Slipping Tech news

The management reshuffle in Microsoft is an alarming situation. Apparently, its entertainment and mobile division are lagging behind in the competition and the same seems to push Microsoft towards intensive reshuffle.

On the other end, its cut throat rival Apple seems to be on the roller coaster ride. Where Microsoft is struggling for a foothold in its product segment; Apple is coming up with flying colors. Let it be Apple iPhone or iPad – the products are crating hype and buzz in the market. They are selling like hot cakes; desperation is so strong with consumers that they don’t mind standing even in ling queues to get one for them.

Apple App store has also created a niche category for it and vendors like Nokia and others are following the league to witness that success!

Coming over to Microsoft – it is still dependant on Office and Windows for its maximum share of revenues.

After taking over the various other segments successfully, Apple has added one more feather to its cap. The recent market reports have cited that Apple has emerged as the world’s most valuable tech firm, surpassing Microsoft.

The reports cited that Apple's market capitalization at $223 billion, higher than Microsoft, which had a market cap of $219.3 billion and is at number two.

Renu Singh

Since the launch of Apple iPad, netbooks had faced the decline in sales. However, the survey reports by a leading market survey firm indicate that netbooks and Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage (CULV) notebooks are poised for growth, this year.

Leading the league would be vendors including Acer, HP and Asus.

As per the reports, netbooks and CULV notebooks are expected to show strong growth and sales backed by the improved economic conditions. The segments are expected to post double digit revenues this year. Riding on the success of the two growing segments, notebook PCs in 2010 are reported to post double digit growth for the year. Surging 25.5%, overall the notebook segment would hit sales of 209.5 million units from 166.9 million, last year. In fact, by next four years netbook shipments would hit 58.3 million units.

On the other hand, the CULV notebook would reach to 14.5 million units in 2010 indicating a 93% whopping rise in the shipments.

Maintaining its position, Acer is expected to lead the segment this year too followed by Asus, HP, Samsung and Dell.

Renu Singh

Sony Corp, the technology giant had once ruled the music industry with its personal CD players, walkmans and other gadgets.

After the launch of digital music players like Apple’s iPod, the concept of music gadgets and the technology had changed.Last year, Apple had updated its iPhone range with new iPhone 3GS and now will introduce its iPad on April 3.

It is reported that Sony is planning to introduce its new smartphone and a tablet PC to counter the iPhone maker in the digital gadget space.

The company will also launch an online media service to take down iTunes and a multifunction netbook/e-reader/gaming device to conquer Apple’s iPad. But, it seems that the Sony has the legacy of developing nice gadgets that made business standards, but to outperform Apple would be a big challenge for the electronic giant.

Various analysts predict that if Sony can connect its gadgets with media, the iPhone maker will have real competition. But, the real question or point of discussion would be the price factor. If Sony offers its devices cheaper than Apple, then it will certainly create problems for Apple.

A paradigm shift is being sensed in the chip segment. Suddenly, it’s
all about cores and adding more cores to the processor to surge the
performance to next level.

With its new processors approaching
the launch date, AMD is luring the customers by offering prizes to
customers. The company is aiming the launch plan of server chips by
Intel and is scheduling its 12-core processor, the same time – Quite a
strategy to go ahead and make life miserable for the rival, Intel!

With
goodies planned for users, who can easily describe the layout for 48
cores on the processor, the company seems intensively planning to take
the pie away from Intel.

Worth watching battle would be
between AMD’s Magny-Cours processors and Intel’s upcoming Westmere-EP
server products. As said, AMD would offer more memory channels with its
Magny Cours, contrary to Intel. Meanwhile, Intel is gearing towards the
launch of its Westmere-EP server processors, the eight-core Nehalem-EX
server processor and many more under the Xeon product line.

The
core war is no new for both the rivals; it halted at four cores for
laptops and desktops however, for servers its going a long way.

Coming
over to the latest launches in the kitty of these rivals: Magny Corus
and Intel Nehalem – the battle would be really interesting to watch.
Both are targeted at four-socket servers; Intel could advance on the
basis of architectural advantage and new features like error
correction, while AMD would offer more performance for less bucks.

After the introduction of Internet Explorer 8, the software giant is presently working on its update i.e., Internet Explorer 9.

The Redmond giant has predicted that the search giant would be the one that will benefit most from future improvements in Internet Explorer. The company’s senior product manager for Internet Explorer, Mr. Pete LePage indicates there are various up gradation and improvements in the present web browser.

The company added that the next version, called IE9 will use computers' graphics processors for the first time, which are used for computer games to offer website graphics on the screen. Further, it will offer improved reading experiences with better fonts and images. It can be useful while using online mapping services, like Google Maps.

Last week, Microsoft’s web browser was hit by another scare. It is reported that a "zero-day exploit," malicious code was circulating on the net and could infect PCs running on Windows XP and some older versions. Up till now, there is no for defence has been developed.

The company is designing the new version in such a way that users will have a smooth and wonderful experience.