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December 16th, 2009 by Lisa Francis

Daily News: 16/12

Computing.co.uk – Mobile device sales to bounce back in 2010
Worldwide sales of mobile devices in 2009 beat gloomy expectations despite a small decline and are forecast to increase by nine per cent next year, according to a Gartner report released yesterday.

BBC – Teletext close mid-December

The Teletext information service on analogue and digital television will close across the UK on 16 December. Limited services including holidays, racing and bookmaking and the subtitles on analogue channels will remain available.

IT PRO – Google unveils URL shrinking service

Google has unveiled its own URL shrinking system, dubbed Goo.gl. Link shortening systems cut down full-length URLs into much shorter ones so they’re easier to share, such as on sites like Twitter, which limit posts to 140 characters.

Total Telecom – Australia pushes ahead with controversial Internet filter
Australia said Tuesday it would push ahead with a mandatory China-style plan to filter the Internet, despite widespread criticism that it will strangle free speech and is doomed to fail.

CBR – Spammers target online Christmas shoppers
Cyber criminals are using the pre-Christmas online shopping rush to target users with seasonal spam message, new research from Symantec has revealed. The security firm’s State of Spam report for November found that during that month and October, spammers have been sending emails with references to online shopping and luxury goods.

Computer Weekly – Social media has changed online shopping forever, says report

The way consumers shop online changed over the past year as a result of the abundance of social networking applications enabling people to help each other make decisions. Web shoppers today are sharing information and their views on products and services through social networking before deciding what they buy.

September 3rd, 2009 by Chris Measures

The end of the PC?

Traditionally, hardware sales have been seen as the strongest indicator of the health of the IT economy. Back in gloomy March, Gartner predicted a whopping 12 per cent decline in PC sales in 2009 as businesses and consumers put off upgrades.

However recent figures from Intel are putting a rosier spin on things. It has raised its guidance for the rest of the year and believes the industry will sell as many computers in 2009 as 2008.

What this sunny prediction masks is a fundamental shift in the market. It used to be your computer choice was laptop or desktop. Now new categories like netbooks, tablets, ereaders, sub-notebooks and even mobile phones are the computing choice for a lot of people. Fine for chip makers like Intel, but a worry for traditional PC manufacturers as the lines blur between computing, mobile and consumer electronics. Sales this Christmas promise to be crucial – watch this space to see who the winners are.