NEWS IN BRIEF
Daily Digest 16 October
16-10-2008
by Deirdre McArdle
PC shipments to dip in Q4: IDC | Nokia earnings drop 28pc, outlook upbeat
Global PC shipments amounted to over 80 million units for the third quarter, representing growth of 15.8 percent over 2007, slightly lower than what had been expected. That's according to the latest PC Tracker report from IDC, which says that despite the financial downturn affecting global markets, the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region showed strong growth, while the US and Japanese markets held steady. Hewlett-Packard, the market leader with an 18.8 percent share, had a solid quarter, shipping 15.1 million units and recording growth of 14.9 percent. Dell too saw double digit growth of 11.4 percent, shipping 11.4 million PCs and controlling 14.2 percent of the market. Meanwhile, third-placed Acer blew past its rivals during the quarter with over 10 million units shipped. This represented impressive growth of 86.3 percent, and enabled it to jump over Lenovo with market share of 12.5 percent. IDC isn't overly confident about the prospects for the market in the fourth quarter. Despite the fact that sales traditionally jump during the holiday season, the research firm believes that the ongoing economic turmoil, particularly in the US, will have an impact on both commercial and consumer spending.
Finnish mobile giant Nokia has posted third quarter net sales of EUR12.2 billion, a drop of 5 percent on the year-ago figure of EUR12.9 billion. Earnings per share for the quarter dropped 28 percent from EUR0.40 in the third quarter of 2007 to EUR0.29 in 2008. Nokia said it shipped 117.8 million units during the quarter, up 5 percent compared to the year-ago quarter. The average selling price of a Nokia device was EUR72, down from EUR74 in the second quarter. The Finnish firm said it had a mobile device market share of 38 percent in the quarter, down from 39 percent in 2007 and down from 40 percent in the second quarter of 2008. Looking ahead, Nokia expects its mobile device market share in the fourth quarter to be at the same level or slightly up sequentially. It predicts that industry mobile volume units will be approximately 1.26 billion in 2008, up from the 1.14 billion units Nokia had estimated for 2007.
Intel has announced it is to acquire NetEffect, a networking firm, for USD8 million. NetEffect manufactures adaptors that enable servers to link with 1Gbps and 10Gbps Ethernet connections. "The combination of Intel and NetEffect technology will allow Intel to address our customers' most important 10Gb Ethernet needs, including server virtualisation, convergence of network and storage traffic, and server compute clusters," said Tom Swinford, general manager of Intel's LAN Access Division. NetEffect, which is based in Texas, will retain its entire staff and continue to operate out of its Texas headquarters.
In a bid to target hard-to-reach young adult male voters, Barack Obama is making US political history by inserting the first presidential campaign ads into 18 online games on Microsoft's Xbox Live service. The ads will appear in games as banners or billboards and will feature an image of Obama, the slogan "Early voting has begun" and a reference to his VoteForChange.com website. Obama's site allows users to register online to vote, obtain absentee voter information and find a polling location.
Fraudsters are using the current financial downturn as a way in which to target consumers, according to security firm ESET. Phishers are sending e-mails to consumers claiming to be from respected financial institutions and taking advantage of the recent spate of acquisitions and takeovers within the banking sector. The key message in the mail asks users to "update," "validate," or "confirm" account information. Users may receive messages like: "We recently acquired the mortgage on your home and are in the process of validating account information. Please click here to update and verify your information." ESET warned consumers: "Don't click on links in the message -- even if it appears to be from your bank. Don't cut and paste a link from the message into your web browser, either. Phishers can make links look like they go one place, but actually redirect you to another."
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 