News Bits: Windows Vista Released, Intel Centrino to have 802.11n, More Notebooks in U.S. Homes

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Windows Vista released for sale

Microsoft has started to market its new Vista operating system. It is being sold to business customers only right now; consumer availability will come at the end of January. Microsoft predicts that Vista will be the fastest-selling operating system to date. Windows Vista is two years late, and will miss the Christmas season. It, along with Office 2007, took five years to develop, along with $20 billion, and 10,000 workers.

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Analyst says 90 million Vista shipments in 2007

The IDC today released new projections for Windows Vista - over 90 million units will be shipped worldwide in 2007. Vista Home Basic is expected to account for 67% of consumer Vista purchases, while 30% will be Vista Home Premium. Vista Ultimate will secure 2%, and Vista Business only 1%. For the business market however, Vista Business will make up 82% of Vista purchases, and Vista Enterprise the remaining 18%.

During the first year of deployment, Vista will account for 90% of new Windows client installations for home users, which includes Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium. In the business world, only 35% of new client installations will be comprised of Vista Business/Enterprise. That number should climb to 80% during the second year. The reason business adoption is slower is because businesses are a bit more careful when it comes to upgrades, and usually wait for the first service pack before they do large-scale adoptions.

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Intel to put pre-standard 802.11n into Centrino by next year

Director and general manager at Intel's Communication Technology, Alan Croch, told the audience at the IEEE Globecom 2006 Expo in San Francisco on Tuesday to expect Intel to integrate a pre-standard version of 802.11n Wi-Fi into its Centrino platform by next year.

The IEEE 802.11n standard will most likely not be ratified until the first half of 2008. 802.11n brings greater range and better performance over the current wireless technology - it will reach up to 600Mbps, and have a 50 percent greater range.

Industry analysts have warned against adopting the 802.11n standard until it is ratified.

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Lenovo ThinkVantage Technologies integrated with Windows Vista

Lenovo today announced the integration of its ThinkVantage Technologies (TVTs) with Windows Vista to enhance the experience of business users, and offer a high level of system recovery, connectivity, and security.

With its TVTs optimized for Vista Enterprise, Lenovo is embracing and extending the capabilities of the new operating system, addressing system recovery, connectivity, and security. TVTs will help IT administrators and end-users increase their productivity and reach a lower cost of PC ownership.

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Mobile computers on the rise in US homes

According to the MetaFacts 2006 Home PC Brand Profile Report, an increasing number of US homes are embracing notebook computers. In over 52 million homes, notebooks are primary computers, or 30.2% of US primary home computers overall. Brands motivate their customers to buy notebooks differently however. In Apple households, 52% of personal computers are notebooks. 46.1% of Dell PCs at home are notebooks, and in HP/Compaq households, only 16.1%, or one in six, are notebooks.

49.3% of computers in US households are modern, or purchased since 2004. Two-thirds of Apple computers and one-half of HP/Compaq and Dell notebooks are less than two and a half years old.

Other findings in the Home PC Brand Profile Report include the age and gender of home PC users. Almost half (46%) of Apple's user base is 55 and over, which is over double that of average PC users (25.2%). Gateway has the lead among 18-24 year olds; a higher-than-average share of PC users fall into this age group.

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I find this so very hard to believe, those stats are very whacky sounding IMHO. Since when has Gateway been "cool" among the college crowd? The brand is a pretty dead one, although I'm not on a college campus so I guess I wouldn't know either way.

 

I'm surprised at the high statistics they gave for Home Premium. Considering that a lot of the developing countries would go for Home Basic, and that many of the "not-so-familiar-to-the-computer" people would go for Home Basic as well, I'm surprised that they expect Home Premium to reach 30%.

Oh well, that 30% will be us technology geeks and the truly multimedia people

Edit: That's just scary. I think those numbers about Apple and Gateway are wrong. Okay, maybe 55 year olds do use Apple, but teenagers and young adults using Gateway? They have ugly notebooks, no offence.

 

Lets get the sparkling grape juice out and celebrate! A toast to Vista...or not.

BTW, Eh, I tend to see seniors (And not college seniors. The kind with gray hair and weak bladders.) with Gateways. Occationally highschool students.

 

I have to disagree with you Andrew. It is really odd but I have seen about the same amount of Gateways as I do of Dells on my Campus. It is a little strange.
Tim

 

I agree that seems to be weird that such a high percentage of Apple's customer base is 55 and over. I guess I can see how they would like the "Apple store approach"--where there are techs readily available to talk and "explain" things.

The Gateway stat is also confusing. It's been a while since I thought of Gateway leading in any sort of way.

 

I guess Gateways are sold in Best Buy and Circuit City for good prices so wouldn't surprise me too much. Just can't remember the last time I looked at a mainstream Gateway lappy and thought it would be something a college kid would buy.

 

Gateway, Dell and HP's, with a handful of Apple's tend to dominate my school.

Unusually so, I also see quite a few ASUS notebooks as well.

 

at my school, the bookstore only sells gateway and apples (they used to sell IBM, but no more).

in addition, from what i've seen.. the sheer majority of laptops here are Apple and HP, followed by Dell and Toshiba. gateway here and there, and so far, only 3 Asus including mines

 

If you think about it, Gateway has the most "industrial looking" notebook available. And Asus is a close second with thier chisled look, maybe that has something to do with it's popularity amongst the young, and price of course.

 

you've gotta be kiddin me!

does that mean i can buy the centrino pro when its out or not, to take advantage of MIMO router?!?!?

 

Gateway has a lot of deals with colleges to deliver student discounts to students. I'm not surprised of their numbers given that and the fact they are sold cheaply in stores. A lot of "young adults" don't want to nor have the money to deal with "Dell Hell" so they just get something from in a store (their parents are probably paying for it) or through their college discounts. The Gateway discount program is a lot less confusing than that of Dell's anyway.

Personally, when I walk around campus I see a bunch of Gateways, HP's, Apples, some Dells, and some Sagers (we have a big Comp Sci department). It's about in that order too. We have a bunch of Dell laptops in some of the computer labs here as opposed to desktops, and a lot of people are turned off to Dell because of those systems. At the main campus there's even a Gateway service center so they're really really popular.


As for Vista, I just have to sit here and laugh. Of course it'll be the fastest growing OS yet. Computer sales are accellerating and Micro$oft is forcing manufacturers to put it on their PC's. I'd be much more interested in the number of people actually adopting it and not immediately uninstalling it in favor of Linux or WinXP. They don't want people to know those numbers. As for me, I'm going to avoid it as long as possible. Linux and WinXP are fine for my needs. I still would love to see some serious competition against Windows from Apple, but given that Super Pi runs better in a Virtual machine running Fedora than what it does in a native Mac program, Apple has a long way to go.

 

the other thing is i know alot of college students who knew a little bit about computers but not much were buying the old gateway branded e-machines with athlon 64s because among many highschool and college aged students amd has asserted their dominance for years in a way that was difficult to shake. gateway had easy to find notebooks with athlon processors, that at times came with reasonable graphics. however personally on my new campus its enough inspirons to make a guy sick, with a few 12" xps, few hps and toshibas, one or two sonys, and me on my asus lol

 

Beside Dell laptop's what other brand is shipping laptop's with 802.11n (draft n wifi)?

 

Oh at my school, which is in an almost rural area with no best buy type stores within 100 miles,

It goes Dell, Hp apple acer um just like the actual sales go. Oh and then toshiba lol.

Way down the list is gateway although I do see more of even gateway than asus. In the whole school there are 3 and believe me I look for them. a8jm,a8js, s96j

gateway Im not sure probably twice that.

The remaining brands are sony and averatec.

oh as far as wireless N, it will be the standard in 2007.

I have already picked up wireless N routers. Where you will see it first is in the tmobile hotspot network from starbucks.

Where I see it is there and also with a coffee hotspot provider called wanderingwifi I mean its ALREADY THERE broadcasting wimax I just cant pick it up or its not the router connected to the internet.

So the hardware already exists its already here its just being sold to businesses first.