Acer has this week added a new monitor to its portfolio, the V273HL model featuring a 27-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) TN panel, LED backlighting, and a (dynamic) contrast ratio of 100,000,000:1. Acer's display also has 170/160 degree viewing angles, a 5 ms response time, a maximum brightness of 300 cd/m2, two 1 W built-in speakers, and D-Sub, DVI and HDMI inputs.

The V273HL has a recommended price tag of 299 Euro.

Acer Inc. Board of Directors today approved the financial results for year 2011. Acer's consolidated revenues were NT$475.3B (US$15.7B), declining 24% year-on-year (YOY). The operating loss reached NT$6.4B (US$211M), profits-after-tax (PAT) was NT$-6.6B (US$-218M), and earnings-per-share (EPS) was NT$-2.52.

Acer said the loss was mainly due to the one-time write-off of operations loss in EMEA, as well as the compensation for reorganization. After the operational and strategic adjustments, Acer's current corporate constitution, inventory management, and financial structure are becoming more healthy and stable.

Wintel (slang for Windows+Intel architecture) tablets, which launch along with Microsoft's latest Windows 8 operating system, which grab a greater market-share than WoA (Windows on ARM) tablets by the end of 2012, DigiTimes research predicts. This, despite the fact that the x86 and ARM versions of the operating system will be released simultaneously. PC majors such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, ASUStek and Toshiba, have all pledged 1-3 models of Wintel tablets by the end of 2012. Although still an emerging market-segment, tablets will see a clash between x86 and ARM architectures, as they are wooing for the same exact class of devices for the first time in computing history. Intel has made a lot of progress in miniaturizing the Atom processor, while led by the likes of Qualcomm and NVIDIA, ARM processors are getting stronger.

Acer America today announced five new ultra slim LED-backlight displays. Available in 20-, 23- or 27-inches and with adjustable tilt bases, their slim profile and sleek contemporary designs are also packed with top-of-the line features and technologies. They're ideal for viewing family photos and videos, watching the latest DVDs/movies or for business applications that require excellent resolution, contrast ratios and graphics performance.

With a 100,000,000:1 contrast ratio, Acer's new ultra-slim monitors radiate the brightest whites and deepest blacks. This advanced technology enables a dramatic improvement of gradation and detail, especially in very dim or very bright scenes, for stunning picture quality. Their quick 5 ms response time reduces deviations in transition time, delivering stutter-free moving images.

NVIDIA's Kepler and Intel's Ivy Bridge architectures are a match made in Acer's upcoming VA40 notebook. The notebook combines Intel Core i7-3612QM quad-core processor with NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M discrete graphics, and with NVIDIA Optimus technology, performs dynamic-switching between the GT 640M and Intel HD 4000 graphics embedded into the processor. A Chinese forum user "yknyong1" posted screenshots of the two components using available diagnostic software. We know that CPU-Z 1.6 adds reliable support for Ivy Bridge CPUs, but GPU-Z 0.5.9 has preliminary support for Kepler GPUs, too. At least it knows how to count CUDA cores, ROPs, clock-speeds, and other basic information, even if it gets a few other details inaccurate. Kepler support will be refined and made reliable days ahead of NVIDIA's big launch day, later this month.

The Core i7-3612QM is a quad-core chip clocked at 2.10 GHz, featuring 6 MB L3 cache of the Ivy Bridge silicon, and HyperThreading, which enables 8 logical CPUs. The GeForce GT 640M, on the other hand, is known to be based on NVIDIA's new 28 nm GK107 silicon. It is detected with 384 CUDA cores, 2 GB of DDR3 memory over a 128-bit wide memory interface, 16 ROPs, core clock speed of 405 MHz, and 900 MHz memory. The chip carries a device ID of 10DE-0FD2, and is compliant with PCI-Express 3.0 bus interface. When on light load (desktop), the clock speeds of this GPU were turned down to 135 MHz core with 405 MHz memory. Find more barely-legible screenshots at the source.

Acer ironed out a lot of issues of its flagship Ultrabook, the Aspire S3, with the revised Aspire S3-391. The revised S3 was shown to public at CeBIT. To begin with, it is based on Intel's revised, more mature Ultrabook platform specification, driven by "Ivy Bridge" Core processor, and 7-series chipset, which gives it up to four USB 3.0 ports driven by the PCH. CompuBase found the new Ultrabook to be more responsive thanks to its newer processor. Slated for the middle of Q2-2012, the Aspire S3-391 is expected to be priced at 899 €.

Acer presents the Aspire V5 Series at the CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover, Germany. This new range of thin and light notebooks suits budget-conscious users looking for impressive performance, thermal comfort, cool style, plus convenient mobile usability.

While the current trend is towards thinner and lighter notebooks with the capability for infotainment consumption and content creation anytime, anywhere, Acer knows how to meet the consumers' expectations. The V5 Series notebooks are all 30% slimmer than the same class so they're extremely easy to handle on the go. The 11.6-inch model is less than 15 mm thin while the 14-inch model includes an optical drive and is under 21 mm and 2.1 kg; the 15.6-inch model, also with an optical drive, is thinner than 23 mm, and weighs less than 2.3 kg.

In line with a solid strategy for commercial products, Acer has advanced its server line with a whole new line up of refreshed server products. This time around, Acer has not only updated the specifications to support the latest Intel Xeon processors E5 family, but has expanded its business portfolio and management tools to provide greater flexibility in modern datacenters.

Greater performance and expandability

The new product designs feature Intel's latest line up of Intel Xeon processor E5 family of CPUs, which give up to two times the performance for certain benchmarks, and up to 8 cores per CPU. The F2 generation, also provides greater expandability and more robust specifications built into every platform. Hardware-aside, the F2 generation will improve on operating system support to include mainstream and open source platforms, and its management tools are enhanced to improve IT ease of use.

Acer has unveiled the V3 Series, a range of notebooks optimized for today's digital needs, available in 14-, 15.6- and 17.3-inch models. With excellent performance, entertainment enhancements, communication tools and a classy design, these notebooks are intended for tech-savvy users who want daily high-definition audio and visual experiences.

The latest generation Intel Core family processors, plus NVIDA GeForce GT Series graphics ensure excellent performance for multitasking with lots of apps, music, Internet video, movies, games and more.

The new Aspire Timeline Ultra was first unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last January; today Acer showcases the new Aspire M3 of the Timeline Ultra family, at the CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover, Germany.

The latest Timeline series is slimmer and lighter than its predecessors (measuring just 20 mm thin), without compromising its state-of-the-art performance. In fact, the new Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 raises the bar by being the first Ultrabook with dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GT640M graphics for enhanced content creation and consumption.

To help customers address the inefficiencies and lost costs of managing multiple support vendors, Dell ProSupport for Multivendor has been globally expanded beyond x86 to include support for storage, networking and UNIX products. This expansion also includes support for additional vendors for servers, desktops and laptops. By consolidating support under one service provider, customers can ensure consistent processes and reduce the resources required to manage complex services contracts from multiple vendors, ultimately simplifying IT management and reducing their IT costs.

"Our customers rely on the expertise, global network and 24x7 availability of Dell ProSupport for their Dell systems and can now experience those same benefits across their entire environment," said Doug Schmitt, vice president, Dell Services. "With the latest expansion of Dell ProSupport for Multivendor, customers around the world can rely on Dell for all of their support needs. From end-user systems to complex data centers and everything in between, customers will save time and money and receive the same award-winning support they've come to expect from Dell ProSupport."

Apple shipped nearly 23.4 million mobile PCs in Q4'11, up 128% Y/Y, and over 62.8 million mobile PCs in 2011, up 132% Y/Y, according to preliminary results from the latest NPD DisplaySearch Quarterly Mobile PC Shipment and Forecast Report. Nearly 80% of Apple's mobile PC shipments were iPads, more than 18.7 million shipped in the quarter, up 156% Y/Y, and 48.4 million units for the year, up 183% Y/Y.

Overall mobile PC shipments grew 12% Q/Q and 44% Y/Y, reaching 88 million units in Q4'11. This was driven by continuing strong demand for tablets. Tablet PC shipment growth was 42% Q/Q and 210% Y/Y, reaching 31.7 million units in Q4'11. Notebook PC shipments were flat Q/Q but up nearly 11% Y/Y, reaching 56.3 million units. As expected, consumer mobile PC adoption was focused on tablets, holding up demand in notebooks.

"Entering 2012, Lenovo/IBM's rise in reliability will be an important boost for the company. Although Apple's market share has risen over the last 12 months, its reliability has declined. The comparatively smaller Toshiba and Samsung are illustrating interesting reliability trends worth watching over the coming year," stated David Milman, CEO of RESCUECOM. For 2012, Rescuecom now includes all manufacturers with a market share of at least above one percent in this report.

The computer reliability report scores for 2012 are:

1. Lenovo/IBM (281)
2. Toshiba (190)
3. Samsung (156)
4. Apple (151)
5. Asus (126)
6. HP/Compaq (100)
7. Dell (68)
8. Sony (64)
9. Acer (40)

The Acer S271HL S1 series monitor, is an energy efficient and earth friendly LED Monitor, equipped with cutting-edge technologies such as striking contrast ratio (100M: 1), blazing response time (2 ms), HDMI and DVI ports with HDCP support.

Whether for work or for fun, the Acer S271HL helps to enhance productivity thanks to the 27" large screen making it easy to view multiple applications in parallel. The ultra-slim 24 mm profile characterized with rounded glossy porcelain-like foot stand is the perfect solution for the style conscious and space-saving home users.

Acer Inc. announces the 2011 preliminary financial results, with the operating income of NT$0.1B (US$2.4M) in Q4, representing a turnaround from operating loss to profit in the last quarter.

According to Acer's preliminary financial figures, the consolidated revenue for Q4 2011 was NT$127.7B (US$4.2B), up 8.3% quarter-on-quarter (QOQ), operating income was NT$0.1B (US$2.4M), profit after tax (PAT) was NT$0.1B (US$2.5M) and earnings per share (EPS) was NT$0.03. These numbers represent a turnaround to profit for Acer after back-to-back losses in Q2 and Q3 2011.

Intel went to the market with its first-generation Ultrabook platform hoping that by the end of 2012, Ultrabooks would make up as high as 40% of all notebook sales. Notebook vendors like Acer relayed a slightly more realistic 25-35% figure in mind. Alas, the two will have to rethink their expectations, as notebook vendors are lowering it to 20%, thanks to the reception Ultrabooks got in Europe. The old continent constitutes a large and mature market for notebook sales, but Ultrabooks so far aren't appealing to European buyers.

This statement is backed by the latest sales data. According to this data, European consumers prefer 15-inch (or bigger) conventional notebooks. 15-inch notebooks constitute 40-45% of global notebook sales. There were no 15-inch Ultrabooks. 30-40% of global notebook sales comprise of 14-inch models. There is a 14-inch Ultrabook, HP's Envy 14 Spectre, but it is priced as high as US $1,399. Ultrabooks have so far been launched to test market response and if vendors want to increase sales, they have to lower prices from US$1,000 to US$699, the sources in the notebook industry supply chains point out.

The wait for Cedar Trail is pretty much over, at least from Acer's perspective as the company has begun shipping its first netbook based on the platform, the Aspire One D270. The model on sale is equipped with a 1.6 GHz Atom N2600 processor, it runs Linux, and has a 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) LED backlit display, Intel GMA 3600 integrated graphics, 2 GB of RAM, a 320 GB hard drive, LAN, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a 5-in-1 card reader, a 0.3-megapixel webcam, a multi-touch trackpad, a HDMI output, and a 6-cell battery enabling up to 8 hours of operation.

The Aspire One D270 comes in several color versions (black, white, blue, red, candy), is backed by a one-year warranty, and can be bought for 259 Euro.

Although the current generation of "Ultrabooks" don't really conform to a rigid specification apart from being really slim, unlike the next-generation Ivy Bridge-based ones which will have to conform to a specification laid down by Intel, the name "Ultrabooks" (short for ultra-portable/slim notebooks) has stuck. With Intel's newest processing platform just a couple of months away, notebooks manufacturers are reportedly lowering prices of current-generation Ultrabooks.

The move to lower prices of Ultrabooks is simply to clear inventories and pave the way for the next-generation. The prices will be cut significantly. Acer's Ultrabook S3 already saw its price drop to US $799 from $999; while HP's Ultrabooks will see prices cut by as much as 25 percent. Price of Lenovo's Ultrabook will go down by up to 21 percent. In short, every $999-ish Ultrabook will see its price go down to $749-799.

Acer has recently rolled out a new Revo series nettop/mini PC, a model called Revo RL70 which measures 209.89 (W) x 209.89 (D) x 35.35 (H) mm and makes use of AMD's E-450 APU boasting two Bobcat cores @ 1.65 GHz and Radeon HD 6320 graphics.

Acer's compact system also has 2 GB of RAM, a 500 GB hard drive, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a multi-in-one card reader, six USB 2.0 ports, plus D-Sub and HDMI outputs. The Revo RL70(-UR10P) runs Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and is selling for $329.99.

AMD (NYSE:AMD) today announced revenue for the fourth quarter of 2011 of $1.69 billion, net loss of $177 million, or $0.24 per share, and operating income of $71 million. The company reported non-GAAP net income of $138 million, or $0.19 per share, and non-GAAP operating income of $172 million. Fourth quarter non-GAAP net income excludes an impairment of AMD's investment in GLOBALFOUNDRIES of $209 million, restructuring charges of $98 million, the loss from discontinued operations of $4 million, the amortization of acquired intangible assets of $3 million and a loss on debt repurchase of $1 million.

For the year ended December 31, 2011, AMD reported revenue of $6.57 billion, net income of $491 million, or $0.66 per share, and operating income of $368 million. Full year non-GAAP net income was $374 million, or $0.50 per share, and non-GAAP operating income was $524 million.

Just to give you an idea of how big an impact Intel's Ultrabook form-factor will have on the portable computing market, OEM major Acer's chairman JT Wang says that in 2012, just the second year of prominence of the platform, Ultrabooks will make up 25-35% of all notebook sales. In the first quarter since launch, Acer's Aspire S3 sold about 250,000-300,000 units. Despite uncertainty in the European market and slow sales expected in the US, Acer finds markets such as Brazil, the Philippines, Thailand and other Southeast Asia to be the prime-movers of growth for this platform.

Hit by hard drive shortages and slow economic conditions, the PC market has ended 2011 on a rather low note, with preliminary data from research firm IDC showing that PC sales in Q4 were of 92.7 million units, down 0.2% on-year. Despite the Q4 drop, the PC market still managed a decent result for the whole year, recording a 1.6% increase in shipments compared to 2010.

Back to the Q4 data though, we see HP maintaining its top position with 15.1 million shipped units and a market share of 16.31%. It's worth noting that, while it's still top dog, HP actually experienced a 15.93% drop in shipments compared to the same period of 2010. On second place, inching closer to HP is Lenovo, with a 14.04% share (the company managed a 36% growth over Q4 of 2010) while on third we find Dell securing 12.91% of the market.

Kicking off the CES release madness a little early, PC maker Acer has today announced its second ultrabook, the Aspire S5. Set for a Q2 arrival, the S5 is 15 mm thick, it weights under 1.35 kg, and features an Onyx Black magnesium-aluminum alloy cover, a 13.3-inch LCD screen, a chiclet keyboard, an Intel Core processor, a solid state drive, and a MagicFlip I/O port panel (found below the hinge) which includes HDMI, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt (!) connectors.

Acer's ultrabook also includes the Green Instant On technology for super fast booting and resume, and the Always Connect solution enabling users to 'manage their multimedia and data on all their devices at anytime, anywhere'.

No word (yet) on the Aspire S5's pricing scheme.Images courtesy of The Verge.

AMD has been slapped with a lawsuit by Quanta for allegedly selling faulty CPUs & GPUs that were unfit for purpose, since they didn't meet specified heat tolerances and subsequently failed. Taiwan-based Quanta may not have a name that the general public immediately recognizes, however they are actually the world's largest contract manufacturer of notebooks, so this lawsuit is a big deal. They claim that the faulty parts were used in notebooks made for NEC. The lawsuit was filed in a district court in San Jose, California and in the filing, Quanta claims they have "suffered significant injury to prospective revenue and profits". As Bloomberg reports, "the lawsuit also claims breach of warranty, negligent misrepresentation, civil fraud and interference with a contract."

While not officially announced, Acer's first netbook powered by Intel's Cedar Trail platform, the Aspire One D270, has popped up in European web stores.

Available for pre-order, the incoming netbook weights 1.3 kg and features a 10.1-inch (1024 x 600) LED backlit display, a 1.6 GHz Atom N2600 processor, Intel GMA3600 integrated graphics, a 320 GB hard drive, LAN, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, a 5-in-1 card reader, a 0.3-megapixel webcam, a multi-touch trackpad, a HDMI output, and a 6-cell battery enabling up to 8 hours of operation.

There are two versions of the Aspire One D270 currently listed, one which costs 259 Euro, has 2 GB of RAM, and runs Linpus Linux, and one priced at 299 Euro with 1 GB of RAM and Windows 7 Starter pre-installed.