PC market unlikely to change with new versions of portable devices, says Michael Dell

A number of ultraportable devices being introduced by different hardware vendors including Dell were not likely to change shape of the PC market, according to Michael Dell.

Answering to a query on the netbook phenomenon, Dell himself was not convinced with the form factor. He argued that 85% of portable computers with advanced operating systems were in use in 14-15 inch screen size and it was difficult to predict how widespread the use of 8 to 10-inch size screen devices would be.

Michael recalled that Dell introduced a product in that range but believed those netbooks might not prove to be a massive growth factor in the market.

Michael, the founder and chief executive of Dell, was planning company’s push into services by launching an expanded managed service in London including helpdesk support for the customers.

Michael informed that Dell’s services business accounted for £3.8bn. According to him companies spent $2 to $3 on support and infrastructure services for every dollar spent on PCs. He explained that by selling 90,000 machines to an Australian mining company, Dell could get opportunity to target that $2 to$3 and take over its system management.

Michael clarified that Dell would prefer smaller acquisitions and would not go for really big acquisition like EDS by DP.

Nokia to popularise Symbian devices in emerging markets

Nokia has launched its developer programme, Forum Nokia, for its Symbian mobile operating system to help harvest new applications.

Nokia is aiming to increase its handset sales by popularising OS through the “Calling All Innovators Contest”, particularly in emerging markets, according to the Forum Nokia executive. One of the three competitions is designed to encourage application development.

Forum Nokia’s vice president, Tom Libretto, in an interview stated that developers, the majority of whom belonged to advanced nations, did not focus on applications for emerging markets. He explained that proposed competition was being organised to make developers ponder over the needs of those markets, adding that developer ecosystem could help by delivering weather information or real time market updates by inexpensive means like SMS.

Libretto cited example of an Indian farmer who could be assisted in getting advanced information on prices of wares at different places instead of making long trips everyday to various markets. He claimed that such applications would popularise Symbian devices in emerging markets while driving their sales as well.

According to Libretto, the competition would also help other handset vendors to boost their sales, while Nokia would try to differentiate its handsets from others in price and form.

The other two competitions included applications for reduction of environmental impact and advanced utilisation of phone technology.

The first, second and third place winners in each category of the competition carry prize of £14,000 and a trip to mobile World Congress next year, £10,000 and £5,000 respectively.

Google launches mobile mapping service

Google announced the launch of a new version of Google Maps for Mobile (GMM) on Wednesday. This mobile mapping service, first time in the mobile format, includes Google’s Street View service.

The new version adds walking directions and business reviews which were available on Google’s desktop version for some time.

Street View is presently confined to locations in US, Australia, Italy, France and Japan. The service involves camera-equipped Google cars which drive in urban areas and photograph views seen by the driver while travelling down the street.

According to the blog posted by Google’s service product manger Michael Siliski, GMM could be used to view the storefront image after locating the store on a handset through Google search. Michael also wrote that Street view could also be launched by a simple click on the map and selecting “Street View”. Overlaid Street View could also be browsed on the map or full screen and the view could be rotated to see surroundings while moving along the street.

Street view is likely to be launched in the UK by end of 2008. Google’s vehicles have been photographing parts of the UK after getting the all-clear for the service from the Information Commissioner amid protests by privacy campaigners.

The new GMM version is presently available on Java-enabled handsets and BlackBerry smartphones, but not yet with apple’s iPhone.

OLPC terms response of some commercial laptop makers to its project as unfortunate

The One Laptop per Child Organisation (OLPC), which launched its super low-cost laptop for developing world’s school children some years ago on its own market, is now facing vicious competition from commercial laptop makers hungry for growth.

The chief learning architect for the not-for-profit organisation OLPC, David Cavallo, was however upbeat about the new makers in the educational laptop market which was kick started by his organisation. He was delivering a keynote address at the annual conference of the Association for Learning Technology.

Cavallo described the entry of the new makers as huge success for OLPC since it was not working for profit and was not meant to be a laptop company. The organisation was on mission of providing education for the most marginalised, and One Laptop per Child was a humanitarian project. It was great to see that lot of companies were now making devices since there were still more than a billion children in the world who needed help.

He was however disappointed with the response of some commercial laptop makers to OLPC project and termed it as unfortunate. He was surprised that those companies had taken this as market for competition, and started competing in a vicious way. OLPC was interested neither in capturing market share nor in profit making or knocking anybody out. He declared that OLPC project would continue pushing hardware costs down to make it affordable for many.