<IT WORLD> Small, smart and painful
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - PC industry growth reports from research firms Gartner and
International Data Corp this week held little in the way of good news for the
desktop computer.
The market increased only 2.7% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, more
than half the projected 5.5% growth, according to IDC. Gartner reported a 3.1%
increase against a forecast 4.8%.
Among numerous possible causes for the slowdown, interest in tablets and low
cost netbooks is the most probable, with the traditional desktop computer
taking a back seat as market interest has shifted to smaller mobile devices.
Laptops, which once also threatened the future of the desktop, have now been
replaced with smaller, lighter and cheaper
netbooks, and in the past year tablet devices have started to penetrate the
netbook market.
Manufacturers, inspired largely by Apple's iPad, have been launching tablets at
a phenomenal rate over the past few months. It was reported that over 100
tablet devices were showcased at last week's Consumer Electronics Show in the
United States, a good indicator of likely shopping trends in the coming year.
Hewlett Packard remains the world's leading computer maker despite a 5% decline
in US shipments and a 1% drop-off globally. The two research firms differed on
second place, with Gartner keeping Acer in that spot and IDC claiming that Dell
had just slipped in for total PC sales in the fourth quarter. Acer's sales slip
seems to be the result of a decline in the laptop market combined with the
recent tablet hype.
The three companies in the top 10 that showed considerable growth year-on-year
were Apple, Lenovo and Toshiba - all three posted double-digit growth figures.
Companies that are quick to jump onto the tablet bandwagon are likely to see
positive figures this time next year.
The video game industry remained flat throughout 2010, with US hardware and
software sales at around US$15.5 billion, according to market research firm
NPD. Blockbuster games such as Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty: Black Ops
could not help the overall picture despite the sale of 12 million games.
Recession-weary consumers in the West turned to budget-friendly alternatives
such as online and social networking games, a market which showed considerable
movement in the right direction. New hardware console sales were hit hard in
the past year, falling 13% to $6.29 billion from $7.19 billion in 2009. The
only console to show growth was Microsoft's Xbox 360, according to NPD.
The latest Microsoft motion controlling console, Kinect, has also been a big
hit since its release in November, although the reported 8 million units
shifted so far have come a little too late to make a difference to the overall
market figures.
Internet
An announcement by Google this week has resulted in the removal of support for
video playing software from its Chrome web browser. The H.264 codec that will
be removed from Chrome is used by rivals Microsoft and Apple.
A widely anticipated feature of new HTML 5 web standards has been the inclusion
of a
< VIDEO > tag in websites, allowing the playing of
multiple video formats without the need for
plugins or additional software. Google's decision
has undermined this, with the company claiming
that it wants to support "open codecs", namely its
own WebM and Theora formats.
The company
that advocates openness seems to have made an
about face by rejecting the formats of its rivals
in favor of its own. This means that the provision
to play multiple video formats within web pages is
unlikely to happen, unless several browsers are
used or plugins are downloaded - as is the current
situation.
Google has a different stance
on it: "Though H.264 plays an important role in
video, as our goal is to enable open innovation,
support for the codec will be removed and our
resources directed towards completely open codec
technologies," a company product manager said.
Mozilla has also favored open codes such
as WebM for Firefox as opposed to those used by
Microsoft and Apple, which are encumbered by
patent restrictions. It is possible that Microsoft
and Apple will switch to an open format but, going
on past actions, it is highly unlikely.
Once again it seems like big business has
hindered technology and the end user will suffer
as a result, with their web experience not being
as streamlined and efficient as it could be.
Hardware AMD is on the verge of
launching a new tablet based on its latest chip
architecture dubbed "Bobcat". There is nothing new
or surprising about this apart from the fact that
AMD's latest is based on x86 architecture and the
company may do better partnering with ARM's
RISC-based processors, which offer substantial
power saving capabilities paired with high
performance.
ARM, based in Cambridge, UK,
has come on leaps and bounds recently with the
exploding demand for mobile devices that require
the performance of a traditional computer and
power efficiency which its chips provided by being
based on a different architecture.
AMD may
need to embrace ARM if it wants to compete with
Intel, which is tied to x86 and thus loses out on
the rapidly expanding mobile-device market. ARM
devices dominated last week's CES with Nvidia
being the greatest beneficiary since making the
switch. It will be a big decision for AMD's new
boss following the abrupt resignation this week of
CEO Dirk Meyer.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
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