Notebook News: Notebook battery prices to go up, Small Businesses and Dell, Laptops on Campus

Notebook Battery Prices to go up this Spring (so buy batteriesnow!)

Prices of lithium ion batteries, a core component of various electronics devices, may go up in the spring as the world's top producers, Sanyo Electric Co and Sony Corp, are eying 8-10% hikes.

Sony and Sanyo combined hold 60% of the global market and have already begun negotiations with producers of notebook computers for setting higher prices on batteries. The price increase is due to a price increase in the metal Cobalt which is used as a major component in these batteries. Notebook battery prices should stay stable until Spring when these higher to product batteries hit the market, so if you were thinking about buying an extra battery you might want to do it now!

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000101&sid=a_EdRF0v8qLk&refer=japan

Small Businessesview Dell as top

A recent study indicates that U.S. small- to mid-sized businesses spend approximately half of their annual IT budgets on new computers. The hardware vendor that is perceived as offeringsmall businesses the best quality products at a competitive price will usually dominate the market, which isexactly what Dell has managed to do.

Of thesmall businessessurveyed, 80 percent view Dell as either the perceived price leader or at least competitively priced. Regarding quality, 82 percent of businesses view Dell as the quality leader or maker of good quality computer products. Whether this is true or not is not qualified by this study and is beside the point, perception is everything!

http://www.internetnews.com/stats/article.php/3316471

Northwest Missouri State University plans to equip every student living on campus with a laptop computer

Northwest Missouri State University plans to equip every student living on campus with a laptop computer.

About 2,400 people would have laptops by fall 2005 under the plan. About 550 students living in new apartments and suites on campus will get the first computers this fall.

Students currently share one desktop computer per residence hall room. The university placed computers in each dorm room and faculty office in a program that the school says was the first of its kind in the United States.

"It will take up less space in a residence hall," Jon Rickman, vice president of information systems, said of the laptops. "It is mobile. They can use them more conveniently."

Students must pay $45 each trimester for the laptops, plus $1 per credit hour for wireless Internet access.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/8024800.htm