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Lenovo Adds Enterprise Servers
Eager to expand its horizons beyond PCs and tablets, Lenovo on Monday announced the first server from the newly created Enterprise Product Group, which deals in servers, storage, networking and software.
The ThinkServer TD330 is a tower server based on Intel’s Xeon E5-2400 processors. The server will support up to 16 processor cores and start at $929.
Lenovo last week announced the formation of the Enterprise Product Group. It is headed by Roy Guillen, vice president and general manager of the division. Guillen was previously vice president and general manager of Dell’s data center solutions (DCS) division.
Lenovo already offers low-end servers and workstations for homes and small businesses, but the new division will target small, medium-size and large enterprises. Lenovo has offered low-end servers based on Intel’s Xeon E3 and E5 processors, but the company did not respond to a request for comment on whether existing ThinkServer products would be part of the enterprise product portfolio.
“We’ve placed expanded emphasis on building our server portfolio this year, introducing products that meet the needs of all our customers — from enterprise customers to small businesses,” Guillen said in a statement.
Lenovo established itself as a PC company after it bought IBM’s PC division in 2005. Lenovo’s progress in the PC market has been rapid, with IDC placing the company as the world’s largest PC vendor for the first time in the third quarter this year. The new enterprise division will put Lenovo in competition with IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Dell, which also sell x86 servers.
Tech CEOs Ready For Tablet Wars
The biggest names in consumer technology, smacked by a string of disappointing quarterly results this month, are gearing up for what appears to be the fiercest holiday battle in years.
Investors and consumers have already largely written off flaccid quarterly numbers from tech behemoths like Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon. What counts is the next 60 days, when the biggest names in technology do battle at a near-unprecedented scale and pace.
Just last Thursday, Amazon compared its Kindle Fire with Apple’s new iPad mini, point by point, in its earnings release, an unusual forum to name rivals. Apple CEO Tim Cook compared Microsoft’s Surface tablet to an over-engineered car that can fly and float. And Microsoft went for the iPad, saying its Surface boasted twice its storage.
All three tablets will vie for the shrinking consumer dollar these holidays. By tech standards, it’s getting ugly.
“The tablet space is where the growth is. That’s why they are all fighting over it. PC shipments are down and some tablet buyers may never buy another PC,” said Michael Allenson, strategic consulting director in the Technology and Telecom Research Group at Maritz Research.
Will HP Be Broken Up?
HP has been urged by investment bank UBS to break itself up in order to boost its share price.
After years of mismanagement, HP’s stock price is far lower than it was during the heady dotcom bubble days when it pulled off one of the biggest mergers in recent years by buying Compaq. Now the firm’s stock price languishes around the $14 mark, a figure that could top $20 if HP were to break itself up, according to UBS.
UBS analysts including Steven Milunovich reported the firm could “realise greater value” by splitting itself up. The analysts added that each separate division of HP is big enough to stand on its own, claiming, “HP’s units are not minnows but rather they are whales packed into the same pond.”
HP spokesman Michael Thacker claimed the firm’s customers want a big HP, effectively allowing them to have one supplier for their IT needs, a message the firm has been playing up for a number of years now. Thacker said, “No matter how you look at it we are confident that HP is stronger together than apart. The company’s operations across business units are deeply integrated and our customers have told us that they want One HP.”
GM Adds IT Jobs
General Motors Co said on Monday it will add 1,500 jobs at a new software development center in Michigan as part of the U.S. automaker’s previously announced plan to move information technology work back into the company.
GM said it will hire the software developers, database experts, analysts and other IT positions over the next four years for the office in Warren, Michigan. It is the second of four software development centers GM plans to open, following one it announced last month in Austin, Texas.
In July, the Detroit automaker said it would reverse years of outsourcing IT work. GM now outsources about 90 percent of its IT services and provides the rest in-house, but it wants to flip those figures in the next three to five years.
The IT overhaul is spearheaded by GM Chief Information Officer Randy Mott, who outlined the plan to GM’s 1,500 IT employees in June. The former Hewlett-Packard Co executive believes the moves will make GM more efficient and productive.
GM, which has not disclosed the cost or savings of its strategy, plans to cut the automaker’s sprawling list of IT applications by at least 40 percent and move to a more standardized platform. GM will also simplify the way it transmits data.
Are Microsoft and Intel Having Issues?
Comments Off on Are Microsoft and Intel Having Issues?
Intel’s delayed software that conserves battery life is holding up development of some tablets running the latest version of Microsoft Windows.
Bloomberg said that Mirosoft hasn’t yet approved any tablets featuring an Intel processor codenamed Clover Trail because the chipmaker hasn’t produced necessary power-management software. This sort of news follows a statement by Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini that Windows 8 was not really ready to ship.
Alex Gauna, an analyst at JMP Securities LLC in San Francisco said that the PC channel is in chaos right now with no one knowing what to do. He said that the people don’t know what to design for, as they don’t know what the consumers are going to buy. Tablets have stolen their growth trajectory, plus the macro situation, plus Wintel has made a mess of their ecosystem.
PC makers, including HP, Dell and Lenovo Group Ltd. (992), are counting on the new version of Windows to help them compete in the $63.2 billion tablet market.
Oracle Agrees To Support Itanium
Oracle has committed to supporting the Intel Itanium processor on servers, ending what has been a long running feud with HP.
Oracle’s announcement is well timed because it was just a few weeks ago that a court ordered it to do just that. It did say however, that it will appeal the court’s judgment.
This should put an end to what has been a rather grubby row between Oracle and HP that centered around whether or not the two firms have an agreement about developing software for the IA-64 architecture.
The row, which was not helped by former HP CEO Mark Hurd’s abrupt firing from HP and hiring at Oracle, pulled in Intel and saw Oracle force HP into admitting that it had a secretive deal with Intel for development.
Upon hearing the court’s decision in August, Oracle couldn’t resist taking another dig at HP and its insistence that Oracle continue supporting a processor that as far as it was concerned could die.
“We know that Oracle did not give up its fundamental right to make platform engineering decisions in the 27 words HP cites from the settlement of an unrelated employment agreement. HP’s argument turns the concept of Silicon Valley ‘partnerships’ upside down,” said Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger then. “We plan to appeal the Court’s ruling while fully litigating our cross claims that HP misled both its partners and customers.”
It looks like Oracle has no choice however, and in a statement it said that it will abide by the decision of the court.
“Previously, Oracle announced that it would stop developing new versions of its software on Itanium microprocessors. For example, that meant version 12c of the Oracle database due out in early 2013 would not be available on Itanium,” it said.
Dell Names Chief As Sales Tank
Dell has snagged a former Hewlett-Packard executive to head up its server, networking and storage division, a critical area for Dell as it tries to expand its data center business and reduce its dependence on PCs.
Marius Haas was head of HP’s networking business before leaving two years ago to join an investment firm. On Tuesday he was named president of Dell’s enterprise solutions business, where he’ll oversee the engineering, development and marketing of Dell’s enterprise products.
Haas replaces Brad Anderson, who ran Dell’s enterprise division since 2005 and is now leaving the company.
Dell announced the news on the same day it reported financial results for its second quarter, which closed Aug. 3. Its profit for the period declined 18 percent from a year earlier, to US$732 million, while revenue fell 8 percent to $14.48 billion, Dell said.
Its server and networking sales were among the highlights for the quarter, up 14 percent from last year, while sales of storage products were down 13 percent. Together, the three product categories account for about one-fifth of Dell’s overall business.
Is Acer Threatened By The Surface?
Taiwanese computer manufacturer Acer has suggested that Microsoft Corp should reconsider its planned venture into the tablet market, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Acer Chairman and Chief Executive J.T. Wang, said Microsoft’s plans to launch its own “Surface” tablet in October would be “negative for the worldwide ecosystem” in computing.
Microsoft’s “Surface” tablet would enter the market in direct competition with Acer’s “Iconia” or Hewlett-Packard Co’s “TouchPad” tablets.
“We have said think it over. Think twice. It will create a huge negative impact for the ecosystem and other brands may take a negative reaction. It is not something you are good at so please think twice,” Wang is quoted as saying.
For the past two decades, Microsoft and personal computer makers have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship.
Campbell Kan, Acer’s president for personal computer global operations, said the company was debating internally how to respond to the Surface.
Lenovo Launches The IdeaPad
Although it was introduced six months ago at CES, Lenovo’s new IdeaTab has finally showed up at Lenovo’s site with a pretty decent price around $343.20. The IdeaPad comes with a 10.1-inch screen, Qualcomm’s dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU, Android 4.0 ICS and optional keyboard dock, it certainly sounds like a good deal.
The specification list for the Ideatab S2110 kicks off with a 10.1-inch IPS 1280×800 display, Qualcomm’s 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU, 1GB of RAM and Android 4.0 ICS OS. The rest of the specs include back 5MP and front 1.3MP cameras, 802.11bgn WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, and a battery capable of up to 9-10 hours of WiFi web browsing, according to Lenovo.
Same as the Asus Transformer line of tablets, Lenovo’s Ideatab S2110 also features an optional keyboard dock that gives you an extra ten hours of battery life and adds two USB ports and a card reader.
HP Wants The Court To Bully Oracle
HP has asked California Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg to order Oracle to continue developing software for its Itanium servers.
HP and Oracle have been locked in a bitter legal dispute over Oracle’s decision to stop supporting Intel’s IA-64 architecture used in Itanium processors. Now HP has asked Judge Kleinberg to order Oracle to continue developing software for its Itanium servers until it stops selling them or the contract term expires.
Oracle claims its decision to stop developing for Intel’s IA-64 architecture was spurred on by Intel having made it clear that it intended to focus on its x86 Xeon processors. Intel has said that its Xeon processors are being edged into the market presently occupied by its Itanic chips.
HP disputed Oracle’s claims of Itanium reaching the end of its life and it emerged that HP had a contract with Intel to support the chip. However, and perhaps most damaging for HP, was a release of emails between Intel and HP that seemed to suggest that Intel had enough of Itanium and that HP was having to all but strong-arm Intel into continuing to produce Itanium processors.