Global mobile phone sales totaled 269.1 million units in the first quarter of 2009, a 9.4 percent decrease from the first quarter of 2008, according to Gartner.

Smartphone sales surpassed 36.4 million units, a 12.7 percent increase from the same period last year.

Newspapers should be using social media more effectively to engage their readers and boost online revenue, according to a new survey by Gartner.

"In the wake of the economic challenges facing the U.S. newspaper industry, publishers are losing focus on the crucial imperative of how to capitalize on those consumers who remain loyal, engaged online and print readers," said Allen Weiner, research vice president at Gartner.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, global sales of smartphones reached 38.1 million units, an increase of 3.7 percent over the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Gartner.

Worldwide sales of smartphone for 2008 reached 139.3 million, up 13.9 percent compared to 2007.

Global mobile phone sales increased 6 percent in 2008 over the previous year while sales declined 4.6 percent in the fourth quarter due to the economic downturn, according to Gartner.

Worldwide mobile phone sales reached 1.22 billion in 2008, up from 1.15 billion in 2007.

The PC industry will see its sharpest unit decline in history, with shipments totaling 257 million units in 2009, an 11.9 percent decrease from 2008, according to Gartner.

Previously, PC units had their worst decline in 2001 when unit shipments shrank 3.2 percent.

"The PC industry is facing extraordinary conditions as the global economy continues to weaken, users stretch PC lifetimes and PC suppliers grow increasingly cautious," said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner.

Social media will be adopted by more than 60 percent of Fortune 1,000 companies with a Web site by 2010, according to research firm Gartner.

"A key benefit of establishing a community is the amount of information an organization can gain about its customer base, which can be used for short-and long-term customer relationships," said Adam Sarner, principal research analyst at Gartner.

Global sales of mobile phones hit close to 305 million units in the second quarter of 2008, an 11.8 percent increase over the second quarter of 2007, according to Gartner.

Sales of mobile phones in the saturated markets of Western Europe and North America had a slight rebound after a shaky start. Western Europe reached close to 42 million units and North America exceeded 44 million units in the second quarter of 2008.

Global PC shipments hit 71.9 million in the second quarter of 2008, a 16 percent increase over the same time period in 2007, according to Gartner.

PC shipments in the United States reached 16.5 million in the second quarter, a 4.2 percent increase from 2007. PC shipments rose during the quarter, despite the sliding economy. This was due to vendors cutting prices on PCs due to economic conditions.

Although it’s not their main purpose, Facebook and MySpace allow users to look at work-related subjects.  LinkedIn is more focused on this field.  But Gartner believes that, in the future, the business aspects of social networking will become a much bigger deal.

The number of PCs in use worldwide has surpassed 1 billion and is on track to reach 2 billion in 2014, according to research firm Gartner.

"Mature markets such as the United States, Western Europe, and Japan currently account for 58 percent of the world’s installed PCs, but these markets only account for 15 percent of the world’s population," said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner.

Gartner, an IT industry analyst firm, has published a report on what its analysts see as the top ten disruptive technologies for 2008 to 2012:

Vista is crap, according to a number of users; Google gives over 20,000 results for that exact phrase.  And thanks to Vista, two Gartner analysts have gone so far as to say that Windows is collapsing.

Like eating fruits and vegetables or building lighter cars, open-source technology seemed like the sort of good idea that would always go ignored.  But according to Gartner, elements of open-source technology will be present in 80 percent of all commercial software by the year 2012.

Phishing attacks in the U.S. rose in 2007 as $3.2 billion was lost to these attacks, according to a survey by Gartner.

The survey found that 3.6 million adults lost money in phishing attacks in the 12 months ending August 2007, as compared with 2.3 million who did so the previous year. Phishing attacks were more successful in 2007 than they were in the past two years. Of those who received phishing emails in 2007, 3.3 percent said they lost money because of the attack, compared with 2.3 percent who lost money in 2006, and 2.9 percent who did so in 2006.

Andy McCue at Silicon.com points to a Gartner report that, in many ways, reiterates what we’ve all been seeing.

Online retailers are accepting more forms of alternative payments from shoppers in an effort to ease fears about online fraud according to a new report from payments processor CyberSource.

Between 46 percent and 83 percent of the online populations of France, The United States and the United Kingdom use user- generated media at least monthly, according to Gartner.

PC shipments worldwide reached 61.1 million units in the second quarter of 2007. There was an 11.7 percent increase from the same period last year according to Gartner.

The global market for enterprise instant messaging will reach $688 million in 2010, up from $267 million in 2005 according to Gartner.

The firm estimates that IM will overtake voice, video and text chat for workers by 2011 and that 95 percent of workers in top global companies would make it their primary application for real-time communications by 2013.

E-mail will still have a role in communications because of its archiving capabilities. IM will be used along with e-mail instead of replacing it.

As publishers release more content, worldwide mobile gaming revenue will grow from $2.9 billion in 2006 to $9.6 billion in 2011, according to Gartner, Inc.

Virtual worlds are set to take off and by 2011, 80 percent of active Internet users will have a presence in a virtual world according to Gartner.

Gartner analysts are studying the buzz surrounding virtual worlds and the role businesses will have in using them. They recommend that clients research and experiment with virtual worlds but should refrain from pouring large sums of money into them until the environment is stable.