Dell Seeks Edge on IPad With Business-Focused Windows Tablet
By Aaron Ricadela and Emily Chang.
Dell Inc. (DELL) Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell said there's growing demand for tablet computers that can run the next version of Windows, which may help his company siphon away corporate customers from the iPad.
Dell is developing a business-friendly tablet that works with Windows 8, and the company will start selling computers running the new Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) software "on the exact day" it becomes available, the CEO said yesterday on the "Bloomberg West" television show. Windows 8 is due later this year, though a release date hasn't been set.
The goal is to entice business customers by running Microsoft's Office applications -- something Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s tablet isn't designed to do -- and letting the device connect securely to corporate networks. Dell is seeking an edge over the latest iPad, unveiled yesterday, which sports a faster processor, sharper screen and speedier wireless service.
"Having a secure Windows tablet that works with all the Windows applications -- we're hearing a lot of demand for that and we think that will be quite attractive," Dell said.
Still, the iPad is making its own inroads in the corporate world. Apple is on pace to sell $10 billion worth of iPads to businesses this year, according to Forrester Research Inc. (FORR), succeeding in a market that has traditionally been Microsoft's strength.
Apple's Lead
Tablet makers will sell a total of 103.5 million devices this year, with Apple accounting for two-thirds, Gartner Inc. predicts. The figure will rise to 326.3 million in 2015.
Shares of Round Rock, Texas-based Dell rose 1.1 percent to $17 at the close in New York yesterday. The shares have climbed 16 percent this year.
Dell aims to "lead the market" in Windows 8 tablets, Amit Midha, president of Dell's Asia division, said at a briefing in Hong Kong today. The company will continue to offer tablets and smartphones based on Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Android technology, he said.
"Both the tablet and the smartphone form factors you'll see us participating in, but the tablet side is a much higher priority for us," Midha said. He declined to disclose details about products being planned by Dell.
Dell also will sell a range of personal computers running Windows 8 as soon as the software debuts.
"We'll be there right on the very first day that Windows 8 is available," Michael Dell said yesterday. During a conference call with analysts last month, he said there was "great excitement" in the corporate market over the new software.
Dell will continue to diversify beyond PCs by investing in acquisitions and research spending, he said on "Bloomberg West."
"You'll see us continue to be active," the CEO said.
At hacking contest, Google Chrome falls to third zero-day attack
Google's Chrome browser on Friday fell to a zero-day attack that pierced its vaunted security sandbox, the third such attack in as many days at a contest designed to test its resistance to real-world threats.
A teenage hacker who identified himself only as PinkiePie said he spent the past week and half working on the attack. It combined three previously unknown vulnerabilities to gain full system access to a Dell Inspiron laptop that ran a fully patched version of Chrome on top of the most up-to-date version of Windows 7. He spent the past three days holed up in hotel rooms and conference areas refining the attack so it would break out of the sandbox, which was designed to prevent code-execution attacks like his, even when security bugs are identified.
"These kinds of things are finicky" PinkiePie told reporters as he finished a blueberry yogurt just minutes after making his booby-trapped website display a picture of a pink pony wielding a medieval axe. He said he "got lucky" because he found a way to break out of Google's sandbox relatively early and then spent the rest of the time identifying vulnerabilities that allowed him to remotely funnel code through the system.
PinkiePie said all three of the vulnerabilities resided in code that's native to Chrome. That meant it qualified for a $60,000 prize, the top reward for the Pwnium contest Google sponsored at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver. Members of the Chrome security team started analyzing the exploit and vulnerability details within minutes of the hack. Less than 24 hours later, Google put a fix into its distribution pipeline.
"Congratulations to PinkiePie (aka PwniePie) for a beautiful piece of work to close out the Pwnium competition!" an advisory accompanying the update for Windows, Mac, and Linux versions of Chrome stated. Referring to an exploit unleashed on Wednesday, it continued: "We also believe that both submissions are works of art and deserve wider sharing and recognition."
Additional details will be published once other WebKit packages that might also be vulnerable are patched.
Google is offering prizes of $60,000, $40,000 and $20,000 under the competition in an attempt to learn new strategies for fortifying Chrome against attacks that expose sensitive user data or take control of user machines. PinkiePie is only the second contestant to enter the contest. Both have demonstrated attacks that allowed them to take control of Chrome users' machines when they do nothing more than browse to an attack site.
On Wednesday, a Russian researcher named Sergey Glaznov bundled two vulnerabilities into his own remote code-execution attack. Less than 24 hours later, Google shipped an update fixing the holes. At the separate Pwn2Own contest a few feet away, a team of researchers successfully exploited Chrome on Wednesday.It's now almost certain that attack relied on Adobe Flash to break out of the safety perimeter.
The five vulnerabilities exposed during the third and final day of the contest are miniscule compared to the overall number of bugs Chrome's security team fixes each year. A member of the team said the value of Pwnium isn't in the number of bugs that come to light, but rather in the insights that come from watching how a reliable exploit is able to slip through carefully crafted defenses.
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