News Bits: Acer, HP + Gateway, Valentine's Memory, SPOT and Notebooks

Acer has Strongest Shipment Growth in 2004

Acer had a good 2004, posting the strongest growth for any majorPC manufacturer in 2004. Acer's shipment of PCs rose to 6.4 million units last year, up 44% from 4.5 million it shipped in 2003. The rapid growth Acer experienced last year boosted it to 5th place worldwide for number of PCs sold. Dell was the second in growth, Dell shipped 25.6 million PCs last year (wow) and it is of course harder to grow when you're already big, so Dell did well.

View this article for more on Acer's growth: Acer PC Shipment Growth

Could HP Buy Gateway?

I don't know how much weight this prediction holds, not much in my opinion, but Bear Stearns analyst Andrew Neff predicted that if all the right factors come together HP might seek to buy Gateway. Gateway of course recently bought eMachines, so this would be a case of big fish swallows smaller fish(es). The only way this will happen though is if HP does eventually spin off its PC division and then look to combine with Gateway so that they can do battle with the giant Dell. Before all that can happen they have to get a new CEO as last week Carly F. was fired by HP's board. I think something about Mars being lined up with Venus and the wind blowing at 15 mph across Buffalo, New York at 1:51 a.m. 6/17/05 is required for all this to come true too...but stranger things have happened I suppose.

More from CNET on this topic: HP Should Price Gateway

SPOT + Windows Longhorn + Notebook = Cool Things to Come

Wouldn't it be cool to have a little LCD display onyour notebook lidthat allows you to see if you have any new emails or scroll through your contacts without having to open the screen or boot up the machine? I think so, and Microsoft is working on such a technology. At a presentation to developers in San Francisco last week a prototype machine was shown that used Microsoft Smart Personal Object Technology (SPOT) and an LCD display on the laptop to allow the offline machine to display to the user if any new emails had arrived (SPOT uses FM radio signals and coverage is ubiquitous in most U.S. and Canadiancities) and could be used to display other MSN content features all while the notebook was shutdown.

For more on this visit SpotStop.com: http://www.spotstop.com/default.asp?newsID=117, and while there take part in the contest that is running!

Valentine's Day Memory

No, no, no. I'm not going to talk about a memory from yesterday's Valentine's Day. Rather, in case you missed it and to keep in mind for next year, manufacturers in Japan are making memory modules with cute messages on these days, and nothing says love like 512MB DIMM stamped with a heart logo.

More: http://www.dottocomu.com/b/archives/002915.html

VoodooPC launches ENVY m:515 for Men and Women Laptop

The Voodoo Envy m:515, for men and women!

In an odd marketing twist, VoodooPC is pitching it's new ENVY m:515 as a notebook customizeable for men and women. What this means simply is that you can get a custom "tattoo" on the notebook to make it look either macho or girly. Outside off that vanity feature, the notebook is a thin and light notebook with an Intel Pentium M processor and nVidia PCI Express graphics. It's going to cost you about $2,800 to get this notebook though.

More: Voodoo ENVY m515 Review