The average number of simultaneous file-sharing users was about 9.7 mln worldwide in May 2006, with about 6.7 mln from the USA, according to BigChampagne. In May 2005, BigChampagne tracked 8.6 mln average users globally and 6.2 mln in the United States.

In 2003, 2.14 bln wireless 411 calls were placed in the US. Within three years, that should more than double, to 4.72 bln, according to Pelorus Group.

The pure-play business process management and business rules engine software markets will outpace other software infrastructure markets from 2005 through 2010, growing by 11.8% and 9.2% for license revenue, respectively. Asia/Pacific and emerging economies will drive this growth, Gartner predicts.

After three quarters of declining market share and the loss of its leadership in the Plasma Display Panel (PDP) industry, LG Electronics reclaimed the number-one position in the Q1 2006, according to iSuppli Corp. LG’s share of worldwide PDP unit production rose to 31.1% in the first Q, up from 27.5% in the fourth Q of 2005. This put it about 1% ahead of Matsushita, which controlled 25.9% of factory units during Q1 2006. LG last held the top spot in Q1 2005.

US shipments of printers, copiers and multifunction products in Q1 2006 decreased by 13% compared with Q1 2005. Shipments of inkjet machines fell 18%, while shipments of page printers grew 1%.

Women represent 59% of all US consumers who play games on a mobile phone, according to Parks Associates. Women comprise 61% of all those playing mobile phone games 1-4 hours per month and 58% of all those playing for more than four hours per month. These findings concur with the overall demographic makeup of Internet gamers, where women are the majority due to their penchant for online trivia and card games. Men, on the other hand, hold the majority among gamers who play intense action and role-playing games, and there is not a comparable group of male users in the mobile gaming space.

Semiconductor revenue grew by 5.7% in 2005, to $234.6 bln. Conditions are gradually improving, so our most-likely forecast now shows market growth of 10.6% in 2006 and 8.9% in 2007, Gartner says.

Eastern Europe and the MEA regions (Middle East and Africa) are out to challenge that perception of few lines and low impact, Point Topic points out. Both regions grew by around 14% in Q1 2006. Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria showed impressive growth rates of between 147% and 186% year-on-year. They all kept their momentum in Q1 2006, gaining subscribers considerably faster than the world average of 7.7%. As a net result, Estonia and Slovenia have come close to breaking into the lower ranks of Western European countries, when it comes to the penetration of broadband services by population.

Whilst South Korea can no longer lay claim to the highest broadband population penetration in the world, having been overtaken by the Netherlands, Denmark and Iceland in Q4 2005, its broadband market is all gearing up for technology substitution. Fast is no longer fast enough. Subscribers to FTTx services here have grown by 17.9% in Q1 2006, increasing their market share to 15.2%. At the same time, the national DSL market experienced an 1.6% loss of subscribers. Cable modem services fared slightly better with a gain of just over 1.9%.

The smartphone market will to continue to expand rapidly, exceeding 100 mln units in 2006. PDA unit shipments will grow 6% in 2006 to 15.9 mln units, Gartner predicts.

The Asia-Pacific region still claims by far the largest share of all broadband lines, accounting for 40% of the world’s 229.0 mln broadband lines in Q1 2006. But despite impressive growth rates in China, India and Vietnam, its majority share is under constant threat from buoyant broadband markets in the countries of Eastern and Central European as well as Northern Africa. In keeping with globalisation, around 15 companies and groups contributed 50% of all the broadband net additions in Q1 2006. China Telecom came top, followed by the Deutsche Telekom Group.

China once again pulled ahead of the USA. In Q4 2005, both countries acquired 2.5 mln new subscribers, but Q1 2006 saw the gap re-established, with China adding 3.7 mln and the USA 3.3 mln. India has not yet reached these heights, nonetheless its growth rate is striking. In Q1 2006, broadband subscribers grew by 56.8% to pass the 1.0 mln threshold, whereas DSL growth carried mainly by (Bharti and BSNL) contributed the lion share of net additions - 0.5 mln.

Shipments of personal digital assistants and other handheld computers grew 13% QTQ in Q1 2006, to over 68,000 units. Sharp’s shipments more than doubled, to give it 56% of the total. HP was second with 17%, according to Gartner.

1394 is being strongly challenged by USB in PC and peripherals markets, but there are signs of life in consumer electronics (CE), reports In-Stat. Digital televisions, cable set top boxes, and DVD recorders are all driving 1394a growth in the CE segment. In the PC world, 1394 has had success in notebook PCs, but has struggled in corporate desktops, which account for a significant share of PCs sold annually. However, Microsoft has announced that it will support 1394b in its next-generation Vista operating system, which may breathe additional life into 1394 in this segment. The overall worldwide market for 1394-enabled devices will grow from 115.8 mln units in 2005 to 219.9 mln in 2010. If HANA is successful in driving 1394b as a home networking technology, In-Stat expects to see 1394b in wall plates or separate boxes, such as gateways, rather than in CE devices.

Worldwide semiconductor revenue will rise to $255.7 bln in 2006, up from $237 bln in 2005, according to iSuppli.

Total software revenue for the enterprise e-mail and calendaring market grew 11% in 2005. Even as the technologies mature, business e-mail volume continues to grow at more than double-digit rates, Gartner reports.

Revenue for the worldwide storage management software market grew 8.8% in 2005 compared with 2004. The highest growth was reported in the hierarchical storage management and archiving segment, Gartner says.

US consumers spent $475 bln in self-checkout purchases in 2005, IHL Consulting Group says. The group projected $1.2 trillion in self-checkout sales by 2009.

Applications for mortgage loans at US banks dropped by 6.7% in the third week of June 2006 to the lowest level seen on a seasonally adjusted basis since May 2002, the Mortgage Bankers Association said. The number of mortgage applications was down 31% compared with a year ago.

Berg Insight asked the operators which LBS applications they already have deployed and got not surprisingly the reply that the most common services today are information services such as yellow pages near you and local weather information. On second and third place came navigation services and tracking. Berg Insight also asked the operators which positioning technology they think will be the most important the coming years. The majority, 65%, replied a combination of two or more technologies, while 35% said A-GPS. It is obvious that satellite positioning is coming up as a preferred technology among operators in Europe and preferably in combination with other technologies such as enhanced-cell id and terminal-based positioning technologies. Berg Insight also asked the operators what they think are the most important factors to get the LBS market to boom. Built in GPS/Galileo-chips was the most common reply, coming from 75% of the respondents. About 50% replied that more visibility and marketing of LBS is important to make the end-users aware of the services. The operators are also looking for more innovative LBS that really can catch the needs of the end-users, which 35% of the respondents answered.