News Bits: AMD Passes Intel in October Retail PC Sales, Apple early with Intel, $400 Notebooks

AMD Based Personal PCs Outsell Intel Based Personal PCs in U.S. Retail

Back in September AMD took over Intel in sales of desktop PCs in retail stores.  Now, according to data from Current Analysis, the combined sale of overall PCs (desktop and notebook) outsold Intel based PCs.  Basically what happened is that AMD continued to accelerate with stronger desktop sales while mildly closing the gap in notebook sales, but Intel still rules in the sale of Pentium M based notebooks.

Also, very important to note, this is just RETAIL (Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA etc.)and does not include web based sales, meaning all Dell notebooks and desktops are NOT included in these numbers.  Dell is the #1 seller of PCs and sells all Intel based machines, so in reality Intel is still overall a long way ahead of the game -- but losing a bit of their grip.  Below are charts showing how sales were in October for Intel versus AMD based notebooks and Intel versus AMD based desktops.

Notice AMD closed the gap in September/October for retail based sales of notebooks

Notice that AMD overtook Intel for overall PC sales (notebooks and desktops combined) in Retail in October for the first time ever

More: http://www.currentanalysis.com/news/2005/AMDretailpc.asp

Intel Based Apple Machines by February?

When Steve Jobs announced that Apple would be cramming Intel processors into their desktop and notebook machines this summer, he promised summer 2006 as the launch date.  But according to recent rumors Apple could launch Intel based notebooks as early as February and be announcing them at the Mac Expo on January 10, 2006.

More: http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1359

Notebook Shipments to Continue to Rise in Q1 2006

Notebook shipments are estimated to rise 10-20% in the 4th quarter of 2005 according to Taiwanese notebook manufacturers such as Wistron and Quanta Computer.  Then in the 1st quarter of 2006 notebook shipments are expected to maintain flat or grow slightly from the fourth quarter of 2005, even though that time of year is traditionally slow.

Dell, HP and Acer have all agreed that they'll avoid huge price cuts in early 2006 because they know the market will be growing at a fairly healthy pace anyway.  This is good news for Taiwanese manufacturers because they're the guys that get squeezed.

More: http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20051109A2003.html

$400 Notebook Deals for Black Friday (November 25, 2005)

The day after Thanksgiving (November 25 this year) in the USA is traditionally a big shopping day where retailers offer great deals.  Here are some rumored deals that will be seen in shops this year:

• HP Pavilion ze2308wm for $398 at Walmart (No Rebates)
• Compaq V2000Z $299 AR or $549 AR at Compusa (if you sign up for 12 months of AOL it's $299.99, if not then it's $549 after another rebate)
• Acer Aspire 3003LCi for $499 AR or $399 After Rebate

For more details on these deals: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=30489

Dual Monitor Display from Your Notebook with New DualHead2Go from Matrox

If you crave a dual-monitor configuration for more screen real estate, such as being able to browse the web on one monitor and have email open on the other, then Matrox might have a nice new solution for you.  For $200 the new DualHead2Go will use your notebooks exiting graphics card to drive two monitors, the DualHead2Go tricks your system into thinking that your two 1280 x 1024 monitors are really one big 2560 x 1024 beast monitor, which allows your desktop to flow across two screens. The DualHead2Go box uses the VGA monitor out to connect to your notebook (all notebooks have this).  Users of certain laptops can even employ the DualHead2Go for hooking up two more monitors in addition to the built-in LCD for a three-monitor setup. Pricing should start at $170 and shipping of this product will start around the middle of November.

More: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/offhome/dh2go/home.cfm