To effectively tackle the energy issue, the IT industry needs to 'soften' up and think 'thin', according to an analyst.
Ian Brown, senior analyst at Ovum, had noted in a January commentary that the electronics industry "needs to encourage 'reuse' and longer product lifecycles" in order to properly address the energy issue. The industry needs to work on software, and deliver on modularity so that the thin client model would be more feasible, he said.
"Software-as-a-service (SaaS), personal productivity tools and storage provided via the Web threaten to break the stranglehold of the fat-client PC," said Brown.
In a recent e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia, Brown explained that SaaS is proving to be a viable model, with "the potential to offer vendors and providers of business applications the annuity-based pricing model that enterprise licenses have offered them for so long". Personal productivity tools, however, are still largely "wedded" to the fat-client though there are alternatives such as OpenOffice.
"But who's to say that as experience with Web-based tools grows, the expectation that personal productivity tools will also be available as a service won't also take root?" he added.
Thin client computing is also gaining acceptance in the enterprise, said Brown. The need to reduce power consumption in offices is a key driver to mainstream adoption of thin clients. A case in example, he added, was the U.K. government's decision to replace PCs with thin clients.
In about five to seven years' time, the 'typical' business PC would be either a thin client or laptop, said Brown. The 'typical' home set-up would be a thin notebook--possibly with solid state storage--attached wirelessly to the home entertainment server.
Yet, Brown hinted there is too much complexity in modular systems today. "In my ideal world, adding more memory would be as easy as replacing the SD card in my camera; [and] upgrading the processor, like changing the SIM card in my phone," he said.
A spokesperson from environmental body Greenpeace also recently criticized hardware manufacturers, saying that "products are not built to be upgraded".
Vendors step up recycling momentum
While it is debatable whether or not modularity conflicts with a vendor's need to profit by producing newer, faster or better machines, companies such as Hewlett-Packard are stepping up on their reuse and recycling efforts.
HP, which has made known its goal to reuse and recycle two billion pounds of electronic products and supplies by end 2010, announced Monday that its recycling volume in the Asia-Pacific regions have grown by nearly 62 percent year-on-year.
In the case of IBM, some 49,000 metric tons of IT products and product waste were processed in 2006. About 51 percent of the volume was recycled, 32 percent was resold and 9 percent was reused.
Alex Tay, IBM's services product line manager in Southeast Asia, told ZDNet Asia in an e-mail that waste management hierarchy is: reduction; reuse; recycle; chemical or physical treatment; and landfill.
Big Blue, Singapore-based Tay noted, has been factoring in product upgradeability in a bid to extend product lifecycles, as part of its Product Stewardship program established in 1991. Other objectives under the program include potential for recycling and safety disposal at the end of the product lifecycle, and energy efficiency.
"Even when equipment may have come to the end of its usefulness for one client, it may actually be perfectly good for another client," said Tay.
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