a 3D gaming console functionality.

While a laptop usually measures 15 inches or more, that on Qualcomm's snapdragon platform would be mostly in the range of nine to 12 inches. There will be pocket devices also.

One of the major advantages will be that these devices will be low-powered. The small computing devices when embedded with a snapdragon chipset platform can make them run even on mobile phone batteries. In a country like India where power supply in villages has been a problem, this can be a game-changer, says Singh.

A proud Singh says over 1,000 engineers based in the company’s Research & Development (R &D) centres in Bangalore and Hyderabad developed the Kayak platform. Web-based applications open up new possibilities for people in emerging markets for whom packaged software can be expensive, says Singh, adding that the prices of 3G entry-level handsets will come down sharply.

 

Hardware News: 20/05/09

 

SERVER MARKET BEGINS TO SHRINK; GROWTH IN 2008 PUT AT 3.7%
Venkatesha Babu, Bangalore
Mint

The $760 million (Rs 3,600 crore) Indian server market is in a flux. After years of high growth, the domestic server market has been shrinking in recent months though many expect a quick revival.

India's overall server market grew by just 3.7% in 2008, a sharp slowing from the 25.6% growth in 2007, according to research and forecasting firm IDC India Ltd, but the numbers hide more than they reveal.

The enterprise server market contracted by 28% in the December quarter, the latest period for which data is available. But this quarter also saw International Business Machines Corp., or IBM, displace Hewlett-Packard Co., or HP, as the market leader in the overall server market, and the entry of Cisco Systems Inc. into the server market. Servers run computer networks and websites.

A reinvigorated Sun Microsystems Inc., now part of Oracle Corp., is also expected to mount a battle to regain its declining market share. Besides, Lenovo Group Ltd entered the Indian server market a few quarters ago, even as local vendors such as HCL Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd try to increase their market share.

The Indian server market is broadly categorized into three different segments. The entry-level, volume-based server market constitutes the largest chunk and is worth around $420 million, according to IDC. The mid-range offering, better known as the Unix server market, is estimated at $300 million and the top-end market, comprising power systems and mainframe, is estimated at $40 million.

"Yes, after enjoying years of double-digit growth, the degrowth happening in the server market is a cause for concern for all players and not just us," said Mukul Mathur, director, systems and technology, India and South Asia, IBM. "(But the) Indian market holds plenty of potential and is still nascent."

Rajesh Dhar, director, sales, industry standard servers, HP India, too admits the contraction in the server market is a worry but says the situation will likely rectify over the next couple of quarters.

While sectors such as manufacturing and retail have been severely hurt in their server investments, telecom, government, utilities and the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) segments are expected to continue to grow.

Naveen Mishra, senior research analyst at technology research firm Gartner India says the contraction in the server market is a concern for vendors only if looked at in absolute terms. "From a relative perspective, (the) Indian market is still doing better than several other mature markets, and provides reasonable growth opportunities."

The entry of Cisco into the market is expected to inject new competition and shake up the market. The US firm, which primarily sells networking equipment, has firmly cast its eyes on dominating the entire data centre space with its unified computing systems. This combines computing, storage, virtualization and networking in a single package for customers.

Gartner's Mishra says Cisco has started challenging the established players with its offering, though "Cisco's entry is unlikely to have any direct impact in the short term. But if they aggressively do product-positioning, they may gain some market share in the medium term."

 

 

NETBOOKS SET FOR A WINDOWS-INTEL TURBOCHARGE
C Chitti Pantulu, Hyderabad
DNA

Already flying off the shelves in huge numbers in India, Netbook sales are set for a twin booster later this year.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced on his India visit a leaner version of the forthcoming Windows7 for Netbooks.

At the same time, the world's biggest chip-maker Intel, whose Atom chips power most Netbooks, is also working on releasing a dual core version for Netbooks. Both will be in the market around the festival time this year.

The good news is the twin developments could bring Netbooks into the mainstream and boost their sales further. But the bad news is that for Intel it could also mean erosion of market for its existing entry and mid-level Pentium and other notebook chips.

Seen as little more than toys when they were launched in the country last June, Netbooks have become a rage, doubling sales to 36,000 units in the January-March quarter, compared with just 16,000 units in the Oct0ber-December, 2008.

In 2009, Netbooks are projected to hit 3 lakh units in sales. The total laptop market in India is put at 2.5 million units per annum, of which 10 percent is entry level notebooks.

The runaway success of Atom came as surprise even to Intel. "It did better than we expected and we ended last year with revenues of $500 million for Atom chip sales," said Prakash Bagri, director marketing Intel South Asia.

"Demand ramped up so fast in the second half of the year that we had supply issues," he added.

This kind of success also comes with a concomitant downside which Intel seems to be realising, which perhaps explains its attempt to talk down the Atom at an investor meet after its first quarter 2009 results.

"The new dual core Atom could be a double-edged sword for Intel," observed Diptarup Chakraborti, principal research analyst at IT research firm Gartner Inc. "There is a thin line which is getting thinner between Netbooks and notebooks," he added.

While the consumer segment has taken to the Netbook in a big way demand is also coming from the enterprise and education sectors which could mean erosion in sales of notebooks using higher margin chips from Intel.

 

Update: 19/05/09

 

HP LAUNCHES NEW ENHANCED HP Z SERIES
The Financial Express  The Indian Express  

HP India announced the launch of the new HP 'Z' Workstation series -HP Z800, HP Z600 and HP Z400.

The workstations are the culmination of more than 20 HP design innovations - including a self-checking power supply - and take advantage of the new Intel Xeon processor.

The new enhanced HP Z Series is sleek with its new industrial design - brushed aluminium side panels, tool-less access chassis, integrated handles, and visually cable-less engineering.

"The new Z Workstations series is the newest addition, which facilitates easy serviceability at the fingertip, from the power supply to the motherboard," said Anurag Gupta, Country Manager - Workstations, Personal Systems Group, HP India. "Studies have shown that an HP Z Workstation pays for itself in a surprisingly short period with its performance and productivity gains."

This series offers innovation with the power to do more with next-generation Intel Xeon processor 5500 series with integrated memory controllers and Intel Turbo Boost Technology along with a new lineup of professional graphics solutions, built-in high-definition (HD) audio and an option for solid-state drives.

In addition the DASH Management Technology will use hardware and software inventory capabilities that are available all time to give an accurate response. Designed with the environment in mind, the HP Z Workstation line includes a new HP-exclusive WattSaver feature that manages power in the "off" state at less than one watt. Moreover, the Z Workstations include 85 percent efficient power supplies, reducing both overall energy usage and the amount of waste heat released.

 

HP TO OFFER MANAGED PRINT SERVICES
Thanuja BM, Bangalore
Financial Chronicle

It’s the undisputed leader in printer equipment in India, now Hewlett Packard wants to focus on building the managed print services (MPS) in the country. The technology major is aggressively pushing its suite of services, citing up to 30 percent cost savings in this recessionary environment for clients.

MPS is basically consulting and outsourced services offered to help enterprises reduce the number of printers in their fleet and cut printing costs. Globally, about 5 percent of total revenue on average is spent by companies on printing — equipment, supplies, paper and maintenance. It goes up to 15 percent for sectors like ad agencies and legal firms and is about 1.5 percent for petroleum industry.

While India is still considered nascent for this service, HP Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) is confident that it will reach a critical mass soon. Nitin Hiranandani, director- Enterprise Sales & Services, HP IPG India said, “India has some way to go, but we are getting good resonance. We have won some enterprise customers and are talking to few more.’’

MOBILE IS SURELY THE WAY TO GO
Leslie D'Monte, New Delhi
Business Standard

It’s a leading global manufacturer of servers and personal computers (PCs) with annual revenues of around $120 billion. However, on the back of falling PC sales, Hewlett-Packard — which gets revenues of over $3 billion from India — now plans to sharpen its focus on making mobiles, and not PCs, the centre of computing. The HP-EDS combine (HP acquired EDS last May for $13.9 billion) has almost 35,000 employees in India and can offer a suite of solutions ranging from hardware, middleware and outsourcing to its clients, which makes it a formidable player in the commercial and enterprise computing segments. In an interview with Leslie D’Monte, Hewlett-Packard India Managing Director Neelam Dhawan explains the way forward in a changing landscape and not-so-encouraging economy as she comes close to completing a year in office after she left Microsoft.

A major part of your business comes from the personal systems group. But if I were to look at worldwide data, there’s a considerable slowdown in hardware, especially PC sales. The picture is not a happy one…

True. Growth in the segment has slowed to 18-20 percent from the earlier range of 35-36 percent. However, the dip should not be so alarming in constant-currency terms. It is currency depreciation which makes it look very big — we took a hit of almost 25 percent due to currency volatility. Besides, when companies hire a person, they buy him a PC and that person in turn buys another PC for his home when he gets his second or third salary. Due to the slowdown, for each individual retrenched, you lose two PCs. Moreover, when companies spot a slowdown, they do not upgrade products easily. However, companies still need servers and software. So the slowdown has hit us in pockets.

So what kind of turnover figures are you looking at, given the current scenario?

As of now, we are looking at a flat figure and I would be very delighted if it continues like that till 2010. Even to remain flat we need to take care of the currency depreciation. Last year, for instance, you sold Rs 4,000 worth of goods to get $100 in revenue. This year, you have to sell Rs 5,000 worth of goods to get the same $100. That’s the impact the whole industry is facing.

Which segments are doing well for you in India?

To begin with, banking has done well. It has always been a strong sector for HP in India. Nationalised banks are where we have seen growth and that’s where we see our revenues growing. They are taking decisions and seeing growth in their account holders, especially since many multinational banks fared poorly. We just closed a deal with Bank of Baroda. We have rolled out core banking solutions for 1,000 branches of the bank. For Bank of India too we offered similar solutions.

Data warehousing is another area that we are excited about. It makes you efficient and takes your operations to the next level. But if I’m a banker with an operational role, I would ask: So what will give me more revenue, how do I manage customer care better? That’s where data warehousing and business intelligence step in in a big way. We see a lot of business here. While I cannot give figures, all I can say is that these are multi-million dollar deals.

The fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector too is very good for HP. We just closed Godrej last month and then we got another big deal from it. Britannia is an old client and the deal keeps getting renewed. Supply chain is crucial to this sector. And we bring our expertise from the automotive sector where we have done a lot of work.

The second area is network management. We have done large deals for the information technology sector in India and we have got good strength on analytics — for example, which dealer is moving goods, from which town it’s moving. The FMCG companies face similar challenges. Hence, we are able to look at how dealer management can be more efficient. The third thing is portal creation (a web presence) for the FMCG sector.

What about telecom? It appears that IBM is a clear leader in this space…

When Indian telecom companies went for outsourcing services, the deals went to IBM. It has a model which we could never match but we have products in both hardware and software that are used internally for billing purposes. These are solutions that HP has continued to sell in the country and that’s helping us grow. Now that the government has announced licences for five new operators, we are very excited. They will need infrastructure. And we have developed new ways of designing data centres with cooling and power efficiency. Take, for instance, our dynamic smart cooling solutions. Data centres must have air-conditioning which costs a bomb. Dynamic cooling reduces costs by sensing hot spots and cooling them rather than cooling the entire data centre. This reduces air-conditioning costs by 40-45 percent. Some telecom companies have already given us orders which we executed in December, March and April.

But you appear to have woken up late when it comes to low-cost netbooks and the mobile space which is booming…

To think that PCs will be the device that will be used to access information is erroneous. Mobile is surely the way to go. However, our focus is not to make a mobile device. Rather, our focus is on how the mobile device can become the centre of computing. Whether you want to access your bank or make a secure payment, security is a big issue. Consider a streaming video-on-demand or direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast or any Visa/Mastercard transaction — all these applications link back to storage or server applications. The question, however, is how do you enable all this in a secure environment? So our focus is on secure transactions using the phone.

Every time you see a reality show where you need to SMS a number, there is a server doing the backend work — and 90 percent of those servers are from HP. I have 130 organisations that do value-added services for telecom service providers using our product.

I must now come to netbooks. Let me tell you that we launched netbooks in February. A little late though, we launched consumer and commercial netbooks. We also got the consumer netbooks designed and offered them in different colours. They also have a slot for a 3G simcard. Netbooks are doing well for us. February was a record month for us.

CANON SUCCESSFULLY EXECUTES 7TH SEASON OF ‘WINGS OF GLORY’
New Delhi
The Financial Express

Canon India Pvt. Limited, India's No 1. Complete Digital Imaging Company successfully executed the 7th annual 'Wings of Glory’ program for the year 2008 to reward its top-performing channel partners. Under this channel partner engagement program, partners were taken for a four-day tour to Hong Kong and Macau along with a trip to Disney Land as a reward for their performance in the past financial year. ‘Wings of Glory’ was rewarded to acknowledge those partners who did more than Rs 1 crore business with Canon in the previous year and grew by over 30 percent.

Under this motivational program Canon rewarded its top 61 partners across its Channels from all product divisions. The goal of this unique programme is to build deep involvement, high motivation and bonding of Canon & its partners with a special relationship of collaborating in a unique “out of office” environment to help do “business with pleasure”. This year Canon invited spouses to join to make “thanksgiving” to the family in contributing for high growth in 2008.Canon India’s President & CEO, Senior Vice President, all Directors and National Sales Head across all the businesses accompanied the winners.

 

 

18/05/09 : Updates

 

OUR PLAN TO ACHIEVE RS 1,000 CRORE REVENUE BY 2010 IS ON TRACK
Kirtika Suneja & Suvi Dogra, New Delhi, May 18, 2009
Business Standard

Canon has been annually launching around 100 products in India. The year 2008 saw a 31 percent growth rate, to touch a top line of Rs 665 crore. On the launch of its high-speed mono production digital press range, Kensaku Konishi, President & CEO, Canon India, and Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice-President, to discuss the company’s plans.

Edited excerpts:

Canon India had a revenue target of Rs 1,000 crore till 2010. Is it achievable in the current scenario?

Konishi: Yes. The plans are on track and this year, we clocked sales of Rs 840 crore, 25 percent more than last year. In fact, in March-April, the sales increased 34 percent from last year. We are confident of achieving this target and expect around Rs 200 crore from the printer segment and Rs 250-300 crore from the camera segment.

We will see the copier segment grow from next year. The slowdown has not impacted the laser printer segment because of our marketing campaigns in both small and big cities and that increased our market share to 30 percent in this category. The inkjet segment, too, is growing, as that caters to the end consumer. The enterprise segment has been hit globally, but we do not invest much there.

What about your expansion plans?

Bharadwaj: A company can expand on three fronts — geographically, vertically and by adding more products. We are expanding geographically. Three years earlier, 80 percent of our revenues came from the top six cities; now these contribute 49 percent to revenues. Tier-II and Tier-III cities contribute 51 percent. On verticals, we are now concentrating on education, energy and power, as they are recession-proof. Lastly, launch of high-speed mono production digital press range shows we have entered into high-speed transaction in printing areas. Also, the government sector will become bigger. It is currently Rs 100 crore and has been flat for the last four months.

How important are marketing alliances at this point of time?

Bharadwaj: We already have alliances with system integrators like HCL, Lenovo and Zenith, among others, and also with service providers. However, now we will develop alliances with national retail chains like Croma and Jumbo. These will be high-level strategic alliances wherein some retail chains, who will be our preferred partners, will have exclusive rights to display and sell our products for some time. We are in talks with about 15 national chains and by 2010, expect to have relationships with them at different levels.

 

TATAS RETURN QUIETLY INTO IT HARDWARE SPACE WITH CROMA
May 18, 2009
The Times of India (Mumbai edition)

As quietly as it was possible, the Tatas have launched their own brand of IT hardware and laptops under its Croma brand. The launch is part of Croma’s strategy to boost its private label business. Labelled Croma laptops with pre-loaded operating systems, it is the only retailer to launch its own range of laptops. This is the second coming of the Tatas into the hardware space. In the late 1980s, the conglomerate had a JV with IBM, selling top end computers in India. But later the two parted ways. While the Tatas made a big impact in software, through TCS, IBM has sold its computer business to China’s Lenovo.

 

SEMICONDUCTOR INVENTORY BACK TO HEALTHY LEVELS
C Chitti Pantulu, Bangalore, May 18, 2009
DNA

It may not yet be the time to uncork the bubbly but the smiles and optimism are definitely back in the global semiconductor industry.

Sitting on a pile of inventories for the past six months, fab owners and fabless chipmakers are heaving a sigh of relief with stocks moving faster on signs of a revival in various sectors that drive the industry.

Recent commentary from players across the spectrum -- chipmakers, equipment suppliers, industry bodies and analysts -- suggest the current semiconductor cycles could be bottoming out.

Though not out of the woods yet, statements by semiconductor companies and equipment suppliers post Q1 results indicate increased offtake.

For instance, new orders for semiconductor equipment supplier Applied Materials saw a $3.16 billion decline in backlog, a drop of nearly $1 billion sequentially.

Despite the weak earnings, the management gave an optimistic picture of the current scenario in a conference call.

Likewise, the world's biggest chipmaker Intel came out with positive comments on the cycle and kick off to Q2 sales. Though acknowledging IT demand was sluggish, AMD CEO Dirk Meyer observed the severe inventory corrections of the prior quarter have stabilised and should play out completely in the coming quarter.