Technology heavyweights Cisco Systems and EMC Corp dampened speculation the two companies would merge as they announced on Tuesday a broad partnership to develop data centre technology, taking on rivals IBM and Hewlett-Packard. The two have spent three years developing technology and ironing out details of a deep partnership through which they will bundle Cisco’s networking equipment and server computers with EMC’s storage and virtualization technology.
Their goal is to become a top provider of data centre products as the industry switches to technology focused on providing socalled “cloud” computing services from central data centres that can be accessed over the internet and corporate networks.
As they announced that partnership, top executives from both companies suggested that persistent speculation Cisco plans to acquire EMC has been unfounded.EMC chief executive Joe Tucci said in an interview that the rumours may have been sparked as investors got wind of the close talks between the two companies that led to the partnership over the past few years.
Cisco CEO John Chambers said in the same interview, that “Our tendencies are to partner together. I think we do that remarkably well.” When specifically asked if he was interested in buying EMC, as investors have long speculated might be the case, Chambers said: “You buy big-tosmall. You partner big-to-big.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that the partnership will sell and provide maintenance and service support for a product called “V-Block,” combining EMC’s storage equipment, Cisco’s virtualized servers and networking gear and VMWare’s virtualization technology.
The partnership, the paper said, will have two components. It will be responsible for marketing and providing maintenance and support for V-Block. But the actual cloud infrastructure will be constructed by a coalition of the three companies.
The publication noted that technology giants had breached new markets, “turning once stalwart allies into competitors”.
The move by Cisco, EMC and VMWare, it said, comes amid a wave of consolidation among companies that provide hardware, software and services to corporate data centres.“Following the actions of IBM and HP to create one-stop IT shops, Dell announced in September it will purchase IT services firm Perot Systems. Software giant Oracle Corp, meanwhile, is awaiting European antitrust approval for its acquisition of Sun Microsystems,” The Journal said.
Agencies
Showing posts with label Dell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dell. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Why is Sun Micro losing $100 mn a month?
Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison said Sun Microsystems Inc is losing about $100 million a month as European regulators delay approving his company's $7 billion purchase of the struggling hardware maker.
"The longer this takes, the more money Sun is going to lose," Ellison said on Monday evening during a dinner at one of Silicon Valley's most prominent speaker's forums, the Churchill Club.
Sun's revenue has tumbled since April when Oracle agreed to buy the world's No. 4 computer server maker in April as rivals IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co have poached customers amid uncertainty about its future.
Oracle has pledged to boost investment on development of Sun's products, but the hardware company has cut spending prior to the deal's closing as sales have plunged. Last month it reported a quarterly loss of $147 million.
Ellison, the world's fourth-richest man according to Forbes, said he expects the deal will eventually be cleared by European regulators as it was in the United States, without any conditions.
The European Commission is conducting an in-depth probe into whether the competition would be stifled by the combination of Oracle's database, the world's top seller, and Sun's MySQL database, which is widely used to run popular websites.
Legal experts have said Oracle may need to make concessions, including the divestiture of the MySQL software business, and that it is unclear how long European approval would take.
European regulators have until January 19, the deadline set by the Commission, the competition watchdog of the 27-country European Union. That would put Oracle months behind its original plan for closing the deal by the end of August.
Agencies
"The longer this takes, the more money Sun is going to lose," Ellison said on Monday evening during a dinner at one of Silicon Valley's most prominent speaker's forums, the Churchill Club.
Sun's revenue has tumbled since April when Oracle agreed to buy the world's No. 4 computer server maker in April as rivals IBM and Hewlett-Packard Co have poached customers amid uncertainty about its future.
Oracle has pledged to boost investment on development of Sun's products, but the hardware company has cut spending prior to the deal's closing as sales have plunged. Last month it reported a quarterly loss of $147 million.
Ellison, the world's fourth-richest man according to Forbes, said he expects the deal will eventually be cleared by European regulators as it was in the United States, without any conditions.
The European Commission is conducting an in-depth probe into whether the competition would be stifled by the combination of Oracle's database, the world's top seller, and Sun's MySQL database, which is widely used to run popular websites.
Legal experts have said Oracle may need to make concessions, including the divestiture of the MySQL software business, and that it is unclear how long European approval would take.
European regulators have until January 19, the deadline set by the Commission, the competition watchdog of the 27-country European Union. That would put Oracle months behind its original plan for closing the deal by the end of August.
Agencies
Will $3.9b Dell acquisition of Perot Systems payoff?
Dell agreed to buy Perot Systems for $3.9 billion, undertaking its biggest purchase ever to compete with International Business Machines and Hewlett-Packard in computer services. Dell, the second-biggest maker of personal computers, offered $30 a share in cash, about 68% more than Perot’s closing price September 18. The acquisition probably will boost profit in fiscal 2012, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell said in a statement on Monday.
Chief executive officer Michael Dell is pushing into computer services as consumers and companies curb PC purchases to cope with the economic slump. Larger services units helped IBM and Hewlett-Packard withstand the recession better than Dell, whose sales slumped 22% last quarter. The new services business would have annual sales of about $8 billion.
“This significantly expands Dell’s enterprise-solutions capabilities,’’ CEO Dell said in the statement. “The acquisition makes such great sense because of the obvious ways our businesses complement each other.’’
Once the transaction is complete, Perot Systems, based in Plano, Texas, will become Dell’s services unit. The purchase price is more than twice what Dell paid last year for EqualLogic, which was the computer maker’s biggest acquisition until now.
Perot Systems jumped as much as $11.89, or 66%, to $29.80 in trading before US exchanges opened. Dell, which ranks second to Hewlett-Packard in PC sales, fell as much as 5.6% to $15.75.
The acquisition of Perot, founded by former presidential candidate H Ross Perot, mirrors Hewlett-Packard’s purchase of Electronic Data Systems for $13.2 billion last year. EDS, the world’s secondlargest computer services provider after IBM, helped Hewlett-Packard increase services revenue 93% last quarter. Sales in the PC unit fell 18%.
Dell has relied on cost reductions to help prop up profit amid the recession. The company, aiming to save $4 billion a year, has farmed out 40% of manufacturing. Still, profit dropped 23% last quarter. Perot, which sells services to industries including health care, reported an 11% drop in sales and a 3% gain in net income last quarter. The company expects to benefit from the US government’s plans for electronic health records, Peter Altabef, CEO of Perot, said in an April interview. IBM’s sales fell 13% last quarter, while Hewlett-Packard’s total revenue dropped about 2%.
The companies have benefited from long-term services contracts to maintain corporations’ computers and networks. The Perot acquisition, while not subject to a financing condition, will need government approvals and the satisfaction of other conditions, Dell said. Dell to acquire x for $3.9bn.
Agencies
Chief executive officer Michael Dell is pushing into computer services as consumers and companies curb PC purchases to cope with the economic slump. Larger services units helped IBM and Hewlett-Packard withstand the recession better than Dell, whose sales slumped 22% last quarter. The new services business would have annual sales of about $8 billion.
“This significantly expands Dell’s enterprise-solutions capabilities,’’ CEO Dell said in the statement. “The acquisition makes such great sense because of the obvious ways our businesses complement each other.’’
Once the transaction is complete, Perot Systems, based in Plano, Texas, will become Dell’s services unit. The purchase price is more than twice what Dell paid last year for EqualLogic, which was the computer maker’s biggest acquisition until now.
Perot Systems jumped as much as $11.89, or 66%, to $29.80 in trading before US exchanges opened. Dell, which ranks second to Hewlett-Packard in PC sales, fell as much as 5.6% to $15.75.
The acquisition of Perot, founded by former presidential candidate H Ross Perot, mirrors Hewlett-Packard’s purchase of Electronic Data Systems for $13.2 billion last year. EDS, the world’s secondlargest computer services provider after IBM, helped Hewlett-Packard increase services revenue 93% last quarter. Sales in the PC unit fell 18%.
Dell has relied on cost reductions to help prop up profit amid the recession. The company, aiming to save $4 billion a year, has farmed out 40% of manufacturing. Still, profit dropped 23% last quarter. Perot, which sells services to industries including health care, reported an 11% drop in sales and a 3% gain in net income last quarter. The company expects to benefit from the US government’s plans for electronic health records, Peter Altabef, CEO of Perot, said in an April interview. IBM’s sales fell 13% last quarter, while Hewlett-Packard’s total revenue dropped about 2%.
The companies have benefited from long-term services contracts to maintain corporations’ computers and networks. The Perot acquisition, while not subject to a financing condition, will need government approvals and the satisfaction of other conditions, Dell said. Dell to acquire x for $3.9bn.
Agencies
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
New Booklet 3G from Nokia to take on Apple, Dell
Nokia started as a computer company in 1980's but sold the business in 1991 to focus on mobile phones. Now after two decades Nokia is all set to launch its booklet called "Booklet 3G" to broaden its product range to survive the tough competition in the declining mobile market.
Nokia is facing tough competition in the mobile market as many new players are now entering in the scene. Dell, Acer and Hewlett Packard (HP) are all interested to launch products in the mobile category. There are many speculations that Apple will soon be launching a tablet-type touch screen by next year. Nokia plans to take on these competitors in their own backyard with the launch of its Booklet 3G.
This booklet will mostly be mistaken for a netbook but it focuses on on-the-go networking. It is powered by a Windows operating system (not clear yet if it is Windows 7) and has a 10-inch color screen. It has both 3G and GPS functionality, as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when there's a network available. It will also have access to Nokia Music store and Ovi maps. Nokia claims that the Booklet will run for 12 hours on a battery charge.
"A growing number of people want the computing power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility. Nokia has a long and rich heritage in mobility, and with the outstanding battery life, premium design and all-day, always-on connectivity, we will create something quite compelling," said Kai Oistamo, Nokia's Executive Vice-President for devices to Telegraph.
Nokia will mostly give further details about pricing early next month at Nokia World '09 in Stuttgart. It is expected that the booklet will be expensive and will be in the range of $700 to $1000.
Agencies
Nokia is facing tough competition in the mobile market as many new players are now entering in the scene. Dell, Acer and Hewlett Packard (HP) are all interested to launch products in the mobile category. There are many speculations that Apple will soon be launching a tablet-type touch screen by next year. Nokia plans to take on these competitors in their own backyard with the launch of its Booklet 3G.
This booklet will mostly be mistaken for a netbook but it focuses on on-the-go networking. It is powered by a Windows operating system (not clear yet if it is Windows 7) and has a 10-inch color screen. It has both 3G and GPS functionality, as well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when there's a network available. It will also have access to Nokia Music store and Ovi maps. Nokia claims that the Booklet will run for 12 hours on a battery charge.
"A growing number of people want the computing power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility. Nokia has a long and rich heritage in mobility, and with the outstanding battery life, premium design and all-day, always-on connectivity, we will create something quite compelling," said Kai Oistamo, Nokia's Executive Vice-President for devices to Telegraph.
Nokia will mostly give further details about pricing early next month at Nokia World '09 in Stuttgart. It is expected that the booklet will be expensive and will be in the range of $700 to $1000.
Agencies
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Analytics company SPSS Inc to be acquired by IBM
IBM plans to buy technology services company SPSS Inc for about $1.2 billion in cash, the companies said on Tuesday.
SPSS shareholders will receive $50 a share, a 42% premium to Monday's closing price of $35.09 on Nasdaq.
Chicago-based SPSS provides predictive analytics software and services. Predictive analytics are used by companies to forecast future trends and spot shifts in consumer patterns, helping them control costs and use resources more wisely.
IBM said the deal will help expand its Information on Demand software portfolio and business analytics capabilities.
Shares of SPSS jumped 41 per cent in premarket trade to about $49.50. The shares had already enjoyed a gain of about 30 per cent this year.
The deal values SPSS at about 25 times analysts' estimated 2010 earnings per share, and the $50 per share price represents an all-time high for the stock, topping its previous all-time top of $47.87.
The deal is subject to SPSS shareholder approval and regulatory clearances, and is expected to close later in the second half of 2009, the companies said.
Separately, IBM said it has acquired closely-held Ounce Labs Inc, whose software helps companies reduce the risks and costs associated with security and compliance concerns. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Back in May, IBM's chief financial officer, Mark Loughridge, told the Reuters Technology Summit that the valuations of potential acquisition targets were attractive. IBM has spent $20 billion buying more than 100 companies since 2000, paying prices that range from as little as $50 million to as much as $5 billion.
Agencies
SPSS shareholders will receive $50 a share, a 42% premium to Monday's closing price of $35.09 on Nasdaq.
Chicago-based SPSS provides predictive analytics software and services. Predictive analytics are used by companies to forecast future trends and spot shifts in consumer patterns, helping them control costs and use resources more wisely.
IBM said the deal will help expand its Information on Demand software portfolio and business analytics capabilities.
Shares of SPSS jumped 41 per cent in premarket trade to about $49.50. The shares had already enjoyed a gain of about 30 per cent this year.
The deal values SPSS at about 25 times analysts' estimated 2010 earnings per share, and the $50 per share price represents an all-time high for the stock, topping its previous all-time top of $47.87.
The deal is subject to SPSS shareholder approval and regulatory clearances, and is expected to close later in the second half of 2009, the companies said.
Separately, IBM said it has acquired closely-held Ounce Labs Inc, whose software helps companies reduce the risks and costs associated with security and compliance concerns. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Back in May, IBM's chief financial officer, Mark Loughridge, told the Reuters Technology Summit that the valuations of potential acquisition targets were attractive. IBM has spent $20 billion buying more than 100 companies since 2000, paying prices that range from as little as $50 million to as much as $5 billion.
Agencies
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Will Google-Microsoft war cut down PC prices?
Google Inc's bid to compete with Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system may help lower the cost of personal computers at a time when prices are already being pinched by inexpensive netbooks.
Google said it will offer its just-announced Chrome operating system for free when it is launched in the second half of 2010, a move that could force Microsoft into a price war.
Although Windows is the dominant operating system -- installed on 90 percent of the world's PCs, Microsoft won't take Google's challenge lightly, analysts said. Its new Windows 7 operating system will be available in October.
"Microsoft's strategy is likely to be to compete on price," said Brent Williams, an analyst with the Benchmark Co. "Now there's a competitor with the muscle and the brand recognition. Google is that company."
Google said Chrome OS, which is based on the open-source Linux code, is being designed for all PCs but will debut on netbooks. It makes sense for Google to initially target the stripped-down, Web-centric netbooks, one of the only segments showing any growth in a PC market that is contracting.
Netbooks generally sell for $300 to $400, but prices are dropping as new offerings flood the market and wireless carriers offer subsidies with the purchase of a data plan.
Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu noted that while the prices on nearly all PC components have been falling, "the one thing that has not been coming down is the cost of the operating system. This is going to put some pressure on Microsoft."
Microsoft doesn't say how much it charges PC brands for Windows, but analysts estimate it gets $20 to $40 for the older XP system used in the vast majority of netbooks, and at least $150 for the current Vista system.
Wu said price competition could ultimately give a bump to PC makers' margins.
"I think overall it should improve the profitability for PC vendors. It's really a question of how much they pass on to the customers," he said.
REWRITING THE RULES
Between 20 million and 30 million netbooks are expected to be shipped this year, and the devices continue to rewrite the rules for the PC industry.
Even as heavyweights such as Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc roll out new netbooks, analysts expect new players, including Taiwan-based equipment manufacturers and carriers such as AT&T Inc, to release branded netbooks running on either Intel Corp's x86 chip platform or ARM chips.
Google said Chrome will work on either architecture.
Agencies
Google said it will offer its just-announced Chrome operating system for free when it is launched in the second half of 2010, a move that could force Microsoft into a price war.
Although Windows is the dominant operating system -- installed on 90 percent of the world's PCs, Microsoft won't take Google's challenge lightly, analysts said. Its new Windows 7 operating system will be available in October.
"Microsoft's strategy is likely to be to compete on price," said Brent Williams, an analyst with the Benchmark Co. "Now there's a competitor with the muscle and the brand recognition. Google is that company."
Google said Chrome OS, which is based on the open-source Linux code, is being designed for all PCs but will debut on netbooks. It makes sense for Google to initially target the stripped-down, Web-centric netbooks, one of the only segments showing any growth in a PC market that is contracting.
Netbooks generally sell for $300 to $400, but prices are dropping as new offerings flood the market and wireless carriers offer subsidies with the purchase of a data plan.
Kaufman Bros analyst Shaw Wu noted that while the prices on nearly all PC components have been falling, "the one thing that has not been coming down is the cost of the operating system. This is going to put some pressure on Microsoft."
Microsoft doesn't say how much it charges PC brands for Windows, but analysts estimate it gets $20 to $40 for the older XP system used in the vast majority of netbooks, and at least $150 for the current Vista system.
Wu said price competition could ultimately give a bump to PC makers' margins.
"I think overall it should improve the profitability for PC vendors. It's really a question of how much they pass on to the customers," he said.
REWRITING THE RULES
Between 20 million and 30 million netbooks are expected to be shipped this year, and the devices continue to rewrite the rules for the PC industry.
Even as heavyweights such as Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc roll out new netbooks, analysts expect new players, including Taiwan-based equipment manufacturers and carriers such as AT&T Inc, to release branded netbooks running on either Intel Corp's x86 chip platform or ARM chips.
Google said Chrome will work on either architecture.
Agencies
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Has HP retained No 1 position in the Indian PC market?
Hewlett-Packard (HP) improved its market share in the first quarter to continue its lead in the India PC personal computer (PC) space, according to technology research firm IDC.
HP captured 18.2% of the India PC market in terms of unit shipments in the January-March period, an IDC India report said. The PC maker had a 15.6% share in the previous (October-December) quarter. HP has been numero uno in the India PC market consistently every quarter over the past four years. With a market share of 9.8% in overall PC shipments, HCL Infosystems regained the second spot, after losing out to Dell in the October-December quarter. Dell slipped back to the third spot with a share of 9.7% in the first quarter this year, IDC said in a release.
The India PC market witnessed a 7% quarter-on-quarter growth in shipments in Q1 of 2009. A total of 16.79 lakh units of desktops and laptops were shipped during the January-March quarter of 2009.
Desktop PC shipments of 12.13 lakh registered a sequential growth of 9%, while laptop shipments of 4.66 lakh units grew 3% QoQ.
The research firm said the market share, over the next two quarters, would depend on how well PC vendors capitalise on opportunities in the consumer, education and government segments in India.
In Q1 2009, fourth-placed Acer’s market share dipped marginally to 7.3%. Fifth-ranked Lenovo showed a more pronounced drop — its share came down to 4.7% in Q1 2009 from 6.6% in the previous quarter.
“Moving forward, hardware in general, and PC shipments in particular, will continue to remain under pressure. Winners would gain market share and improve profitability through the right price/volume mix and optimal exploitation of supply chain efficiencies,” IDC India country manager Kapil Dev Singh said.
Economictimes
HP captured 18.2% of the India PC market in terms of unit shipments in the January-March period, an IDC India report said. The PC maker had a 15.6% share in the previous (October-December) quarter. HP has been numero uno in the India PC market consistently every quarter over the past four years. With a market share of 9.8% in overall PC shipments, HCL Infosystems regained the second spot, after losing out to Dell in the October-December quarter. Dell slipped back to the third spot with a share of 9.7% in the first quarter this year, IDC said in a release.
The India PC market witnessed a 7% quarter-on-quarter growth in shipments in Q1 of 2009. A total of 16.79 lakh units of desktops and laptops were shipped during the January-March quarter of 2009.
Desktop PC shipments of 12.13 lakh registered a sequential growth of 9%, while laptop shipments of 4.66 lakh units grew 3% QoQ.
The research firm said the market share, over the next two quarters, would depend on how well PC vendors capitalise on opportunities in the consumer, education and government segments in India.
In Q1 2009, fourth-placed Acer’s market share dipped marginally to 7.3%. Fifth-ranked Lenovo showed a more pronounced drop — its share came down to 4.7% in Q1 2009 from 6.6% in the previous quarter.
“Moving forward, hardware in general, and PC shipments in particular, will continue to remain under pressure. Winners would gain market share and improve profitability through the right price/volume mix and optimal exploitation of supply chain efficiencies,” IDC India country manager Kapil Dev Singh said.
Economictimes
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Will Larry Ellison foray into netbook market?
Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison is considering getting into the business of selling low-cost laptop computers, one of the fastest-growing sectors of the technology business.
Ellison said on Tuesday that he is looking at entering the market for so-called netbook computers after his software company completes its planned $7 billion purchase of computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc.
Sun also controls the Java computer language, which Ellison told programmers at a Java users' conference could be employed to run netbooks.
"I don't see why some of those devices shouldn't come from Sun," said Ellison, who runs the world's third-largest software maker. "There will be computers that are fundamentally based on Java."
That would put Oracle in competition with companies like Google Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc and Acer Inc, which either make netbooks or develop software for them.
The netbook phenomenon took off in 2008 to the tune of 11.7 million units, led by companies such as Acer and Asustek Computer Inc that were quick into the market. Nearly every PC vendor offers them these days.
Analysts forecast 20 million to 30 million netbooks will be sold this year, making up an ever larger part of overall laptop sales and marking one of few tech sectors still experiencing robust revenue growth.
Ellison made the comments during his first public speech since Oracle announced plans to buy Sun.
Although netbooks are relatively new, Ellison deserves some credit for their rise.
More then a decade ago he introduced a lightweight alternative to the PC known as the Network Computer, which was built primarily to connect to the Internet. The machines, which competed with ones running on Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, failed to take off after their launch in 1996.
Agencies
Ellison said on Tuesday that he is looking at entering the market for so-called netbook computers after his software company completes its planned $7 billion purchase of computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc.
Sun also controls the Java computer language, which Ellison told programmers at a Java users' conference could be employed to run netbooks.
"I don't see why some of those devices shouldn't come from Sun," said Ellison, who runs the world's third-largest software maker. "There will be computers that are fundamentally based on Java."
That would put Oracle in competition with companies like Google Inc, Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc and Acer Inc, which either make netbooks or develop software for them.
The netbook phenomenon took off in 2008 to the tune of 11.7 million units, led by companies such as Acer and Asustek Computer Inc that were quick into the market. Nearly every PC vendor offers them these days.
Analysts forecast 20 million to 30 million netbooks will be sold this year, making up an ever larger part of overall laptop sales and marking one of few tech sectors still experiencing robust revenue growth.
Ellison made the comments during his first public speech since Oracle announced plans to buy Sun.
Although netbooks are relatively new, Ellison deserves some credit for their rise.
More then a decade ago he introduced a lightweight alternative to the PC known as the Network Computer, which was built primarily to connect to the Internet. The machines, which competed with ones running on Microsoft Corp's Windows operating system, failed to take off after their launch in 1996.
Agencies
Friday, May 22, 2009
AT&T outlets to sell netbooks across USA
AT&T Inc plans to expand sales of netbook computers to all its stores in an effort to expand wireless services beyond cell
phones.
Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T's consumer business, said on Tuesday that the US phone company would directly sell netbooks from Dell Inc, Acer Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd starting this summer.
Until now, only AT&T stores in Atlanta and Philadelphia, and consumer electronics retailers RadioShack Corp and Costco, have been selling the netbooks, which come with AT&T mobile data connections.
"We're taking broadband and really making it mobile," de la Vega said at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York.
While sales of netbooks are expected to be boosted by promotions from carriers, some analysts have said that consumer enthusiasm could be muted by the requirement to sign up for two-year wireless service contracts and the $60-a-month data connection fees that come with the devices.
AT&T said in April it was testing a $40-per-month fee for 200 megabytes of data downloads to netbooks, or about 1/25th of the downloads allowed under the $60 service.
AT&T's bigger mobile rival Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, started selling netbook computers from Hewlett-Packard Co earlier this week.
Agencies
phones.
Ralph de la Vega, the head of AT&T's consumer business, said on Tuesday that the US phone company would directly sell netbooks from Dell Inc, Acer Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd starting this summer.
Until now, only AT&T stores in Atlanta and Philadelphia, and consumer electronics retailers RadioShack Corp and Costco, have been selling the netbooks, which come with AT&T mobile data connections.
"We're taking broadband and really making it mobile," de la Vega said at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York.
While sales of netbooks are expected to be boosted by promotions from carriers, some analysts have said that consumer enthusiasm could be muted by the requirement to sign up for two-year wireless service contracts and the $60-a-month data connection fees that come with the devices.
AT&T said in April it was testing a $40-per-month fee for 200 megabytes of data downloads to netbooks, or about 1/25th of the downloads allowed under the $60 service.
AT&T's bigger mobile rival Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications Inc and Vodafone Group Plc, started selling netbook computers from Hewlett-Packard Co earlier this week.
Agencies
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Have computer sales dipped by 12%; As cos cut IT spends
Personal computer (PC) sales in India fell about 11.7% during the first quarter of the calendar year to about 2.1 million units as enterprises slowed down IT spending, according to research firm Gartner.
Both desktop PC and laptop sales declined about 11% during the period, as both large enterprises and small and medium businesses delayed their IT hardware purchases.
“Cost pressure seems to have kept away enterprises from spending on IT hardware during the first quarter of 2009, while there are signs of some turnaround in the consumer sentiment,” Gartner principal analyst Diptarup Chakraborti said.
Hewlett-Packard continued to lead India’s PC market, selling about 300,000 PCs in the quarter. The PC maker, however, saw an year-on-year decline in both desktop and laptop sales during the period. HCL Infosystems (200,000) and Dell (158,000) were ranked second and third, respectively. Acer was ranked fourth.
Gartner said it expects PC sales in India to decline 3.7% year-on-year to 8.98 million units this year. The firm had projected sales of 11 million units for the calendar year in the beginning of January, but the first quarter made it revise its projection downwards.
“Production of desktops and laptops has come to near a halt in manufacturing destinations such as Taiwan,” Mr Chakraborti said. PC makers say they saw some growth in new categories, such as netbooks and higher retail sales, in the first quarter but the good news is limited to the consumer space.
“Large enterprises and small and medium businesses are not buying. The e-government projects are also in a limbo with the Model Code of Conduct in place,” Acer India chief marketing officer S Rajendran said.
With the slowdown in enterprise spending, corporate buyers are expected to account for 69% of total PC sales in 2009, down from 71% last year.
The economic slowdown has resulted in a slump in PC sales across the globe. Worldwide PC shipments declined 6.5% in the first quarter of 2009 to 67.2 million units. As per Gartner, the decline could have been steeper but for low-priced laptops such as netbooks.
Agencies
Both desktop PC and laptop sales declined about 11% during the period, as both large enterprises and small and medium businesses delayed their IT hardware purchases.
“Cost pressure seems to have kept away enterprises from spending on IT hardware during the first quarter of 2009, while there are signs of some turnaround in the consumer sentiment,” Gartner principal analyst Diptarup Chakraborti said.
Hewlett-Packard continued to lead India’s PC market, selling about 300,000 PCs in the quarter. The PC maker, however, saw an year-on-year decline in both desktop and laptop sales during the period. HCL Infosystems (200,000) and Dell (158,000) were ranked second and third, respectively. Acer was ranked fourth.
Gartner said it expects PC sales in India to decline 3.7% year-on-year to 8.98 million units this year. The firm had projected sales of 11 million units for the calendar year in the beginning of January, but the first quarter made it revise its projection downwards.
“Production of desktops and laptops has come to near a halt in manufacturing destinations such as Taiwan,” Mr Chakraborti said. PC makers say they saw some growth in new categories, such as netbooks and higher retail sales, in the first quarter but the good news is limited to the consumer space.
“Large enterprises and small and medium businesses are not buying. The e-government projects are also in a limbo with the Model Code of Conduct in place,” Acer India chief marketing officer S Rajendran said.
With the slowdown in enterprise spending, corporate buyers are expected to account for 69% of total PC sales in 2009, down from 71% last year.
The economic slowdown has resulted in a slump in PC sales across the globe. Worldwide PC shipments declined 6.5% in the first quarter of 2009 to 67.2 million units. As per Gartner, the decline could have been steeper but for low-priced laptops such as netbooks.
Agencies
Monday, May 4, 2009
Dell-Acer is attractive merger, feel analyst
The personal computer industry may be ripe for a wave of consolidation, with a marriage of Dell Inc and Acer Inc seen as a particularly smart deal, according to an influential Wall Street analyst.
"Among the 10 top PC vendors, we believe that a Dell/Acer combination makes the most sense," Sanford C. Bernstein & Co analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a client note on Friday.
If Dell were to buy Acer for a 20 percent premium, or about $5.7 billion, it would boost Dell's annual revenue growth sharply and add 12 cents a share to annual profit, he said.
The PC industry is commoditized and remains fragmented. Consolidating could help companies score better pricing from component vendors and contract manufacturers, as well as cost savings in areas such as human resources, he said.
"We view PC vendors as analogous to retailers, where our research suggests that the largest and operationally most efficient have garnered outsized profits relative to their peers," Sacconaghi wrote in his report.
Acer has a strong share of the portable computer market outside the United States, which would provide Dell with exposure to faster growth markets, he added.
Sacconaghi said buying Acer might also be beneficial to top PC maker Hewlett-Packard Co, but not as much as it would to Dell.
"While an HP-Acer combination might provide similar scale and synergy benefits, end market complementarity would not be as high," he said.
According to research firm Gartner, Dell and Acer were in a virtual tie for second place in the first quarter in market share in the United States.
Agencies
"Among the 10 top PC vendors, we believe that a Dell/Acer combination makes the most sense," Sanford C. Bernstein & Co analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a client note on Friday.
If Dell were to buy Acer for a 20 percent premium, or about $5.7 billion, it would boost Dell's annual revenue growth sharply and add 12 cents a share to annual profit, he said.
The PC industry is commoditized and remains fragmented. Consolidating could help companies score better pricing from component vendors and contract manufacturers, as well as cost savings in areas such as human resources, he said.
"We view PC vendors as analogous to retailers, where our research suggests that the largest and operationally most efficient have garnered outsized profits relative to their peers," Sacconaghi wrote in his report.
Acer has a strong share of the portable computer market outside the United States, which would provide Dell with exposure to faster growth markets, he added.
Sacconaghi said buying Acer might also be beneficial to top PC maker Hewlett-Packard Co, but not as much as it would to Dell.
"While an HP-Acer combination might provide similar scale and synergy benefits, end market complementarity would not be as high," he said.
According to research firm Gartner, Dell and Acer were in a virtual tie for second place in the first quarter in market share in the United States.
Agencies
Monday, April 27, 2009
A new class of PC Netbooks 2.0 on the way
A new class of cheaper, smaller netbook computers might upset the IT establishment this year and potentially usher in new players in a hotly competitive market.
The biggest change in the new pint-sized laptops is what they won't have: Intel Corp chips or a Microsoft Corp Windows PC operating system, which dominate netbooks today.
The new netbooks, which use less energy, will run on the low-power ARM processor platform now used in nine out of 10 mobile phones, rather than Intel's x86-based Atom chip. The UK-based ARM Holdings Plc licenses the chip technology.
As many as 10 ARM-based netbook models could hit the market this year, according to ARM, which declined to identify specific manufacturers. Major PC players and Asian contract manufacturers alike are interested, analysts say.
Enderle Group analyst Rob Enderle called the new netbooks "incredibly disruptive," saying: "This is a market that puts the existing PC structure at risk."
While analysts say it's not yet clear if consumers will embrace the ARM devices, interest has been galvanized by the emphasis on power efficiency, prices as low as $200 and the promise of anywhere, anytime computing on PCs small enough to slip into a purse.
What's sacrificed is users' familiarity with PC-based interfaces and systems and sheer processing power. The current $300-$400 Atom netbooks are already mainly good for just surfing the Web and less graphics-intensive applications.
"We're right in the middle of a huge shift in the market," said Eric Openshaw, U.S. technology leader for Deloitte LLP.
Openshaw said non-Windows netbooks will need to demonstrate a simple and accessible user interface at the application level if they hope to gain traction with consumers.
Windows XP can't run on ARM, so the new netbooks will have Linux-based software, including, analysts and industry executives say, Google Inc Android, which has been used so far in smartphones.
But don't count Microsoft out just yet. Although the software giant declined to comment when asked if it is planning an operating system for the new netbooks, analysts say it could easily enter the market if it chose.
Intel pointed out there are as yet no ARM netbooks on the market and that its Atom chip has a full year's head start.
"We're not slowing down, we fully expect competition and we continue to believe that Atom is the right choice for our customers and consumer," said spokesman Bill Calder.
NEXT WAVE
The still-evolving netbook market is growing thick with players from all over the tech sector. Wireless carriers such as AT&T Inc are helping lead the charge, while graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp, wireless chipmaker Qualcomm Inc and Freescale Semiconductor Inc have all designed ARM-based processors that can be used in netbooks.
The netbook phenomenon took off in 2008 to the tune of 11.7 million units, led by companies such as Acer Inc and Asustek Computer Inc that were quick into the market. Nearly every PC vendor offers an Intel Atom-based netbook, including Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc.
Analysts forecast 20 million to 30 million netbooks will be sold this year, making up an ever larger part of overall laptop sales and marking one of few tech sectors still experiencing robust revenue growth.
"It's definitely going to be a different sort of device than today's netbooks," said Phil Solis of ABI Research, who expects ARM netbooks to make up 15 percent of the overall netbook market in 2010.
IDC analyst Richard Shim said the first wave of netbooks brought a PC feel to bridge the gap between laptops and smartphones. ARM netbooks, he said, represent a push from the opposite direction.
"The smartphones are now moving up," he added.
It is widely expected that the Computex trade fair in Taiwan in June will see a number of announcements about ARM-based netbooks. With less expensive ARM chips and free or very cheap operating systems, the netbooks could sell for even less than $200 if, as expected, wireless carriers subsidize purchases bundled with a data plan.
Tech blogs were recently buzzing about a prototype netbook built by Taiwan contract laptop maker Wistron Corp shown at the recent CTIA show in Las Vegas. The device was based on Qualcomm's ARM-based Snapdragon platform.
Agencies
Netbooks 2.0, PC,cheaper, smaller,computers,IT,laptops,Intel,Microsoft,ARM,analysts,technology,Nvidia, Qualcomm,Freescale,Asustek,HP, Dell,IDC,
The biggest change in the new pint-sized laptops is what they won't have: Intel Corp chips or a Microsoft Corp Windows PC operating system, which dominate netbooks today.
The new netbooks, which use less energy, will run on the low-power ARM processor platform now used in nine out of 10 mobile phones, rather than Intel's x86-based Atom chip. The UK-based ARM Holdings Plc licenses the chip technology.
As many as 10 ARM-based netbook models could hit the market this year, according to ARM, which declined to identify specific manufacturers. Major PC players and Asian contract manufacturers alike are interested, analysts say.
Enderle Group analyst Rob Enderle called the new netbooks "incredibly disruptive," saying: "This is a market that puts the existing PC structure at risk."
While analysts say it's not yet clear if consumers will embrace the ARM devices, interest has been galvanized by the emphasis on power efficiency, prices as low as $200 and the promise of anywhere, anytime computing on PCs small enough to slip into a purse.
What's sacrificed is users' familiarity with PC-based interfaces and systems and sheer processing power. The current $300-$400 Atom netbooks are already mainly good for just surfing the Web and less graphics-intensive applications.
"We're right in the middle of a huge shift in the market," said Eric Openshaw, U.S. technology leader for Deloitte LLP.
Openshaw said non-Windows netbooks will need to demonstrate a simple and accessible user interface at the application level if they hope to gain traction with consumers.
Windows XP can't run on ARM, so the new netbooks will have Linux-based software, including, analysts and industry executives say, Google Inc Android, which has been used so far in smartphones.
But don't count Microsoft out just yet. Although the software giant declined to comment when asked if it is planning an operating system for the new netbooks, analysts say it could easily enter the market if it chose.
Intel pointed out there are as yet no ARM netbooks on the market and that its Atom chip has a full year's head start.
"We're not slowing down, we fully expect competition and we continue to believe that Atom is the right choice for our customers and consumer," said spokesman Bill Calder.
NEXT WAVE
The still-evolving netbook market is growing thick with players from all over the tech sector. Wireless carriers such as AT&T Inc are helping lead the charge, while graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp, wireless chipmaker Qualcomm Inc and Freescale Semiconductor Inc have all designed ARM-based processors that can be used in netbooks.
The netbook phenomenon took off in 2008 to the tune of 11.7 million units, led by companies such as Acer Inc and Asustek Computer Inc that were quick into the market. Nearly every PC vendor offers an Intel Atom-based netbook, including Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc.
Analysts forecast 20 million to 30 million netbooks will be sold this year, making up an ever larger part of overall laptop sales and marking one of few tech sectors still experiencing robust revenue growth.
"It's definitely going to be a different sort of device than today's netbooks," said Phil Solis of ABI Research, who expects ARM netbooks to make up 15 percent of the overall netbook market in 2010.
IDC analyst Richard Shim said the first wave of netbooks brought a PC feel to bridge the gap between laptops and smartphones. ARM netbooks, he said, represent a push from the opposite direction.
"The smartphones are now moving up," he added.
It is widely expected that the Computex trade fair in Taiwan in June will see a number of announcements about ARM-based netbooks. With less expensive ARM chips and free or very cheap operating systems, the netbooks could sell for even less than $200 if, as expected, wireless carriers subsidize purchases bundled with a data plan.
Tech blogs were recently buzzing about a prototype netbook built by Taiwan contract laptop maker Wistron Corp shown at the recent CTIA show in Las Vegas. The device was based on Qualcomm's ARM-based Snapdragon platform.
Agencies
Netbooks 2.0, PC,cheaper, smaller,computers,IT,laptops,Intel,Microsoft,ARM,analysts,technology,Nvidia, Qualcomm,Freescale,Asustek,HP, Dell,IDC,
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Is it tough times ahead for Indian IT firms?
Major information technology firms are expected to post a decline in revenue growth in the fourth quarter of 2008-09, primarily on account of project cancellations, say analysts.
"Indian vendors have witnessed several project cancellations during the third and fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2009. The magnitude of project cancellations is different for different vendors," domestic brokerage firm Motilal Oswal said in its India strategy report.
Along with project cancellations, delays in client decision making will cast a toll on 4Q FY-09 volumes, it said. "We expect IT companies to report quarter-on-quarter dollar revenue declines owing to stressed volumes and declining realisations. This is the second consecutive quarter where the sector will see dollar revenue degrowth," it said.
The rupee has depreciated 4.69 per cent against the US dollar during the March quarter, while on an year-on-year basis it has depreciated over 27 per cent.
"Hence, the top-line growth even in rupee terms is expected to remain flat to marginally negative on an organic basis during the quarter," brokerage firm Sharekhan said in its IT earnings preview. Meanwhile, the appreciation of the dollar against other international currencies (euro and pound sterling) would impact the dollar term revenues of the front-line IT firms.
"This is likely to have a negative impact of 2-3 per cent on the dollar term revenue growth rate as the IT companies bill around 25-30 per cent of their revenues in the pound sterling, the euro and Australian dollar," it added.
IT major Infosys would kick-start the quarterly earnings season from April 15 followed by other IT majors -- Wipro, HCL Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services.
"Forward earnings for most companies are not expected to be good. The earnings for the entire IT sector are expected to be bad and the Infosys results are likely to give a new direction to the market," Arun Kejriwal of Kejriwal Research and Investment Services said.
The Sharekhan report stated that amid global turmoil and uncertainty, investor focus would remain on FY-10 guidance. "Going forward, the street would be keenly watching the guidance for FY 2010 as the same would influence the sentiments towards the IT stocks. In rupee terms, the street expects a guidance of a flattish growth in revenues," it noted.
"The street is expecting a revenue growth of 3-4 per cent in rupee terms in FY-10 despite a five per cent y-o-y decline in dollar terms," Sharekhan added. During the January-March period, Infosys scrip has gained 15.38 per cent to Rs 1,324.10 and TCS was up 9 per cent.
While shares of Wipro fell one per cent since January 1, HCL Technologies was up 17 per cent at the end of March 31. "Technology stocks are likely to underperform the markets over the next few quarters," Sharekhan said.
According to Motilal Oswal following substantial across-the-board price cuts, IT companies are hopeful of restricting price cuts to five per cent in the March quarter. Besides, focus on off-shoring would improve the impact from declining realisations.
"We expect growth to start picking up from second half of FY-10, as clients begin to adopt off-shoring to cut costs. As the freeze in technology spending begins to lift, we believe large players would start booking volume growth," Motilal Oswal added.
The Sharekhan report stated that in terms of earnings, Infosys is likely to meet the lower end of its dollar guidance.
Besides, HCL Technologies is likely to report a revenue growth on the back of acquisition of British consultancy firm Axon, which would cast its toll on the operating profit margin of HCL.
Agencies
"Indian vendors have witnessed several project cancellations during the third and fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2009. The magnitude of project cancellations is different for different vendors," domestic brokerage firm Motilal Oswal said in its India strategy report.
Along with project cancellations, delays in client decision making will cast a toll on 4Q FY-09 volumes, it said. "We expect IT companies to report quarter-on-quarter dollar revenue declines owing to stressed volumes and declining realisations. This is the second consecutive quarter where the sector will see dollar revenue degrowth," it said.
The rupee has depreciated 4.69 per cent against the US dollar during the March quarter, while on an year-on-year basis it has depreciated over 27 per cent.
"Hence, the top-line growth even in rupee terms is expected to remain flat to marginally negative on an organic basis during the quarter," brokerage firm Sharekhan said in its IT earnings preview. Meanwhile, the appreciation of the dollar against other international currencies (euro and pound sterling) would impact the dollar term revenues of the front-line IT firms.
"This is likely to have a negative impact of 2-3 per cent on the dollar term revenue growth rate as the IT companies bill around 25-30 per cent of their revenues in the pound sterling, the euro and Australian dollar," it added.
IT major Infosys would kick-start the quarterly earnings season from April 15 followed by other IT majors -- Wipro, HCL Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services.
"Forward earnings for most companies are not expected to be good. The earnings for the entire IT sector are expected to be bad and the Infosys results are likely to give a new direction to the market," Arun Kejriwal of Kejriwal Research and Investment Services said.
The Sharekhan report stated that amid global turmoil and uncertainty, investor focus would remain on FY-10 guidance. "Going forward, the street would be keenly watching the guidance for FY 2010 as the same would influence the sentiments towards the IT stocks. In rupee terms, the street expects a guidance of a flattish growth in revenues," it noted.
"The street is expecting a revenue growth of 3-4 per cent in rupee terms in FY-10 despite a five per cent y-o-y decline in dollar terms," Sharekhan added. During the January-March period, Infosys scrip has gained 15.38 per cent to Rs 1,324.10 and TCS was up 9 per cent.
While shares of Wipro fell one per cent since January 1, HCL Technologies was up 17 per cent at the end of March 31. "Technology stocks are likely to underperform the markets over the next few quarters," Sharekhan said.
According to Motilal Oswal following substantial across-the-board price cuts, IT companies are hopeful of restricting price cuts to five per cent in the March quarter. Besides, focus on off-shoring would improve the impact from declining realisations.
"We expect growth to start picking up from second half of FY-10, as clients begin to adopt off-shoring to cut costs. As the freeze in technology spending begins to lift, we believe large players would start booking volume growth," Motilal Oswal added.
The Sharekhan report stated that in terms of earnings, Infosys is likely to meet the lower end of its dollar guidance.
Besides, HCL Technologies is likely to report a revenue growth on the back of acquisition of British consultancy firm Axon, which would cast its toll on the operating profit margin of HCL.
Agencies
Saturday, March 21, 2009
What is the latest buzz on Sun, IBM deal?
Whether it is mere speculation or a fact , the combination of two IT giants -- IBM and Sun Microsystems -- will surely alter the dynamics of the IT services market.
Of recent times, everybody is racing to offer hardware-software services and own data centres. We have seen that happen with Cisco s Unified Computing Systems, HP bought EDS, now IBM is looking at Sun.
There is no official comment from the two companies, but if the deal goes through it will give IBM a bigger control of the market and make it a fitting rival for HP, Dell and Microsoft.
Together, IBM and Sun would have about 65% of the market for server computers running the Unix operating system and 42% of the total server market, measured by the dollar value of the market.
Like Sun's Java and Solaris, the operating systems have gained substantial market share over the years. Similarly, Sun could give it some extra hardware market share specifically in servers.
However, reports indicate that Sun has not been doing well ever since the global recession began last September. Reports indicate that IBM may pay at least $6.5 billion in cash for the deal, which would be a 100% premium over Tuesday's closing price for Sun.
In last year's fourth quarter, IBM led in the global server market revenue with $4.9 billion in sales, about 36% of the market. HP was No. 2 with $3.9 billion in sales ie, about 29% of the market. Dell, with $1.4 billion in sales, and Sun, with about $1.3 billion, were a distant No. 3 and No. 4.
However, Sun's Solaris servers have a strong presence in the premium market, which is seen as more profitable. That is why that valuation may be justifiable for IBM.
But Sun's recent acquisition of StorageTek for $4.1 billion was termed as a hogwash, mainly because it did not go well with Sun and ended up in cold waters.
With customers like HDFC Bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Tata Teleservices, Sun's strong presence in the financial services and telecom domains has been the envy of its rivals.
But in case of a merger, issues like having a number of common customers and how to merge the two global brands will come up. As a Sun employee, said, Sun employees are concerned about the future of our products if the acquisition happens, since there is a significant overlap between our products and that of IBM s.
Sun's corporate communications office terms it as a mere speculation and refused to comment on the rumour . So did the IBM communication team, saying they have no reactions from their headquarters and cannot comment on the issue.
Meanwhile, T.R. Madan Mohan, managing partner, Browne and Mohan, said that the WSJ picked up the news from the blog of a Sun employee.
According to him, the deal may not come through, but given the market cap of Sun, which is just about $ 2 billion, and IBM is supposed to have quoted $ 6.5 to $ 6.8 billion that is a very good valuation for a company that has been dithering.
Similarly, Sun's strengths are in government, BFSI and telecom. In telecom, it has some marque clients such as NTTDocomo, Dialog, Telefunken, Vodafone, etc which run mission-critical applications.
IBM has not been able to move into these accounts globally, unlike the easy entry the company had with Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone, Idea in India. By acquiring Sun, IBM will get access to these critical markets and benefit from the Java/My SQL communities.
CXOtoday
Of recent times, everybody is racing to offer hardware-software services and own data centres. We have seen that happen with Cisco s Unified Computing Systems, HP bought EDS, now IBM is looking at Sun.
There is no official comment from the two companies, but if the deal goes through it will give IBM a bigger control of the market and make it a fitting rival for HP, Dell and Microsoft.
Together, IBM and Sun would have about 65% of the market for server computers running the Unix operating system and 42% of the total server market, measured by the dollar value of the market.
Like Sun's Java and Solaris, the operating systems have gained substantial market share over the years. Similarly, Sun could give it some extra hardware market share specifically in servers.
However, reports indicate that Sun has not been doing well ever since the global recession began last September. Reports indicate that IBM may pay at least $6.5 billion in cash for the deal, which would be a 100% premium over Tuesday's closing price for Sun.
In last year's fourth quarter, IBM led in the global server market revenue with $4.9 billion in sales, about 36% of the market. HP was No. 2 with $3.9 billion in sales ie, about 29% of the market. Dell, with $1.4 billion in sales, and Sun, with about $1.3 billion, were a distant No. 3 and No. 4.
However, Sun's Solaris servers have a strong presence in the premium market, which is seen as more profitable. That is why that valuation may be justifiable for IBM.
But Sun's recent acquisition of StorageTek for $4.1 billion was termed as a hogwash, mainly because it did not go well with Sun and ended up in cold waters.
With customers like HDFC Bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Tata Teleservices, Sun's strong presence in the financial services and telecom domains has been the envy of its rivals.
But in case of a merger, issues like having a number of common customers and how to merge the two global brands will come up. As a Sun employee, said, Sun employees are concerned about the future of our products if the acquisition happens, since there is a significant overlap between our products and that of IBM s.
Sun's corporate communications office terms it as a mere speculation and refused to comment on the rumour . So did the IBM communication team, saying they have no reactions from their headquarters and cannot comment on the issue.
Meanwhile, T.R. Madan Mohan, managing partner, Browne and Mohan, said that the WSJ picked up the news from the blog of a Sun employee.
According to him, the deal may not come through, but given the market cap of Sun, which is just about $ 2 billion, and IBM is supposed to have quoted $ 6.5 to $ 6.8 billion that is a very good valuation for a company that has been dithering.
Similarly, Sun's strengths are in government, BFSI and telecom. In telecom, it has some marque clients such as NTTDocomo, Dialog, Telefunken, Vodafone, etc which run mission-critical applications.
IBM has not been able to move into these accounts globally, unlike the easy entry the company had with Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone, Idea in India. By acquiring Sun, IBM will get access to these critical markets and benefit from the Java/My SQL communities.
CXOtoday
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Dell preparing for changes in senior management
Dell Inc's president of global operations, Michael Cannon, and chief marketing officer, Mark Jarvis will leave their roles in moves expected to be announced soon, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people briefed on the matter.
The people told the paper that they expect Jarvis to leave Dell, while Cannon will likely stay on in a different capacity.
Other changes are expected to focus on cutting costs and gaining tighter control over the company's global operations.
Two people with knowledge of the situation told the paper that Dell may also make cuts to its lower executive ranks.
The impending changes are intended to make managing Dell's world-wide business more efficient, people briefed on the matter said.
Operations now divided by geography will be consolidated into international business units, a shift Dell made earlier this year with its consumer division.
A Dell spokesman declined to comment to the paper on any changes, but said Dell has "been in a two-year process of positioning the company best for customers and long-term growth."
Dell could not be immediately reached for comment.
Source: Agencies
The people told the paper that they expect Jarvis to leave Dell, while Cannon will likely stay on in a different capacity.
Other changes are expected to focus on cutting costs and gaining tighter control over the company's global operations.
Two people with knowledge of the situation told the paper that Dell may also make cuts to its lower executive ranks.
The impending changes are intended to make managing Dell's world-wide business more efficient, people briefed on the matter said.
Operations now divided by geography will be consolidated into international business units, a shift Dell made earlier this year with its consumer division.
A Dell spokesman declined to comment to the paper on any changes, but said Dell has "been in a two-year process of positioning the company best for customers and long-term growth."
Dell could not be immediately reached for comment.
Source: Agencies
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Will the slowdown benefit BPO industry?
Indian industry will feel the real impact of the current meltdown in the US and other developed economies in the first quarter of 2009, with the business process industry likely to see job losses of up to a quarter of a million, said Samir Chopra, President, Business Process Industry Association of India (BPIAI).
Addressing delegates at a session on 'Surviving US Recession- Developing & Transforming Policies', Chopra, however, saw a silver lining in the ongoing recession for the BPO sector, saying that it would compel more companies in the US and Europe to look at outsourcing as a way cut their costs and improve efficiencies.
He said that urgent government measures were needed to boost the domestic business process industry, specially the medium and small enterprises. These included both fiscal and administrative measures, like extending the tax relief for the IT sector for another 5-10 years and export promotion steps, including a market development fund. The session was organised here today by BPIAI in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
According to him, the current situation had been impacted further by the recent terrorist carnage in Mumbai, which had hit sentiments across the board. "It has led to widespread cancellations of visit and even forthcoming international events. The government must now take suitable remedial steps to boost homeland security and the emergency response system."
For Anand Pillai, the current meltdown was an opportunity for the Indian BPO sector to add value to its services. This, he said, was important if they were to retain and expand their client base. Taking an optimistic view of the current slowdown, he said that a positive response and attitude would help shorten the recession cycle. "For this, it was important workplaces should engender learning, preparing employees for the turnaround, when it happens.
Citing the example of his company, HCL Technologies Ltd, Pillai said that "the core asset in any IT industry were its staff and cost-cutting through retrenchments was not the right policy to follow. The savings resulting from such job cuts are miniscule when compared to the damage they cause in terms of employee satisfaction and service delivery."
Disagreeing with Chopra that the current slowdown was temporary, Praveen Sengar, Head-Software, Services & Industry (Vertical Reserach), IDC India Ltd, said recovery from the last slowdown in 2001 had taken six quarters when the sectors affected were much less. "This time, I see a recovery only around the first half or the third quarter of 2010."
According to Sengar, the current slowdown was likely to slowdown expansion in the BPO industry, with the time taken for signing up new clients taking a longer period of time. "It will also result in greater consolidation and promote diversification into areas hitherto considered as non-core activities."
On his part, S N Zindal, former Director-General, Software Technology Parks of India, said that "it was not true that the Indian IT industry was in recession, though he agreed that there could be substantial decline in its growth rate. This is a period when the Indian IT industry, specially the BPO units, should build on their advantage by improving manpower, developing suitable infrastructure and having the right government policies in place."
Agreeing that the SMEs were the most vulnerable to any downturn, Zindal said that the right policies could help such units move up the value chain. He said that even as the slowdown continued in the US and other developed countries; such units could help tide over the crisis by expanding the domestic market.
Emphasizing the need for more reforms, Kiron Prabhakar, Partner, PAV Law Offices, said that amendments had been proposed several times to the Information Technology Act 2000, "but these are yet to see the light of the day". According to her, the other areas needing reform were Incomes Tax Act and the Stamp Duty Act apart from changes in the immigration laws.
Prabhakar also advocated doing away with the cap on royalty and knowhow fees, saying that were impeding technology transfer to Indian companies.Industry has been seeking a change in the labour regulations for quite some time and the government must ensure that these promote outsourcing, she added.
Proposing the vote of thanks, Deepak Ohlyan, Managing Committee Member, BPIAI, and Director, Dell International Services BPO, said that the recent terrorist incidents in Mumbai were a matter of great concern to Indian industry. He said that it was time for the domestic BPO industry to consolidate on its recent growth and prepare for the turnaround by upgrading both staff and services.
A panel discussion on the impact of the recent terrorist attacks on the business process industry was also organized on occasion, with participants seeking stronger government action and greater political will to tackle the situation.
Some participants in the discussion like Col K C Goswami, Consultant, Special Projects, G4S Security Services; Sanjog Gupta of NDTV, and Arjun Wallia, Founder & Chairman, Managing Director, Walsons -- A Securitas Partner Company, felt that the attacks were a wake-up call for the Indian industry to take immediate steps to improve physical security of their establishments. There was no time for complacency, they added.
Other speakers like Srinivas Pingali, EVP, Quatrro BPO Solutions Pvt Ltd, said that the BPO industry had been directly impacted by the attacks and "any such attack in the future could severely dent the prospects of the domestic industry. The immediate business impact has also been minimized by the forthcoming Christmas and New Year holidays."
Responding to a suggestion, Chopra agreed on the need for the association to come out with its own security standards for the BPO sector. This, he said, would reassure potential overseas investors and clients, even as they would enable domestic companies to be prepared for ongoing security audits and checks.
Source: Times of India
Addressing delegates at a session on 'Surviving US Recession- Developing & Transforming Policies', Chopra, however, saw a silver lining in the ongoing recession for the BPO sector, saying that it would compel more companies in the US and Europe to look at outsourcing as a way cut their costs and improve efficiencies.
He said that urgent government measures were needed to boost the domestic business process industry, specially the medium and small enterprises. These included both fiscal and administrative measures, like extending the tax relief for the IT sector for another 5-10 years and export promotion steps, including a market development fund. The session was organised here today by BPIAI in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
According to him, the current situation had been impacted further by the recent terrorist carnage in Mumbai, which had hit sentiments across the board. "It has led to widespread cancellations of visit and even forthcoming international events. The government must now take suitable remedial steps to boost homeland security and the emergency response system."
For Anand Pillai, the current meltdown was an opportunity for the Indian BPO sector to add value to its services. This, he said, was important if they were to retain and expand their client base. Taking an optimistic view of the current slowdown, he said that a positive response and attitude would help shorten the recession cycle. "For this, it was important workplaces should engender learning, preparing employees for the turnaround, when it happens.
Citing the example of his company, HCL Technologies Ltd, Pillai said that "the core asset in any IT industry were its staff and cost-cutting through retrenchments was not the right policy to follow. The savings resulting from such job cuts are miniscule when compared to the damage they cause in terms of employee satisfaction and service delivery."
Disagreeing with Chopra that the current slowdown was temporary, Praveen Sengar, Head-Software, Services & Industry (Vertical Reserach), IDC India Ltd, said recovery from the last slowdown in 2001 had taken six quarters when the sectors affected were much less. "This time, I see a recovery only around the first half or the third quarter of 2010."
According to Sengar, the current slowdown was likely to slowdown expansion in the BPO industry, with the time taken for signing up new clients taking a longer period of time. "It will also result in greater consolidation and promote diversification into areas hitherto considered as non-core activities."
On his part, S N Zindal, former Director-General, Software Technology Parks of India, said that "it was not true that the Indian IT industry was in recession, though he agreed that there could be substantial decline in its growth rate. This is a period when the Indian IT industry, specially the BPO units, should build on their advantage by improving manpower, developing suitable infrastructure and having the right government policies in place."
Agreeing that the SMEs were the most vulnerable to any downturn, Zindal said that the right policies could help such units move up the value chain. He said that even as the slowdown continued in the US and other developed countries; such units could help tide over the crisis by expanding the domestic market.
Emphasizing the need for more reforms, Kiron Prabhakar, Partner, PAV Law Offices, said that amendments had been proposed several times to the Information Technology Act 2000, "but these are yet to see the light of the day". According to her, the other areas needing reform were Incomes Tax Act and the Stamp Duty Act apart from changes in the immigration laws.
Prabhakar also advocated doing away with the cap on royalty and knowhow fees, saying that were impeding technology transfer to Indian companies.Industry has been seeking a change in the labour regulations for quite some time and the government must ensure that these promote outsourcing, she added.
Proposing the vote of thanks, Deepak Ohlyan, Managing Committee Member, BPIAI, and Director, Dell International Services BPO, said that the recent terrorist incidents in Mumbai were a matter of great concern to Indian industry. He said that it was time for the domestic BPO industry to consolidate on its recent growth and prepare for the turnaround by upgrading both staff and services.
A panel discussion on the impact of the recent terrorist attacks on the business process industry was also organized on occasion, with participants seeking stronger government action and greater political will to tackle the situation.
Some participants in the discussion like Col K C Goswami, Consultant, Special Projects, G4S Security Services; Sanjog Gupta of NDTV, and Arjun Wallia, Founder & Chairman, Managing Director, Walsons -- A Securitas Partner Company, felt that the attacks were a wake-up call for the Indian industry to take immediate steps to improve physical security of their establishments. There was no time for complacency, they added.
Other speakers like Srinivas Pingali, EVP, Quatrro BPO Solutions Pvt Ltd, said that the BPO industry had been directly impacted by the attacks and "any such attack in the future could severely dent the prospects of the domestic industry. The immediate business impact has also been minimized by the forthcoming Christmas and New Year holidays."
Responding to a suggestion, Chopra agreed on the need for the association to come out with its own security standards for the BPO sector. This, he said, would reassure potential overseas investors and clients, even as they would enable domestic companies to be prepared for ongoing security audits and checks.
Source: Times of India
Friday, November 28, 2008
Mumbai 9/11 add woes to global IT industry
India's $52 billion outsourcing industry, battered by a global financial crisis that is squeezing its business clients, faces more Mumbai terror attack short-term challenges in the wake of attacks on Mumbai that killed more than 100 people.
Industry officials said prospective overseas clients were likely to put off planned visits to India because of the attacks, even though most software and back-office services firms were operating normally.
"This will surely introduce some sort of concern among clients," said Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO of mid-sized software and R&D services provider MindTree Ltd.
"There was some expectation clients would start visiting India from January after the end of the annual holiday season. That will now get pushed away for some more time."
The software and back-office services sector, which earns billions of dollars from exports, is reeling from a global slowdown and turmoil in the financial sector, one of its major markets.
The chief financial officer at Wipro Ltd, India's No.3 software services exporter, told a Reuters India Investment Summit this week he expected a pickup in growth in the first quarter as companies firm up outsourcing plans, though many businesses will likely delay decisions and tighten costs.
India's large pool of English-speaking engineering workers and cheaper wages have helped attract outsourcing from western firms ranging from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs to Cisco Systems Inc and Nortel.
India's outsourcers compete against larger IT services firms such as IBM and Accenture.
"We have to wait for things to settle. This is a temporary aberration," said T V Mohandas Pai, a board member at Infosys Technologies, India's No.2 software services exporter.
"If countries issue advisories, it means some travel will be deferred. I think people will use technology or we'll go and visit our clients. Business will go on," he said.
"We have seen terrorist attacks happen in different parts of the world. It's unfortunate it has happened in Mumbai and I think business is confident the government and authorities will get to the bottom of it," he added. Bruce McIndoe, a travel security expert and president of iJET Intelligent Risk Systems, a private intelligence firm, said he had already advised his Mumbai terror attack corporate clients to postpone travel to Mumbai, and warned there would be "ripple effects".
Som Mittal, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, India's premier software industry lobby group, said companies were likely to be more cautious, but business would continue.
"We will not let the show stop as a result of the attacks," he said.
In July, eight small bombs hit the city of Bangalore, which is home to more than 1,500 Indian and multinational software and back-office firms. They increased security as a result.
"I think now more and more customers will be looking at what the Indian companies are doing to manage risk. They will ask what their disaster recovery and business continuity plans are," said Avinash Vashistha, chief executive of consultancy Tholons Inc.
"In the short-term, companies will see an impact as their clients stay away from travelling to India."
Industry officials said prospective overseas clients were likely to put off planned visits to India because of the attacks, even though most software and back-office services firms were operating normally.
"This will surely introduce some sort of concern among clients," said Krishnakumar Natarajan, CEO of mid-sized software and R&D services provider MindTree Ltd.
"There was some expectation clients would start visiting India from January after the end of the annual holiday season. That will now get pushed away for some more time."
The software and back-office services sector, which earns billions of dollars from exports, is reeling from a global slowdown and turmoil in the financial sector, one of its major markets.
The chief financial officer at Wipro Ltd, India's No.3 software services exporter, told a Reuters India Investment Summit this week he expected a pickup in growth in the first quarter as companies firm up outsourcing plans, though many businesses will likely delay decisions and tighten costs.
India's large pool of English-speaking engineering workers and cheaper wages have helped attract outsourcing from western firms ranging from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs to Cisco Systems Inc and Nortel.
India's outsourcers compete against larger IT services firms such as IBM and Accenture.
"We have to wait for things to settle. This is a temporary aberration," said T V Mohandas Pai, a board member at Infosys Technologies, India's No.2 software services exporter.
"If countries issue advisories, it means some travel will be deferred. I think people will use technology or we'll go and visit our clients. Business will go on," he said.
"We have seen terrorist attacks happen in different parts of the world. It's unfortunate it has happened in Mumbai and I think business is confident the government and authorities will get to the bottom of it," he added. Bruce McIndoe, a travel security expert and president of iJET Intelligent Risk Systems, a private intelligence firm, said he had already advised his Mumbai terror attack corporate clients to postpone travel to Mumbai, and warned there would be "ripple effects".
Som Mittal, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, India's premier software industry lobby group, said companies were likely to be more cautious, but business would continue.
"We will not let the show stop as a result of the attacks," he said.
In July, eight small bombs hit the city of Bangalore, which is home to more than 1,500 Indian and multinational software and back-office firms. They increased security as a result.
"I think now more and more customers will be looking at what the Indian companies are doing to manage risk. They will ask what their disaster recovery and business continuity plans are," said Avinash Vashistha, chief executive of consultancy Tholons Inc.
"In the short-term, companies will see an impact as their clients stay away from travelling to India."
Friday, October 17, 2008
India's EDA industry growing at 30pc annually
Globally, India is amongst the fastest growing markets for EDA tools, along with USA and China. With the EDA market growing here at about 30 percent annually, Hewlett Packard, a leading EDA high performance computing platform solutions provider, is targeting the fast growing chip design centers in India.
On this occasion of the HP Intel Asia-Pacific EDA seminar, Brain Lowe, Alliance Marketing Manager of HP (Cupertino) with Faisal M. Paul, Country Manager (India) – HPC & OSLO of HP (India), spoke to Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau the on various aspects of the EDA industry. Excerpts:
CIOL: What is EDA and what is its importance?
Brian Lowe: Electronic Design Automation (EDA) is the category of tools for designing and producing electronic systems ranging from printed circuit boards (PCBs) to integrated circuits (ICs). This is sometimes referred to as ECAD (electronic computer-aided design) or just CAD.
EDA is specifically for electronics, and concentrates on EDA used for designing integrated circuits. As chips grow larger and become more complex to design EDA becomes much more important at semiconductor companies.
CIOL: What are the trends in EDA?
BL: EDA computing complexity and very complex chip designs put heavy demands on computing resources such as CPU MIPS and memory. In addition, there is a need for reliable, scalable storage because of the huge chip design database.
There is also a need for setting up data centers and global grid that allow designers to tap into compute servers worldwide. This will allow the compute infrastructure to utilized very efficiently. Besides, this allows the designers and the company to scale the compute resources during various phases of a project.
There is also need to optimize data center design such as power, cooling, floor space, etc., and HP's HPC clustering technologies and blades fit the bill.
CIOL: What is HP's role in the EDA industry?
BL: Electronic product development organizations are constantly challenged to deliver advanced technology to market in less time. HP's focuses on inventiveness creates innovative high-performance technical computing solutions that allow design teams to maximize their EDA productivity.
HP has architected their technical computing solutions to make large memory capacity affordable. This allows engineers to synthesize and simulate larger sections of their designs, thereby maximizing designer productivity.
CIOL: Who is HP targeting in India and why?
Faisal M. Paul: HP provides leadership and innovation in high-performance computing (HPC) solutions for customer EDA design environments. For HP, India is among the fastest growing markets with many chip design firms setting up units in India. We are growing here at 30 percent at par with the USA and China.
HP partners with leading EDA software vendors to leverage HP's internal EDA design expertise and provide direction to HP R&D product groups.
CIOL: What does HP feel about the growing chip design industry in India?
FP: Chips have automated our lives with gizmos and designing this has been a good business proposition for Indian technology firms.
Without any hesitation, we can say that we are among the largest system integration vendors for EDA across the globe. We offer a broad range of Linux-based systems – workstations, servers and blades, together with leading edge IT data center solutions for the design environment.
CIOL: What is HP's innovation in EDA?
BL: As one of the world's largest electronic, R&D, design and manufacturing companies, HP has found innovative ways to employ technologies to address the pressures found in EDA design environments.
In fact, HP was one of the first computer vendors to embrace Linux as a practical and cost-effective alternative to proprietary solutions, including support for a myriad of EDA applications, across a wide range of platforms and flexible clustering solutions.
CIOL: Where does HP's C-class blade role come in?
BL: The HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure is said to feature the world's fastest midplane at 5TBps of aggregate throughput and the first midplane to support 4X DDR InfiniBand, the industry's fastest blade server interconnect, which delivers up to 20GBps bandwidth in each direction especially meant for high performance computing for the chip design companies.
CIOL: Where does HP stand in the blade industry today?
BL: Following the introduction of HP C Class blade for high-performance computing during the third quarter of 2006, HP has outperformed all competitors with 85 percent growth. We are at the No. 1 position according to IDC Server tracker in Q4- 2006 in x86 Blades report, followed by IBM and Dell.
CIOL: How does the chip design automation in India look like?
FP: The Indian product market has already crossed the $1 billion mark. The chip automated our lives with electronic gizmos and has been a good business proposition for Indian technology firms. Now, we are moving towards the next step, designing tools that automate the chip designing process itself.
This growth is likely to accelerate with more players entering the fray in the coming years as electronics consumption goes up significantly.
At present, there are about seven major EDA companies, both multinational and Indian, operating in the country. Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Magma, Synopsys, Circuit Sutra, Sequence Design and SoftJin are all reporting growth. The India Semiconductor Association (ISA) expects more domestic players to start providing EDA tools to chip designers.
On this occasion of the HP Intel Asia-Pacific EDA seminar, Brain Lowe, Alliance Marketing Manager of HP (Cupertino) with Faisal M. Paul, Country Manager (India) – HPC & OSLO of HP (India), spoke to Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau the on various aspects of the EDA industry. Excerpts:
CIOL: What is EDA and what is its importance?
Brian Lowe: Electronic Design Automation (EDA) is the category of tools for designing and producing electronic systems ranging from printed circuit boards (PCBs) to integrated circuits (ICs). This is sometimes referred to as ECAD (electronic computer-aided design) or just CAD.
EDA is specifically for electronics, and concentrates on EDA used for designing integrated circuits. As chips grow larger and become more complex to design EDA becomes much more important at semiconductor companies.
CIOL: What are the trends in EDA?
BL: EDA computing complexity and very complex chip designs put heavy demands on computing resources such as CPU MIPS and memory. In addition, there is a need for reliable, scalable storage because of the huge chip design database.
There is also a need for setting up data centers and global grid that allow designers to tap into compute servers worldwide. This will allow the compute infrastructure to utilized very efficiently. Besides, this allows the designers and the company to scale the compute resources during various phases of a project.
There is also need to optimize data center design such as power, cooling, floor space, etc., and HP's HPC clustering technologies and blades fit the bill.
CIOL: What is HP's role in the EDA industry?
BL: Electronic product development organizations are constantly challenged to deliver advanced technology to market in less time. HP's focuses on inventiveness creates innovative high-performance technical computing solutions that allow design teams to maximize their EDA productivity.
HP has architected their technical computing solutions to make large memory capacity affordable. This allows engineers to synthesize and simulate larger sections of their designs, thereby maximizing designer productivity.
CIOL: Who is HP targeting in India and why?
Faisal M. Paul: HP provides leadership and innovation in high-performance computing (HPC) solutions for customer EDA design environments. For HP, India is among the fastest growing markets with many chip design firms setting up units in India. We are growing here at 30 percent at par with the USA and China.
HP partners with leading EDA software vendors to leverage HP's internal EDA design expertise and provide direction to HP R&D product groups.
CIOL: What does HP feel about the growing chip design industry in India?
FP: Chips have automated our lives with gizmos and designing this has been a good business proposition for Indian technology firms.
Without any hesitation, we can say that we are among the largest system integration vendors for EDA across the globe. We offer a broad range of Linux-based systems – workstations, servers and blades, together with leading edge IT data center solutions for the design environment.
CIOL: What is HP's innovation in EDA?
BL: As one of the world's largest electronic, R&D, design and manufacturing companies, HP has found innovative ways to employ technologies to address the pressures found in EDA design environments.
In fact, HP was one of the first computer vendors to embrace Linux as a practical and cost-effective alternative to proprietary solutions, including support for a myriad of EDA applications, across a wide range of platforms and flexible clustering solutions.
CIOL: Where does HP's C-class blade role come in?
BL: The HP BladeSystem c-Class enclosure is said to feature the world's fastest midplane at 5TBps of aggregate throughput and the first midplane to support 4X DDR InfiniBand, the industry's fastest blade server interconnect, which delivers up to 20GBps bandwidth in each direction especially meant for high performance computing for the chip design companies.
CIOL: Where does HP stand in the blade industry today?
BL: Following the introduction of HP C Class blade for high-performance computing during the third quarter of 2006, HP has outperformed all competitors with 85 percent growth. We are at the No. 1 position according to IDC Server tracker in Q4- 2006 in x86 Blades report, followed by IBM and Dell.
CIOL: How does the chip design automation in India look like?
FP: The Indian product market has already crossed the $1 billion mark. The chip automated our lives with electronic gizmos and has been a good business proposition for Indian technology firms. Now, we are moving towards the next step, designing tools that automate the chip designing process itself.
This growth is likely to accelerate with more players entering the fray in the coming years as electronics consumption goes up significantly.
At present, there are about seven major EDA companies, both multinational and Indian, operating in the country. Cadence, Mentor Graphics, Magma, Synopsys, Circuit Sutra, Sequence Design and SoftJin are all reporting growth. The India Semiconductor Association (ISA) expects more domestic players to start providing EDA tools to chip designers.
Wipro among top three in desktops segment by 2008
Computer major Wipro Infotech, a division of the $3.47-billion Wipro Limited, having rolled-out its new range of environment-friendly desktops in the Indian market, is now eyeing to be among the top three in the Enterprise and SMB desktop segment by 2008. Ashutosh Vaidya, vice-president – Personal Computing Division, Wipro Infotech in an interview with Manu Sharma, spoke on wide range of issues ranging from their foray into eco-friendly computers to future plans.
CIOL: What is Greenware range of desktops and laptops? What prompted Wipro to launch these products?
Ashutosh Vaidya: Wipro has been addressing the issue of increasing e-waste and in this connection launched eco-friendly range of products as part of its responsibility towards cleaner environment. This provides a compelling proposition to our customers to adopt eco-friendly, high performance and feature-rich computing products in their enterprise.
CIOL: Where does Wipro stand in the computer market and how does it plan to grow?
AV: After having registered sales of 150,000 units in 2006 (IDC report), Wipro is now looking to achieve a target of 225,000 units in 2007. In the Enterprise/SMB segment, the company occupied number five slot with sales of 70,000 last year and is now eyeing to reach 70,000 units in 2007, thus move up among the top three. HP leads this segment followed by HCL, Dell, Lenovo and Acer. We are targeting at state banks, government agencies to reach our target.
CIOL: What are RoHS compliance products and mention its importance?
AV: RoHS or (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) is a directive from the European Union to reduce substantial e-waste in the environment. A lot of e-waste such as Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR), PVCs and heavy metals like lead, cadmium and mercury are used by computer manufacturers. Now Wipro has set up its e-waste management process called Wipro Green Computing, which spans across its product lifecycle – from designing, manufacturing right up to the final disposal.
CIOL: How does Wipro plan to reduce e-waste in India?
AV: Wipro is among the first computer manufacturing companies to launch these products in India. We will also not procure non-RoHS components from our global vendors. Besides we will roll out only RoHS compliant products by the end of this fiscal. Presently, we have eight products including four desktops and three notebooks that are 100 per cent RoHS compliant. We also have 16 centers across the country where customers can come and surrender their old computers and we will handle the disposal.
CIOL: In what way is Greenpeace involved in this project?
AV: Greenpeace, a global NGO has been at the forefront of the campaign for clean production and safe recycling. Greenpeace wants the electronics industry to design products that are free from hazardous substances, easy to recycle, and do not expose workers to health risks during production or recycling. Greenpeace is convincing individual producer responsibility (IPR) for full take-back of their products at their end of life, and go beyond the EU RoHS directive in eliminating all hazardous chemicals.
CIOL: What is Greenware range of desktops and laptops? What prompted Wipro to launch these products?
Ashutosh Vaidya: Wipro has been addressing the issue of increasing e-waste and in this connection launched eco-friendly range of products as part of its responsibility towards cleaner environment. This provides a compelling proposition to our customers to adopt eco-friendly, high performance and feature-rich computing products in their enterprise.
CIOL: Where does Wipro stand in the computer market and how does it plan to grow?
AV: After having registered sales of 150,000 units in 2006 (IDC report), Wipro is now looking to achieve a target of 225,000 units in 2007. In the Enterprise/SMB segment, the company occupied number five slot with sales of 70,000 last year and is now eyeing to reach 70,000 units in 2007, thus move up among the top three. HP leads this segment followed by HCL, Dell, Lenovo and Acer. We are targeting at state banks, government agencies to reach our target.
CIOL: What are RoHS compliance products and mention its importance?
AV: RoHS or (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) is a directive from the European Union to reduce substantial e-waste in the environment. A lot of e-waste such as Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR), PVCs and heavy metals like lead, cadmium and mercury are used by computer manufacturers. Now Wipro has set up its e-waste management process called Wipro Green Computing, which spans across its product lifecycle – from designing, manufacturing right up to the final disposal.
CIOL: How does Wipro plan to reduce e-waste in India?
AV: Wipro is among the first computer manufacturing companies to launch these products in India. We will also not procure non-RoHS components from our global vendors. Besides we will roll out only RoHS compliant products by the end of this fiscal. Presently, we have eight products including four desktops and three notebooks that are 100 per cent RoHS compliant. We also have 16 centers across the country where customers can come and surrender their old computers and we will handle the disposal.
CIOL: In what way is Greenpeace involved in this project?
AV: Greenpeace, a global NGO has been at the forefront of the campaign for clean production and safe recycling. Greenpeace wants the electronics industry to design products that are free from hazardous substances, easy to recycle, and do not expose workers to health risks during production or recycling. Greenpeace is convincing individual producer responsibility (IPR) for full take-back of their products at their end of life, and go beyond the EU RoHS directive in eliminating all hazardous chemicals.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Experience drastic cut in IT budgets
This is mainly due to drop in system innovations, reducing costs and increase in speed of doing business, says Dell
As most companies allocate about 80 percent of their IT budget for infrastructure maintenance and 20 percent for new business innovations, Dell officials feel this figure can be cut down from 80 percent to about 50 percent in the next six-seven years.
Talking to CIOL Bureau, Sameer Garde, General Manager – Services, Dell India said: "The reduction will be mainly due to the 50 percent drop in system innovations and also due to the reducing costs and increase in the speed of doing business."
Recently, India has been witnessing the introduction of two services, Dell's ProSupport for 'IT' and ProSupport for the 'End Users', aimed at improving local support for enterprise customers by improving turnaround times and offering the ability to fast-track requests.
Now Dell ProSupport assures its customers who add two to three servers every month that they should virtualize their hardware and data centers. "IT infrastructure is where it all starts, i.e., from data centers, servers to desktops. We have virtualized several customer's data centers from 200 to 15 servers thus reducing their costs," he adds.
Dell takes up turnkey projects on end-to-end solution that takes about six-eight weeks to complete. "While the assessment of the data centers takes two-six weeks the design implementation takes six-eight weeks," Garde says.
Reports indicate that Dell has invested about $6 billion in services alone during FY07, and this is likely to shoot up further with more offering in the service space. Having launched its service operations in India, Dell's ProSupport, a globally consistent, customer-driven support offering, spans Dell's commercial product and solutions portfolios.
Dell has distilled more than 10 service offerings down to two customizable packages with flexible options for service level and proactive management.
"ProSupport goes beyond reactive problem resolution and hardware support to include proactive management," says Garde. With the right options, customers can reduce technical incidents by as much as 37 percent and critical downtime by as much as 48 percent, Garde adds.
The company is targeting emerging enterprises with 200 to 1,500 employees, but don't have a help desk. "We are focusing on banking and financial institutions, BPO and also government institutions to offer our service portfolio," he says.
Dell Prosupport wing already has about 650 engineers in India and about 150 call center executives in India. The company offers same day support in 22 cities besides other services in over 300 towns across the country.
As most companies allocate about 80 percent of their IT budget for infrastructure maintenance and 20 percent for new business innovations, Dell officials feel this figure can be cut down from 80 percent to about 50 percent in the next six-seven years.
Talking to CIOL Bureau, Sameer Garde, General Manager – Services, Dell India said: "The reduction will be mainly due to the 50 percent drop in system innovations and also due to the reducing costs and increase in the speed of doing business."
Recently, India has been witnessing the introduction of two services, Dell's ProSupport for 'IT' and ProSupport for the 'End Users', aimed at improving local support for enterprise customers by improving turnaround times and offering the ability to fast-track requests.
Now Dell ProSupport assures its customers who add two to three servers every month that they should virtualize their hardware and data centers. "IT infrastructure is where it all starts, i.e., from data centers, servers to desktops. We have virtualized several customer's data centers from 200 to 15 servers thus reducing their costs," he adds.
Dell takes up turnkey projects on end-to-end solution that takes about six-eight weeks to complete. "While the assessment of the data centers takes two-six weeks the design implementation takes six-eight weeks," Garde says.
Reports indicate that Dell has invested about $6 billion in services alone during FY07, and this is likely to shoot up further with more offering in the service space. Having launched its service operations in India, Dell's ProSupport, a globally consistent, customer-driven support offering, spans Dell's commercial product and solutions portfolios.
Dell has distilled more than 10 service offerings down to two customizable packages with flexible options for service level and proactive management.
"ProSupport goes beyond reactive problem resolution and hardware support to include proactive management," says Garde. With the right options, customers can reduce technical incidents by as much as 37 percent and critical downtime by as much as 48 percent, Garde adds.
The company is targeting emerging enterprises with 200 to 1,500 employees, but don't have a help desk. "We are focusing on banking and financial institutions, BPO and also government institutions to offer our service portfolio," he says.
Dell Prosupport wing already has about 650 engineers in India and about 150 call center executives in India. The company offers same day support in 22 cities besides other services in over 300 towns across the country.
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