Hard-disk laptops outmoded in a decade

Hard disk drives (HDD) can expect to face competition in the laptop storage market from Flash-based solid state drives (SSD) in the very near future, according to research firm In-Stat. In-Stat reports that SSDs have the potential to usurp HDDs on portable computers within 10 years, the high-tech market research firm says, having taken a 50 per cent market share by 2013. 'The HDD industry has done a phenomenal job of driving areal densities; however, it is clear that there are user segments for which drive capacities far exceed the user's need,' said Frank Dickson, In-Stat analyst. ...more

Acer eyes American expansion

Acer is hoping to translate its European success across the Atlantic into the US market. The notebook specialist boasts the number four position in the worldwide computer market, but its dominance in Europe means it is having to look farther afield to keep up the phenomenal growth rates it has enjoyed over the past few years. Announcing its first half financials, Acer's President Gianfranco Lanci highlighted more than $4bn in revenues and profits just shy of $140m - a year on year growth of 83. ...more

New Visors enter the PDA fray

Handspring has two new Visor PDAs ready to launch in October. They build on the huge success of its earlier models with their versatile Springboard expansion slot, which placed the company second only to Palm in market share. The first of the new models, the Visor Prism, boasts a 16bit colour screen and retails at $449 (?320). ...more

Disney eyes Steve Jobs for top movie studio job

Walt Disney's nephew wants Apple and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs to take over at the top of the famous movie studio, according to the New York Post. Roy Disney and fellow former board member Stanley Gold are currently waging a war of words with current CEO Michael Eisner. Both were recently booted off the board, despite Disney being one of the major shareholders. ...more

The year 2003 in processor form

Its been a big year for processors and, interestingly, in areas outside the traditional desktop space. The year began with Centrino, Intel's ground up redesign of mobile processing and finished with Athlon64, AMD's number crunching, x86-based, 64-bit processor. And both Intel and AMD debuted new 64-bit server offerings - the Opteron from AMD, and the second-gen Intel Itanium. ...more