While most of this week's security attention is focused on RSA, our coverage of products seen at HIMSS, health-care IT's biggest annual confab, continues with commanding security products for the vertical.
Our ongoing coverage of HIMSS, health care IT's biggest annual confab, continues with a look at select networking and infrastructure products on display at the show.
Here's a look at a select few of the many systems and peripherals that left an impression on opening day.
Can Vista Make The Big Screen?
12:00 AM EST Mon. Feb. 12, 2007
From the February 12, 2007 issue of CRN
Page 1 of 2
Of key concern to solution providers is whether businesses large or small are ready to flip the switch on purchasing new wide-screen displays. Because it has been about five years since Microsoft last updated its operating system, some observers say that consumers hungry for change may adopt sooner than businesses.
"[Consumers] will begin to say, 'Is it Vista-certified?' " said Keith Groom, director of marketing at SoftChoice, an NEC Display Solutions reseller in Toronto. "If it doesn't have [the logo], they won't buy it," he said.
"We foresee the initial strongest demand will be on the consumer side," said Erik Willey, director of desktop displays at ViewSonic, Walnut, Calif. "Consumers will tend to embrace the new OS before enterprise or corporate accounts." Other vendors contend, however, that interest will be strong in both the consumer and business segments due to Microsoft's campaign to educate the masses on the features of the new platform. When businesses look at the numbers, they'll also see that there is a cost benefit associated with wide-screen products, according to the vendors.
"What is helping drive wide panels, no matter what segment—SMB, SOHO, consumer—[is that] wide products have a more aggressive cost," said Andrew Weis, senior product marketing manager at Samsung Electronics America's Information Technology Division, Irvine, Calif.
Steve Shark, vice president of sales and marketing at DakTech Computers, a ViewSonic partner, agrees, although with a caveat. Shark said it's too soon to come to a definite conclusion about increased sales. Although businesses have already shown higher-than-expected interest in wide-screen displays, a lot of integrator testing is still in the preliminary stages. "We're waiting to see how the market transpires, but early [business] interest has been good," he said.
Shark theorizes that Vista's requirement of more robust machines naturally will lead to a large number of system refreshes, including an upgrade to wide-screen displays. Fargo, N.D.-based DakTech hopes for a 20 percent increase in sales this year.
Several vendors say they are seeing few to no Vista interoperability issues with their legacy displays, but this is not expected to discourage system updates. According to Weis, all of Samsung's domestic offerings are compatible with Vista. "We've seen a huge push for 'wide' products in the channel. When I look at unit volume numbers, we're looking at about 40 percent of our channel business to be wide-volume-driven," Weis said, adding that some of that interest can be attributed to Microsoft's education efforts around Vista.
Continued: Wave Of The Future For Vista
