Asia: Sharp planning big increase in LCD production in 2005
By Martyn Williams, IDG News Service (Tokyo Bureau)
Sharp Corp. is planning a substantial increase in production of LCD (liquid crystal display) panels during 2005 in the face of increasing demand for flat-panel TVs and the planned opening of a major factory operated jointly by two of its biggest rivals.
The production increase will take place at its factory in Kameyama in western Japan and push monthly input capacity from 27,000 sheets of mother glass per month to 45,000 sheets per month under current plans, said Miyuki Nakayama, a spokeswoman for the Osaka-based company.
Each mother glass sheet is used to produce a number of LCD panels, the amount of which depends on the screen size. The Sharp factory uses so-called sixth-generation sheets that measure 150 centimeters by 180 centimeters and, in the case of 26-inch widescreen panels, each can be used to make 12 panels. In terms of such panels, the production increase will increase monthly capacity from 324,000 panels to 540,000 panels per month.(...)
The fast growing flat-panel television market is largely responsible for pushing demand for the type of large-size LCD panels that Sharp and S-LCD will be producing on their new lines.
Sharp estimates the worldwide color TV market will be around 130 million sets in 2004 of which about 7.5 million will be LCD models.
Reporting its first-half earnings on Wednesday, Sharp said demand for the panels is "burgeoning" and sales high-value LCDs were behind a 41 percent increase in the value of LCD panels sold during the period, which ran from April to September. Sales of televisions incorporating the panels also increased during the first half and the company saw total net sales increase 14.9 percent to ?1.3 trillion (US$11.3 billion as of Sept. 30, the final day of the period being reported) from ?1.1 trillion. Net income during the six month period jumped to ?39.3 billion from ?28.0 billion.
Asia and Pacific: Great Plains keeps its distance from Microsoft
By Stephen Bell, Computerworld New Zealand Online
Version 8 of the Great Plains suite of financial products has been released locally and definitely shows the Microsoft Corp. influence.
Microsoft Business Systems, which also owns the Navision and Solomon accounting products, originally announced plans to integrate the software into a single line, a move codenamed Project Green.
However, that plan is receding into the future, says Russell Weaver, director of NZ agent Turtle Bay. Project Green has been remade as an effort to orient all the products to .Net, but Microsoft has said it will retain the separate brands until at least 2013, Weaver says.
The Great Plains Version 8 GUI is very Outlook-like, incorporating pull-down menus in place of the panels more familiar to users of previous versions of Great Plains.
The new version is the first major release since Microsoft took over the Great Plains suite. It is more closely integrated with other Microsoft products, Weaver says.
There is even a theoretical integration capability with Microsoft's new CRM product line. "The manuals say it can be done, but it's a big, big job," Weaver says. One of the more straightforward elements is a "master names index" which can be exported from the CRM product to update customer files in Great Plains.
Microsoft's ownership of Great Plains has not created any resistance among customers or prospects, Weaver says.
"No opportunity we've worked on has been anti-Microsoft. Of course some are on other major platforms like Oracle and won't move, so we can't sell to them."
Weaver has been selling Great Plains in New Zealand since 1989, first as Zero-One Ltd. That company was bought out by Deloitte Touche in 1999. When Microsoft took on Great Plains worldwide in April 2000, it created a conflict of interest for Deloitte as Microsoft's auditor.
A temporary arrangement was reached for Deloitte to continue with the consultancy side of the suite, but for direct sales to be handled by Computerland. In August 2003, Weaver got together with Tim Thodey of Computerland and a third partner, Tom Donaldson, in a management buy-out of the rights, which gave birth to Turtle Bay.
The overlap among financial packages under Microsoft Business Systems has "created some confusion", Weaver says, but he (naturally) thinks Great Plains is on the right side of the range. "A lot of people are moving away from environments that need a lot of customization, like Navision," he says, adding that Great Plains tries to provide as much "out of the box" as possible.
As far as future enhancements go, Turtle Bay is looking to take Great Plains onto other hardware platforms.
"We're starting to get inquiries about putting the purchase order module, for example, on PDAs," enabling orders to be taken easily on a visit to the buyer's premises, Weaver says. "We've been working with mobile specialists in this area." The mobile facet is essentially a separate product, so will not require approval and design oversight from Microsoft, he says.
Commodore Hotels in Christchurch is the first local user of Great Plains Version 8, with several more customers in the process of converting.
Asia and Pacific: DIGITAL GEAR : Slimming down machines and people
By Agam Shah, IDG News Service (San Francisco Bureau)
Reclaim desktop real estate with IBM's ThinkCentre, a computer that offers the processing power of a standard tower PC in a phonebook-sized unit. "It is the smallest, most intuitive and quietest PC that IBM has made to date," said Stephen Miller, worldwide product marketing manager for IBM. In addition to ease of configuration and maintenance, the PC's system migration tools and data security features could appeal to novice users, he said.
Each ThinkCentre desktop includes an Embedded Security Solutions chip that encrypts files or folders, secures network connections and access to the machine. The chip can be activated with the help of software that can be downloaded from IBM's Web site, Miller said. Future updates to the ThinkCentre will include a fingerprint reader, like the ones bundled with IBM's recently introduced ThinkPad T42 notebooks, he said.
A software feature called Rapid Restore Ultra can backup data to a secure area on the hard drive and restore it in case the computer crashes. Buttons on the keyboard can access most commonly used software, including e-mail and word processing software. The System Migration Assistant feature moves user data and application settings from an old computer to a new computer, so the ThinkCentre "looks and behaves and feels much like the old computer," Miller said. A password manager can remember passwords for encrypted files, Web sites and software.
Opening up a US$1,429 ThinkCentre Ultra Small S50 test unit revealed hardware components closely bunched together - enabling IBM to create such a small desktop. It came with a 3.2GHz Intel Corp. Pentium 4 processor, 1G-byte of RAM, onboard Intel Extreme Graphics 2, a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, eight USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports and preloaded Windows XP Professional, but without a monitor. The black hood opened with the gentle push of two buttons, and each hardware component was removable without a screwdriver. "Everything is tool-less and very intuitive, especially for a person who is not tech-savvy," Miller said. Color-coded tags help in easy identification of each hardware component, he said.
This machine isn't for high-end users primarily because of its limited graphics power. "Most users don't need high-end graphics. Intel graphics onboard are good for basic everyday PC chores," Miller said. Considering it was an attempt by IBM to make desktops look sleek, the wired keyboard and mouse are disappointing. Wireless keyboards will be added to ThinkCentre in the future, according to Miller.
ViewSonic TV tuner for HDTVs
To help high definition-ready TVs receive free, over-the-air high-definition (HD) programming, ViewSonic Corp. recently released the HD12 TV Tuner. The $399 tuner decodes HDTV and normal UHF (ultrahigh frequency) or VHF (very high frequency) signals received by a cable box or normal antenna for display on an HD-ready TV. A special antenna is not needed to receive HD signals as normal UHF and VHF antennae are capable of receiving HDTV signals, said Gene Ornstead, director of TV products at ViewSonic. The HD12 is compatible with HD-ready TVs with component, composite, S-video or VGA (Video Graphics Array) inputs. It is also compatible with HDTVs that have DVI (digital video interface) with HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection), a security specification that protects copyright digital programs. The TV tuner can also connect to home theater systems, Ornstead said. It is available at http://www.viewsonic.com/products/tventertainment/tvvideoprocessors/nextvisionhd12/
Stabilize that iPod
Belkin Corp. recently introduced a few peripherals that could be handy additions to cars and homes. Belkin's accessory for the iPod Mini, the $29.99 TuneDok, docks the MP3 player in a car's cup holder, so it can play tunes while riding in the car. The TuneDok stabilizes the iPod Mini and can be adjusted to stand in different positions.
Similarly, the $39.99 OmniDock-L stabilizes personal digital assistants (PDAs) and other handheld devices in a car's cupholder. This be could useful for drivers referring to GPS (Global Positioning System) data off a PDA.
The $39.95 Hi-Speed USB 2.0 15-in-1 Media Reader & Writer can read and write data to and from 15 media card types, including ones from IBM, SanDisk Corp. Sony Corp. and Eastman Kodak Co.
Europe: LINUXWORLD : Germans seek savings through Linux
By John Blau, IDG News Service (Düsseldorf Bureau)
Tough economic times in Germany have made Linux and other open source software products appear tantalizing to local businesses. Yet many remain hesitant to dump their Microsoft Corp. software completely, if for no other reasons than it performs relatively well, and nearly everyone in corporate Germany uses it. That was the general impression from speakers delivering presentations Tuesday at the LinuxWorld conference in Frankfurt.
"Making more efficient use of capital resources, particularly in the IT area, is a top priority of German businesses currently exposed to a very harsh economic climate," said Wafa Moussavi-Amin, analyst and regional business manager of IDC in Germany. "Price is the key differentiator. New software features and functions have become secondary."
But Moussavi-Amin warned users that while Linux software is basically free to acquire, it can be costly to deploy if a company doesn't have sufficient Linux competence. "Businesses can see costs pile up quickly for support, maintenance and, in particular, training if they lack in-house knowledge," he said. "Each enterprise should carefully study whether the low fee to acquire the software will offset these other costs."
Cost is one of the main reasons why Wilken Rechenzentrum GmbH, a mid-size IT service provider, is converting nearly 80 percent of its operations to Linux, according to Roman Hoffmann, the company's managing director. Other reasons for the move include the operating system's high stability and flexibility, its reduced risk to virus attacks, support from the "large and helpful" open source community and a particular desire to develop software products not based on Microsoft's Windows operating systems, he said.
Wilken Rechenzentrum was also encouraged by the decision of several large German cities, including Munich and Schwäbisch Hall, to migrate to Linux and by the general support for open source software coming from the German federal government, Hoffmann said. "We were initially nervous about the migration and whether we could manage everything," he said. "But we are very pleased with how our systems are now operating under Linux and, in particular, the money we are saving, which is substantial."
By comparison, Heinz Huber Internationale Spedition GmbH & Co. is pursuing a less pervasive open source approach, although the company says that it, too, is saving plenty of money. The 38-person logistics company has deployed Linux in its servers and installed open source applications, including StarOffice, on Windows-based clients. "We have stuck with Windows on the clients mostly because our logistics software runs on Windows but also because I'm the only person in the entire company with any knowledge of Linux, which, I must confess, is limited," said IT Director Oliver Grenz. "So if I'm not around to fix something, then we have a problem."
Grenz said all open source applications have run "incredibly smoothly" and employees have adapted with few problems. But he cautioned that introducing open source software in a small company - and Germany, like most countries, consists mostly of small and medium-size businesses - "is something not to be taken for granted."
"You really need to bring a good portion of enthusiasm if you hope to introduce open source software in a small company," Grenz said. "You're going to find resistance to change - not because it's Linux or open source but because it's new."
Although steadily growing, Linux deployment in Europe still represents a small portion of the region's software market, according to new IDC market research presented at LinuxWorld.
In the server market, Linux grew from 1 percent in the first quarter of 1999 to 9 percent in the third quarter of 2004 and is expected to grow to 18 percent by the end of 2008, IDC said.
However, in other areas, such as software development tools, content management and desktop applications, "Linux usage remains small," IDC's Moussavi-Amin said.