VIP Customer Newsletter Issue 19

I was hoping the opening paragraph of this update would be lauding an England World Cup victory but alas it wasn’t to be. That said, after sitting back and being able to enjoy what ended up being one of the most dramatic finals of all time, I’m half-pleased that we weren’t involved, as I’m not sure my nerves could have handled it!

Onto business and the numbers have certainly picked up this last quarter, as you’d expect for the time of year. It reinforces my view that it doesn’t matter how tough times are, the British public will always find money down the back of the sofa to buy Christmas presents. November in particular, was a strong month for VIP, clocking in as our third largest ever, in terms of turnover. Things have dropped off in December however, no doubt in part, to the volume of industrial action taking place and the subsequent impact on deliveries. VIP has been navigating this as best we can, opening up alternative courier methods, limiting those where we anticipate delays and organising ad-hoc collections where we can, to keep the parcels flowing. Despite this, it has clearly played a part in reducing demand both from end-users and resellers, due to uncertainty around whether products will arrive in time for Christmas.

Pleasingly, economically things have stabilised a little since the (not so) minibudget fiasco I was reflecting on in my last update. The reversal of some of these measures, has led to a decrease in the rate of inflation in December, for the first time since August, as well as the Pound creeping back up above 1.2 dollars again. The latter of these in particular, is hugely important to our industry, where so much of what we buy is purchased in US dollars. A weakening Pound sees the end-to-end margin on products squeezed and makes it difficult for anyone to make any money. At 1.2 it’s still some way off where the market needs it to be but it’s certainly better than the almost 1-for-1 rate that was flirted with in September.

Profitability does continue to be an issue for so many businesses, and VIP is no exception, with our profit margins down by almost a quarter on recent years, and even down on ‘pre-covid’ years. In addition to a weak Pound, the cost of energy as well as rising interest rates, all play a part here, with businesses having to take real note below the ‘EBIT’ line on their P&L for the first time in years. As stated in previous updates, we appreciate it’s a tough climate at the moment, so do reach out if you’re struggling and we’ll always see what we can do to support you.

In other news, this quarter has seen several key product launches, with Intel’s 13th Gen CPUs, Nvidia’s 40 series GPUs and AMD RX7000 series GPUs all being released, as well as much stronger corresponding motherboard availability for AMD’s lateSeptember 7000 series CPU launch. The effect of all of these will continue into the first quarter of 2023, with many of the more affordable options from the entry to mid-tier of the respective stacks, coming to market.

Internally, we’ve also had many activities going on over the past few months. Firstly October & November saw most of our sales teams, taking part in a Microsoft Windows Ibiza promotion, with our etail & SI account managers eventually crowned the victors, bagging themselves an all-expenses paid trip to the Spanish island. Those of you who saw our socials will have seen how fantastic the office looked for the launch. November and December also saw the return of The Great VIP Bake Off, with graphic designer Fatima ultimately named the champion and netting a cash prize for her efforts. We also launched the first round of this year’s VIP FIFA FA Cup, with the draw taking place early in December and all first-round ties needing to be completed by Christmas.

Lastly, and most importantly, our charitable donations from days such as Halloween and Christmas Jumper day, meant we were able to continue our support for our local charity partner, Warrington Youth Zone, handing

over three heaped trolleys of food and toys in December, ready for Christmas.

Lastly, VIP will be attending the upcoming CES event in Las Vegas next month. In addition to meeting up with a number of our key partners out there, we will also be looking at additional opportunities and emerging technology we can bring to the UK market. If there’s any particular products you’d like to see supplied by VIP, then please do get in touch and share with us. It’s always better to get a steer from our loyal customers on how we can better support and service their business.

I’d like to thank you, as always, for taking the time to read this update and want to wish season’s greetings and a happy new year, to each and every one of you. I hope you get a well-deserved break and I look forward to, what I am sure will be, a prosperous 2023 working with you.

Sales Director

The Windows 11 2022 Update is Here!

The first major update to Windows 11 is here and it builds upon some of the best elements that came with the OS at launch, while focusing on innovation to make your everyday easier. The update focuses on five key areas, namely:

• Making the PC easier and safe to use for everyone.

• Empowering people to be more productive.

• Making Windows the best place to connect, create and play.

• Delivering added security, management and flexibility to the workplace.

• Delivering continuous Windows innovation and value.

Windows 11 is now easier and safer to use for everyone.

The new Windows 11 2022 update removes barriers and helps people to participate and connect with the world around them by delivering a new set of accessibility

features. Embracing the disability motto “nothing about us without us”, the team responsible for developing accessibility experiences for Windows 11 was predominantly composed of people with disabilities, using their lived experiences to guide the design of the solutions. Some of the highlights from this update include:

• System wide live captions that automatically generate captions from any form of audio content on Windows 111.

• Voice access1, which gives users the ability to control your PC and author text using only their voice.

• Natural Voices for Narrator, which creates a more pleasant-sounding audio experience, by mirroring natural speech more closely, to assist in reading or browsing the web.

The Windows 11 2022 update alleviates concerns of online safety, data privacy and security. The introduction of Smart App control2 prevents untrusted or unsigned applications, script files and malicious macros from running on Windows 11.

Windows 11 empowers people to be more productive.

In addition to performance and battery optimisations, this update introduces a new Focus feature and enhancements to Snap layouts, that helps users be their most productive selves. Focus sessions have been introduced to help minimise distractions by turning on Do Not Disturb, which silences notifications and turns off taskbar badges.

Since their introduction with Windows 11, Snap layouts, have allowed users to easily optimise their view when they have more than one document or app open at a time. The new update brings more utility and versatility to the feature, with better touch navigation and the ability to snap multiple browser tabs in Microsoft Edge.

Windows 11 is the best place to connect, create and play.

To enhance how Windows 11 users connect, play and express themselves, the Windows 11 2022 update brings in new creator tools, Windows Studio Effects, additional gaming features and updates to the Microsoft Store Experience.

The new Windows Studio visual and audio effects use advanced AI to help users look and sound their best on conference calls.

• Voice Focus helps filter out background noise.

• Background Blur ensures only you are seen.

• Automatic Framing makes sure the camera stays on you when you move.

For creators, Clipchamp has been made an inbox app to Windows 11 to make video editing fun and simple thanks to its templates, effects and useability.

For gamers, this update not only comes with latency-reducing performance optimisations but also unlocks features like Auto HDR and Variable Refresh Rate for windowed games. Additionally, the Amazon Appstore Preview has been expanded to international markets, bringing 20,000 Android™ apps and games to Windows 11 devices that meet the requirements.

Windows 11 delivers added security, management, and flexibility to the workplace.

The new Windows 11 2022 update brings in new critically important security features and management tools for

organisations as well. Smart App Control is valuable to organisations who aren’t using modern device management tools by predicting the safety of applications in real-time before they run on your devices. Other notable features include:

• The new Microsoft Defender SmartScreen, which identifies when people are entering their Microsoft credentials into a malicious application or hacked website and alerts them.

• Windows Hello for Business has a new optional presence sensing feature that will log users out of a system when they leave, and securely log them in once they return.

Clipchamp in Windows 11

Windows 11 continues to deliver innovation and value.

The Windows Update experience has been improved, and is now carbon aware, making it easier for your devices to reduce carbon emissions. When devices are plugged in, turned on, connected to the Internet and regional carbon intensity data is available, Windows Update will schedule installations at specific times of the day when doing so may result in

lower carbon emissions because a higher proportion of electricity is coming from lower-carbon sources on the electric grid.

Additionally, as part of the more frequent addition of features to Windows 11, the following have been added/augmented in Windows 11. Smart

• Enhancements to File Explorer, Tabs have been added to File Explorer to help you organise your File Explorer sessions like you do in Microsoft Edge. The new homepage in File Explorer gives you quick access to your favourite and recent files, so you can pin important files for quick and easy access.

• Photos app: In an update to the Photos app in Windows 11, a new photo management experience has been introduced, bringing with it a gorgeous gallery, simplifying browsing, finding, management and consumption of your collection of photos. It also allows users to easily backup their photos with OneDrive and enjoy powerful

experiences on Windows devices while offering a delightful “Memories” experience.

• Suggested Actions on Copy: Copy phone numbers, future dates and get suggested actions such as making a call with Teams or Skype or adding an event in the Calendar app.

• Taskbar Overflow: Taskbar will offer an entry point to an overflow menu that allows you to view all your overflowed apps in one space.

• Share to more devices: Discover and share to more devices including desktops using nearby share.

Tabs In File Explorer

QHD RESOLUTION

With 2560 x 1440 resolution, Quad HD (QHD) offers superior picture quality and sharp imagery that reveals the finest details. The widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio provides plenty of space to spread out and work, plus allows you to enjoy games or movies in their original size.

VA PANEL

VA Panels (Vertical Alignment) display deeper blacks and a high contrast for extra vivid and bright images.

240HZ REFRESH RATE

240Hz completely unleashes top end GPUs, bringing unprecedented fluidity to the picture on your screen. With every detail brought sharply into focus and every movement shown with crystal clarity, feel your reactions become one with the action and elevate your game.

1MS RESPONSE TIME GTG

- GREY-TO-GREY GtG stands for Grey-ToGrey and represents how long it takes for one pixel to change between one gray level to the next. In gaming, every millisecond counts and can be the differentiator between hitting or missing a shot. Fast response time also eliminates ghosting and motion blur.

VESA CERTIFIED DISPLAYHDR™ 400

Even the lowest level of High Dynamic Range (HDR) feature poses a significant upgrade to common monitors. The peak luminance of 400 cd/ m² enables your display to hone the picture quality with a manifold colour spectrum and more diverse contrast. The VESAcertificate ensures richness of detail and realistic portrayals of game and film worlds.

6 GAMES MODE

Tailor your display to the game with a click of a button. Switch settings between in-built presets for FPS, racing, or RTS games, or customise your own ideal conditions and save them. The AOC Settings KeyPad makes switching profiles or adjusting features quick and easy.

Philips Momentum M3000

Ideal All-Around Display For Intense PC Games

PC gamers will surely enjoy the advantage these models provide in any gameplay situation, giving them the upper hand at any moment.

All models in the M3000 series feature:

• 165Hz refresh rates (Reacheable under HDMI and DisplayPort connector).

• 1ms (MPRT) fast response for ultra-

Philips Momentum M5000

Go For The Bold Choice

PC and console gamers that are searching for powerful speed in a minimalistic look with a twist can rest assured: the Philips Momentum M5000 is the answer to their requests. This Philips

gaming series now delivers crystal-clear visuals with QHD resolution (2560 x 1440 pixels), a full range of 1.07 billion colours available, Ultra Wide-Color and SmartImage HDR.

smooth, brilliant images.

• AMD FreeSync™ delivers tear free, stutter free and fluid gaming while the low input lag reduces time delay between devices to monitor.

For more info CLICK HERE!

GRAPHICS CARDS

We’ve seen new VGA releases from both NVIDIA and AMD over the last few months. NVIDIA hit first with the launch of its latest flagship product, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX® 4090 on 12th October. This high-end GPU is packing 16,384 CUDA Cores, 1,321 TensorTFLOPs, 191 RT-TFLOPs, and 83 Shader-TFLOPs of power, supported by 24GB of G6X VRAM. It followed shortly after with the next product in the NVIDIA® GeForce RTX® 40 Series, the RTX® 4080. Not quite

as powerful as the 4090, this ultra-fast graphics card packs in 9,728 CUDA cores, 2.51GHz Boost clock and 16GB GDDR6X memory with a max display resolution of 4K at 240Hz or 8K at 60Hz with DSC.

AMD hit back with the launch of their latest flagship graphics series on the 13th December, the AMD Radeon™ RX 7000 Series, which is built on the ground-breaking AMD RDNA™ 3 architecture with the world’s first chiplet gaming GPU. The first 2 products in

the series are the AMD Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX and the 7900 XT, with both delivering nextgeneration performance, visuals, and efficiency at 4K and beyond. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX boasts 96 compute units, 96 Ray Accelerators, 2300 MHz game frequency, 96MB Infinity cache and 24 GB GDDR6 memory whilst the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT boasts 84 compute units, 84 Ray Accelerators, 2000 MHz game frequency, 80 MB Infinity cache and 20 GB GDDR6 memory.

motherboards MOTHERBOARDS

New CPU releases from Intel and AMD this quarter has also given us an influx of new motherboards, designed to get peak performance from the latest technologies in the CPUs.

The Z790 chipset has access to the most amount of PCI-E lanes, front and rear USB ports and more, making it the best chipset for users wanting the most amount of features and also allow you to overclock both the CPU and RAM.

deliver fast “Zen 4” performance of

Ryzen™ 7000 Series processors and features dual-channel DDR5 memory, AMD EXPO™ technology and PCIe® 5.0 support for NVMes on select motherboards. As VIP’s board partners; the latest models from ASUS, Gigabyte and MSI are available from your account manager. ASUS

The Intel Z790 chipset is the flagship chipset for 13th Gen Intel® Core™ desktop processors. Z790 motherboards support all 13th and 12th gen CPUs.

Big News for Smart Video

WD PURPLETM PRO 22TB* HDD

Advanced Storage for Smart Video Solutions

The WD Purple™ Pro 22TB* HDD with OptiNAND™ technology delivers massive capacity in an enterpriseclass drive for smart video systems to enable datadriven outcomes. These reliable drives help deliver a smarter world by providing storage capabilities to a new generation of smart video systems. Learn more at westerndigital.com.

The latest next-gen graphics cards and processors require more power, so PSUs have had to evolve to keep pace. We’re now seeing features such as ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 on the latest generation of PSUs at VIP. MSI’s

CASES

Clean and cool, CORSAIR’s new 4000D and 5000D Airflow mid-tower ATX cases provide outstanding system airflow in a stylish package.

Both models feature a highairflow front panel and are equipped with two CORSAIR AirGuide 120mm fans that utilise anti-vortex vanes to concentrate airflow and enhance cooling. The front panels also feature a USB 3.1

Type-C Port, USB 3.0 ports, and a combination audio/ microphone jack.

Their spacious interiors allow these cases to fit plenty of cooling and storage options. Able to hold 2x 2.5in SSDs (4x for the 5000D) and 2x 3.5in HDDs, there is ample room for expansion. Both can hold up to 4x 140mm cooling fans, however, the 4000D can fit up to a 360mm radiator

in front and a 280mm in the roof, while the 5000D can fit up to a 360mm in front or side and a 360mm push/pull in the roof.

Assembling a clean-looking build is easier than ever; users can route major cables through a single channel, with a roomy 25mm of space behind the motherboard.

HARDWARE TRENDS & THE FUTURE

2022 is almost at an end, and we wanted to take a look at some of the trends that we’ve seen so far and how they might affect PC hardware for businesses and consumers in 2023 and beyond.

There have been a lot of factors, this year, that have impacted businesses across the board. With soaring energy costs and levels of inflation unseen in over a decade, many have had to deal with relatively sudden downturns especially compared to the last 2 years. Using research

conducted by Spiceworks Ziff Davis (SWZD) and the International Data Corporation (IDC) respectively, we’ll be discussing some of the things we think are important to keep in mind, as we head into 2023.

While both the IDC & SWZD anticipate a decline in consumer and business spending on PC hardware and further economic contractions are expected in 2023, PC shipments are expected to “remain above pre-pandemic levels”.

According to Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for IDC

Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers, “longterm demand will be driven by a slow economic recovery combined with an enterprise hardware refresh as support for Windows 10 nears its end. Educational deployments and hybrid work are also expected to become a mainstay driving additional volumes.” Omdia, a London-based research firm, has a more optimistic outlook that predicts that should the war in Ukraine end relatively soon, the PC notebook market could return to growth as early as 2023.

slowdowns, 51% of the surveyed organisations plan to increase IT budgets in 2023 with computer hardware making up ~30% of those budgets. While inflation does play a role in the increased budgets, the move to hybrid working is still pushing demand for laptops and other home office components, albeit at a reduced level compared to 2021.

Additionally, forecasts from the IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker®, growth for PC hardware in general should return to

the market by 2024. As we mentioned earlier on, the trend towards work from home has been and will continue to be beneficial to notebooks, with the 2022 State of IT report showing a nearly even split between desktops (40%) and notebooks (40%) as the primary computing device in the workplace. The situation is starker in Europe, where only 35% reported a desktop as their primary computing device in the workplace. This will see notebooks, that are lightweight and powerful, take a more prominent position in the market.

This perspective from the IDC is supported by the 2023 State of IT report from SWZD that surveyed over 1400 IT professionals from all over the world. That stated that while over 80% of companies are concerned about a recession and roughly 50% of organisations are taking precautionary measures in anticipation of economic

Products like the GeoBook 540 14.1″ notebook or the GeoFlex 340 14.1″ notebook, are ideally suited to meet this need. Both feature Intel processors and Intel UHD Graphics, with the former featuring an Intel® Core™ i5 10210U processor and 8GB of LPDDR4 memory, while the latter is sporting an Intel® Core™ i3-10110U and 4GB of LPDDR4 memory. There are a few other differences between the machines, like the fingerprint reader and TN panel on the GeoBook aren’t on the GeoFlex, which is instead equipped with a touchscreen and IPS panel.

View full article HERE

Talk to us, we’d like to collaborate with you!

To support our aim to ‘help your business grow’, we would like to find out what is important to you and how VIP UK can support your business in 2022.Speak to your account manager at your earliest convenience so we can collaborate for mutual success.

If it’s been a while since w e last spoke to you, there’s no better time to speak to us as we have lots of deals available to help you buy smarter.