Crave

LAS VEGAS--Panasonic's camera group isn't happy with its U.S. market share and is working on a new marketing plan to improve it, executives said Tuesday at a photography show.

Panasonic's video-capable DMC-GH1

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

"In looking at the U.S., we have not positioned the Lumix brand to our satisfaction," said Panasonic Executive Vice President Robert Perry at a press event at the Photo Marketing Association show here.

The company has No. 1 digital camera share in France and routinely is first or second in various other areas, but it's working to fix its sales problem in the United States, he said. Specifically, the company has begun a market review, he said.

"Over the coming months, we will see many changes," trying to win the hearts and minds of buyers and trying to fire up the resellers "whom we need to get behind the product and support it and make sure they communicate our value proposition," Perry said.

The iPhone has risen to prominence on Flickr, rivaling most SLRs in popularity. These statistics from Yahoo cover the last 12 months.

(Credit: Yahoo)

The iPhone is the mobile device of choice these days for doing most things that need a network. So it shouldn't be a surprise that the phone has carved out a prominent place on Yahoo's photo-sharing site, Flickr.

The Flickr Camera Finder, Yahoo's statistical counter of camera use among its members, shows that since the arrival of the iPhone 3G model earlier this year, the phone has vaulted not only over all other camera phones, trouncing the Nokia N95 in second place, but also almost all ordinary cameras.

That's a notable accomplishment. I've been watching the Flickr Camera Finder for two years, and that's the first time I recall a camera phone placing so highly. The top ranks have been dominated by SLRs, the camera of choice for many of Flickr's heaviest users.

With the debut of the 3G model, Apple's iPhone surged to a commanding lead among camera phones used at Flickr. These statistics from Yahoo cover the last 12 months.

(Credit: Yahoo)

Right now the iPhone is in a virtual tie with Canon's Rebel XT and Nikon's D80, two SLRs whose popularity is waning with the arrival of newer models from the dominant makers of such cameras. Only Canon's newer Rebel XTi outranks the iPhone.

Though the trajectory is clear, there are caveats. First, Flickr measures popularity on the basis of the number of users who've uploaded a photo on a given day. In other words, the camera used by a person who uploads one photo a day will fare better than one who uploads 100 pictures one day a month. Second, many camera phones don't identify themselves to Flickr, so their use isn't logged. Last, these statistics fluctuate daily, and who knows what kind of anomalous behavior is going on during the holidays.

The total number of photos uploaded from the Rebel XTi is about 51 million, compared with 5.8 million for the iPhone. However, there are nearly 3,000 people uploading daily from their iPhone compared with about 6,500 for the XTi.

My guess is the iPhone's better-than-average network abilities are responsible for the prominence. For the same reason, iPhone users also use Google Maps and other online services more than most mobile device users. The BlackBerry is good at e-mail, but the Internet has other attractions.

What's more interesting is extrapolating from the trend. Certainly the iPhone's image quality doesn't hold a candle to even old point-and-shoots, much less new SLRs, but the phone taps straight into the social features of Flickr--the ability to photographically share with friends and family what's going on in your life, for example. There are innumerable expert photographers at Flickr, but it looks like the yet larger herd of ordinary snapshooters are going to leave them in the dust once liberated with the ability to post pictures at will.

I sent my iPhone photos to Flickr using the site's upload-by-e-mail service (see Yahoo's instructions), but there are several iPhone applications that will do it for you if you prefer. Apple's photo e-mailing software scales photos to 640x480, but I don't mind, given feeble image quality and the unlikelihood that these shots will ever make their way beyond a computer screen.

Asus created the Netbook category a little over a year ago when it introduced its first Eee PC. Acer jumped in this past summer with the Aspire One and has overtaken Asus for the top spot in the Netbook market. According to research firm DisplaySearch, Acer sold 2.15 million Netbooks in Q3 for a 38.3 percent share of the Netbook market. Asus moved 1.7 million units for 30.3 percent market share. Not only did Asus have a head start in this horse race, but it also has a much larger stable of Netbooks. It seemingly releases a new Eee PC model every other week, while Acer has but a few versions and colors of its 8.9-inch Aspire One.

HP sits in a distant third with a 5.8 percent share of the market, followed by MSI (5.7 percent), and Dell (2.8 percent).

On the whole, the Netbook category grew 160 percent in Q3, which is good news, given the current state of the global economy, but not all that surprising when you consider that the category has gained momentum with many of the big names jumping into the fray.

(Credit: DisplaySearch)

A video card for PCs.

(Credit: Wikipedia)

The housing market is down the toilet, the stock market keeps tumbling, and unemployment rates are going up. It's all bad news. If you're looking for a little bright spot, however, I've got one for you.

According to a report out Monday from multimedia and graphics research and consulting firm Jon Peddie Research, the graphics processing unit, or GPU, market has been doing very well despite the economic turmoil.

JPR's numbers show that in the third quarter of this year, more than 111 million GPUs were shipped. During the same quarter last year, only 91 million GPUs shipped, and 94 million units shipped in the previous quarter. That's an annual increase of 22.5 percent and a quarter-to-quarter increase of almost 18 percent.

GPUs are generally used in industrial and medical systems, point-of-sale terminals, kiosks, digital signs, and especially PCs. Thanks to SLI and CrossFire technologies by Nvidia and AMD, more than a third of all PCs shipped today come with more than one GPU.

According to the report, this quarter, the three giant chipmakers are holding 97.8 percent of the market share, with Intel at 49.4 percent, Nvidia at 27.8 percent, and AMD at 20.6 percent. The other GPU makers, including Matrox, SiS, and Via/S3, share the rest of the market--a measly 2.2 percent.

Nonetheless, it's likely that the fourth quarter will not look the same as the last three, as AMD and Nvidia aren't expected to release any more new GPUs due to the large number of introductions they have done this year. In addition, AMD and Intel have stabilized their integrated GPU offerings.

Despite concerns that a weakening U.S. economy would slow spending here and elsewhere, the PC market is chugging along respectably.

The market's success was foreshadowed Tuesday by Intel, whose solid quarter demonstrated that there's continued demand for notebook PCs particularly. Shipments of PCs worldwide grew 16 percent in the second quarter of this year, led by the Europe, Middle East, and Africa regions, according to IDC. Shipments were down in the Asia-Pacific region, usually a strong market for growth, but the results were even worse in the U.S., where units shipped grew 3.6 percent, according to IDC. That's the second straight quarter of sluggish growth for the U.S.: Q1 of this year saw 4.6 percent growth.

What we learn from the slowdown in the Asia-Pacific region is that these other international regions are not entirely independent of the U.S. slowdown.

"We haven't seen the impact on international PC shipments yet," said IDC analyst Loren Loverde. "What's remarkable about Asia is we're just starting to see that slower growth."

In the U.S., Dell put a bit more distance between itself and chief rival Hewlett-Packard, though both continued to do well. HP was up 16.8 percent, just slightly ahead of the market overall. Dell grew 12 percent in the second quarter, which is down from the previous two quarters of 15 percent growth each, but it's clear the company is righting the ship. Its retail strategy, now in place for a year, is working, and its stated goal of growing its international business also appears to be on track, said Loverde.

HP continued to lead all PC vendors with 18.9 percent of units shipped worldwide. Dell came in at 16.8 percent, followed by Acer/Gateway at 9.9 percent, Lenovo at 7.9 percent, and Toshiba at 4.4 percent.

Other highlights:

*60 percent of Lenovo's business is done in the Asia Pacific region, and despite that the company still did well, growing shipments at 14.6 percent worldwide.

*Apple tied Acer with 7.8 percent of PCs shipped to the U.S. market, according to IDC.

*Windows lost share to Mac OS yet again.

Eee PC maker Asus rose to No. 8 in total laptops sold.

Odds are the last computer you purchased was not a desktop but a laptop. Laptops have outpaced desktops in total units sold since 2005, and that trend seems to be only escalating. According to DisplaySearch, all the major laptop vendors save Sony enjoyed double-digit growth in the first quarter of this year compared with Q1 2007. Total units sold in Q1 2008 were 31.1 million, which represents 35 percent growth over the 23.1 million laptops sold in Q1 2007. The nine largest vendors accounted for more than 85 percent of the laptop market share, with an annual unit growth rate of 39 percent for the quarter. Here's how they stacked up for Q1 2008:

HP maintained its lead, while Dell showed strong growth (I'd wager its increased emphasis on retail sales played a role), reclaiming the No. 2 spot from Acer. Acer's sales include the Gateway brand, it should be noted. Asus was the biggest gainer, fueled by its Eee PC I'd imagine, moving 67 percent more units than in the same quarter last year. Apple, too, showed big growth and moved up a spot to No. 7, while Sony fell to No. 9 (it was No. 6 as recently as the third quarter of 2007). DisplaySearch attributes Sony's poor growth to declining international sales; it's up by more than 40 percent in North America year-over-year.

Via | Source

The U.S. PC market is beginning to have less influence on the global market, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker.

Though it had previously projected 7 percent growth for the U.S. market, shipments inched up 3.5 percent, half what IDC was anticipating.

The fascination with low-cost portable PCs, like the Asus Eee PC pictured here, is driving down the cost of PCs everywhere.

(Credit: Erica Ogg/CNET News.com)

"The main issue is the economic situation in the U.S.," said Doug Bell, PC analyst for IDC. "It was the only region really impacted by the recession scare." Corporate IT budgets are showing that cautious approach, he noted. Spending on IT hardware is being delayed to the second half of this year or early next year, or at least tightened. Though Microsoft finally released Vista Service Pack 1 this quarter, it had less of an impact than anticipated, but could begin to convince businesses to upgrade next quarter.

The worldwide market is a different story. In the first quarter of 2008, shipments of PCs actually exceeded expectations, growing 14.6 percent to roughly 70 million units. That's two percentage points higher than anticipated.

Increased growth in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) compensated for the U.S. shortcomings, however. Like the U.S., buyers in the region are moving toward more inexpensive portable PCs, particularly in emerging markets where many consumers are making their first PC purchase.

In good news for buyers, the average selling price of PCs is continuing to drop, due to the new market of low-cost PCs, like the Asus Eee PC and Everex Cloudbook. The volume of low-cost PCs shipping is still minimal, but it's growing. "With all major vendors putting resources into low-cost PCs, we're just starting to see a handful of offerings," said Bell. "It's unclear how large that market actually is because we really only have one or two products to base it on."

The world's top 5 PC vendors remained in their same positions (HP, Dell, Acer, Lenovo, and Toshiba), and all grew faster than the total market. Hewlett-Packard grew 17.4 percent, but that was the lowest growth rate of the top 5. Dell, which is in the midst of a comeback since its disastrous 2007, saw its shipments rise 21.6 percent over last year, while Acer was once again the growth leader at 66 percent. This is the second quarter in which its purchase of Gateway and Packard Bell have counted toward its total shipments, and the combined company's total actually resulted in a 20 percent drop from the same quarter a year ago, which IDC said is due to weaker Gateway-branded products.

It looks like Dell is beginning to get its ducks in a row, as this is the second straight quarter the Texas PC maker has shown positive growth. "To have this kind of growth in the U.S. is a good sign for them. It points to their new retail strategy and overall shift toward portables," said Bell.

As far as market leader HP, its impressive growth of the last year has been tempered slightly by market conditions. "They had such a great 2007, the economy kind of caught up to them. HP is a great example of (what's happened to) the U.S. PC market due to the economy."

Maybe that price cut in Blu-ray players is coming sooner than we think because Digitimes is reporting that Sony has set some very ambitious goals for Blu-ray in 2008. And by ambitious I'm talking a 50-50 split with DVD.

The short article, which carries the headline, "Sony looks to 50% global market share for its Blu-ray products in 2008," says that "Sony will offer Blu-ray Disc (BD) devices in a wide range of product lines and prices and aims to increase the global market share of its BD products from 20 percent currently to 50 percent by the end of 2008."

It also summarizes some remarks that Sony president and electronics CEO Ryoji Chubachi made recently at a press conference in Taipei.

DVD and BD currently account for about 80 percent and 20 percent, respectively, of global demand for movie discs, Chubachi indicated. The new BD devices to be offered by Sony include models integrating an HD LCD TV with BD recording functionality, Chubachi pointed out.

The reporter then adds:

"Sony has relied mainly on the PlayStation 3 (PS3) to promote BD, and sales of the game console will increase along with the offering by top Hollywood studios of new BD movies, Chubachi noted. However, Sony will extend its BD promotion from the current focus on the PS3 and BD players/recorders to IT devices, Chubachi pointed out."

Perhaps something was lost in the translation, but 50 percent seems ridiculous at this point, especially with most Blu-ray players still costing north of $400. Even the 80-20 figure doesn't seem right, but maybe I'm too North American focused. What do you guys think? Am I incorrect, is Mr. Chubachi, or is the Digtimes reporter just not telling the story correctly?

Panasonic's DMC-TZ5, with a 10X zoom lens in a compact body, is among a bunch of compact cameras introduced Tuesday at PMA, the Photo Marketing Association trade show.

(Credit: Panasonic)

LAS VEGAS--Panasonic is a relative newcomer to the camera business, but the electronics giant outlined strong ambitions for the business Monday.

"We will try our best to achieve 15 percent market share by 2009," Tokihazu Matsumoto, director of the company's digital still camera business unit, said at a news conference at the Photo Marketing Association trade show here. "We aim to become one of the top camera brands in the industry."

The company also is hoping to reach 15 million units globally during the fiscal year, which for Panasonic runs through March 2010.

That's a big step up from the 10 percent share the company said it had for fiscal 2007. To reach its goal, Panasonic said, it hopes for 13 percent share in 2008, Matsumoto said.

Panasonic's goal is "aggressive," given that the digital camera market isn't growing much and most sales are to repeat buyers, said InfoTrends analyst Ed Lee.

"To get to 15 percent means they're going to have to climb over a few manufacturers to get there," Lee said. Specifically, that means Sony, with a market share percentage already in the high teens, and Canon, with market share exceeding 20 percent.

Panasonic is investing to try to realize its ambition, though, he added. "They are putting money behind cameras and imaging as a corporation."

At PMA, Panasonic unveiled several new compact models that put a major emphasis on automation. For example, a feature called Intelligent Exposure divides a scene into 3,000 regions as it's shot and analyzes which are likely to be underexposed. Panasonic's new Venus Engine IV image processor then increases the exposure level in dark regions, Matsumoto said in an interview.

The exposure boost takes place gradually so there aren't edges or visible artifacts, Matsumoto said.

The company also hopes to stand out from the crowd by use of wider-angle lenses to better capture crowd shots. Several new models announced Tuesday sport a 25mm wide-angle lens.