David Richards

Apple’s Intel-based Macs may not appear until June 2006, if claims made by sources at Taiwanese distributors are to be believed.

 According to the moles, cited by DigiTimes today, Intel-based Mac Minis, iBooks and iMacs have been scheduled to launch in Taiwan on 6 June.

That’s six months after most recent speculation has suggested that Apple will launch its x86 machines. A variety of Apple fansites have separately claimed the Mac maker will announce Intel-based PowerBooks, iBooks and Mac Minis early next year, most likely at Macworld Expo in San Francisco, due to take place in the second full week of the new year.

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs told software developers on 6 June this year of the company’s decision to migrate from PowerPC to x86, he said Apple would ship Intel-based Macs by “this time next year”. The full Mac range would be converted over by the end of 2007.

However, it’s been claimed that the first machines will arrive much sooner, prompting even Wall Street analysts to indicate they’re anticipating an early launch. January has been favoured not only because of Macworld Expo, but because Intel is expected to debut next-generation mobile processors in the same timeframe, plus its Viiv home media centre platform. Both launches have helped boost expectations of Intel-based notebook Macs and Mac Minis

Disk was king in the third quarter with storage sales surging a record 13.3 per cent, according to market researcher IDC.

The storage vendors pulled in $5.7bn in the period. IDC noted that this was the highest growth rate since it started keeping track of the storage sector in 2001. Total petabytes increased 58 per cent year-over-year to 505 petabytes or half an exabyte.

“This is the third consecutive quarter that disk storage systems revenue growth has outpaced that of the server market,” said Brad Nisbet, an analyst at IDC.

In the external disk market, EMC remained the top dog with $786m in sales and 20 per cent share. HP, however, is catching up after posting a strong quarter and shipped $740m in systems to leave it with 19 per cent of the market. IBM, Dell and Hitachi rounded out the top five.

In all worldwide disk sales combined, HP took the top spot, selling $1.3bn worth of gear and eating 24 per cent of the market. IBM finished second with $1.2bn in sales and 21 per cent share, while EMC placed third with $786m in sales and 14 per cent share. Dell and Hitachi rounded out the top five.

According to a new report from IDC EMC is number one in NAS (network attached storage) for the sixth straight quarter, growing revenues nearly twice as fast as its nearest competitor and extending its lead on a year-to-year basis with 40 per cent revenue share. 

According to IDC, EMC and co-branded Dell/EMC external disk storage systems revenue, combined, grew by US$135 million compared to the year-ago quarter and represented 26.6 per cent of the total external disk storage market in the third quarter.

Howard Elias, EMC executive vice president, Corporate Marketing and Office of Technology, said, Our networked storage platforms form the bedrock of information infrastructures around the world.  These systems, along with EMC’s portfolio of software and services, are helping organisations accelerate their information lifecycle management strategies, providing unmatched protection, mobility and management for their information assets.”

EMC maintained leadership in every major external disk storage market segment in the third quarter including external RAID,  networked storage, open/iSCSI SAN (storage area network) and NAS (network attached storage). EMC was the growth leader in iSCSI SAN systems, doubling its revenues in this emerging market. EMC also maintained its number one position in external RAID disk storage systems revenue in the United States, Western Europe and Asia Pacific during the third quarter [b].

Toshiba have confirmed that they will not launch its next-generation HD-DVD players till early in 2006. Many are tipping that it will be tied to the CES Expo in January 2006 in Las Vegas.

Sony and Toshiba have been waging a three-year battle for supporters of their respective formats, both of which promise better visual quality and storage capacity over current-generation players. The players with the HD-DVD format backed by Toshiba were originally scheduled to hit the U.S. market by the end of the year. “We have been discussing with content holders the most effective way to launch in the U.S. market, and it will probably be in February or March,” said Yoshihide Fuji, Toshiba corporate vice president, at the news conference. Early this month, Toshiba had indicated the delay in the launch but had not yet specified the exact timing  The launch of HD-DVD, even as late as March 2006, could give it an edge over Blu-ray, which is not expected to hit stores until mid 2006.

“Blu-ray will launch around April 2006 and [HD-DVD] will get a time-to-market advantage,” said Josh Martin, an analyst with research firm IDC.

 Toshiba executive Mark Knox told Red Herring earlier this month the HD-DVD delay stems from having to finalize discussions with HD-DVD partners such as retailers, studios, and replication houses as the partners want to maximize the success of the launch. Hollywood studios feel it’s best to launch the technology when all the hardware and software is ready to go instead of trickling it out before it’s finished. One task the HD-DVD group needs to do is  build up the inventory of the products before they are launched.

However, another possible reason for the delayed launch could be that the HD-DVD group took longer than expected to finalize content protection schedules, said Mr. Martin. The AACS, or Advanced Access Content System, provides copy protection to next-generation DVDs to prevent piracy. Both formats will carry this system.

Mr. Martin said the February-March timeframe for the launch of HD-DVD players in the U.S. seems like a reasonable target.

 Slim Chance for More Delays

There remains a chance for more delays, but it is slim, said Mr. Martin. The Blu-ray and HD-DVD camps could decide to restart talks over unifying the two formats. Or, the AACS finalisation could get pushed back further, said Mr. Martin.The Blu-ray and HD-DVD camps have been in talks for several months on unifying the formats to avoid confusion in the marketplace for consumers. But talks have come to a standstill now as the two sides have not reached a compromise (see Toshiba: Blu-ray Won’t Bargain).

 Sony plans to launch its PlayStation 3 video gaming console around the same time as the Blu-ray products and this generation of the PlayStation will carry a Blu-ray drive. Toshiba has said the Japan launch of HD-DVD players will stay on its end-of-year launch schedule. Earlier this week two tech giants, Microsoft and Intel, announced their backing for the HD-DVD format (see Microsoft, Intel Vote HD-DVD). This has solidified HD-DVD’s position as it previously had backing only from Sanyo and NEC.

If your looking for the latest in digital home gear from HP, forget it if you live in Australia.

It appears that the company that brags about its ability to “Invent” seems to have forgotten Australia when it comes to the latest in smart LCD TV’s, Plasma, set top boxes running Linux or the latest in media servers. It appears that Australia which is renoun for being “early” technology adopters does not count with HP management.

At an all dancing all banging media event at the recent CEDIA Expo in the USA something that HP seem better at than delivering functioning digital home products the company made the startling claim that the TV is the centre of most people’s homes, something that interior designers have known for years while announcing a line of LCD TVs with integrated Wi-Fi home networking capability.

Three LCD TVs including a 26″, 32″ and 37″ wides screen and with built-in ATSC tuners and digital CableCARD slots will ship by October 2005 in the US market but not in Australia. In fact you will be lucky if you ever see them , a bit like the HP iPod that was coming last year but was never launched. Then there was the plasma screen range that never quite made it to Australia or the Linux based media server. This is the same company that recently lost its lead in terms of worldwide PC shipments to rival Dell in the first quarter of this year yet brags about its prowess in the digital home market.

All of HPs new LCD models feature proprietary HP 3D Color Enrichment System and Photo-Realistic Sharpness Enhancement. The company also includes in the sets an automatic ambient light adjustment system that combines ambient light information with scene-by-scene light information to optimize the brightness level of display for the room, regardless of the time of day. All of the models feature a new industrial design featuring a polished acrylic bezel and detachable side-mounted speakers. Sounds nice if you can get it.
HP said the new panels also feature a broad supply of connectivity options, including HDMI-HDCP, VGA-compatible DVI and two IEEE-1394 ports.

Mr Guyon Collins Marketing Manager for HP’s Consumer Products Division in Australia said when asked why HP was not launching HP’s range of digital home products in Australia “We are still evaluating them for the market in Australia and the region”. When asked what there was to be evaluated he said “Market conditions are different in many parts of the world. We have to take this into consideration”. When asked why companies like BenQ, Samsung, Acer and Sony were falling over themselves to launch LCD TV’s in Australia Collins did not have an answer.One reason according to retail sources is that retailers like Harvey Norman or Good Guys do not want to stock digital home products from an IT Vendor. The only way that Harvey Norman would consider seling the HP range was via a HP shop within Harvey Norman run and funded by HP.

Collins said” We are a company that invents products. We make sure that they are right for a particular market. We work with company’s like Texas Instruments to deliver the latest in digital home technology”. When it was pointed out to Collins that Texas Instruments had recently launched at the same CEDIA Expo in the USA new DLP 1080p resolution chips  for the ultimate HD viewing and that several manufacturers including HP competitors Barco, InFocus, Marantz, Mitsubishi, Panasonic,  Optoma, Runco Samsung, Sharp, SIM2 and Yamaha had allready announced products at the Expo with the technology but not HP, Collins said that he could not comment.

Alex Thatcher, HP’s digital TV solutions product marketing manager said of the new HP LCD TV’s. “After it is set up you can play music, watch a slide show while listening to music, and play a video.”By the time the networking TVs are ready to ship, HP plans to announce partnerships with key video content suppliers offering Internet services, Thatcher said. The software, which ships with the system, features an interface developed in-house by HP. The software will support a variety of digital rights management systems, including Windows DRM.Thatcher said HP is initially including the networking system in unspecified LCD TVs in a effort to “build a platform” that could eventually spread to other display technologies in HP’s line.

Digital Home products NOT Launched by HP in Australia 

LG Electronics and Toshiba signed a patent cross licensing agreement for optical disc related products.They include “next-generation DVDs” – providing each company with access to the related patents and technologies of the other, according to a statement issued in Japan.

In the joint announcement the companies said, “the agreement covers each company’s worldwide patents for optical discs and for the optical disc drives, players and recorders that use them.” Officials from Toshiba and LG said the pact is expected to expedite product development and reduce development costs “for optical disc related products, including next-generation DVDs.” Both companies are considered among the “global leaders” in optical disc related products.

Toshiba was also a major contributor to the development of the DVD standard and next-generation HD DVD standard. Thus far, however, LG has only made public commitments to manufacture and market Blu-ray Disc optical disc players and drives, although it has shown HD DVD prototypes.