HP

Buried under the end-of-year industry buzz last week was a fairly significant announcement. Wi-Fi leader Aruba Networks and the HP ProCurve division joined the OpenSEA Alliance, a group dedicated to the development and adoption of a robust and reliable open-source 802.1X supplicant for secure access to network and other computing resources. Aruba and HP join existing members including technology vendors Extreme Networks, Identity Engines, Infoblox, Symantec, TippingPoint, and Trapeze Networks. The OpenSEA Alliance also includes Janet, the U.K.'s education and research network boasting 18 million users.

So what the heck is this all about? The 802.1X … Read more

On Tuesday, a security researcher disclosed to Bugtraq, a public newsgroup, details of remote execution attacks on some models of Hewlett-Packard laptops. According to the researcher, who is using the name "porkythepig," flaws in HPInfoDLL.dll, one of the ActiveX controls used within the HP Info Center, could allow remote attackers to target the laptop and also execute registry changes on the compromised machine.

As of Wednesday, HP has not offered a response.

The scenario within the disclosure suggests that an attacker could lure a victim to a specially created Web site. When viewing the Web site in … Read more

According to a recent study by research firm ChangeWave, Apple's Macintosh line of computers is well on its way to gaining a sizable portion of the computing market in the coming months.

Polling customers about their computer buying preferences over the next 90 days, ChangeWave Research found that 29 percent of respondents claimed they would be buying a Mac over that period, while 24 percent will buy HP desktops and 31 percent will buy Dell desktops.

Amazingly, just two years ago, only 16 percent of respondents indicated that they would plan on buying a Mac notebook, while 11 percent claimed they would buy a Mac desktop.

But perhaps most important, Tobin Smith, founder of ChangeWave pointed out that, "these are not just the Mac-heads who are buying." And most consumers (24 percent) are choosing Macs because of Leopard and their distaste for Vista.

And while there are still quite a few fanatics out there who wouldn't buy a Mac just because it's made by Apple, I firmly believe an increase in Apple market share is not just good for Apple, it's good for all consumers too.

After all, if Apple brings innovation and progress to the industry, wouldn't it force other companies to do the same?

Suffice it to say, Apple is the world's best trend setter. And a world where Apple is commanding such a large portion of the market could be quite appealing to all of us.… Read more

A new study out from DisplaySearch detailing how well (or poorly) notebook manufacturers performed over the past quarter has hit the Net and the results don't look too promising for Dell.

According to the study, the global notebook market grew by about 24 percent quarter over quarter and a whopping 42 percent year over year. Amazingly, 29 million notebook units were sold in the last quarter alone and HP--the de facto leader in computing right now--commands 21.4 percent of that total, representing 72 percent growth over the same period last year.

But perhaps most startling, Dell has not only lost ground to HP in the notebook market (its share of the market fell 0.2 percent to 13.8 percent), but Acer is hot on Dell's heels and commands 12.8 percent of the total notebook market.

It gets worse: if we were to combine the total share of all Acer properties--Acer, Packard Bell and Gateway--the company's new market share is a whopping 16.2 percent, which not only puts it into second place in the worldwide notebook market, it leaves Dell far behind the pack.

Who could have thought just a few short years ago that Dell would be in such a position? Not only is the company slipping further behind, Acer--a company that had heretofore been an also-ran--has developed into a powerhouse in this industry.

But is there anything Dell can do to turn its business around? Unfortunately, the solution may not be immediately available, and it may need to change its historically successful market strategy in order to do it. If it doesn't, look for Dell to become the industry's also-ran.… Read more

Hewlett-Packard extended its lead in the worldwide PC market in the third quarter, increasing its shipments at more than twice the rate of the rest of the industry.

Shipments from all manufacturers increased to 68.1 million, or 13.8 percent, from the previous year, and 11.1 percent from the previous quarter, according to iSuppli, a market research company that tracks the PC industry. The third quarter is traditionally a good one for computer makers because of increased purchases during the back-to-school buying season.

HP's shipments gave it claim to 19.2 percent of the PC market, followed … Read more

Hewlett-Packard announced on Tuesday investments in renewable energy as part of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations.

The computing giant said it will install a 1-megawatt solar array in its San Diego facility.

SunPower will install its solar panels and sell the electricity the panels generate to HP at fixed rates under a power purchase agreement. The system will save HP $750,000 over 15 years and offset 1 million pounds of carbon dioxide per year, the equivalent of taking 100 cars off the road each year.

The San Diego installation will be made up of 5,… Read more

HP never saw a "Vista moment at any time over the past year" declared HP CEO Mark Hurd in yesterday's earnings call. Think about what that means for HP, and what it means for Microsoft. As it turns out, it means essentially the same thing:

Microsoft's dominance of the PC industry may well be fading.

For Microsoft, this is a Very Bad Thing. For everyone else on the planet, it is a Very Good Thing.

Including HP. As CIO.com reports, HP's growth is increasingly coming from developing nations:… Read more

Hewlett-Packard has never done as much as it could to use its servers, PCs, printers, software, and the like to cross-leverage and complement each other.

One need only look to Apple to see how this sort of thing can work. The iPod would arguably not have succeeded without the Mac home base to build from, and the Mac has clearly piggybacked on the iPod's success. With even more assets, such as servers and services, HP had still more opportunities. But it largely paid lip service to connecting them. Indeed, at present, HP seems to be headed back to a … Read more