News Bits: Lenovo Battery Recall, Asus U1 Coming Next Week, HP tx1000z Available

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Lenovo recalls 208,000 notebook batteries

Lenovo has announced that it is recalling 208,000 notebook batteries. The recall comes in response to five customers complaining that their laptop batteries overheated after the laptops were dropped or hit. One user had minor eye irritation, and others had property damage.

The battery packs being recalled are nine-cell extended batteries manufacturered by Sanyo Electric. They were sold between November 2005 and February 2007 on certain ThinkPad PCs, in the R-, T-, and Z-series. Faulty battery packs have part number FRU P/N 92P1131. The cause of the problem is not related to the metal shard issue that caused the Sony battery recalls. Lenovo spokesman Ray Gorman said in a statement: &quot;We have isolated the cause of failure, and have redesigned and strengthened the battery pack that caused it.&quot;

Customers who have a faulty battery pack in their notebook are asked to immediately remove it and use their PCs only via the AC adapter. More information can be found on Lenovo's web site.

Read More (PC World)

HP tx1000z notebook convertible now available

As promised, HP has released its tx1000z convertible notebook and it's available for the starting price of $1,300 at HPShopping.com without the touchscreen feature. It's +$125 to get the touchscreen. It comes standard with Windows Vista Premium, 1GB of RAM and an AMD Turion X2 1.6GHz processor, all of those components can be upgraded for a price.

See our full review of the tx1000z

Asus U1 LED-based notebook coming next week

Digitimes is reporting that Asus will launch its first LED backlit U1 notebook next week. The U1 is an ultraportable with an 11.1-inch screen that has a stainless stell rim and leather made palm rests. The U1 is reported to weigh only 1kg (2.2 lbs) and have a quoted battery run time of 7 hours (we'll believe that when we see it). Pricing should start at around $1,820 and an external Blu-Ray drive will be offered.

Top ten notebook brands taking clone brand market share

In Q4 2006, the top ten notebook brands had an 85% share of the notebook market, while the remaining 15% was left to other clone brands (generic white box notebooks). The market share percentage of clone brands has been nearly cut in half since Q1 2005, when they had a 28.9% share. This indicates that customers are continually recognizing name brands as a priority when making notebook purchase decisions. Clone brands are most likely going to be weakened further in the future. If the current situation continues, clone brands might be facing disappearance.

Top ten notebook brands market share in 4Q06
Company	Market share
HP	20.7%
Dell	14.2%
Acer	13.2%
Toshiba	10.1%
Lenovo	7.5%
Fujitsu/Fujitsu Siemens	5.2%
Sony	4.2%
ASUS	4.1%
Apple	3.9%
Gateway	2.0%
Others	15.0%

Read More (DigiTimes)

Dell sees steep decline in revenue and earnings

Dell's Q4 financial results show a sharp decline in both income and revenue. Net income fell by one-third according to Dell, and revenue fell 5.1% to $14.4 billion compared to $15.18 billion one year earlier. Chairman and chief executive of Dell, Michael S. Dell, said in a statement: “We are disappointed with the company’s results, but what matters is our future plan of action. We are systematically moving to increase efficiencies, improve execution and transform the company.”

A main culprit behind Dell's declining earnings and revenue is their faltering PC sales. According to the IDC (International Data Corporation), Dell's worldwide shipments in Q4 declined 8.4% despite the fact that the overall market grew 8.7%. HP also surpassed Dell as the number one PC marker during the last few months of 2006.

Dell's main problem lies with its inability to attract both consumers and businesses to its notebook computer lineup. According to Dell, revenue for its laptop division fell 2%. Desktop computer sales declined 18% from one year earlier. HP saw its revenue and profit margins increase during the same period.

Read More (NY Times)

Largest notebook market in Q4 '06 was Western Europe

Western Europe surpassed the United States and was the largest notebook computer market in Q4 2006. Their market share made up 34% of worldwide shipments according to the IDC. Western Europe's notebook market shipments have fluctuated over the past year; they once accounted for 35% in Q4 2005, but fell to sub-30% levels in the next three quarters. However, that changed in Q4 2006. Market sources pointed toward the increasing value of the Euro as the key reason Western Europe was able to surpass the US in terms of overall shipments.

Read More (DigiTimes)

 

Those numbers don't really surprise me too much with Dell v. HP...people are sick of the white bumpers .

 

ROFL! That is too funny, seriously though, when is Dell going to get rid of those white bumpers?

 

Any idea when the tx1000 will show up in places like Best Buy, etc.? I'd kind of like to try it out in person (in particular to see what it's like writing with the passive pen, and how that compares to active digitizer pens).

 

Is that Asus U1 the first sub 12" notebook to start at less than $2000? I am tempted to get it. I don't know about the leather, though.

 

The U1 looks awesome, no docking station though

 

I bet the ULED will be nice. I can't wait to see more of those coming around.

 

Well if would've read this forum , they couldn't say I didn't told them so

Dell lost its edge at both specification and pricing , however I don't think they should invest much effort in reclaiming the PC market back as its going to shrink even more , to a "power house" computers segment such very fast gaming computers etc.

Now even loosing the bumpers won't help them , they need to redesign their whole lineup if they want to gain notebook market share back .

 

Yes yes, we all know! Dell's screwed to hell, and all is right with the world!

 

ASUS surely has the worst times in releasing their notebooks. Santa Rosa is what, 2 months away from release?

 

Well Asus could always update it in the future Then those who want to pay the premium on top of the premium can

 

That Asus sure does look nice. I can't understand the leather-bound laprests though. That's pretty much a deal-breaker for me.

 

Dell really screwed things up huh. They just don't have the edge in pricing anymore and their designs are absolutely horrendous compared to the current crop of notebooks. I'm glad to see more notebook manufacturers putting more effort into their designs.

 

I don't know, I don't particularly care for the designs of most of the Inspirons, but I think the Latitudes look OK. I could go either way on the XPS series.

 

Remember that ultraportables never get the latest tech as their bigger cousins do. ULV Core 2 Duo chips are still a while away for example and LV Core 2 Duo chips just recently came out while regular ones of course have been available for some time now.