The total number of mobile subscribers in Nigeria stood at 18.6 mln at the end of 2005, a penetration rate of around. TeleGeography reports.

Despite a substantial and growing portion of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing capacity located in Asia, US and European IC manufacturers are driving the market for front-end equipment tools for copper processing of IC interconnects, according to The Information Network. Worldwide, copper tools represented 7% of the total front-end equipment revenues in 2004, growing to 8% in 2005 and further to 15% in 2008.

The number of active mobile users in Hungary in 2005 rose by 583,000, boosting the country total to 9.32 mln. Penetration level reached 92.4% by December 2005, up from 86.4% in December 2004 and 90.7% in November 2005.

Apple doesn’t release sales figures for the video iPod, but market-research firm NPD Group estimates that about 1.8 mln of them have sold in the US since they were launched in October 2005, according to the Wall Street Journal.

With estimates that sales of digital music (online music plus mobile music and ring tones) within Western Europe and North America accounted for 13.9% of total consumer spending on music in 2005, Strategy Analytics projects that by 2010 more than $8.2 bln worth of music will be delivered via digital platforms in the same regions, accounting for almost 30% of total music sales.

Research In Motion dominates the market of corporate wireless email users with about 4.3 mln BlackBerry subscribers in a market of around 6 mln. Analysts and rivals told MSNBC they expect that market to grow to about 125 mln over the next few years.

After strong growth in 2004, photoresist market demand is stagnant in 2005. Photoresist revenue will grow 2.1% to $959.2 mln in 2005, while volume consumption will decline 1.1% for the year, according to Gartner.

The global market for consumer VoIP services has arrived, with total VoIP subscribers worldwide at 16 mln in 2005 and projected to grow to over 55 mln in 2009, reports In-Stat. But despite an impressive 62% year-over-year subscriber growth rate in 2005, few consumers have ever heard of the term “VoIP”. 73% of all VoIP subscribers worldwide have migrated to VoIP without making a conscious buying decision to adopt the new technology. In North America and Canada, cable operators are aggressively expanding their VoIP footprint, but are marketing VoIP as plain old telephone service. In Asia, South Korea will have the highest VoIP growth rate, followed by Hong Kong and Singapore. In Europe, broadband ISPs, such as Free Telecom (France) and FastWeb (Italy) are leading the way with innovative consumer triple-play service bundles.

State and local governments will spend $44.24 bln on IT goods and services in 2005. At a growth rate of 7.5%, this figure will rise to $54.96 bln by 2008, Gartner says.

More than 65% of IT managers surveyed by LanDesk are continuing to experience security breaches and are seeking additional methods of securing their organization beyond just anti-virus software. 60% of respondents said that their organization does not have a way of scanning devices attempting to connect to their network and quarantining any system that does not meet their company’s security requirements. Many IT managers are leaving the security of their organization’s network to chance, despite more than 85% of respondents now having a workforce that is mobile or field-based. Nearly half those surveyed (46%) admitted that the only way to enforce security settings on laptops and mobile devices is when they are physically back in the corporate environment. This means that while they are working or connecting remotely, they pose as significant risk to the business. 23% said that they must rely on their users to apply the security patches themselves.

Nanotech funding hit $434.3 mln for 2005, up 121% over the $196.4 mln in 2004, Small Times reports.

After achieving 6.6% growth in 2005, the worldwide chip market is set to grow 8% in 2006 and 10.6% in 2007, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.

The struggles of automakers in the United States are holding back their IT spending. Annual growth will be 1.8% from 2003 through 2008, increasing spending from $7.3 bln to nearly $8 bln, Gartner predicts.

According to Direct Marketing Association, acquisition mailing made up 70% of the $52.5 bln marketers spent on direct mail during 2004. The Direct Marketing Association anticipates a conservative 5.2% growth rate, while the Winterberry Group predicts 7.5% growth in direct mail, all direct response advertising through the mail, including postcards, catalogs and letters, which represents over 23% of total United States direct response advertising spending. Among vertical industries, insurance financial marketers are seen as leading mail uses growth between 2002 and 2007, with an anticipated 8.4% compound annual growth rate, followed by hospitality marketers at 7.6%.

According to IDC, IT demand in the Western European business sector will grow 3.5% in 2005 to reach a value of almost $302 bln, with IT spending in the SMB sector forecast to exceed $160 bln. Small and medium-sized businesses (1?499 employees) represent 53% of total IT spending. This share will increase to 54% in the forecast period 2004 to 2009, as demand for IT increases among companies with less than 500 employees. IT spending in small companies (1?99 employees) will increase at lower than average growth (3.4%) in 2005, due to these companies’ cautious approach to IT. However, demand is expected to scale up to 4.2% in the next four years.

IT spending in the midmarket (100?499 employees) is anticipated to grow by 4% in 2005 and climb to 5.3% during the forecast period. IT vendors are increasingly fulfilling midmarket needs and helping the continuous shift in their attitude to IT adoption from tactical to strategic. Strong demand for IT is observed in the health and government sectors, and this is anticipated to continue over the next five years. In the midsize business, healthcare remains the most dynamic sector, with 8.3% growth in 2005 and 8% CAGR in the period 2005 to 2009. Investments in IT solutions, such as electronic patient records, will be part of health institutions’ plans to streamline processes to reduce costs and provide a better service.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, as reported by The New York Times, JacquieLawson.com had 22.7 mln visitors in December 2005, more than twice its closest competitor, AmericanGreetings.com.

According to WebSideStory, search sites had a conversion rate of 2.3%. Online banner ads, shopping search sites and other online marketing efforts had a conversion rate of 0.96%. Consumers who went directly to a company’ site had a conversion rate of 4.23%. Among the most successful were toy sites. When reached through a search engine, they had a conversion rate of 4.85% while Web sites selling computers and electronics had a conversion rate of 1.35%.

The overall market for electronic document discovery is worth close to $2 bln and growing at about 35% a year. 90% of US corporations are engaged in some type of litigation, according to Fulbright & Jaworski LLP. The average company bigger than $1 bln is wrestling with 147 lawsuits.