The rate of global software piracy rose to 43 percent in 2009, a two percent increase from 2008 driven primarily by expanding PC sales in emerging markets, according to the seventh annual Business Software Alliance/IDC Global Software Piracy Study.

"Software theft exceeded $51 billion in commercial value in 2009. The public and private sectors need to join forces to more effectively combat an epidemic that stifles innovation and impairs economies on a global scale," said BSA President and CEO Robert Holleyman.

The global mobile phone market grew 21.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010, a strong rebound over the first quarter of 2009, according to the latest report from IDC.

Vendors shipped 294.9 million units in the first quarter of 2010 compared to 242.4 million units a year earlier.

Smartphones and a recovering traditional mobile phone category helped the market avoid a repeat of Q109, when the market dove 16.6 percent during the recession.

By 2013, IDC estimates the global shipments of smartphones will surpass 390 million units, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.9 percent for the 2009-2013 forecast period.

The smartphone market has a constantly shifting mobile operating system (OS) landscape. In a market once ruled by BlackBerry, Symbian, and Windows Mobile, new players with open standards (Android) and intuitive design and navigation (Mac OS X and webOS) have received strong user and handset vendor interest.

The global PC market saw double-digit growth in the fourth quarter, led by strong U.S. holiday sales of low-cost netbooks, according to the latest report by IDC.

The global mobile phone market saw slight growth in the third quarter, according to IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

Year-on-year growth remained negative, but improved from the first half of 2009. Mobile shipments totaled 287.1 million units worldwide in Q3, down from 6 percent from the previous year, but up 5.6 percent from the second quarter.

The expected growth rate for IT employment of 3 percent per year is more than three times the rate of growth of total employment and a solid indicator that investing in IT will contribute to economic recovery and growth, according to a new study by Microsoft and IDC.

Global spending on Internet advertising declined for the second consecutive quarter, by 5 percent, to $13.9 billion from $14.7 billion in the same quarter a year ago, according to a new report from IDC.

All global regions posted losses, except for the Asia/Pacific region and Japan, which saw slight gains in the second quarter. U.S. online ad spending also dropped for the second quarter in a row, by 7 percent year- over- year, to $6.2 billion from $6.6 billion.

The global mobile phone market saw another quarter of year-over-year decline in the second quarter of 2009, shipping a total of 269.6 million units, down 10.8 percent from 302.2 million units in 2Q08, according to IDC.

The second quarter results are an improvement from the 17.2 percent decrease in the first quarter, but challenges from the economic crisis remain a factor to watch.