Global newspaper sales were up 2.1% in 2004, World Association of Newspapers (WAN) says. Global newspaper sales hit a new daily high of 395 mln in 2004. The five largest markets are China, with 93.5 mln copies sold daily; India (78.8 mln); Japan (70.4 mln); the United States (48.3 mln); and Germany (22.1 mln). The audience for newspaper websites grew 32% in 2004, and 350% over five years from a very low base. 2004 saw the best advertising performance in four years, with a revenue increase of 5.3%.

Inc. magazine says roughly 5,000 small companies changed hands in the US in 2004, and Computer Products & Services category was the most popular acquisition target, with 948 (or 19% of all companies) deals happening in this sector. There were 644 buy-outs of companies providing miscellaneous services and 286 acquisitions of financial services companies. An average price for a small computer products & services company was $19 mln in 2004.

According to Forester, US small businesses spent $320 bln on IT in 2004, which comprised 44% of total IT spending. Small businesses are expected to increase that amount by 8% in 2005. Spending by enterprise-level customers is expected to increase by 6%.

British consumers spent 1.4 bln pounds online in April 2005, 29.3% more than in April 2004, reports the Interactive Media in Retail Group.

Demand for athletic shoes that cost more than $100 grew 18% in the United States last year to almost $600 mln, according to NPD Group.

Global mobile phone sales totaled 180.6 mln units in Q1 2005, compared with 153.7 mln units in Q1 2004, according to Gartner. Gartner has revised its outlook for 2005, saying now that global sales will approach 750 mln units. Previously, the company’s estimate was 720 mln units. The new estimate would represent 13% growth over 2004 sales.

DFC Intelligence forecasts revenue from micro-transactions under $5 to reach $1.8 bln by 2009.

In March 2005 Google continued to lead other search engines with a 36.4% share, up 0.5% YTY, according to comScore Networks. Yahoo! was #2 with 30.6%, up 0.6% YTY. MSN Search had 16.5%, increasing 0.8% YTY. AOL Search lost 4.5% of the market, falling from 13.4% in March 2004 to 8.9% in March 2005. Ask.com went up from 1.8% in March 2004 to 5.5% in March 2005.

According to Dittberner Associates, the Voice over DSL (VoDSL) equipment market will reach $1.1 bln by 2009 from just $256 mln in 2004. Although the telecom industry downturn delayed the previously anticipated high-volume VoDSL deployments, VoDSL began to take off in 2004 as ISPs in Japan, South Korea and few isolated European countries reported strong subscriber growth for VoDSL service. Dittberner forecasts the trend will continue and expects ISPs and later incumbent carriers to lead VoDSL deployments by 2010.

According to Dittberner, there were over 8.6 million VoDSL subscribers worldwide by the end of 2004, with the majority of customers served by a few operators predominately in Japan, France and S. Korea. Japan has highest VoDSL penetration rate of 35%, however its dominance is expected to steadily decline as other countries specifically in Europe catch up after its head start, offering services and developing marketing strategies that suit local market and regulatory conditions.

McAfee found that adware continues to proliferate. 1.5 mln of its 5 mln-plus VirusScan Online users had at least one ad-serving program on their computers, with an average of three adware programs per machine. Unsolicited ads to mobile networks are growing, and along with those ads, malware targeting mobile phones also has increased from five threats in Q4 2004 to as many as 50 currently.

US newspapers, TV and radio station web sites held onto 50% of all locally spent online advertising. Newspapers remained the leader, generating nearly $1.2 bln from their sites. TV sites saw nearly 60% revenue growth at $119 mln, and radio stations suddenly awakened to the opportunity in 2004, nearly doubling their Internet ad revenues at $34 mln, according to Research And Markets.

A report by the JWT Mature Market Group and ThirdAge finds that personal fulfillment across all demographic groups is a very important factor in the decision to work in retirement. The report says that Baby Boomers and Aging Mid-lifers are working for more than pay. 42% of these groups say that plan to fully retire, but of those, 70% plan to work (13% full time, 32% part time and 26% occasionally).

According to comScore, online leisure travel bookings reached about $51 bln in 2004, or 44% of all online sales. Roughly 30% of all travel bookings occur online.

The European Semiconductor Industry Association said European semiconductor sales in April 2005 amounted to $3.32 bln according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, down 1.6% versus March 2005. This corresponds to a 3.0% YTY. Semiconductor sales in April 2005 were 2.54 bln euros, a decline of 1.2% versus the previous month and a decline of 2.9% versus the same month a year ago.

Opera Software released a survey of 2,835 online users in the USA, which indicated that only 51% of what it called the “adult online population” were aware that the type of browser can affect a computer’s vulnerability to malicious software, such as viruses and spyware. 11% of those asked said they had switched browsers for security reasons. 49% of those asked did not know that their choice of browser can make a difference, including 17% who thought it had no effect.

The semiconductor equipment market will trend upward starting in mid-2006 and reach double-digit growth in 2007 and 2008, aided by transistor and gate processing, according to The Information Network. The upswing will result in growth rates of 20.5% in 2007 and 27.0% in 2008, following -9.6% growth in 2005 and -5.0% in 2006. Of course, if semiconductor manufacturers combine two years of growth in one, as they did in 2000 and 2004, the industry will see nearly 50% growth in 2007. For Gate Stack processing, the equipment market was $843 million in 2004. Applied Materials led the market with a 54.8% share, followed by TEL with a 19.5% share and ASM with a 10.5% share.

The total combined PlayStation 3, Xbox 2 & Revolution revenue forecast will rise from $1.1 bln in 2005 to $9.4 bln in 2008, Instat says. Overall, Sony will remain the market leader in the next generation of consoles with its release of the PlayStation3. In-Stat expects both Microsoft and Nintendo to close the gap and release next generation consoles of their own.

Global Advertising Strategies says ethnic minority spending spending on financial products and services will increase by 94% in next 4 years. More than 13% of the 105 mln households in the United States do not have any banking services. Among Americans who do not bank are immigrants, ethnic minorities, the youth, widows, divorcees without credit histories in their own names, and people who have filed for bankruptcy and are re-building their credit-worthiness.