Runner up manufacturer, Dell, has dropped a place down to the third place spot with Lenovo, who are relatively new to the desktop market in the grand scheme of things, taking second place with an enormous growth of 36% on the previous quarter.

HP now sits at 18.1% of total worldwide PC sales (up from 17.8%) with Lenovo on 13.7% (up from 10.4%) and Dell dropping to 12% (down slightly from 12.6%).  In fourth place is Acer with ASUS following up the table in fifth position.

There can be little doubt that in the last year Lenovo have produced some simply fantastic design, challenging Sony for the overall design and quality award.  Indeed I have recently been using a budget Lenovo B570 and one of their business Z Series laptops and it was very difficult to tell one from the other.  The only real difference on the surface was that one cost three times the price of the other.  Suffice to say I have now been firmly recommending Lenovo machines to friends (although my own new laptop is a Dell).

The biggest surprise though might be Acer who saw a drop in market share of over 20% on their previous quarters figure, a loss of 3% market share overall.  The company has perhaps been producing middling hardware in the last year and may now be suffering for it.  This is not helped by the fact that there are only a finite number of quality technology plants worldwide and companies including Apple have slowly been swallowing them up for their own mass consumption.

The future for the PC market is looking good though.  In the report, they say…

In the U.S., PC shipments totaled 17.8 million units in the third quarter of 2011, a 1.1 percent increase from the third quarter of 2010. The U.S. PC market experienced year-over-year growth for the first time in three quarters. While the consumer market continued to be weak with disappointing back-to-school sales in the third quarter, the inventory was kept mostly in check as industry expectations were relatively low.

…but the report also highlights a 2.9% decline in Europe, perhaps because the European economy has been under incredible pressure in recent months.  The news in Asia is better though with a 6% increase.  Overall the picture is good news…

Worldwide PC shipments increased by 3.6% in the third quarter of 2011 (3Q11) compared to the same quarter in 2010

…which is a healthy growth and no doubt helped by the blossoming market for Tablets and smartphones.

Final figures aren’t yet available and there’s no word on where companies such as Apple and Samsung sit in the rankings.  Both companies have been doing extremely well, though not so much in PC sales, but who both seem constantly locked in legal battles with the other, which could impact their bottom line when the next earnings figures are released for each company.

While you could try to get the user to find the service tag on the device, you may be better off retrieving the service tag for the Dell system on your own.

That’s where the Dell Service Tag Lookup Tool comes into play. The program is a very basic application for Windows PCs that can lookup the service tag of any Dell machine over the local network.

Please note that this works only for devices that are connected to the network, which excludes televisions, computer monitors and other devices that do not come with network connection options.

When you start the program you see a basic form and a single button. All you need to do is to enter the computer name of the Dell machine and click on Lookup Service Tag afterwards.

The program will then connect to the other machine and retrieve that machine’s service tag for you. You can try the tool first and if it cannot retrieve the service tag, you can still ask the user or get the information by yourself.

A test over at the Virus Total site detected one hit out of 44 different antivirus engines. This is likely a false positive.

Windows users can download the Dell Service Tag Lookup Tool from the author’s site over at Danusoft. The application is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

This is certainly true of the Dell Precision M6600 Workstation laptop which is one of the most powerful laptops that exists today.  You can pick one up with a SandyBridge Core i5 processor and 8Gb of 1,333MHz DDR3 RAM (They don’t come with any less than this) for £1,280 ($1,600) and specify the internal components up to a staggering £5,000.  The machine I’ve been testing sits at around £3,500.

There’s no scrimping here though.  The processor is a Core-i7 running at 2.5GHz; the fastest Dell provide.  The memory is standard at 8Gb but this can be expanded up to either 16Gb of 1,600MHz DDR3 or a staggering 32Gb of 1,333MHz DDR3.  The twin hard disks inside this machine (you can have up to three including a solid state mini-card) are 250Gb and 750Gb 7,200RPM.  The Dell website will allow you to speficy hard disks up to 256Gb SSDs.

The full HD screen runs at 1920 x 1080 and will display the full Adobe RGB gamut.  It’s multi-touch too, supporting four point control and huge at 17.3 inches.  Elsewhere nternally this machine has it all.  There’s 802.11 b/g/n wireless with WiMax as an option.  There’s 3G, GPS, a TPM chip accompanied by a fingerprint scanner and nVidia Optima 4000M graphics with their own 2Gb of GDDR5 RAM to accompany the integrated Intel graphics.

Externally the machine is very well specified too with a backlit keyboard (optional but very useful), track pad with three buttons and a seperate nipple with its own three mouse buttons, 2x USB2 ports, 1x eSATA/USB2 combo port, 2x USB3 ports, full HDMI, VGA, Gigabit Ethernet, DVD burner with optional Blu-Ray burner, ExpressCard slot, SD Card reader, seperate microphone and headphone jacks, Firewire, Displayport and an excellent webcam built into the bezel.

The touchpad doubles as a graphics tablet and comes with its own powered stylus with its own controls.  This is the kind of attention to detail you can see throughout the Precision M6600.

The keyboard isn’t a scrabble-tile affair commonly seen elsewhere.  It’s a more traditional style and really excellent.  The keys are large and well spaced with a large Enter key and full size keys on the numeric pad.  The cursor keys are in a sensible place though the left shift key is a little narrow.  The keyboard also has controls for the calculator and media playback controls.  Above the keyboard are volume and mute buttons.

The Precision M6600 is very upgradeable too.  Undo two screws inside the battery compartment and the bottom slides off the case to reveal the hard disks, memory and expansion slots all easily accessible and well laid out.  It’s extremely neat, tidy and commendable for such an expensive machine.  The exterior of the case is positively lovely with an aluminium bronze finish that you just want to stroke and a bright, silver Dell logo on the lid.

In use it’s equally as powerful as a good Core i7 desktop machine and you’d have no problems editing HD video on it or using it to create complex three-dimensional imagery for mapping.  There is simply nothing you could currently throw at the M6600 that it would have any trouble with at all.

There are very few problems with the machine either.  The screen is a bit reflective, though it’s very bright and can be used outdoors.  Battery life is reasonable at 5 hours on very light duties but you’ll struggle to get two hours when pushed, maybe even just 45 minutes if doing demanding encoding work.  The charger is a brick and the laptop itself weighs in at a hefty 4.5kg.  This is not a machine you’ll be wanting to lug back and forth, nor giving up space in your luggage allowance when going through an airport.

What can I say about the Precision M6600?  Well what this machine has in terms of hardware is simply the finest currently available.  For the few people who need power of this type there is simply no better machine.  Sony and Lenovo make machines of a similar specification though neither is quite as attractive with it.

The only other thing I can possibly add here is that this particular Precision M6600 is mine.  I personally demand the very best in performance as I do some very demanding work with video production.  I’m personally delighted with the power on offer.  This machine is hugely expensive but also tremendous value for money for the people who would be looking to buy one.

Build quality is first rate and the M6600 feels extremely solid with no give or flex anywhere in the chassis.  An accelerometer works with software on board to protect the hard drives in the event that you drop it.  It’s quiet too with just a faint whirr of the fans during general usage, though it can get hot; but you’re unlikely to work with a 4.5kg computer on your lap.

Overall I’d have given the M6600 a full 10 out of 10 for power, flexibility and quality even if this machine wasn’t my own.  For workstation grunt in a portable form factor, I genuinely believe you won’t find anything finer.

The interesting aspect of this is not that Dell plans to manufacture a Windows 8 tablet, but the time it is expected to be available. It does not necessarily mean that the tablet will be sold by then though. The availability of a Windows 8 tablet in the first quarter of 2012 would however mean that Windows 8 had to be released by then.

Image courtesy of Android Central.

Mike points that out as well over at Windows 8 News:

It’s likely at this stage that Dell plan to unveil the tablet at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show in January and that this isn’t a schedule for the tablet actually going on sale. It’s the first hint we’ve had though about Windows 8 tablets.

Is it likely that Dell has information that the public has not? Microsoft is definitely keeping Dell and other premium partners in the loop about developments as companies need those information to plan ahead in time.

Another clue may be the development cycle of Windows 7. If you look back you notice that Windows 7 Milestone 3 was released in September 2008, roughly a year before the final version of the operating system. It is rumored that Microsoft is currently working towards that Milestone 3 release. What would it mean? That we would get a public beta and release candidate in 2011.

Back in June 2010 I predicted a Windows 8 release date in the last quarter of 2011 or the first quarter of 2012 based on internal Microsoft documents. Can it be that the prediction becomes true, after all?

LG GT540: Another Android From LG

They just keep on coming and leaking. I am talking about these latest Android phones. They have such a propensity to leakage that you would think multinational companies need someone to educate them about keeping a tight lid on things.

Or may be everyone wants free advertisement like Apple tends to generate with their high levels of secrecy.

The latest to be leaked is another Android phone from LG, called the GT540. We haven’t heard how well the last one is doing so far but it looks like they are already quite far ahead into the second one.

LG did say that a Snapdragon model was headed for Q2 2010 and that a non-QWERTY handset is also destined for 2010. With a screen size is 320×480, it can be any one of those. Which one do you think it is?  [read]

Dell Mini 3i Starts Selling In China

The much talked about Android smartphone from phone-newbie Dell is finally going up for sale in China. They have put up a press release that details on what exactly the phone has inside it.

The PR highlights the fact that has a 16:9 ratio 3.5” screen that displays 640×360 display. Other than that, it is a quadband GSM/EDGE phone that also has GPS on it. You get a 3.5MP with auto-focus, flash, video capture, etc. Dell is probably going to launch it in Europe and the US only when they are confident that the phone will be able to hold out in front of the fast moving competition in those markets. [read]

Sony Ericsson’s XEPRIA X10 Might Go To AT&T

A lot of us were hoping that Sony Ericsson’s new Android superphone – The XPERIA X10 – would arrive on a decent carrier. Those hopes are now dashed. Based on the intel gathered by Phandroid, the radio bands on the X10 are the same as the ones on the iPhone.

QED – even though the X10 has a lot of bands listed on the website the US version will only work with the carrier who carries the iPhone. Say hello to the blue beachball all over again – AT&T. The iPhone is the iPhone, so being on AT&T has not stopped it from going viral. Will the X10 have something similar to help it sell? Only time will tell. [read]

Spotify Exudes Symbian Love

Spotify is spreading its clout over to the mobile OS that holds the largest International market share – Symbian. Spotify has just been released for the Symbian S60 OS. In doing so, they are suddenly up from supporting only a handful of phone models to supporting a long list of phone models manufactured by different carriers. Most of them are by Nokia and others include Sony Ericsson and Samsung. [read]

Spotify, despite its critics and problems, is fast becoming a large rival for other commercial services like iTunes. Spotify has also officially surpassed last.fm in user polls – this after Last.fm was adamant about Spotify not being a competition for them. Now to wait for the true competition to break out. [read]

The GPU may fail due to temperature fluctuations and users may experience symptoms like random characters or lines on the screen. The problem is that if customers experience those symptoms the Bios update will not help them anymore and they have to contact Dell support to fix the issue.

Everyone else should check the website to see if their Dell notebook is in the list and update the Bios of its GPU accordingly. The affected notebooks according to Dell are:

• Inspiron 1420
• Latitude D630
• Latitude D630c
• Dell Precision M2300
• Vostro Notebook 1310
• Vostro Notebook 1400
• Vostro Notebook 1510
• Vostro Notebook 1710
• XPS M1330
• XPS M1530

The Bios update will turn on the GPU fan more frequently at half or quarter speed to reduce temperature fluctuations. Dell confirmed once again that this will have no noticeable effect on battery life. New notebooks will be shipped with the updated Bios.

The real question however is which GPUs are affected but there does not seem to be a direct answer for this. There is however the list of Nividia GPUs that have been used in the affected Dell notebooks, here it is:

• 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS
• 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS (64 bit)
• 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
• 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GS (128 bit)
• 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
• 128MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 135M
• NVIDIA Quadro FX 360M 256MB TurboCache (128MB dedicated)

My suggestion would be to check your notebook, even if it is not from Dell, to find out if a video card from the list has been used to build it. If that is the case contact the hardware manufacturer to find out how he handles the problem.

There has not been an official announcement so far on the Ubuntu or Dell homepage but this is surely going to follow in the upcoming days. This is a great step in the right direction for the Linux community to bring Linux more in the focus of the mainstream media.

Dell on the other hand will receive lots of publicity as well which could surely drive more traffic and sales to their website. It remains to be seen how many users will actually purchase Linux instead of Windows with their Dell systems. One advantage of buying a complete PC with Linux is that all components should work flawlessly with the operating system.

Most average users will probably not recognize a bit difference between Ubuntu and Windows but they surely will be more secure with Linux. This is of course only helpful if you do not intend to play games because you will surely be disappointed. Don’t tell me that new users should use Wine to play them. I think Dell will only supply those notebooks and computers with Linux that are non-gaming PCs.

Do you think that this is a good strategic move by Dell and also good for Ubuntu Linux ?

A much faster method would be to use the so-called PC DE-Crapifier to uninstall most of not all of them in one go. Starting the software simply displays a list of products that is currently installed on your computer. This is not the uninstallation dialog that you see when you select it from your control panel. PC DE-Crapifier only scans the system for known products that are preinstalled when buying a new computer.

You may select to remove none, some or all of the programs that are found during the scan. This ensures that you can keep all the programs that sound interesting or have been installed on purpose. The list of programs that PC DE-Crapifier supports is a long one, here we go:

• QuickBooks Trial
• NetZero Installers
• Earthlink Setup Files
• Corel Photo Album 6
• Tiscali Internet
• Wanadoo Europe Installer
• Get High Speed Internet!
• Internet Service Offers Launcher
• Dell Search Assistant
• Norton Ghost 10.0
• Symantec Live Update
• MS Plus Photo Story 2LE
• MS Plus Digital Media Installer
• McAffee
• Norton Internet Security
• Google Desktop
• AOL US
• AOL UK
• MusicMatch Jukebox
• MusicMatch Music Services
• Wild Tangent Games
• Norton AntiVirus 2005
• Norton Security Center
• Norton AntiSpam
• PC-cillin Internet Security 12
• Run Registry Entries
• Desktop Icons
• Corel WordPerfect
• Roxio RecordNow
• Sonic DLA
• Sonic Update Manager
• Sonic RecordNow Audio
• Sonic RecordNow Copy
• Roxio MyDVD LE
• Microsoft Office Standard Edition 2003
• Quicken 2006

As you can see a lot of programs. Please note that some of the listed programs are so called light versions that do not offer the functionality of the full priced product. Others can be trial versions that you can only use for a certain time with the option to buy them if you want to continue using them.

I’d say this is pretty useful if you want a fast efficient solution.