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All the entries posted on March 25, 2008.
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Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Research firm says PC shipments will rise, but…
Gartner Inc. today lowered its forecast for PC-shipment growth and said a weaker global economy could curb gains even further.
The technology research firm dropped its 2008 growth forecast to 10.9 percent, down from its December estimate of an 11.6 percent increase. It now estimates PC makers will ship 293 million units this year.
Gartner said strong sales of notebook PCs and the robust growth in emerging markets such as China and India will continue to fuel worldwide shipments. The firm also said a new wave of desktop-computer replacements by commercial customers could begin in earnest later this year.
The PC market is basically in good shape, said George Shiffler, a Gartner research manager, in a release. “However,” he said, “a deepening U.S. recession, the rising possibility of a sharp slowdown in China’s economy following the Beijing Olympics and the elevated price of oil mean global PC shipments face increasing economic headwinds.”
If those issues play out, Shiffler said, shipment growth rates could hold to the single digits.
Falling prices and the heavier use of PCs in day-to-day life has helped soften the impact of economic slowdowns on computer sales, Shiffler said. But, he said, “PCs are still far from being completely recession-proof.”
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John Mayer’s guitar works better than his iPod
John Mayer may be great with an acoustic guitar but he’s not any luckier with his iPod than the rest of us.
Gizmodo.com got a copy of his technical report to Apple on his iPod crashing while trying to download some new tunes. Poor guy, he had to wor kout with the same old songs.
“Nothing’s worse than running to stale music in your iPod, am I right. I mean, I love “Bittersweet Symphony” as much as the next guy, but let’s face it, after a while it stops being a power song. Anyhoo, I plug the iPod in and I get the spinning wheel. For a while, I wasn’t even being impatient or anything.” Mayer said.
Good man, John. No sense in slamming it against the desk. My wife’s iPod, one of the first-generation video jobs, has twice gone on the fritz. She found some instructions on the Apple web site to re-sync the buggy device with our iMac and that worked fine.
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Dell adds services for businesses switching to new PCs
Dell released a set of new services today designed to make it easier for large businesses to replace thousands of computers, including new PCs bought to accommodate Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system.
The new client-migration services include a suite of Dell software tools that automate many of the tasks involved in switching large numbers of users to new PCs, said Kevin Hanes, senior manager in Dell’s services division. The tools include some of the technologies Dell received with its 2006 acquisition of ACS, a U.K.-based technology services firm.
Hanes said the new tools will allow a large company’s technology managers to automatically set up a PC with the applications and data an individual user needs. And because Dell can preload many of a business customer’s most heavily used applications before it ships the machines, he said, the new services program also can reduce the strain that would occur if technology managers had to load that software over the company’s network.
The new services include assessments to help companies refine their plans and procedures for refreshing thousands of computers, whether Dell machines or other brands, Hanes said.