In a statement, the company said it has completed its evaluation of strategic alternatives for its Personal Systems Group (PSG), and has decided that the unit will remain part of the company.

“HP objectively evaluated the strategic, financial and operational impact of spinning off PSG. It’s clear after our analysis that keeping PSG within HP is right for customers and partners, right for shareholders, and right for employees,” said President and CEO Meg Whitman. “HP is committed to PSG, and together we are stronger.”

Whitman was appointed to her position last month, replacing Leo Apotheker after just a year in the role.

The company says the strategic review involved “subject matter experts from across the businesses and functions,” and that “data-driven evaluation revealed the depth of the integration that has occurred across key operations such as supply chain, IT and procurement.”

The evaluation, HP says, also detailed the significant extent to which the PSG unit contributes to the company’s portfolio and overall brand value.

Yeah, I can see that.

HP added that the cost of recreating these things in a standalone company outweighed the benefits of separation.

“As part of HP, PSG will continue to give customers and partners the advantages of product innovation and global scale across the industry’s broadest portfolio of PCs, workstations and more,” said Todd Bradley, EVP of HP’s Personal Systems Group. “We intend to make the leading PC business in the world even better.”

Last year’s revenues for PSG totaled $40.7 billion.

Lanci, a former employee at Texas Instruments, went to Acer when they acquired the TravelMate laptop business from TI in 1997.  He became president of the company in 2005, and was named CEO in 2008.

Acer has recently overtaken Dell as the 2nd largest maker of PCs, but has hit a rough patch as of late.  According to Bloomberg:

The resignation comes less than a week after the company lowered its sales forecast, which led to a four-day, 18 percent rout of the stock. Analysts at 10 brokerages including Daiwa Securities Group Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) have lowered their investment ratings on Acer since March 25, citing concerns about earnings.

Lanci’s resignation passed a Board of Directors today, as they explain that they held different views about the direction the company was taking.  From the press release:

On the company’s future development, Lanci held different views from a majority of the board members, and could not reach a consensus following several months’ of dialog. They placed different levels of importance on scale, growth, customer value creation, brand position enhancement, and on resource allocation and methods of implementation.

While the company assures that this change will not affect business as usual, interim CEO J.T. Wang expresses that the company will be moving into the mobile device market.  “Acer needs a period of time for adjustment,” he says.

“In his role as President and CEO, Lanci has contributed significantly toward Acer’s growth. The company expresses its true appreciation for Lanci’s efforts and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors,” said Wang

FaceTime has become a popular selling point of Apple’s iPhone, and the iPad 2 is expected to accommodate it as well. 

"The new MacBook Pro brings next generation dual and quad Core processors, high performance graphics, Thunderbolt technology and FaceTime HD to the great design loved by our pro customers," said Apple SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller. "Thunderbolt is a revolutionary new I/O technology that delivers an amazing 10 gigabits per second and can support every important I/O standard which is ideal for the new MacBook Pro."

Apple says in its announcement, "MacBook Pro is the first computer on the market to include the groundbreaking Thunderbolt I/O technology. Developed by Intel with collaboration from Apple, Thunderbolt enables expandability never before possible on a notebook computer. Featuring two bi-directional channels with transfer speeds up to an amazing 10Gbps each, Thunderbolt delivers PCI Express directly to external high performance peripherals such as RAID arrays, and can support FireWire and USB consumer devices and Gigabit Ethernet networks via adapters. Thunderbolt also supports DisplayPort for high resolution displays and works with existing adapters for HDMI, DVI and VGA displays. Freely available for implementation on systems, cables and devices, Thunderbolt technology is expected to be widely adopted as a new standard for high performance I/O."

"With Apple’s innovative FaceTime video calling software, the new camera allows high definition video calls between all new MacBook Pro models and supports standard resolution calls with other Intel-based Macs, iPhone 4 and the current generation iPod touch," the company says. "FaceTime is included with all new MacBook Pro models and is available for other Intel-based Macs from the Mac App Store for 99 cents. The MacBook Pro lineup continues to feature its gorgeous aluminum unibody enclosure, glass Multi-Touch trackpad, LED-backlit widescreen display, illuminated full-size keyboard and 7-hour battery."

There is a 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro model, as well as a 15-inch and a 17-inch model. The 13-inch version is available in a 2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 and 320GB hard drive version for $1,199, as well as a 2.7 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 and 500GB hard drive version for $1,499. The 15-inch MacBook Pro is available in a 2.0 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6490M and 500GB hard drive version for $1,799 and a 2.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6750M and 750GB hard drive version for $2,199. The new 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro comes in just one version –  2.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6750M and 750GB hard drive, and is priced at $2,499.

Apple has an event scheduled for March 2nd, where it will almost certainly unveil the iPad 2. Stay tuned for that. Meanwhile, the iPad continues to dominate tablet shipments.

By contrast, buying rates of 3DTVs (three-dimensional TVs) are expected to rise 500 percent; tablet computers 160 percent; ebook readers 133 percent; and smartphones 26 percent.

The survey found that only 17 percent of survey respondents plan to buy a desktop or laptop computer in 2011– a 39 percent drop from 2010. Tracking with this trend, the survey revealed that 75 percent of U.S. survey respondents emailed each week from their PCs in 2010, down from 80 percent the year before.

The research also showed that respondents are using multiple devices such as tablet PCs for activities that used to be done on traditional PCs. For example, on at least a weekly basis, 40 percent of the respondents email from a tablet PC. In addition to checking email, respondents are using tablet PCs for browsing the web, watching videos and reading books, newspapers and magazines.

“The research findings raise the question as to whether, in the long run, desktop and laptop PCs in the home will be increasingly replaced by a group of newer technology alternatives such as tablet computers, netbooks, smartphones and e-book readers,” said Kumu Puri, senior executive with Accenture’s Electronics & High-Tech Practice.

“If strength is measured by unit sales, the computer will remain the strong consumer technology giant for many years. Our research found that 93 percent of survey respondents own a computer—a higher proportion than any of the 19 technologies included in the survey. But if measured by growth rate, the PC market–at least for consumers–has reached a level of saturation and will continue to see diminished growth rates. There’s increasing potential for an end in sight for the relevance of the personal computer in the home as we know it today.”

No twisting of words or misinterpretations took place here.  John Herlihy, Google’s vice president of global ad operations, simply said at University College Dublin’s Digital Landscapes conference, "In three years’ time, desktops will be irrelevant."

According to John Kennedy, Herlihy then argued, "In Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs . . . .  Mobile makes the world’s information universally accessible."

So if Herlihy’s views are representative of Google’s, it’s probable that the company will continue to focus more and more on Android.  Chrome OS, the lightweight operating system intended for netbooks, should get a lot of attention.  And Google’s cloud storage offerings will likely be expanded, too, to compensate for the small hard drives in smartphones and netbooks.

Interestingly, though, mobile ad opportunities may not be a primary consideration next to all of this stuff.  Herlihy said, "When we build something we strive for ubiquity in usage and adoption.  That helps us understand how customers react and then we build a revenue model."

The report found sales for the five-week holiday period reached $10.8 billion, a big improvement from the 6 percent decline during the 2008 holiday season.

The holiday season had its share of fluctuations. Overall revenue declined three out of the five weeks. While the second week of the season posted the largest revenue growth it only represented for 15 percent of overall holiday sales. The final week of the season also saw revenue growth and represented 22 percent of all sales, so the success of the final week was more relevant to the overall success of the season.

"The dynamics of the holiday season changed this year; the holiday season started before Black Friday as retailers ran Black Friday-like sales throughout November," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. 

"That move may have lessened the Black Friday hype for consumers, but the increase during the final week of the season is a sign that consumers either went back out or waited it out to get the best deal."

PCs and flash-based camcorders were popular this holiday leading the way in unit growth among large categories, but total sales numbers were dependent on the success of PCs and flat-panel TVs.  Combined they accounted for 41 percent of the revenue over the five week holiday period, up from 39 percent in 2008 and 34 percent in 2007.

Despite the high revenue, flat-panel TVs registered a decline in dollars of 13 percent, in line with their performance during most of 2009.  That decline pulled down the industry overall. MP3 players, for the third year in a row, were the largest unit volume category despite increased ASPs and declining unit volumes.

"Just cutting prices this year was not enough to guarantee successful sales results," said Baker.  Flat-panel TVs had a disappointing holiday because there wasn’t enough price-cutting on the right items, while notebook PCs and camcorders offered new form factors and price points that drove enormous increases in units and revenue despite falling prices."
 

"Mature markets such as the United States, Western Europe, and Japan currently account for 58 percent of the world’s installed PCs, but these markets only account for 15 percent of the world’s population," said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner.

"Rapid penetration in emerging markets is being driven by the explosive expansion of broadband and wireless connectivity in these markets, the continuing fall in PC average selling prices (ASPs), and the general realization that PCs are an indispensable tool for advancement, " said Shiffler.

The global PC market is being driven by users who replace their old machines with new ones. Some of the old PCs find their way back to second owners, some are recycled and others end up in a landfill.

"We forecast just over 180 million PCs – approximately 16 percent of the existing installed base – will be replaced this year," said Meike Escherich, principal research analyst at Gartner. "We estimate a fifth of these, or some 35 million PCs, will be dumped into landfill with little or no regard for their toxic content.

"It will become an even more pressing issue, especially in emerging markets, as the number of retired PCs grows with the continuing expansion of the PC installed base."

17 points out of a possible 100 – that’s all the search giant managed to get.  And at this moment, most sane people might start to worry – there’s no telling what could be going on at the Googleplex, right?

Yet a more accurate way of looking at it is that there’s no telling One World Trust what is going on – Google didn’t cooperate with the organization, and got blasted as a result.  The most telling example of this is the way in which Google scored exactly zero points in the “Environmental and Social Impact” category; we all know about the company’s RE<C initiative, its push to get “green” PCs into government buildings, and its solar panel-coated headquarters.

For anyone who would like to further explore the One World Trust’s inaccuracies, John Oates writes, “The whole report, or a summary, is available from here although ironically you will need to register – not very transparent is it?”

Crisis averted, then.  Google may still be creepy, but it probably shouldn’t be compared to an international police organization.

Andrew Ooi has compiled a short list of Malaysian sites, many were as much as a PR5 previously, and currently show a PageRank of zero (a white bar)

Examples include:-

Colleen’s Simple Kind of Life and 5xmom

The numbers seem to be stable across multiple data centers

There doesn’t seen to be any change in prominent Search Marketing sites such as Search Engine Round Table and Search Engine Journal, and other popular bloggers such as Emom and Yaro still seem to have their degraded but still "head above water" rankings.

Meanwhile Matt Cutts is playing around with $200 PCs and the negative views of the blogosphere regarding Google.

Meaning Of PageRank Unchanged

Google have had more than a month to change the description of PageRank on their website.

I haven’t seen any change to Search Engine Rankings and there is still no way to request reconsideration without admitting guilt.

The Webmaster Help Center also doesn’t give an option to report that you think Google is making a mistake in their manual evaluation.

How do I request reconsideration of my site?

If your site has previously violated our webmaster guidelines, and you’ve made changes to it so that it now meets our guidelines, you can ask Google to reconsider your site for inclusion in the index.

In addition, if you recently purchased a domain that you think may have violated our guidelines before you owned it, you can use the reconsideration request form to let us know that you recently acquired the site and that it now adheres to the guidelines.

To request reconsideration of your site:

1. Sign in to Google webmaster tools. The webmaster tools Dashboard opens.
2. Under Tools, click Request reconsideration and follow the steps.

Google do now call this reconsideration, not just reinclusion, and Matt notes that you can still be in the index even though you have a penalty, which he updated November 4th 2007

I did find something cool though which I hadn’t seen before, maybe I missed it being reported, or didn’t pay much notice.

I am still being crawled frequently and there are some interesting spikes. It is a pity that the graph doesn’t line up with the scale.

From January people using PayPerPost will be able to use SocialSpark.

SocialSpark Alpha screenshots do still have PageRank listed, and that will likely be removed totally unless Google change their stance.

I still don’t sell PageRank, but traffic hasn’t changed, if anything it has increased as I write more content that people want to read and link to, and it even brings in some search traffic.

Google is making huge mistakes with these updates. I know many people receiving penalties sell links, and I am not trying to defend them.

When you get someone like regular reader Rob, a real expert in SEO, who based on the links he receives should be a comfortable PR4, or possibly a PR5, currently a PR0, because he wrote one paid review using nofollow on the links.

Then you get affiliate marketers like Vlad who may have written a couple of high quality reviews, and sold some advertising.
At the same time he also is an affiliate with some affiliate services which offer SEO friendly "clean links" for their merchants.
For a website owner they are still links from which they will be making money, though the money from affiliate marketing is variable – the links still affect search engines, as do many other affiliate links which feature 301 redirects.

Now whilst Aaron’s issues might be appeased as a result of the recent interchange with Matt, that is really just the tip of the iceberg. Aaron hasn’t been lynched.

To finish I am just going to steal the words of Michael VanDeMar which he posted as a comment on Matt’s Reporting On Paid Links post.

Honestly, Matt… and if your legal team won’t let you answer this, then I understand, but if you are allowed to answer then I (and I’m sure others) would really, really like to know… as the G algo stands now, exactly how much off balance would you say it is due to the insidious act of buying and selling text link ads? How many man hours have you spent combating this crime against humanity, and at what cost? And is it seriously skewing the results that much, that all the efforts spent on it were, and continue to be, justified? Is the algo that fragile?

The other main reason that I disagree with this idea is that you think (or appear to be implying, anyways) that Paid Link === No Human Review. This not the case 9 times out of 10. You should know that.

Update – Official Statement From Izea (PayPerPost)

An official statement finally from Izea (PayPerPost) on their blog regarding Google PageRank Updates.

We now know from some of our friends inside of Google (thanks "bob") that they are now looking for phrases such as PPP, PayPerPost,ReviewMe, Payu2blog, etc. in the text of your post. For that reason I would suggest refraining from using any type of this text in the body of your posts, sponsored or not. When you disclose thank the sponsor, not PPP.

I would like to thank Ted (CEO of Izea) for having the courage to say something about this in public, something it seems Google so far have not managed to do, and rarely do so on an official company blog.

Lisa Stewart of Bigfoot Web Marketing also has an excellent writeup of the decision process on the PayPerPost boards that ultimately led to Ted Murphy making a statement.

Comments

*Originally published at AndyBeard.eu

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Actually, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, and the World Wildlife Fund are all members of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative, but Google seems most closely tied to this new development.  “We can reduce the energy used by computers by 50% or more,” the company’s director of clean energy, Bill Weihl, told Elizabeth Landau.

So, thanks to an agreement between the Climate Savers Computing Initiative and the National Governors Association, energy-efficient PCs will become a common sight in Minnesota and Kansas government buildings.  And although they’ll initially cost a bit more than a normal computer, lower electricity bills should (over time) make the purchases worthwhile.

For this reason, look for other states to make similar arrangements; the National Governors Association believes that over $20 million could be saved “if all states adopt the initiative’s criteria.”  Also, lest we forget the initiative’s “green” aspects, know that the $20 million in electricity corresponds to around 200,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

Go Google.  And Dell, HP, Intel, Lenovo, Microsoft, the World Wildlife Fund.