Notebooks face parts shortages

Great demand and a massive battery recall are causing shortages of key components for the notebook computer industry, says IT Business.

During a normal shortage, PC vendors would adjust the makeup of the notebook PC to find savings elsewhere and ensure a constant price for users.

This shortage is different because there are shortages of several key components. Demand for new laptop computers is far greater than predicted so far this year, and companies are scrambling to keep up. At the same time, the industry is trying to cope with component shortages caused by other factors.

Lenovo is going to factory-install SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on some of its ThinkPad notebooks and support the operating system for its commercial customers and consumers beginning in Q4, says Enterprise Open Source Magazine.

Novell and Lenovo have a sort of hereditary relationship via IBM, which put Novell in the Linux business.

Red Hat, meanwhile, Novell's primary competitor, has delayed the launch of its Global Desktop Linux from August till September. It said it wants to increase the number of video formats the program can support.

While India has established itself as the global hub for software, hardware manufacturing has lagged. This changed when US major computer maker Dell recently rolled out its first desktop computer from its new plant at Sriperumbudur, says Asia Times Online.

Dell has delivered its first "made in India" computer, with hopes that local production will raise domestic sales.

Indian computer sales have increased 30% annually over the past five years and totalled 6.3 million units in the fiscal year ended March, according to the Manufacturers Association for Information Technology, India's main hardware trade body.