Gartner: APAC led mobile phone growth in Q1

GartnerThe Asia-Pacific region grew 6.4 percent year-on-year in Q1 mobile phone sales, the only region in the world to register growth, according to Gartner.

Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled nearly 426 million units this period, only a slight increase of 0.7 percent from the same period last year. Worldwide smartphone sales hit 210 million units in the first quarter of 2013, up 42.9 percent from the first quarter of 2012.

“More than 226 million mobile phones were sold to end users in Asia-Pacific in the first quarter of 2013, which helped the region increase its share of global mobile phones to 53.1 percent year-on-year,” said Anshul Gupta, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner. “In addition, China saw its mobile phone sales increase 7.5 percent in the first quarter of 2013, and its sales represented 25.7 percent of global mobile phone sales, up nearly 2 percentage points year-on-year.

hybris Commerce Suite integrates with SAP

hybrishybris Commerce Suite can now be fully integrated with SAP and is available on the hybris Extend marketplace (http://www.hybris.com/en/partners/hybris-extend). The integration offers hybris customers and partners a way to facilitate fast and easy integration with SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

hybris will officially announce the integration at SAP’s Sapphire NOW event in Orlando (hybris is at booth number 1633).

Based on hybris’ OmniCommerce strategy, this integration enables retailers and enterprises to provide a single, cohesive customer experience from any sales channel and touchpoint in the purchasing process through hybris’ open architecture. This avoids the “rip and replace” approaches used by many vendors. Instead, companies can leverage the potential of their total system landscape in new ways to provide an enhanced customer experience.

Gartner: India IT infrastructure spending to reach US$2.3b by 2014

GartnerThe Indian IT infrastructure market, comprising of server, storage and networking equipment, will hit US$2.1 billion this year, growing 9.7 percent compared to 2012, according to Gartner.

“Despite global economic challenges, India provides strong growth opportunities across segments including infrastructure. Infrastructure alone is expected to surpass US$2.9 billion in 2017,” said Naveen Mishra, Research Director at Gartner. “The Nexus of Forces – big data, cloud, social and mobility – are finding real-time business driven use cases which is bringing a paradigm shift in the way IT is delivering business impact and hence, changing the role of an Indian CIO.”

The Indian IT infrastructure market is driven by hardware refresh, optimisation and consolidation efforts. New data centre build out, primarily driven by service providers, is providing added impetus to this market.

Tegra to drive NVIDIA growth in 2012

NVIDIANVIDIA has reported revenue for Q1 of fiscal 2014, ended April 28, 2013, of US$954.7 million, down 13.7 percent from US$1.11 billion in Q4 of fiscal 2013.

GAAP earnings per diluted share were US$0.13, down 53.6 percent from US$0.28 in the prior quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were US$0.18, down 48.6 percent from US$0.35 in the prior quarter.

As previously announced, NVIDIA plans to return in excess of $1 billion this fiscal year to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and quarterly dividend payments. During Q1, NVIDIA returned US$146.3 million to shareholders by repurchasing US$100 million of shares, and paying US$46.3 million of dividends, or US$0.075 per share.

IDC: China game market grew 35.1% in 2012

IDCChina’s game market is booming, recording sales of US$9.8 billion in 2012, a growth of 35.1 percent over the previous year. The market includes PC online games, PC console game and mobile online game.

According to IDC data, after a quick growth before 2008, the China game market saw a turning point in development in 2009.  The growth has slowed sharply, at almost equal paces in 2011 and 2012. IDC forecasts that the China game market will see a slower growth during 2013-2017, with the CAGR approximating 16%. In contrast, the greater culture industry where the game market dwells is booming.

IDC believes that the China online game industry will be increasingly involved in pan-entertainment, another content-derivative industry, because of the following factors :

Gartner: Indian public cloud services market to hit US$443m in 2013

GartnerLooks like the public cloud services market in India is growing fast. According to Gartner, this market is expected to grow 36 percent from US$326 million in 2012 to US$443 million in 2013.

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), including cloud compute, storage and print services, continues as the fastest-growing segment of the market in India, growing 22.7 percent in 2012 to US$43.1 million, and is expected to grow another 39.6 percent in 2013 to US$60.2 million.

Software as a service (SaaS) continues to be the largest segment of the cloud services market in India, comprising 36 percent of the total market in 2012. Gartner predicts that from 2013 through 2017, US$4.2 billion will be spent on cloud services in India, US$1.6 billion of which will be spent on SaaS.

IDC: Worldwide tablet market posts strong growth in Q1

IDCWorldwide tablet shipments continue to surge, growing 142.4 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13), according to preliminary data from IDC Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker. Tablet shipments totaled 49.2 million units in 1Q13, surpassing that of the entire first half of 2012. With growth fueled by increased market demand for smaller screen devices, tablets have shown no sign of slowing down.

Apple outperformed IDC’s most recent projections for the quarter, shipping 19.5 million units compared to a forecast of 18.7 million units. The company, which historically has experienced a steep drop off in first quarter shipments (following strong holiday sales in the fourth quarter), saw some smoothing of that seasonality this year. Number two vendor Samsung also performed above expectations and managed to grow its shipments over the fourth quarter as more of the company’s smaller-sized tablets began to gain traction in the market. Samsung has also used its recent Android smartphone growth to help bring its tablet product line into new markets and channels, leveraging the opportunity to package and bundle. The strong performance of the two market leaders helped drive total shipments to an impressive 49.2 million units for the quarter.

“Sustained demand for the iPad mini and increasingly strong commercial shipments led to a better-than expected first quarter for Apple,” said Tom Mainelli, Research Director, Tablets at IDC. “In addition, by moving the iPad launch to the fourth quarter of 2012, Apple seems to have avoided the typical first-quarter slowdown that traditionally occurred when consumers held off buying in January and February in anticipation of a new product launch in March.”

GSMA launches NFC Experience for Mobile Asia Expo

GSMASo much hope was placed on Near Field Communication (NFC) technology but Apple’s non-adoption of the technology was a major dampener. A few other mobile vendors, such as Samsung, have included NFC is selected models of their devices.

Keen to drive the technology, GSMA will be showcasing the NFC Experience at Mobile Asia Expo, an interactive experience through which exhibitors, vendors and attendees will be able to use mobile NFC to exchange information and conduct transactions. Mobile Asia Expo will take place from June 26 to 28 at Shanghai New International Exhibition Centre (SNIEC) in Shanghai.

“We’re excited to launch the NFC Experience for Mobile Asia Expo, as it provides attendees the opportunity to experience first-hand the power of NFC technology throughout the Mobile Asia Expo venue, as well as in the Pudong area of Shanghai,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. “We hope that all attendees will take advantage of the many benefits of NFC, from information access and download to retail transactions, among others.”

NVIDIA and HP deliver unprecedented workstation capabilities to professionals

HP Z1NVIDIA and HP are meeting the demanding needs of professionals with a range of NVIDIA® Quadro® professional graphics products powering HP Workstations, including the market’s first 27-inch all-in-one HP Z1 Workstation and the HP Z820 Workstation, showcased to editors from around Southeast Asia at the NVIDIA Quadro Day in Kuala Lumpur on April 26.

Built on the NVIDIA Kepler™ architecture, the NVIDIA Quadro lineup offers unprecedented workstation performance and capabilities for professionals in manufacturing, engineering, medical, architectural, and media and entertainment companies. The dual-socket HP Z820 Workstation leverages the power of NVIDIA Quadro graphics to deliver exceptional performance in an expandable chassis, while the HP Z1 offers blazingly fast rendering and interactive performance, enabling digital artists to spend more time being creative.

“NVIDIA closely collaborates with technology providers like HP and with ISVs, so professionals can enjoy outstanding performance with CAD and DCC applications,” said Sandeep Gupte, senior director of the Professional Solutions Group at NVIDIA. “With NVIDIA Quadro, professionals have a choice that is stable, reliable and affordable – that’s why it powers a vast range of consumer product design.”

IDC: Smartphones top feature phone shipment in Q1

IDCSamsung led the smartphone market as smartphones outshipped feature phones for the first time in Q1. According to IDC (see table below), Samsung not only maintained its pole position but widened its market share lead over Apple in the smartphone market. However, LG showed the most percentage improvement in this category with a 110 percent jump year-on-year.

Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q1 (Units in Millions) 

Vendor

1Q13 Unit Shipments

1Q13 Market Share

1Q12 Unit Shipments

1Q12 Market Share

Year-over-year Change

Samsung

70.7

32.7%

44.0

28.8%

60.7%

Apple

37.4

17.3%

35.1

23.0%

6.6%

LG

10.3

4.8%

4.9

3.2%

110.2%

Huawei

9.9

4.6%

5.1

3.3%

94.1%

ZTE

9.1

4.2%

6.1

4.0%

49.2%

Others

78.8

36.4%

57.5

37.7%

37.0%

Total

216.2

100.0%

152.7

100.0%

41.6%

 

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 4 percent year over year in the seasonally slow Q1. IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker reports that vendors shipped a total of 418.6 million mobile phones in Q1 compared to 402.4 million units in Q1 of 2012 and 483.2 million units in Q4 of 2012.

 

IDC: 3rd platform will drive China’s smart manufacturing sector

IDCIDC believes that IT vendors can leverage business opportunities created by China’s smart manufacturing policies, endeavours to consolidate relationships with governments and industry associations, and enhanced R&D innovation utilising 3rd Platform technologies (cloud computing, big data, social business, and mobility).

Smart manufacturing has been identified and supported by the Chinese government as the key field for further development. In line with this, the national ministries have released research that could drive the continuous construction of IT infrastructure in manufacturing enterprises. Next-generation technology architecture or 3rd platform has triggered clear demands from enterprise customers and created a thorough R&D ecosystem.

Since 2011, the Ministry of Industry and IT of PRC, along with the National Development and Reform Commission, have been releasing a series of research papers on smart manufacturing. IT service providers could identify potential business opportunities by analysing the subject directions and final approved lists.

Dell unveils mobility solutions to support BYOD initiatives

DellDell has unveiled new solutions that help organisations better plan, deploy and manage mobile and BYOD environments to help drive greater business value from their IT investments.

At Dell’s “The Power to Do More — Accelerating Results” event held in San Francisco today, company executives, industry leaders, global customers and channel partners shared insights and perspectives on Dell’s end-to-end strategy for meeting customers’ requirements. Additionally, interactive, customer-led discussions showcased Dell’s integrated technologies and scalable design point, which are proving instrumental in addressing emerging business demands and technology megatrends, including consumerization of IT, cloud computing, data insights, security and business intelligence.

“Dell is uniquely positioned to deliver highly differentiated, complete solutions — from clients to cloud and everything in between — that remove the barriers created by legacy technologies while empowering customers and partners to unlock new business opportunities,” said John Swainson, President of Dell Software. “Software is the catalyst to modernizing today’s IT environments, enabling organisations to do more and achieve greater business results.”

Adobe Analytics integrates with hybris Commerce Suite

hybrisAdobe Analytics, a key component of Adobe Marketing Cloud, has been integrated with hybris Commerce Suite to enhance digital marketing including measurement, segmentation, targeting and optimisation.

The integration module, developed jointly by Adobe and hybris, gives organisations a unique combination of real-time analytics across online (including Web, mobile, social and video) and offline marketing channels.

The solution enables a multi-dimensional view of customers that makes it possible for organisations to fine tune and better personalise every interaction. The integration module will be available in the hybris Extend marketplace.

13 HKSTPC partners win Hong Kong ICT Awards

HKSTPCHong Kong’s push for innovation has borne further fruits with 13 incubation and partner companies of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) scooping a total of 15 awards at the prestigious Hong Kong ICT Awards. They won with innovations ranging from intelligent interactive advertising display and business solutions for retailers to self-powered smart sensors.

“Despite the keen competition from over 600 entries at the Awards, our partner companies have won two Gold medals, three Silver, two Bronze and several certificates of merits,” said Allen Yeung, Vice President of Business Development and Technology Support of HKSTPC.

“We are delighted that among the 13 awardee companies, six are our incubation companies that are still budding, yet have shown enormous development potentials.  Particularly four of them, namely Cenique Infotainment Group Limited, StampUp Limited, QBS Systems Ltd and Voloe Technology Ltd were only admitted to the Programme last year.  Their remarkable achievements proved our local technopreneurs are full of creativity and innovation, and that has further affirmed the value of HKSTPC’s Incubation Programmes,” he added.

Gartner: India’s mobile services market to hit US$2.2b in 2013

GartnerIndia’s mobile services market is continuing its growth momentum. According to Gartner, it will increase by 8 percent to hit US$2.2b this year. Mobile connections will grow 11 percent to 770 million in 2013.

“The mobile market in India will continue to face challenges if average revenue per unit (ARPU) does not grow significantly,” said Shalini Verma, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner. “If the prevailing conditions do not change in the Indian telecom market, India will account for 12 percent worldwide mobile connections, but just 2 percent of worldwide mobile services revenue (in constant US$) in 2013.”

Indian telecom operators are faced with two major challenges – growing their profit margin in the face of intense competition and successfully competing with over the top service providers, such as Facebook and WhatsApp.

Gartner: Worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment spending down 16% in 2012

GartnerWorldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending declined 16.1 percent to US$37.8 billion in 2012, according to Gartner. Wafer-level manufacturing underperformed in 2012, pulled down by weakness in lithography and deposition. Among the major sectors, those more strongly driven by logic manufacturing, 28/20-nanometer (nm) processing and yield ramps-ups did better.

“Continued oversupply in DRAM and the shift to NAND into oversupply led to a reduced need for capacity,” said Klaus-Dieter Rinnen, Managing Vice President at Gartner. “Memory manufacturing-related purchases declined significantly. Logic-related spending provided only a weak counterforce, impacted by slowing overall semiconductor device demand in the second half of 2012 and bulging inventories. Consequently, manufacturing equipment sales realized a declining quarterly pattern, starting in the second quarter through the end of the year.”

Applied Materials reclaimed the top spot based on its relative strength in deposition and process control. Weakness in lithography and limited sales in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) caused ASML’s decline. Similar to Applied, Tokyo Electron Ltd (TEL) benefited from its relative strength in the nonlithography sectors it serves. Lam Research moved to 4th following its merger with Novellus Systems.

IDC: Indonesia a growing market despite global PC slump

IDCDespite the reported decline of PC shipment globally, IDC believes that Indonesia will grow slightly in the coming years.

According to IDC WW Smart Connected Devices (PC) tracker, the trend of the PC market is moving towards flat to negative growth in China, India, and ASEAN.

“While the slowdown is a global phenomenon we have to accept as fact, it does not necessarily signal the beginning of the end for the PC market in Indonesia,” noted Wilhendra Akmam, Research Manager at IDC Indonesia.

ZTE delivers 500 millionth handset

ZTEZTE celebrated the 15th anniversary of its terminals division with the production of the 500 millionth handset, becoming the first Chinese mobile device brand to achieve the landmark.

It plans to promote the Grand S quad-core smartphone and the Grand Memo phablet internationally in the near future, after the two flagship products scored impressive results since their introduction in China this year. The Grand S and Grand Memo represent the state-of-the-art in performance, specifications and industrial design in the global smart devices industry.

Efforts to strengthen ZTE’s brand and engage consumers will be a key part of ZTE’s strategy. The Times Square in New York, the Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome, the London Olympics stadium, and the works of Chinese film director Zhao Baogang are now some of touch-points where ZTE plans to form increased affinity with consumers around the world.

Gartner: Top 10 technology trends for the energy and utilities sector

GartnerGartner has identified the top ten technology trends affecting the global energy and utility markets in 2013, as the industry faces significant challenges from ongoing environmental sensitivity, changing policymaker attitudes and consumer expectations.

“Searching for successful business models that will address these issues and generate anticipated shareholder returns in uncertain regulatory settings is a top priority for this industry,” said report author Kristian Steenstrup, Vice President and Gartner Fellow. “This is in addition to protecting the security of critical generation and delivery infrastructure, as well as maintaining system reliability with aging physical assets. Public and private utilities are looking at how technology can reduce cost, drive efficiency and enhance competitive advantage.”

According to Steenstrup, what was once considered a conservative and slow-moving industry has seen a wide range of innovation from within and outside the traditional IT organization. He believes that understanding business trends is a crucial requirement for energy and utility organisations to create a successful IT strategy in this market.

Singapore and Taiwan among world’s Top 10 in IT use

Singapore maintained its second position while Taiwan inched into the final spot in the Top 10 list of the 12th edition of The Global Information Technology Report by the World Economic Forum.

The report’s Networked Readiness Index (NRI) measures the capacity of 144 economies to leverage infocommunications technology (ICT) for growth and well-being.

Finland topped the list by switching place with Sweden, which slid to third.

Transforming computing experiences from the device to the cloud

IntelIntel has announced new technologies and partnerships aimed at transforming how people experience technology from the device to the cloud. The announcements at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) included details on new data centre product lines based on the 22-nanometer (nm) process technology and the new Intel rack scale architecture, along with details on the forthcoming 4th generation Intel Core processor family.

During her keynote, Diane Bryant, Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Datacentre and Connected Systems Group, underscored the importance of the data centre in enabling amazing personal computing experiences to deliver real-time information and services. She also outlined the steps Intel is taking to provide the hardware and software needed for data analytics to improve the capabilities of intelligent devices and data center infrastructure.

“People are increasingly demanding more from their devices through applications and services whether at home, at work or wherever they may be,” Bryant said. “Intel is delivering a powerful portfolio of hardware and software computing technologies from the device to the data center that can improve experiences and enable new services.”

ZTE doubled smartphone shipment in 2012

ZTEZTE more than doubled its target shipment of smartphones in 2012. The growth in smartphone sales helped ZTE post a gross profit margin of 16.8 percent in its terminals division in 2012, an improvement of 1.6 percentage points compared to a year earlier.

In the US, ZTE’s smartphone shipments greatly increased due to the company’s focus on high-end markets.  In emerging markets including India, Indonesia, Mexico, Argentina, and Russia, ZTE also achieved fast growth. In 2012, the distributors channel contributed 10 percent of ZTE’s terminal revenue for the first time.

The strong smartphone sales performance helped ZTE record RMB1.87 billion of operating cash flow in 2012. ZTE also posted positive free cash flow and operating cash flow for the first time in three years.

Gartner: 2.4b PCs, tablets and mobile phones to ship in 2013

GartnerWorldwide shipment of PCs, tablets and mobile phones are expected to top 2.4 billion units in 2013, a 9 percent increase from 2012, according to Gartner. Device shipments are predicted to reach more than 2.9 billion units in 2017. However, the mix of these devices will significantly change over the forecast period.

The proliferation of lower-priced tablets and their growing capability is accelerating the shift from PCs to tablets.

“While there will be some individuals who retain both a personal PC and a tablet, especially those who use either or both for work and play, most will be satisfied with the experience they get from a tablet as their main computing device,” said Carolina Milanesi, Research Vice President at Gartner. “As consumers shift their time away from their PC to tablets and smartphones, they will no longer see their PC as a device that they need to replace on a regular basis.”

New NVIDIA GeForce 700M GPUs extend battery life, enhance performance, enrich experience

GeForce 700MFive new NVIDIA notebook GPUs deliver a trifecta of technologies that seamlessly and automatically maximise a consumer’s notebook performance and experience. With no effort or input from the notebook user, the technologies work in the background to save battery life, enhance performance and enrich the visual experience — providing the best notebook experience the GPU can deliver. They include:

  • New NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0 technology, which intelligently adjusts GPU clock speed to maximise graphics performance.
  • NVIDIA Optimus technology, which enables extra-long battery life by switching the GPU on and off so it runs only when needed.
  • GeForce Experience™ software, which adjusts in-game settings for the best performance and visual quality specific to a user’s notebook and keeps GeForce drivers up to date.

Hong Kong electronic inventions take centrestage at coming Electronics Fair & ICT-Expo

HKSTPCThree incubation companies of Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTPC) will be showcasing their electronic inventions in the concurrent events of Electronics Fair (Spring Edition) and the International ICT-Expo held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from April 13 to 16.

Two of the inventions will have patent registered pending innovations at the “Invention Zone”.

“IP protection is conducive to technological advancement. We thus are keen to offer services and aid funding for our incubation companies in patent application, including free chat with legal experts. We are proud that two companies under our Incu-Tech Programme are selected to exhibit in the ‘Invention Zone’, in which many of the inventions are patent registered or pending.  With the valuable opportunity to promote their patented technology at the exhibition, we trust our incubatees can be well connected to industry practitioners and fasten their phase of commercialisation,” said Ir Allen Yeung, Vice President of Business Development and Technology Support of HKSTPC.

New hybris Commerce Suite powers all channels from a single commerce platform

hybris storeThe latest major release of the hybris Commerce Suite is touted as the first commerce platform to give B2B and B2C organisations true omni-channel capabilities on a single technology stack.

With new functionality to support the cross-channel consumer and in-store business tools to manage functions such as “buy online, pick up in store”, businesses can now design, develop and deploy advanced commerce solutions more quickly and over more channels than ever before.

“Retailers, brands and manufacturers are racing to meet the increasing demands of the modern consumer. Businesses need to have systems that allow them to innovate faster. With the hybris Commerce Suite, implementing an omni-channel vision is no longer a multi-year process for B2C and B2B businesses,” said Ariel Luedi, CEO of hybris. “It is now within the realm of possibility for them to set up a true omni-channel commerce platform in under six months.”

BOOST hits the sweet spot

GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOSTWhat’s the sweet spot in pricing for gamers looking for a graphics card to play this year’s hottest games? While those who are more financially endowed will go for the highest end cards, such as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or 690, NVIDIA believes that most mainstream gamers are prepared to fork out around US$169.

Putting this belief into action, the company has just launched the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST GPU, which is based on the NVIDIA Kepler architecture and equipped with 768 NVIDIA CUDA cores. This new product is available in two flavours – the 2GB version for US$169 and the 1GB configuration for US$149.

This introduction has led to a revision of pricing for other NVIDIA cards with the entry level

  • GeForce GTX 650 going at US$109 and the
  • GeForce GTX 650 Ti now priced at US$129.

ZTE completes world’s first LTE ground-air broadband test

ZTEAir travellers can look forward to better internet communications while on the air. Last month, Hainan Airlines tested the world’s first  commercial ground-air FDD-LTE-based broadband network on its flight HU7137 from Beijing to Xi’an.

Internet connectivity was available for 70 minutes of the two-hour flight. During the test, engineers were able to complete a variety of online tasks, including real-time video conferencing, instant messaging, microblogging, email, online gaming, and online payments. The downlink and uplink bandwidths were stable and worked at speeds greater than 12Mbps.

The test was conducted in partnership with ZTE. To adapt to the fast-growing online service needs of domestic airlines in China, ZTE initiated in 2011 R&D for the world’s first 4G civil aviation ground-air broadband communication system. The system is designed to provide wireless broadband data transmission channels at a rate of higher than 30-60Mbps on planes flying at various altitudes. The service, which is based on advanced FDD-LTE 4G network technology, allows passengers to access the Internet via a cabin WLAN.

NVIDIA to hold global World of Tanks tournament

World of TanksNVIDIA is organising the first ever GeForce eSports World of Tanks Open Tournament, where combatants will compete to win NVIDIA GeForce GTX 600-series graphics cards and a shot at a US$100,000 total prize pool awarded at a grand finals. Pre-registration is now open with team and player registration open starting March 28 for two weeks.

World of Tanks is a team-based, massively multi-player online game dedicated to armoured warfare in the mid-20th century. With more than 55 million registered users worldwide, World of Tanks is a fast-paced PC shooter game with in-depth weaponry, economics and robust eSports tools such as spectator mode and replay file support. In January, the game set a new Guinness World Record for the most players online simultaneously when the Russian MMO server reached 190,541 players.

Teams will compete in five regions – China, APAC, the Americas, Europe, and Russia. In APAC, country tournaments will be held among teams in Australia, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan. Country finals will be held end June while the APAC regional finals will take place in July.  MSI is the hardware and prize sponsor for the Australia, Singapore and Taiwan gaming tournaments.

Master database management system gives telcos the edge

hybrisIn a highly competitive and dynamic market, telcos are increasingly looking at multiple channels to sell their services and products. Many players have turned to personalisation and business analytics in order to retain and win customers.

However, James Chu, Regional Sales Manager for Southeaast Asia and Telco of hybris, believes that taking an additional step will give them the edge.

“We offer our customers one more step – master database management (MDM) system. MDM curates inventory so that customers can find what they want easily and on any device,” he explained.

hybris partners SingPost for e-commerce fulfillment

burghardt-groeberMultichannel commerce and communication software leader hybris has teamed up with SingPost for e-commerce fulfillment in Singapore.

“What this means is that customers who are going into e-commerce can take our suite of solutions as well as leverage the strengths of our partners such as SingPost for key parts of their operations such as warehousing, delivery and customer clearance,” Burghardt Groeber, Vice President for Asia, hybris told Entelechy Asia in an exclusive interview.

According to him, Southeast Asia is interesting as there are different countries with different laws, customs, geographical size and reach, languages, currencies and taxes.

Acer enters professional workstation market

AcerAcer has expanded its commercial offering with the Veriton P series and new Altos servers, which support a wide range of computing configurations and feature the Intel Xeon E3 and E5 processors, ECC memory, RAID support, and backup components to maximise the performance and run time.

“With a full range of high-performance products and a flexible operating strategy in place our new workstation and server lineup promises immediate benefits for the most demanding clients. We will be able to reach out to many more customers in the SMB, Enterprise, Education and Government sectors,” said Walter Deppeler, Senior Corporate VP and Head of Commercial Business at Acer.

The new Veriton P Series Workstations provide robust computing and rendering for the individual user. The Veriton P series targets customers ranging from small offices to large scale corporations and public organisations and pack NVIDIA’s professional 3D and 2D graphics cards with support across the Intel range of Xeon processors.

NVIDIA unveils visual computing appliance

The NVIDIA GRID Visual Computing Appliance can serve 16 concurrent users with high-performance, graphics-intensive applications.
The NVIDIA GRID Visual Computing Appliance can serve 16 concurrent users with high-performance, graphics-intensive applications.

NVIDIA has introduced the industry’s first visual computing appliance that enables businesses to deliver ultra-fast GPU performance to any Windows, Linux or Mac client on their network.

The NVIDIA GRID Visual Computing Appliance (VCA) is a powerful GPU-based system that runs complex applications such as those from Adobe Systems, Autodesk and Dassault Systèmes, and sends their graphics output over the network to be displayed on a client computer. This remote GPU acceleration gives users the same rich graphics experience they would get from an expensive, dedicated PC under their desk.

NVIDIA GRID VCA provides enormous flexibility to small and medium-size businesses with limited IT infrastructures. Their employees can, through the simple click of an icon, create a virtual machine called a workspace. These workspaces – which are, effectively, dedicated, high-performance GPU-based systems – can be added, deleted or reallocated as needed.

Leveraging GPU power for big data analytics

NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang chats with Shazam CTO Jason Titus on using GPUs for audio search.
NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang chats with Shazam CTO Jason Titus on using GPUs for audio search.

Think graphics processing unit (GPU) and most would relate it to mainly gaming. But enterprises are finding new ways to leverage the power of GPUs to tackle big data analytics and advanced search for both consumer and commercial applications.

Shazam, Salesforce.com and Cortexica are among those  expanding the use of GPUs beyond their traditional role of processing massive data sets and complex algorithms for high performance computing science and engineering applications. They rely on NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators for areas as diverse as audio search, big data analytics and image recognition.

“GPU accelerators provide great value to applications with lots of data or computations,” said Sumit Gupta, General Manager of the Tesla accelerated computing business at NVIDIA. “A growing number of applications that provide mobile service and social media analysis have both. And that’s prompting their providers to turn to GPU accelerators as they scale up their infrastructure to meet growing demand.”

NVIDIA PhysX and APEX support Sony’s PlayStation 4

NVIDIANVIDIA has announced support for Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation 4 with the popular NVIDIA PhysX and NVIDIA APEX software development kits (SDKs).

Game designers use PhysX and APEX technologies for collision detection and simulation of rigid bodies, clothing, fluids, particle systems and more across a wide range of platforms, including desktop PCs, game consoles, and mobile and handheld devices.

NVIDIA PhysX technology is the world’s most pervasive physics solution for designing real-time, real-world effects into interactive entertainment titles. The PhysX development environment gives developers unprecedented control over the look of their final in-game interactivity.

Emerging Companies Summit to include mobile computing, game development and cloud

Emerging Companies SummitMore than a dozen startups using the massive computing power of GPU technology to redefine the possibilities of business will participate in NVIDIA’s Emerging Companies Summit (ECS) 2013, to be held March 20 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, Calif.

A highlight of the GPU Technology Conference (GTC), ECS will feature 16 companies from around the world. This year’s conference and summit have expanded to include companies focused on mobile computing, game development and cloud-based technologies. Also participating are companies advancing areas as diverse as visual search, financial services and medical diagnostics. Five top startups will be recognised for their innovation in a competition with more than $75,000 in prizes.

As part of the fast-paced “CEO on Stage” event in front of the ECS audience, executives will present their companies to a distinguished panel of professional investors, analysts and technology leaders. The expert panelists will then challenge presenters with questions and provide insightful feedback.

ZTE and Intel in next generation smartphone collaboration

ZTEZTE and Intel are collaborating on developing the next generation of ZTE smartphones based on the new Intel Atom Processor Z2580 platform.

The platform’s dual-core processor with Intel Hyper-Threading Technology provides double the compute performance and up to 3x graphics capabilities over the previous generation Intel Atom Z2460 processor while delivering the same battery life.

This latest engagement builds on the multi-year relationship between ZTE and Intel that has already produced the ZTE Grand X IN, ZTE’s first smartphone with Intel Inside.

“Our work with ZTE has been instrumental as we work to expand our portfolio of mobile products and bring to market exciting new designs with Intel Inside, It’s great to work with ZTE on the new family of Intel Atom processors for smartphones and we’re confident that the combination of high performance, competitive battery life and overall value will be appreciated by consumers,” said Hendrik Unkel, Director for Marketing and Business Development at Intel.

New NVIDIA Quadro cards offer unprecedented performance

NVIDIA Quadro KeplerA new range of NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics products offers unprecedented workstation performance and capabilities for professionals in manufacturing, engineering, medical, architectural, and media and entertainment companies.

Built on the ultra-efficient processing power of the NVIDIA Kepler architecture – the world’s fastest, most efficient GPU architecture – the new lineup includes:

  • NVIDIA Quadro K4000 – A high-end card that delivers blazing-fast performance for graphics-intensive applications. Has 3 GB of onboard memory, multi-monitor support and stereo capability in a single-slot configuration.
  • NVIDIA Quadro K2000 – A midrange card that offers outstanding performance with a broad range of professional applications. Comes with 2 GB of onboard memory to hold large models and multi-monitor support for enhanced desktop productivity.
  • NVIDIA Quadro K2000D – A variant of the Quadro K2000, with native support for two dual-link DVI display connectors for interfacing with ultra-high-resolution medical imaging displays.
  • NVIDIA Quadro K600 – An entry-level card with great performance and certifications for leading professional applications. Equipped with 1 GB of onboard memory, comes in a low-profile design for maximum usage flexibility.

hybris Software raises $30m investment

hybrishybris has secured a $30 million investment to fund growth in emerging markets, strengthen its presence in North America and Europe, address additional verticals, and make strategic add-on acquisitions. 

The new investment comes from Meritech Capital Partners, Greylock Israel and Huntsman Gay Global Capital (HGGC), which has been the company’s largest investor since 2011. George Bischof, a Managing Director at Meritech who led this equity round, has joined the hybris Board of Directors.

Over the past three years, hybris has generated organic revenue growth at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 70 percent, while still generating positive operating cash flows. hybris currently employs more than 600 people.

ACCA launches vendor-neutral cloud assessment tool

ACCAThe Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA) has launched the online version of its Cloud Assessment Tool (CAT), which is designed to help businesses choose the most suitable cloud provider.

CAT provides a standard framework for IT users to measure their requirements against vendor offerings. The vendor-neutral framework will help enterprises make informed decisions as they consider migrating their data and applications to the cloud.

ACCA is currently benchmarking services and platforms provided by its members, including PLDT/Smart, Microsoft, Verizon Terremark, Telenor, Equinix, and Hiring Solutions.

Asian mobile players and operators among Global Mobile award winners

The ASUS-made Google Nexus 7 clinched the Best Tablet Award.
The ASUS-made Google Nexus 7 clinched the Best Tablet Award.

Asia is becoming a leading force in the mobile communications space. Mobile product makers Samsung and Asus and mobile operators NTT Docomo, Bharti Airtel and SK Telecom were among the winners at the 18th Annual Global Mobile awards, held at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The Government of New Zealand also nabbed the Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award.

More than 170 independent analysts, journalists, academics, and subject matter experts and 13 representatives from mobile operators throughout the world participated in the judging of the 2013 awards.

The full list of winners and finalist for the 2013 Global Mobile Awards is available at www.globalmobileawards.com/winners-2013

Women underserved by mobile financial services providers


GSMA
VisaWomen in developing countries represent a significant underserved market and commercial opportunity for mobile financial service providers.

According to the study by the GSMA mWomen Programme and Visa, more than two billion people worldwide, the majority of whom are women, lack access to basic financial services.

The study, entitled, Unlocking the Potential: Women and Mobile Financial Services in Emerging Markets, focused on women in Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, and Tanzania. It was undertaken to gain additional insight into how financial institutions and mobile network operators can better support the complex financial lives of women at the base of the pyramid.

New ZTE Grand Memo features Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor

ZTE Grand MemoThe newly-launched ZTE Grand Memo 5.7-inch handset runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors.

It balances the portability of a handset and the larger viewing and easier touch-interaction experience of a tablet. The new phone features a 5.7-inch, high definition, 720 x 1280 display, and a powerful Qualcomm 800 processor with quad-core Krait CPUs and 2GB of RAM. Combined with a 13MP rear-facing camera, 1MP front-facing camera and 1080 HD video playback, this gives users a smooth, high quality multimedia experience that is perfect for gaming and video.

The Grand Memo caters to those who are always on-the-go, with voice-response technology which allows users to answer calls safely while driving, and A-GPS and car-mode navigation system for high quality mapping and directions. It comes with a HD version of ZTE’s Mifavor user interface that is specially designed for smartphones, providing a simpler user experience, and ZTE’s Z Cloud service for the security and access-anywhere provided by cloud services. It also includes a 3200mAh battery for super-long standby time.

GSMA announces OneAPI Exchange

GSMAGSMA has announced OneAPI Exchange, a new, flexible technical platform that will deliver network capabilities to mobile apps. This latest phase of the OneAPI global initiative, which facilitates closer collaboration between operators and developers, has been undertaken with leading mobile operators including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefónica, and Vodafone.  OneAPI Exchange will be operated by Apigee.

“The OneAPI Exchange promises to elevate the mobile app experience for consumers,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer of GSMA. “By supporting closer operator-developer relationships and greater cross-carrier interoperability, the platform will lead to seamless access to exciting mobile apps with enhanced features. End users will benefit from operator services they already know and trust, such as billing, messaging and operator identity, embedded within the apps they choose.”

The new initiative incorporates the work undertaken by the Wholesale Application Community (WAC), which was integrated into the GSMA in July 2012. The OneAPI Exchange, which is currently in a working proof of concept form, improves that capability by giving operators the choice of providing developers with either their own customised application programming interfaces (APIs) or standardised APIs. This leads to better flexibility for operators to participate in the OneAPI Exchange programme, according to their own business objectives, while also providing benefits of scale and reach to their developers through API interoperability.

ZTE debuts world’s first Firefox OS smartphone

ZTE OpenZTE has launched ZTE Open, the world’s first smartphone to run on Mozilla’s Firefox OS open mobile ecosystem. Together with global operator Telefónica, ZTE will first launch the ZTE Open in Spain, Venezuela and Colombia in mid-2013.

The ZTE Open is an entry-level smartphone ideal for young people who are keen to experience the very latest technology, and people on limited budgets looking to make the move from a feature phone to their first smartphone. It features a 3.5-inch, HVGA TFT touchscreen display and has 256MB RAM and 512MB ROM combined with a 3.2MP camera. It supports Bluetooth 2.1, WIFI 802.11b/g/n and AGPS and has a 1200mAH battery.

“ZTE continues to push the boundaries with the aim of bringing customers the very latest that mobile technology has to offer.” said He Shiyou, EVP and Head of ZTE’s Mobile Devices Division. 

Korean mobile operators KT and SK Telecom win GSMA Chairman’s Award

GSMAKorean mobile operators KT Corporation and SK Telecom have been named the joint recipients of the 2013 GSMA Chairman’s Award. Established in 1996, the award is the GSMA’s most prestigious award and recognises outstanding contribution to the growth and development of mobile communications around the world. This year’s award recognises SK Telecom and KT for their pioneering efforts and leadership in driving the adoption of SIM-based mobile near field communication (NFC) services.

“KT and SK Telecom have been at the forefront of global commercialisation of NFC, catalysing the financial ecosystem for mobile NFC from an early stage,” said Franco Bernabè, Chairman, GSMA and Chairman and CEO of Telecom Italia Group.

“These efforts have not only led to an explosion in demand for NFC-based services domestically, but ensured that the country leads in the worldwide adoption of a single standard for mobile NFC. On behalf of the GSMA, and indeed the entire mobile industry, I commend SK Telecom and KT for their cooperative spirit and a commitment to making life-enhancing new mobile services for users everywhere,” he added.

Global mobile data revenue to surpass voice revenue by 2018

GSMAMobile operator data revenues will overtake voice revenues globally by 2018, according to a new GSMA report. The mobile data explosion is being driven by a surge in demand for connected devices and machine-to-machine (M2M) communications and is transforming the socioeconomic future of people in developed and developing countries.

The increase in mobile operator data revenues is a global trend across both developed and emerging markets. In 2012, Japan became the first country where data revenues exceeded voice revenues, due largely to the availability of advanced mobile broadband networks and a higher adoption of the latest smartphones, tablets and connected devices.

Data growth has spurred significant advances in connected devices and M2M technologies globally. Four sectors in particular – health, automotive, education and smart cities – are building on the evolution of mobile broadband access and services.

Intel accelerates mobile computing push

IntelIntel Corporation has announced a range of new products, including a new dual-core Atom SoC (“Clover Trail+”) platform for smartphones and Android tablets, and its first global, multimode-multiband LTE solution that will ship in the first half of this year.

Other disclosures included “Bay Trail” momentum, mobile device enabling efforts, and continued smartphone momentum in emerging markets with the Intel Atom Z2420 processor-based platform.

“Today’s announcements build on Intel’s growing device portfolio across a range of mobile market segments,” said Hermann Eul, Intel Vice President and co-General Manager of the Mobile and Communications Group. “In less than a year’s time, we have worked closely with our customers to bring Intel-based smartphones to market in more than 20 countries around the world, and have also delivered an industry-leading low-power Atom SoC tablet solution running Windows 8, and shipping with leading OEM customers today. Looking forward, we will build upon this foundation and work closely with our ecosystem partners, across operating systems, to deliver the best mobile products and experiences for consumers with Intel Inside.”

ZTE to increase smartphone revenues by 30% in 2013

ZTEZTE expects to increase smartphone revenues by 30 percent in 2013, and maintain its position as one of the top 4 global handset manufacturers.

ZTE’s handset business has seen steady development and profit growth during 2012. Industry analyst IDC reported that ZTE had shipped 65 million handsets in 2012, accounting for 3.8 percent of the global handset market and confirming ZTE as one of the top 4 handset producers.

“We know that our future success means we have to build the ZTE brand, and another target for us is to be a top 5 vendor in terms of brand awareness and reputation within the next three years,” said He Shiyou, EVP and Head of the Mobile Devices Division at ZTE. “2013 is the final year of our three-year transformation into a high-end smartphone brand, but we have a lot of building still to do.”

1 in 2 worldwide uses mobile phone

GSMANearly half of the world’s population now uses mobile communicationsThe number of mobile subscribers now stands at 3.2 billion people and is expected to increase by another 700 million subscribers by 2017. The 4 billion-subscriber milestone will be reached in 2018, according to a new GSMA report.

“The Mobile Economy 2013”, which provides a comprehensive overview of the mobile industry today, outlines the key opportunities and challenges for the mobile industry over the next five years. Developed by the GSMA and A.T. Kearney, the wide-ranging study offers critical insights into the health of the mobile communications industry and details the global enablers needed to spur further investment and growth in the sector. 

“Mobile is a vibrant and evolving industry at the heart of everyday life for billions of people around the world,” said Anne Bouverot, Director General of GSMA. “Mobile has gone beyond being a mere communications tool to one that provides life-enhancing, and in some cases life-saving, services to men, women and children. It’s exciting to look at the possibilities ahead of us as we connect the world’s population to the mobile Internet.”