TechInsight Magazine

NAB Round Up

atto ATTO was at NAB with a booth in the south hall. They were showing off their new 12Gb RAID card.I have to say it. NAB didn't seem as glamorous this year. Maybe part of that had to do with trying to get to and from the convention center with a taxi cab strike happening...

In years past, there was always something that was leading edge - HD, 4K, DSLR, Adobe CS*.*, And LED lights (they are still too expensive so we are trying lower wattage to see if that cuts down the heat) just to name a few.

This year? Not so much.

Here is what I did see though, that intrigued me.

The NAB Show in Las Vegas

Supermicro-PWS-1K03B-1r The world's largest media and entertainment marketplace.

NAB: Next week is NAB in Las Vegas. It's a show more and more resellers are adding to their list of both "must attend and it makes sense to have a booth" shows. In years past, it was vendors like Promise and LSI who had the booths but it makes a lot more sense having the resellers show the technology. It's an end user show and a great opportunity for the two to connect.

Storage is a big issue for NAB attendees. As content creation tools become more mainstream - software, cameras, etc. - more and more data is created and needs a home, both for instant retrieval and long-term archival purposes, plus anything in between.

4K, also called Ultra HD is an evolving technology that should be everywhere at the show but there are multiple challenges, including huge files, ISPs worried about band width, and a lack of content and with the solutions to these problems comes the need for storage.

Content creation is another big piece of the puzzle for those headed to NAB. With multiple devices - desktops, tables, phones, etc. - being used to create AND watch content, what's needed to make that happen? Adobe, Autodesk and Avid, to name just a very few, will offer software tools to help solve these problems while resellers like ThinkMate, Premio, Aberdeen, and SGI will be offering total solutions in a wide variety of areas.

We're going to the show looking for new equipment, but we're also on the lookout for new product that makes sense, so stay tuned. To find out more, click here.

McAfee and the Channel

Supermicro-PWS-1K03B-1r McAfee AntiVirus Plus* 2013 is now available from Intel through authorized distributors.

McAfee and the Channel: The deal with Intel and McAfee is done! Intel is now shipping the first of three different types of product offerings into the channel. We wondered what the response would be so we called a bunch of our readers and the response was overwhelming.

Amazingly, almost every reseller we contacted was interested in at least learning more about the product, something we seldom see beyond the latest "key products" like CPUs, graphics cards, etc.

Our review copies (it's all done electronically so we are just waiting for the key) are on the way so look for an update in the next week or so but McAfee has been on the market for a lot of years. It is a tried and trusted security product that consistantly won high praise, so we don't expect to see any challenges.

Click to learn more about McAfee.

Asus VivoTab Smart ME400C

Supermicro-PWS-1K03B-1r The Asus VivoTab Smart ME400C: The VivoTab Smart ME400C features a dual core Intel Atom Processor Z2760.

Asus VivoTab Smart ME400C: Asus has done a great job of gaining market share these past couple of years. One of the secrets to their success is the effort, energy, resources and money they put back into research and development of new product.

The VivoTab Smart ME400C is a good example. It’s an Intel Atom-based tablet with a sleeve that doubles as a stand and wireless Bluetooth keyboard option. By propping the tablet up with the sleeve and pairing it with the keyboard, users can access unlimited productivity. The 10.1” tablet, (1.27 lbs. and .51” thin) has a 178-degree viewing angle and comes loaded with Windows 8.

The tablet comes with 2GB of memory, 64GB of storage, a built-in camera and a battery life of up to 8.5 hours between charges. To learn more about Asus, click here.

Notebooks: Ultrathin PC sales will help revive the market

Ultrathins are being given a new lease on life in 2013 in light of new features, including improved battery power, a form factor that lets the display be detached for use as a tablet, a higher-performance central processing unit in the form of Intel’s Haswell chip.

Notebooks: The world’s leading notebook PC ODMs will endure a bleak first quarter and slow first half in 2013, before ultrathin PC sales help revive the market later in the year, according to a Market Brief from IHS (www.ihs.com).

Notebook PC shipments from the Top 5 ODMs are forecast down 15 percent from 41.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2012.

“Notebook ODMs in early 2013 are feeling the pain from the combined impacts of uncertain economic conditions and slower-than-expected sales of Ultrabook PCs,” said Peter Lin, senior analyst for compute platforms at IHS. “Consumers are remaining wary as uncertainties linger in the global economy, and a slowing in the markets of Europe, China and the United States further depresses sales. More importantly, smartphones and tablets have been outselling notebook computers, and demand for Ultrabooks and other ultrathin PCs so far has not taken off as expected. However, an expected increase in demand for Ultrabooks and other ultrathins will help reignite notebook PC shipments from ODMs to their client OEMs in the second half.”

The good news? IHS iSuppli believes business will pick up later in the year.

Though not performing as expected last year, ultrathins are being given a new lease on life in 2013 in light of new features, including improved battery power, a form factor that lets the display be detached for use as a tablet, a higher-performance central processing unit in the form of Intel’s Haswell chip, and the gradual uptake of the recently released Windows 8 operating system.

The ODM market will recover starting in the second half of the year. And at the close of 2013, notebook shipments from ODMs to client OEMs will rise 5 percent from their 2012 level of 156.9 million units, IHS iSuppli estimates.