Worldwide PC shipments totalled 87.5 million units in the second quarter of 2012, a decline of 0.1% from the second quarter of 2011, according to preliminary results by Gartner. “In the second quarter of 2012, the PC market suffered through its seventh consecutive quarter of flat to single-digit growth,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.

After six years of operation mainly based in Cape Town, VOIP provider Wanatel has decided to expand its presence in Johannesburg. Its expansion has occurred at both a technical and an operational level. Wanatel is also launching, for its resellers, a new version of its White Label Platform.

Distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC) is now delivering Western Digital’s (WD) Sentinel DX4000. The WD Sentinel DX4000 delivers centralised shared storage and automatic server-based backup and restore for up to 25 devices (PC and Mac) on the network. It offers data protection with built-in hardware and software redundancy, and has capacities including 4TB, 6TB, 8TB and 12TB.

Intermec has opened a new Intermec service location in southern Africa for its reseller channel and customers. All repairs are driven through an online repair Web site that enables customers to track their repairs at any time of the day or night, and provides a simplified and single repair process.

Mark Neethling

Bytes Systems Integration, part of the Bytes Technology Group, has achieved Oracle’s Specialised Partner status for services-oriented architecture (SOA). Mark Neethling, divisional manager at Bytes Systems Integration, says: “Bytes has been putting in place a substantial cloud strategy, and being an SOA specialised partner aligns nicely with this overall strategy.”

Binary Tree, a provider of software solutions for migrating e-mail to Microsoft Exchange and Office 365, has announced the winners of its 2012 Partner of the Year Awards. Soarsoft Africa received the 2012 Partner of the Year: Regional Systems Integrator award. The other EMEA winners were: Partner of the Year – Global Systems Integrator: Sogeti; Rising Star: Ai3; Rising Star: Dixtree; Rising Star: Skill.

Makro has signed a deal with local distributor Mustek to sell the Brother range of printers at all its South African stores. The initial agreement is over a 12-month period and includes three inkjet multifunction printers, one being an A3 model, two multifunction colour laser printers, a four-inone laser printer, and two single-function mono laser models. Mustek supports all the Brother printers available at Makro directly on either a carry-in or on-site basis.

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