| Gartner: Tablet Adoption Peaked, Consumers Going Back to PC Purchases Posted: 10 Oct 2014 09:04 AM PDT  "The transition from PCs to tablets has faded..." - Gartner
People are fickle creatures, and if you need proof of this, just turn your attention to the technology sector. Remember when netbooks were red hot? You couldn't go more than a couple of days without seeing a new netbook announcement. They've since disappeared (and arguably returned in the form of Chromebooks), and now tablets are the hot item. Or, they used to be. According to Gartner, the tablet market is showing signs of saturation, causing consumers to fall in love with traditional PCs all over again. "Consumers' attention is slowly going back to PC purchases as tablet adoption peaked with mainstream consumers. The transition from PCs to tablets has faded as tablet penetration has reached the 40-50 percent range," said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner. Gartner's PC shipment numbers are pretty much in line with what IDC noted earlier this week. According to Gartner, worldwide PC shipments reached 79.4 million units in the third quarter of 2014, a 0.5 percent drop from the same period a year ago. The firm also saw positive results in Western Europe and North America, which it took as a sign of a gradual recovery in the PC industry. Gartner also has Lenovo leading the way as the top PC supplier, with a 19.8 percent share of the market. HP is in second place with a 17.9 percent share of the market, followed by Dell (12.8 percent), Acer (8.6 percent), and Asus (7.3 percent). Unlike IDC, Gartner didn't have Apple overtaking Asus for the fifth spot. "For the first time, the sum of the top five vendors' share reached two-thirds of the worldwide PC shipments. All top 5 vendors showed stronger growth compared to the industry average," Gartner said. Image Credit: Flickr (JD Hancock) Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| ECS Adds Z97I-Drone Motherboard to L337 Gaming Series Posted: 10 Oct 2014 08:12 AM PDT  ECS wanders into high-end territory
You'd be surprised at how many OEM motherboards in pre-built systems come from ECS, but be that as it may, it still isn't a company most would associate with high-end computing. ECS appears to want to change that perception, hence the creation of its "L337 Gaming" high-end gaming motherboard series. The latest addition to the L337 Gaming line is the ECS Z97I-Drone, which is essentially a mini-ITX version of the company's Z97-Machine. The Z97I-Drone is a socket LGA 1150 board based on Intel's Z97 chipset. It has two DDR3-3000+ (OC) DIMM slots with support for up to 16GB of RAM, a single PCI-Express x16 3.0 slot, a M.2 slot, onboard audio, and a few other goodies. ECS built the board using a 5-phase power design with high-end components designed to make the board more reliable and perhaps overclocking friendly. Some of the features include a dual advanced MOSFET, hybrid digital PWM, ICY chokes, solid capacitors, and so forth. No word yet on when the Z97I-Drone will be available or for how much. In the meantime, you can find more details on the board's product page. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Lenovo Refreshes Yoga Line, Unveils Yoga Tablet 2 and Yoga 3 Pro Laptop Posted: 10 Oct 2014 05:32 AM PDT  Hey look, it's Ashton Kutcher
Why's Ashton Kutcher hanging around Lenovo, you ask? The short answer, quite simply, is marketing. But the longer answer is that he joined Lenovo as a product engineer a year ago and purportedly helped develop the Yoga Tablet 2 Pro, one of three new products Lenovo just rolled out. The other two are the non-pro version of the Yoga Tablet and the Yoga 3 Pro, an ultraslim convertible. Both the Yoga Tablet 2 and Yoga Tablet 2 Pro can run either Windows or Android. The Pro model sports a 13.3-inch QHD display with a 2560x1440 resolution powered by a 4th generation Intel Atom Z3745 processor (Bay Trail) and 2GB of RAM. It has a built-in pico projector, 8-megapixel rear camera, 1.6-megapixel front camera, 32GB of internal storage, a microSD card slot, optional 4G, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, 8W sound system with a subwoofer, and up to 15 hours of battery life. Lenovo plans to make the Tablet 2 Pro available this month starting at $499. As for the non-Pro models, they're available in 8-inch and 10.1-inch form factors with choice of Windows 8.1 or Android 4.4 KitKat. Both feature a 1920x1200 IPS display powered by the same Atom Z3745 processor and 2GB of RAM. Other specs are similar to the Pro except that onboard storage is cut in half to 16GB. The smaller version will start at $250 and the larger model at $300 later this month. Finally, the Yoga 3 Pro is a thin and light convertible with a new watchband hinge design. It boasts a 13.3-inch QHD+ touchscreen display with a 3200x1800 resolution powered by an Intel Core M-70 processor (Broadwell), 8GB of RAM, up to 512GB of storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, two USB 3.0 ports, micro HDMI, microSD card slot, and various other odds and ends. The Yoga 3 Pro will ship at the end of October starting at $1,350. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook |
| Newegg Daily Deals: Corsair AX Series 760W PSU, AMD A4-6300 Richland, and More! Posted: 10 Oct 2014 03:37 AM PDT |
