Game-Tec Deliver Advanced Sports Betting technology for Uganda, Cameron...eyes Nigeria

Game-Tec Labs of the USA and KEBA AG of Austria has continued to record the successful launchs in Uganda, Cambodia and Cameron. KEBA and Game-Tec Labs jointly deliver the system to Gaming International, a licensed sports betting operator in several African countries.
The SportsNet system provides fixed-odds and pools type sports betting capabilities. The KeWin terminals provide for advanced touch-screen betting on a small footprint, low power platform ideally suited for the Uganda marketplace. The terminals provide full function features in a single housing, including touch screen, high resolution thermal printer, communications, and bet slip / ticket scanner. Game-Tec Labs also developed the software for the KeWin terminals.
Built on Game-Tec Labs’ proven and secure GT-NET platform, SportsNet allows sports betting operators to efficiently and effectively manage a wide range of sports and event betting options. Operators can define nearly any fixed-odds bet type they want without the need for a software change due to the SportsNet unique design. Real-time risk management features allow an operator to react quickly to betting patterns and control liability exposure.
The betting technology power-house was also recently chosen by Société Africain de Jeux (SAJE) for the provision of its GT-NET gaming platform and related services. SAJE is operating a nationwide on-line network of gaming terminals throughout the country of Cameroon. Game-Tec Labs provides its advanced GT-NET gaming platform, gaming terminals, and related implementation services.
SAJE operates under the Le Lotto brand initially in the major cities of Douala and Youndé with the number of points of sale eventually reaching to over 2000 throughout the entire country. Game-Tec Labs has designed a reliable and secure network solution utilizing data services provided by MTN, the leading mobile network operator in Africa. The provision of other value-added services from the GT-NET platform, such as mobile top-ups and prepaid card solutions, is planned for implementation later this year.
Andy Brunn, CEO of Game-Tec Labs, stated “We are thrilled to be in partnership with SAJE. The African gaming market represents numerous opportunities for growth and we expect our partnership to extend to other countries over time. The Game-Tec Labs GT-NET gaming system provides a reliable, secure, and cost effective platform from which SAJE can grow its business.”
The company has recently entered into advanced discussions with a company in Nigeria with the aim of deploying its versatile platform for Nigeria's most innovative gaming system. The deal, which is still under wraps, will see GT-NET partnering with the Nigerian firm to initially kick-start operations in the Eastern part of Nigeria in the next few months, before moving into the National scene. The Nigerian company has also promised to run 'the best online, real-time lotto the country has ever seen”

More Troubles for RIM as Layoffs and Losses Persists

The big question is still: How much trouble is RIM in? Shares of Research In Motion Ltd. RIM have fallen so far so fast that some are wondering again if Canada's pride could soon become a takeover target.

"Given how significant the deterioration of the stock price has been, that alone will cause interest," said Paul Taylor, the chief investment officer at BMO Harris Private Banking in Toronto, according to Bloomberg News. "RIM still has meaningful market share in the U.S. and meaningful market share internationally, and RIM has an iconic brand."

Mr. Taylor said "it's not hard to envision" a takeover bid of between $40 and $50 a share for the BlackBerry maker. It was only a few years ago that RIM shares were trading above $140, and the company's market cap topped $80-billion. The stock regained a tiny bit of ground today, trading just below $26.

In the past, the buzz has suggested companies such as Microsoft Corp. or Oracle Corp. could take a run at RIM. But with the recent huge investment made by Microsoft in Nokia probably rules them out – for now.

Last week, after RIM's poor first-quarter results, which sparked the latest rout, The Wall Street Journal noted that RIM could instead be broken up, given that even at its current price it's still a hefty target for an acquirer to digest. And its various pieces are valuable.

RIM has promised better times ahead, and exciting products, even as it slashed its financial forecast and promised job cuts. It's losing market share in the key U.S. market amid heightened competition from Apple Inc., maker of the popular iPhone, and Google Inc., whose Android operating system has been doing exceptionally well.

That's down from RBC's previous projection $23.7-billion (U.S.) in and earnings per share of $6.50. Mr. Abramsky slashed his price target to $35 from $45, but held his rating at "sector perform."

In a move that demonstrates how bad things are getting, Research In Motion lost another marketing executive, as the company's downward spiral from the top of the smartphone market continues. RIM's vice president of digital marketing and media, Brian Wallace, left the BlackBerry maker to join Samsung, pushing down an already slumping shares nearly 7 percent on Monday, closing at just under $29 per share.

Wallace is the second major executive to leave the Waterloo, Ontario-based company in four months.

In February, RIM's chief marketing officer Keith Pardy left the company just days before the release of the BlackBerry PlayBook, RIM's first tablet device, which shipped about 500,000 units in the first quarter. Wallace's departure comes at a tumultuous time for RIM. Last week, the company announced its first quarterly drop in sales since 2005. Profits fell 10 percent from just a year ago, leading the company to announce layoffs were imminent.

RIM, which was the most used OS just over a year ago, has fallen behind both Apple's iPhone and Google's Android, now the nation's most-used mobile platform. The Canadian company can blame no one but itself for its poor performance over the last year. RIM's inability to update its sluggish, outdated operating system and introduce a fresh line of devices has given rivals Apple and Google a leg up in the industry, and combined they now own over 50 percent of the mobile market. In its heyday, BlackBerry alone used to own half the total market.

The company has also seen its market share in the traditionally strong business sector begin to erode. Deutsche Bank and several departments of the U.S. government, including the Department of Veteran Affairs, Congress and the State Department, now allow employees to use iPhones and sometimes Android devices rather than once-mandated BlackBerry handsets.

The company's poor performance has investors worried. Earlier this month, investor Northwest & Ethical called for a vote to separate the roles of chairman and CEO. Investors appear to have lost faith in current co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis' and their ability to lead, and think a change at the top might get the company headed in the right direction again.

RIM is struggling but has hope in its new operating system. The company is banking on the success of its BlackBerry line, which will run on its new QNX operating system. But because these devices will not be available until early 2012, the company could be facing an even more competitive market if Apple releases its iPhone 5 before they debut.

The once-successful company is having trouble selling devices, retaining executives, and keeping its corporate customers, like the government. It appears the situation will get worse before it gets better for RIM.

Also four days after announcing it would reduce its workforce, Research In Motion started cutting jobs in Waterloo on Monday. A number of employees received layoff notices after arriving for work. There were reports that as many as 200 employees were let go, but those numbers could not be confirmed.

Jamie Ernst, a spokesperson from RIM, said in an email Monday evening that he didn’t have any details about job cuts beyond what was announced Thursday during a conference call the company held to discuss its first-quarter financial results.

RIM said during the call that it would launch a “cost-optimization program” during the current quarter. It said it would focus on removing redundancies and reallocate resources toward the highest growth opportunities and new product introductions. The company employs 17,500 globally, including about 9,000 in more than 25 buildings in Waterloo Region. News of the job cuts came after RIM reported disappointing financial results.

ACCELIZE Signs Solution Provider Agreement with Colfax

Accelize, a leader in FPGA-based (Field-programmable Gate Array) platforms and systems for co-processing and high-performance computing applications today announced that it has entered an agreement with the Silicon Valley-based Colfax International. Under this agreement, Colfax International will provide the Accelize line of FPGA accelerator cards as a part of their leading HPC (High Performance Computing) solutions. The first Accelize product Colfax International plans to offer will be the Accelize XP4S530LP-20G FPGA accelerator card, targeted at increasing computing power in financial trading applications.

With its dual 10G Ethernet links and under 150ns latency integrated TOE, the Accelize XP4S530LP-20G is specifically designed for financial trading applications looking for ultra-low latency, FPGA-based hardware platforms. Accelize FPGA accelerators are delivered with a comprehensive software environment that enables non-FPGA-designers to take full advantage of the FPGA hardware.

According to Arnaud Schleich, CEO of Accelize “We were impressed with the knowledge Colfax International brings to building and delivering state-of-the-art HPC solutions. This is key to enabling FPGA adoption by the IT industry and their expertise offers a significant benefit to companies looking for leading HPC solutions.”

Gautam Shah, CEO of Colfax International stated “The innovative Accelize line of FPGA-based coprocessors is a great addition to our HPC product offering. Adding Accelize products to our portfolio allows us to broaden our solutions in the HPC space to more directly target high speed financial trading applications.”

The Accelize FPGA-based XP4530LP-20G is the first low-profile FPGA computing platform featuring dual-10G Ethernet and PCI Express Gen2. It includes a combination of hardware, firmware and software, each provided with different options to fit specific acceleration requirements. Engineered to accelerate financial trading applications, the XP4S530LP-20G features the performance and ultra-low latency necessary for high-frequency trading, smart feed handling, and real-time algorithmic trading.

Lenovo chase SMBs with new server…as IBM Marks 100 years

China based IBM offshoot PC and Server maker Lenovo, is one of the first vendors to come out with entry-level tower servers aimed at small and medium businesses based on Intel's "Sandy Bridge-DT" Xeon E3-1200 processors. The Xeon E3 chips are designed for single-socket servers and workstations. They were previewed by Intel back in March and started shipping in early April for both servers and for workstations with Intel's HD Graphics 3000 GPUs embedded on certain models of the chips.

All of the chips have four cores except for the 20 watt E3-1220L, which has two cores. The remaining Xeon E3 models run at between 2.4GHz and 3.5GHz and have power draws of between 45 and 95 watts. The chips make use of the "Cougar Point" series of chipsets from Intel.

Lenovo was initially reselling selected models of IBM's System x tower and rack servers in the wake of acquiring IBM's PC business a few years back, but has been doing its own server design and manufacturing more recently. The company is also partnering with Intel to be an early adopter of the AppUp Small Business Service, which was announced in May and which brings cloud-style utility pricing for servers and applications to x64 servers installed at SMB shops.

Oddly enough, Lenovo is using an earlier ThinkServer TS200v tower server as the basis for its AppUp offering rather than the new TS130 and TS430 machines – marry that with the delays in deliveries of Sandy Bridge entry servers in the wake of the bug that was discovered in the Cougar Point chipsets back in January.

The TS130 tower server is based on the C206 version of the Cougar Point chipset, and like other Xeon E3 machines, only has four DDR3 memory slots on its system board. At this time, Lenovo only support 2GB or 4GB memory sticks in the box, for a maximum of 16GB of memory. Lenovo is putting ECC memory in the box for increased reliability, and is also using the RAID data protection cooked into the C206 chipset and SATA disk ports to provide mirroring for disks.

Meanwhile, hundreds of IBM employees at their Research Triangle Park campus in the US, are volunteering their time last week to pack meals destined to feed the hungry in Haiti. "We're setting up assembly-line-type operations on-site to do this," said Bob Greenberg, IBM's top executive in North Carolina. "The goal is 100,000 meals." The 100,000 figure is no arbitrary number. It was picked to commemorate IBM's 100th anniversary as a company which comes up this Thursday.

One hundred years later, IBM has more than 425,000 workers worldwide and last year's revenue came in just under $100 billion - $99.9 billion. Among the company's lengthy list of inventions and discoveries is the bar code, which was born in the Triangle.

The volunteer work for Stop Hunger Now, an international hunger relief organization based in the Triangle, is part of a worldwide "Celebration of Service" day for employees of the company once known as International Business Machines.

"It's about the heritage of the company," Greenberg said. "IBM has always looked at itself as playing a leadership role in doing things that make a difference for people around the world."

Today IBM has about 10,000 workers in RTP; IBM doesn't disclose how many employees it has locally or statewide. In recent years it has cut jobs in the Triangle and across the world, but without specifying the depth of those cuts and usually without even acknowledging that cuts were implemented.

SAP Takes Lead in BI Market...Rolls out New Analytics for SMBs

SAP AG has announced that IDC has found it to be the leader in the worldwide business intelligence (BI) tools market based on software license and maintenance revenue (including subscription revenue). IDC also reported that SAP has grown faster than the worldwide market for financial performance and strategy management (FPSM) applications for the fifth consecutive year.

The two IDC analyses – "Worldwide Business Intelligence Tools 2010 Vendor Shares"(1) and "Worldwide Financial Performance and Strategy Management Applications 2010 Vendor Shares"(2) – found that SAP leads the worldwide BI market with revenues of $1,866.4 million and a 21 percent market share, while revenue for FPSM was $629 million constituting a 24.9 percent market share. From 2009 to 2010 SAP outperformed the worldwide market growth in each category: for BI tools SAP grew by 19.9 percent compared to the total market growth of 11.4 percent, and for FPSM applications it grew by 17.5 percent compared to the total market growth of 9.2 percent.

"Our momentum continues to grow as we focus heavily on delivering customer success by executing on our business analytics roadmap, bringing to market new and innovative releases of our BI, EIM, EPM and GRC solutions," said Steve Lucas, general manager, Business Analytics, SAP. BI and FPSM solutions are part of IDC's taxonomy for the overall business analytics market.

As SAP is taking the Business Intelligence (BI) market by storm with this latest survey, SAP general manager, Business Analytics, Steve Lucas explains that the company’s momentum will continue to grow as it focuses “heavily on delivering customer success by executing on our business analytics roadmap, bringing to market new and innovative releases of our BI, EIM, EPM and GRC solutions.”

In addition to this, SAP will soon roll out Crystal Server 2011 and Business Objects Edge 4.0, a pair of new BI (business intelligence) products aimed at small and medium-sized companies, the company announced recently.

Crystal Server 2011 was formerly named Crystal Reports Server. The change was made because SAP is "really positioning [it] as an entry-level BI platform," and not just something for reports, said Jayne Landry, vice president of solution management, business analytics and technology.

The products are scheduled to be generally available in the first few weeks of July, aligned with the release of Business Objects 4.0, the enterprise-level version of SAP's analytics products. This is a change from the past, when Edge's release would come six to eight weeks after the high-end version, Landry said.

Crystal Server 2011 has new features such as the Explorer tool for "drilling down" into data sets as well as an information design tool. It's limited to a single server and 100 named users, according to an SAP document. The idea is that customers who outgrow products like Crystal Server 2011 can step up to one with more features.

Edge 4.0 takes the Crystal Server feature set and adds others, such as Web Intelligence, mobile BI and integrations to applications such as Oracle E-Business Suite. There is also an EDGE edition that adds data-integration tooling and a third that bundles data management software.

All Edge versions are also limited to a single server. For multi-server support, unlimited users and other features, customers would upgrade to Business Objects 4.0. "No matter where a customer starts, their investment is protected," Landry said. For one, SAP has created a common user experience across the various products, which could save time and money on training.

Cisco sued over ‘Golden Shield’ Firewall scandal

While the architect of China's infamous Internet Firewall was pelted with a shoe by a citizen, a lawsuit was being filed in San Francisco against Cisco for its alleged part in it. Practitioners of a religion known as Falun Gong filed the complaint on recently against Cisco, its CEO John Chambers, two of its China executives, and others. The suit claims that Cisco helped design the Chinese Internet surveillance/censorship system known as the Golden Shield.

A lawsuit filed in US federal court in the northern California city of San Jose calls for the computer networking gear giant to pay damages and stop helping China find Falungong supporters. Cisco "designed, supplied and helped maintain a censorship and surveillance network known as Golden Shield" used by Chinese officials to identify Falungong practitioners who were detained, tortured and sometimes killed, a lawyer for the group said in court documents filed last week.

It also accuses Cisco of using inflammatory language in order to convince Chinese officials to purchase its products, of helping to design the system and as a result, Falun Gong were found, tortured and killed. Cisco denies the validity of the suit, saying in a statement, "There is no basis for these allegations against Cisco, and we intend to vigorously defend against them.  Cisco does not operate networks in China or elsewhere, nor does Cisco customize our products in any way that would facilitate censorship or repression.  Cisco builds equipment to global standards which facilitate free exchange of information, and we sell the same equipment in China that we sell in other nations worldwide in strict compliance with US government regulations." 

The civil lawsuit seeks unnamed financial damages from Cisco. In a 52-page court document, the suit says:

"Cisco refers to the Golden Shield system in its internal literature as 'Policenet.' As a direct result of the Defendants' creation, development, and maintenance of the Golden Shield technology with Chinese authorities, Plaintiffs, Falun Gong practitioners, have suffered severe and gross abuses, including false imprisonment, torture, cruel assault, battery, and wrongful death, for which judicial relief is warranted in the form of compensatory and punitive damages. "

The Golden Shield, and the role of Cisco and other U.S. tech giants in it, has been an ongoing battle for years. The Foundation for Defense of Democracy hosts a transcript from a Congressional hearing on the matter from April 19, 2006, given by a former consultant to American corporations operating in China and a former vice-chair of the Government Relations Committee for the American Chamber of Commerce Beijing. The transcript says:

"Three companies were competing for the Chinanet contracts in 1997: Bay Networks, Sun Microsystems, and Cisco Systems. Cisco prevailed by selling the authorities a “firewall box” at a significant discount, which would allow the Chinese authorities to block the forbidden web. Cisco’s General Counsel denies selling any special configuration.

Chinese engineers who actually worked on the firewall project are equally adamant that it was custom-made. Either way, as early as 1998, any industry-wide restraints on the transfer of censorship technologies were already being weighed against Cisco’s capture of 80% of the China router market, an unprecedented success story. Yet Cisco’s success may be more closely linked to a Cisco manager’s statement that 'We have the capability to look deeply into the packets.'"

In 2008, a Cisco marketing PowerPoint presentation surfaced. On slide #57 of the 90-slide PowerPoint, created in 2002, during a section where the slides were covering the Golden Shield project, it described the project's three purposes ...To crack down on Internet crimes, To ensure the security of public Internet services, and To combat the Falun Gong cult and other hostiles.

Cisco distanced itself from the slides at the time, saying they were to help educate its employees about the Chinese landscape. So then, why the lawsuit now? Perhaps because in the past few months, the country's censorship has escalated as online protests threatening revolution have. In March, Google said the Chinese government was blocking Gmail access. VPNs were also reportedly blocked.

If Cisco knew the Chinese government would be using this technology to ultimately hunt down and hurt its citizens, how much responsibility does it have in the matter? Cisco clearly understood the reality of Chinese censorship.

Infosys acquires New Zealand’s Gen-i...eyes Mysis

India’s second largest software exporter Infosys Technologies has announced that it has acquired the software solutions business of Gen-i, as part of its partnership with the Telecom New Zealand Group firm. As part of the deal, Infosys has offered positions to Gen-i's more than 110 employees and contractors, who will continue to be based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Infosys said in a statement.

These employees, who are primarily senior developers, technical architects and consultants, will take the Infosys' New Zealand team to over 150 people, it added. The company said it also plans to immediately hire an additional 15-30 people there. No financial details were however disclosed.

The partnership will be undertaken by Infosys' Australian arm and Gen-i, the corporate ICT arm of Telecom New Zealand. The current software solutions management team will lead New Zealand delivery for Infosys, with Patrick Kouwenhoven running New Zealand operations under the leadership of Infosys Associate Vice-President Ashok Mysore.

The companies will offer IT services like IT consulting, business transformation and cloud-based offerings to Australasian companies. Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea and neighboring islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The partnership is said to create a new market proposition for local businesses by helping them to transform for competitive advantage, with new ways to innovate, reduce costs and increase the effectiveness of their people, processes and technology according to Infosys.

As near-shore delivery from New Zealand is among the joint growth strategies being planned, the partnership also has significant potential to further grow New Zealand-based technology jobs, it added.

Gen-I currently works alongside its 3,300 corporate, government and business customers to offer integrated ICT solutions. It has nearly 3,000 highly skilled people in 17 locations across New Zealand and Australia. "There has been a lot of consolidation in the IT services market recently, leaving an opportunity for a strong local partnership which can deliver world class capabilities in hosted and integrated ICT solutions," Gen-i Australasia CEO Chris Quin said.

Several Indian technology players including Infosys's rivals Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro have been looking for overseas acquisitions to boost growth amid growing competition from global rivals, and to reduce dependency on the U.S. market.

This has so far resulted in the rumored interest of Infosys in the soon-to-be-sold Mysis. Amidst the current bout of speculations regarding a possible takeover bid for Misys plc, Jefferies & Co. revisited its long-held view that it is now in the final phase of the value realisation project that Mike Lawrie and ValueAct Capital embarked upon four years ago.

"We think the remaining two divisions are likely to be sold. We see upside of at least 20 percent from current levels and reiterate our 'Buy' rating," said Milan Radia, an analyst at Jefferies. Radia said Misys has fully separated its core banking and capital markets divisions, perhaps indicating its willingness to sell these divisions separately. In the absence of a full bid, Misys will, in the analyst's view, seek to sell core banking first.

The Indian vendors, Infosys Technologies Limited are obvious candidates, in Radia's view, given their strength in banking software. This assumption is based on the information emanating from Infosys indicating that they are on the lookout for acquisitions with a cash chest of more than $3.7 billion, and has an appetite to acquire companies that could go close to a billion US dollars, its CEO-designate SD Shibulal said.

"We can easily absorb acquisitions that are around 10% of our total revenue base of $6 billion, but if need be we are ready for bigger acquisitions as well," the co-founder who is due to be elevated from the chief operating officer's position," said in an interview recently.

He said the company, which is mainly looking at building competencies through buyouts, was eyeing a deal size of between $300 million and $900 million. "As and when the opportunity (for acquisition) comes the cash available with us would come handy."The Bangalore-based giant has so far been conservative in buyouts while its cash chest has been growing since last year.

Dell Doubles Efforts in Tab market with Streak Pro…signs with Mobilink

Global PC makers, Dell, has rolled out its newest tablet, the business-focused 10.1-inch Streak Pro, according to reports. Dell’s tablet, which runs Google’s Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” operating system, will join a long list of media tablets set to roll out during this period as a growing number of vendors look to gain traction in the rapidly growing tablet space currently dominated by Apple’s iPad.

The new device will be Dell’s third tablet, joining the Streak 5, which offers a 5-inch screen, and the 7-inch Streak 7. Earlier reports had Dell’s Streak Pro being powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 2 T2 5 SoC (system on a chip), which among other things is 3D-capable. However, according to a May 19 report in SlashGear, the device will be powered by a slower Nvidia chip, the 1.0GHz Tegra 2 T20, which does not have the 3D capabilities.

The Streak Pro will offer a 1280 x 800 touch screen and weigh 1.59 pounds, according to reports. It will offer models with 16GB, 32GB and 64GB flash memory, a 5-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel camera on the front, will include Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities, and will come in a number of colors, including black, blue, red and pink. Included accessories include an in-car changer, a “productivity dock” and a folding cover with an integrated keyboard.

Dell is one of several vendors that wants in on a tablet space that market research firm Gartner has said will grow from almost 70 million in sales this year to 294 million in 2015. The challengers to Apple are coming from both the PC world—Dell, HP and Acer, and the smartphone space, including BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion, Motorola and Samsung.

For Dell and HP, tablets are a way of expanding their reach in the industry beyond the PC. On May 17, executives with both companies, while announcing quarterly earnings, said they saw revenue drops in their consumer PC businesses, though sales of their commercial PC units were healthy. Analysts have debated the impact of tablets on sales of traditional laptops. Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, in a May 17 blog post, said tablets were part of the problem facing Dell, HP and Acer, but not the biggest.

“Tablet cannibalization is only a minor contributor to soft PC sales,” Epps wrote. “The bigger factor is the Windows release cycle—so many consumers bought new PCs when Windows 7 came out, and without a new version of Windows this year, there isn’t the same catalyst to buy.”

Meanwhile Dell has launched the android powered Dell Streak 5 through a Pakistan-based local cellular operator Mobilink, even though they have a separate distribution channel. Dell’s regional manager Ali Jaleel at the launching ceremony said that Dell had grown to a certain point where diversification seemed like a good option to grow business in the country. “Mobility seemed like an interesting scenario for this.”

“Amongst other things, the upcoming 3G auction is also one of the reasons that Dell has begun to explore mobility products in the country,” he added. The android powered phone with a 5-inch touch screen confused analysts whether Dell is launching a tablet to try and compete with the I-Pad frenzy. Mobilink in the past worked with Dell’s global competitors such as Samsung, HTC and Motorola to launch their products. An interesting thing about Mobilink offerings is that the phones they offer can be used with a sim card of a competitor operator as well.

"Tablet Market: Apple cannot be dislodged"...Packard Bell

Having unveiled its debut tablet computer last month, Packard Bell has said it believes the number of players in the market will contract in the coming years, though actual sales figures will skyrocket. And the firm believes it and its sister-firm Acer are well placed to take significant share of this upsurge, even if the market is unable to maintain the current number of players.
This is coming on the heels of Acer launching its competitive Tab  Iconia Tab W500 a few months ago.

“If you look at the predictions, the market will grow in the range of 100 per cent year-on-year in the coming years worldwide,” said Luca Rossi, PB vice president. “So that means there is an estimation of 50 million units in 2011, 100 million in 2012, and 150 million in 2013. So there will be exponential growth.”

“Personally I think there will be a concentration – the current market leader will continue with all the significant share. We have an aspiration for significant share as well. So I do not believe the market has room for everybody. Lets say the top three to four players will hold 90 or 95 per cent of the share. If you look at it this it is similar to the rest of the PC industry.”

However despite high hopes for its own tablet devices, Rossi does not believe that market leader Apple and its iPad can be dislodged from the top-spot anytime soon. “It is my personal opinion, that doesn’t necessarily reflect the corporate one, that Apple will continue to hold all the significant share. In the next year or two I don’t see any reason why they would lose the number one spot, but their dominance will be reduced significantly in terms of market share.”

Packard Bell is also currently making the final preparations for the release of a new oneTwo series all-in-one PC, namely the oneTwo S which features a 20-inch touchscreen, an ultra-slim, rounded design, and utilizes either Intel (2nd-gen Core) or AMD (up to a Phenom II X6) power. Set to be available in glossy black, matte white, chrome or silver, Acer's all-in-one, can have integrated or discrete (AMD or Nvidia) graphics, a TV tuner, it boasts an optical drive, a 2 megapixel webcam, and is pre-loaded with multiple touch-enabled apps - TouchBrowser, TouchMusic, TouchPhoto, TouchVideo and TouchCam.