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All the entries posted on September 10, 2007.
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Home > Plugged In > Archives > 2007 > September > 10
Monday, September 10, 2007
Intel matches AMD’s new chip with new profit projections
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is pulling out all the stops in introducing its new quad-core Opteron microprocessor (formerly code-named “Barcelona”), including hosting a lavish party in San Francisco tonight that it calls “the Most Anticipated Premiere of 2007.”
But archrival Intel Corp. just put a turd in AMD’s punch bowl that has to have AMD executives seething.
Just as AMD is struggling to get back on solid finanical footing, pinning much of its hopes on Barcelona, Intel said Monday it is increasing its third-quarter revenue projections to between $9.4 billion and $9.8 billion. Previously, Intel had said it expected to rake in between $9.0 billion and $9.6 billion in the quarter that ends this month.
A year or so ago, Intel said it would quit giving mid-quarter guidance about its financials … and of course the timing of Monday’s announcement has absolutely, positively nothing to do with the biggest splash out of AMD in some time.
Who says these chip guys don’t just absolutely hate each other?
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Shangahi: smog, skyscrapers and street markets
SHANGHAI — Arrived in Shanghai after a red-eye from Singapore, as I continued my visit to Dell operations in Asia. I used to get a surge of something akin to adrenaline every time I’d take the train into Manhattan from my hometown in Pennsylvania. I got it this time coming across a bridge into Shanghai.
The first thing that jumps out at me on the drive from Pudong Airport was the haze from all the dust and smog in the air. No doubt China must come to grips with its environment problems. When the smell of exhaust is more prevalent than a whiff of Tex-Mex in Austin, it’s time to clean up the air.
The haze did burn off after a bit this morning, though, and it turned into pleasant day.
Everywhere you look in Shanghai, there are clothes hanging out to dry. Here’s one new skyscraper, gleaming pristine and futuristic in the sun that’s starting to peak through, and right beside it a clutter of clothes hanging in the breeze.
It gives the city, despite all the new buildings and the rapid changes, a pleasant sense of being lived in. That’s hard to do for a city the size of Shanghai, and it’s in stark contrast to Singapore.
Singapore has worked hard to modernize as much as it can, and the progress it has made over the past 30 years is nothing short of remarkable. As beautiful as it was (and it really is gorgeous) Singapore felt less lived in and more like people were just visiting - sort of like a room in a friend’s house where as a kid you weren’t allowed to touch anything.
Shanghai wants you to pick something up and play with it. The city is changing and modernizing, of course, but between all the high-rise condos and corporate towers there are still the smaller, older buildings, narrow alleys and clutter. And it has retained a richer mix of new and old.
Went to a couple technology malls this evening. The malls here are a bit more organized, but not unlike the tech mall in Singapore. It was fairly busy on a Saturday evening. My interpreter, Emilie Fang, says the busiest times are during daylight hours on weekends.
There’s a wide range of brands, some familiar and some newer. Lenovo and H-P are featured at most of the stalls in the mall. Acer, Benq, Toshiba, Fujitsu also are there. In fact, there was an Acer stand in the subway station, just a short distance from where the stations dumps passengers directly into the tech mall.
The first thing I noticed when entering the mall itself was a Gateway stand. Gateway just made its debut into the Chinese market in the past couple months, and it managed to get some prime real estate at this outlet. What Acer will do with the Gateway brand now that it has bought the company remains to be seen.
The salesmen here are just that: men. For PCs, I only ran into a handful of women. But no matter the gender, virtually every one of them was young. It seems like it’s a pretty good job to have among the younger crew.
When they’re not helping customers, they’re hanging out or trying to get people into their stands. When the American guy walks by, it gives them a chance to try out their English version of the brands they sell. Alas, I’m here to look and not buy; prices are pretty good, and negotiable.
Having hit my head on a door jam in one of the computer stalls, the awning over one of the stalls, a handrail on the subway and the shower nozzle in my hotel room, I’ve learned one bit of Chinese history: Shanghai was not developed with 6’6” Americans in mind.
Walked through what some folks call the “Soho area” of Shanghai. My guide for the day was an Ariane Sainsbury, an Australian expat and a friend of a friend. We moseyed through the narrow alleys crammed with shops, and it gave me a much better picture of the new and old merging in Shanghai.
In one alley, a merchant was selling produce off the ground and in makeshift shelves. A woman had a sewing machine out and was mending some clothes. A group of men, including one in pajamas, stood in the alley and passed the time.
Ariane explained the pajamas: At one point, people would wear pajamas as a sign of status, showing that they could afford another set of clothing. While that practice has largely faded, it’s still not uncommon to see people out on the street and in their pajamas.
Ariane also explained the distinctive mix of building heights in Shanghai. There are tall buildings and short buildings, but not a whole lot in between. She said a law provides that any building over five stories tall must have an elevator in it. So you have five-story buildings and 25-story buildings, but not much in the midrange.
In any case, as we turned a corner into another alley, we entered what is become a more gentrified version of the old alley markets. This area is rebuilt with clothing stores, galleries and cafes. It’s a great little area to stroll through, popular it seemed with tourists and expats. And it provided a pretty clear example of what parts of Shanghai want to become. East meets West, and they sit down together at a new café in the Soho Area.
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Apple sells 1 million iPhones
Apple said Monday morning that 74 days after the iPhone went on sale, it has sold 1 million of the handsets.
“It took almost two years to achieve this milestone with iPod,” CEO Steve Jobs said. Jobs repeated his desire to make a big push selling iPhones this holiday season.
Jobs has said he wants to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.
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