Gizmodo: gartner

Acer Leapfrogs Dell to Number 2 Globally, But Dell and HP Still Rule the U.S.

Danny Allen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:59:30 EDT

Acer rightly cops a lot of stick about build-quality, but as predicted, they've passed Dell to second spot in worldwide sales. Separate research from Gartner and IDC also ranks Acer third in the U.S, ahead of Apple in fourth place.

Acer—which owns Gateway, eMachines, and Packard Bell—scored 11.1 perecent of U.S computer sales between July and September this year, according to IDC. Gartner puts that figure at 13.9 percent.

As you can see in the chart above, Garner also puts Dell in the top U.S spot with a 26.2 percent share. IDC disagrees, placing HP first (25.5 percent), Dell second (25 percent), Apple fourth (9.4 percent), and Toshiba fifth (8.1 percent).

The two research firms agree on the rankings of worldwide sales, though their numbers are slightly different.

What's also interesting is that total sales grew by as much as 3.9 percent compared to last year. That's pretty surprising when both predicted the down economy would make us all tech scrooges. Maybe Windows 7 has drummed up interest after all, what do you think? [Gartner Research via BusinessWire | IDC Research via Reuters] [Image Credit]

1 Billion Computers Now In Use, Not Necessarily Useful

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:05:00 EDT

According to Gartner there are now more than 1 billion computers in use on this little planet Earth. And not happy with that piece of trivia, they asked their Magic Eight Ball if the number was going to double in early 2014. The answer: "Probably." What I would like to know is: how many of that billion are Commodore 64s? Unfortunately, the rest of Gartner factoids didn't offer the answer, but they were almost as interesting.

• The "first world" accounts for 58% of the billion.
• In 2014, the first world would only account for 30% of the two billions.
• 180 million computers will be replaced this year.
• 35 million computers will be dumped into landfills "with no or little regard for their toxic content."

[Reuters]

Gartner Says iPhone Now OK for Biz; BlackBerry and Window Mobile Mess Selves

Wilson Rothman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:56:58 EDT

Today Gartner reversed its opinion on the iPhone: Before, it said the iPhone wasn't business-friendly, but today, the firm grants it "appliance-level" status, meaning that with the upcoming enterprise-friendly iPhone 2.0 update, it'll officially be safe enough—and functional enough—for hardcore suit-wearers.

We journalists tend to think of Gartner as a good place for stats and opinions, but IT honchos look to the company for guidance on how to spend their multimillion-dollar budgets. In this case, Gartner explains its decision in terms that IT buyers will appreciate:

"Appliance-level" status permits the iPhone to be used for PIM, e-mail, telephony and browsing applications. It also permits the device to be used for other dedicated functions where the software is supplied by a third party, functionality is kept to a restricted set, the software supplier offers support for a backup platform and IT development resources are not needed to program custom code locally residing on the device.

But this here's the deathblow, dealt by Gartner vice president and distinguished analyst Ken Dulaney:

"The iPhone will thus match up initially in several segments against its main smartphone competitors—BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60."

[Gartner]

Windows Vista Delayed Again?

Charlie White — Wed, 03 May 2006 09:00:55 EDT

It looks like Windows Vista might be delayed again, this time by at least three months—if you believe research group Gartner, Inc. Why is this happening? "Too complex," say the Gartner analysts. They're saying we'll see Vista sometime in the second quarter of next year. Yikes, that could be June, 2007?! Says Gartner:

"Microsoft still wants to get it out as soon as possible, but slipping from January to March is nowhere near as bad as slipping from shipping before the holidays to after the holidays."

So far, Microsoft hasn't had anything to say about this soothsaying prognostication from the Gartner guys. We'll get a better idea of what's really going on as soon as Beta 2 of Vista is released sometime between now and the end of June of this year.

Gartner claims Vista delay even longer [ars technica]