Samsung Shows Off PCs With SSD

Samsung Electronics has released the world’s first PCs embedded with a 32GB NAND flash-based solid state disk (SSD). This marks the first time that NAND flash has moved into a commercial mobile computing application and is a breakthrough that will pave the way for replacing hard disk drives with NAND flash-based memory disks. From early this month, the Samsung Q1, an ultra-mobile computing device, and the Q30, a 12.1-inch screen notebook PC, will be available in the Korean market.

The two new SSD-enabled PC offerings are designed for optimal portability and resolve many of the traditional challenges of mobile computers. The data in flash memory are much more secure against external shocks that can occur when transporting a mobile computer. The SSD can withstand about twice the impact that would cripple a regular hard disk drive. In addition, stored data can be more easily retrieved from flash memory than traditional hard drives when PCs are dropped or liquid is spilled on the device.

The SSD reads 300 percent faster (53MB/s) and writes 150 percent quicker (28MB/s) than normal hard drives. As a result, multiple application programs can operate simultaneously and large volumes of data can be edited and reproduced more efficiently. The Microsoft Windows XP operating system will boot up 25-50 percent faster on the SSD than on other drives. Moreover, the typical 1.8-inch hard disk drive weighs around 50 grams; whereas the SSD is 20 to 30 grams lighter, depending on the package type. The typical notebook PC generates around 30dB of operating noise, while the Q30-SSD will operate in complete silence.

The Q1-SSD will show video or still photos as well as play audio without having to be booted up first. This “instant on” feature provides access to multimedia content such as digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) TV at least 30 percent faster than with a portable multimedia player (PMP). DMB TV receivers are embedded in both PCs. The retail price for the Q1-SSD will be KRW2.3 million ($2,430), while the Q30-SSD will sell for KRW3.5 million ($3,700).

B2B Websites Fail at the Job of Selling

Even though there is substantially more money at stake in the sales opportunities on B2B websites versus B2C websites, most B2B sites have a far worse user experience than consumer sites. The result, according to new research by usability expert Jakob Nielsen, is that people using B2B sites accomplish what they set out to do only 58 percent of the time compared to a significantly higher 66 percent success rate on consumer e-commerce sites. The findings from Nielsen Norman Group’s B2B website study are presented in a report titled, “B2B Website Usability: Design Guidelines for Converting Business Users into Leads and Customers,” co-authored by Nielsen, Hoa Loranger and Chris Nodder (www.nngroup.com/reports/b2b).

“Most B2B sites are stuck in the 1990s in their attitude toward user experience. By still designing for themselves rather than for their customers, they place serious barriers in the way of prospects who use the web to discover companies to put on their shortlists,” said Nielsen.

The empirical evidence collected during its research by Nielsen Norman Group about the behavior, needs and preferences of business users/buyers revealed the following:

• Bad website design causes people to downgrade their perception of a company. Notable among the elements of bad design and the resulting perceptions include: 1) incomplete product description, which creates skepticism; 2) overwhelming and convoluted content, which creates confusion; 3) convoluted navigational structure, which causes prospects to lose patience; and 4) pushy marketing tactics, which cause annoyance and distrust.

• Lack of any kind of pricing information is a major problem. The most user-hostile element of most B2B websites is the lack of pricing information. It is the one thing that customers say they want the most and instead get the least often. At the minimum, providing pricing levels, if not exact prices, will help move the sales process forward.

• The B2B tactic of requiring people to fill out registration forms can be a lead killer. Unfortunately, it is a common practice on B2B sites to make users register before providing them with deeper information. This practice can send sales prospects running. Nielsen Norman Group recommends placing more information outside the barrier, making it available to customers during their initial research. Companies need to build up credibility before people are willing to give out their contact information. They know it will result in a sales call, so they want first to make sure the vendor has what they want.

“The good news out of our research is that most B2B websites can dramatically increase their business value and lead-generation function simply by following more usability guidelines and turning themselves into more supportive environments,” said co-author Hoa Loranger, user experience specialist at Nielsen Norman Group.

Use Piracy to Fight Digital Piracy

Digital piracy costs music, movie, and software industries billions of dollars in profits. With decentralized peer-to-peer online networks offering covert means for people to swap files, digital goods producers are waging a global war against such networks and individual users. But, according to new research at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, efforts to battle Internet piracy can sometimes strategically hurt digital goods industries.

Suing file-sharing Internet networks and the consumers who use them to trade copyrighted material can backfire, argues Tunay Tunca, assistant professor of Operations, Information and Technology. The result is significant loss of profits for legal producers of information goods. Globally, the greater enemies are third-party commercial pirates who vend illegal copies of CDs and DVDs filled with music, movies, and software. Tunca suggests that legal digital goods producers can benefit from strategically using the presence of individual file sharers to reduce the damage from commercial pirates.

Suing file-sharing technology providers and illegal downloaders aims to reduce the consumer population that is able to pirate individually. Using mathematical models, however, Tunca and Ph.D. candidate Qiong Wu demonstrated that an increase in the number of consumers who can or prefer to pirate over the Internet does not necessarily result in fewer profits for a legal publisher.

A key point is that having a larger population of individual copiers means less demand for commercial pirates. “With increased Internet piracy activity, just to be able to stay in business, the commercial pirates may be forced not to price very competitively,” claimed Tunca. “The legal publishers can take advantage of this situation by strategically manipulating their prices to suppress the commercial piracy activity or drive them out of certain consumer market segments.” That means a larger market share for the legal vendors, as many more consumers without the technological savvy to pirate by themselves will be channeled to obtaining the product legally. As a result, the industry’s profits can go up.

“The critical thing is that tolerating Internet piracy to a certain degree may hurt the party who hurts the legal publishers even more. That’s why we call it ‘fighting fire with fire.’ Your enemy’s enemy turns out to be your friend. Individual piracy will always be there, and in this digital age smarter companies will find ways to use it as a strategic tool that can work to their advantage rather than wasting their time and money trying to suppress it altogether. They can spend those resources more efficiently elsewhere — like fighting commercial piracy,” Tunca concludes.