HP

Is there any way to fix Dell's woes?

A new study out from DisplaySearch detailing how well (or poorly) notebook manufacturers performed over the past quarter has hit the Net and the results don't look too promising for Dell.

According to the study, the global notebook market grew by about 24 percent quarter over quarter and a whopping 42 percent year over year. Amazingly, 29 million notebook units were sold in the last quarter alone and HP--the de facto leader in computing right now--commands 21.4 percent of that total, representing 72 percent growth over the same period last year.

But perhaps most startling, Dell has not only lost ground to HP in the notebook market (its share of the market fell 0.2 percent to 13.8 percent), but Acer is hot on Dell's heels and commands 12.8 percent of the total notebook market.

It gets worse: if we were to combine the total share of all Acer properties--Acer, Packard Bell and Gateway--the company's new market share is a whopping 16.2 percent, which not only puts it into second place in the worldwide notebook market, it leaves Dell far behind the pack.

Who could have thought just a few short years ago that Dell would be in such a position? Not only is the company slipping further behind, Acer--a company that had heretofore been an also-ran--has developed into a powerhouse in this industry.

But is there anything Dell can do to turn its business around? Unfortunately, the solution may not be immediately available, and it may need to change its historically successful market strategy in order to do it. If it doesn't, look for Dell to become the industry's also-ran.… Read more

PC market growing at healthy clip

Hewlett-Packard extended its lead in the worldwide PC market in the third quarter, increasing its shipments at more than twice the rate of the rest of the industry.

Shipments from all manufacturers increased to 68.1 million, or 13.8 percent, from the previous year, and 11.1 percent from the previous quarter, according to iSuppli, a market research company that tracks the PC industry. The third quarter is traditionally a good one for computer makers because of increased purchases during the back-to-school buying season.

HP's shipments gave it claim to 19.2 percent of the PC market, followed … Read more

HP invests big in solar and wind

Hewlett-Packard announced on Tuesday investments in renewable energy as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations.

The computing giant said it will install a 1-megawatt solar array in its San Diego facility.

SunPower will install its solar panels and sell the electricity the panels generate to HP at fixed rates under a power purchase agreement. The system will save HP $750,000 over 15 years and offset 1 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of taking 100 cars off the road each year.

The San Diego installation will be made up of 5,… Read more

Scary news for Microsoft in HP's earnings call

HP never saw a "Vista moment at any time over the past year" declared HP CEO Mark Hurd in yesterday's earnings call. Think about what that means for HP, and what it means for Microsoft. As it turns out, it means essentially the same thing:

Microsoft's dominance of the PC industry may well be fading.

For Microsoft, this is a Very Bad Thing. For everyone else on the planet, it is a Very Good Thing.

Including HP. As CIO.com reports, HP's growth is increasingly coming from developing nations:… Read more

Gadgettes 68: The Good Idea Episode

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HP, cameras, and Web 2.0

Hewlett-Packard has never done as much as it could to use its servers, PCs, printers, software, and the like to cross-leverage and complement each other.

One need only look to Apple to see how this sort of thing can work. The iPod would arguably not have succeeded without the Mac home base to build from, and the Mac has clearly piggybacked on the iPod's success. With even more assets, such as servers and services, HP had still more opportunities. But it largely paid lip service to connecting them. Indeed, at present, HP seems to be headed back to a … Read more

HP to stop designing own cameras

Hewlett-Packard said on Wednesday it plans to stop manufacturing its own cameras, instead hoping to find a partner to make cameras that can sell under the HP brand.

The company said the move will result in a $30 million pre-tax charge during the fourth quarter. It said it intends to continue to sell HP-made cameras through the holiday season with hopes of lining up a hardware maker to start making HP-branded cameras in the first half of next year.

"This shift in strategy is intended to enable HP to accelerate its investment in Print 2.0 initiatives," HP … Read more

Windows Home Server really available, sort of

Bill Gates announced Windows Home Server to much fanfare at January's Consumer Electronics Show.

The energy seems to have dwindled some during the product's elongated path to market over the past year. Microsoft finalized the code back in July, but HP said it would wait for an update to the software before releasing its MediaSmart server, in what was seen as the biggest endorsement of the product.

On Monday, Microsoft announced "general availability" for the software, although HP's product will not be shipping to consumers until later this month. Some servers from smaller computer makers … Read more

Red Hat and HP team up to secure the US federal government

Red Hat just concluded its Red Hat Government User's Conference, but it also announced an initiative with HP that will persist beyond the one-day conference: Multi-Level Security (MLS) Services for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

At the core of MLS Services is the fact that HP has achieved Common Criteria certification at the EAL 4 level with the Labeled Security Protection Profile (LSPP) -- certifications that mean HP, and now Red Hat, are can meet high-level government security requirements. Common Criteria certifications, for instance, are key government certifications that ensure a degree of security compliance against known criteria.

The expectation is that by raising the level of security in its products, Red Hat can lower barriers to open-source adoption.

While security isn't isolated to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (HP also supports Debian and SUSE), HP says that RHEL offers the highest level of security:… Read more