Tag Archive for Asus

| January 30, 2024
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PC Sales Post First Quarterly Gain In Two Years

PC Sales Post First Quarterly Gain In Two YearsPC sales increased for the first time in two years. Gartner is reporting that global PC shipments for the fourth quarter of 2023 totaled 63.3 million units in. This is a 0.3% increase from the fourth quarter of 2022. However, 2023 was the worst year in PC history. PC shipments declined 14.8% in 2023. Gartner notes this is the second year with a double-digit decline. Worldwide PC shipments totaled 241.8 million units in 2023, down from 284 million in 2022.

Company2023 Shipments2023 Market Share (%)2022 Shipments2022 Market Share (%)2023-2022 Growth (%)
Lenovo59,725.024.7%69,047.024.3%-13.5%
HP Inc.52,896.021.9%55,366.019.5%-4.5%
Dell40,238.016.6%50,008.017.6%-19.5%
Apple21,877.09.0%26,825.09.4%-18.4%
Asus17,061.07.1%20,651.07.3%-17.4%
Acer15,887.06.6%18,708.06.6%-15.1%
Others34,206.014.1%43,448.015.3%-21.3%
Total241,891.00284,052.00-14.8%
Source: Gartner (January 2024)

PC shipments for all of 202 3fell 14.8% decrease from 2022.Globally, PC shipments for all of 2023 totaled 241.8 million units, a 14.8% decrease from 2022. This marks the first time that shipment volume has dipped below 250 million since 2006, when 230 million units were shipped according to Gartner.

All the vendors shipped fewer units in 2023. According to the Gartner data date, Dell (DELL) (-19.5%) and Apple (AAPL) (-18.4%) saw the largest decreases. Mikako Kitagawa, Director Analyst at Gartner said, “…  all top six vendors maintained their position without notable share gains or losses … Gartner projects that the PC market will return to annual growth in 2024.”

U.S. PC sales

U.S. PC market increased 1.8%The U.S. PC market recorded its first year-over-year growth since the second quarter of 2021. U.S. PC sales increased 1.8% in the fourth quarter of 2023. HP (HPQ) maintained the top spot in the U.S. PC market share of 27.7%. Dell came in second with 22.6% of U.S. PC market share, despite a 5% decrease for last year. ASUS (2357) lost a spectacular 23.2% of their U.S. Market Share in 23Q4. Kitagawa commented, “The solid U.S. economy helped small and midsize business spending as the segment grew steadily. Large companies were still cautious about spending, postponing PC refreshes to 2024.”

U.S. PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q23 (Thousands of Units)
Company4Q23 Shipments4Q23 Market Share (%)4Q23-4Q22 Growth (%)
HP Inc.4,66527.70%1.80%
Dell3,80522.60%-5.0%
Apple2,71616.10%14.50%
Lenovo2,65015.70%10.60%
Acer8264.90%13.20%
ASUS7334.40%-23.10%
Others1,4358.50%-12.00%
Total16,8311001.80%
Source: Gartner (January 2024)

Global PC Sales

Globally, year-over-year PC shipments were mixed.Globally, year-over-year PC shipments were mixed. The winner was Acer (TPE:2353) with an increase of 11.1% for the year. Apple, (7.2%) best, followed by HP (5.6%) and Lenovo (LNVGY) (3.2%)  were the winners for 2023.

ASUS was the big loser in 2023, with a -9.4% decrease year-over-year in PC shipments. Dell dropped -8.3% over 2023.

Worldwide PC Vendor Unit Shipment Estimates for 4Q23 (Thousands of Units)
Company4Q23 Shipments4Q23 Market Share (%)4Q23-4Q22 (%) Growth
Lenovo16,21325.60%3.2%
HP Inc.13,95422.00%5.6%
Dell9,98315.80%-8.3%
Apple6,34910.00%7.2%
ASUS4,4057.00%-9.4%
Acer3,9876.30%11.1%
Others8,47913.40%15.3%
Total63,371
Source: Gartner (January 2024)


Gartner notes that Lenovo marked its first year-over-year growth in worldwide PC shipments since the third quarter of 2021. HP Inc. had its second consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth and sequential growth in worldwide PC shipments. Meanwhile, Dell registered its seventh consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment decline.

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PC sales should pick up as many firms upgrade to Windows 11 ahead of the looming Windows 10 EOL. The scheduled end of support date for Window 10 is October 2025

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
| October 22, 2013
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More Tech Trouble at School

More Tech Trouble at SchoolIt’s not a good time for tech in schools. The security woes at school are not limited to the iPad debacle at LAUSD. (rb- You can see my coverage here – Updates since the first article – LAUSD started confiscating the iPads and delayed the district-wide roll out one year until 2015.) GigaOM’s Ki Mae Heussner writes that Guilford County Schools in North Carolina has suspended its tablet program with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp’s Amplify after reports of faulty equipment.

NC school district suspends tablet program

uspended its tablet programThe district reportedly spent $16.4 million ($299 / device + a 2-year subscription at $99 per year) of a $30 million Race to the Top grant to pay for the tablets and content. The device is a 10-inch ASUS (2357) tablet running the Google (GOOG) Jellybean Android operating system. It comes pre-loaded with content and apps curated by Amplify. It enables teachers to distribute content across a class or grade level and control the content on students’ screens.

GigaOM cites the school district’s website, which says they have sent 10% of their 15,000 devices back to Amplify because of broken screens. About 2,000 cases have also been problematic. In one instance, a student returned a defective charger, reporting that overheating caused the plastic to melt. While the district said it expected a few glitches with the rollout, school officials decided to pause the program for safety’s sake. GigaOM claims the pause is a big setback for Amplify, which launched its education-optimized tablet at hipster South by Southwest earlier this year.

NewsCorpSince its launch, skeptics have wondered how schools would respond to the privacy questions and the prospect of doing business with Amplify’s parent company News Corp. (given its phone-hacking scandal). Ms. Heussner speculates that the suspension could give schools more reason for pause when it comes to embracing the new technology.

Asus told GigaOM that out of 500,000 chargers of its kind that they have shipped globally, only the one in Guilford overheated and melted. Justin Hamilton, Amplify’s SVP of corporate communications seems to be blaming the customer. He claimed the broken screen rate in Guilford is higher than in other school districts. “We’re working very closely with the district on this and hope to have things resolved and the program back up and running very soon,” Mr. Hamilton said.

Indiana mobile security fail

circumvented the security on district-issued Apple iPadsIn Indiana, Education Week reports that between 300 and 400 students in the Center Grove school district circumvented the security devices on district-issued Apple (AAPL) iPads within hours of receiving the devices according to a report last week in the Daily Journal.

Apparently, students found ways to reprogram the iPads so they could download games and apps for social media sites, according to the report. Center Grove officials attributed the problem to their security program not being able to handle the 2,000+ devices they distributed.

spread like wildfireKeith Krueger, the CEO for the Consortium for School Networking, said such problems are increasingly common as districts deploy an increasing number of devices. “Kids and adults find ways to hack through things, and it can spread like wildfire,” he said. “It’s frustrating, and it’s a huge challenge for any district.”

Data center failures

In addition to the tablet troubles, Data Center Knowledge’s Rich Miller reports several school data center failures. According to DCK, two public school systems suffered data center failures that crippled their IT systems.

data center fire suppression systemIn Oregon, the Beaverton School District experienced several days of disruption after an errant alarm set off its data center fire suppression system. The fire suppression system damaged hard drives and servers. That left Beaverton schools unable to use email or access class lists, student schedules, and online textbooks. “It knocked all of the systems in the data center off-line,” said Steve Langford, chief technology officer. “All of the systems that staff needs to do their jobs.” District IT staff worked over the Labor Day weekend to replace the damaged systems.

In California, the Davis Unified School District started school without key IT services after the district’s servers overheated. DCK reports an air conditioner unit failed, allowing the temperature in the server room to rise to 120 degrees F. “There’s an incredible impact on everyone in the whole organization,” says the district’s Kim Wallace. “Students can’t access computers. Teachers can’t take attendance. Parents can’t email. We can’t email out.” The DCK article said staff were still troubleshooting damaged equipment and lost data.

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The best strategy, COSN’s Krueger said, is to combine the best possible security filters and other technical measures with a comprehensive responsible or acceptable use policy that students and families must sign and a commitment to enforcement. “It’s not surprising that a school district would have some breaches,” he said. “The question is how do you leverage it into a teachable moment?”

Who needs the teachable moment? Sure the kids need to understand there are real consequences for their actions but, can the politicians administrators be taught to be serious about IT? Seems to me that most of these failures are management failures. It is probable that these failures could have been reduced with proper project management.

proper project managementIt is my experience that many administrators do not recognize project management professionals. It appears they would stick with the good ole boy network and hire their less qualified friends or the professional BSer’s.

Now about project management? Modern backup system? Disaster Recovery plan?  BCP?

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| December 6, 2012
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Tablet Info

iPad thefts from Cleveland Heights-University Heights middle school students prompt community soul searching

iPad thefts from Cleveland Heights-University Heights middle school students prompt community soul searchingCleveland.com reports that iPad thefts from middle school students in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school district is causing an iPad re-think.

The school district gave 1,300 Apple (AAPL) iPad tablets to middle school students at the start of the school year. The report says students were permitted to take the iPads home as a continuing educational tool.

The experiment lasted less than three weeks because the students became targets for thieves. Between Sept. 26 and Oct. 13, a dozen middle school students had their iPads stolen while on their way to and from school, Cleveland Heights police chief Jeff Richardson said.

Since mid-October, the district has collected the tablets at the end of the school day and students no longer could take them home.

More than 130 people attended a meeting seeking answers about how to go ahead and whether crime will win out over education. The reporter writes that the meeting was meant as an information-gathering session. Police, principals, and other officials wanted to decide if the district could safely revive the “Take home iPad Plan” sometime in the near future.  The crowd reaction was mixed about how to proceed.

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Superintendent John Deasy’s $17.5M request for computer tablet funds nixed

Superintendent John Deasy's $17.5M request for computer tablet funds nixed

The Los Angles Daily News reports that the panel that oversees the spending of Los Angeles Unified’s bond revenue refused Superintendent John Deasy’s request for nearly $17.5 million to jump-start the purchase of computer tablets for every student. The Bond Oversight Committee voted 7-3 for the plan, but that was one vote short of the eight needed for passage, officials said.

The $17.5 million would have funded the first phase of his long-range technology program. The plan included the tablet pilot project at 14 secondary schools. Mr. Deasy said the tablets are needed for the district to start the new curriculum known as Common Core State Standards taking effect in 2014.

Ultimately, he wants to buy tablets for all 650,000 LAUSD students, a project estimated to cost upwards of $400 million.

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  • LAUSD Superintendent Warns Of Shorter School Year Due To Budget Crisis (losangeles.cbslocal.com)
IDC Figures Show Samsung and ASUS Challenging Apple’s Grip on the Tablet Computing Market

http://www.stripersonline.com/t/628984/check-out-what-im-doing-tonightMIT’s Technology Review pointed out new data from IDC suggest that Apple’s dominance of the global tablet computer market may be giving way. Competing tablet makers, led by Samsung (005930), gained substantial ground during the third quarter of 2012.

Apple‘s (AAPL) market share dropped from 65 percent in the second quarter to just over 50% in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Samsung’s share doubled to 18%, and Amazon (AMZN) and ASUS (2357) each saw their share rise from under five percent to around nine percent.

2012 3Q Worldwide tablet shipments

As is clear from the graph above, TR concludes that it’s too early to tell how quickly the market is diversifying. Apple’s lag was at least partly due to rumors about its plans to release the iPad Mini, which led some consumers to hold off on buying a new iPad, according to IDC. Now that the Mini is out, analysts expect Apple to have a strong fourth quarter.

The iPad Mini’s $329 starting price, however, is well above that of many Google (GOOG) Android tablets, which is why IDC’s analysts believe there is “plenty of room for Android vendors to build upon the success they achieved in the third quarter.”

Android-powered smartphones are already more popular than Apple’s iPhone in the U.S. as well as in other countries, like China

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Tablet Makers Pursue Public Schools

Tablet Makers Pursue Public SchoolsSchools are a large and growing market for Apple’s iPad. Teachers claim that tablets help students with lessons, improve memory and language skills, and cause them to act more independently. The excitement among tablet makers is almost as great. Tablet makers like Apple are pursuing public schools for more sales.

MIT’s Technology Review brings us data from IDC which says global shipments of tablets will reach 177 million this year, and 11 million of them were purchased by businesses or government of those, IDC analyst Tom Mainelli says, the “vast majority” were sold to schools.

Mr. Mainelli thinks that within a few years all U.S. students will have some access to a tablet at school. With 55 million students in the country’s schools, that’s a lot of potential sales. The article says it’s not just a one-time product push: beyond selling tablets to schools and districts, tablet makers see a chance to set up future sales by establishing brand loyalty with young users. “All these guys see huge opportunities here,” he says.

The most successful tablet maker in the education market is Apple (AAPL). In its July 2012 quarterly report, the company said it sold one million iPads to schools. TR notes that Apple hasn’t reported education numbers since then, but it did unveil a smaller, cheaper model that it expects will also appeal to students and educators: the $329 iPad Mini.

Amazon (AMZN) also highlighted its interest in the education market with the debut of Whispercast, a service to manage its Kindle e-readers en masse. Jay Marine, vice president of product management for the Kindle, the company sees the education market as “a meaningful business opportunity.”

Smaller companies are making tablets aimed specifically at the education market. Two firms are CurriculumLoft, which makes the Kuno tablet, and Brainchild, which sells the Kineo.

Brainchild CEO Jeff Cameron claims his company’s $299 tablet, which runs on Google‘s (GOOG) Android software is better than mass-market devices because it was built for educational use. TR says that, unlike most tablets, the Kineo has a replaceable battery, resulting in a longer lifespan. Its touch screen is meant to withstand spills, and it has more physical buttons than an iPad.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

Category: Tablet computing | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
| December 1, 2009
Comments Off on 1 in 3 Notebook Computers Dead Within 3 Years

1 in 3 Notebook Computers Dead Within 3 Years

1 in 3 Notebook Computers Dead Within 3 YearsThe ChannelInsider reports that SquareTrade, a provider of PC extended warranty services, studied the failure rates of the most widely used notebook computers and found that an alarming one in three notebooks will fail within three years. The SquareTrade study proved the old adage that you get what you pay for. Premium priced notebooks had a lower malfunction and failure rate than lower-priced notebooks and netbooks. 3-year failure rate by price. SquareTrade says Netbooks have a 25.1% failure rate, Entry level notebooks have a 20.6% failure rate and Premium notebooks have a 18.1% failure rate.

According to the SquareTrade report

  • HP is the market share leader in notebooks, and has the highest failure rate. Nearly 26% of its notebooks fails after three years.
  • Gateway sees 23.5% of its machines fail after three years of use.
  • Acer’s three-year failure rate is 23.3% .
  • Lenovo has more than 21% of its notebooks fail or have maintenance issues after three years of use.
  • Dell’s 3-year failure rate is 18.3%.
  • Macs have a 3-year failure rate of 17.4%.
  • Sony’s VAIOs have a 3-year failure rate of 16.8%
  • Toshiba’s 3-year failure rate is 15.7%
  • Asus has a 3-year failure rate of 15.6%.

Only 4.7% of all notebook computers failed from a hardware malfunction in the first year of ownership, that rate more than doubled to 12.7% by the end of year two, and then leaped again to 20.4% by the time three years had passed.

SquareTrade said that the increasing high failure rate was no surprise. “Laptops have a high usage rate,” Vince Tseng, the vice president of marketing, told ComputerWorld “People leave them on all the time, and notebook components are sensitive to heat. Two, they’re portable and take a lot of abuse. And three, they’re more complex than most other consumer electronics devices.”

RESCUECOM’s Computer Reliability Reportfor Q2 2009 shows similar results to SquareTrade’s results. The Syracuse NY computer support vendor reported in August 2009 that the ASUS brand of personal computers for the second time in a row, results have shown ASUS to be the newest leader in reliable personal computers.

  1. ASUS (416)
  2. APPLE (394)
  3. IBM/LENOVO (314)
  4. TOSHIBA (218)
  5. HP/COMPAQ (142)

The SquareTrade findings must have hit close to home because Lenovo corporate media relations contact Ray Gorman took some strong objections to the report. A point by point response from SquareTrade is available on their blog.

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Asus maintains it leadership position even though they introduced the Eee, an early notebook, in 2007. The challenge for Asus will be to maintain their position as they roll out more products and new models and gain corporate acceptance.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him at LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| July 1, 2008
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RIP Windows XP

Updated – 08-08-08 Business PC buyers are still overwhelmingly opting for Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows XP according to HP (HPQ). Rob Kingston, Group Manager of Commercial Product Marketing for HP said in an article in APC, “Looking into the crystal ball, I don’t think businesses will see much value in upgrading to Vista until late next year, and even so, Microsoft will probably have come out with something else by then.”

RIP Windows XPToday 06-30-08 was the last day Windows XP was officially available for purchase from retail outlets, major resellers, and OEM hardware manufacturers. That of course does not mean XP is completely gone. There is still a handful of ways to get your mitts on XP.

  • Users that have Vista Ultimate and Vista Business licenses can choose to downgrade to Windows XP if they wish. Dell (DELL) is offering the downgrade option through January 31, 2009, and HP will offer the XP downgrade option on most of its business desktops and notebooks through at least July 30, 2009.
  • Smaller software resellers will be able to sell Windows XP until January 2009, they just can’t buy any more copies.
  • Another place to look would be eBay, as always, Caveat emptor.
  • Microsoft will continue to sell XP for ultraportable laptops or Nettops such as the ASUS (2357) Eee.

Microsoft says it will continue to offer tech support for Windows XP until the end of 2009 and offer limited support in some form until 2014 by then, Microsoft should have released Windows 7, the next version of its desktop OS.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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