Lenovo Sees No Limit to Size for Phone, Servers

Lenovo Group Ltd. (992), the second-biggest personal computer maker, said the company’s cash reserves of more than $3 billion enable it to pursue an acquisition of almost any size to expand in new business areas.

The PC maker is most interested in adding assets to bolster its growing business for smartphones and tablets, and hardware such as servers and storage for business computing, Chief Financial Officer Wong Wai Ming said in a phone interview yesterday.

There is “no limit” for Lenovo when considering the size of targets, Wong said, without commenting on any specific opportunity. “We can actually look at literally every single opportunity because we obviously have the ability to finance.”

Chief Executive Officer Yang Yuanqing is pursuing a broad diversification strategy to help weather a global slump in demand for PCs. The move into smartphones, tablets, TVs and home entertainment systems is already paying off, as Lenovo reported a 90 percent jump in profit in the three months ended March, even as global PC shipments fell 13.9 percent. Now, Yang is looking to add another prong by boosting sales of the storage equipment and servers that run corporate networks.

Net income climbed to $126.9 million in the fourth quarter, from $66.8 million a year earlier, Lenovo said yesterday. That beat the $108.1 million average of eight analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Revenue rose 4.5 percent to $7.83 billion.

Lenovo, which has its headquarters in Beijing and Morrisville, North Carolina, rose 4.6 percent to HK$7.72 as of 11:13 a.m. in Hong Kong trading, headed for the highest close since March 28. The stock has climbed 9.8 percent this year, surpassing the 0.1 percent gain for the city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index.

Storage Devices

Lenovo plans to become a “relevant global player” in servers and storage devices within three years, Yang said at an earnings conference yesterday. The company last year allied itself with EMC Corp. to boost sales of storage equipment.

Talks with International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) for Lenovo to buy parts of the Armonk, New York-based company’s server division broke down after the two sides couldn’t agree on a price, a person familiar with the discussions said May 3. The person indicated at the time that talks could still resume at a later date. Wong and Yang both declined to comment on IBM.

While Lenovo can become “a very decent player” in servers by organic growth alone, the company will be open to expansion via potential acquisitions, Yang said in the interview.

‘Opportunity-Driven Growth’

“If we can get a good deal, that’s definitely a shortcut but you can’t count on that,” Yang said. “That’s opportunity-driven growth. We still need to prepare the organic growth approach.”

Lenovo wanted to pay toward the low end of the $2.5 billion-to-$4.5 billion range that Bloomberg News reported on April 19, while IBM sought a substantially higher valuation, the person familiar said May 3, without providing details. In 2005, Lenovo purchased IBM’s personal-computer unit, helping it become the world’s second-largest PC manufacturer. The servers rely on similar x86 processors.

IBM was looking to divest a portion of its business with lower profit as it seeks earnings per share of $20 by 2015, compared with $15.25 last year. The company has had trouble selling its hardware products, with a 17 percent drop in the unit’s revenue (IBM) last quarter.

Without commenting specifically on IBM, Wong said valuation is a key consideration for any purchase.

“We look at the valuation, does the acquisition add value to our business?” Wong said. “We obviously make sure that after buying the company that it will fully integrate into the Lenovo family so we will be able to leverage the full value of the asset that we acquire.”

Intel claims Haswell will offer 50 percent more battery life in laptops

Intel’s upcoming family of Core processors, code-named Haswell, will offer 50 percent more battery life in laptops than did their “Ivy Bridge” predecessors, Intel said on Thursday.

Haswell chips were designed with laptops and tablets in mind, and the main focus was on lowering power consumption, said Rani Borkar, corporate vice president and general manager of the Intel Architecture Group, in a media briefing.

The longer battery life won’t come with a cost to performance, according to Borkar. And in idle or standby mode the chips will do even better, extending battery life by up to 20 times, she said.

The improvements are vital for Intel and its PC-making partners. PC sales are in one of their worst slumps ever, with users snapping up tablets and smartphones instead for mobile computing. Any improvements Intel can offer will help keep the PC market alive.

Intel is expected to launch the new chips at the Computex trade show in Taipei next month. Haswell represents an update to Intel’s instruction set architecture, which it delivers every two years.

Intel has been talking up Haswell’s improvements for months. It says they’ll also offer double the graphics performance for laptops and up to treble the performance for desktops.

The chips are intended partly to bridge the gap between laptops and tablets, by offering longer battery life and optional detachable touchscreens and keyboards. PC makers are expected to show what they’ve managed to achieve with Haswell in Taiwan, including hybrid devices with screens that detach or fold back to make a tablet.

Intel has geared some of the Haswell chips toward tablet use as well, by reducing the power consumption of some parts to as low as 7 watts. The previous low for some of the Ivy Bridge Core chips was 10 watts. A tablet with a Core processor will offer similar battery life to a non-Intel tablet but more performance than a “content consumption” device, Borkar said.

Haswell chips achieve their low power consumption partly from an on-chip power management unit, which provides a “bird’s eye view” of energy consumption on the chip. It can dynamically adjust the power consumption in various parts of the chip to reduce the overall power draw.

Voltage regulators have been consolidated, another step to reduce power consumption that also allows smaller motherboards for Haswell chips, so they can be used in smaller devices. And Intel says a type of memory called embedded DRAM reduces the cost of building devices.

Faster interconnects on the chip also shave off some power use, according to Intel, because data is transferred more quickly, which means the processor cores can spend less time working.

AMD Rolls Out Low-Power Mobile Chips for Tablets, Ultrathin Notebooks

Advanced Micro Devices officials are looking to new lines of chips to help the company regain its footing in a compute environment that is increasingly shifting to mobile devices.

AMD is unveiling new accelerated processing units (APUs) that are aimed at tablets, low-power, ultrathin notebooks and hybrid devices that can be used as either laptops or tablets, systems that are becoming the norm for both business users and consumers, according to company officials.

In a briefing with journalists and analysts before the official launch of the chips May 23, Scott Shutter, senior product marketing manager for AMD's client notebook business, talked about an "explosion of form factors and devices" that will continue for at least the next couple of years. Users are less interested in thick notebooks with big applications and big screens, Shutter said. Instead, they're looking for thin and light mobile devices that come with smaller screens, high-resolution displays and lighter apps.

The shift away from traditional PCs to these smaller, more energy-efficient devices has had a significant impact on the tech industry and established vendors, including AMD, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Microsoft. These vendors are the stalwarts of a mainstream global PC market that is seeing sales continuing to fall off, while tablets and smartphones powered by ARM-basedsystems-on-a-chip (SoCs), running Apple's iOS and Google's Android mobile operating systems, and made by the likes of Samsung and Apple are surging.

AMD and Intel both are looking to drive up the performance and power efficiency of their x86-based chips to make them more attractive to low-power device makers. Such low-power, ultramobile devices are a key target area for AMD executives looking to bring the company back to profitability.

For months, they have been pointing to the upcoming "Temash," "Kabini" and "Richland" APUs that are based on the new "Jaguar" core as products that will help AMD become a bigger player in the low-power and ultramobile device space. Now, the company has officially announced them.

AMD is aiming the dual- and quad-core A4 and A6 Elite Mobility APUs—the Temash chips—at smaller form factors, including touch-enabled tablets, hybrid devices and notebooks that have screens smaller than 13 inches. Shutter said the 28-nanometer chips feature significantly enhanced graphics that offer a 100 percent improvement over current APUs and up to 212 percent better graphics performance per watt. In addition, AMD has driven down the power consumption to as low as 4 watts, bringing with the chips CPU performance-per-watt improvements of up to 172 percent.

"It is literally the best graphics on the planet" for these kinds of devices, he said.

The mainstream Kabini SoCs are for entry-level and small-form-factor, touch-enabled ultrathin notebooks, and come with either two or four cores and AMD's Graphics Core Next Radeon HD 8000 Series graphics. The chips offer up to 132 percent better visual performance per watt and 127 percent improved productivity performance per watt over current AMD offerings, Shutter said. They also bring 25 percent better power efficiency.

"Let's face it, ultrathin is the new normal," he said.

The Elite Performance APUs—Richland—are for premium ultrathin notebooks, featuring the best graphics and compute performance, according to Shutter. That includes up to 12 percent better productivity performance and 20 to 40 percent better visual performance over their predecessors.

In addition, the gaming performance of the APUs is 39 to 72 percent better.

AMD is positioning the new APUs against current Core and Atom chips being offered by Intel, though the larger chip maker is readying new Atom releases later this year based on its upcoming "Silvermont" microarchitecture, which Intel officials have said will bring significant performance and power consumption improvements. Next month, Intel also will release the first of its new Core "Haswell" chips, which also will offer better energy efficiency and graphics.

In response to a question, Shutter said AMD did not have any of the upcoming Intel chips for comparison purposes, but said that he didn't expect Intel's offerings to be able to outdo AMD's in graphics performance or battery life.

All of AMD's new chips will come with what officials are calling "mobile APU user experiences," features designed to make using these devices easier and more enjoyable. Among the features are AMD Gesture Control for controlling basic functions using hand gestures, Face Login for using facial-recognition technology to sign onto Windows and browser-based sites, and Screen Mirror for wirelessly sharing content on support TVs or displays. There also is Dock Port, which enables users to leverage up to four external monitors and sync to other devices via a single connection.

In addition, AllDay Power offers greater battery life and Start Now brings faster boot-up.

The new chips will be optimized for Microsoft's Windows 8 OS—including the upcoming Windows 8.1 "Blue"—but an AMD official in an interview withPCWorld left open the possibility of AMD chips eventually powering tablets running Android.

In a response to a question during the press conference, Shutter said he expected the new capabilities in the AMD chips will help Microsoft gain traction in the mobile device space with Windows 8, but said that the software giant will "have to be more aggressive against Google and iOS" with more features and better pricing.

Samsung, carriers tout first Tizen mobes for late 2013

TDC2013 You could be forgiven for thinking there's not much going on with Tizen, the Linux Foundation's open source mobile OS. It's been two years since the project was launched and there still are no Tizen devices on the market. But that's about to change – and there has been a lot happening behind the scenes, as well.

"Tizen-based products will come out very soon," Samsung executive VP Jong-Deok Choi, who cochairs the Tizen Technical Steering Group, told the audience at the second annual Tizen Developer Conference in San Francisco on Thursday.

NTT DoCoMo global marketing director Roy Sugimura said the Japanese carrier plans to release its first Tizen-based smartphone in the second half of 2013. Similarly, Orange plans to launch Tizen devices "in the back-to-school period" – meaning the end of summer – according to the company's device technical director, Frederic Dufal.

What makes this possible is the arrival of Tizen 2.1, the most mature and stable version of the platform to date. The source code and SDK for the update were released on May 17, and its developers say this version is finally fully baked.

"It's ready to be built into products and it's ready for you to build your applications against," said Mark Skarpness, director of systems engineering at Intel, another prominent member of the Tizen Association.

In addition to a variety of bug fixes and API improvements, Tizen 2.1 includes an enhanced web framework with support for the Content Security Policy 1.0 and Navigation Timing specs from the W3C; improved IDEs for web and native app development; and support for a new kind of small apps that can be embedded inside other apps, called Web Dynamic Boxes.

Tizen's developer proposition

Although Tizen 2 supports native code for performance-critical apps such as games, the preferred development platform for the OS remains HTML5 and its related web standards. So why should developers build HTML5-based apps for Tizen when there are already plenty of other mobile platforms that let them do the same thing?

According to Orange's Dufal, that's kind of the point. He explained that Orange has been able to take HTML5-based apps it built for the BlackBerry 10 platform and port them to run on Tizen in a matter of hours. Sticking to HTML5 for app development allows Orange to support a wide range of devices much more easily, he said.

Another reason to develop HTML5 apps for Tizen is that Tizen runs them very well. Dufal said the web browser bundled with Tizen 2.1 scores 492 out of 500 at HTMLtest.com, making it the most standards-compliant of the current crop of mobile browsers.

Orange's Frederic Dufal shows off the Tizen browser's web standards compliance score

But another reason to push the HTML5 app-development model is that smartphones and fondleslabs are only the tip of the iceberg for Tizen.

"If I have my mobile, then I should be able to use that device," said Dominique Hazael-Massieux, activity lead for the W3C's Mobile Web Initiative. "But if I'm in my car I should be able to do the same thing in my car."

Hazael-Massieux explained that we're already living in a world of connected devices that includes cars, gaming systems, PCs, smart TVs, ebook readers, cameras, music devices, and wearables such as smart watches and Google Glass – and in the future we'll be bringing devices online that we haven't thought of yet.

Tizen is being designed to power many of these in addition to phones and tablets. But even if they all ran Tizen, Hazael-Massieux explained, it would be impossible to maintain native apps for all of those classes of gadgets.

"The web is the platform for connected devices," he said. "It's not one of many platforms. It's the only solution you have."

There's gold in them thar apps – maybe?

Intel's Mark Skarpness

Just offering a solid developer platform isn't enough, however. Tizen needs apps, pronto. Launching with a well-stocked app store will be key to Tizen's success with customers, and with the launch of Tizen 2.1, the Tizen Association is ready to pull out all the stops.

As of Wednesday, the official Tizen app store is open for business and accepting submissions from developers at seller.tizenstore.com, and Intel's Skarpness said the Tizen partners have been working with some of the leading app developers to port their products over from other platforms.

"I know when I get a new device there are certain applications that I just expect to be there," Skarpness said, but although he name-checked prominent brands, including Facebook, Twitter, and Angry Birds, no official announcements were made.

Skarpness said mobile tools vendors have also been approached, including AppCelerator, Sencha, and the Apache Cordova Project (aka PhoneGap), as have game engine vendors, including Havok, GameSalad, Unity, and YoYo Games.

In addition, Skarpness said that the Tizen Association will soon launch the Tizen App Challenge, which will award a total of $4m in prizes to developers who port their apps to Tizen (or build new ones), spread over multiple app categories. Registration for the contest opens on June 3.

In the meantime, the Tizen platform developers will continue their work to shape Tizen into a platform that can give Android and iOS a run for their money. Skarpness said the Tizen Association is already hard at work at version 3.0 of the platform, and that the initial code is already available at Tizen.org.

Computex 2013: Memory module firms to showcase new SSDs

Taiwan-based memory module makers including Adada Technology, Transcend Information and InnoDisk all plan to showcase their latest SSD solutions for business or industrial applications at the upcoming Computex Taipei 2013 exhibition from June 4-8.

Adata will highlight its new enterprise SSD family, the SX1000L, at the show. Available in a 2.5-inch standard SATA form factor, the SX1000L implements advanced controller technology to achieve enhanced read/write performance.

The SX1000L employs static wear-leveling technology to maximize device mean time between failures (MTBF) to 1.5 million hours, providing the long-term dependability required by high density computing and heavy load server operations, according to company data.

Transcend Information plans to present a complete range of SSD solutions, including its latest SATA II 3Gb/s MSM610 mSATA mini SSD, targeted at industrial control systems.

Fully compliant with the SATA II 3Gb/s specification and built with industry-leading toggle-mode MLC NAND flash chips, the MSM610 mSATA mini SSD boasts blazing fast sequential read and write speeds up to 245 and 48 MB/s respectively. This outstanding performance translates into reduced boot up and data transfer times, superior application launch speed, and enhanced overall system responsiveness, Transcend said.

The MSM610 mSATA mini SSD measures 26.8 × 29.85 × 3.85mm and offers excellent design flexibility to manufacturers of space-restricted embedded applications, including tablets, smartphones, ultrabooks, e-book readers, navigation systems, set-top boxes, hand-held scanners, mini PCs, and other compact devices, said the company.

InnoDisk, which specializes in flash storage devices for industrial applications and embedded systems, is announcing the release of the world's first SATA device that meets SATA microSSD standards, the nanoSSD.

The nanoSSD integrates InnoDisk ID167 NAND flash controller and latest NAND flash in a JEDEC MO-276 form factor with one single ball grid array (BGA) package, which makes nanoSSD within a tiny dimension, and very easy to design in. The nanoSSD , supporting SATA III 6.0Gbp/s , enables high read/write speeds of 480 and 175 MB/s, respectively, along with lower power consumption. The nanoSSD can be incorporated into a broad range of applications, including industrial mobile devices, embedded systems, tablets, ultrabooks and high-end smartphones, revealed the company.

HP profit falls 32 percent as PC and server sales plunge

Hewlett-Packard reported a 32 percent drop in profit for its second fiscal quarter, due partly to slower sales of PCs and servers.

HP's revenue for the quarter, ended April 30, was $27.6 billion, down 10 percent from the same period last year, the company announced Wednesday.

The company is battling to turn itself around after some strategic missteps, but it's doing so against the headwinds of a shrinking PC market and lackluster economy.

Revenue from HP's massive PC division fell 20 percent in the quarter, led by a steep drop in laptop sales. Its printer division held more or less steady, with sales down 1 percent, HP said.

Business Critical Systems, which includes HP's Itanium servers, had another weak quarter, with sales down 37 percent, and sales of its industry-standard servers also declined. HP managed to eke out some small growth from its networking equipment.

Despite the poor sales, HP's earnings came in ahead of expectations on a pro forma basis, which excludes one-time costs. Pro forma earnings were $0.87 a share for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.81 a share, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

CEO Meg Whitman said in a statement she was "encouraged" by the results, which she attributed to better-than-expected performance from printer and enterprise services divisions, and to cost-cutting efforts. But she acknowledged the company has "a long way to go."

HP is on track to meet its earnings outlook for the full year, she said.

Last week, Dell reported that it too had a tough quarter. Its profits fell 79 percent, partly due to the shrinking PC market. Founder Michael Dell is also going through a tough battle to take his company private.

Sony Mobile to extend cooperation with ODM firms, says marketing executive

Dennis van Schie, global head of marketing for Sony Mobile, has commented that the firm will extend cooperation and view ODM firms as strategic partners in product development to increase flexibility in R&D and capacity.

van Schie stated that the Taiwan market is very important to Sony as customers have a high acceptance for advanced technology products. These customers are the target group for the firm, said van Schie.

van Schie added that currently Sony ranks number three in the Taiwan smartphone market, which is an achievement for the relatively small team in Taiwan. Sony plans to continue investing in the Taiwan market by expanding staff and increasing its marketing budget, said van Schie.

Sony is currently one of the top three Android smartphone brands and hopes to return to profitability in its 2013 fiscal year (April 2013-March 2014).

Sony began investing in the Firefox OS platform and is scheduled to introduce products in 2014, according to van Schie.