The line between a tablet device, a laptop and a desktop computer continues to blur.  Recent research now includes tablet devices in the PC family and by doing so, positions Apple to own the market.  Recent data suggests Apple [with iPad sales] will surpass HP as the largest PC supplier in the world by the middle of  2012.

Source: TechCrunch

Digitimes is reporting that the estimated shipments for smartphones globally will reach 462 million units, an increase of 60% over the 288 million units shipped in 2010.

Notably, Apple is forecast to overtake Nokia as the #1 smartphone vendor, shipping 86.4 million units (82% increase from 2010). Nokia, meanwhile, will drop from over 100 million units to 74.4 (25.8% decrease).

Samsung, HTC, and LG are experiencing tremendous growth on the back of their Android implementations.

Strong growth in China is powering new companies like Huawei and ZTE to triple digit growth.

The overall message is clear – smartphones are quickly becoming the standard for mobile computing. You can read the full article here.

The revolution in mobile computing has directed many internet surfers to use lightweight portable devices, such as tablets and smartphones, as their method of browsing the internet. In a recent study for non-computer internet browsing, ComScore announced that Apple’s iPad accounted for 89% of world wide tablet traffic in May, easily besting android based tablets and other slates. (Non-computer means anything besides a laptop, Netbook, or desktop.)

In the U.S., the iPad represented 21.8% of all non-computer traffic, while Android accounted for over 0.6%. The main factor in numbers should be credited to Apple’s 25 million iPads sold since their debut in 2010. This gave the iPad the edge as they held 87% market share in 2010, according to research firm IDC. But Gartner said it believes the iPad will own a decreased 68.7% of the market in 2011, where Android devices will only have 19.9% share this year.

According to ComScore, 91.9% of iPad page views came through Wi-Fi access, compared with 8.1% over mobile networks. On the other hand, 65.2% of Android tablet page views came through Wi-Fi access, while 34.8% were over mobile networks.

Source: CNET

Research firm Gartner has cut their forecast for PC shipments in 2011 from 15.9% growth year over year to 10.5% growth. The main reason is, in short, the iPad. “We expect growing consumer enthusiasm for mobile PC alternatives, such as the iPad and other media tablets, to dramatically slow home mobile PC sales, especially in mature markets,” said George Shiffler, research director at Gartner. “We once thought that mobile PC growth would continue to be sustained by consumers buying second and third mobile PCs as personal devices. However, we now believe that consumers are not only likely to forgo additional mobile PC buys but are also likely to extend the lifetimes of the mobile PCs they retain as they adopt media tablets and other mobile PC alternatives as their primary mobile device. Overall, we now expect home mobile PCs to average less than 10 percent annual growth in mature markets from 2011 through 2015.”

You can read the entire article here.

PC manufacturers around the globe are starting to see large declines in their desktop PC sales, creating what is being referred to as a “bifurcated market” of corporate and home device usage. The iPad is getting credit for adding a new variable to home computer usage with its small form factor and large array of applications for movies, games, document publishing, and more which is filling the computing need of many personal users. HP PC sales dropped 23 percent and Dell consumer sales dropped 7.5. The 4.69 million iPads sold last quarter are even making an impact in software sales with Microsoft Windows numbers dropping 4.4 percent. The home PC market is transforming itself into smaller and more mobile devices with many of the big PC manufacturers following Apple’s lead and beginning to produce their own devices.

You can read the full article here.

Research firm iSuppli (IHS) has released their projections for growth in the mobile application space, and the numbers are impressive. They predict that Apple will command over 75% of the total market, while overall revenue of the four major application stores (run by Apple, Google, Nokia, and Palm, respectively) will jump 77% to 3.8 billion in 2011.

“With consumers continuing to show robust, unflagging interest in downloading games and other applications to devices like smart phones and tablets, collective revenues from the four stores will climb sharply this year,” said Jack Kent, analyst, mobile media, for IHS.

Perhaps more impressive than any individual company’s share, is the total amount of downloads projected. IHS estimates that the total number of applications downloaded will jump from 9.5 billion in 2010 to 18.1 billion in 2011, and by 2014 the number is estimated to be 33billion.

What does this mean for our clients?
Clearly, the market for mobile applications is growing at an enormous rate. Of course, projections are just that – projections. Even accounting for some margin of error, however, there is clearly still a great appetite by consumers for mobile applications.

You can read the full article here.