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Vaya Pulled Up For Dodgy Marketing by ACCC After Spate Of Complaints

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Two months after Amaysim bought out low-cost mobile service provider, Vaya the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has claimed that there has been a spike in consumer complaints and that the Company has been engaging in misleading marketing and sales.

It’s also been revealed that ACCC commenced an investigation last year into Vaya’s practices after customers complained about emails they received with contract variations.

In September 2014, Vaya sent an email to selected customers stating that at the end of their 24 month contract they could keep their current plan if they paid a monthly $9.90 fee called a ‘Plan Freeze Fee’, on top of their monthly access fee. Vaya sent this email to customers before their 24 month contract expired and in some cases charged the fee before customers’ contracts expired.

Vaya management claim that they are addressing the problem. 

The ACCC said that in February 2015, Vaya sent an email to its customers stating that all customers were required to pay a “once-off, refundable $20 Security Deposit” (Security Deposit) in accordance with Vaya’s Terms and Conditions and the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code (TCP Code).

The ACCC formed the view that Vaya’s Plan Freeze Fee email was likely to be misleading because it represented that consumers were required to pay extra fees, when in fact, under their contracts rates were fixed. The ACCC also considered that Vaya’s Security Deposit email was also likely to be misleading as it failed to inform consumers of their rights of termination under Vaya’s terms and conditions and Vaya’s obligations under the Telecommunications Consumer Protection Code (TCP Code).

Vaya took a number of steps to address these concerns:

Vaya refunded all customers who were incorrectly charged the Plan Freeze Fee.

Vaya informed customers who complained about the Security Deposit and Plan Freeze Fee of their right to terminate their contracts without penalty.

Vaya committed to improving the transparency of its customer communications and advertising. 
 
“The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission welcomes voluntary action by businesses in addressing consumer complaints,” ACCC Commissioner Sarah Court said.

When signing up for contracts, consumers should familiarise themselves with their rights in the event of a contract variation. If consumers have concerns about changes to their telecommunications contract they can:

Contact their provider to ask questions about the changes or contact the TIO; and Lodge a complaint with the ACCC or local fair trading agency.

NSW Govt Slammed Over Botched $158M Education Tender

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EXCLUSIVE: A $158 million NSW public school’s Connected Classrooms Program is today under scrutiny with suppliers to the project claiming that the whole tender program has been “botched”. It has also been claimed that the NSW Treasury has instructed the NSW Education Department to “inflate the price of projectors, whiteboards and software to schools by up to 25%”.

The suppliers claim that the appointment of online retailer Dell to be the lead contractor and installer has shocked many as Dell doesn’t have the experience to handle such a large Pro AV project.  In Victoria La Trobe University dumped Dell as their preferred “projector” supplier after ongoing support and product quality problems. (See separate Dell story).

During the past week NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca is believed to have got over 600 letters from schools concerned about the roll out of the project which will see 55,000 NSW classrooms fitted out with new broadband based teaching technology.

ChannelNews has also been told that the NSW Opposition are currently undertaken a major review of the tender process and that they have contacted several disgruntled companies involved in the tender.

Claims have also been made that schools are being “ripped off” by the NSW Education department and that the health of thousands of NSW pupils and teachers are potentially at risk from “tunnel vision” caused by the standard throw Dell projectors which the NSW education department is recommending schools to buy.

The project which is designed to deliver broadband based education to NSW schools via flat panel TVs and projectors coupled with video conference facilities and electronic whiteboards will allow pupils to interact with teachers thousands of kilometres away while also receiving live TV education feeds into classrooms. It will also facilitate “intelligent” whiteboard teaching.

 

Documents seen by ChannelNews raise some serious questions about the whole tender process as well as the scope and performance of projectors chosen for use in up to 55,000 NSW classrooms.

The tender for interactive software, as well as thousands of interactive whiteboards, data projectors and LCD Monitors was scheduled to close at 3pm 25 Jan 2008.

However at 4.20pm on 31 Jan 2008, an email was sent by Tim Anderson (Director, InformationServices) for the NSW government informing suppliers that the closing date was being extended to 5pm on the 5 Feb 2008, because of alleged complaints by Commander, a communication company that had had past dealings with the NSW Education department and were the official distributors of Promethean education software which is now going to be used in 55,000 NSW classrooms.

The delay in the process allowed two new distributors to be appointed who eventually won a major part of the NSW tender.

It has also emerged that of the products recommended very few were called in for review or testing by the Education Department.

NEC executives who were contacted by DET to supply a sample projector, have told ChannelNews that after being signed for by DET officials the $3,000 projector mysteriously disappeared and is now being classified as lost.

 

A key part of the tender and deployment process was based on DET being responsible for the management of the tender so that vendors could interact with one NSW Government department and schools obtain a volume deal on the chosen equipment for the project.
 
ChannelNews investigations reveal that  DET not only obtained a “best of buy” deal via the tender process but they are now making money from the deal by quoting schools prices that are up to 25% dearer than what they obtained from vendors.

In one email seen by ChannelNews DET has told schools that the purchase price of an Epson EMP400 is $1,955. However the price tendered for this particular projector was up to 20% under the quoted price.

A visit to the Smart Buy web site which is a recommended source for schools to buy hardware the price of the Epson EMP400 is $1,600.

According to various executives in the Pro AV channel DET could well pocket over $30 million by overcharging schools.

Senior executive Brian Garner of Sydney based Brighter Image Pty Ltd (ABI) a wholesale only distributor of audiovisual products to Government and a key partner of several vendors who submitted pricing and documentation for the tender said, “DET has marked up all bid prices when calculating the purchase price by schools. An email from Paul Hopkins, Chief Procurement Officer DET to NSW School principals dated 28 April 2008 reveals that the price quoted to schools was approx 15% higher than the price they submitted to DET.”

 

He added, “This brings into question why DET is seeking to make substantial profit from discretionary school purchases when contracts are designed to maximise “value for money” for schools. The impact of this decision, when it becomes public, will undermine confidence in all contract purchasing throughout NSW”.

Another senior executive of a Melbourne based company who tendered equipment said, “I recently met with Tim Anderson as part of a debrief. When I raised the issue of overcharging schools he said the schools will never find out. When I questioned him about the exclusion of certain projectors that were better specced and cheaper than the ones chosen he told me that he was limiting the number of heads to bang.”
 
In a separate email sent to Tim Anderson by a Sydney based supplier it says, “I understand your comment regarding limiting the “number of heads to bang”, but XXX has been appointed as one of those “heads”, so why wasn’t  XXX appointed for the Epson knowing we were approx 10% cheaper for the same product.”

The email goes on to say, “I can’t accept any justification for this decision particularly in view of XXXX record as a contract supplier over many years. The fact that ABI already has the Epson listed on Smart Buy at just under $1,600 demonstrates the potential problems with the decision and pricing given to schools. With this projector, the performance of Electroboard vs. XXXX will be similar, it will most likely be Epson if there is a “head to bang” over performance or availability!”

Another criticism of the DET tender process centres on the recommendation of a Dell projector and various whiteboards which several organisations have claimed will cause “tunnel vision for both teachers and children.”

 

Investigations carried out by ChannelNews reveals that both teachers and thousands of school children could be at risk of damaging their eyesight by using the high-tech whiteboard and long throw projectors that DET is recommending to NSW schools.

Tests carried out in the UK by the National Radiological Protection Board have shown that the peripheral vision of users may be harmed even when they are not looking directly into the beam of a long throw projector which can cause tunnel vision. 
 
A story in the UK Times reveals that concerns about the possible risks first arose three years ago, when engineers at Selectasize Visual Aids Ltd, who at the time were installing some of the whiteboards into schools, found themselves being dazzled. “When we first took a look at them in 2002, our engineers became concerned about the projectors’ bright lights causing stars in their eyes,” said Sam Livermore, the Managing Director. The boards work by using a projector to screen an image on to an interactive white board in the classroom, which allows the teacher to open files and call up material during lessons. The computer is connected to the screen with a wireless connection. By touching the screen the teacher can use the board as they would a mouse on a desktop.

Mr Livermore contacted experts, including Dr Chris Hull, senior lecturer in clinical and visual optics at City University, London, and the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, which procures all technology for state schools.

The Health and Safety Executive investigated his concerns. In a letter dated May 3, 2002, Steve Walker, Principal Specialist Inspector (Radiation), wrote that after investigation by the NRPB, there appeared little damage to eyesight from looking directly into the beam, as most children and adults would look away. However, he added: “There remains a possibility that a viewer’s peripheral retina could be overexposed even when he or she is not actually staring at the projector’s apparent source.”

 

The letter continued that in this case the person would not look away because “no protective aversion response is evoked in viewers”.

Using the limits recommended by the International Committee of Non-Iodising Radio Protection, the NRPB discovered that if a person looked into a bright beam from a few metres away for around 20 seconds, they could damage the retina. But like looking into the sun, most people would turn away before then.

One of the projectors chosen by DET and recommended to schools to purchase is a standard throw projector from Dell (1409S).  However this model is not listed on any Dell website.
 
In briefings to companies tendering to supply the Education department, DET apparently went out of their way to communicate that they required short throw projectors and in the final selection they have recommended short throw projectors from Sanyo and Epson.

However it is the recommendation of standard throw projectors that is causing concern with some technology vendors.

 

Well aware of the issues in the UK DET believed that the short throw projectors would eliminate potential “tunnel vision” problems as they could be placed very close to a whiteboard.

The tender put out by DET claims that the mandatory projector specs tendered must support keystone correction. However the specs for the Dell model chosen reveal that the unit does not have keystone capability.

The tender also required that projectors put forward had to produce an undistorted image covering the entire board however the Dell projector fails to meet this specification according to industry experts.

In an email to Principals, Paul Hopkins of DET makes reference to the standard throw projectors he said that they “mitigates any potential occupational health & safety concerns”.

Investigations by ChannelNews show that the Dell 1409S unit has one of longest throws of almost all standard projectors and that it is more likely to cause tunnel vision and have a higher OH&S risk.

Brian Garner of API told ChannelNews, “It was the clear understandings of most vendors that DET would only accept a short throw projector option because of DET’s acknowledgement of the British Governments report that teachers could develop “tunnel vision” from prolonged teaching looking into projector lights”.

Several vendors contacted by ChannelNews have said that a key condition of the tender was the supply of short throw projectors. However two days prior to the closing of the tender DET advised suppliers they would consider a standard throw projector which has now been scoped into DET’s recommendations.

If you have a contribution to these stories please send an email to dwr@4squaremedia.com

Motorola Shares Headphones With Microsoft

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BARCELONA (Reuters) – Motorola has said on Monday it had signed a deal to use Windows Media technology from Microsoft in a new range of music phones that would sell alongside its iTunes phone developed with Apple.

Motorola, the world’s second biggest mobile phone maker behind Nokia will launch between one and three Windows Media phones in the second half of 2006, said Chris White, the company’s senior director of global product marketing for music handsets. Motorola, which launched its first iTunes phones last year, will keep Windows Media phones as separate products, he said.

“The iTunes phones will remain a separate line of products,” White said at 3GSM, the world’s biggest mobile phone trade fair. At stake is the emerging market for legally distributed digital music, which Apple Computer Inc. has opened with its iTunes music player. Apple has sold 1 billion tracks since iTunes launched.

Microsoft is trying to break into the digital media market with Windows Media software, which is incompatible with Apple’s, to compress, transfer and protect media.
Motorola said the new Windows Media phones have been requested by many operators which want to open their own music stores. Microsoft is willing to sell technology that enables this to operators, while Apple has its iTunes music store to protect.

MUSIC ACCESS

Motorola aimed to take a bite from Apple’s digital music success when it announced more than a year ago it would start producing iTunes phones.

But the resulting product has proved a mediocre success due to limited storage capacity as the phone was not allowed to compete with Apple’s popular iPod players, which can store thousands of songs and which are essential to Apple’s recent financial success. The iTunes phone’s bulky design and the fact that operators cannot sell and transfer songs directly to the phone also hampered its take-up.

Support of mobile telecoms operators for a handset is crucial, because they choose a limited number of phones they will subsidize and offer to their subscribers — in most markets around the world only 10 to 20 percent of phones are sold in retail stores without operator subsidies. “We’re developing these (Windows Media) phones in parallel with operator requirements,” White said.

The Windows Media phones will be able to download music over the air, sold by operators, and also directly from a computer. “This is important for consumers to get broader and wider access to digital content,” White said. Amir Majidimehr, in charge of Microsoft’s digital media activities, said the advantage for consumers was that they could now buy online songs either from a PC or a mobile phone and transfer between devices without having to buy tracks twice.

Microsoft now has deals with both Nokia and Motorola. These two handset makers together produced more than half of the 810 million mobile phones that were sold last year. Nokia announced a deal to include Windows Media in some of its phones last year at 3GSM. Nokia has helped set up mobile phone software firm Symbian which competes with Windows Mobile, Microsoft’s technology for handsets.

In addition to Windows Media, the Nokia phones will also contain an open standard for the transfer and protection of songs and video. Motorola said its Windows Media phones may also support this standard from the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). “It’s possible that we may support OMA. This is not an exclusive deal,” White said.

The OMA standard has suffered, however, from endless haggling over licensing terms in negotiations with key patent holders that have been gridlocked for more than a year. The patents are owned by a small group of companies, including Sony , Philips , Intertrust, ContentGuard and Microsoft.


 

WiMax Broadband Now A Standard

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The IEEE this week formally ratified the mobile version of the WiMax wireless broadband system as a standard.

Known as 802.16e, the mobile standard now officially extends the already ratified 802.16-2004 – aka 802.11d – specification, which details connections between fixed locations. The 802.16e standard allows a base-station to communicate with a moving device.The two versions of WiMax are not compatible, but both are expected to be ultimately implemented in dual-mode base-stations, allowing a single antenna to talk to transceivers mounted on the side of buildings and to devices carried by cars, trains and pedestrians.

By the end of 2005, 802.16-2004 and 802.16e should have been merged into a single IEEE document, 802.16e-2005.

The ratified version of 802.16e represents the twelfth draft of the specification developed by the IEEE Task Group preparing the standard. Work originally began in 2002 with a forecast completion timeframe of 18 months. In the end, the process more than twice that.

The ratification of the standard, to be followed by its publication, paves the way for the development official mobile WiMax products. To date, a number of 802.16e-based base-station and client-side systems have come to market, all supporting potentially incompatible draft versions of the specification.

Earlier this month, the IEEE approved the 802.16f amendment to 802.16-2004. The specification adds network management information features to the fixed wireless standard

Ogilvy PR Owners Report Massive Loss

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STW the owner of Ogilvy Public Relations, Howorth and Pulse the PR Company for brands such as Microsoft, Toshiba, E Bay, Netflix, Canon and Activision has reported a massive $52.6 million loss.

This compares to a profit in 2014 of $44.6M. STW who is one of Australia largest marketing and communication Companies is currently undergoing a major restructure. It is not known whether Ogilvy PR, Howorth or Pulse were contributors to the Companies losses. 

While net revenue was up by 1.6 per cent to $416m, underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were down by 7.8 per cent to $76.8m.

“After a disappointing finish to 2014, the company undertook a strategic and structural review during the course of 2015 and made tough decisions to restructure the business,” STW chief executive Mike Connaghan said.

“We have implemented a number of initiatives designed to drive deeper engagement with each of our business, coupled with stronger financial and management oversight.”

It is the first result since STW announced it would merge with the Australian and New Zealand business of global advertising giant WPP.

ATO Targets CE Companies Big Brands Set To Be Hit By New Tax Legislation

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More than 30 large IT and consumer electronics Companies are set to be hit by new Federal Government legislation that’s designed to extract taxes from organisations such as Microsoft, Apple and Google who have been using tax minimisation schemes to avoid paying their fair share of taxes in Australia.

The Turnbull government expects to raise “hundreds of millions of dollars” from over 1000 multinational companies who are shifting vast amounts of revenue to tax havens. 

1000 companies with global revenues above $1 billion are set to be targeted. They include Companies such as Sony who has already been fined over $30M for engaging in tax avoidance schemes, Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Companies like Epson who several years ago were investigated for transfer pricing. 

Both Apple and Microsoft Australian operations are known to place orders on an overseas supplier or subsidiary and as these products are being shipped the ownership of the products change to a subsidiary based in a tax haven. Microsoft does this on the Surface Pro 3, Xbox console and Apple on their new iPhones, and iPads as well as their Mac PC’s.   

Earlier today Treasurer, Joe Hockey made good on a budget promise, by introducing to Parliament a bill altering existing tax laws to target companies suspected of avoiding their fair share of tax.

Companies found to be “cheating” the Australian Tax Office will be forced to pay back double what they owe plus interest.

According to Fairfax Media Mr Hockey was immediately criticised by the opposition for not being able to put a specific figure on how much the measure will raise and tax experts warned that it could spark “retaliatory” laws by other governments to targeting Australian companies.  

The Tax Office embedded staff in the offices of 30 high-risk multinationals to learn more about their tax structures, several of these Companies were technology Companies operating in the Consumer Electronics market.

Hockey said that a number of multinationals have already come forward and are, he said, “Prepared to restructure their businesses to pay their fair share of tax”. ChannelNews has been told that Apple and Google are among those Companies. 

“With the introduction of this legislation, we are sending a clear message that Australia has no tolerance for tax avoiders. If you are avoiding tax, the Australian Taxation Office will catch you,” Mr Hockey said.

Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan said the ATO’s task would be to understand the actual profits companies make in Australia but “backed out” of the country.

A Senate inquiry into tax avoidance has heard evidence that multinational tech companies such as Apple, Google and Microsoft make huge sales in Australia but report tiny taxable profit margins. 

Likewise, pharmaceutical companies are under pressure over their low profitability in high tax markets such as Australia.

The new rules appear to also apply to large Australian-owned multinationals such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, which have been criticised for booking profits in low-tax jurisdictions such as Singapore where they have established “marketing hubs”.

Mr Jordan said: “We have to . have a much better understanding of [companies’] true cost of sales not some inflated cost of sales.

“We know there are billions of dollars of sales of revenue that is not being booked in Australia,” he said.

Growth Slows Down Web Sites

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During the past two weeks you will have noticed that our web sites have been serving very slowly, this problem has now been fixed with all 4Square Media sites being move to a brand new server.

The problem was caused by a dramatic increase in traffic to SmartHouse, Channel News and SmartOffice web sites.
SmartHouse which achieved over 7M page views in 2007 has already attracted over 3.5M page views during the first three months of 2008 from over 1.8M unique sessions.

ChannelNews which was rolled out in February of 2008 has seen an increase in traffic of over 1000% during March and April over our previous trade web site SmartHouse News. SmartOffice which attracts on average over 176,000 unique visitors a month has grown 22%.

To facilitate future growth 4Square Media has just commissioned NEC to build a brand new enterprise server for our network. Set to be built in Japan the server will go online in July to coincide with the role out of two new 4Square Media web sites including a brand new video serving operation.
In 2008 4Square Media will across all of our trade business and consumer sites grow traffic by over 100%.

Intel Napa Power Released

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Inte lhas rolled out the first batch of low-power dual-core processors that are the center piece of its next-generation Napa mobile platform.

The products were shown at the Consumer Electronics Show  and highlighted a variety of new notebooks that use the devices. Dubbed Core Duos, Intel promises the processors – formerly code-named Yonah – will deliver more computing might but will still operate at a reduced power consumption to ensure a reasonable amount of battery life in the devices.

“It is up to 68 percent faster and consumes 28 percent less power,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini during a keynote speech. Intel is ramping production of this CPU line quickly and Otellini said the company will ship 1 million parts in three weeks.

The Napa platform includes the dual-core processor Intel will call Centrino Duo and companion chipset as well as bundled 802.11 wireless capabilities. It also calls for a 667Mhz front-side bus, DDR2 memory, serial ATA, PCI Express I/O, Intel high-definition audio and gigabit Ethernet.

Intel has said the Centrino Duo CPUs will consume less than 3 Watts of power on average, a drop from the typical 4.2 Watts in current notebook designs.

However, one Intel OEM partner said Intel’s first releases are not the lowest power designs available for this processor line. The partner said Intel will ship an ultra-low-power Centrino Duo later this year suitable for ultra-light notebooks. Intel representatives were unavailable for comment at press time.

In addition to being Intel’s first dual-core design for portables, the Napa platform also ushers in more options for systems builders. As previously reported by CRN, Intel pushed forward initiatives to improve quality and availability of whitebook components when Napa shipped.

One of the key initiatives was Common Building Blocks (CBB) that seek to standardize key whitebook components, including displays, drives, batteries and adapters. At launch, whitebooks will have four CBBs. The first is a standard screen format for ODMs intended to make sourcing screens for whitebooks from multiple vendors easier, Eric Thompson, Intel’s North American marketing manager for the channel, said in an interview earlier this week. The others, aimed at traditional systems builders, are hard drives, optical drives and batteries.

Intel is working to offer additional CBBs later. Systems builders have said they expect some form of chassis customization and interchangeable screens in the future, and it is likely that Intel will roll out a bigger CBB program at its March channel conference.

Standardizing such components has been a hot button for systems builders, who are looking at ways to reduce inventory and better service their customers.

Steve Dallman, Intel’s senior director of channels, said the chip maker also has secured Centrino duo and chipset supply for its ODMs to ensure that systems builders have Napa products at the same time as the top tier OEMs. Taiwanese ODMs Quanta and ASUS will be showing off available Napa notebooks at its booth, Thompson said.

EliteGroup Computer Systems, Fremont, Calif., said it also has several units available for shipment in February, including two with an integrated Web cam. Those models, as well as a model from ASUS, are built with a removable backplate that lets systems builders configure the notebook from one location. Some whitebook models can be difficult to configure because they require the system builder to open several different areas of the chassis.

ASUS said its current Z62F Napa model is the first time it had designed a whitebook from the ground up for the systems builder channel. Previous models were based on designs it had already made for top-tier OEMs.

OEMs also showed off a variety of models at CES, including large-screen entertainment notebooks from Dell and Toshiba, and models with 14- and 15-inch screens from Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Sony. Lenovo and HP also for the first time showed models with build-in wireless WAN connectivity.

Intel at press time did not release specific information about the Centrino Duo models availability and pricing. But a price list on its Web site indicated that it would ship Yonah dual-core CPUs and one single-core device. The dual-core CPUs available are the 2.16GHz T2600 priced at $637; 2GHz T2550 priced at $423; 1.83GHz T2400 priced at $294; and 1.66GHz T2300 priced at $241. All of these CPUs come with 2MBytes of L2 cache. The single core processor also contains 2MBytes of L2 cache and runs at 1.66GHz for $209. Pricing is for low quantities.

 

 

Watch Live Coverage Of The Melbourne Cup On A Mobile Device

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It’s the biggest horse race in Australia and millions watch the race on a TV screen, tablet or smartphone.

Every year millions stop and watch the race on a portable device, last year over 1,5 million people logged into Telstra’s coverage.  


Three-time winning jockey Damien Oliver knows he is up against a tough field in his 26th Melbourne Cup.

Oliver is trying for a fourth Cup win, on the Gai Waterhouse-trained The Offer at Flemington today. 

“It’s a tough race this year,” he said. “There’s many chances, I think, and there’s a lot of jockeys going into the race thinking they’ve got a chance to win it.

“It’s going to be a very competitive race.”

Japanese galloper Fame Game is the short-priced favourite, but heavy support has come for English trainer Ed Dunlop’s Trip To Paris, the stablemate of crowd favourite and three-time runner-up Red Cadeaux.

The three are among a record-equalling 11 contenders trained overseas.

The existing record was set in the 2011 Melbourne Cup, which was won by French stayer Dunaden. Six of the first seven placings that year were filled by horses trained abroad.

Of the 24 runners this year only one, Sertorius, was bred in Australia.

William Hill has embarked on an internal technology upgrade in time for this year’s Melbourne Cup, as it anticipates a 20 to 50 per cent increase in bets on its online platforms.

Last year’s Melbourne Cup was the first time the betting company had recorded more than 1 million transactions in 24 hours and this year it is forecasting up to 1.5 million.

All In One PCs To Get Slow Power Saving Drive

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All in one PCs are proving popular with several brands moving to take on Apple in the 27″ market. Now manufacturers are set to cut power output with the introduction of new drives despite experts claiming it will cut access speeds.

Manufacturers are set to achieve lower power consumption following the introduction of a chic 2.5″ storage alternative to to the 3.5-inch hard disk drive.

Worldwide shipments of 2.5-inch HDDs to all-in-one PCs are expected to reach a million units in 2013, up from virtually zero this year, according to an IHS iSuppli Storage Space Market Brief.

Shipments then will increase to three million units the following year and rise steadily until they hit some seven million units in 2016. The HDD market for all-in-one PCs will continue to be dominated by 3.5-inch disks, with shipments by 2016 estimated at 31 million units, but growth will be much slower for the segment during the same period than for 2.5-inch drives.

Two disadvantages of the 2.5-inch HDD are speed and price. Most 2.5-inch drives typically run at 5,400 revolutions per minute (rpm), compared to 7,200-rpm for the 3.5-inch. The 2.5-inch also sells at slightly higher prices than the 3.5-inch as a whole, although the gap in price can be narrowed if 2.5-inch volumes become significant.