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If you think that there are too many tablets on the market to choose from right now, wait until later this year. According to reports online, it looks like there’s going to be a whole bunch of Windows 8 tablet to join the already crowded tablet market. At a recent investor call, Intel’s chief executive, Paul Otellini, announced that the company is tracking more than 20 Windows 8 tablet designs based on its low-power and low-cost Clover Trail Atom SoC in addition to a number of Core-based tablets. There are also a dozen convertible and touch enabled devices based on Ivy Bridge, which suggest hybrid laptop and tablet devices like the Microsoft Surface and ASUS 600.

Windows 8 is scheduled to be released this October, so it won’t be long until we start seeing the market flooded with new tablets running the operating system. It’s going to be interesting to see how well it performs vs. the iPad. Anybody thinking of picking up a Windows 8 tablet this year?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Wintel tablets rumored to be pricey, Windows 8 ARM notebooks arriving in 2013?,

Intel released their 2012 Q2 earnings today, reporting revenue of $13.5 billion, up 5% from last quarter. PC market growth rose 3% to $8.7 billion. Intel blamed the slow-down on users waiting for Windows 8 before investing in new hardware.

The Data Center group saw revenue of $2.8 billion. Intel’s earnings per share were flat, rising 1 cent over last quarter.

The company is currently facing a number of competitors including mobile chipsets from Qualcomm and Nvidia. 2011 was a bad year for Intel with desktop sales rising a mere 1.8%. However, with the introduction of Windows 8 later this year, analysts expect sales to rise 5% in October.

Intel closed flat at $25.38 per share this afternoon. Estimates expected 52 cents a share with revenue of $13.56 billion, according to Reuters.

Intel has been offering SSDs for a long time now in versions aimed at enterprise use and the general consumer. Intel has announced that it has added a new SSD model to its 330 series that has 240 GB of storage. The SSD uses 6 Gb/s technology and promises impressive performance. The 230 series has sustained read speeds of up to 500 MB/s and sustained writes up to 450 MB/s.

The series uses 25nm MLC Intel NAND flash memory and is validated for three years of useful life. The new 240 GB capacity 330 series SSD and the other SSDs in the series are available in a retail box package that includes the needed SATA cables and a 2.5-inch to 3.5-inch drive adapter allowing the SSD to be installed in a desktop computer.

Intel has also announced that it has reduced pricing on some of its SSDs, including the SSD 520 series, the 330 series, and the 320 series products. Sadly, Intel offers no details on the specific price cuts for the products. The new 240 GB SSD should be available now.

Intel adds 240 GB SSD 330 Series drive and slashes SSD prices is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Intel has just announced that it is introducing a new 240GB version of its Series 330 solid state drive (SDD). At the same time, the company is lowering the maximum suggested price (MRSP) on previous models in the 330 Series, but also the 520 Series and 320 Series.

The new Series 330 240GB will come at $194 MRSP, but we’ll have to see if online prices get lower than this. With this offering, Intel breaks the $1/GB barrier, just like the industry predicted last year, and we expect pretty much every SSD manufacturer to get there by year’s end.

The good news is that this is not over. Moore’s law dictates that prices will continue to plunge, while capacity rises. In the meantime, expect more and more computers to use SSD drives to accelerate file access and as it stands, this is still one of the best upgrade that a computer can get. Don’t miss our Intel SSD 320 Series review.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Intel SSD 330 Series Announced, Intel SSD 910 is PCI-based and impressive,

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer might be working overtime to keep Apple at bay, but the PC market that his company largely built is hurting, if you ask researchers at Gartner and IDC. Both estimate that shipments of traditional computers dropped by a tenth of a point in the second quarter of 2012 — not a good sign when Intel’s Ivy Bridge processors and a wave of Ultrabooks were supposed to usher in a PC renaissance. While the exact numbers vary, the two paint a partly familiar picture of the world stage: HP and Dell are taking a bruising, while ASUS and Lenovo are making huge leaps forward. Depending on who you ask, though, Acer is either kicking Dell down to fourth place or occupying that all too comfortable spot itself. The economy and tablets are once again blamed for making would-be PC upgraders jittery, although this time it may also be the wait for Windows 8 leading some to hold off.

If there’s a point of contention, it’s the US figures. Gartner and IDC alike agree that Acer, Dell and HP all took a drubbing. The two analyst groups are at odds with each other when it comes to everyone else, though. Apple will have gained market share to as much as 12 percent, but either increased or shrank its shipments; it’s Lenovo or Toshiba completing the top five outside of the usual suspects. Accordingly, take results with a grain of salt until all the PC builders have reported in. Nonetheless, if the groups have the same reasonable level of precision as they’ve had in the past, Microsoft may have to defer its ambitions for a little while longer.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablet PCs

IDC and Gartner: PC market flattened out in Q2 while Apple, ASUS and Lenovo remain the stars originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 02:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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