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."

In Dell's eyes, the age of netbooks is drawing to a close, and because of that, the company has already stopped selling consumer netbooks (the Inspiron Mini is now history), and decided against developing new (Cedar Trail-based) 10-inch machines powered by Intel Atom processors.

Despite the thumbs down given to netbooks, Dell is still selling Atom-based products like the business-oriented Latitude 2120 and the display-flipping Inspiron Duo, but their days are numbered. According to Dell, low-cost solutions like netbooks are no longer of interest, the focus now being on 'thin and powerful' machines like ultrabooks. Of course, ultrabooks are somewhat premium products but they should go mainstream in 2012 when cheaper, Ivy Bridge-based models will come about.

Optical disc drives have been pretty cheap for years now, yet there is enough money in the business, that three executives managed to collude in price fixing of these devices, scamming HP, Dell and Microsoft in the process - and in the end the consumer, who foots the higher prices. The three are from Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc. (HLDS) and have reached a plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice on price fixing charges for optical disc drives during the 2005-2009 timeframe. According to Security Week, the three executives, Sang Hun Kim, Young Keun Park, and Sik Hur, will each pay $25,000 USD in fines and serve little sentences of seven to eight months in prison at a "correctional facility" aka prison, that is yet to be decided.

Dell's Alienware team has today launched an updated version of the Aurora gaming desktop which is based on Intel's Sandy Bridge-E platform. Known as model R4, the upgraded Aurora makes use of a head-turning ALX mid-tower chassis, and features a liquid-cooled Core i7-3930K or i7-3960X processor, up to 32 GB of RAM, up to a 2 TB hard drive and/or up to a 512 GB solid state drive, and up to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 card or two AMD Radeon HD 6950s.

Dell's desktop can also be equipped with one or two optical drives, a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio or Titanium audio card, and runs Windows 7. The Alienware Aurora R4 starts at $2,199 and can be found here.

The recent dreadful flooding in Thailand has forced the closure of several hard drive factories. The immediate concerns of course, are for the health and wellbeing of the people living and working in the area. The wider concern is the severe restriction in hard drive manufacturing capacity. Already, prices have doubled or tripled, depending on the exact model affected. The biggest HD manufacturer, Western Digital, has been hit the hardest, as IDC predicts that up to 75% of its production will be shut down. This means, that the big corporate HDD customers, those like HP and Dell, who build computer systems in large volumes, will get whatever inventory is available to fully satisfy their needs. Whatever is left is then sold on to the retail channel, for ordinary consumers to buy. IDC believes that hard disk production will reach pre-flood levels by around March, but that HDD levels by then will be very low. The prices should go through the roof then, in the meantime. As expected, this will also increase the prices of complete systems, as such a price hike is too much to absorb fully.

Dell rolled out a new ultra-slim 21.5 inch monitor, the S2230MX. It is just 9.9 mm thick at its thinnest point. The monitor is this slim thanks to two things: first, it uses LED-backlit illumination instead of CCFL; and second, it uses an external power brick. The Dell S2230MX uses a TN panel that provides 82% color gamut coverage.

With a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, the Dell S2230MX panel offers 2 ms (GTG) response time, 1000:1 contrast ratio with 8 million to 1 DCR, and brightness of 250 cd/m². While display inputs on the panel include DVI and D-Sub, a HDMI-to-DVI adapter is bundled. Backed by a one-year warranty, the Dell S2230MX is priced at US $219.99.

Dell today introduced the Vostro V131, a thin, powerful, and sleek addition to the award-winning Vostro laptop line. As one of the lightest and thinnest products in the Vostro portfolio, the Vostro V131 is designed specifically for small business customers. An ultrathin, ultra-stylish chassis houses up to Intel Core i3 and i5 processors, making the Vostro V131 a portable powerhouse engineered to maximize business productivity. A removable 6-cell battery with 2nd generation Intel Core processors, both available as an option, will deliver up to 9.5 hours of battery life, allowing users to work virtually anytime, anywhere.

"We designed the Vostro V131 to deliver fast, uninterrupted multitasking for today's business challenges," said Sam Burd, vice president of Dell's Consumer & SMB Product Group. "The result is a feature-rich laptop for mobile professionals who want full performance to support their technology demands without sacrificing design and portability. In addition, the V131 offers services and software solutions that improve productivity and data security."

Dell announced the new UltraSharp U2412M monitor for business and enterprise environments. This 24-inch monitor uses an IPS panel that provides viewing angles of 178/178 degrees, its stand is designed to allow a number of orientation adjustments, including tilt, swivel, pivot and height. The U2412M features 1920 x 1200 resolution, with 1,000:1 static and 2,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratios; 300 cd/m² maximum brightness, and response time of 8 ms (GTG). Display inputs include one each of DVI, DisplayPort, and D-Sub. A 4-port USB 2.0 hub completes the accessories department. Backed by a 3 year warranty (extensible to 4 or 5 years), the Dell UltraSharp U2412M is priced at US $399.

Alienware is redefining mobile gaming - again - with three new, all-powerful laptops, including the soon to be released M18x, which lays claim to the title of "most powerful 18-inch gaming laptop in the universe;" the M14x, which delivers unprecedented performance and portability; and an enhanced M11x, already a favorite among gaming enthusiasts, and the most-powerful sub-14-inch notebook in the universe.

The two new faces in the Alienware laptop family, the upcoming M18x and the M14x, along with the new M11x, deliver unprecedented power to the gamer on the go. All three platforms offer the latest in gaming technology, and feature second-generation Intel Core i processors to deliver the most immersive high-performance gaming experience imaginable.

Dell introduced its very first Inspiron notebook based on the AMD Fusion platform, the Inspiron M102z. The 11.6-inch notebook is available in two variants based on the processor model, one with dual-core AMD C-50 1.00 GHz at US $699, and the other with dual-core AMD E-350 1.60 GHz at $799. The $699 variant features Radeon HD 6250 graphics, 2 GB of memory, 320 GB 7.2k RPM HDD, 56 Whr 6-cell battery, and connectivity that includes WiFi b/g/n, and Bluetooth 3.0.

The $799 variant packs Radeon HD 6310 graphics, 4 GB memory, and 500 GB 7.2k RPM HDD apart from other features of the $699 variant. Both models feature 1366x768 pixel WLED-backlit display, 1.3 MP webcam, 7-in-1 card reader, and 3W stereo speakers with SRS surround technology.

Knowing today's growing businesses require real-time information exchange and connectivity without compromise, Dell today unveiled its Vostro 3000 series laptops with 12 hours of battery lifei on select models and cutting-edge virtual collaboration solutions.

Available in 13-, 14-, 15- and 17-inch forms and styled with image-conscious entrepreneurs and mobile professionals in mind, the Dell Vostro 3000 Series packs the latest Intel 2nd generation Core I Series processors into a sleek design without compromising battery life. For those that demand the ultimate in collaboration, the Vostro 3000 is the first small-business laptop to feature voice enhancing technology SRS Premium Voice Pro software. A full HD webcam offered with the 14-, 15- and 17-inch laptops enables lifelike interactions with coworkers and customers, while a digital array mic helps reduce ambient noise, giving small businesses a superb virtual collaboration solution that's fast and clear.