ConsumerIT - For Europe's High Volume PC Retailers, Distributors & Builders

DRAMeXchange says W.W February notebook shipments decline by 21.8% compared to January, due to Asus' outsourcing, February being the year's shortest month and flawed Intel Sandy Bridge chips.

Quanta and Compal report falling behind expectations (with shipments of 3.2m and 2.7m respectively) while Pegatron's February shipments drop by around 50% month over month.

The analyst does predict a 40-50% rebound for March (as compared to February's low numbers)-- but thanks to sandy Bridge delays and decreasing end-user demand, Q1 2011 will see shipment declining by 14%  Q-o-Q to reach 44m units.

Notebook shipments should see an increase in Q2 2011, reaching 49.4m (a 12.2% Q-o-Q increase), due to the back-to-school season surge and some Q1 shipments being postponed to April.

However, the channel is reluctant to increase shipments, mostly due to increasing oil and commodity prices.

The recent earthquakes in Japan also have their effect on notebook component production, particularly when it comes semiconductors, panels and battery cells. Japan also makes 5% of the global notebook markets, and thus one expects a delay in the country's notebook replacement cycle.

Finally, DRAMeXchange predicts a total of 215.2m w.W. notebook shipments, with 11% Y-o-Y growth. The analyst also predicts W.W. PC growth for 2011 decreasing from 2010's 8.8% to 7.4% (if one excludes the tablet market).

Go DRAMeXchange Notebook Market Report

Wysips proposes a means to eliminate chargers of any kind-- by turning device screens into solar chargers.

Its technology involves layering a superthin (less than 100 microns thick) transparent photovolotaic film on top of a device's display, with the film producing power from nearby light sources (be it the sun or electric lamps).

It would take 6 hours of direct sunlight to fully charge a typical mobile's battery (more if using indoor lighting). The phone automatically charges up whenever it's exposed to light.

The company says its film won't affect touch screens or glasses-free 3D screens. Wysips already has a working prototype at CTIA 2011, with the final product (for launch in a year's time) to be integrated directly into a device's LCD.

Wysips has ambitions to integrate its technology not only into phones, but also eBooks and tablets, together with digital signage and technical textile applications

Go Wysips

QEES' Smartgate Gb wifi router not only acts as a NAT and firewall, but carries most-- if not all-- connection types under the sun.

These include WAN, LAN, wifi 802.11n, Bluetooth and a plug-in interface for Z-Wave and ZigBee connections.

It also carries  2x POTS for analogue telephony, 2x external USB ports and a VoIP client, while its embedded software turns it into a smart home controller-- complete with a smart metering and home networking solution.

Go QEES Smartgate

The Financial Times reports Metro is looking at online retail as a means to beat its rival retailers at CE sales in both its home territory and beyond.

To reach such an aim it's supposed to be planning to buy an online retailer-- with pan-European retailer Redcoon (selling in 10 European countries, including Germany, Austria, France and Spain) as one possible purchase.

Although it's one of Europe's biggest retailer groups (following Carrefour and Tesco), Metro has very little of an online retail presence for its Media Markt/Saturn stores-- reflecting what the FT describes as German retailers' cautious approach to the internet.

Online retail is a growing sector in Metro's native Germany-- with Enigma GfK saying German online retail sales are to exceed €21b in 2011. With Sedia Markt/Saturn falling below expectations in Q4 2010 (with sales down by 2.6%), one can expect a mention of online retail plans come Metro's 2010 result release.

Go Metro Looks to Internet Sales to Chase Rivals (FT)