ConsumerIT - For Europe's High Volume PC Retailers, Distributors & Builders

The WW WLAN market grows by 10% in 2010, reaching revenue totals of $4.4BN-- with growth of 9.1% and shipments increasing by 8.1% Q/Q in Q4 2010, according to In-Stat's WLAN market tracker.

Cisco remains the leading WLAN vander, with a 27% share of the market and increasing shipments by 8.1% in Q4 2010 when compared to Q3. Its total revenue for 2010 reaches $1.2BN (up by 31% from 2009).

Following in second place is Netgear, surpassing Technicolor with revenue for 2010 reaching $6.38m. The market also sees what In-Stat describes as "strong movement" from the likes of TP-Link and Aruba Networks-- 2 companies gaining market share and climbing up the analyst's ratings.

In-Stat's tracker covers equipment categories including SOHO routers, residential gateways, network adapters and standalone AP.

Go Q4 2010 Wifi Network Equipment Tracker

In 2 weeks' time, the US Treasury will auction $3m worth of supercars, including a Ferrari Ezio-- as part of $31m scammed by one Russell Cole from Best Buy over a number of years. Truly a retailer's nightmare, if there ever was one. How did he do it?

Back in 2003, Best Buy started online auctions to buy replacement parts-- with repair centres across the US issuing lists of needed parts for suppliers to submit blind bits for. Vendors with the lowest bids and parts could then "win" Best Buy's business. Overseeing the auctions was a third party, National Parts.

Through his company, Chip Factory (co-owned with his wife), and a Best Buy employee acting as insider, Cole submitted low, low bids to supply particular parts-- before wildly inflating the price for the same part. In one 2003 example, they bid $69 on a computer screen, before charging Best Buy $1699.

To make matters even worse, Chip Factory sent out faulty and destroyed items-- including parts smelling like "roach spray" or melted motherboards. Sometimes Chip Factory didn't even bother to put anything in the boxes they sent out to Best Buy.

The scam was eventually uncovered-- in 2009. By that time, Cole got himself a $2.65m home and his 11-strong auto stable, with models including a replica Cobra, a Bentley Continental GTC, a Porsche Cayenne and a Ferrari F430. Not that he'll get much enjoyment from them, what with his getting a 15 year charge for fraud and tax evasion charges.

Go Federal Jury Convicts Illinois Couple of Defrauding Best Buy

Gartner is slightly more optimistic in its predictions for 2011's W.W. IT spending, saying it will increase by 5.6% over 2010-- reaching a total of $3.6TR (2010 spending totals $3.4TR).

The analyst's previous reports forecast 5.1% growth for the year.

Why such an increase? The reason lies in the iPad and its ilk, with W.W. tablet spending set to reach highs of $29.4Bn in 2011 (up from 2010's $9.6Bn), with global tablet spending reports predicting growth at an annual rate of 52% through 2015.

Gartner also adjusts its predictions for 2011 W.w. computing growth-- from 7.5% to 9.5%.

The analyst says its predictions for a relatively stable outlook come despite the Middle East's politcial unrest (the territory accounts for 2% of W.W. IT spending after all). Less sure is the effect recent natural disasters left on Japan, which could go in 2 ways-- disrupting global electronics supply chains while impacting IT demand.

Go Gartner Says Media Tablets Help Drive W.W. IT Spending in 2011

Seagate describes its GoFlex Slim external HDD as the world's slimmest high performance, being only 9mm thick while still packing 320GB of storage.

It features USB 3.0 compatibility, 192-bit encryption and internal drive speeds of up to 7200 RPM in a damage resistant anodised design. Seagate also includes its Dashboard management tool for drive, backup and file encryption management.

The included software is compatible with both Macs and PCs, as is the drive itself.

Go Seagate GoFlex Slim