On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

Nvidia’s Huang Harangues Intel

April 17, 2008 | Bob Snyder | PCs - PC Components

NVidia Jen-Hsun Huang Apparently Nvidia Founder/CEO Jen-Hsun Huang is less scared of Intel technology than their PR machine. “Intel Inside” (where integrated-graphics silicon are inside most Intel chipsets) doesn’t bother him as much as “Intel Outside” (the pervasive image of Intel as the unstoppable Graphics Rambo).

Another day, another comment from an Intel technologist who predicted “consumers probably won't need discrete cards in the future,” provoked this response:

"Claim after claim after claim. They're just false. They cross the line of fair play," says Huang. "Here's another one. Nvidia's gonna be dead. Because we're (Intel) sticking the graphics in the CPU and (Nvidia) will have no place to stick it."

Huang knows exactly where he wants Intel to stick it: "We don't typically like to do this. It's just that we've been taking it and taking it and taking it. Every single frickin' day. Are you allowed to say that word? Every day all over the world. Enough is enough."

"We're not the only ones saying this: Intel is incapable of running modern games. Intel's integrated graphics just don't work. I don't think they will ever work…This wasn't said in 1994. This was said on March 10, 2008," argues Huang, quoting games guru Tim Sweeney.

Go where Tim Sweeney Disses Intel

TomTom Won’t Meet 2008 Target

April 17, 2008 | Bob Snyder | Auto electronics, sat nav

TOm TOm IBM and Intel may be happy with Q1 but TomTom says it won't meet its 2008 target of 20% growth.

The €2 billion TomTom thinks Q1 revenue will be in €260- €270 million range vs. €296 million last year. Operating margins will fall to "low single digits." The company says in Q1 "retailers reduced their inventory levels more strongly than expected, especially in Europe" where TomTom has 50% of the in-car market.

TomTom competes against Garmin (larger in the U.S. and overall) and Mitac (growing quickly) and all now face new competition (from cell phones adding navigation to their offer).

Go Bummer of a Q1

Intel and IBM Insist No Downturn in Sight

April 17, 2008 | Bob Snyder | Vendor News

Analysts fought disbelief as they separately questioned Intel and IBM executives about their economic outlook. For Q1, Intel reports sales up 9% and IBM comes in at a 26% increase in net income.

Intel CEO Paul Otellini insists consumers and businesses will turn to "best of breed," technology during challenging economic times. "We feel good about the rest of the year," says IBM CEO Sam Palmisano. "Our performance is a tribute to the way we have repositioned our company over the past several years."

Both companies have a majority of sales outside USA and both benefited from currency fluctuation.

Go Intel Q1 and IBM Q1

Hard-driving Seagate Sues Solid State Maker

April 17, 2008 | Bob Snyder | Storage (Personal)

STEC Products Seagate sues STEC for patent violations with the side benefit of stalling the other 50+ makers of solid-state storage who eat into HDD sales.

Contested patents cover "surface mount stacking method and device," "hardware assisted memory backup system and method," and "method and system for host programmable data storage device self-testing."

"We have spent $7 billion over the last 10 years to optimize how our disks work," says Seagate CEO William Watkins. "This is the first lawsuit brought by a hard-disk company against a solid-state company. We are protecting the entire industry."

STEC believes it held prior patents, dating more than a decade prior to Seagate's patents. The $190 million-STEC was once known as SimpleTech before it sold off its consumer division with that name.

Go Sue ‘Em