According to a fresh report, in Q2 Dell will be releasing a new XPS 15 laptop, one that makes use of Intel's 3rd generation Core processors (codename Ivy Bridge), has a chassis just 24.2 mm thick (down from 38 mm of the current XPS 15), and packs a 15.6-inch WLED-backlit Full HD (1920 x 1080) display protected by Gorilla Glass.

The upgraded XPS 15 is said to feature a Core i5-3210M or Core i7-3612M CPU, up to 16 GB of RAM, a 1 TB HDD or a 512 GB SSD, a GeForce GT 630M or GT 640M graphics card, a glass trackpad, a 3-in-1 card reader, USB 3.0 connectivity, Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, and both HDMI and mini DisplayPort outputs. The laptop's release date and pricing scheme have yet to leak.

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.

Worldwide factory revenue for the high performance computing (HPC) technical server market increased by 8.4% in full-year 2011 to reach a record $10.3 billion, up from $9.5 billion in 2010, according to the newly released International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide High-Performance Technical Server QView. The 2011 results exceeded IDC's forecast of 7.2% year-over-year revenue growth.

Unit shipments in 2011 declined 6.9% year over year as average selling prices grew, indicating a continued shift to large system sales. IBM and HP ended the year in a statistical tie for leadership with 32.6% and 32.1% of overall factory revenue market share, respectively. (Note: IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide server market when there is less than one percent difference in the factory revenues of two or more vendors.)

Dell today announced a new financing program to support customers migrating from EMC and NetApp legacy storage products to Dell storage arrays.

The new Dell Storage Swap program provides cash credits and attractive lease terms for customers retiring EMC CLARiiON CX, Celerra and VNX, and various NetApp FAS systems and upgrading to new Dell Compellent and EqualLogic virtualized, modular storage arrays. Dell simplifies the transition for customers by offering specialized migration services, award-winning ProSupport and Copilot support and other financial incentives such as Dell Financial Services leasing options. In keeping with its longstanding commitment to green initiatives, Dell will provide safe and environmentally responsible disposal of the obsolete and retired IT equipment.

The Dell Storage Swap program is available to all customers and Dell PartnerDirect resellers in the U.S. and Canada, now through July 31, 2012.

Dell today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SonicWALL, Inc., a leader in advanced network security and data protection. SonicWALL's industry-leading Next-Generation Firewalls and Unified Threat Management (UTM) Firewalls complement Dell's security solutions portfolio, enabling it to offer customers a broader range of enterprise offerings.

Customers of all sizes face increasing challenges in maintaining effective IT security, from the exponential growth of data and rapid adoption of cloud-based solutions, to the increased presence of consumer devices brought into the enterprise environment. SonicWALL expands Dell's rapidly growing security portfolio, which includes Dell SecureWorks security services, cloud security solutions and data encryption solutions, and Dell KACE vulnerability and patch management.

The workstation market proceeded ahead in the fourth quarter of 2011, completing a long climb back from the 2009 depths of the global economic recession that had slashed its shipments by over 40 percent. But that fourth quarter advance was more a case of "steady as she goes" than "full speed ahead", reports Jon Peddie Research senior analyst Alex Herrera.

The leading market research firm has completed its data collection and analysis of results from the quarter, and finds Q4 followed the same basic storyline Herrera had been laying out over the previous few quarters. The market has not only fully recovered from the recession, it's showing continued stability and some undeniable signs of strength. But at the same time, there remain scattered pockets of concern, as the market has yet to resume the pace of growth it sustained back in the years 2005 through 2008.

Building on the information already revealed in January, a new Dell-flavored scoop says that the upcoming Alienware M17x R4 (17.4-inch) laptop will offer three display options, one HD+ (1600 x 900), one Full HD (1920 x 1080) and one Full HD 3D. Moreover, this gaming-ready machine is claimed to utilize eDP for LCD communication.

The Alienware M17x R4 will be powered by Ivy Bridge processors, feature both AMD (Radeon HD 7970M) and NVIDIA (GeForce GTX 660M, GTX 675M) discrete graphics, and will be available in two color schemes - black and red. Still no word on its release but it should arrive in Q2.

NVIDIA today announced that its NVIDIA Tesla GPUs will be featured, for the first time, on two Dell PowerEdge 12th generation rack and tower servers.

Dell designed the new GPU-enabled PowerEdge R720 and PowerEdge T620 servers to accelerate a wide range of computationally intensive, industry standard applications, including Mathworks MATLAB (for computational research) and SIMULIA Abaqus (for computer-aided engineering). In addition, the new servers combine the 512-core NVIDIA Tesla M2090 GPUs with the latest Intel Xeon E5/R CPUs based on the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture to accelerate a range of scientific applications in fields such as life sciences, engineering, weather and climate, and others.

Dell today announced a portfolio of blade, rack and tower PowerEdge servers optimized for use in demanding enterprise environments. As the only one of the top five server vendors to grow server revenues in Q4 2011 with 9.7 percent year-over-year revenue growth, Dell continues to innovate to deliver features that are industry firsts and make the PowerEdge 12th generation servers the company's highest performing, most manageable servers ever. With this new server series, customers ranging from small businesses to hyper-scale data centers can help maximize efficiency by streamlining and automating operations, help achieve better business application performance and business continuity.

"Dell designed the new PowerEdge servers with input gathered from more than 7,700 customer interactions in 17 countries across four continents," said Brad Anderson, President of Enterprise Solutions Group at Dell. "Our customers told us that they need end-to-end solutions to handle the complex workload problems they face every day. As such, we built our new generation of servers, systems management and workload solutions to address the needs of business end users who require maximum performance to run mission-critical applications and IT departments which demand more efficient, secure and reliable operations."

According to the International Data Corporation's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, factory revenue in the worldwide server market decreased 7.2% year over year to $14.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 (4Q11). This was the first quarterly decline in factory revenue in two years. Worldwide server shipments increased 2.0% to 2.2 million units in 4Q11 when compared with the year-ago period.

For the full year 2011, worldwide server revenue increased 5.8% to $52.3 billion when compared to 2010, while worldwide unit shipments increased 4.2% to 8.3 million units.

On a year-over-year basis, all three classes of servers experienced decreased factory revenue totals in the fourth quarter. Volume systems experienced a 2.0% year-over-year factory revenue decline to $8.8 billion, while midrange revenue decreased 4.6% to $1.8 billion when compared to 4Q10. Additionally, high-end system revenue declined 18.4% to $3.7 billion in the quarter. This is the first time all three server classes have experienced year-over-year declines in revenue since the third quarter of 2009.

Announced last month, Dell's XPS 13 13.3-inch Ultrabook has now become available for purchase bearing a starting price tag of $999. The XPS 13 is 0.71" at its thickest point and features an aluminum casing with a carbon fiber composite base, an edge-to-edge LED-backlit (1366 x 768) display protected by Gorilla Glass, a full size backlit chiclet keyboard, a glass integrated button touchpad, and a 6-cell (non-replaceable) battery enabling up to 8 hours and 53 minutes of operation per charge.

Dell's mobile machine packs a 1.6 GHz Core i5-2467M or a 1.7 GHz Core i7-2637M processor, 4 GB of RAM, Intel HD Graphics 3000, a 128 GB or 256 GB solid state drive, two 1.5 W speakers, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity, a mini DisplayPort output, and two USB ports (one USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0).

The XPS 13 can be ordered via this page.

Dell today announced at events worldwide a suite of powerful new enterprise solutions to help customers deliver results faster. Organizations today are dealing with quickly changing and often unpredictable demands and require end-to-end IT solutions that allow them to respond rapidly to customer needs. With this announcement, Dell is delivering an end-to-end IT platform that raises the bar on customer-centric innovation which provides simplified management, increased performance and superior long term value.

"Customers tell us they want a high-performance infrastructure that is easy to manage and helps them quickly deliver business outcomes. Today we are introducing a new set of datacenter infrastructure solutions that share key capabilities across our entire portfolio, from servers to storage to networking," said Brad Anderson, President of Enterprise Solutions Group at Dell. "We accomplished this through a combination of strategic acquisitions such as Force10 and customer-centric engineering of our new 12th Generation PowerEdge servers and storage platforms, delivering an integrated infrastructure with a common, high-performance network fabric. When combined with the second generation of embedded systems management in our servers, Dell is delivering one of the most robust and easy-to-manage datacenter infrastructures in the industry."

Dell Inc. today announced it has acquired AppAssure, a global leader in complete application protection for virtual, physical and cloud infrastructures. The acquisition of AppAssure, the nation's fastest-growing backup software technology company, further extends Dell's comprehensive storage and software strategy.

Dell has taken significant steps over the past three years to expand its storage portfolio to offer customers a complete range of world-class storage products and solutions. AppAssure's leading backup solutions enhance Dell's existing storage capabilities by providing customers confidence that their applications and data are fully protected.

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)

Dell's further expansion as an enterprise solutions and services provider highlighted the company's most successful financial year ever. New corporate highs were achieved for a full fiscal year with revenue of $62.1 billion, earnings per share of $1.88 (GAAP) and $2.13 (Non-GAAP), and revenue from enterprise solutions and services of $18.6 billion.

"Our customers think of Dell in much broader terms now, trusting us with their comprehensive IT needs, from the datacenter to the device," said Michael Dell, chairman and CEO. "We are more committed than ever to both developing and investing in innovative solutions that deliver greater value and better outcomes for our customers."

Amulet Hotkey takes the proven data center grade server platform of the Dell PowerEdge M-Series Blade Servers and reconfigures it as a high-performance graphics workstation, building in custom components to provide superior, high-end desktop graphics and PC-over-IP (PCoIP) hardware. The M610X blade, is the first PCoIP workstation blade focused on providing the computing and graphics performance required by state of the art 3D design and CAD/CAM software. This PCoIP multi-monitor blade architecture was pioneered by Amulet Hotkey in 2009 when it brought the first DXM600 quad-head workstation blade to market. As one of the longest standing UK-based Dell OEM Solutions Partners, it is the only PCoIP solutions provider to offer a true tier-one blade platform. The DXM610X joins a growing range of PCoIP and VMware blade solutions that include the DXM610, DXM710 and M910.

Dell today announced the appointment of John Swainson to serve as President, Software Group, effective March 5, 2012. Mr. Swainson will report to Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell.

The Software Group will build on Dell's software capabilities and provide greater innovation and organizational support to create a more competitive position in delivering end-to-end IT solutions to customers. The organization will add to Dell's enterprise solutions capability, accelerate profitable growth and further differentiate the company from competitors by increasing its solutions portfolio with Dell-owned intellectual property.

Still not officially announced by Dell, the Alienware-branded M18x R2 gaming laptop is rumored to come with some fresh and powerful graphics options from both NVIDIA and AMD. The Santa Clara team (NVIDIA) is said to be supplying two cards for the M18x R2 - the GeForce GTX 660M and GTX 675M (the latter will be available in a SLI configuration), while the Sunnyvale squad (AMD) will deliver the Radeon HD 7970M, in a CrossFireX setup.

Beside the GPU goodies mentioned, the M18x R2 (18.4-inch) laptop is expected to feature an Intel Ivy Bridge CPU, black and red color choices, an optional Wireless HD card, and more. Stay tuned (and save up?).

According to dell-lab.posterous.com (a site known for accurate tips on future Dell products), a trio of updated Alienware laptops are currently in plan, the M14x R2 (14-inch), M17x R4 (17.3-inch) and M18x R2 (18.4-inch).

There's not much info on the M18x R2 except for the fact that it will be available in both red and black, while the M14x R2 is said to come with the same colors and have 1 GB and 2 GB graphics options.

The M17x R4 is claimed to feature at least three new GPU choices, including the yet-unannounced AMD Radeon HD 7970M, Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M and GTX 675M. All three laptops should also adopt Intel's upcoming 22 nm processors (Ivy Bridge). No word on when they'll be released.

If gaming-console manufacturers want to stifle innovation in the gaming industry with old, archaic hardware, it's time for game PC vendors to do something to woo the console crowd. Dell's flagship gaming PC brand, Alienware, announced the X51, a gaming desktop built around the size of a typical gaming console, but packing today's computing technologies that PC gamers have access to. It starts at US $699. Its chassis measures 343 x 95 x 318 mm (HxWxD), and can be oriented vertically, or horizontally. It features cutting-edge styling by Alienware with dashes of piano black, matte black, and lime. Its front features audio, USB ports, and a slot-in DVD-RW / Blu-ray ROM (optional).

The $699 base model is driven by an Intel Core i3 dual-core processor, though more powerful Core i5 and Core i7 processors can be opted for. Graphics is handled by NVIDIA GeForce GT 545, though GT 555 can be opted for. 4 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory comes standard, up to 8 GB can be opted for. 1 TB 7200rpm HDD storage comes out of the box, faster SSDs can be opted for. Connectivity includes 7.1-channel HD audio with Waves MAXX Audio Software, gigabit Ethernet, Wireless b/g/n, optical and coaxial SPDIF audio outputs. The graphics card gives out HDMI and DVI outputs. Yes, it can run Crysis.

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.

Dell today unveiled its ultraportable XPS 13 laptop, the most compact 13.3-inch Ultrabook featuring an edge-to-edge glass, near "frameless" display, all-day battery life, and the latest innovative technology for a superb overall user experience.

Starting at 2.99 lbs., and less than a quarter-inch at its thinnest point, the XPS 13 combines performance-oriented thoughtful design with the latest Intel technology, such as Rapid Start and Smart Connect, to enable users to be productive, connected and responsive anywhere.

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."