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.
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