Computer Trade Shopper articles from April 2005

Computer Trade Shopper archives from April 2005

When loners must become partners.(editorial)
April 13, 2005... Companies in the UK assembler channel are notoriously unwilling to partner with rivals but given the current pricing trends for mainstream IT products and the growing pressure from the A brands and their resellers, system builders may have to...

Microtronica splits from MSI after profits drop.(system builder news)
April 13, 2005... After eight years Microtronica is splitting with Micro Star International (MSI) claiming the Taiwanese graphics card and motherboard vendor is over distributed and has developed too many direct system builder and reseller accounts. The UK...

Desktop components prices drop.
April 13, 2005... Context's component price index for the first quarter 2005 has revealed that desktop components have dropped by an average of nearly $30 compared to the previous quarter with the continued erosion of memory prices and a significant drop in LCD...

AMD asks Intel to 'admit harm'.
April 13, 2005... AMD has responded to Intel's "acceptance" of the Fair Trade Commission of Japan's ruling on its violation of section 3 of Japan's antimonopoly act. "It is unfortunate that even when presented with specific--and very disturbing--findings of...

Antec releases cool cases.
April 13, 2005... Antec has unveiled the PerformanceTX line of cases in the Performance Series of PC enclosures for individual users and system builders. The range features a cooling system that meets Intel's Thermally Advantaged Chassis (TAS) design guide to...

Chance for smaller players.(system builder news)
April 13, 2005... Desktop virtualisation technology will level the playing field allowing relatively smaller system builders to compete with the major brands for large corporate roll-outs which have to date been out of reach, according to Gartner. Predicted...

Anger over Maxtor cuts.(system builder news)
April 13, 2005... Maxtor wants distributors to carry no more than four weeks of inventory and has withdrawn early payments discounts (EPD) in an attempt to maintain the average sale price and prevent partners from passing the rebate onto system builders. ...

WEEE implementation has to be postponed.(reseller news)
April 13, 2005... The EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive is not the straightforward piece of legislation the Government assumed when it was conceived, so implementation has been delayed until next year to fill in the small details...

AMD takes on Intel over thin and lights.(reseller news)
April 13, 2005... AMD has entered the high-end notebook CPU market with the launch of its Turion 64 chip and is considering plans to develop a whitebox build programme to rival Intel's Mobile Value-added Distributor (MVAD) scheme. Previously, AMD had...

Notebook sales in UK lag behind.(reseller news)
April 13, 2005... Notebook sales equalled desktops across mainland Europe's top seven economies in January with falling prices tempting users to opt for a mobile product, but the UK market still lags behind. According to analyst firm Context's SalesWatch...

Meeting the needs of television addicts.(EXCLUSIVE)
April 13, 2005... Even with the launch of technologies like flat screen TVs, HDTV and the like, the ability to watch television on the desktop still fascinates people and demonstrates the continuing fascination with combining traditional technology with a...

The cubes are coming to servers as well.
April 13, 2005... If the reviews in this issue of CTS were going to have a theme it would probably be based around the dominant product of the last year, the cube sized PC. Different products will litter the stands at the CTS Show and those users that...

Motherboard in the Ai mould.
April 13, 2005... The whole concept of artificial intelligence has been around for a long time and is seen by some as the future of the industry but by others as an evil path that will end with robots taking over the world. In the negative camp a couple of...

Cubes that go well beyond a token range.
April 13, 2005... An interesting bet at this year's CT Show would be to see how many suppliers are showing off traditional desktop tower chassis compared to cube sized models. It would be tight because the cube chassis has become the format for multimedia PCs...

Graphic solution at the high end.
April 13, 2005... The way the graphics card industry is heading is towards the realm of the value added specialists who are winning market share. Both ATI and nVidia are both pushing a vision of the future that puts more capability on the cards they help design...

Disc stacking library is bound to be a winner.
April 13, 2005... Try adding up how many hours it would take you to trawl through lots of old CDs and DVDs to find the file you created many years ago. You could wipe out a morning doing that sort of thing and still not find the relevant data. So imagine if...

VoIP is getting a lot easier.
April 13, 2005... Voice over IP has been one of those technologies that has moved along the hype and adoption curve to the point where it today stands as an idea that is widely accepted and selling in volumes. The main advantage with VoIP is, of course, the...

Splashing out on graphics.(round up)
April 13, 2005... The world of graphic chip design is changing with the emphasis moving towards greater performance and a more tacit understanding with users that quality is worth splashing out that bit more for. One of the biggest names in the graphics...

Top burning speeds with Waitec action model.(SHORTS)
April 13, 2005... If burning quickly gets you excited then Waitec should get you going with the Action 164, which offers a step up from a layer speed of 2.4x reaches to 4x. The Action 164 is a fast DVD burner, which on DVD+R and DVD r with a speed of 16x works...

High data density products from Hitachi.(SHORTS)
April 13, 2005... Hitachi Global Storage Technologies is updating 100-year-old magnetic recording technology that will set the stage for ultra-high capacities such as a 20 gigabyte Microdrive or a one terabyte 3.5in hard drive. To achieve this, Hitachi has...

On-line gamers get a wireless router.(SHORTS)
April 13, 2005... On-line gaming solutions are an increasing demand from gamers and D-Link has listened with the launch of its first Wireless Gigabit Gaming Router, the DGL-4300. It is aimed specifically at the on-line gaming community and optimally designed to...

Cool card features memory heatsinks.(SHORTS)
April 13, 2005... Everyone in graphics wants to have a PCI Express adapter and now there is an option to choose the Sapphire Technology Ultimate X800XL. The card comes with a special cooler, memory heatsinks and the distinctive Sapphire blue PCB is designed to...

Don't discount credit insurance: a company's treasure chest lies in the value of its accounts receivable ledger, sometimes 75 per cent of assets. Eddie Pacey believes it makes sense to protect this.(opinion)
April 13, 2005... We insure most things in life that are precious to us, our life, our home, family, and of course our cars. Business insures its buildings, its employees and other valuable assets, so given this, how does one countenance or question insuring the...

Let's kick out the VAT fraudsters: Karen Hobbs, head of sales at VIP UK, has some very strong views on what is right for the industry, but she also knows how to relax with a glass of champagne.(talking shop)(Interview)
April 13, 2005... WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AT THE COMPANY? I head up the sales team for VIP UK and the marketing function for the VIP Group of companies. My role is very diverse, focusing on strategies for business growth. DO YOU HAVE A...

PCs still driving growth: PC and notebook shipments look to be strong again in 2005. Entertainment oriented machines could be the next premium market.(market overview)
April 13, 2005... Firmly in line with forecasts, PC shipments into the UK market expanded by 17.9 per cent in 2004. Building upon what has been a strong couple of years for the industry, over 8.7 million units were shipped in 2004, 33 per cent of which were...

Performance for platforms: the latest Intel technologies, such as dual core processing and virtualisation, are set to bring benefits to system builders.(product roadmap)
April 13, 2005... There are some interesting developments around the corner with the introduction of certain Intel technologies, including virtualisation and dual core processing, both of which will deliver more performance to product platforms. Other features...

What to watch for in displays: from the indications at the German trade fair CeBIT to extra capacity coming on stream in the Far East, Pete Gamby assesses the future market for screens.(monitoring trends)
April 13, 2005... The big German IT trade fair that is CeBIT is usually a good place to look for upcoming trends in the market. This year though it was a bit of a disappointment from the point of view of the displays business. On the plus side, the event has...

The tender spot.(tender invitations)
April 13, 2005... 57113 UK-Blackburn: document management system Electronic document management system. 53058, TENDER INVITATION UK-Penrith: telecommunications system Telecommunications equipment and services. 55176, TENDER INVITATION ...

The perfect notebook! Enjoy bright dot free viewing experience with ASUS notebooks.(Advertisement)
April 13, 2005... The first thing that everyone should do with a brand new notebook is to check for dead pixels on the display. Since dead pixels are quite common on LCD (liquid crystal display) panels and display test runs before purchase are not always an...

Manufacturers.
April 13, 2005... manufacturers a PHONE 1st Computer Traders Ltd 01827 55555 Acer (UK) Ltd 01753 699200 ACME Technology Ltd 020...

Distributors.
April 13, 2005... distributors a PHONE FAX 1st Computer Traders Ltd 01827 55555 01827 66666 A One Distribution 0161 7633633 0161 7633644 Access Keyboards Ltd 0118...

Shotgun approach can go off target.(editorial)
April 27, 2005... About the only thing that seems constant at the Computer Trade Show in Birmingham these days is the annual roll-out of young ladies dressed in tight body suits promoting various technologies. Eight years after the Computer Trade Show (CTS)...

AMD expansion plan on course to upset partners.(system builder news)
April 27, 2005... AMD is proceeding carefully with channel expansion plans which could include the addition of Ingram Micro, a move the vendor is aware would upset existing distribution partners and lead to fierce competition and potential price cutting. In the...

CFL staff thrown a lifeline.(system builder news)
April 27, 2005... Staff at CFL Computer Systems, which was experiencing difficulties as a result of tough trading conditions and having to foot the bill for faulty hard drives, have been thrown a lifeline by Centreprise International. As well as offering 11...

Reshuffle at Foxconn.(system builder news)
April 27, 2005... There has been a shake-up of Foxconn's motherboard distribution channel with two companies heading out of the door as two more walk in to work with the company. The Taiwanese vendor parted company with Enta Technologies and Landmarq last...

Seagate profits drive up.
April 27, 2005... Seagate Technology has revealed a 42 per cent increase in revenue for its third quarter ended 1 April 2005 to $1.97bn year-on-year. Profits also soared by 44 per cent to $229m for the same period. The company said drives are central to enabling...

Intel moves ahead of rival.
April 27, 2005... Another vendor to post results last week included Intel, posting a rise in revenue of 17 per cent to $9.4bn and a 25 per cent surge in profits to $2.2bn for the first calendar quarter. Demand for mobile products helped spearhead sales a year...

Desktop sales in decline.
April 27, 2005... Desktop sales in the channel across Europe's top eight economies fell by 7.4 per cent in February for the fourth consecutive month, according to analyst Context. Sales declined by 33.1 per cent in Switzerland and 24 and 23.3 per cent...

Vitec demise highlights commoditisation threat.(reseller news)
April 27, 2005... Resellers operating in specialist markets are not immune to the margin pressure resulting from commoditisation, as has been highlighted by the demise of Vitec Communications. Networking specialist and 3Com gold partner Vitec Communications...

Fortinet rushes to meet GPL compliance.(reseller news)
April 27, 2005... Security appliance maker Fortinet UK has rushed to quell speculation concerning a preliminary injunction instigated by an organisation headed by Linux developer Harold Welte. According to the not-for-profit organisation gpl-violations.org,...

Cisco vows to crank up stake in SME.(reseller news)
April 27, 2005... Cisco has admitted that more work is ahead of it if it is to reach its goal of leading the small business arena in switching and routing, after the vendor pushed the boundaries of its SME lead registration scheme up into the commercial market....

A hot product for cool customers.(cts EXCLUSIVE)
April 27, 2005... If the penny hasn't dropped by now that heat is a major source of concern for those people who care about their PC systems, then maybe it's time you felt which way the fans are blowing. It's almost impossible to buy a PC system now without...

Projections look good for this growth market.
April 27, 2005... The world of projectors has enjoyed a renaissance on a parallel with the way Chelsea's fortunes have swung round since a certain Russian opened up his wallet. A few years ago a projector salesman spent his time shuffling sadly between churches...

Board is bang up to the moment.
April 27, 2005... The name Elitegroup (ECS) has featured on the roundup pages already a couple of times this year as the manufacturer builds up its channel to increase its activity in the UK. It helps of course if there are also quality products to go through...

Big opportunities as the office goes flat.
April 27, 2005... A cruise round the stands at the CT Show will have proved the point that flat screens are everything now. Not only do they look good but with MediaCenter they are part of a solution. People in monitors used to say you had to see it to believe...

Simpler CD labelling.
April 27, 2005... One of the more interesting products being promoted at the CT Show was a CD burner that enabled users to burn an image onto a disc without the need for additional or expensive labelling applications. As a bunch of assembled hacks are...

Flashy, but no flash in the pan.
April 27, 2005... One of the biggest trends of late, which has had a huge knock-on effect for the IT industry, has been the determination users have to carry as much of their personal data around with them as possible. Hop onto any train and you will see the...

It's in the bag.
April 27, 2005... One of the most obvious questions that rarely gets answered is that of how to transport expensive laptops around. Manufacturers concentrate on promoting wireless connectivity and working anywhere, but most fail to have a solution for carrying...

Success for VIP.(Advertorial)(Advertisement)
April 27, 2005... The Computer Trade Shopper Supplier Excellence Awards saw a gathering of the industry's finest to discover which organisations had been recognised for outstanding achievement in their field. Voted by the readers of Computer Trade Shopper...

ASUS CPU adaptor brings quiet and cool performance of notebook processor to desktop computing. (Bringing Notebook Processors to Desktop PCs).(Advertisement)
April 27, 2005... Ever wonder why notebooks are quieter and produce less heat compared with desktops? Bingo!! It's the different CPUs that they run on. To maintain stability in the small space of notebooks without effecting performance, notebook processors are...

Targeting the SME.(round up)
April 27, 2005... The market for voice and data convergence products is moving into the SME space as vendors push products designed for that audience and take on channel partners to target small customers. One of the issues debated on the show floor at the...

Interactive ideas chosen as Guillemot distributor.(SHORTS)
April 27, 2005... Guillemot Corporation, known for peripherals and accessories for computers and games consoles under its Hercules and Thrustmaster brand names, has taken on Interactive Ideas as a distributor to build the vendor's high street and independent...

Waitec brings DVD recording home.(SHORTS)
April 27, 2005... Waitec has unveiled Vision HRX, a home DVD recorder that features progressive and interlace scan with MPEG4/DivX/XviD decoding capability, as well as built-in Dolby Digital decoder and Dolby Digital (AC-3) 5.1 channel output. The product also...

Sapphire TRIXX caters for the desires of gamers.(SHORTS)
April 27, 2005... Overclocking is the desire of anyone in the games world, and to cater for that sort of user Sapphire has taken the wraps off a software overclocking tool that will allow users to optimise performance of any of the company's current graphics...

Accessories add further capabilities to shuttle XPCS.(SHORTS)
April 27, 2005... Shuttle Computer, which has featured on the review pages of CTS with its cube PCs in its XPC range, has made available two XPC accessories--the PC9 and PC15. The PC9 allows you to add two USB 2.0 ports to the back of your XPC, making it...

A WEEE bit of delay: so much is up in the air regarding the WEEE directive that the industry can only benefit from the reprieve granted until 2006. However, can we make it work?(opinion)
April 27, 2005... Much has been written about the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive. It was scheduled to come into force on 13 August 2005, but, according to the latest communication from the DTI, implementation will be delayed. Key...

A high flyer--at work and play: Mike Evans, marketing manager at Foxconn, has been tasked with a mission to make consumers more aware of his company--and he knows how to push the plane out to achieve this.(talking shop)
April 27, 2005... WHAT ARE YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AT THE COMPANY? I am responsible for the marketing development of Foxconn in the UK and the building of the EMEA marketing foundation. DO YOU HAVE A BUSINESS MAXIM? Compete to win is a personal...

Alternative at the lower end: Linux is taking on the European enterprise server market and this is being helped by vendor product and bundled offerings.(market overview)
April 27, 2005... According to IDC's European server data, the 2004 Western European Linux server market grew year-on-year by 23 per cent in customer revenue to each $352m, while in unit terms it grew by 24 per cent and reached 83,000 shipments. Linux...

Finding the positives in security: despite some poor recent results from security specialists and the fear surrounding the subject, Jane Dudman finds there is plenty of life left in the market.(product roadmap)
April 27, 2005... In the light of poor recent results from some security specialists, such as distributor InTechnology, questions are being asked about how much margin remains in security, now that it is relatively easy for companies to buy off-the-shelf...

In search of the perfect MFP: MFP sales are on the rise but the fully functioning general office MFP is still proving elusive. Peter Maude assesses the secrets of success for this niche.(licence to print)
April 27, 2005... There is certainly no surprise nor news in the fact that MFP sales have been rising rapidly at the expense of single-function devices. However, it might be worth considering why this should be and What contributes towards making the MFP a...

The tender spot.(tender invitations)
April 27, 2005... STAR TENDER 6950 UK-Edinburgh: corporate portal Provision of corporate portal. 65978, TENDER INVITATION UK-Manchester: Computer equipment Computer equipment and accessories. 63665, TENDER INVITATION ...

Manufacturers.(Directory)
April 27, 2005... manufacturers NEW LOOK DIRECTORY Also available in digital format To enhance your directory entry and stand out from the rest--call the sales team now on: 020 8652 2020 * 020 8652 2089 * 020 8652 2019 ...

Distributors.(Directory)
April 27, 2005... distributors PHONE FAX a 1st Computer Traders Ltd 01827 55555 01827 66666 A One Distribution 0161 7633633 0161 7633644 Access...