Stories by: Lexton Snol

In the same week that Apple released version 2 of its iPad tablet PC arch rival Microsoft is rumoured to be delaying its own version of Windows for tablets until late next year.

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) has been busy certifying hardware, with more than 9,000 consumer electronics products receiving its stamp of approval. Now its software certification is the spur to new growth in home media networks.

Markets for advanced charging technologies (including solar-powered handsets, solar chargers, wireless power units, fuel-cell battery charging products and public charging kiosks), worth about $1.5 billion in 2010, are forecast to grow at a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate of more than 86 percent to exceed $34 billion in 2015.

11 million tablets, led by Apple's iPad, are expected to be sold by the end of 2010. This is three times the estimate ABI Research made just six months ago.

Revenue from mobile video services is expected to top US$2 billion worldwide in 2013, according to the latest data from ABI Research.

Apple ranks fourth in the latest UK Experian Hitwise Hot 100 E-Retailer list, ahead of PC makers such as Dell and HP and even UK retail giant Tesco.

While Apple's iPad, a device belonging to the ultra-mobile device (UMD) category, is all the rage among consumers, enterprise suppliers are already preparing it for business use, even though UMDs add even more support and control complexity for IT managers currently trying to manage an expanding base of smartphone platforms such as the iPhone 4.

Linux-enabled smartphones, led by the success of Google's Android, will comprise 33 percent of the worldwide smartphone market by 2015. With more than 60,000 smartphones shipping per day, Android has catapulted ahead of other Linux mobile platforms.

Global shipments of Wi-Fi ICs have experienced an extraordinary growth in recent years, due to the increasing demands for wireless-enabled devices and enterprise level applications.

According to a report on US mobile operator network traffic, smartphones and connected computing devices will be the primary drivers of data traffic over the next five years. By 2014, says ABI Research, these device categories will generate more than 87 percent of total mobile network data traffic for US operators.