March 4, 2009
Gartner: PC sales, except netbooks, to slump in 2009
The Register
Timothy Prickett Morgan includes some stats from Gartner’s PC shipment projections for the year.
“Gartner is projecting that worldwide PC shipments will decline by 11.9 per cent to 257 million units, what the company has characterized as the ‘sharpest unit decline in history,’ considerably worse than the former top bummer, when PC sales contracted by 3.2 per cent in 2001, when the Western economies went into recession after the dot-com bust and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.”
Microsoft’s Hosted Applications Going Global
MSPmentor
Joe Panettieri writes that according to CNet, Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online suite, which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Office Live Meeting, will go global beginning April 1.
“ The move comes as many of North America’s managed services giants – from Ingram Micro Seismic to The Planet – formulate their global hosting and software as a service (SaaS) strategies. Ultimately, Microsoft must somehow compete against the new Google Apps Reseller program, Salesforce.com and a range of cloud services – without alienating partners.”
Apple debuts new iMacs, including cheaper 24-incher
ZD Net
Paul Miller offers details on Apple’s recently announced new 24-inch and 20-inch iMacs.
“Prices start at $1,199 for the 20-inch and $1,499 for the 24-inch. At the base level Apple offers a 20-incher with 2.66Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB HDD and GeForce 9400M graphics, the rest of the iMacs are 24-inch numbers with 4GB of RAM standard. In the high end Apple has 2.93GHz and 3.06GHz processor for $1,799 and $2,199, respectively, with GeForce GT 120 256MB and GeForce GT 130 512MB graphics. In between there’s a 24-incher for $1,199 with 9400M graphics, a 2.66GHz processor and a 640GB HDD. All models are available now.”
