By Ian Sherr

(Reuters) – Advanced Micro Devices Inc may make some of its largest inroads into the fast-growing laptop computer market thanks to a new generation of power-efficient chips to be unveiled next week.

People familiar with the matter who work for AMD said the company’s latest microprocessors are expected to be included in 109 mainstream laptop models in the coming months, the company’s best showing during the crucial back-to-school sales season. Last year, AMD’s chips were available in 40 laptop models.

“This is the first time we’ve seen this much attention to our notebooks,” the source said, referencing the company’s laptop chips.

And while shifts in market share are yet to be seen, “typically more design wins dictates more sales,” the source said, adding the company’s offerings are growing steadily across the major PC manufacturers.

The perennial second-fiddle to market giant Intel Corp has struggled to gain market share within laptop PCs, which have outpaced the growth of desktop PCs in recent years.

AMD’s stock has underperformed Intel since the beginning of the year, losing 14.57 percent of its value, where Intel has gained 5.44 percent.

However, AMD’s stock more than doubled off its 52-week low of $3.22 to close Thursday’s session at $8.27 on the New York Stock Exchange.

GROWTH AND RECOGNITION

Early signs are that the new range of chips to be unveiled next week are getting positive responses from top PC makers due to AMD’s attempts to simplify its numerous offerings under its new “Vision” brand, as well as improved battery life and performance across the line, according to one of the sources.

In the first quarter of 2010, AMD represented 12.1 percent of worldwide mobile chip sales, according to IDC. Intel’s market share was 87.8 percent.

While AMD has been slowly gaining market share over the past year for both desktops and notebooks, its strength slipped in the lucrative server market, ending 2009 with 10.1 percent share compared to 13.4 percent in 2008.

Now, AMD says it’s focusing on the consumer segment, which is expected to fuel PC growth.

Latest figures from industry watcher iSuppli peg notebook PC shipments growing 25.5 percent in 2010, to 209.5 million units from last year’s 166.9 million.

The sources also told Reuters that all of the microprocessors in the forthcoming laptops will be matched with AMD’s chipsets — collections of chips that connect the microprocessing brain to other parts of the computer.

That means AMD can collect more revenue for each laptop sold than it can when its microprocessors are paired with chipsets from other companies like Nvidia Corp.

The PC makers expected to feature AMD’s new chips as early as June include Hewlett-Packard Co, Lenovo, Acer Inc, and Dell Inc, the sources said.

(Reporting by Ian Sherr; editing by Carol Bishopric)

(Originally published May 6, 2010 on the wire at Reuters News, here.)

By Ian Sherr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – To get accurate projections for Intel Corp, Wedbush Morgan analyst Patrick Wang often finds himself hopping on a plane to Asia.

Wang — who normally crafts complex mathematical models and pores over financial statements — finds, in Intel’s case, it helps to use his fluent Chinese to gather information directly from its customers: top computer manufacturers in the Orient.

“They’re just such a large semiconductor company and to get color in terms of the overall scale, you need that,” he said.

Wang and many other analysts’ predicament may underscore why the world’s top chip maker has beaten expectations in six of the last eight quarters. More than 80 percent of its sales are abroad. Analysts estimate over half its revenue comes from less transparent markets such as China, Africa and India.

Many analysts rely on “channel checks” — surveys of vendors and distributors to gauge supply and demand — but Intel’s case is further complicated by the preponderance of “white-box” manufacturers in those emerging markets: local mass producers of unbranded computers.

Unlike more developed markets such as North America and Europe, where large computer manufacturers release regular sales numbers, many Asian, African and South American countries are dominated by smaller local players.

Intel estimates white-box outfits buy 25 percent to 30 percent of all the chips it sells each quarter.

On April 13, Intel is expected to post $9.80 billion in revenue, and earnings of roughly 37 cents per share, excluding items, in the first quarter of 2010, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

“There are countries that analysts tend to overlook because you only have a finite amount of time,” said Real World Technologies analyst David Kanter. “It’s hard to get information there because you’re not going to go to Brazil to talk to a bunch of white-box vendors.”

Yet that’s exactly what many, like Wang, have to do.

RISING DEMAND, LOWER CLARITY

According to Thomson Reuters Starmine, an earnings surprise is likely in the first quarter. Starmine’s SmartEstimate, which places more weight on recent forecasts by top-rated analysts, predicts Intel will post earnings per share about 1 percent above the Street’s average projection.

Demand is rising for computers as more of the world comes online. But many of the Internet’s newest entrants are in locations remote enough that larger manufacturers haven’t yet established a presence, so their market is instead flooded with small generic manufacturers — the veritable black hole of sales into which analysts rarely see.

“It’s so diverse and there are so many different channel players in all different segments in so many different countries, and that’s what makes it complicated to put a sticker on,” admitted Maurits Tichelman, Intel’s director of channel sales.

Markets tend to become easier to read as the industry develops. Insiders at both Intel and Advanced Micro Devices Inc say consumers in developing markets tend to prefer white-box computers, but as their quality of life improves, so, too, does their hunger for portable devices.

Laptops tend to be the domain of major brands, so visibility into sales channels typically improve. Companies like Hewlett-Packard Co, Acer Inc, Toshiba Corp, Dell Inc and Apple Inc all report data that help analysts peer into Intel’s sales volumes.

But if multinationals don’t — or can’t — immediately move in, dominant local players rise instead. After all, Intel’s Tichelman said, Lenovo Group started as a local Intel partner in China; now it’s the world’s No. 4 computer maker.

IDC analyst Shane Rau said the sheer size of the Chinese market, and the country’s own efforts to build as many computer parts as possible within its borders, is leaving another opportunity for surprise.

IDC employs dozens of analysts on the ground, providing first-hand knowledge of the market. But if demand were to surge or drop abruptly, analysts could still miss it, he said.

“There are so many little channel players out there that it’s not entirely clear where all the processors are going.”

Hence Wang’s willingness to cross half the globe from his base in New York to Shanghai.

On a chilly November day in 2009, the 29-year-old sat in a taxi in bumper-to-bumper traffic, preparing for a meeting with product managers for several distributors and, of course, an appointment with Intel.

But even that may not be enough.

“There’s no way to get a good cross section of how those sales are doing,” he said. “You’ll never get a full picture of things.”

(Editing by Edwin Chan and Richard Chang)

(Originally published Sunday, March 28 on the wire at Reuters News, here.)

By Ian Sherr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The U.S. economy may have begun to recover in 2009, but holiday office parties are sinking even further into the dumps.

Fewer companies plan to break out the bubbly this season than in 2008, at the height of the global financial crisis, according to a survey from Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc.

Only 62 percent of about 100 companies that responded to the survey were planning holiday parties this year, down from 77 percent a year ago and 90 percent in 2007, as recession-era cuts extended from benefits and profit-sharing to Santa hats and disc jockeys.

“For companies that have recently announced layoffs or other significant cost-cutting measures, such as wage freezes, it would be difficult to justify, let alone get in the mood for a holiday party,” said John Challenger, the firm’s chief executive officer.

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By Ian Sherr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Price cuts helped Sony Corp’s Playstation 3 become the top-selling video game console for the first time since its release, as U.S. sales of video game gear and software in the United States rose a modest 1 percent in September from a year ago, a research group said on Monday.

The PlayStation 3 dethroned long-running champ Nintendo and its Wii console to take the top spot, according to NPD. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 came in third.

“If they didn’t have the price cut, it wouldn’t have happened,” said Wedbush Morgan analyst Edward Woo, noting the PS3′s $200 in price cuts over the past two years.

(more…)

By Ian Sherr

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — With an iPhone, Zeus could have saved time to call on lightning from the heavens — so says California-based sculptor Adam Reeder, who seeks to merge classical Greek iconography with 21st century gadgets.

“Art is what we use to talk about our time,” said the 33-year-old artist, whose unabashed aim is to fuse western civilization’s antiquity with its newfound technologies.

The sculptor did so with the mythological Greek nymph Pan, replacing a trademark flute with Apple Inc’s iconic music player and headphones.

“He’s still a musician, he’s still dancing, but now he’s listening to his iPod,” Reeder said.

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By Ian Sherr

CHICAGO, July 31 (Reuters) – The sale price for bankrupt Hartmarx, the men’s clothing company from which President Obama gets his suits, has risen to about $130 million, Chief Executive Homi Patel said in an interview, adding that he would step down as CEO on Friday.

Patel declined to say why the price had risen from $119 million, the price listed in court documents filed last month.

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By Ian Sherr

The popular social networking website has a new champion among its brands: Starbucks.

With a combination of recent social networking promotions and front-page ads, the Seattle-based mega coffee company has attracted more than 3.6 million fans to reportedly passed Coca-Cola to become the most popular brand on Facebook.

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By Ian Sherr

CHICAGO (Reuters) – With only 160 shopping days left, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in some stores.

After U.S. retailers posted 10 straight months of sales declines, some chains are trying to bring holiday spirit — and revenue — to the summer with “Christmas in July” promotions.

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By Ian Sherr

Santa’s not getting any rest this year.

After U.S. retailers posted the longest running decline in same-store sales in nearly a decade, Sears, Kmart and Toys R Us announced Christmas-themed sales for the month of July. While actual sale dates and locations vary among the three chains, the event has drawn a lot of attention from news media, which had the once-in-a-year joy of headlining a story with “Christmas in July.”

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By Ian Sherr

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Walking the pharmacy aisle of a Target Corp discount store, shoppers can’t miss the many anti-shoplifting measures: locked display cases, alarm cords around boxes of expensive merchandise, display hangers with locks on the end.

Those represent only a fraction of the anti-theft advances created over the years to protect stores against shoplifters and organized retail theft gangs.

But what about the determined insider?

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