South Korea, Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Deputy Minister Jae-hong Kim :
We plan to develop Korea’s own web-based operating systems by forming a consortium of local companies.
We will forge ahead in developing a new kind of operating system, which is being seen as a next-generation product, in order to build the kind of advantage we do not enjoy in the market for smartphones and tablet PCs, which is dominated by Google and Apple.
I highly recommend the South Korean government not to get involved in developing an operating system. Instead it should step aside and simply suggest to either Samsung or LG to purchase webOS from HP.
Michael Arrington, TechCrunch:
If HP were to knock the screen quality down just a bit and figure out a cheaper storage solution, the BOM (bill of materials) on their device could be significantly lower than $200. Normally they’d retail that at $400 or more. But if instead they sold it for cost, and sold millions of them, a very robust developer network would pop up around WebOS. [...]
The problem with almost all tablets, excluding the iPad, is the display: limited viewing angles, color shifts, and touch responsiveness. Arrington assumes a display that is just a bit less would help to reduce cost, the retail price, and to sell more. Sounds like an incorrect assumption.
Would folks cough up US$200 for a crappier tablet than the current TouchPad? It’ll have to be less than the current going price of $99, to be used as an e-book reader, in the bathroom.
Microsoft’s Brandon Watson, in a letter to 500+ webOS developers who responded to his tweet, via AllThingsD:
First things first. Thank you so much for reaching out to the Windows Phone team to signal your interest in bringing your talents to our platform. To be honest, we didn’t expect this level of response, so we were caught a bit flatfooted.
I’m sure Microsoft is happy. Nokia, too.
Léo Apotheker in an interview with BBC in January 2011:
I hope one day people will say ‘this is as cool as HP’, not ‘as cool as Apple’.
The extent of changes remains uncertain at this point, but many Taiwan comapnies could be seriously hit if HP sells the PC business to Samsung Electronics, the sources said. Rumors have been circulated since first-quarter 2011 that HP has contacted Samsung about selling the PC business to the Korea-based firm, the sources from Taiwan’s supply chain added.
Chimei Innolux (CMI) and AU Optronics (AUO) could be hit hard if Samsung ended up with HP’s PC business.
In South Korea, Samsung is the biggest name in PCs selling desktops, all-in-ones, and notebooks. Acquiring the PC business from HP would gain Samsung instant access to the U.S. market.
The other plus stems from the situation in the display market. There is an oversupply. Purchasing HP’s PC business will give the LCD portion of Samsung a huge internal customer, ending the problem of having more supply than demand for its LCDs. That would mean Samsung will tap internal LCD supply before heading to either CMI or AUO.
Director of Intel’s ultrabook group Greg Welch speaks with Brooke Crothers, CNET:
We hear the same rumors and it would be remiss of us to be dismissive. We endeavor to innovate so they’ll continue to look to us as a supplier.
The launch of ultrabooks and Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS will serve as growth drivers for the notebook industry in 2012, according to Simon Lin, chairman of Taiwan-based notebook ODM Wistron.
This sounds similar to pior lofty expectations by tablet integrators. The ultrabook category leader is the Apple MacBook Air. By the time other ultrabooks hit the market in 2012, Apple will be in its third generation. That sounds similar too.
Dana Wollman, Engadget:
We’ve been around the block and reviewed enough laptops over the years to know that even among reflective displays, the AS5830′s 15.6-inch (1366 x 768) panel is particularly shiny. Have a gander at the gallery above and decide for yourselves, but in our humble opinion, the screen looks cheaper than what you’d find on other systems. As you might expect, that glare translates to uneven viewing angles. On the one hand, we were pleasantly surprised at how much we could see when watching from way off on the side. And yet, if you push the lid forward even slightly, the screen becomes too washed out to really enjoy it. This was true whether we rested the laptop on a table or on our legs. Suffice it to say, fiddling with the display until you stumble on the right angle gets old fast.
The Acer Timeline X AS5830TG-6402 sports a 15.6-inch TN LCD with an anemic 1366×768 pixel format. You see this on a 11.6-inch MacBook Air. I would think 1440×900 would be the absolute minimum, with 1680×1050 more like it.
Then there is the viewing angle problem. Most notebook product managers incorrectly assume vertical viewing angles are not very important. Well, it is: we human beings tend to change our sitting positions when working or playing. Sometimes we shift to the left or right and other times up or down. This particular TN LCD seems to have problems when we go up or down.
Kevin J. O’Brien, The New York Times:
The euro zone crisis has mobile users hanging on to their phones a little longer.
With fewer consumers buying, the Continent’s big mobile retailers have been keeping inventories low, which has brought the first-ever quarterly decline in cellphone shipments in Western Europe, said Gartner, the research firm.
According to Gartner cell phone shipments in Western Europe dropped 0.5% Q/Q to 43.57 million in Q2’11. Mobile retailer inventories have dropped from four to six weeks worth down to three to four.
There might be a Nokia effect taking place. Horace Dediu:
Two years ago Nokia sold 30% of its smartphones in Western Europe. Today it sells 15% in that market. Its unit shipments went from 5 million to about half that and its market share went from 55% to 11%. Its rank in the market went from first to fifth.
Imagine you’ve been using a Nokia phone for years. Now all of the sudden Nokia is falling off the cliff. What to do? It seems a lot are deciding to do nothing, for the time being.
Before the end of the year Nokia plans to release a smartphone running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 mobile OS. Initial acceptance of WP7 smartphones has been lukewarm in the U.S. What could Nokia do better than existing HTC and Samsung built versions?
Absolutely brilliant.
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