The combo printer, copier and multifunctional product (MFP) shipments in EMEA in 2007 totaled 52.6-million units, up 4,3% says Gartner.

This year of growth was driven by demand for MFPs, which outsold printers. Colour-page devices grew again in EMEA (up 34%) but monochrome-page was the predominant office choice (up 18% and 85% share of the page market).

HP held Number 1 position while Lexmark lost market-share trying to pull out of the lower end of the market to focus on high-end workgroup space. Continue reading...

Cisco’s CEO makes it clear why vendors want to focus on India, Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

“This last year,” says John Chambers, “…emerging markets passed the developed markets for the first time in hundreds of years in GDP. In terms of purchasing power, the emerging markets are for the first time bigger than the developed markets. GDP growth in emerging markets is dwarfing that of the developed markets.

“And unlike what occurred a decade or two ago, Continue reading...

More than a year after the EC abandoned a similar effort, European Commissioner Charlie McCreevy, says (again) he wants to simplify copyright levies in the EU.

For example, levies on MP3 players range from 0 to 15 Euro depending on the country. According to EICTA, fees have more than tripled since 2001, when the EU passed its copyright law for the digital age. The law permitted copying of copyrighted works such as music for personal use, but allowed individual member states to set levels of levies Continue reading...

Asia leads the world in spam. While USA generated far more spam than any other single country, Europe for the first time surpasses USA--with Russia (8.3%), Turkey ( 3.8%) Italy (3.5%) Poland (3.4%) Germany (3.2%) Spain (3.1%) and UK (2.5%) all in the Top 12.

SophosLabs reveals a dramatic rise in the proportion of the world's spam messages come from compromised Russian computers. The country now accounts for 8.3% of the world's spam (or 1 in every 12 junk mails in our In Box).

"Responsible Continue reading...