Will Acer's 15-inch Ultrabook spark sales lift?

Europe still not convincedPC News By Kate Solomon Wednesday at 15:34 UTC | Tell us what you think [ 3 comments ]

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Sales of Intel Ultrabooks are reported to be failing to take the hefty bite out of the notebook market that Intel was hoping and Taiwanese suppliers blame Europe's lack of appetite for Intel's slim yet powerful MacBook Air pretenders.

Intel was hoping that its Ultrabook products would account for around 40 per cent of laptop sales in 2012, but that estimate has now been revised downwards to 20 per cent.

It's because these so-called Ultrabooks are not setting alight a fire of passion in the pit of Europe's souls. On the continent, we prefer 15-inch laptops, or so reckons Digitimes' weirdly specific Taiwanese supply chain source.

And therein lies the problem: there are no 15-inch Ultrabooks on the market. Enter Acer, which the sources also suggest is about to rock out a 15-inch Timeline Ultra to appease the European and American markets.

How much is that Ultrabook in the window?

It's not just that though, Ultrabooks are also proving to be rather more expensive than planned, more often tipping over £1,000 than not; but prices are expected to come down as the year progresses.

We reckon that AMD could be the solution to the great Ultrabook pricing problem though - a bit of competition never hurt anyone, did it Intel?

From Digitimes

Tags: Intel Ultrabook, Ultrabook, Intel, Acer, AMD, notebooksTweetreddit!StumbleuponComment on this article  Your comments (3) Click to add a new commentbradavon

Wednesday at 20:23 UTC

3. It's more likely the price. People will pay £1000 for an Apple laptop but a Windows one? It's a harder sell.

That's a lot of money for little prestige and lets face it, that's one of the driving forces behind Apple hardware.

Personally I dislike 15" laptops, they're too big. 13" is where it's at but it has to have an optical drive and regular HDD. For those reasons ultrabooks aren't for me. I'd also spend no more than £600-700 for my next laptop (Windows 8).

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glenns

Wednesday at 17:35 UTC

2. spot on neb, I've seen them retail for £800 but still too expensive.

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neb

Wednesday at 15:59 UTC

1. For a laptop £1000 and over? Not sure. Even if I have money and can afford it I would think twice: Is it wise?

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Kindle Fire Study: Bad Usability, Great Sales

"> 0by Ed Caggiani
tagged amazon, Kindle, Kindle Fire, usability, UX

The folks over at Human Factors International, a company that specializes in user-centered design training and consulting, have published an interesting white paper about the increasingly popular Kindle Fire. Written by the CEO Eric Schaffer, the basic premise of the document states that even though the Fire has some fundamental usability issues with its user interface, it’s still a success for other reasons. What usability issues, you ask?

This quote from the white paper sums it all up quite nicely.

The current Fire design has an awkward browser, and magazines are difficult to navigate and read. There are places where the buttons are too small to easily select and where text has to be read in right-left justified, making it neat looking but harder to read.

But… they are selling millions of units… Why? Because, success is not just about usability. We have to go beyond classic usability and consider the overall user experience. Let’s look at the ‘ecosystem solution,’ the triggers for purchase, and then the emotions during usage. I think we can see why UX teams need to think beyond ease-of-use and consider a bigger picture.

One of the reasons the Kindle Fire is such a success is Amazon.

The Ecosystem
In today’s world, many products do not stand-alone. They belong to an entire ecosystem in which they play a part. An iPhone belongs to the Apple ecosystem, which gives it the power to download apps, music, books, and video. The same is true for Android devices with Google’s ecosystem. The success of both Apple and Google devices is more tied to the fact that they have access to all the content their respective ecosystems provide them. Had they been stand-alone products, they would have stagnated early on and not have been nearly as successful as they are. The ecosystem helps keep these devices fresh and relevant to their users.

Amazon has probably one of the biggest content ecosystems out there. Their’s is big enough that they didn’t even bother trying to get Google’s Android Market on the Kindle Fire. They just built their own. Couple that with Amazon MP3/Cloud Drive, Amazon Video (which is getting a boost from a partnership with Viacom), and Amazon’s Kindle book store, and you have a very robust ecosystem that most non-techie people already trust and use to some degree.

It’s much easier to sell a device that has access to content that has already been purchased than to convince people to switch to a completely new ecosystem and have to buy everything again. Amazon Prime members already have the ability to stream movies on their desktops. The Kindle Fire allows them view that content on the tablet without having to pay extra. It’s just an extension of a service the user already knows and trusts. Books purchased on an old Kindle are still available on the Fire. Same with music.

Low Financial Risk
Another reason for the Fire’s success is the price point. $199 is low risk for a device that can hook into Amazon’s huge ecosystem. Remember how the HP Touchpad sold like hotcakes when it went on sale for $99? In this economy, people are looking for value. Bang for the buck is one way you can describe the Kindle Fire. You get a nice, compact, color tablet that can play movies, music, download books, browse the web, install apps, play games, and more… all for under 200 clams. Too good to pass up, especially when the other tablets are going for $500 or more.

We techies and enthusiasts might say “yeah, but those other tablets have more RAM, faster processors, dual cameras…” But in reality, most people don’t think that way. The Fire can do all the things most need it to do, and more, and it’s significantly more affordable than any other similar device. In other words, it’s “good enough and priced right” for a huge number of people.

Fun
The study mentions some of the usability problems with the Kindle Fire. For example, the carousel menu and bookshelf are inefficient controls for selecting content.

The Fire is clearly optimized for user preference. It is made to be fun to use. Let’s take the carousel menu used to offer current content. You can see four or maybe five choices in a space that could easily fit twenty. The bookshelf is also inefficient to say the least. But, they are FUN.

This idea of building “fun” user interfaces is sometimes contrary to building efficient experiences. This is called “Preference vs. Performance” and UX designers are starting to take cues from game designers in this area. Most users would prefer a fun carousel spinning control over a more efficient but more boring menu. The bottom line is that the Fire is fun to use, even though it might take a second or two longer than it should to perform certain actions on it.

Success
The Kindle Fire can easily be called a success, regardless of its shortcomings in the usability department. People are not buying it for how it’s used… they are buying it for what it can access: The Amazon Ecosystem. It’s content from a company they already know and trust, at an affordable price. I was frankly tempted to buy one myself even though I already own a much more expensive tablet that can do all the same things. Hard to resist a good deal.

For an entertaining and informational read, use the source link below to request the full white paper from Human Factors International.

source: HFI

» See more articles by Ed Caggiani

Categorized as Android Tablets, Unique

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Apple wins Australian sales ban on Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Apple has succeeded in its bid to have the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 blocked from sale in Australia.

The fruity company was awarded a preliminary sales injunction against the 10-inch slate when a judge ruled that sales should be barred until the two companies' patent dispute is resolved in a trial.

Apple claims that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringes on three of its patents, and last week it rejected a deal offered by Samsung relating to the Australian market.

The art of patent disputes

Samsung's statement on the matter makes it clear that, though Apple has won yet another battle, the war is far from over.

"Samsung will continue its legal proceeding against Apple's claim in order to ensure our innovative products remain available to customers," the statement reads.

"This is part of our ongoing legal proceeding against Apple's claim. Samsung is also confident it can prove Apple's violation of Samsung's wireless technology patents through a cross-claim filed on September 16, 2011 with the Federal Court of Australia, New South Wales.

"Our wireless standard patents are essential for mobile business. We will continue to legally assert our intellectual property rights against those who violate Samsung's patents and free ride on our technology."

The Australian courts will decide today if Samsung will be allowed to sell a modified tablet that does away with the allegedly infringing technology, much as the company has done with three of its handsets in the Netherlands.

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iPhone 4S surpasses four million sales in three days

Apple's iPhone 4S sales break previous iPhone 4 three day record

Apple has announced the sale of over four million new iPhone 4S handsets in the three days since the device launched.

The new smartphone has initially released in the UK, the US, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and Japan. Similarly high sales are expected when the iPhone 4S launches in a further 22 countries by the end of October and over 70 countries in total by the end of December.

The previous model iPhone 4, which launched in June last year, achieved record sales in its first three days, but this has been smashed by the new iPhone 4S which has more than doubled the figures of its predecessor.

Apple fans are clamouring for the iPhone 4S’ enhanced features, including a dual core processor on the iPad 2’s A5 chipset, an improved 8-megapixel camera with updated optics and the unique voice activated Siri assistant.

Customer reception of the iPhone 4S has been positive on the whole, despite negative reactions at first from analysts and commentators who expected the much-rumoured iPhone 5 instead.

Apple has, however, been experiencing some trouble with its new operating system update, iOS 5, which launched in tandem with the iPhone 4S. Some users of previous iPhones have found the update wipes their music, photos and even contacts.

]]>

Amazon Kindle Fire sales figures revealed

Amazon is taking around 50,000 pre-orders a day for the Kindle Fire Android tablet, according to leaked internal documents.

The Cult of Android website says it has obtained screenshots of internal inventory management system, which display the impressive demand for the sub-$200 tablet.

The figures suggest that Amazon has already racked-up 250,000 sales just five days after the announcement and is currently processing around 2,000 new orders every hour.

Biggest tablet launch ever?

The site points out that if the current level of demand continues at the same level until the November 15th launch, the company will have to stuff 2.5m envelopes.

Apple shifted 2.5m iPad 2 tablets in its first month on sale this spring so it seems possible that the Kindle Fire will reach that make before the device even hits the virtual shelves.

Although Apple didn't allow iPad-fanciers to pre-order their device almost six weeks in advance, but there's a good chance Amazon will have the biggest tablet launch ever on its hands.

Cult of Android's "inside source" claims Amazon is "ecstatic" with the public reaction to the cheap-as-chips Android tablet so far.

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