On CE - For Dealers, Distributors and OEMs of Consumer Electronics throughout EMEA

Worldwide PC shipments may total 293 million units in 2008 (up 10.9%) but Gartner if global economic “headwinds” could push growth down to single digits. 

Mobile PCs exhibit strong momentum, emerging-market growth is robust, and desk-based PC replacements start to stir. However, a deepening U.S. recession, possibility of a sharp slowdown in China's economy after the Beijing Olympics, and higher prices of oil mean global PC shipments face increasing economic “headwinds." 

Gartner says mobile PC shipments will gain additional momentum as "affordable" mobile PCs (price points once thought impossible for mobile PCs) become more widely available. 

Go Worldwide PC Market Scenarios, 1Q08

Denmark, Finland, Netherlands and Sweden are world leaders in broadband with penetration rates over 30% by end of 2007, says the European Commission’s 13th Progress Report on the Single Telecoms Market.

UK, Belgium, Luxembourg and France also had penetration rates higher than US (22.1%) in July 2007. 19 million broadband lines were added in the EU in 2007 (more than 50,000 households every day). The broadband sector generated revenues of € 62 billion and Europe’s overall penetration reached 20%.

Bill Gates says he expects the next decade to bring even greater technological leaps than the past 10 years, especially in the ways people interact with computers: speech-recognition, tablets that recognize handwriting, and touch-screens.

Gates also sees rapid changes in media as TV increasingly becomes a targeted medium, where viewers can select niche content for news, sports and entertainment. "TV will be based on the Internet; it will be an utterly different thing," declares Bill.

No more will you see Everex's Linux-based PC in WalMart stores. The customer response to the US$199 Everex TC2502 Green gPC desktop was not as high as expected, says the store.

Wal-Mart was supposed to continue to sell the Everex PC through its Web site. But if you look, the web says “Not available online.”

Go Climbing Down Everex