Dell Struggles as Asia's PC Market Starts Growing Again

The worst effects of the economic slowdown may be over for Asia's PC market, but Dell is struggling to keep up.

Second-quarter PC shipments in the Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, rose 8 percent over the same period last year, driven higher by stronger demand from consumers, IDC reported, citing preliminary estimates. The latest numbers end a two-quarter slump that saw shipments contract amid the tough economic environment.

On a consecutive basis, shipments rose 19 percent over the previous quarter, it said.

The increase in overall PC shipments during the second-quarter was good news for top PC vendors, with one noticeable exception: Dell's PC shipments remained flat, growing just 0.3 percent compared to the second quarter of 2008.

Corporate sales are a major component of Dell's business in Asia, and demand for PCs from Asian businesses remains weak. "Weak corporate sales are part of what's hurting them," said Bryan Ma, director of personal systems research at IDC Asia-Pacific, noting that the PC maker is in the midst of a reorganization that aims to improve its competitiveness.

While Dell is unlikely to see a sharp increase in Asian PC shipments before a recovery in demand for PCs from business, the company is trying to appeal more to consumers and has seen some success in this regard. "Dell's consumer team has made progress," Ma said.

However, the consumer team's progress wasn't enough to keep pace with rivals. Dell's biggest competitors, which all have a stronger presence in the consumer PC market, saw healthy increases in the number of units they shipped during the second quarter.

IDC's preliminary data showed top-ranked Lenovo's shipments rose 7.3 percent, while HP, which is the second-largest PC vendor in Asia, saw an increase of 25.1 percent. Dell managed to hold onto its spot as the third-largest PC maker, but Acer and China's Founder Group closed the gap, with unit growth of 12 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively.

The jump in Acer's shipments bring the Taiwanese PC vendor closer to overtaking Dell as Asia's third-largest PC maker.

Might Apple TV Morph into Games Console?

In a week when rumors that a 9.7-inch ultraportable run riot, a report suggests Apple also has an eye of the potentially lucrative video gaming market.

According to an analyst, Apple is working toward adding games to the . The watch, rent and buy movies and TV shows, view HD content, listen to music and display photos on your TV.

Michael Pachter, an analyst at and outspoken commentator on the games industry, told Web site Apple had a clear strategy to turn the Apple TV, hardly a best seller, into an all-around entertainment system.

"I think Apple has a deliberate strategy. They want to see what they can do with the handhelds -- iPod Touch and iPhone -- first, then move into console games," Pachter said in a Q&A. "Apple TV is the device that they can turn into a console, and they have essentially the same goals as Microsoft -- to turn Apple TV into an entertainment and Internet hub."

The analyst pointed to the success of the Apple iTunes App Store, in just one year announced this week, many of which are iPhone and iPod touch games.

"If they can get enough iPod users to download games, it's a natural that they can ultimately convince a large number of these users to buy a game-enabled Apple TV," Pachter said predicting a games compatible Apple TV was still a few years away.

"I'd guess a 2012 or 2013 launch. That means that Microsoft has to get enough of a head start to hold them off, which is why I see Natal (a potentially revolutionary Xbox games controller) and a big hard drive for the 360 next year."

Apple would need to open up the Apple TV, or any all round entertainment system they had in mind, to third party developers to make the device a success suggests Pachter. Big names with well-known gaming titles would need to get on board as Apple would face tough competition from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo should they open an Apple TV app store.

"I'm not sure how Apple would proceed initially. It's possible that they open the architecture and go for an Apple TV 'App store' to allow anyone to develop games. We'd get cool stuff like World of Goo or Geometry Wars, but probably not super cool stuff like Gears of War until they bought a few developers. Again, it's the Apple audience they're after, and they would be perfectly happy if everyone who owned an iPod or iPhone bought Apple TV."

"The "Trojan horse" is that the device would be an Internet access hub, and that they could then sell movies and other products. What Apple cares about is getting into the living room, and an Apple TV with games has a higher likelihood of succeeding than an Apple TV without," Pachter added.

Firefox 3.5.1 Fixes Critical Security Flaw

The Mozilla Corp. has released , a new version of their Web browser. The new release corrects a security problem the company as "critical." Firefox is available for free download fro

Artwork: Chip Taylor

m the Web site.

Firefox 3.5.1 corrects the security flaw identified in Mozilla Foundation Security Advisory : a problem with the software's "Just-In-Time" (JIT) compiler used for JavaScript. A crash could result in an exploitable memory corruption problem that could, under certain cases, be exploited by an attacker to run arbitrary code, like malware.

Several stability improvements have also been made. Mozilla first outlined plans to release Firefox 3.5.1 .

FAQ: Making a Smooth Move from XP to Windows 7

If wants to succeed, to do better than limp like , it has to convince the majority of users to ditch their comfortable-as-an-old-shoe -- older than an old shoe, actually -- OS.

Microsoft has to beat itself by one-upping its most successful OS edition of all time: Windows XP.

That's going to be tough. Even Microsoft knows that. Last month it conceded to critics, including Gartner's Michael Silver, who had complained that the company's policy for continuing XP "downgrades" was a In response, Microsoft actually until April 2011.

So the pressure's on to make an XP-to-Windows 7 upgrade as painless as possible. But is a pain-free process what you'll face if you make the move? Not exactly.

Where are the bumps in the upgrade road? How difficult will the migration really be? Excellent questions.

We'll try to answer them.

Can I upgrade from Windows XP straight to Windows 7? You betcha. And no, you don't have make Vista a middleman.

There's always a catch. What's the catch this time? Unlike people running Vista, you can't do an "in-place" upgrade from XP to Windows 7 (even though that was offered as an upgrade choice to Vista, and Microsoft's bragged numerous times about how Windows 7

Presumably, Microsoft doesn't want to repeat the drama -- and complaints -- that XP users generated when they threw up their hands over in-place upgrades to Vista. It hinted as much in an April post to the "Engineering Windows 7" blog: "We realized at the start of this project that the 'upgrade' from XP would not be an experience we think would yield the best results. There are simply too many changes in how PCs have been configured (applets, hardware support, driver model, etc.) that having all of that support carry forth to Windows 7 would not be nearly as high quality as a clean install."

Whatever the reasons, you'll have to do what's called a "clean" install of Windows 7, which means you'll need to restore backed up data, recreate settings throughout Windows and reinstall all applications. ("Clean install" isn't a choice on the Windows 7 install-type selection screen; you'll pick "Custom" from the two-option list.)

What are the system requirements for Windows 7? They're very similar to those for Vista. According to Microsoft, here's what you need:

• 1GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

• 1GB RAM (32-bit) or 2GB RAM (64-bit)

• 16GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)

• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Take those with a grain of salt. Vista runs slowly on a PC with just 1GB of memory; Windows 7 may do better, but you're still likely to be disappointed.

Google's Chrome OS May Fail Even as It Changes Computing Forever

Google says it is working that boots in seconds, is impervious to viruses, and is designed to run Web-based applications really well. What's not to like? Plenty--if you're the number one software maker, Microsoft. Expect a showdown. Google faces an uphill battle rolling out its operating system, Chrome OS. The irony is, Google may not care if Chrome OS succeeds or fails. Here's why.

What's amazing about Google's Chrome OS is that, despite what little is actually known about it, has turned the computer and software industry on its ear. The industry----just want to love it. Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, PC makers Acer and Hewlett-Packard, and software developers such as Adobe are collaborating on designing and building Chrome OS devices.

Google's big bet for the Chrome OS is that it can spur a new market for software, , that can run entirely in a Web browser. It hopes we will rely on these Web services for storing work files, personal photos, and music on an always-on connected Internet. Want access to your photos or spreadsheets? Easy--just turn on your netbook, and there it is. No longer will we be chained by an ethernet cord to a bulky Windows PC. The Chrome OS future is about lightweight mobile PCs and devices always connected to the Web, giving you instant access to your data and applications in the so-called cloud.

Chrome to Ride Netbook Juggernaut

Chrome OS is hitching a ride on the . While notebook sales are flat, according to market research firm DisplaySearch, netbook sales are soaring with sales growing by 260 percent worldwide this year alone.

Nothing has been announced, but next year, don't be surprised if HP is selling dirt-cheap Chrome OS netbooks married to a wireless plan from Verizon Wireless. Sure, netbook makers and wireless carriers are already . But Google will have an advantage because Chrome OS will be free and the hardware requirements for running it are expected to be minimal, letting companies such as HP build ultracheap computers.

In this way Google hopes to do for the notebook what --revolutionize the wireless industry by creating a Chrome OS device married to a source for apps like the iTunes App Store. Google's next stop after the netbook, it says, is the desktop.

But a lot can happen between now and late 2010, when Google says Chrome OS will be ready.

Amazon Removes E-Books From Kindle Store, Revokes Ownership

Today, Amazon removed George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from its Kindle e-book store. The company also went ahead and removed any digital trace of the books, too-striking them from both users' digital lockers and from Kindle devices. This disturbing, move underscores how, in spite of comments otherwise, a purchase in the digital realm can't be compared to physical ownership of content.

I've long considered digital more ephemeral than the physical. It is why I still, for artists I enjoy, purchase the physical CD of an album. It is why I prefer to purchase DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, as opposed to relying on the possibly here-today, gone-tomorrow offerings of electronic distribution. Why my advocacy of the physical? It certainly isn't because I enjoy storing it, that much I can tell you. It's because I have access to it when I want it, where I want it. I don't have to worry about content going out-of-print, nor do I need to keep track of where I have it backed up, in case my hard drive fails.

I've heard one set of theories that posit that the world of digital distribution could theoretically offer unlimited content, for unlimited periods, simply because of the lack of physical distribution costs (production, packaging, shipping, shelf-space, and so on). The other theory, however, is the one that's omnipresent, but more sharply in focus in a tough economy such as the one we're in now. That theory is governed by the basic tenets of business, which look at profit and bottom line. If content isn't generating revenue, then why should a digital distributor maintain the server space to keep up the data, even if all it takes up are more bits and bytes?

Back to the Amazon example. What Amazon did with the Orwell books is different from the above concerns, but it dovetails into the same question of the permanence of digital ownership. Yes, Amazon refunded the money for the books -- but that's not the point. When one purchases something, one acquires the item, and assumes ownership of that item. That item is there.

This unusual maneuver, which Amazon says occurred because Orwell's publisher changed its mind about offering the electronic version of these titles, is all the more unsettling simply because readers already purchased the books and had their ownership of the item revoked. In the Orwell book case, the item was simply no longer there -- it was as if those Kindle users never owned it.

The implications of the Orwell case are highly unsettling -- for any type of copy-protected content, but especially for printed content. What happens if a controversial book comes out, and a publisher decides to remove it from distribution? Or, a book is banned for whatever reason -- as happened in parts of the world with The Satanic Verses? Neither is a common scenario, but both are examples of the control we, as owners, can potentially lose over the content we've purchased in the digital realm. With physical content, no one, even a disgruntled copyright owner, can take away what you've paid for.

A final thought: If, in this digital realm, we're not truly purchasing content, but rather "borrowing" it at a set price, and according to someone else's changing rulebook, we as consumers we deserve to know this up front, in clear and obvious language (unlike Amazon's clear references to "" books, and all the assumptions of ownership that go with buying books). If the rules have changed on us, we deserve to know.

Seven Reasons Microsoft’s Profits are Tanking

Microsoft's profits are seriously down, and you don't have to be Warren Buffet to figure out why.

The is reporting that Microsoft will post significant declines in sales and earnings when it reports its fiscal Q4 results next Thursday. Wall Street analysts estimate the software giant will show earnings of 36 cents a share for the period ending in June 2009 (on $14.38 billion in rev

Illustration: Lou Beach

enue), down from earnings of 46 cents a share (and $15.84 billion in revenue) for the same period a year earlier.

Why the slump? An anemic economy isn't helping, certainly, but Microsoft's product offerings and managerial obsessions are hurting the bottom line as well. Here's a quick list of Redmond's Seven Deadly Sins:

• Vista: No sense in beating a dead horse here. Even if Vista isn't as horrible as its critics claim, it's been a PR disaster for Microsoft. More importantly, many and users have put off buying new PCs until . The good news? Win 7's launch should boost PC sales -- and Redmond's profits -- this fall.
• Xbox: Sales of Microsoft gaming console are down, and the . Redmond's answer: . The move may help move units, but it'll cut into profits too.
• Bing: Microsoft's latest search engine effort will cost in the , and that doesn't include development costs either. Is Redmond tilting at windmills here, or at challenging mighty Google for search dollars? Whatever the case, Bing is one expensive gamble.
• Zune: hasn't exactly taken the world by storm, despite Redmond's tenacious zeal. While the looks promising, Microsoft's digital media players have yet to contributing much to the company's bottom line.
• Yahoo pact: This on again/off again union is getting tiresome. First there was the $44.6 billion merger offer, which Yahoo spurned. Now there's a . Is Microsoft's Yahoo fixation causing it to take its eye off more profitable ventures?
• Netbooks: that consumers seem to love. Why? Many netbooks are powered by Linux, not Windows. No sale there. And industry watchers report that, compared to desktop and notebook sales, Microsoft gets less for each copy of Windows sold on a netbook. But it beats , right?
• PC shipments plummet: Not only are low-margin netbooks popular, but higher-margin desktops and notebooks are losing favor with consumers. More bad news for Microsoft: The stating that this trend should continue in the near future.