gartner

Symbian and Android will dominate the mobile operating system market by 2014, research firm Gartner said Friday.

Gartner expects that Symbian and Android together will account for 59.8 percent of the total worldwide mobile OS market by 2014, split almost equally--Symbian with 30.2 percent, and Android with 29.6 percent.

Android is already closing the gap with the market leader. By the end of 2010, Gartner says, Google's Android will sneak into second place behind Nokia-backed Symbian with 17.7 percent market share, compared to Symbian's 40.1 percent. At the end of 2009, Android OS … Read more

PC shipments in 2010 are likely to be healthy, but not quite as vigorous as earlier forecast, according to market researcher Gartner.

Worldwide PC shipments are forecast to hit 367.8 million this year, a nice jump from the 308.3 million shipped in 2009, according to a Gartner report released Tuesday.

The 19.2 percent gain comes courtesy of a rebound in the PC market over the first half of 2010.

But uncertainty in the U.S. and Western European economies could diminish results for the rest of the year. Gartner has trimmed its estimate for growth in second-half … Read more

IT spending is still expected to rise this year over 2009, but Gartner believes that European debt problems may put a damper on its previous expectations for growth.

The market researcher said Thursday it has trimmed its estimate for IT spending for 2010 to $3.35 trillion, a gain of 3.9 percent over last year's $3.23 trillion. That marks a lower forecast than the 5.3 percent rise Gartner projected in the first quarter. The company attributed the new outlook to the effects of the devaluation of the euro versus the U.S. dollar.

"The European … Read more

Gaming on cell phones has long promised to be an important revenue generator for mobile carriers and game developers, but it took quite awhile for it to drive real revenue in the U.S. But worldwide, especially in Asia, mobile gaming has been emerging as an important revenue generator for a number of years.

Last week, research firm Gartner predicted that worldwide mobile-game revenue will grow 19 percent, reaching $5.6 billion in 2010 with an expectation to more than double to $11.4 billion in 2014.

Mobile gaming is a very broad classification which also includes new and interesting … Read more

Mobile phone and smartphone sales are on a roll, according to figures released Wednesday by market researcher Gartner.

In the first quarter, customers worldwide bought 314.7 million mobile phones, a 17 percent increase year over year. Smartphones sales specifically jumped 48.7 percent from the year-ago quarter, as 54.3 million units flew off the shelves.

Demand within mature markets and lower prices are part of the reason for the double-digit gains, Gartner said.

For the quarter, the usual mobile phone makers topped the ranks, with Nokia in first place with a 35 percent market share, followed by Samsung, … Read more

Companies are not only aware of the number of enterprise architecture designs but will soon embrace their diversity, according to a new report from analyst firm Gartner.

Gartner analysts predict that 95 percent of companies will support multiple approaches to enterprise architecture (EA) by 2015 and that the majority of clients will need to support a mixture of more than one of these approaches based on their business needs.

The important thing to note is the realization that enterprises will have no choice but to blend these architecture types into one larger strategy. Gone are days of attempting to strictly … Read more

Apple's touch-screen iPad tablet has only been out for a few days. But a study has found that by 2015, the majority of kids under age 15 will be using computers that feature a touch-screen display.

According to market-research firm Gartner, the younger generation could lead the way in touch-screen computing. The firm said it believes about 50 percent of the computers that will be bought for kids aged 15 or younger in 2015 will feature a touch screen. In 2009, that figure stood at just 2 percent of PCs.

Gartner also predicts that the enterprise will see an … Read more

Like most tech sectors, the semiconductor industry had a rough start in 2009. But it improved as the year progressed and is eyeing a healthy recovery for 2010.

Chip revenue fell to $228.4 billion worldwide last year, a drop of 10.5 percent from 2008, according to Gartner's findings released Monday. That marked the first time the industry was hit with two annual sales declines in a row, according to Gartner. But with a rebound in the second half of 2009, semiconductor companies are eyeing a robust return to growth this year.

"After an unprecedented decline in … Read more

If human progress can be measured by the number of blades we've managed to fit on a single razor, it's clear we have arrived on a massive scale. Both Gillette and Schick will shortly have a five-blade razor on the market.

Certainly it's progress of some kind, but whether its utility outweighs its cost is another question (and one that Wall Street Journal columnist Neal Templin answers in the negative). It also leaves plenty of room for a one-bladed, disruptive innovator to steal a march on the Gillette/Schick arms race, as Jeff Stibel argues in Harvard … Read more