Posted 11/11/09 at 11:30:35 AM by Paul Lilly

One of the hottest trends in electronics right now is digital readers, but no matter how many companies jump on the bandwagon -- and several of them have -- prices will have to come down before the public embraces them, according to Gartner.

"At the moment it appears that $199 will be the lowest price for fully featured e-reading devices for the 2009 shopping season, but prices will need to drop closer to $99 to gain significant traction," Gartner noted.

At the same time, Gartner predicts e-reader "mania" in 2010, though getting to that point won't be without a few hurdles. The market research firm says a wider variety of retail channels is needed, and more publishers need to be seen buying into e-readers.

"It's the perfect time for a trial and to establish relationships with others in the value-chain -- that is service providers and digital warehouses -- that can be positioned to assist in a rapid deployment if the market takes off earlier than anticipated," Gartner added.

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Posted 11/10/09 at 07:06:45 AM by Paul Lilly

According to market research firm Gartner, worldwide software as a service (SaaS) revenue is on pace to reach $7.5 billion in 2009. That's a big turnaround from 2008 -- 17.7 percent, to be exact -- when revenue fell flat at $6.4 billion.

"The adoption of SaaS continues to grow and evolve within the enterprise application markets," said Sharon Mertz, research director at Gartner. "The composition of the worldwide SaaS landscape is evolving as vendors continue to extend regionally, increase penetration within existing accounts and ‘greenfield’ opportunities, and offer more-vertical-specific solutions as part of their service portfolio or through partners."

But that's not the only good news. Gartner says the market will show consistent growth at least through 2013, by which time SaaS revenue is expected to exceed $14 billion in the enterprise sector.

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Posted 10/07/09 at 08:43:47 AM by Paul Lilly

Google's open source Android platform will turn one year old later this month, and according to Gartner, the OS is about to hit a major growth spurt. While Android can be found on less than 2 percent of all smartphones today, Gartner predicts a seven-fold increase in global Android-based handsets by 2012.

That would put Android in second place, trailing only the Symbian OS, which today accounts for nearly half of all smartphones but is expected to drop to 39 percent in 2010, Gartner says.

Gartner acknowledges that T-Mobile's G1 -- the first Android-based smartphone -- was met with a mixed response among consumers, but the research firm believes Google's continued backing of Android and its focus on cloud computing capabilities will propel the platform to 14 percent of the smartphone market in just a couple of years.

"Google's other up-and-coming consumer and enterprise products should make [Android] a dominant platform," Ken Dulaney, VP of Gartner Research, told ComputerWorld in an interview.

Dulaney also predicts that there could be as many as 40 models of Android devices shipping in 2010.

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Posted 08/13/09 at 06:28:44 PM by Andy Salisbury

According to Gartner, Inc., a business technology research company, cell phone sales totaled 286.1 million units during the second quarter of this year – a 6.1 percent decrease over the second quarter of last year. But, smart phone sales picked up considerable steam surpassing 40 million units in sales, a 27 percent increase from the second quarter of last year.

“Despite the challenging market, some devices sold well as consumers who would usually have purchased standard midrange devices either cut back to less expensive handsets or moved up the range to get more features for their money,” stated Carolina Milanesi, a research director at Gartner. “Touchscreen and qwerty devices remained a major driver for replacement sales and benefited manufacturers with strong, touch-focused midtier devices. However, the decline in average selling price (ASP) accelerated in the first half of the year and particularly affected manufacturers that focus on midtier and low-end devices, where margins are already slim.”

A great deal of this is credited to Apple’s expansion to a larger number of countries, which has had a clear effect on volume. Still though, companies like Nokia with their N97 and Research In Motion (RIM) with their popular BlackBerry line continued to dominate the number one and two positions respectively.

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Posted 07/16/09 at 07:18:48 PM by Pulkit Chandna

After Intel leapt past the second-quarter results that analysts had predicted for it, the PC market as a whole has also posted better-than-expected second-quarter results. IDC said today that PC shipments only declined by 3.1% compared to the second quarter of 2008, whereas it expected them to plummet by 6.3%.

Even Gartner’s numbers confirmed that the PC market didn’t decline as sharply as was expected. Gartner had feared a very steep decline of 9.8%, but its crystal ball eventually turned out to be way off the mark. According to Gartner, PC shipments declined by 5%.

IDC expects the PC market to put its horror run behind by the end of 2009. "New product launches in the second half of the year combined with seasonal growth and greater economic confidence resulting from factors such as government stimulus, a more liquid housing market, relatively stable stock market and interest rates, and progress in the auto and financial industries, should support the expected return to growth by year-end,” said Loren Loverde, the program director for IDC's PC tracking unit.

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Posted 06/26/09 at 09:15:17 AM by Paul Lilly

Just a few days ago, iSuppli said worldwide PC shipments had declined in Q1 by the "largest historic rate" since the firm has been tracking the market. But after a rocky start, the PC market could be headed for a rebound by the end of the year, says market research analyst firm Gartner.

According to Gartner, the market is on pace to ship 274 million PCs worldwide by the end of 2009. That's still a 6 percent drop compared to last year's shipments of 292 million, but better than Gartner expected, who previously predicted a 9.2 percent decline.

Going forward, Gartner says shipments will pull an about-face in 2010 and predicts a 10.3 percent growth rate. However, the firm also warned that Windows 7, available today in pre-order form at a reduced rate, isn't likely to prove a game changer for PC sales.

"Unless Microsoft mounts a major marketing campaign in support of Windows 7, we think consumers will simply adopt the new operating system as they would normally buy new PCs and/or replace old ones," Gartner Research Director George Shiffler said in a statement.

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Posted 03/25/09 at 10:32:47 AM by Paul Lilly

If you thought things were already ugly for the PC market, brace yourself for it to get even worse in the coming months, says Gartner. According to the analyst firm, the PC supply chain will have "bottomed out" this quarter and then remain at a low level for several more quarters. Gartner says a sustainable recovery isn't expected until Q3 2010, but warns against getting too excited.

"We caution against interpreting such surges as signs of recovery, as full recovery is unlikely until demand in mature markets picks up," Gartner said in a note.

By the end of the year, the firm predicts PC sales will have fallen 11.9 percent to 257 million computers, marking the biggest fall ever. Desktop sales are expected to drop a whopping 32 percent from last year, with laptops on the rise by 9 percent.

Gartner also said that although PC vendors will see a boost in the third quarter as they prepare for back-to-school and holiday seasons, they could still be in for a "disastrous fourth quarter' if they over estimate the demand in mature markets.

Anyone else feel as though someone must have taken a tinkle in Gartner's Wheaties?

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Posted 01/15/09 at 06:38:36 PM by Pulkit Chandna

At the moment it is difficult to write about major financial developments in any industry without going on a frenzied hunt for words that can adequately describe the prevalent gloom. However, facts have a tongue of their own and at times don’t need to be underpinned by forceful words. Talking of facts, the previous quarter was the worst in the past six years in terms of PC sales.

PC sales data for the last quarter released by two of the leading market research firms, IDC and Gartner, paints a very grim picture. PC sales defied all expectations during the recently concluded holiday season and registered a trough. According to Gartner, PC sales only grew by 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter. But if data released by IDC is to be believed, then there was a depreciation of 0.4 percent.

Microsoft had predicted a growth of 10 percent to12 percent during the fourth quarter. The sharp drop in PC sales might have a huge impact on Microsoft’s own quarterly results.

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