That was my first thought when I heard about Acer’s new Aspire R7 Windows 8 notebook.

Unveiled today at an event in New York, the Aspire R7 is a Windows 8 laptop, but its design is unique.

Part notebook, part all-in-one PC, part tablet, the machine features a 15.6-inch, 1,920 by 1,080-pixel touchscreen that’s mounted on an “Ezel” hinge so you can reposition the display to your liking. You can angle it to use it like a regular laptop, flip the screen over to watch movies, or lay it on top of the keyboard to use it like a tablet.

Acer also switched the location of the keyboard and trackpad: The trackpad is now located at the top of the laptop, with the backlit keyboard just below it. WTF, right?

Acer’s thinking is that you can simply angle the display right to the edge of the keyboard, and use the touchscreen rather than the trackpad to launch applications, click on items and so on.

I get what Acer was going for, but I’m not entirely sold on this design. There are still times where a trackpad might be more useful than a touchscreen, and having to reach over the keyboard to use it seems awkward and uncomfortable.

While PC manufacturers have been toying with these new hybrid designs of late, they come with compromises, and many times you’d be better off going with a standalone notebook or tablet. But I’ll reserve judgment on the Aspire R7 until I’ve actually used it in person.

As far as the guts of the machine, it has an Intel Core i5 processor, a 500 gigabyte hard drive, a 24GB solid-state drive and 6GB of memory. Ports include three USB ports, HDMI and an SD card reader.

The Aspire R7 will be available exclusively at Best Buy on May 17, with a starting price of $1,000. You can preorder one starting today.

In addition to the R7, Acer announced the 7.9-inch Iconia A1 Android tablet and the Aspire P3 Windows 8 Ultrabook convertible, a slimmed-down version of its Aspire V5 notebooks and Aspire V7 Ultrabook.

Designed primarily for the education market, the Acer C710-2055 promises up to six hours of battery life and carries four gigabytes of RAM. The original C7 has 2GB RAM and up to four hour of battery life.

With the upgrades, the C710-2055 is slightly more expensive than the original model, at $280 versus $200. It’s available starting today.

The rest of the laptop’s features are unchanged from the C7. It has an 11.6-inch, 1,366 by 768 pixel display, a dual-core Intel Celeron processor and an HD webcam.

The three-pound laptop also comes with USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and VGA connectors and an SD card slot.

Like other Chromebooks, the C710-2055 isn’t meant to be a primary computer. Instead, it’s aimed at being a companion device, and it relies heavily on an Internet connection to provide access to Google’s various services.

In addition to Acer, Google has partnered with Samsung, HP and Lenovo on Chromebook models. But the company recently stepped out on its own with the $1,300 Chromebook Pixel, a higher-end model aimed at power users.

Update: An earlier version of this story stated the Acer C710-2055 had a touchscreen. It has a non-touch display. Apologies for the error.

Previously, Google partnered with the likes of Samsung, Acer and HP to build its Chromebooks, but when thinking about the next generation of devices, the company decided to build its own machine to compete at the higher end of the market.

Designed for power users, the Pixel features a 12.85-inch touchscreen with a 3:2 aspect ratio. It’s the first Chromebook to offer a touch display, but that’s not what makes the laptop newsworthy.

With the launch of Windows 8, many device manufacturers, including HP, Dell, Samsung and Sony, have released a wide range of touchscreen laptops and hybrid devices.

Instead, Google claims the Pixel has the highest pixel density of any laptop screen on the market today. It has a resolution of 2,560 by 1,700 pixels at 239 pixels per inch (ppi). By comparison, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display has a resolution of 2,560 by 1,600 pixels at 227 ppi, and the 13-inch MacBook Air has a resolution of 1,440 by 900 at 128 ppi.

Google said the goal of the Pixel was to make the pixels disappear, so users could have the best Web experience.

The laptop is made from anodized aluminum alloy and has a backlit keyboard and a touchpad etched from glass. There is a 720p Webcam for video chats, and three built-in microphones to cancel out background noise. That said, the third mic doesn’t work with all services, such as Google Hangouts, just yet.

Available in a Wi-Fi and a 4G LTE version, the Chromebook Pixel is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor and has a 32 gigabyte solid-state drive (64GB for the LTE model). In addition to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, users will also get one terabyte of free storage on Google Drive for three years. Battery life is estimated at five hours.

The features are an improvement over previous Chromebook models. Google says the Chromebook Pixel is meant to compete with the likes of the MacBook Pro. It’s a lofty goal, considering that the Chromebook doesn’t have some of the power and graphics capabilities of the MacBook, and only runs Web-based apps, which aren’t as robust as native desktop apps. Factor in the high price, and it might be a tough sell.

The Wi-Fi version of the Chromebook Pixel costs $1,299, and is available today from the Google Play store; it starts shipping next week. It will also be sold at Best Buy. Meanwhile, the LTE version is priced at $1,499 and is expected to be available in April.

Available now, the Pavilion 14 has a 14-inch, 1,366 by 768-pixel display, which HP boasts is wider than any other Chromebook on the market today. The Samsung Chromebook and Acer C7 both have 11.6-inch screens, but they also cost less, at $249 and $199, respectively. The Pavilion 14 is priced at $330.

The Chromebook is powered by a 1.1GHz Intel Celeron processor and features a 16 gigabyte solid-state drive and 2GB of RAM (expandable up to 4GB). With the purchase of the Pavilion 14, customers also get 100GB of free storage on Google Drive for two years.

The unit weighs just under four pounds and comes with three USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, Ethernet jack and media-card reader. Battery life is rated at four hours and 15 minutes.

While Lenovo’s Chromebook, the ThinkPad X131e, is aimed primarily at the education market, HP sees the Pavilion 14 as more of a companion device to your main computer, providing easy access to Google’s various services like Gmail and YouTube.

Samsung and Acer also designed their Chromebooks as second computers, and their affordable price tags made them a more attractive option. It remains to be seen whether consumers are willing to spend a little more for the Pavilion 14’s larger screen.

“When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks, because that’s what you needed on the farm,” Jobs said at our D8 conference in 2010. “But as vehicles started to be used in the urban centers, cars got more popular. Innovations like automatic transmission and power steering and things that you didn’t care about in a truck as much started to become paramount in cars. … PCs are going to be like trucks. They’re still going to be around, they’re still going to have a lot of value, but they’re going to be used by one out of X people.”

At the time that remark was a bit contentious, but like many Jobs predictions, it would prove prescient a few years later. To wit, the latest PC shipment forecast from NPD DisplaySearch, which predicts that tablets will outship notebooks this year.

The research outfit reckons 207 million notebooks to be shipped in 2013. And it expects tablet shipments to rise 64 percent year over year to top out at 240 million.

And that’s just the beginning of a trend that will slowly see the notebook PC supplanted by the tablet. By 2017, NPD figures, tablets will have captured nearly 75 percent of the combined global tablet-laptop market, spurred on by new screen sizes that are fueling consumer interest in the device.

Indeed, according to NPD the seven-inch to eight-inch screen — like the ones in Google’s Nexus 7 and Apple’s new iPad mini, for example — is already so popular that it has become the preferred tablet display size. In 2013, the research firm expects it to account for 45 percent of the market, surpassing the 9.7-inch size pioneered by the original iPad, which will account for about 17 percent.

“The 7.9-inch size is expected to be the screen size leader in share starting in 2013 because it appeals to supply and demand factors,” NPD DisplaySearch’s Richard Shim told AllThingsD. “From a supply perspective, it will be readily available, meaning it shouldn’t face any technical issues to limit its production. And from a demand perspective, since it is used in the lower priced end of the iPad portfolio, it will appeal to a wider segment of the mainstream market than the more expensive larger sized iPads.”

But the broader market numbers are what’s of real interest here. The consumer tablet market isn’t even three years old yet, but it’s already poised to surpass the market for laptops. And by such a significant amount — nearly 16 percent. Jobs said the day would come when only one out of every few people would need a traditional computer. Hard to believe it’s arriving so quickly.

He notes that there are full-featured Windows 8 laptops that sell for $279.

“These are fantastic machines,” Sinofsky said Thursday, shortly after presiding over the Windows 8 launch. They’re not netbooks or bargain-basement machines. At that price, he said, you can get a computer good enough to last a student through college.

“It’s $279,” he said, “Here we are, talking about seven-inch recreational tablets for $329.”

Windows 8, which officially went on sale Friday, is a huge bet for Microsoft, which aims to offer an operating system flexible enough to compete with both Macs and iPads, as well as satisfy the hundreds of millions of existing Windows PC owners at homes and businesses around the world.

The software features a new built-in store to buy apps, is optimized for touchscreens and runs on chips designed for PC processors as well as chips traditionally used in phones and tablets.

Sinofsky said he is very pleased with the range of computers produced by the likes of Acer, Lenovo and Dell. He notes there are tons of thin, light, touchscreen Ultrabooks that sell for hundreds less than a MacBook Air.

“It’s not just discounting,” Sinofsky said. “It’s engineering work that drives the cost down.”

As for the Windows RT variant, which uses more power-conscious ARM-based processors, but can’t run older programs, Sinofsky said it will hold a lot of appeal.

“It really is a PC for everyone,” he said, joking that the market is limited to those who are either right-handed or left-handed. “Is it for everyone all the time? No.”

Some people, he said, want or need to run older Windows apps, and Windows 8 machines will be fine. But, he said, while an iPad might be good for a short trip, a device like Microsoft’s Surface can suffice even on a long business trip.

Apple CEO Tim Cook took his own shots at Microsoft on Thursday, suggesting that Surface makes too many compromises in trying to serve as both PC and tablet.

“You could design a car that flies and floats,” Cook said on Apple’s earnings conference call, “but I don’t think it would do either of those things very well.”

The earnings were lower than the $8.75 consensus though sales beat the $35.8 billion in sales that analysts had expected. Both numbers were as usual, substantially higher than Apple’s guidance of $7.65 per share and sales of $34 billion.

Apple’s third fiscal quarter is often a quieter one, bolstered a bit by the back-to-school season where it has traditionally promoted sales of notebooks. Consumers also have lately been holding back on purchases of new iPhones iPads and Macs anticipating correctly that new products were on the way to ensure strong holiday-season sales.

Apple shares, after closing the regular session down by more than 1 percent to at $609.5 rose by $3.51 in after hours trading or less than 1 percent to $613.28 before its shares were halted.

Here’s some data points:

iPad sales were sequentially down by 17 percent to 14 million units in the quarter, clearly a sign that consumers were waiting for the announcement that Apple made last week of a new iPad and the iPad mini.

Sales of iPhones on a unit basis were about even sequentially. Apple sold 26.9 million of those in the quarter versus 26 million in the third quarter.

Mac sales were solid. Apple sold nearly 5 million in the quarter, of which nearly 4 million were notebooks. Mac sales in the Asia-Pacific region, including China amounted to $7.5 billion which is interesting for the fact that that region drew nearly even with Europe, which reported $8 billion worth of Mac sales.

Here’s another: Apple’s pile of cash continued to grow: Its combined hoard of cash, short, and long-term investments reached $121.25 billion. It paid a dividend of $2.65 a share.

Update: Trading has just resumed and Apple shares are falling. As I type they’re trading at about $598, down about $11 or more than 1 percent.

Here’s Apple’s announcement.

Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results
26.9 Million iPhones Sold; Record Fourth Quarter Revenue and Profit
Board Declares Quarterly Dividend of $2.65 per Common Share

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–
Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 fourth quarter ended September 29, 2012. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $36.0 billion and quarterly net profit of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $28.3 billion and net profit of $6.6 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.0 percent compared to 40.3 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
The Company sold 26.9 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 58 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 14.0 million iPads during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.9 million Macs during the quarter, a 1 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 5.3 million iPods, a 19 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
Apple’s Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on November 15, 2012, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 12, 2012.
“We’re very proud to end a fantastic fiscal year with record September quarter results,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline.”
“We’re pleased to have generated over $41 billion in net income and over $50 billion in operating cash flow in fiscal 2012,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2013, we expect revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75.”

Windows 8 moves Windows into new directions. It can run on traditional PC processors as well as those traditionally used in phones and tablets. It is designed to be equally at home on a touchscreen slate as on a desktop PC with keyboard and mouse.

The move is also Microsoft’s effort to regain ground lost to the iPad in the tablet arena.

One of the key concerns, though, is that Windows 8 introduces a new kind of apps, and many programs for both PCs and mobile devices have yet to make their way to the new Windows Store.

AllThingsD will have live coverage from the New York launch event, which is due to kick off in about 20 minutes. The software itself, along with new PCs running the operating system, is set to go on sale Friday.

In the meantime, here’s Walt Mossberg’s review of the operating system, and of the Surface RT tablet.

8:11 am: We’re probably about five minutes away from the start. To set the scene, we’re at Pier 57, near the edge of the Chelsea Piers in Manhattan.

8:18 am: Lights dim. “The World is Ready” in white type on a black screen. Cue video.

There’s a spinning globe, then a brief clip of Windows boss Steven Sinofsky at the China launch of Windows 8, from earlier this week.

Lots of people from around the world, interspersed with clips from Microsoft’s developer events, and shots of Windows 8 in action.

Onstage now is Sinofsky. Mostly recapping. Windows 7 has sold 670 million licenses so far.

The world is really different now than it was a while ago, etc.

“In creating Windows 8, we shunned the incremental,” Sinofsky said. We boldly reimagined Windows.

8:24 am: Sinofsky now talking about the 650 pages worth of blogs written about the development of Windows 8 (the longest of which he penned personally).

If you are familiar with Windows 8, most of this is old hat. But, while we are going through it, I’ll summarize the basics.

Windows 8 has two modes: The desktop, which looks a lot like Windows 7, and a new-look Start menu that links to both classic Windows apps as well as a new breed of touch-centric apps designed specifically for the new OS.

8:28 am: Starting at 12:01 am, the software is available as a $39 downloadable upgrade for Windows 7 users, as well as on new computers.

Sinofsky notes that Windows 8 has been through 1.24 billion hours of public testing

“No product anywhere receives this level of external usage and testing prior to release,” Sinofsky said.

There are more than 1,000 PCs certified to run the new operating system.

Full-featured Windows 8 PCs will start at under $300, Sinofsky said — less than most tablets.

8:31 am: Sinofsky is talking about apps — perhaps the biggest question mark when it comes to Windows 8.

“We’re just getting started today,” Sinofsky said. The company isn’t giving out an official number, but it is estimated that by the end of the week there will be somewhere around 10,000 apps globally.

8:32 am: Peeking at the logos behind Sinofsky … Vimeo, Kindle, FX, Kobo, Rakuten, Box, PopSci, CW, USA Today are some of the logos I see — we’ll have a photo soon of the slide.

Netflix and Hulu are there, too.

8:34 am: Now Sinofsky is talking about Windows RT, which runs on ARM-based processors from companies such as Nvidia and Qualcomm.

So far, Windows RT machines are being made by Asus, Lenovo, Dell, Samsung and Microsoft itself — with Surface RT.

Sinofsky is clarifying that, unlike Windows 8 PCs, RT machines only run built-in apps — Office, as well as those designed for the new Windows Store.

8:36 am: Windows RT can use existing peripherals, though, Sinofsky notes, including all the best-selling printers. In total, there are 420 million existing devices that will connect to Windows RT devices.

Microsoft had a tighter-than-normal partnership with chip and hardware makers when it came to Windows RT — limiting the number of hardware makers that any one chipmaker could work with.

8:37 am: Now onstage are Windows executives Mike Angiulo and Julie Larson-Green to show off some of the Windows 8 PCs.

But first, another video.

8:38 am: First up, the duo are showing off Windows 8 running on existing Windows 7 PCs.

Larson-Green logs in by touching specific places on a picture of her kids — a new option with Windows 8.

“Windows 8 is really easy,” Larson-Green said. “Everything you need is right under your thumbs.”

Built-in Xbox Music service offers free streaming of 30 million songs.

“It’s a really great update for all Windows 7 PCs,” Larson-Green said.

Angiulo shows Windows 8 running on a Lenovo X1 Ultrabook, which he said boosts start-up time by 33 percent on that device.

Importantly, desktop apps and new-style apps can be run side by side.

They demo Excel 2013 running alongside a weather app. Colleague Lauren Goode says she can’t remember ever seeing two people so excited about Excel.

Angiulo talks up Windows Phone 8, and the experience. (Of course, plug in an iPhone to a Windows RT machine, and all it can do is charge the device.)

8:46 am: It’s PC show and tell time. First up, an Intel-powered device from Acer and Lenovo’s ThinkPad Tablet 2. Lots of adjectives.

8:49 am: There are PCs in all shapes and sizes, laptops, tablets, convertibles, all-in-ones.

8:50 am: More app logos: Lots of magazines and newspapers and TV stations.

On to Windows RT — PCs that will offer better battery life, improved security. Microsoft is showing off five machines, starting with Lenovo’s flexible Yoga device (a version of which was first shown at CES back in January).

There’s also Dell’s XPS 10 and Samsung’s Ativ Tab, which Larson-Green says has 12 hours of battery life. Asus has its Vivo Tab RT and, last, there’s Microsoft Surface.

(Microsoft is being smart by touting its partners’ machines first, though we’ll be hearing a lot more about Surface later today.)

8:56 am: PC show and tell is done, and it’s time for another video.

8:57 am: CEO Steve Ballmer takes the stage

“It really is an exciting, exciting day,” Ballmer booms.

“Windows 8 shatters perceptions on what a PC really is,” Ballmer said.

Ballmer notes that the home screen is personal, with the apps, Web sites and people that matter most to whoever is using it.

By logging into a new Windows PC with a Microsoft account, lots of your information just flows down to the machine.

“It will all be there — everything and everybody that you care about,” Ballmer said.

Lots of great PCs, Ballmer said. “For the first time, though, Windows also has first-rate tablets in addition to desktops and notebooks.”

9:03 am: Ballmer gushing more, noting how many different parts of the company went into Windows 8, including Bing, MSN, SkyDrive, Skype and Xbox.

Oh, and Office.

9:06 am: Ballmer: “Are these new designs PCs? Yes. Are these new designs tablets? Yes.”

9:08 am: Now Ballmer is talking up Windows 8’s entertainment chops, including a SmartGlass feature that links a Windows 8 machine with Xbox and the Xbox video, music and movie services.

Enterprises will also like it, Ballmer promised.

Ballmer also promises more to come from Microsoft on the business front, relative to Windows 8.

Windows Phone, meanwhile, works in a similar way to the new desktop OS, Ballmer said, highlighting the similarities from that. (Microsoft is having a separate Windows Phone 8 event on Monday.)

Ballmer talking up the opportunity for software makers, noting that there are 670 million PCs just waiting to be upgraded to Windows 8.

Analysts forecast sales of another 400 million new PCs, most of which will run Windows 8. Those are big numbers, Ballmer said, even in a market known for big numbers.

We’ve grown very fond of this term “Windows reimagined,” Ballmer said. “You’ve heard it today, and you are going to see it in our ads.”

“Windows 8 does bring together the best of the worlds — PCs, tablets, work and play,” Ballmer said.

But, he said, people won’t take his word, and they shouldn’t. Go out and see the new PCs and touch them, he said, heading offstage.

I think this is it for this part of the event. There will be more from here, but not for a bit, so I will stop the liveblog and update you later with any other news.

None of the products were a surprise, but they still drew oohs and ahhs from the audience, particularly the iMac.

The new iMac is the thinnest desktop computer Apple has made to date, measuring just 5mm at the edges — 80 percent thinner than the previous model, if you’re counting. It’s also eight pounds lighter than its predecessor and making the old iMac look like, as AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka aptly puts it, “a sad fatty hanging out with Louis C.K. at the Cinnabon.”

Inside the sleek all-in-one PC is a new Apple Fusion Drive, which combines 128 gigabytes of Flash with a one terabyte or 3TB hard-disk drive (HDD). Combining hard drives and flash storage isn’t a new concept; hybrid drives do the same thing. But what appears to be different about Fusion Drive is the software intelligence behind it.

Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller explained during the presentation that Fusion Drive figures out what stuff should go over to the Flash drive and what should be relegated to the HDD. The company claims that this system helps improve performance and requires no extra work on the part of the user. “You just use it, it works,” said Schiller.

The new iMac has also been upgraded with Intel’s Ivy Bridge Core i5 and Core i7 processors. The computer will ship without an optical drive, but Schiller noted that it will offer a separate drive option for those who are “stuck in the past.”

Pricing for the entry-level, 21-inch iMac starts at $1,299, and ships in November; the 27-inch iMac costs $1,800, and will ship in December.

Next up is the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display. It joins the 15-inch MacBook Pro version, which was introduced in June, and features a 13.3-inch screen with a 2,560 by 1,600 pixel resolution — four times the number of pixels than the previous generation.

It’s also 20 percent thinner than its predecessor at just 0.75-inch thick and includes Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 ports, dual microphones and a headphone jack on the left side, and a second USB 3.0 port, HDMI out and an SD card reader on the right side. It’s the lightest MacBook Pro ever, at 3.5 pounds — a full pound lighter than the previous MacBook Pro.

The notebook can be configured with Intel’s third-generation Core i5 or i7 processors, and ships with Mountain Lion, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Battery life is estimated at around seven hours.

The 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display starts shipping today, with a starting price of $1,699.

The Mac mini, which Apple touts as the most energy-efficient desktop computer on the market, also got a refresh today. The small sandwich-sized device is now even smaller than the previous Mac mini model, last updated in July 2011.

It has HDMI, Firewire and four USB 3.0 ports, in addition to Thunderbolt and an SD card reader. It’s Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled, and is built with either dual- or quad-core Intel i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge processors. It has up to 16GB of RAM, and up to 1TB of hard-disk storage.

The 500GB model with 4GB of RAM costs $599. A more expensive $999 Mac mini comes with a 2.3GHz Core i7 Ivy Bridge processor, and more storage and memory.

At the beginning of the event, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that the Mac outgrew the PC market seven times in the past year and has outgrown the PC market for six years straight. And although Macs claim the No. 1 spot for desktops and laptops in the U.S, Apple is not resting on its laurels.

Today’s Mac announcements come just days before Microsoft is set to release its new Windows 8 operating system and Surface tablet on Oct. 26.

“We’re pleased with momentum of the Mac but we’re not standing still,” Cook said.

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So when Bloomberg News reported yesterday that Intel CEO Paul Otellini had told Intel employees at a meeting in Taiwan that Microsoft’s Windows 8 is being released before it is ready, it quickly made waves and prompted questions about precisely what he meant.

Today, Intel, which would normally ignore such a kerfuffle, took the unusual step of slapping back at what it called “unsubstantiated news reports” and reiterating an earlier comment that Otellini had made in public that, “Windows 8 is one of the best things that ever happened to Intel.”

Here’s Intel’s statement in full:

Intel Statement in Response to Unsubstantiated News Reports

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Sept. 26, 2012 – Today Intel Corporation issued a statement in response to unsubstantiated news reports about comments made by Intel CEO Paul Otellini in a meeting with employees.

Intel has a long and successful heritage working with Microsoft on the release of Windows platforms, delivering devices that provide exciting experiences, stunning performance, and superior compatibility. Intel fully expects this to continue with Windows 8.

Intel, Microsoft and our partners have been working closely together on testing and validation to ensure delivery of a high-quality experience across the nearly 200 Intel-based designs that will start launching in October. Intel CEO Paul Otellini is on record as saying “Windows 8 is one of the best things that ever happened to Intel,” citing the importance of the touch interface coming to mainstream computing and the huge wave of exciting new Ultrabook™, tablet and convertible device innovations coming to the market.

Note that the statement doesn’t contain an unambiguous denial.

Anyway. Intel clearly is a tad embarrassed by the story and has been put on the defensive here. As a sign of the long-term fraying of the Wintel alliance that has essentially defined the PC industry for two decades, it’s not entirely surprising. Microsoft did some damage of its own in 2011 when it said it would be launching versions of Windows for ARM-based chips, a flavor now known as Windows RT.

But are the bugginess reports true? There is indeed a lot of chatter about the status of Windows 8, but nothing specific as yet.

I checked in with Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights and Strategy. He’s a former AMD senior exec with lots of contacts in the PC industry. He says he’s been told by contacts at some PC makers that there are “some compatibility issues in Windows 8.” He went on: “They declined to say what kind of issues or go into details. Problems range from the small, which can be fixed quickly with a patch, to major ones like in Vista, which took years to address. I do not know what kind of issues they are.”

Jim McGregor, a longtime chip industry analyst and founder of TIRIAS Research, has been checking, too. He says Microsoft is undertaking what is by far the most ambitious release of Windows that it has ever attempted. Consider all the flavors of Windows there will be: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, three flavors of Windows RT for Nividia’s Tegra chips, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and Texas Instruments’ OMAP chips, plus a new hardware platform in the Surface tablet. The complexity is clear.

“The greatest complexity comes from the new user interfaces,” McGregor told me. “Just adding touch is challenging because there are a dozen different touch-enabling technologies and they are changing all the time. Plus there is gesturing and other user interfaces to consider. It becomes incredibly difficult to create the same experience with different technologies and on different platforms. The results is that people are calling it ‘buggy.’”

Microsoft, he says, has to nail this release of Windows from the start. “They can’t afford another launch like Windows Vista, which had so many problems, especially if they want enterprise adoption.”

And, as usually happens when a new CEO comes to a company, there has been a lot of upheaval among the senior management ranks at AMD. The latest is CFO Thomas Seifert, who resigned in order to pursue other interests.

Sources familiar with the situation say that Seifert, 48, is interested in finding a job where he has a shot at being CEO. He served briefly as acting CEO at AMD after the surprise resignation of then-CEO Dirk Meyer 19 months ago. Read was named CEO after a search that dragged on for seven months.

As I said, some upheaval is natural. But the departures from AMD are starting to pile up — the confirmed exits, counting Meyer and Seifert, are now 26 by my count, and I’m sure I’m missing some. Among them is a name not yet reported but confirmed by AllThingsD: Chris Cloran, VP in charge of AMD’s Client business — “client,” in this case, refers to PCs for both businesses and consumers — who left the company late last week, though his status on LinkedIn is not yet updated to reflect that fact.

Some of the people were fired, caught up in a reduction in force which Read ordered late last year. But most left on their own power, bound for jobs at places like Samsung, Synaptics and Calxeda.

Now, it’s not as if there haven’t been any key hires at AMD. Just last month, the company brought on Jim Keller, the former head chip designer at Apple. And last year it hired its CIO away from Hewlett-Packard. And there have been new hires in the graphics business. It also named Jack Harding, the chairman of eSilicon, as a director on its board. So there are some new people offsetting some of the departures, but the number of recent departures listed all together — all of them having taken place since Meyer was pushed out last year — is pretty stunning.

It’s worth nothing that AMD shares fell by more than 7 percent, or 30 cents, on the news of the CFO’s resignation. It’s been a rough ride for AMD shareholders over the course of the last year. Before Meyer’s ouster, the shares were trading above $9. On Monday they closed at $4.01, down 56 percent. The stock only fell further — another 7.5 percent — in after-hours trading, as markets reacted to word of Seifert’s departure.

Meyer’s 2011 ouster is said to have been precipitated by an argument with the board of directors over the direction of the company. Chairman Bruce Claflin, a former 3Com CEO, is said to have quarreled with Meyer over the need to invest heavily in chips for mobile devices, like tablets. Meyer is said to have resisted, arguing that AMD needed another year of improved stability before investing in any significant new product directions. Claflin disagreed, and pushed for a more aggressive stance in light of advances by Nvidia into mobile PCs and tablets.

Update: As of noon ET, AMD shares have fallen on the New York Stock Exchange by 32 cents, or nearly 8 percent, to $3.69.

Here’s what I’m sure is only a partial list, gathered from various news stories, LinkedIn profiles and chats with people familiar with AMD’s operations:

Bob Rivet, Executive VP and COO
Nigel Dessau, Chief Marketing Officer
Marty Seyer, Senior VP of Corporate Strategy
Patrick Moorhead, Corporate VP, Strategy
Patrick Patla, VP and General Manager, Opteron unit
Jim Mergard, VP and Chief Engineer
David Wang, Corporate VP Products Group
Ben Williams, Corporate VP and General Manager of Asia Pacific
Dave Kroll, VP for Global Communications
Jon Volkmann, Corporate VP and Marketing Fellow
Jeff VerHeul, Corporate VP of Platform Solutions Engineering
Bob Feldstein, VP of Strategic Development
Chris Cloran, General Manager, Processor Division
Andy Tseng, Corporate VP and General Manager, Taiwan
Frank Lee, Senior VP for Greater China
Anand Mandapati, Senior Director of Engineering
Carrell Killebrew, Director of Products Group
Eric Demers, Graphics CTO
Godfrey Cheng, Director of Client Technologies
Rick Bergman, General Manager, Products Group,
Gamal Refai-Ahmed, Senior Architect, ATI
John Bruno, System Architect, Office of the Chief Engineer
Paul Teich, Senior Fellow Corporate Strategy for Servers
John Fruehe, Director of Server Product Marketing
Emilio Ghilardi, Senior Vice President and Chief Sales Officer

Reinventing the PC was the promise that the world’s largest chipmaker made from the stage at its annual Intel Developer’s Forum in San Francisco on Monday. And if ever there was a moment when Intel needed to generate some excitement, this was it. Last week, Intel slashed its sales forecast for the September quarter, as demand for PCs lagged around the world.

In remarks before an audience made up primarily of product engineers and software developers, Intel’s chief product officer, Dadi Perlmutter, went through a batch of almost-interesting new capabilities for the personal computer, and showed off a handful of designs for new mobile PCs, aimed at dislodging that iPad or smartphone in your hand with something small and light that contains an Intel chip.

There were PCs that were small, PCs that were light, PCs with displays that detached from their bodies, and PCs that folded and twisted over the keyboard. All of them look like reheated concepts from the Tablet PC era circa 2002, their sole physical advantage being that they’re thinner and lighter than before, and touch-ready. Like an iPad.

Then came demos of two features around the personal computing experience from Nuance, maker of the Dragon line of voice control applications — one showing how soon you’ll be able to search Google, tweet and play digital media files with voice commands, a la Apple’s Siri, and the other, 3-D gestures a la Microsoft’s Kinect system for the Xbox. If this was Intel’s idea of generating excitement about the future of the PC, it didn’t work.

And what about Moore’s law? Certainly, the trend in computing power — enabled by the ability to shrink and thus double the number of transistors on a chip every two years or so — first observed 47 years ago by the Intel co-founder would enable some super-awesome new feature set that will make the PCs of 2013 seem quaint and silly and less awesome than PCs from before?

Not so much. Here’s a startling-when-you-think about it fact about Haswell, the code name for the new chip Intel plans to release next year. Moore’s law essentially allows you to make one of two fundamental choices as the transistor sizes on individual chips shrink with each successive generation. You can either build a chip that gets twice as much work done using about the same amount of power as the previous generation. Or you can build a chip that gets the same amount of work done using half the amount of power. Which choice do you think Intel made with Haswell? Same work, less power.

Of course, there are a lot more finely grained details about what Haswell will do (Anand Lal Shimpi has a detailed rundown on its many technical details here). Since mobile devices of every flavor and form factor imaginable are in, concerns over battery life have overtaken raw power on the list of priorities for Intel’s customers, the PC makers. For years, the need was always for more power, and Intel was ready to oblige. Now, computing power is so plentiful on a PC that most routine applications don’t even come close to taking advantage of it all.

And I wasn’t the only one who came away with this impression. At an informal gaggle of chip industry analysts after Perlmutter’s speech, the consensus was that the biggest benefit of Haswell is the improved power performance.

Patrick Moorhead, a former executive with Intel’s main rival, AMD, and now an industry analyst, put it to me in starker terms: “Intel has a week to show that the PC has a bright future over the next five to 10 years,” he said. “It’s all about usage models that can be done on a phone platform with wireless display and peripherals versus a PC platform.”

I don’t know that we’re quite that far along; I still rely on my home PC (okay, it’s a Mac), enhanced by a few external hard drives for backup purposes, to be the central storage and retrieval spot for all my digital stuff — my photos, my music, my videos, and many, many documents. And when I want to get some real work done, I turn first to that machine. The iPad I use to catch up on episodes of “Breaking Bad” and to read The New Yorker. I have a hard time imagining a world were PCs and tablets don’t coexist in most households in a long-term digital symbiosis, but it’s clear that those PCs will be replaced less frequently and will become more marginalized as consumer attention shifts to tablets and smartphones, devices where, at least to now, Intel isn’t strong.

PCs as we know them may in time go out of style, but there’s one thing that Intel can count on: It will still be called upon to build the best and most powerful chips it can for the millions of servers that will be needed to power the cloud-based services all those smartphones and tablets will be using. Battery life doesn’t matter in servers, though the need to use less power in data centers, and thus do more while operating at a lower cost, is always in style. The data center is at least one place where the one thing that Intel does better than anyone else — deliver ever more computing muscle for lower cost on an almost annual basis — will never go out of style.

This summer, the company launched its own line of laptops and all-in-one PCs that focused on design and value, and this week, I tested one of its Ultrabooks: The Vizio Thin + Light CT15-A1.

With a starting price of $950 (Vizio also offers a 14-inch model starting at $800), the Ultrabook packs in some great features, such as a full HD 15.6-inch display and Microsoft’s Signature version of Windows 7, so it’s not bogged down with trial software. The Vizio is also a fast machine that can handle everyday tasks without a problem. But it’s plagued by some design missteps and short battery life.

It’s also worth mentioning that Windows 8 will launch next month, along with a slew of new devices. Vizio says all of its current PCs will be upgradeable to Windows 8 for $15 but, unlike the new hardware, won’t have a touchscreen to take advantage of the operating system’s touch-friendly interface.

The Vizio Thin + Light makes quite a first impression with its sleek, minimalist design. It has an all-aluminum construction and a soft-touch finish on the bottom that makes it less slippery and easy to grip.

At 14.9 inches wide, the Vizio isn’t something I’d want to carry around with me every day but when you do have to travel with it, it helps that it’s thin and light at 0.68 inch thick and 3.96 pounds. The edges are also tapered, which adds to the Ultrabook’s overall slimness, but also make it difficult to open the notebook. I really had to dig my nails in to pry it open.

The 15.6-inch full HD non-touch display is gorgeous. It has a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, and text, photos and videos looked bright and sharp. Web pages and documents are easy to read, and the display’s matte finish help reduce glare.

Samsung offers a 15-inch Ultrabook in its Series 9 line ($1,400), but the screen resolution maxes out at 1,600 x 900 pixels, while the HP Envy 6 Sleekbook’s 15.6-inch display has a 1,366 x 768 pixel resolution, so you don’t see as much on the screen, and using it requires more scrolling.

I had mixed feelings about the Vizio’s keyboard. The company opted to forgo the chiclet-style keys that are popular on today’s laptops, including the MacBook, and instead went for a flatter layout. As a result, the buttons didn’t spring back as much as I like, but because of the spacious layout, I had no problems typing on it.

I was disappointed that the keyboard isn’t backlit. Vizio told me that it wanted to include a backlit keyboard, and explored several designs, but none met their standards — either the lighting wasn’t consistent or there was too much light bleed. It is a feature that the company is actively looking at for future products.

The bigger issue with the Vizio is its touchpad. When I first started using it, it was erratic. At times, the slightest swipe of the touchpad would cause the cursor to jump all over the place, making it hard to click on links or to select text.

I downloaded a software update that was supposed to fix the problem, but it made the touchpad less responsive instead. This time, it needed more guidance to get the cursor in the right place, and multitouch gestures, like pinch-to-zoom, required several tries. There were even a few times where the cursor got stuck for a few seconds. Adjusting the sensitivity didn’t help, and it really made this Ultrabook frustrating to use.

On the left side of the Vizio is a power connector, a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB 3.0 port. There’s a second USB 3.0 port on the right side along with a full HDMI port, but no Ethernet jack or SD card reader.

This Vizio Thin + Light CT15-A1 model comes with a third-generation Intel Core i5 processor, four gigabytes of memory and a 128GB solid-state drive. You can also configure it with a Core i3 processor, or go with a top-of-the-line Core i7 processor and a 256GB solid-state drive for $1,150.

The machine felt very responsive while doing everyday tasks. Typically, I would use the computer to browse multiple Web pages, watch videos, check email and work on Word documents, and it never slowed down. In addition, I never felt the Ultrabook overheat.

I really like the fact that the Vizio comes loaded with a clean version of Windows 7, without all the extraneous apps and annoying pop-ups — just Microsoft Office Starter Edition, Microsoft Security Essentials and Skype. It made for a nice clutter-free experience, and also helped the computer to boot up faster.

From a cold start, it took just 18 seconds to boot up, and six seconds to wake from sleep mode. It’s almost as fast as the MacBook Air, which fired up in 15 seconds, and certainly quicker than the Sony Vaio T13’s 29-second, cold-start time.

Unfortunately, the battery is also quick to drain. The Vizio has an estimated battery life of around seven hours with power-saving mode on. In my tests, where I turned off all power-saving features and left Wi-Fi on, set the display to full brightness and looped a music playlist while running an email application in the background, the Vizio only delivered three hours and 50 minutes of battery life.

With normal usage, you should get about an additional hour of battery life, but even so, I wouldn’t have much confidence using the Vizio on the road.

For Vizio’s first attempt at the laptop market, the company got a lot of things right. The beautiful HD display, premium design and clean user experience are all worth a mention. But given the battery life and touchpad problems, it’s hard to recommend the Vizio Thin + Light CT15-A1. Hopefully, the company can resolve those issues with its next wave of devices.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120906/vizios-laptop-debut-dazzles-then-fizzles/feed/ 9 http://allthingsd.com/20120829/hp-takes-wraps-off-windows-8-ultrabooks-hybrid-pc/ http://allthingsd.com/20120829/hp-takes-wraps-off-windows-8-ultrabooks-hybrid-pc/#comments Thu, 30 Aug 2012 04:01:53 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=245903 The parade of Windows 8 devices continues this week with Hewlett-Packard’s introduction of three new consumer notebooks: The HP Envy x2, the HP Spectre XT TouchSmart Ultrabook and the HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4.

Due out this holiday season, they are the first products announced by HP to run Microsoft’s latest operating system, and all feature multitouch screens and ultraportable designs.

The HP Envy x2 is the most interesting of the bunch, as it sports a hybrid design, but if you’re after an everyday or high-perfomance machine, there’s some of that, too. Here’s a breakdown of each device:

HP Envy x2

It’s a tablet! It’s a notebook! It’s both! Dubbed a “hybrid PC” by HP, the Envy x2 consists of a tablet with an 11.6-inch display and an attachable keyboard.

The keyboard has a magnetic hinge that keeps the tablet in place when you want to use it as a notebook, and weighs about 3.1 pounds. When you want to switch to just the tablet, you can press a button on top of the keyboard to remove it from the hinge.

The 11.6-inch touchscreen allows users to more easily navigate the Windows 8 touch-friendly interface and uses technology called In-Plane Switching (IPS) to provide wider viewing angles than standard displays. Above the display is an HD Webcam; on back, there is an eight-megapixel camera.

The Envy x2 uses solid-state memory to provide faster start-up times, and includes Near Field Communication technology (NFC), which will allow users to share content like contacts and photos with other NFC-enabled devices, such as smartphones, with a simple tap.

HP did not announce pricing or a specific release date for the Envy x2 at this time.

I had a chance to check out the Envy x2 briefly last week, and I have mixed feelings about the device. On the one hand, I’m all about reducing the number of gadgets I carry around with me, and the Envy x2 certainly does that. Although, to be fair, HP isn’t the first to come up with this design.

Companies like Asus have come out with similar products for their Android tablets, but the Envy x2 feels a bit more substantial — like a real notebook — and has a roomier keyboard layout.

That said, an 11-inch tablet is too big for my taste. The larger screen has its benefits, but it’s not something I’d feel comfortable holding while trying to read the news or browse the Web.

HP Spectre XT TouchSmart Ultrabook

The Spectre XT TouchSmart is a premium notebook with a starting price of $1,400.

For the money, you get a 15.6-inch multitouch HD display with IPS technology and edge-to-edge glass, as well as an all-metal design. HP added a soft-touch finish on the bottom to make it less slippery and easier to grip; in terms of size, it measures 0.7-inch thick and weighs 4.77 pounds.

The Spectre XT TouchSmart is HP’s first notebook to feature Intel’s Thunderbolt port, which allows you to transfer music, photos, movies and other files from your computer to external devices at a faster rate. In addition to Thunderbolt, it comes with an Ethernet jack, USB 3.0 and HDMI ports.

The Spectre XT TouchSmart Ultrabook will be available in December.

HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4

Coming in at 0.9-inch thick and 4.77 pounds, the Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 offers a 14-inch multitouch screen and a backlit keyboard. It’s powered by Intel’s latest Ivy Bridge processors and can also be configured with an AMD graphics card.

The notebook includes Beats Audio technology for enhanced sound, and promises up to eight hours of battery life.

HP said pricing for the Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 will be revealed at a later date.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120829/hp-takes-wraps-off-windows-8-ultrabooks-hybrid-pc/feed/ 9 http://allthingsd.com/20120829/samsung-series-5-series-7-slate-pcs-with-windows-8-detachable-keyboard/ http://allthingsd.com/20120829/samsung-series-5-series-7-slate-pcs-with-windows-8-detachable-keyboard/#comments Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:01:21 +0000 Bonnie Cha http://allthingsd.com/?p=246097 Who says you have to decide between a tablet or a laptop? Certainly not Samsung.

At the IFA Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin, Germany, today, the company announced its Series 5 and Series 7 Slate PCs, which convert from a notebook to a tablet, thanks to a detachable keyboard. Both devices run on Microsoft’s latest Windows 8 operating system.

The Series 5 and Series 7 slates both feature an 11.6-inch touchscreen (the Series 7 display has a 1,920 x 1,080 pixel resolution, while the Series 5 display is 1,366 x 768 pixels) that docks into the keyboard via mechanical hinges. Samsung said it chose mechanical hinges instead of magnetic ones (like those some of its competitors use) to ensure that the tablet would stay securely in place.

You can close it like a regular laptop, making it easier to carry and store the device. The Series 7 weighs 1.89 pounds; the Series 5 weighs 1.65 pounds.

Like the Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy Note 10.1, the slates come with an embedded stylus, which Samsung calls the S Pen, so you can take handwritten notes, draw sketches and more.

The Series 7 is built for the power user, offering a third-generation Intel Core i5 processor, more memory and a 128 gigabyte solid-state drive for quicker start-up times. The Series 5 is designed more for the everyday user, with an Intel Atom processor and 64GB solid-state drive.

In addition to the Slate PCs, Samsung introduced a touchscreen version of its Series 5 Ultra notebook. The design of this Ultrabook remains much the same as the non-touch model, which debuted late last year. But the addition of the multitouch display will help users take advantage of Windows 8’s touch-friendly user interface.

The Samsung Series 7 Slate costs $1,199. The Series 5 will come in two versions: One with the keyboard dock for $749, and one without for $649. Pricing for the touchscreen Series 5 Ultra will range between $799 and $849. All of the products will be available on Oct. 26.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120829/samsung-series-5-series-7-slate-pcs-with-windows-8-detachable-keyboard/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20120814/toshiba-scraps-plans-for-windows-rt-tablet-notebook/ http://allthingsd.com/20120814/toshiba-scraps-plans-for-windows-rt-tablet-notebook/#comments Tue, 14 Aug 2012 21:50:44 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=241279 Toshiba said Tuesday it won’t launch a planned lineup of tablets and laptops running Windows software and powered by ARM-based processors.

A Toshiba representative said that the plan to launch Windows RT products changed “due to delayed components that would make a timely launch impossible,” adding that “for the time being, Toshiba will focus on bringing Windows 8 products to market.”

Toshiba had shared several designs ahead of the Computex trade show, including a Windows RT tablet with attachable keyboard and a second clamshell Windows RT notebook model. Both products were designed to work with Texas Instruments processors. Toshiba wouldn’t say if it was TI that was responsible for the delay.

“For confidentiality reasons, we cannot share any information on which vendor’s component has been delayed,” a Toshiba representative told AllThingsD.

The move comes after Microsoft announced plans for its own Windows RT-based tablet, known as Surface. Toshiba said Microsoft’s announcement of the Surface was not related to Toshiba’s decision to scrap its Windows RT products.

Microsoft has acknowledged the risk that its tablet could alienate its PC-making partners.

Toshiba’s decision was reported earlier on Tuesday by the Wall Street Journal.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120814/toshiba-scraps-plans-for-windows-rt-tablet-notebook/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120717/intels-otellini-sees-lots-and-lots-of-ivy-bridge-machines-in-your-future/ http://allthingsd.com/20120717/intels-otellini-sees-lots-and-lots-of-ivy-bridge-machines-in-your-future/#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2012 22:49:11 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://allthingsd.com/?p=231126 During a conference call with analysts discussing Intel’s quarterly earnings, CEO Paul Otellini had a look at what’s to come with its latest chip known internally as Ivy Bridge.

He said that Intel is currently tracking more than 140 Ivy Bridge-based machines in various stages of the design process. Of those, more than 40 will be touch-enabled and a dozen will be convertibles, or notebooks with a screen that flips around so it can be used like a tablet.

On the subject of tablets, Otellini says Intel views them essentially as “incremental machines” that will command an increasingly larger share of the consumer wallet. With Microsoft set to release Windows 8 later this year, Otellini said that Intel “will participate in that market,” but that sales of Intel-based Windows 8 tablets won’t be material in 2012. Those tablets, by the way, will be built around a variant of Intel’s low-power Atom chip codenamed Clover Trail. At least 20 of those tablets are in the works, too.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120717/intels-otellini-sees-lots-and-lots-of-ivy-bridge-machines-in-your-future/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120411/did-pc-sales-just-bounce-off-the-bottom-not-quite/ http://allthingsd.com/20120411/did-pc-sales-just-bounce-off-the-bottom-not-quite/#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:37:43 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://allthingsd.com/?p=195557 It wasn’t so long ago that if you had asked the folks at the tech research house Gartner about their predictions for PC sales in the first quarter, they would have hit you with a pretty gloomy scenario: Sales, Gartner said, would fall by 1.2 percent.

It turns out they did nothing of the kind. In fact, PC sales grew by almost 2 percent in the first quarter of 2012. Perhaps that’s not saying much. Last year, you’ll remember, was nothing less than the second-worst year for sales in the history of the PC industry after 2001 — except at Apple, which, no surprise, turned in its best year for Mac sales ever. Perhaps it might have been more realistic to predict a bounce-off-the-bottom moment.

Anyhow, here’s what Gartner saw and what its analysts think about it:

Europe and the Middle East did better than expected and grew by almost 7 percent. Asia was below expectations and emerging markets slowed down generally.

Also, the hard drive supply problem brought on by the floods in Thailand didn’t cause nearly as many problems as some had expected. As Gartner’s Mikako Kitagawa put it: “In general, the hard-disk drive supply shortage had a limited impact on PC supply during 1Q12. There was a moderate impact on selected markets, such as low-end consumer notebooks and the white-box market in selected regions. Still, low PC demand was able to mask the tight hard drive supply overall.”

So who led the market? Look at the tables. Worldwide market is first:

Lenovo grew the most, boosting its shipments by more than 28 percent, and was strong in the EMEA market, where growth was higher than expected generally. Dell underperformed, Gartner says, and saw declines in Asia year over year.

And now the U.S. market:

Overall, as you can see, the market declined by 3.5 percent. Dell’s share fell by nearly 4 percent, while HP and Apple grew. Acer’s share fell by an eye-popping 25 percent and change.

Not a bounce, at least not as far as the U.S. is concerned.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120411/did-pc-sales-just-bounce-off-the-bottom-not-quite/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120314/were-so-ready-to-sell-chips-for-tablets-intel-coo-says/ http://allthingsd.com/20120314/were-so-ready-to-sell-chips-for-tablets-intel-coo-says/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:42:00 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://allthingsd.com/?p=186168 Intel COO Brian Krzanich wants you to know that the world’s biggest chipmaker’s fabs are poised to start turning out chips for tablets.

In an interview with Reuters, Krzanich says he has fine-tuned the company’s supply chain in order to meet an anticipated demand for tablets. “We will start to see more and more of our capacity and our output go to things that are mobile, like phones and tablets and other devices,” he tells the global newswire.

Indeed, when the man responsible for Intel’s massive global chip-manufacturing operation speaks, he does so with the authority of a company that tracks the pulse of demand for chips obsessively, so he doesn’t make so public a statement lightly.

Yet the basic competitive problem remains. While Intel still dominates the roughly 300-million-unit-per-year market for PC microprocessors, it has struggled to compete against chips based on designs from the British chip designer ARM, which power most of the world’s smartphones and tablets — including, not insignificantly, the iPad. And while Intel’s lower-power Medfield-generation chip has landed in designs from Lenovo and Motorola Mobility, the wins are seen as progress in a race in which it was already well behind the leader.

Perhaps more interesting is how Reuters casually refers to Krzanich as a candidate to succeed CEO Paul Otellini. Intel shook up its management ranks in January, and promoted Krzanich to COO. Covering Intel includes paying attention to a constant drumbeat of speculation about who the next boss is going to be. Otellini is 61, and the company’s mandatory retirement age is 65, so the succession race, and the perennial handicapping chatter that goes with it, will be something of a marathon.

Krzanich would be a logical successor, mainly because most Intel CEOs become COO first, including both Otellini and his predecessor Craig Barrett. Yet there’s still one rival who bears continued attention: Sean Maloney, the English-born current head of Intel China, had been widely seen as the leading contender before suffering a stroke two years ago. However, people who know him say his recovery is remarkable.

I noted Maloney’s return to competitive rowing last year. A September profile of Maloney in Fortune had more to say on that subject. While he has largely recovered physically, the main lingering effect of the stroke has been on his speech. If he can get close to sounding as he did before the stroke, we may have a real horse race on our hands.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120314/were-so-ready-to-sell-chips-for-tablets-intel-coo-says/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120308/how-will-pcs-sales-grow-in-2012-sloooooowly/ http://allthingsd.com/20120308/how-will-pcs-sales-grow-in-2012-sloooooowly/#comments Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:00:35 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://allthingsd.com/?p=181687 The worldwide business of PCs is still growing but it’s growing a lot slower than it used to, says the market research firm Garnter, in a forecast out today.

While 368 million units — the number Gartner reckons will be sold this year — seems like an awful lot, it amounts to growth of only 4.4 percent over 2011. The economy — Europe is still weak amid ongoing sovereign debt problems, plus supply chain troubles brought on by the flooding in Thailand where most of the world’s hard drives are made — is weighing the market down, Gartner says.

What will save it? Windows 8 and Ultrabooks, but not before 2013, when Gartner says to expect sales of 400 million PCs. They might stimulate renewed interest among consumers and businesses. But it’s hard to say.

What about Apple’s iPad and other tablets running Android eating into PC sales? There’s no question that they do. But that impact is relative: Gartner last sized up the scope of the tablet market last fall, and pegged it at 64 million units in 2012, which is probably conservative, seeing as how Apple sold 15 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011.

What has often happened with forecasts like this is that chipmaker Intel gets batted around a bit in a negative way, as financial analysts work the forecasts into their own expectations for the stock. If PC sales are slowing, the thinking goes, then Intel, which supplies most of the world’s PC microprocessors, will no doubt suffer.

Intel has tended to do well despite these forecasts, and cites growth in certain developing markets, like Brazil, India and Russia, where Gartner and other research firms have more limited visibility, as keeping demand for its chips growing.

Gartner tries to address that point in a summary of its forecast: Emerging markets will be key to driving growth, says its analyst, Ranjit Atwal, and most of the growth in the PC business will come from these countries through 2016. But the upshot is that if all you can think about is buying a new iPad and not a new PC, you’re not exactly alone in the world.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120308/how-will-pcs-sales-grow-in-2012-sloooooowly/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111123/seven-questions-for-seagate-ceo-steve-luzco-about-the-effects-of-the-thailand-floods/ http://allthingsd.com/20111123/seven-questions-for-seagate-ceo-steve-luzco-about-the-effects-of-the-thailand-floods/#comments Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:45:10 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://allthingsd.com/?p=147007 Name an executive of any company that makes any kind of computing hardware that contains a hard drive, and you can bet they’re worried about Thailand.

The country is now beginning the arduous job of cleaning up from the floods that killed upwards of 600 people and dealt a body blow to its industrial and manufacturing base.

One industry hit especially hard is the computer business. The world relies on factories in Thailand to turn out critical components used to build hard drives, and factories there are out of commission for now. This is not a trivial problem — the factories in question are not easy to replace, retool and restart once they dry out. Nor is the answer simply for the hard drive manufacturers to build new factories somewhere outside the flood zone.

This is the kind of supply chain disruption that the computer industry hasn’t seen in many years. I had a chance to talk with Steve Luczo, the CEO of Seagate Technology, for his view of the situation. Seagate has been relatively lucky in that its factories haven’t been directly impacted like those of Western Digital and Toshiba. But many companies that supply Seagate with necessary components have been hit, and it will be some time before they’re back on their feet.

Luczo told me that the computer industry as a whole — including companies who make PCs, servers, workstations and any other device that contains a hard drive, whether a set-top box or an enterprise storage device — can expect acute supply-chain disruptions to last well into 2012, and that it will take until the end of 2013 for the industry to return to its pre-flood operating posture. You read that right: It will be two years before the supply of hard drives is anywhere near “back to normal,” and there are simply no easy solutions for getting it fixed.

An estimate by the market research firm IHS iSuppli pegs the available supply at 125 million units, which is about 29 percent short of demand of 175 million units. By its reckoning, more than one-quarter of the world’s hard drive manufacturing capacity has been disrupted in one way or another, including 45 percent of the capacity devoted to making hard drives for personal computers. I spoke with Luczo by phone yesterday, and tossed in an extra eighth question because of the importance of the subject.

AllThingsD: Steve, at a high level, I think everyone understands the problem. There’s been a terrible flood in Thailand, and a lot of factories that make crucial parts for hard drives are out of commission. To that end, I think people expect this to be a temporary problem that works itself out in a couple of months. But you say it’s a much more complex problem than most people realize. You’re tracking this situation day to day, and probably hour by hour. So, how bad is it, really? And what’s likely to happen?

Luczo: What’s surprising to us is that even with all the data out there — we’re six weeks into it — there are a lot of fairly sophisticated companies that haven’t fully come to grips with the depth of the problem and the duration that is likely to occur. What is going to happen in the next couple of weeks is that the real shortage begins to show up right about now. There was already a lot of built inventory and a lot of finished goods moving through the system. And now all that is gone, and I think customers are starting to see shelves of parts go empty, and realizing that they’re not going to be filled for anywhere from one to two months. So the concern is heightened.

We heard Meg Whitman talk about this on HP’s earnings call Monday. She said HP stepped in and started doing some strategic buying. She says HP is going to see effects at least through the first half of next year. Apple talked about it on its earnings conference call, too. Are you hearing from them?

Tim Cook at Apple was way in front of this. I saw Tim the first week it happened, and took him through the situation, and in 15 minutes he understood the magnitude of it. Meg was on the second week of her job as CEO when I went to see her, and she got it right away. HP’s procurement VP, Tony Prophet, was also early to understand this. Companies like that reached out to us early on, because they understood that this is going to be an extended problem. They started asking for longer supply agreements. Deals that would typically last about a year, they’re now asking for two years.

How bad is it really going to be? What’s your outlier worst-case scenario, and then what do you think is a little more realistic?

If you think pre-flood, a mix [of products] that the customers need, the industry had the capacity to ship about 190 million units a quarter. Pre-flood, we expected the demand to be pretty consistent at about 180 million a quarter, with a bump in September 2012 for Windows 8. We now believe the March quarter is going to much more difficult than the December quarter, and December is going to be about 120 million or so. We think the March quarter will be about 120 million, in the best-case scenario. And that’s with customers mixing down pretty aggressively; and by that, I mean companies like Western Digital, who don’t have access to the sliders [a critical component in a drive], are shipping one- and two-headed devices so they can ship more units. So instead of shipping a drive that contains two disks and four heads, which is what the market needs right now, they’ll be shipping a one-disk, one-head or one-desk, two-head product. They’ll be maximizing the units they can sell, rather than shipping the product the customer actually needs. … So we see something like 130 million for March on the optimistic side, and then 150 million for June, 170 for September and then 190 million for December. And so by the end of 2012 you’re back to being close to industry demand. But even then, you’ve not included the impact of that missed 100 million units. And that will take another year to absorb, because it’s not like the industry is building new factories to chase that demand. We can’t over-invest to meet some bubble and then get stuck with excess capacity.

I think, intuitively, people expected companies like Seagate to just build more factories outside of the flood zone, but it’s not that simple, is it? Would this not be a moment to add capacity?

There are some in the investment community who think that’s what is going to happen, and that there will end up being a supply glut after all this is over, but it’s not the case. For us, it’s more a function of how to recover the supply chain and then work with the customer to get a good read on what their needs are for the next several quarters. If we see a multiquarter shortage that goes beyond what I described before, then we would think about maybe putting some capital in place. But we’re not going to do that to solve a temporary problem, because we end up being stuck with the excess capacity. Now if it turns out there is no recovery, and then the industry is more constrained than I first described — and that, by June, the industry is still 30-40 million units short and looks like it will be for the next six quarters — we might revisit. But then we’d want longer-term commitments to make sure we’re not overinvesting. But we’re not to that point yet.

What is this doing to prices? And what does that mean to the person who wants to buy a computer or server this year or next year?

If you look at a 10-year moving average trend, the industry has in general seen prices come down about 2 to 3 percent a quarter, and that is for a particular product. In 2009, there was a little price erosion, and that was because the storage industry recovered quickly from the recession. And there had been massive capital cutbacks, so there were big shortfalls through all of 2009 and into 2010. Then, when the Greece crisis happened, that put a big flatline on a lot of growth, and the industry had put in a lot of capital because everyone expected there would be growth. So, since spring of 2010, the price erosion has been higher than normal, which would show that supply is greater than demand. And what this flood has done is drive the supply curve down, while the demand curve has stayed constant. For OEMs [original equipment manufacturers, or the PC and server manufacturers like Apple, HP and Dell, who buy directly from Seagate], you’re seeing an average increase of about 20 percent, and in the channel [resellers who sell parts to smaller PC and server vendors], probably much higher. So all the sensational quotes you see about pricing are about those that occur in the channel, where we have no control whatsoever.

The markups in the channel are much higher? Are the channel guys taking advantage of this?

Yes, they’re higher, but I don’t think they’re taking advantage. I’ve heard stories about drives that we sell to OEMs for $60 that show up in the channel at $105. Normally the channel price is within about 10 percent of the OEM price. It’s just the law of supply and demand. They can’t get supply. The channel is getting about a third, at most, of the supply they would typically get. The OEMs are the ones with the supply agreements, so everyone in the channel is way short. In some market segments, supply is about 70 percent below what the demand is. And so those shortages are very acute. The channel is selling the few drives that are out there to whoever needs them the most and is willing to pay for them.

So what does all this mean for Seagate, specifically?

For us it’s a different story, because we’re going to be driving more volume than our competitors, because we’re not as directly affected, and we’re going to be making some  technology transitions. When we do that, it lets us take cost out of our product, so we can offer more capacity for the same or fewer parts. That helps us drive down pricing. Our goal is to recapture some of the more aggressive pricing of the last eight quarters, in order to sort of get our business back in balance. Our long-term business model calls for gross margins of 22 to 26 percent. And we use our manufacturing expertise to drive down our costs and then pass that on to our customers. This quarter, end users really won’t see it, because product has been built and has been on the shelves. As the shortages just started occurring, you’re starting to see prices increase in the channel. And then at the OEM there will be shortages in some high-value areas like enterprise storage or cloud computing. You’re going to have to see price increases, because there’s such big shortages.

One thing that occurred to me when I first wrote about this a month or so ago is that it represents an opportunity for the flash memory chip companies to make some inroads against hard-drive guys like you, mainly on notebooks. Is there a threat that flash could pick up some of the demand?

Some of it, but not very much. I think to the extent that there is a high value purchaser who can afford to pay $200 for 100 gigabytes, then that market will expand from 1-2 percent to 3-4 percent. Of the 35 to 40 percent shortage that exists, could you see a little of that get absorbed by silicon? The answer is yes. But there’s a cap. There’s just not enough of a raw supply of silicon to meet all the demand. Our industry will ship 400 exabytes this year. We would have shipped 450, were it not for the floods. Of that, 180 exabytes is notebooks. Reduce that by 30 percent, and you get about 55 or 60 exabytes. If you were to take all of the capacity from Samsung’s newest state-of-the-art flash factory, and dedicated it just to notebooks, it would only put out 7 exabytes a year. Plus, there are already other markets demanding flash, like  tablets and cellphones and other things. So it’s not like you can steal from those other markets. You’re not going to take a $32 product and replace it with a $350 product. Can you do it at the edges of the market? Sure. But the threat is capped by the amount of silicon available and the price point for flash storage, which is still an order of magnitude higher.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111123/seven-questions-for-seagate-ceo-steve-luzco-about-the-effects-of-the-thailand-floods/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111116/hewlett-packard-dons-its-ultrabook-suit/ http://allthingsd.com/20111116/hewlett-packard-dons-its-ultrabook-suit/#comments Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:11:23 +0000 Arik Hesseldahl http://allthingsd.com/?p=144802 It’s been about three weeks since Hewlett-Packard announced its decision to keep its PC division, formally known as the Personal Systems Group, or PSG. Today marked the first serious batch of new PC introductions from HP since that decision.

The one getting all the attention is an offering in the Ultrabook category that’s priced at $900. It’s called the HP Folio¹³, and aside from its price, its headline feature is that it delivers a full nine hours of battery life.

The Ultrabook is a concept primarily being pushed by Intel, so much so that Intel even owns the trademark rights to the name. Inside the Folio¹³ are the latest Intel Core processors. It represents the hopes of a PC industry that has seen anemic sales with little sign of a bounceback, though that depends on whom you ask.

Major challenges have been the continued popularity among consumers of Apple’s iPad, and to a lesser extent other tablets, and the impressive sales of Apple’s MacBook Air, which now accounts for nearly a third of Apple’s notebook sales. It may not be an Ultrabook technically, but conceptually the similarities are substantial: Thin, light, sporting solid-state drives and speedy boot-up times.

And while the MacBook Air is a big winner for Apple, there’s as yet little evidence that there’s much demand for a similar product running Windows. Last month, it emerged that Acer and Asus expect to sell only 100,000 each by the of 2011, which would amount to between one third and one half of what they originally hoped.

Yes, it’s early days for Ultrabooks — machines that support Intel’s full design vision won’t be on the market for another several months. And the industry is just now starting to bang the drum seriously for the Ultrabook. Asus Chairman Jonney Shih talked about the category in an interview with Walt Mossberg at AsiaD last month.

In its press releases, HP expressed the hopes of an entire industry when it quoted IDC analyst Crawford Del Prete saying he expects PC makers — including HP — to sell 95 million Ultrabooks by 2015. At their current levels, there’s nowhere to go but up.

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