Gizmondo headed down under

The Gizmondo device is to be launched in New Zealand and Australia next year following an agreement between Gizmondo Europe and Auckland-based technology distributor, Renaissance Corporation.

Renaissance says the market for handheld gaming devices is growing rapidly and the newly signed agreement covers a targeted volume of 150 000 units a year in New Zealand and Australia.

The Gizmondo, powered by Microsoft Windows CE.net platform, boasts a 2.8-inch TFT colour screen with a Samsung ARM900 400MHz processor and incorporates 64-bit graphics accelerator. It provides gaming, multimedia messaging, an MP3 music player, Mpeg4 movie playing capability, a digital camera, and a GRPS network link to allow wide-area network gaming. It also contains a GPS chip for location-based services and it is equipped with Bluetooth for use in multi-player gaming.

Global spending on servers during 2004 is likely to grow by 5% to $53 billion, according to a new report from the International Data Corporation (IDC).

ZDNet reports that IDC says last year`s increased demand for servers is likely to continue. IDC says there continues to be strong growth in the x86 industry standard server market, particularly for Windows and Linux-based solutions.

The research firm predicts Linux-based servers will account for 29% of unit shipments, but Windows-based servers will continue to lead, accounting for 60% of all server shipments.

Tablet PCs have been slow to take off with little consumer interest, according to a new study released by research firm In-Stat/MDR.

ExtremeTech reports the study predicts that sales of tablet PCs will still remain under 1 million units during 2004 because IT managers have been slow to adopt the new form factor. However the sales should rise to 4 million by 2008.

The study says many vertical markets were accustomed to pen-based computing and as a result, most tablet PCs sold in 2003 went to vertically aligned businesses such as healthcare.