Acer wants to become #1 in the laptop market
Alexandra | 4:40 pm | July 12, 2010 | Laptop News
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing Acer chairman Wang Jeng-Tang, about this very ambitious goal which, as they think, the company will be able to achieve by the end of 2010. Moreover, he said, it will be done despite the recent economic turmoil in Europe as well as the growth of labour costs in China.
Acer currently holds 13% of the global PC market, following Hewlett-Packard, which owns a 19.3% share, according to the source. Even though Acer yields to the market leader in this respect, it takes the lead in volume production of laptops. According to the Gartner Company, in the first quarter of this year the supply volume of Acer laptops was 9.49 mln while the Hewlett-Packard produced only 9.47 mln. In the third quarter Acer is expecting the growth of 10—15% in comparison with the second quarter.
Chairman Wang expressed hope that very soon Acer won’t have any feasible competition on the PC market. Positive vibes are also being felt on the desktop front, where Acer aims to shift 10 million units this year, while a decent $15 million is being invested into “developing a a smartphone platform based on Google ’s Android. Of course Acer’s “thrifty” strategy is not exactly tailored for tough economic times but it can be seen as the company response to HP’s ebullient $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm, but one thing’s for sure: PC vendors are hungry for some of that sweet smartphone pie.
Laptop as canvas for creative urge
Alexandra | 12:56 am | June 29, 2010 | Laptop Mods
Your laptop is not only a perfect working tool, it should also reflect your personality and style. This is what manufacturers keep telling us, don’t they? However, what kind of individuality are we talking about, when thousands of other people all over the world have exactly the same gadget? A young artist from Russia has decided to make something completely new out of her 15-inch Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pro V350 laptop. This was the origin of her new hand painted laptop series.
“I always wanted to do everything in my own way, like no one else can. I am painting something all the time, for example windows in the house, plates, walls. And when I bought my first laptop, I wanted to make it unique as well. In the beginning I was a bit scared because I didn’t want to make it any damage, though I’ve had ‘painted’ my Nokias with nail polish on several occasions. I’ve decided to use my old set of stained glass paints because if something would have gone wrong they could be removed without a trace.
Then the question turned up: what to draw? I wanted something that would reflect my personality – elegant and stylish but at the same time feminine. And because I love animals I’ve decided to paint my laptop with pussy cats. And afterwards I’ve been repainting my laptop every now and then: with the pictures of girls, stars, plants, flowers etc. Laptops tend to wear off quite quickly and soon after my first laptop painting attempt I’ve decided to get myself a new one. For my second laptop I’ve chosen ThinkPad SL400. Its glossy lid where all touches become visible hadn’t put me out – “I’ll colour it anyway” – I thought. So my new laptop has soon acquired itself a crocodile skin and looked stunningly!
But the chosen design was the way too masculine and aggressive. And the laptop itself was too manly and big as well, so I had to do something completely different to adjust it to my personal taste. Some time later the crocodile skin was removed accurately to give way for the new décor. It looked a bit like an ornamental iron grid. This painting job was done in about two hours, practically over lunchtime.
When I started looking for a new laptop, lighter and smaller the new Lenovo ThinkPad X100e had just been released. In spite of a number of negative moments (such as overheating and battery life) it turned out to be the most suitable option. Although many people were trying to persuade me to take a classical ThinkPad x200, I bought myself the red ThinkPad x100e. And even before I held it in my hands I already had an idea of how to colour it. And now this idea comes true:
These hieroglyphs do make sense by the way- I wished my laptop to be happy, reliable and beloved. Later I added a colour accents with the dark red paint. The chosen drawing suited the x100e very well:
The great thing about the stained glass paints is that they can be easily removed. At the same time they stay long enough – about half a year even if you carry your laptop with you all the time. Now I have no wish to redo it again but desire to create is burning up more and more. That’s why I switched to my friends’ laptops. I have coloured two Lenovo Idea Pad S9’s since:
| Acer appeared in the 3D style: | Glamourous Sony Vaio for a pretty girl: |
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And a 15-inch Asus:
And this one was my first commercial job — the picture of the Eiffel Tower is based on the movie “From Paris with love”. The owner of the laptop liked the drawing: he has the same theme with a leaning Eiffel Tower on his mobile phone. It’s all thanks to the owner who was not afraid to give me his gadgets and who was very satisfied with the result in the end! All of a sudden my hobby became profitable. Now I have a catalogue of standard drawings available to order but I can also design something very unusual.”
Source: Habrahabr
Your laptop is not only a perfect working tool. It should also reflect your personality and style. This is what manufacturers keep telling us, don’t they? However, what kind of individuality are we talking about, when thousands of other people all over the world have exactly the same gadget?
Some of the most stylish laptops ever designed
Alexandra | 12:47 am | December 23, 2009 | Laptop Mods
For a laptop, design is not less important than its hardware insides, as any industrial designer will testify. People are ready to pay high premium for so-called “high-tech beauties”. That is why stylish and unusual laptops can be sold much faster than “standard” ones. Moreover, designers add some new features even in budget laptop models in a bid to attract additional buyers.
For example, Acer maintains this trend in such popular model like Ferrari, Fujitsu implements it in LifeBook, Toshiba surprises us with Qosmio, etc.
The first thing that manufacturers use in such laptops is an unusual laptop body and well-chosen color combinations. They try to crack the access code into customers’ hearts, finding courageous colors, hues and nuances. They also try to replace standard plastic laptop bodies with titanium ones or use special mixtures to give them more shine and protect from mechanical damage. So, those who want to buy a stylish notebook and express their individuality always can find something special.
The world’s leading portable PC manufacturers experiment with new materials (processed plastic, precious wood, stones and metals). People want to stand out from the crowd, be different from each other and it plays into the hands of many companies. For example, one of the Arab sheikhs ordered a laptop with inlays from ivory. Just imagine how much it cost him!
Laptops have become a part of our everyday live; it’s not a surprise to anyone. But you can impress others, putting a high-tech gadget in an unusual body. So, let’s feast our eyes upon other stylish laptops:
A gorgeous case for amazing Sony Vaio P laptop
You can buy stylish leather case for Sony Vaio P choosing one of 30 different colors.
Lenovo Pocket Yoga. It’s an awesome laptop, but unfortunately it’s just a concept
The most reliable notebooks and netbooks — no conjectures, facts only
Alexandra | 10:08 pm | November 20, 2009 | Laptop News
According to the latest research conducted by the analytical department of the SquareTrade company, Asus laptops are the most reliable among other popular brands. It is a real surprise for many Apple fans that mobile computers from their favorite company are only on the fourth place, yielding to Toshiba and Sony laptops in reliability characteristics. SquareTrade provides after-sales warranty services for consumer electronics. The company based its new study of notebooks / netbooks reliability on the analysis of more than 30 thousand mobile computers from different manufacturers.
Result #1: HP, Gateway and Acer are the least reliable laptops
The results show that almost one of three laptops fails during the first three years of use. It’s difficult to imagine a more fragile electronic gizmo than a laptop (just imagine that every third TV set or car breaks down in 3 years after the purchase).
So the 1st place has been given to Asus laptops, problems with them occur during the first three years in 15.6% of cases. It may not sound too good, but it’s the lowest failure rate among 9 largest producers which laptops were used for the research.
Toshiba with the rate of 15.7% has taken the 2nd place, Sony laptops with 16.8% has become the 3rd. The failure rate for Apple (17.4% and the 4th place) was calculated for two popular models — MacBook and MacBook Pro.
Vince Tseng (VP of Marketing at SquareTrade) said that analytics were not surprised that Apple laptops had appeared in the middle of the list, but the victory of Asus had come as a real surprise.
Hewlett-Packard, the company, which production volume of notebooks was the biggest in the world last year, was pronounced as the most risky brand (more than a quarter of HP laptops is in danger). It may be not so bad taking into account that this company offers a 3-year guarantee for its products, it even started selling of HP laptop batteries that had a guarantee of 36 months.
Result #2: laptop users have only one year without worries and problems
The report also states that the risk of any problems with the laptop is growing rapidly after one year of usage:
- 4.7% — failure rate after the 1st year;
- 12.7% — after the 2nd year;
- 20.4% — after the 3rd year.
Mr. Tseng explained that mobile computers have high rates of usage. People often leave them running, laptops components are shock-sensitive. At the same time they are portable, and it often leads to falls and blows. And moreover, it is one of the most complex devices compared to other customer electronics.
Result #3: netbooks are characterized by a low price and a high rate of failure
The researchers also has found that netbooks break down more often than notebooks. The average rate is 23% higher than similar data for entry-level notebooks (with price from $ 400 to $ 1 000) and 38% higher than premium portable gadgets (more than $ 1 000).
