Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is counting on a surge of new tablet computers based on Windows 7 and Intel’s upcoming ultra-low-voltage microprocessors to regain market momentum against Apple’s fast-selling iPad.Speaking to financial analysts at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters, Ballmer acknowledged that Apple’s success in the tablet market has been “one of the top issues on my mind” and that Apple has “sold more than I’d like them to sell, let me be clear about that.”Last week, during its third-quarter earnings call, Apple said it had sold more than 3 million iPad devices since the product debuted April 3. Industry analysts have been asking when tablet devices running Windows, also called slate computers, will hit the market.Ballmer said he expects many of those devices to run on Intel’s forthcoming Atom System-on-Chip microprocessors, code-named Oak Trail, which are optimized for tablet computers and are expected to be available in early 2011.At Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington DC two weeks ago Ballmer said Dell, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba are developing Windows-based tablet computers that will debut in the next several months. Thursday Ballmer had much the same message for financial analysts.“We have to make things happen with Windows 7 on slates. We are in the process of doing that as we speak. We're working with our hardware partners, we're tuning Windows 7 to new slate hardware designs. They're bringing them to market,” Ballmer said. “They will be shipping as soon as they are ready. We are working with those partners, not just to deliver something, but to deliver products that people really want to go buy. It is job-one urgency around here. Nobody's sleeping at this point.”

Some Microsoft partners have said that Windows 7 isn’t a good fit for touch-driven tablet computers and they are skeptical whether a new effort to expand into so-called slate computers will be any more successful than Microsoft’s earlier tablet computing bid almost 10 years ago.Ballmer also repeated arguments he and other Microsoft executives have made that tablet devices aren’t for everybody. “I don't think there is one size that fits all,” he said. “I don't think everybody wants a slate. I've been to too many meetings with journalists who have [spent] the first 10 minutes of the meeting setting up their i-Pad to look like a laptop.”Ballmer said Microsoft continues to gain market share in laptop computers, and pointed to forecasts that 400 million PCs will be sold in 2011.The Microsoft CEO also touted the vendor’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system as laying the ground to get Microsoft back into the smartphone market where the company is far behind Apple, Google and other rivals.
Ballmer also spoke about Microsoft’s retail store plans, saying the few stores the company has already opened have “nicely growing revenue.” The CEO announced that more stores would be opened, including shops in Chicago and in the Mall of America in Minneapolis.

Genius recently launched a three piece speaker system SW-M2.1 350.The system includes a wooden subwoofer with bass control and volume controls, and 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack. It outputs 11W RMS power. Its two satellite speakers have small footprint making them ideal for PC or even a notebook.Available with authorized distributor Inspan Infotech, the speaker system is available for an MRP of Rs 1,699 with a 1-year warranty.“Variety is the key in breaking monotony. This simple yet elegant speaker system from Genius provides that break away in search of new,” said Sudhir S, Managing Director, Inspan Infotech. “Partners would benefit by creating more choices to customers.”

Seagate provided positive proof of the recovery in IT spending by reporting a huge growth in fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year 2010 revenue and earnings over the same period of last year.
But despite record operating results for the quarter, Seagate was disappointed that economic and market pricing factors held the company back from even better results.Seagate reported revenue of $2.7 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, which ended July 2. That is up 13 percent over the $2.4 billion the company reported for the fourth quarter of 2009.The company earned $379 million, or 79 cents per share, during the fourth quarter, which was a significant improvement from the loss of $83 million, or 17 cents per share, it reported during the same period as last year. For all of fiscal 2010, Seagate reported revenue of $11.4 billion, up 16 percent over the $9.8 billion it reported for fiscal 2009. Earnings for 2010 hit $1.6 billion, or $3.28 per share, up significantly over the loss of $3.1 billion, or $6.40 per share, it reported in 209.

That growth came in large part to the recovery in PC and server spending which resulted in Seagate shipping 46.8 million hard drives in fourth quarter 2010, up 15.3 percent over the 40.6 million drives it shipped during the same period last year. For all of fiscal 2010, Seagate shipped 193.2 million hard drives, up 17.9 percent over 2009. Despite reporting record shipments, profitability, and operating margin for fiscal 2010, the results were somewhat of a disappointment to Seagate, which in the fourth quarter had been expecting better results, said Steve Luczo, Chairman, President and CEO, Seagate in a statement. Seagate had been expecting more macro-economic stability as well as pricing that better reflected a balance of supply and demand, Luczo said. "Industry demand in the fiscal fourth quarter was at the low end of our expectations due primarily to issues emanating from the debt crisis in Europe and slowing consumer spending especially in the U.S. and Europe. The lower unit shipments and unfavorable pricing at some key capacity points impacted Seagate’s ability to deliver revenue and earnings for the quarter within our target range. Despite these factors, Seagate reported the highest operating results for a June quarter in the company's history," he said.

The IP infrastructure vendor, Allied Telesis announced limited lifetime warranty on its range of products including its IP/Ethernet switching solutions products.“India has always been a key focus market for us. Over a period of four years, we have done the right investments in the country. We have also invested in a RMA support center, currently covering 60 locations across the country,” said Ming Yang Fung, Managing Director, Allied Telesis South Asia, said, “Offering a limited lifetime warranty for a range of our products is definitely a part of our long term commitment to the Indian market.”Subhasish Gupta, Country Manager, India and Saarc, Allied Telesis International Asia, said, "We have always worked hand in glove with our customers and partners. Being a Japanese vendor, our product quality has always been superlative with very low failure rates worldwide, including India. Unlike the PC and peripheral industry wherein there is a high rate of product obsolesce, networking industry is different. Plugging in a limited lifetime warranty definitely will help us to build a stronger trust with our growing customer base in the country and the region."

Rackspace recently launched an open source cloud computing project the company hopes will make proprietary cloud computing a thing of the past.The San Antonio-based hosting and cloud king teamed up with NASA to launch a bold open-source cloud computing initiative dubbed OpenStack. Through OpenStack, an open source cloud operating system, Rackspace hopes to inch closer to cloud technology standards and cloud interoperability, said Mark Collier, Vice President, Business and Corporate Development, Rackspace. With OpenStack, Rackspace hopes to facilitate broad adoption of a standard cloud platform.With OpenStack, Rackspace is donating the cloud computing code that powers its Cloud Files and Cloud Servers public cloud offerings. The project will also tie in the technology that powers NASA's Nebula Cloud Platform. The pair will collaborate on developing and leveraging the efforts of open-source software developers.Chris Kemp, CTO of IT for NASA, said the Nebula service was built to offer high performance compute, network and storage services to NASA scientists and researches and enables NASA to share and process large scientific data sets. Releasing the Nebula code with the OpenStack play, Kemp said, creates potential for a large community of developers to contribute to the Nebula code.

"There's an opportunity for this reference platform to accelerate the federal government's and NASA's adoption of the cloud," he said. "I see tremendous opportunities to provide increased computing power at decreased costs."OpenStack will include two cloud computing infrastructure components, the first being OpenStack Object Storage, a fully distributed object store based on Rackspace Cloud Files. The second component, OpenStack Compute, will be a scalable compute provisioning engine based on the NASA Nebula cloud technology and Rackspace Cloud Servers technology, will be available later this year, Collier said.Collier said any organization using OpenStack will be able to turn physical hardware into massively scalable and extensible cloud environments using the same code that is currently serving tens of thousands of users and large government projects.Along with making strides toward cloud computing standards, the OpenStack initiative also seeks to help cloud users prevent vendor lock-in and boost cloud adoption.Collier said OpenStack will let users move workloads between their data centers, Rackspace's data centers and other providers' data centers and all will have the same access to the technology."There's no pride of ownership," he said. "It's not about our code or their code. It's about the best code."So far, Collier said, a host of companies signed on to participate in the OpenStack community, including Citrix, Dell, Intel, RightScale and more than 20 other companies.

Security and surveillance vendor, Smart Guard Systems has launched a surveillance solution for IP surveillance market, Smart Surveillance Solution.A unique combination of cube-shaped miniature cameras, SmartHawk IP cube camera, and network video recorder, Smart Micro NVR, the solution packs in 1.2GHz processing power with 512MB flash memory and DDR2 memory. Measuring 110x69.5x48.5mm, it is also bundled with a Gigabit Ethernet and an attached USB 2.0 socket.“This unique combination of SmartHawk IP cube camera and Smart Micro NVR is highly useful for various market segments like ATMs, warehouses, banks, home surveillance and storage, logistics, medical facilities and clinics, retail counters monitoring, and malls,” said Gurudas Parwani, CEO, Smart Guard Systems.Targeted at home users, the Smart Surveillance Solutions will be retailed through electronic retail chains also. 

“The Indian surveillance market is nascent and estimated at about Rs 800 crore. The IP surveillance market is currently at 10 percent of the total market, but growing at a CAGR of 50 percent. It is estimated to reach over Rs 400 crore in the next five years. We have a strong R&D focus, in-house expertise, partnership with global technology leaders and deep appreciation of India’s surveillance and security scenario. We expect a year on year growth of 50 percent and are aiming at a 10-15 percent market share in the initial years,” concluded Parwani.

AMD reported significant second quarter revenue growth and a much lower loss than last year thanks to robust mobile PC chip sales which more than made up for what the company called a disappointing OEM uptake of its server processors in the quarter.However, a return to normal server OEM demand and a growing share of the portable PC market will help the company see normal seasonal increase in revenue for the third quarter, company executives said.AMD reported revenue for its second quarter of 2010 of $1.65 billion, up a healthy 40 percent over the $1.2 billion the company reported in the second quarter of 2009. The company also reported a loss $43 million, or 6 cents per share, in the second quarter, a significant improvement compared to the loss of $330 million, or 49 cents per share, it reported a year ago.

The second quarter 2010 loss stemmed in large part to losses related to AMD's investment in Global Foundries."We are pleased with our overall performance in the quarter," said Dirk Meyer, President and CEO, AMD, during the company's recent financial conference call. AMD's computing solutions business, which includes its microprocessor and chipset sales, reported a 31 percent growth in revenue over the second quarter of 2009 driven by what AMD called a record number of notebook processor and chipset unit shipments.
However, Meyer said, AMD was very "under-represented" in the high-end server business, with second-quarter market share sitting at a historic low thanks to slow OEM uptake of its processors.
However, he said, this is changing as OEM server vendors move to the company's new Opteron 6000 series of 12-core processors, code named Magny-Cours. AMD's server processor business saw its average selling price, unit sales, and revenue all drop thanks to slow adoption by OEMs, Meyer said. "Intel clearly knocked the ball out of the park," he said.The PC business was very strong for AMD in the second quarter, especially in the notebook PC part of that business, Meyer said. AMD had originally expected PC unit growth to increase 10 to 15 percent during the quarter over last year, but instead witnessed a 15 to 20 percent growth.AMD grew its share of the notebook PC chip business during the quarter, and should continue to do so going forward, Meyer said.The company is counting on its new Fusion Accelerated Processing Units, which combine a microprocessor and a graphics processor into a single piece of silicon, to start driving mobile PC sales by year-end, Meyer said.
AMD plans to initially produce two versions of its Fusion APU. One version, code-named "Ontario," was designed for use in low-cost, low-power-consumption portable PCs such as netbooks and embedded systems. The other, "Llano," was designed for mainstream desktop and laptop PCs.

While the new HP PSG distribution policy has been appreciated by most partners as it aims to ensure channel profitability by curbing over-distribution and maintaining market operating price (MOP), the biggest bone of contention for partners has been HP’s demand for brand and regional exclusivity from those wanting to become tier-2 RDS (re-distributors/stockists) or (T2) distribution partners.The channel association in Kerala, AKITDA has stopped billing HP business in protest against the exclusivity clause. Many large sub-distributors of HP PSG have opted out of the new distribution model as they couldn’t accept the exclusivity clause.However in a categorical statement, Sunil Dutt, Vice President, Personal Systems Group, HP India, has clarified that there is no policy in the new distribution framework that demands exclusivity from partners.In an exclusive interview with CRN Executive Editor, Dhaval Valia, Dutt said that while brand exclusivity was (is) preferable, it wasn’t (isn't) a rule. Excerpts from the interview:

With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft wants people to know that this time around, it's not just business, it is actually personal—at least when it comes to the features and functionality these devices will offer.Windows Phone 7 is a lot more than just a mobile operating system; it also includes built-in software and services for business and consumer scenarios, Andy Lees, Senior Vice President, Mobile Communications Business, Microsoft, said in a keynote speech Tuesday at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, DC.Windows Phone 7's deep integration with Exchange, SharePoint and BPOS will generate plenty of services opportunities for partners, even those who haven't yet built a mobile business. But in addition to building line-of-business solutions, partners will be able to develop games as well, and Microsoft is framing this departure from the Windows Mobile past as evidence of its new and improved mobile outlook."Windows Phone 7 is a completely new strategy and we believe it’s a completely different kind of phone," Lees said. "This phone is for business and consumer users."Microsoft is struggling to regain its once dominant position in the mobile space, and it's looking up at several competitors who've got serious momentum. But because it's still the early days in mobile, Microsoft is telling partners that there's still plenty of time to catch up.

"There is intense competition in the mobile space, but in many respects things are just beginning. There are huge opportunities ahead," Lees said.Microsoft at WPC is talking about the linkage of the personal cloud to Windows 7 on PCs, and Lees said there's a natural bridge to Windows Phone 7 as well. As part of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft will offer Windows Phone Live, a companion site with 25 GB of Skydrive storage for photos, calendar entries and other information shared between the phone and the Web.Windows Phone Live will include the Find My Phone service, a free offering that lets people deal with the horror of losing a mobile device. The service lets users see their phone's location on a map, and ring, lock or erase data from the device remotely from their PC.

Corsair announced its full range of DDR3 memory kits, compatible with the newly announced, multiplier-unlocked Intel Core i7-875K, Core i5-655K and Core i7-980X Extreme Edition processors.The memory modules include XMS3 Classic, Dominator and Dominator GT DDR3 memory, which operate at frequencies from 1600MHz CAS 7 to 2000MHz CAS 9 and in densities of 4GB, 6GB, 8GB and 12GB. Dominator and Dominator GT kits include DHX Pro technology and work with Corsair’s new Airflow Pro parametric display. All kits include Intel XMP profiles.Specifically designed to compliment Intel’s new overclocking-focused processors, the modules provide full access to the processor’s Turbo controls and allow enthusiasts to adjust the CPU multiplier settings in the BIOS.The memory kits are available with Corsair authorized distributors and resellers and come with a limited lifetime warranty.