Weekly Digest
Weekly Digest Issue No. 552
10-02-2011
by Deirdre McArdle
HP muscles in on tablet market | Smartphone market growth rockets
iPad 2 goes into production: reports
The iPad 2 rumour mill went into overdrive this week, when the Wall Street Journal broke news suggesting that production had started on the second iteration of Apple's tablet device. The paper quotes people familiar with the iPad 2, who said it would be thinner and lighter than its predecessor. According to the same people, the new device will also feature at least one camera to enable video chat, a faster graphics processor and more memory; however, they say the screen resolution will be relatively unchanged from the original iPad.
Foxconn, which builds many of Apple's products, is also assembling the iPad 2, which the Wall Street Journal said would likely ship in the next couple of months. Reports in early December, which originated from Foxconn, slated April as possible launch month for the next device. This would fit in with Apple's practice of releasing new models of devices every 12 months. Nothing is yet known about possible pricing for the iPad 2, but Apple watchers have suggested it will have a similar price point to the iPad, which ranges from USD499 to USD829. People quoted by the Wall Street Journal said the device will be available through AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which only recently won a contract to start selling Apple's iPhone in the US.
Since it launched the iPad last April, Apple has sold nearly 15 million units and dominates the tablet market. Research revealed this week from IHS iSuppli estimates that this dominance may not last, however. It predicts that by 2013, the iPad's market share will drop to less than 50 percent of the overall tablet market.
HP muscles in on tablet market
Certainly, the iPad (and the iPad 2) is likely to face increasing competition in a market that's poised for massive growth this year. This week, PC heavyweight Hewlett-Packard unveiled its plans to enter into the fray with the launch of a tablet PC called the TouchPad.
The device features a 9.7-inch touchscreen and a front-facing camera for video calling. With the TouchPad, HP has gotten round to cashing in on its USD1.2 billion acquisition of Palm last year; the tablet is based on the Palm-developed WebOS operating system. HP is to release a Wi-Fi model of TouchPad during the summer, with 3G and 4G models expected to follow. No details of pricing have been made available.
HP also revealed details of two smartphones planned for release in the coming months, also to be based on WebOS. One of the handsets, the Veer, is said to be the size of a credit card, with a 2.6-inch screen. The other, the Pre3, is a standard sized smartphone with a 3.6-inch screen and a slide-out keyboard.
The PC giant is seen by industry commentators as a credible competitor in the tablet market. Its wealth of experience in the desktop and laptop markets, coupled with WebOS, which received good reviews when Palm launched it in 2009, make for a solid combination.
Aside from the launch of the TouchPad and the smartphones, HP ended its press conference by saying that it plans to start building desktops and laptops based on the WebOS, a worrying move for Microsoft and its Windows OS, which has long powered HP PCs.
Smartphone market growth rockets
The massive growth in the smartphone market was illustrated this week by figures released by IDC, which revealed that more smartphones were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010 than PCs. Mobile makers shipped a total of 101 million smartphones in the last three months of the year, up 87 percent from the same period a year earlier, while PC shipments reached 92 million units in the fourth quarter, up less than 3 percent on the year earlier.
For the full year, mobile makers shipped a total of 302.6 million smartphones worldwide, up 74.4 percent from the 173.5 million smartphones shipped in 2009. IDC highlighted Android's strong performance during the year, saying it helped to drive the overall market. Indeed the popularity of Android-based devices led to Samsung and HTC (both proponents of Android) significantly growing their market share during the year to 7.6 percent and 7.1 percent, up from 3.2 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively, in 2009.
As the popularity of smartphones grows, so too does their attractiveness to hackers. A report released by McAfee this week revealed that in the fourth quarter of 2010 malware targeting mobile devices jumped 46 percent from the same period in 2009. Nokia's Symbian operating platform has long been a target of cybercriminals due to its dominance in the market; however, McAfee said that Apple's iOS and Google's Android systems were increasingly targeted as they gained market share.
AOL snaps up Huffington Post
The media sector was taken by surprise this week when news broke that AOL had agreed to buy the Huffington Post for USD315 million. Under the terms of the acquisition, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington will be appointed president and editor-in-chief of a new group inside AOL, overseeing around 700 editorial employees across both the Huffington Post and AOL, including AOL's tech blogs Engadget and TechCrunch.
"The acquisition of the Huffington Post will create a next-generation American media company with global reach that combines content, community and social experiences for consumers," said Tim Armstrong, chairman and chief executive of AOL. Wall Street appears apprehensive about the deal; AOL stock fell 3.4 percent, to USD21.19, in Monday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The share price drop reflects analyst and investor concerns about how Huffington Post content can be integrated into AOL, particularly given its liberal political standpoint.
The Huffington Post website was set up six years ago by Arianna Huffington, and initially its content was primarily focused on politics. It's since expanded to include entertainment news, sports, culture and self-help. It currently has a monthly audience of nearly 25 million unique users, while AOL has around 110 million. AOL has been on a major acquisition streak over the past few months as it tries to reinvent itself as an original content creator, and boost advertising sales in the process. Late last year it bought Thing Labs, 5min Media and TechCrunch.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 