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2011: the Tablet's Year?

04 January 2011 Marco Attard Laptops, Tablets, eReaders
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TabletsCharis & Co. analyst Robert Cihra predicts global tablet sales will grow by 226% (56m units) this year-- with Apple's iPad claiming 67% of units.

This means 2011 iPad sales will total 36m in 2011.

Cihra says the iPad will dominate the year, thanks to its delaying most tablet launches (by sending them back to the drawing board). As expectation for the iPad's second version grows, iPads will also ignite growth towards thin-client Access computing.

Meanwhile the global PC market is predicted to slow down to 9% growth-- from 2010's 14%. The slow in growth is due to the tablet market's cannibalising into the netbook market.

Go 2011-- the Year of the Tablet

Touch Interfaces Touch on Europeans

04 January 2011 Marco Attard Mobile Phones
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European consumers prefer phones with an advanced OS and touchscreens, GFK reports.

Touchscreen PhonesThe market share for handsets with an advanced OS is now 26.9%, up from 13 months ago's 13.8%. The UK leads the trend in Europe, with 43.% of handsets carrying an advanced OS.

Google's Android comes in 20% of handsets sold in September 2010.

Meanwhile over 33% of handsets sold in September 2010 are touchscreen-based, up 21% from the same month a year ago.

GFK says this only means the mobile web and OS markets will be even more competitive this year.

Go Europeans Embrace Advanced OS and Touchscreen Technologies

Motorola Teases With Honeycomb

04 January 2011 Marco Attard Laptops, Tablets, eReaders
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Motorola TabletMotorola claims its next tablet will be the first running Android 2.4, also known as Honeycomb.

As the next version of Google's OS, Honeycomb is oriented for tablet devices as well as smartphones. Other Android tablets on the market run Android 2.2 or below.

The Motorola Honeycomb tablet is supposed to have an NVidia dual core 3D processor (possibly the company's Tegra 2) and videochat-- at least as confirmed by Google VC Andy Rubin at D:Dive into Mobile.

Other rumours also suggest a 5MP back-facing camera, 7" and 10" versions, a gyroscope and 3 network options (UMTS, CDMA and LTE).

Meanwhile tech blog Engadget reveals a yet unnamed Toshiba Android tablet-- one that's also Tegra 2-powered and is to run on Honeycomb. More news will certainly come out in a few days on these-- and many other-- tablet devices at CES 2011.

Watch Tablet Evolution Presented by Motorola

Go Toshiba Announces Tegra 2-Powered Android Tablet

Notebooks Keep Growing Despite iPad

28 December 2010 Marco Attard Laptops, Tablets, eReaders
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NotebooksThe notebook and netbook market will continue growing strongly in the next 5 years, according to IMS Research's forecast.

The report says the market will grow at a CAGR of 17.6%, with total shipments reaching 436m by 2015.

Tablet devices will cannibalise the market in W. europe, but netbooks (with their small form factor and low prices) will remain an attractive choice to users.

The notebook segment (excluding netbooks) will maintain double-digit growth for the next 5 years. It will benefit from eroding average selling prices, users' transitions from desktop to notebook PCs and the continual replacement cycle (as software upgrades).

IMS concluces tablet devices' impact on the notebook market is forecast to be small, as customers won't buy tablets as a notebook replacement.

Go Notebook PC Market Will Grow Strongly Despite iPad Success

Hitachi Goes For Slimmer HDDs

28 December 2010 Marco Attard Memory
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Hitachi Hitachi unveils its latest Travelstar model, the Z5K500. The HDD carries either 500GB, 320GB or 250GB in a one-disk, 5400RPM, 7mm z-height model.

The drives are designed as a replacement for the standard 2.5" 9.5mm drives in external drives, laptops and blade servers.

The company says its Z5K500 drive family has the best cost per GB and GG/mm3 when compared to SSDs and 2.5" and 1.8" 9.5mm HDDs.

The drives feature 1.8W read/write power and 0.55W low power idle, as well as 8MB cache and SATA 3Gb/sec interface. Common connectors and mounting points also feature.

As part of Hitachi's second Advanced Format generation, the drives' physical sector size is up from 512 bytes to 4096 (4K) bytes, improving drive capacity and error correction capabilities.

Go Hitachi Ships Industry's First One-Disk 7mm 500GB HDD

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