Here’s a price (other than gold) that is actually going up. Citibank:
According to DRAMeXchange, 16Gb MLC NAND spot and contract prices are up 60% and 50% respectively from the Dec 08 bottom.
Gartner server data is not so positive (via Credit Suisse):
Annual server shipments declined 6.1% year over year… the first decline since the second quarter of 2002 and the sharpest drop of the decade… x86 servers may prove to be the most cyclical segment in hardware… Dell units fell 7.1% compared to an x86 server market decline of 5.9%… IBM server units fell 21.4% in the quarter, reflecting weakness reported in fourth quarter results. x86 units fell 22.5%, dragging down already weak hardware results. For Sun, overall units declined 6.1%, in-line with the market, while x86 units dropped a mere 0.5%.
NPD PC data is also very weak (via credit-suisse):
Total PC revenues declined -5.9%, year-over-year, while units increased 8.7% year-over-year. Apple Mac revenue and units increased 0.9% and 4.0% year-over-year, respectively in the December month. Total printer hardware revenues declined -21.4%, year-over-year, on unit declines of -16.6% year-over-year. Total Mp3 player revenues declined -18.9% year-over-year, on unit declines of -8.5% year-over-year in the month of December. Apple iPod units declined -3.5%, year-over-year in the month of December.
Windows 7 is being billed by MIT’s Technology Review as “Vista that Works“. Catchy slogan, and it builds on the huge PR spend on Vista name recognition.
Benjamin Bederson, an associate professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland, says that the user-interface adjustments in Windows 7 are good but subtle… The much more important thing, he says, is that the operating system is significantly faster than Vista. That means that many people with slower computers, who were unwilling to switch to Vista, will be more likely to upgrade to Windows 7. “It’s Vista that works,” Bederson says. “They fixed the problems, and they polished it up. Good for them.”
Oh, why not pick on the softies. In another “dog barks” type story another worm is breaking records, courtesy of Redmond.
In recent weeks a worm, a malicious software program, has swept through corporate, educational and public computer networks around the world. Known as Conficker or Downadup, it is spread by a recently discovered Microsoft Windows vulnerability, by guessing network passwords and by hand-carried consumer gadgets like USB keys. Experts say it is the worst infection since the Slammer worm exploded through the Internet in January 2003, and it may have infected as many as nine million personal computers around the world… Microsoft rushed an emergency patch to defend the Windows operating systems against this vulnerability in October, yet the worm has continued to spread even as the level of warnings has grown in recent weeks… The program uses an elaborate shell-game-style technique to permit someone to command it remotely. Each day it generates a new list of 250 domain names. Instructions from any one of these domain names would be obeyed. To control the botnet, an attacker would need only to register a single domain to send instructions to the botnet globally…
While we’re on security, a New Zealand man who bought a used MP3 player from an Oklahoma thrift store found names, cell phone numbers, and Social Security numbers of American soldiers on the device, according to news site TVNZ.
Chris Ogle, who paid $18 for the device, also found lists of soldiers based in Afghanistan, personnel who fought in Iraq, and equipment deployments, as well as private information about soldiers, including which ones are pregnant.
Pogue summarises the state of display tech. Contenders are OLED – still 3 years from significant share because of price, LCD – still on a steep price/performance ascent, laser-rear-projection – will dominate ‘thick-set’ market, and private E-Ink – owns the hand held reader market. Plasma not mentioned, ouch! Pocket projectors proliferating…
Lots of hype at CES 2009 about 3D TV. I saw these sets last year at CeBIT, and watched “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” on the digital theatre version a month ago. What impressed was the novelty value. I think the hardware and content is still some way off from providing a superior entertainment experience.
The LCD TV market is only expected to grow about 17 percent in terms of units shipped in 2009… down from growth of about 29 percent in 2008. Plasma TV… expected to grow by about 5 percent in 2009 compared with a 24 percent rise in 2008… At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, four of the top selling TV manufacturers–Samsung Electronics, Sony, LG Electronics and Panasonic–showed off their latest versions of 3D TVs… Samsung and Mitsubishi currently sell their 3D-ready TVs for between $1,000 and $2,800, depending on functionality…
The mobile/Skype wall is breaking down. Jajah, Fring and Truphone all provide applications for the iPhone Touch which allow VOIP calling and SMS over the wifi connection.
Apple has decided to chase iPhone jailbreakers on digital copyright grounds.
Apple recently told the U.S. Copyright Office that it believes iPhone jailbreaking is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act… The EFF is trying to get the Copyright Office to grant a DMCA exemption on behalf of iPhone owners who have chosen to jailbreak their iPhones, or bypass the restriction Apple places on standard iPhones that only allows the installation of applications from the Apple store… The EFF’s argument is that jailbreaking your iPhone is protected under fair-use doctrines…
Google is giving up on the newspaper advertising industry.
Google said it would halt its Print Ads program because the program to help newspapers make more money in online advertising sales was not working… Newspapers tend to make about 90 percent of their revenue, in varying degrees, from print ads, with Web sales making up the difference… The Print Ads program included 807 papers, including The New York Times, News Corp’s New York Post, the New York Times-owned Boston Globe, Tribune Co’s Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Hearst Corp’s San Francisco Chronicle, and MediaNews Group’s San Jose Mercury News…
A contrary view to online ad spend says volume will drop 40% and price never recover…