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Dell Top With LCD Monitors in 2005

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Dell beat out its competitors selling the most LCD monitors for the year in 2005, according to DisplayBank.

The company shipped a whopping 20 million units, almost doubling the total of second ranked Samsung, which shipped 10.8 million units, according to the research. In all Dell accounted for 19 per cent of the LCD monitor market for the year.

However, Samsung was the second largest manufacturer of LCD monitors making 12.5 million screens, while Dell OEM sourced its monitors. Taiwan manufacturer, TPV Technology, was the top supplier. The Hong-Kong listed company shipped 17.1 million units.

Top 6 global LCD monitor vendors (brand), 2005

Ranking

Brand

Shipments
(million units)

Market share
(%)

1

Dell

20

19%

2

Samsung Electronics

10.8

10.3%

3

HP

10.4

9.9%

4

Acer

7.6

7.2%

5

LG Electronics

6.5

6.2%

6

Lenovo

4.8

4.6%

 

Others

45.2

42.9%

 

Total

105.3

100.0%

 

Top 6 global LCD monitor makers (manufacturers), 2005

Ranking

Suppliers

Shipments
(million units)

Market share
(%)

1

TPV Technology

17.1

16.2%

2

Samsung Electronics

12.5

11.9%

3

BenQ

10.3

9.8%

4

LG Electronics

9.1

8.6%

5

Lite-On Technology

9.0

8.5%

6

Innolux Display

8.2

7.8%

 

Others

39.1

37.1%

 

Total

105.3

100.0%

 

Telarus Joins EMC For SAN & NAS

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Telarus, the national infrastructure-based service provider, has announced it has become a member of the EMC Authorised Services Network (ASN) and has joined the EMC Velocity Partner Program.

As an EMC Velocity Partner, Telarus will now be able to promote and sell Storage Area Network (SAN) and Network Attached Storage (NAS) solutions based on EMC’s leading CLARiiON storage systems and software.

 According to EMC, the CLARiiON platform will become “a strategically important part of Telarus’ expanding line of hosting and colocation products. Telarus will be able to include storage, backup and replication capabilities within hosting and disaster recovery solutions for clients”.

Jules Rumsey, Managing Director at Telarus said, “Our team will now be able to leverage advanced features in EMC’s hardware and software platforms coupled with the coverage and performance of our national MPLS network to provide industry leading hosting and disaster recovery solutions for SME and Enterprise customers”.

 “Telarus has shown incredible initiative in gearing up to meet growing market demand with EMC products and solutions,” said David Henderson, ANZ General Manager, Partner and Alliances at EMC.

Telarus said it is also currently working closely with EMC to develop a range of market leading managed service offerings based on the EMC CLARiiON platform and a number of EMC’s software products.

LaCie Offers 8GB USB Key

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Portable memory is the big thing and this device is bigger than most LaCie has introduced a a credit-card sized USB with capacities running up to 8GB.

Dubbed the LaCie Carte Orange the device is available in either 4000MB or 8000MB options, the latter nearly as much as a dual layer DVD!

Ideal for large back-ups and transfers or for storing hours of music, videos, photos and slideshows the USB device is made of metal with a plastic bumper for ruggedness.

Measuring at 6mm height and weighing less than 60g it is light and thinner than most traditional 1GB or 2GB USB keys.


Click to enlarge

The Carte Orange has an integrated USB connector on a cable which retracts for safe transportation. Prices are impressive with the 4GB priced at RRP $219 and 8GB at RRP $299.

Visit this page for more info.

Chambers' Millions Costing Cisco

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Cisco CEO John Chambers is making a killing from exercising his options, but the system comes at a cost to the company under new accounting standards.

Last month was the fourth time this year, Chambers made a tidy profit by exercising the options on his employee share plan, in that instance almost tripling his money. But the company’s latest results show the plan is costing the company dearly cutting US$228 off the bottom line.

Chambers has reportedly paid a total of US$26 million to acquire 4.9 million shares this year. He’s then sold off 4.4 million of those for a healthy US$52.7 million virtually doubling his money.

The largest transaction was made in mid-November when Chambers exercised options to buy 1.53 million shares priced at $5.17 each for $7.9 million. He then sold 90 percent of those (1.38 million) for US$23.7 million. The options were set to expire in April and the transaction was undertaken according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules.

However, the company’s most recent results reflect accost on the books. According to new U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board rules, Cisco showed employee stock options as an expense. So while the company posted a profit of US$1.26 billion for the fiscal first quarter this number was dragged down some US$228 million to account for the stock options.

US$1.26 billion is not a bad number for three months trading, but the year ago quarter the company reported earnings of US$1.4 billion. The company says that if the expensing rule had been used last year the earnings would have come in at US$1.12 billion.

However, Cisco’s share price has dropped some 8.7 percent so far this year despite the company spending more than US$27 billion to buy back 1.5 billion of its own shares, at an average price of $18.15.

Canon Using Kiwi Prisoners To Fix Printers

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It seems the Chinese are not the only ones using prison labour, for according to www.scoop.co.nz, Canon New Zealand has announced an agreement with the NZ Department of Corrections that will see prison inmates trained to assemble and dismantle its machines.


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Following a successful trial at both Rimutaka Prison and Auckland Region Women’s Corrections Facility, “workshops are being set up which will potentially employ up to eight inmates at each prison. It will provide training and up-skilling for the prisoners with the aim to increase their chances of gaining employment upon release”, according to the report.

The report notes over the past six years Canon NZ have supplied photocopiers, printers and scanners to the Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE) scheme at the Wellington Prison Printshop and witnessed the employment scheme in action.

Currently, 135 new machines are being assembled per month. The initial target for refurbishment was set at 30 to 50 machines per month, however the workshops seem to be exceeding this by far.

Prisoners working within the Canon workshops are able to obtain NZQA credits towards a National Certificate in Electronic Manufacturing Level 3.

The report notes that, “Canon is faced with the situation where demand for services is outstripping supply in both the Wellington and Auckland regions, with technicians spending the majority of their time on site honouring the service agreements. This partnership will address the issue of the shortage of qualified workers within the market”.

Telstra Launches Online Storage

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Telstra has entered the online storage business launching BigPond Online Storage targeted at both business and consumers looking for a secure way to store data.

BigPond Managing Director, Mr Justin Milne, said secure off-site servers are ideal if you’re running out of room on your hard drive, you’re worried about losing files if your system crashes due to a virus, or you just want the security of off-site data and settings back-ups.

Customers can choose ‘Basic’ or ‘Professional’ storage plans to suit their requirements.

Basic Storage plan subscription ranges from $2.50 per month for 100MB to $12.95 for 800MB. Professional storage is available from $4.95 for 100MB to $24.95 for 2000MB.

Basic storage features easy drag-and-drop uploads to a customer’s personal online folder and is ideal for storing photos or transferring large files from PC to PC.

Professional storage enables the user to create an online copy of a nominated folder and provides automatic, ‘always-on’ access that synchronises a customer’s local files with their online folder.

Transferring files between your PC and BigPond Online Storage is unmetered for BigPond Broadband Cable & ADSL customers.

Porn and Sex Toy Vendor Gets Kinky Over Wireless

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Dildo dealer and porn purveyor, AdultShop.com, has agreed to acquire the Perth-based developer of Hutchison Three’s social networking service – Kink Kommunity.

The acquisition is part of a strategy for AdultShop.com to develop business outside its traditional adult-oriented content. In addition to its 3G mobile social networking product, Loop Wireless offers other content products, including mobile comics and mobile AFL products. The conditional agreement will in turn help Loop Wireless fast track its international expansion of Kink Kommunity in the US and European markets.

As reported by SmartOffice News yesterday, Kink chief executive Gavin Bullen is currently in London negotiating with Three UK to launch the service to Hutchison’s 4 million 3g mobile phone subscribers in the United Kingdom.

Kink Kommunity, announced as the Best Mobile/Wireless product at the Australian Interactive Media Industry Awards, has been available to users of Hutchison’s 3 network since October 2005. Users pay a monthly fee to access interactive, web-like content via their mobile phones, with much of the content generated by users themselves, such as photos, videos and commentary — all moderated by Loop Wireless.

By mid 2006 the company aims, in a world first, to join Australia and UK Kommunity members in an integrated and real-time social networking forum.

Terms of the acquisition, upon the satisfaction of certain conditions, will see Loop Wireless become a wholly owned subsidiary of AdultShop.com in return for the issue of 20 million ordinary shares in ASC and 80 million performance shares in ASC and the provision by ASC of $1.5 million for Loop Wireless working capital.

The 80 million performance shares will be converted into a maximum of 80 million ordinary shares in ASC over the next 2 years, subject to Loop Wireless achieving agreed performance hurdles.

“This acquisition will further allow Loop to bring our 3G mobile social networking product to a more global community,” said Loop Wireless’s CEO Gavin Bullen. “The expertise we have developed to moderate and produce the content, as well as understanding what works with our target audiences, will prove invaluable in expanding our offering beyond Australian users.”

Large-Sized LCD Panels Weathering Economic Storm

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The global market for large-sized LCD panels is shrugging off economic concerns, with rising demand for monitor, notebook-PC and television panels expected to generate a 17.7 per cent increase in unit shipments in 2008, according to digitimes.com.


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Large-sized LCD panel shipments this year are projected to rise to 458.9 million units, up 17.7 per cent from 389.8 million in 2007.  However to put this figure into context, this compares to 38.9 per cent growth in 2007.

Furthermore says the report, the large-sized LCD panel market is expected to reach 737.6 million units by 2012, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.6 per cent from 2007.

Moreover says the report, the global large-sized LCD market will expand to “US$88.9 billion in 2008, up 19.9 per cent from US$74.1 billion in 2007. The fact that revenues will grow more quickly than unit shipments in 2008 reflects stronger average selling prices (ASPs) for large LCDs due to supply constraints”.

The shipments of large-sized LCD panels in the first quarter of 2008 declined by only 2.8 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2007.

 

And most panel buyers say they are expecting the LCD market to be in “tight supply in the second and third quarters due to the Olympics and slower capacity expansions in the first half of 2008”.

While the supply glut did continue in the first quarter, the strong demand for monitor, television and notebook PC panels has begun boosting the large-sized LCD market, a phenomenon expected to continue through the third quarter, claims digitimes.com.

Water-Based Laptop Batteries Here Soon

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According to a report in techworld.com, laptop users may soon get longer battery life from their machines, with the development of silver-zinc batteries, which it is claimed last significantly longer than traditional lithium-ion batteries.


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courtesy: www.dailytech.com

The batteries will be available in laptops in the US from August, use silver-zinc technology which carries more energy than lithium-ion batteries.

The report notes that this new battery should give laptops 40 per cent more run time.

Furthermore, the battery’s water-based chemistry also makes it non-flammable, compared to lithium-ion, which uses dimethyl carbonate, a flammable liquid.

And the silver-zinc batteries also won’t degrade in capacity during the first year, while lithium-ion batteries can lose up to 30 per cent of their capacity over that period.

Although the article also said that after a year, silver-zinc batteries start degrading at a rate similar to lithium-ion batteries.

According to a number of sources, silver-zinc is not a new technology, and has mainly been used in military and aerospace devices.