Posted 10/15/09 at 05:10:17 PM by Bart Salisbury

Gartner, Inc’s gloomy forecast of a 5.6% decline in PC sales for the third quarter of 2009 didn’t quite pan out. Instead, Gartner is reporting a modest 0.5% increase, with 80.9 million units shipped worldwide. Sales were driven by the consumer market, with its insatiable demand for low-priced mobile PCs (i.e., netbooks).

Global leaders were Hewlett-Packard, with a 19.9% share, followed by Acer (15.4%) and Dell (12.8%). Dell was, however, tops in the U.S., with a 26.2% share of the market, followed closely by Hewlett-Packard with 25.7%. Acer finished out the top three with a 13.9% share.

Gartner predicts that the introduction of Windows 7 will have little impact on PC sales for the 4th quarter. According to Gartner’s Mikako Kitagawa:  “Recent OS releases have not been a growth driver in the PC market.” But, Windows 7 could be a catalyst for an overdue hardware replacement cycle. Ms. Kitagawa expects some interest in hardware upgrades from consumers and business through the holiday season, and an impact in 2010 as the corporate market begins to react to the release of Windows 7.

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Posted 10/15/09 at 08:48:06 AM by Paul Lilly

Dell in the past 12 months has been making a concerted effort to reduce its carbon footprint and go green, but according to Newsweek, Hewlett-Packard is the greenest Fortune 500 company around. That's an interesting position to put the OEM in, considering Greenpeace ranked HP No. 14.

So why the disparity? Well, according to Gizmodo, Newsweek takes a holistic view when ranking companies, which includes greenhouse emissions, water consumption, and supply chain management. Greenpeace, on the other hand, is about the benchmarks, such as how much toxic chemicals are being used.

One specific area in which the two rankings disagree is with HP's use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardant (BFR). Greenpeace was critical of their use, while Newsweek praised the company for its diminished usage.

As for Dell? The OEM still ranked high in Newsweek's report, taking the No. 2 spot. The rest of the top 5 included, in order, Johnson & Johnson, Intel, and IBM.

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Posted 10/13/09 at 09:42:09 AM by Paul Lilly

The busy bodies at HP kicked off this week with a series of product launches, including several multi-touch capable laptops that work with Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 OS.

"We introduced our first touchscreens in 1983 and now we're on our third generation of TouchSmart models," said John Cook, vice president of desktop marketing in HP's Personal Systems Group. "Touch may very well be the best way to interact with a computer."

That last statement will be up to consumers to decide, and to help them do that, HP's TouchSmart tx2 laptop ($799) allows consumers to use two fingers to navigate through the touchscreen interfaces. Like HP's TouchSmart desktops, the tx2 comes with the abiltiy to pinch, rotate, flip, press, or drag a finger across the screen. And the 12.1-inch screen can be rotated 180 degrees for use as a tablet.

HP paid attention to the desktop market as well, releasing its third generation of touch-enabled desktop PCs. Both the all-in-one TouchSmart 300 and 600 sport widescreen displays sized 20 inches and 23 inches, respectively. Both also come with built-in touch apps, including Hulu Desktop, Netflix, Pandora, Twitter, and the HP Music Store by Rhapsody.

VentureBeat has the full scoop here.

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Posted 10/13/09 at 08:33:22 AM by Paul Lilly

Four C-notes is about the going rate for 10.1-inch netbooks with a single-core Atom N280 processor and 1GB of RAM. That doesn't sound like much, but that's because you're paying a premium for portability. If you have trouble wrapping your head around that, then HP's new Compaq-branded CQ61 may be more your style.

For the same price as a high-end netbook, the Compaq CQ61 nets you a 15.6-inch dispay powered by a dual-core AMD Sempron M100 processor (2GHz, 512KB L2 cache). Other specs include 2GB or RAM, ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics, a 160GB hard drive, a DVD burner, Windows 7 Home Premium, and a 6-cell battery.

HP didn't mention what kind of battery life you can expect from the CQ61 and we'd guess it to be nothing to write home about. But still, if you're not sold on the whole netbook thing, the CQ61 looks pretty serviceable at its price point.

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Posted 09/17/09 at 02:35:37 PM by Paul Lilly

Without much fanfare or ballyhooing, HP will begin shipping Linux on some of its new business laptops. Well, sort of. These aren't full fledged desktop distros, but instant-on Splashtop Linux that optionally loads before the main OS.

HP has long supported Linux on its servers, but this is the first time we're aware of that the OEM has gone open-source on one of its notebooks (excluding netbooks), even if it is a pre-boot environment. It will be made available on HP's upcoming ProBook 5310m laptop, which will also come with Windows 7 Starter Edition.

The ProBook and other Splashtop-based notebooks will support the full-featured Evolution email client and give users quick and easy access to Gmail or any other Web-based email service.

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Posted 09/17/09 at 09:08:30 AM by Paul Lilly

HP today unveiled a device called the DreamScreen, which the company describes as a companion to the PC. Sort of a hybrid between a full-blown computer and a digital photo frame, the DreamScreen's 10.2-inch (DreamScreen 100) or 13.3-inch (DreamScreen 130) display doesn't support multi-touch, but users can control the panels through touch-enabled controls around the screen's border.

The idea here is to give consumers quick and portable access to music streams (Pandora and HP SmartRadio), weather forecasts, Facebook updates, photo albums, and more. It also comes with 2GB of built-in memory for storing pictures, music, and even movies.

"Constant always-on access to friends, information, and entertainment is a common expectation today," said Satjiv S. Chahil, senior vice president, worldwide marekting, Personal Systems Group, HP. "With HP DreamScreen, social media, web services, and digital entertainment can be enjoyed in more areas of the home."

If this all sounds familiar, it's because Apple is rumored to be working on a similar device, which could possibly see the light of day this November. But HP has beaten Apple to the punch, and probably will have undercut Apple's price point, should Jobs and Co. release a handheld tablet.

HP says the DreamScreen is available now for $249 from online distributors, including BestBuy.com, Amazon.com, and HPDirect.com. The DreamScreen 130 is expected to be "broadly available" sometime this fall for $299.

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Posted 08/18/09 at 12:12:12 PM by Katherine Stevenson

The first word that comes to mind when you pick up HP’s 2530p is “solid.” From its heft, to its construction, to its scratch-resistant anodized aluminum display enclosure and palm rest, this notebook seems eminently rugged. HP claims that the 2530p has passed a battery of Mil-Spec tests including 26 drops from different angles at a distance of 30 inches, but we didn’t have the stomach to verify that. We will say the notebook seems up to the rigors of heavy use and regular transport. The price of this sturdiness is added weight—at three pounds, 12.7 ounces, the 2530p weighs about a pound more than the other notebooks in this roundup, although it doesn’t feel cumbersome. We’re more bothered that the battery protrudes from the notebook’s 11.1x8.5x1.5-inch body by almost an inch.

The 2530p’s keyboard feels as solid as the body, with a conventional key layout, full-size keys, and both TrackPoint and touchpad options. Small nubbins just above the palm rest ostensibly prevent the keys from abrading the screen when the notebook is shut. Like the X200s, the 2530p sports a keyboard light. An LED-lit touch-sensitive volume slider above the keypad would be handy if it weren’t so twitchy. Teleconferencers will like that the 2530p features a 2MP webcam (vs. the typical 1.3MP) and a dual-array mic. Most everyone will like the notebook’s full complement of ports and slots—our only complaint is that there are just two USB ports.

Continue reading this review after the jump.

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Posted 08/14/09 at 10:06:06 AM by Paul Lilly

Hewlett Packard is apparently looking to close out the summer with a bang. According to news and rumor site DigiTimes, the OEM has placed new orders with Quanta Computer and Compal Electronics to beef up its notebook line.

More specifically, HP is looking to stock up on 11.6-inch, 15.6-inch LED backlit, 17.3-inch, and 18.4-inch models from Quanta, and 13.3-inch, 14-inch enterprise, and 14.1-inch consumer laptops from Compal. And finally, HP has also placed an order with Flextronics International for additional 13.3-inch models.

Detailed specs on the new models isn't yet known, but if you're looking for a back-to-school notebook or ultraportable, you may want to wait until the end of the month to see what HP has in store.

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