HP Hardware Business Drives Strong Q3 Revenue, Earnings Growth

Hewlett-Packard reported double-digit revenue growth and a 6 percent growth in profit for its third fiscal quarter of 2010, and raised its outlook for the entire year based on investments in some new technologies.

HP attributed its third fiscal quarter growth to strengths across all its product lines and across all its geographies thanks to having one of the most complete product offerings in the industry.



For its third fiscal quarter of 2010, which ended July 31, HP reported revenue of $30.7 billion, up 11.4 percent compared to the 27.6 billion it reported during the same quarter last year. Revenue grew a healthy 12 percent in the Americas.

HP also reported earnings of $1.8 billion, or 75 cents per share, up six percent from the $1.7 billion, or 69 cents per share, it reported last year.

The results reflected strong growth that highlights HP's diverse offerings and its strong position in the market which allows the company to use its financial strength to invest in a balance of growth and efficiency, said Cathie Lesjak, HP's CFO and interim CEO.


When questioned about the recent departure of former CEO, President and Chairman, Mark Hurd, an HP executive responded that his exit is having little impact on the company.






While Hurd was well-known for visiting with clients on a very frequent basis, HP has general managers working with all the company's top accounts, and is increasing the number of sales reps, said Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP's enterprise business.





As a result, customers will not see much of a change, Livermore said. "My staff and I have personal relationships with all our top accounts," she said.






Hurd left the company August 6, following the conclusion of a sexual harassment investigation in which he was found in violation of HP's Standards of Business Conduct, though not its sexual harassment policy.






Revenue for HP's Enterprise Storage and Servers (ESS) business grew 19 percent over last year to total $4.4 billion. That includes a 31 percent increase in industry standard server revenue, a 29 percent growth in blade server revenue, and a 10 percent growth in storage. However, the company's business critical systems revenue fell 15 percent as customers waited for a new release of HP's Non Stop server line, expected in the current quarter, Lesjak said.






When asked during the analyst question and answer session why HP's storage business grew only 10 percent, which was much lower than the growth rate of competitors such as EMC and NetApp, Lesjak said that many of the company's storage assets are new and relatively small, and have not had the opportunity to make a major impact on HP's storage business.






Ann Livermore, executive vice president of HP's enterprise business, pointed to such assets as the company's LeftHand scale-out storage architecture, and its new StoreOnce dedupe technology, which was introduced in June.






Livermore also said HP's ESS just came off one of its biggest quarters ever in terms of server, storage, and networking product releases. "All these things are a sign of the R&D we are doing, and will continue to do," she said.






HP's Personal Systems Group (PSG) reported revenue growth of 17 percent to reach $9.9 billion on the strength of a 12 percent growth in shipments. That includes an increase in notebook PC revenue of 10 percent and in desktop PC revenue of 27 percent. Revenue from sales to commercial clients grew 25 percent, compared to a 12 percent growth on the consumer side.






The results came from a strong PC refresh cycle combined with a 5 percent growth in average selling price compared to last year and a 1 percent growth compared to last quarter, Lesjak said.






HP's networking business also did well. Revenue from the company's ProCurve networking business grew organically by 42 percent. However, when the results of the 3Com acquisition were included, growth jumped 198 percent over last year.


Lesjak said that the networking business typically offers good margins, and so the 3Com acquisition will help with future HP results. "Now that HP has the offering we have, we have seen strong demand," she said.






HP's Image and Printing Group (IPG) reported a 9-percent growth in revenue to $6.2 billion, led by a 28 percent growth in commercial hardware and a 4 percent growth in consumer hardware revenue. Supplies revenue grew 5 percent compared to last year. HP sold 44 percent more commercial printers and 9 percent more consumer printers on a unit basis over last year.






HP's software revenue increased 2 percent to reach $863 million, with BTO software revenue up 3 percent and other software revenue down 1 percent.






Services revenue increased 1 percent to $8.6 billion, while HP Financial Services revenue fell 14 percent to $764 million despite a 3-percent increase in financing volume.






Looking forward, HP expects revenue for its fourth quarter of fiscal 201 to be between $32.5 billion and $32.7 billion, with earnings per share expected to be $1.03 to $1.05. This compares to $30.8 billion in revenue and earnings of 99 cent per share for the same period as last year.






HP also increased its outlook for all of fiscal 2010. The company expects revenue of $125.3 billion to $125.5 billion, up about 9 percent over fiscal 2009. The company also expects earnings per share for the entire year to increase by 17 percent to reach between $4.49 and $4.51.

Cisco Retains No1 Position In India WLAN Market

Cisco India has been ranked the market leader for the third consecutive year in the wireless LAN equipment market in revenues in 2009, as per IDC. It recorded a revenue market share of 19.6 percent in 2009.

“It gives us immense pleasure to be ranked No 1 by IDC for wireless LAN segment. Our realignment of business strategy and investment in team and infrastructure development has worked well for us,” said Suresh Balasubramanian, National Sales Director, Cisco Consumer Products.

“Over the past 15 months, Cisco has spruced its support infrastructure by setting up 16 RMA exchange centers across the country. “The key reason for growth has been the expansion of our channel network. We have grown our channel base to 2000 and have rapidly extended the network to smaller cities and presently have an active reseller base in 200 big and small cities,” added Balasubramanian.

Fujitsu Announces 8-Socket x86 Servers

Fujitsu has announced the global availability of the new Primergy RX900 S1 x86 eight-socket rack server to drive x86 economical benefits into the mission-critical computing realm.

The Primergy RX900 S1 offers the financial sector, public sector, and a broadening range of industries with the high-levels of reliability for scale-up applications previously dominated by expensive and proprietary RISC/Unix systems. It is combined with the service offerings and solutions of Fujitsu Dynamic Infrastructures, plus Intel Xeon 7500 processor series and the new Intel QuickPath Interconnect technology.

Pallab Talukdar, CEO Fujitsu India said, "With server virtualization now moving into the mainstream, not to mention the consolidation of resource-hungry or fat virtual machines, demand is set to grow significantly for flexible and reliable scale-up platforms that deliver a quicker return on investment, such as the Primergy RX900 S1. The proliferation of business intelligence, data warehousing applications, plus other demanding high-performance back-end databases, makes reliable scale-up performance crucial for a wide range of business sectors."

Centralized mission-critical corporate workloads can be deployed on the RX900 S1 as the rack server scales up on demand inside a single 8 U chassis, and without the need for change or re-arrangement of rack infrastructures. It comes with up to 64 processor cores, up to 2TB of main memory, plus a highly-aggregated I/O bandwidth of more than 120GB.

Driving the computing performance and speed of connectivity of Fujitsu’s new eight-socket rack server is a ‘glue-less’ design, where no additional Hardware is necessary to run all eight CPUs, therefore providing the shortest route between processors, memory modules and I/O hubs. More often, vendors simply ‘glue together’ multiple dual-socket server blades, which leads to I/O bottlenecks.

“Two market trends are combining which will drive the success of the Primergy RX900 S1. Server virtualization is moving into the mainstream, while customers are reducing operational costs by consolidating older dual- and quad-socket servers, and replacing UNIX servers in favor of industry-standard flexibility and price performance. The glue-less design of the RX900 S1, and seamless scale-up of processor, memory and I/O capacities—within a single 8U server box for added investment protection—makes it the most compelling eight-core x86 server,” Talukdar said.

D-Link Launches 3.5G Mobile Router

Network solutions provider D-Link has started shipping the D-Link myPocket 3.5G HSDPA Router, DIR-457, designed for securely connecting to mobile broadband networks.

The DIR-457 is a mobile, pocket-sized router that offers download speeds of up to 3.6Mbps when using an UMTS or HSDPA SIM card. The slim design and built-in rechargeable battery are aimed at offering portability, while offering immediate 3G network access and sharing via Wi-Fi with up to 16 clients by simply pushing the On button at the top of the device.

“The myPocket Router was essentially designed for frequent travelers and for all those demanding high speed wireless internet connection anywhere, anytime. With so many different services and technologies dependent on the Internet, this little device allows users to create a wireless connection regardless of their location,” said Jayesh Kotak, Vice President, Product Marketing, D-Link India.

Highlighting the other features of D-Link mypocket router, Kotak said, “With a built-in microSD slot sharing of files between Wi-Fi enabled devices is easy and its rechargeable battery allows for increased mobility. Further it can be used in one of two different modes, as either a USB modem or Wi-Fi router and provides flexible coverage with multiple frequency support.”

The DIR-457 myPocket 3.5G HSDPA router will be available all across India at an estimated street price of Rs 10,800 with a one year warranty.

Dell Laptop Price in India

Dell Laptops for Home Users

• Dell Inspiron 14 Price – 39,500/- Intel Core 2 duo Processor T6500, Vista home premium, 3GB DDR2 RAM, 320GB HDD, 14inch HD Display
• Dell Inspiron 15 Price – 29,900/- Intel Core duo Processor T4200, Vista Home basic, 2GB DDR2, 250GB HDD
• Dell Inspiron 15 Price – 36,900/- Intel Core 2 duo Processor T6500, Vista home premium, 3GB DDR2 RAM, 320GB HDD
• Dell Studio 15 Price – 40,900/- Intel Centrino 2 Processor P8600, Vista home premium, 3GB DDR2 RAM, 320GB HDD, 15.6″ 720p WLED (1366×768) TrueLife Display, Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
• Dell Studio 17 Price – 57,900/- Intel Centrino 2 Processor P8600, Vista home premium, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 320GB HDD, 17.0″ Widescreen WXGA+ (1440×900) CCFL Display with TrueLife, 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650
• Dell Studio XPS 13 Price – 61,900/- Intel Centrino 2 Processor P8600, Vista home premium, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 320GB HDD, 13.3″ Widescreen WXGA (1280×800) CCFL TFT Display, Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
• Dell Studio XPS 16 Price – 67,900/- Intel Centrino 2 Processor P8600, Vista home premium, 4GB DDR2 RAM, 320GB HDD, 15.6″ 1080p WUXGA (1920×1080) WLED Full HD Display, 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3670

Dell Laptops For Small Businesses

• Dell Vostro A840 – 31,500/-
• Dell Vostro 1520 – 36,750/-
• Dell Vostro 1320 – 39,150/-
• Dell Vostro 1220 – 44,250/-
• Dell Vostro 1200 – 37,250/-
• Dell Vostro 1710 – 45,150/-
• Dell Vostro A860 – 30,500/-
• Dell Vostro A840 – 29,000/-

Dell laptops for performace demanding applications

• Dell Latitude 2100 – 26,750/-
• Dell Latitude E6500 – 1,01,000/-
• Dell Latitude E6400 – 96,500/-
• Dell Latitude E5500 – 64,400/-
• Dell Latitude E5400 – 63,800/-

Latest Dell Studio laptop price in India – All prices are in Indian Rupee

Dell Studio 14 laptop price – Rs. 44,800/-

• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6400 (2.0GHz, 2MB Cache, 800 MHz FSB)
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 ion 32 bit (English)
• Microsoft Works Include Microsoft Office Home & Student 60 Days Trial Pre-install
• 1 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
• 14.1″ Widescreen WXGA CCFL (1280×800) TFT Display with TrueLife with Web Cam
• 4GB ( 2 X 2048MB ) Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
• 320GB (5400 RPM) SATA Hard Drive
• Slot Load 8X DVD+/-RW Drive with DVD+R double layer write capability
• Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
• Integrated Stereo Sound
• Intel WiFi Link 5300 (802.11a/g/n) Half Mini-card
• Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module

Dell Studio 15 laptop price – Rs. 52,000/-

• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T6400 (2GHz/ 800 FSB/ 2MB Cache)
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32 bit (English)
• Microsoft® Works (Including Microsoft®Office Home & Student 2007 60 Days Trial Pre-installed
• 1 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
• 15.6” 720p WLED (1366×768) Display with TrueLife™ and Built-in 2.0MP Web Cam
• 4GB (2X2GB) DDR2 SDRAM Memory
• 320GB SATA Hard Drive
• Slot Load 8X DVD+/-RW Drive with DVD+R double layer write capability
• 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
• Integrated Stereo Sound with Subwoofer
• Intel WiFi Link 5100 (802.11a/g/n) Half Mini-card
• Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module

Dell Studio 17 laptop price – Rs. 67,000/-

• Intel Core2 Duo Processor P8600(2.4GHz, 3MB Cache, 1066 MHz FSB)
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 ion 32 bit (English)
• Microsoft® Works (Including Microsoft®Office Home & Student 2007 60 Days Trial Pre-installed1 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
• 17” Widescreen WXGA + CCFL(1440×900) TFT Display with TrueLife with WebCam
• 4GB (2X2GB) DDR2 SDRAM Memory
• 500GB SATA Hard Drive
• Internal 8X DVD + /-RW Combination Drive with dual layer write capabilities
• ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3650 – 512MB
• Integrated Stereo Sound
• Intel WiFi Link 5100 (802.11a/g/n) Half Mini-card
• Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module

Latest Dell Inspiron laptop price/cost in India – All prices are in Indian Rupee

Dell Inspiron 14 laptop price – Rs. 40,400/-

• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6500 (2.1GHz, 800MHz FSB, 2M)
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP1 ion (English)
• Microsoft Works Include Microsoft Home & Student 60 Days Trial Pre-install
• 1 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
• 14.0 ” High Definition (1366×768) LED Display with TrueLife
• 3GB (1X1GB+1X2GB) 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
• 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 8X DVD+/-RW Drive with DVD+R double layer write capability
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD
• Intel High Definition Audio 2.0
• Dell Wireless 1397 802.11b/g Half Mini Card
• Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth

Dell Inspiron 15 laptop price – Rs. 38,500/-

• Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6400 (2GHz/ 800 FSB/ 2MB Cache)
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 ion 32 bit (English)
• Microsoft Works Include Microsoft Office Home & Student 60 Days Trial Pre-install
• 1 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
• 15.6 ” 720p WXGA (1366×768) Display with TrueLife
• 3GB (1x2GB/1x1GB) NECC Dual Channel DDR2 667MHz SDRAM Memory
• 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 8X DVD+/-RW Drive with DVD+R double layer write capability
• Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
• Intel High Definition Audio 2.0
• Dell Wireless 1397 802.11b/g Half Mini Card
• Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth

iPhone 4: New Features Thoughts & Opinions

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Lenovo Wireless Keyboard & Mouse

lenovo M90Z

Powerful, robust and secure, the ThinkCentre® M90z is the first all-in-one PC from Lenovo designed specifically for large enterprise needs. It gives a superior user experience by providing enterprise-class productivity, manageability and security.

It gives you more power, more flexibility… and more desk space.

Best killer netbooks of 2010

Exhibit

By the year 2010, netbooks are predicted to be widely used. They are growing ever more convenient, functional, and practical, and in fact, may soon become the mobile device of choice.

What are Netbooks?

Netbooks are described as mini-computers whose sizes range from 7 inches to 10 inches. The larger versions are notebooks or laptops with sizes ranging from 12 to 17 inches. Apparently with these size comparisons, you may say that portability in the netbook laptop arena goes to netbooks.

The NB305 was a favourite in 2009. The newer model uses the same stylish hardware design of its predecessor (available in blue, brown and white), but throws in the 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, a larger 250GB hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter Edition.

The new Pineview processor has enabled Toshiba to shave 100g off the NB305's weight to 1.2kg, and extend run-time with the 6-cell battery from nine hours to a remarkable 11 hours.

This works a treat with Toshiba's Sleep and Charge technology, which lets you use the netbook's battery to charge gadgets over USB even if it's hibernating or switched off.

Here's the first thing that'll strike you about this ThinkPad; it's red. If you associate red with speedy sports cars, the X100e won't disappoint.

With its Athlon Neo MV-40 processor and 2GB of RAM, this ThinkPad scored a 52 on WorldBench 6, a screaming speed for netbooks.

It's faster than most netbooks, with a larger, higher-resolution screen; a spacious keyboard; and a bigger hard drive than you'll usually find in Lilliputian laptops.

The Mini 5102 is the latest in HP's line of business-optimised netbooks, featuring a ruggedised metal chassis and design elements tailored for the office road warrior.

It does a great job of offering features that business users care about, but they come at a considerable price; the configuration: 2GB of RAM, an Atom N450 CPU, and an extended six-cell battery.

Gateway LT2118u With Intel's Atom N450 CPU and 3150 GPU at its heart, as well as 1GB of memory, a 250GB hard drive and a 10.1-inch, 1024-by-600-resolution display, Gateway's pride and joy carried on for an astounding 11 hours and 17 minutes in the battery tests.

The Asus 1201 will be their very first netbook to feature Nvidia Ion graphics, giving it 1080p HD playback and much improved gaming performance. Very recently the Asus Eee PC 1201N has shown up on a store in Hong Kong, confirming its existence.

A 12.1-inch 1366 x 768 display, running an Intel Atom N330 dual core CPU, GeForce 9400M (ION Graphics), 3GB of DDR2 RAM, 320GB hard drive.

It also has 802.11n WiFi, webcam, and a high capacity 6-cell 5200mAh battery, which should last for up to 8 hours.

The six-cell MSI U160 netbook is not just skin deep with its super smooth sleekness.

It is compact all around with its 10-inch display and 320 GB hard drive. Adding to the convenience is a 1.4 megapixel webcam, well-spaced Chiclet keyboard that reduces typing errors and the resultant clicking noise, extra wide tactile touchpad, two-channel stereo speakers and microphone, Windows 7 Starter, and the facility for wireless LAN and Bluetooth.

Promsing a 15-hour battery life, it will accompany you on your computing missions all day long. Available in fancy gold and jet black and weighing just 1 kg, this one is truly one of the finest stylish networks on the market.

No wonder, it won a product design award at the prestigious iF 2010 design awards in Germany. Probably it could be due to its ultra-slim chassis (only 19.8 mm at the thinnest point). Or the white glow of the MSI logo on the upper lid and the blue LED power switch light on the end of the display hinge.

However it's the artificial intelligence in the netbook that wins you overfrom face detection to log into your system, to automatic log off when you are away from the system for too long.

Better take a look at the list of pros and cons of these gadgets. We examine the list based on four parameters:

1. Design

Netbooks are designed for several aspects of computing needs. One may use it to connect to the Internet and to communicate with other people. Their sizes are contributory to their compactness too. When it comes to battery life, most netbooks can stay longer than notebooks making the former less dependent on charging. However, you cannot deny the fact that notebooks are multipurpose in nature allowing you to accomplish more computing tasks. Netbooks are smaller, lighter, and cheaper.

2. Applications

Running applications is also a concern for netbook and Laptop consumers. Surfing the web while one is on the go is possible with netbooks. The same is true if one wants to run basic applications like windows office.

But if one has other things to do or need to open four to five applications all at the same time, laptops are sure winners. Additionally, the larger laptop allows to edit high definition video files.

Furthermore, one may save more files in the hard disk of laptops.

3. Mobility

Both has the upper hand when it comes to mobility, but netbooks are easier to carry; a netbook typically weighs between two and three pounds. Screen sizes can range from seven inches to about 13 inches.

The keyboard is normally somewhere between 75 per cent and 85 per cent the size of a normal computer keyboard. There is a limit to how small of a netbook is practical.

A typical adult, typing on a ridiculously tiny keyboard is going to get old pretty quick. Squinting to see the text on your screen is also quite bothersome.

The future of netbooks may have us looking at lighter weight models, but it's unlikely you'll see a netbook the size of a pack of candies any time in the near future.

4. Cost

Netbooks works on the philosophy 'get as pay'. The more you pay the better specs you have. So netbooks apparently tend to be cheaper than their larger notebook counterparts.

However, there are some tasks that netbooks cannot fulfill thus more computer enthusiasts question the real price attached to the product.