Comparison website Kelkoo confirms the declining high street shopping trend, reporting online sales across Europe grow by 18% Y-o-Y in 2011 to total €200.52 billion, before reaching growing by 16% to reach €232.76BN in 2012.

In comparison the analyst says total European retail for 2011 is up by just 1.8% Y-o-Y. E-commerce represents 7.8% of total 2011 retail sales across Europe, and could grow to 8.8% by 2012.

"Inevitably, this will have an ongoing negative impact on the high street, an issue Continue reading...

According to IHS iSuppli the market for cache SSDs will "explode" within the next few years, as growing ultrabook sales should boost demand from 881000 units in 2011 to 25.7 million in 2012.

A cache SSD looks like a regular SSD consisting entirely of NAND flash. It is independent storage but runs alongside a separate HDD to allow for faster boot-up times and improved performance. The technology first hit the market in 2011 and is a cheaper means for enhancing system performance-- a cache SSD pa Continue reading...

Gartner reports EMEA PC shipments total 28.9M units in Q4 2011-- a -9.6% Y-o-Y decline, the fourth consecutive quarter of decline for the region.

As a result, Gartner estimates year-end 2011 EMEA PC shipments will be down by 7.2% from 2010, as a continually uncertain economic environment squeezes spending on PCs.

On a global basis, both consumer and professional PC markets remain weak in mature markets such as W. Europe, resulting in overall negative growth. Gartner reports WW Q4 2011 PC shipments de Continue reading...

IBM takes a close look at current technology market trends and releases Next 5 in 5 2011--  a yearly forecast collection from the company. Science fiction or science fact? Guess we'll be able to tell when the year 2016 comes along...

On top of this year's forecast is Energy: People power will come to life-- according to IBM, the year 2016 will have us harnessing kinetic energy (the energy generated from motion) to power "anything from your house to your city." How does one collect kinetic energy? IBM is testing means to collect ocean wave energy (using special bouys).

Global tablet shipments grow by 264.5% Y-o-Y (and 23.9% Q-o-Q) to reach 18.1M units in Q3 2011 according to IDC-- slightly lower than earlier forecasts from the analyst of shipments reaching 19.2M units.

However IDC still predicts "strong demand" for Q4 2011 and the holiday season, increasing 2011 WW shipment forecasts to 63.3M units (up from previous projections of 62.5M) due to new challengers shaking up the tablet battlefield.

Apple still leads the tablet market, even if it loses market share-- Continue reading...

According to IHS iSuppli, the Thailand floodings will disrupt the global PC supply chain further-- causing a 3.8M unit shipment shortfall in Q1 2012 due to HDD shortages.

As a result, the analyst revises 2012 forecasts and now says WW PC shipments will grow by only 6.8% Y-o-Y to total 376M units (down from previous estimates of 399M units and 9.5% Y-o-Y growth).

Q1 2012 shipments will be hit badly, reaching 84.2M with a -11.6% Q-o-Q decline (from 95.3M units in Q4 2011)-- a far sharper decrease Continue reading...

IHS iSuppli says the Amazon Kindle is "already shaking up the market"-- predicting the Amazon tablet will beat the competition to take 2nd place in the global Q4 2011 tablet market.

The iPad, of course, will remain firmly entrenched in 1st place.

The analyst estimates Amazon will ship 3.9M Kindle Fire tablets in Q4 2011, taking over 13.8% of global tablet shipments. The total exceeds Samsung (1.8M units with 4.8% share) and is only 2nd to Apple (18.6M units with 65.6% share).

The Kindle Fire Continue reading...

Global PC shipments reach 90.4M units in Q3 2011, growing by just 2.6% Y-o-Y (from 88.1M in Q3 2010) according to IHS iSuppli-- lower than earlier forecasts from the analyst of 6.8% Y-o-Y growth.

"The attainment of any growth at all represents a victory for the market," iSuppli says as it tries to find the silver lining at a time of "weak consumer sales and a strong challenge from alternative platforms [tablets]."

Europe remains a struggling market as economic conditions in both Eurozone and Continue reading...