Deutsche Bank published research on how Germans pay for their online purchases.

Dollar-valued global IT spending will grow 5.5% in 2006 and 5.4% in 2007. Spending will then average 4.3% annual growth through 2010, Gartner says.

As of the end of Q4 2006, there were over 100 mln WCDMA subscribers around the world, ABI Research says. The WCDMA subscriber sector is moving particularly fast, growing 102% YTY and 16.6% QTQ. 3G subscribers are providing a much-needed shot in the arm for mobile operators, because they deliver an average revenue per user (ARPU) that is 5% to 20%% greater than the average. For many operators, the period Q2 2004 to Q2 2006 proved challenging, as competition pushed down on ARPU but the additional revenue streams from non-voice applications failed to compensate.

IPTV subscribers hit 3.6 million in 2006, generating almost 1 billion euros in annualized revenues. Western Europe accounts for two-thirds of worldwide IPTV subscribers. The top five IPTV providers by subscriber base account for just over 60% of the market. 2007 will see accelerated growth in Asia and North America. The top three providers globally according to Canalys are PCCW on 18.2% share, France Telecom with 16.8% and Free Telecom on 14.0%. These are joined in the top five by Telefonica and Fastweb.

ABI Research says deployments of in-building wireless systems are expected to result in revenues in excess of $3.6 bln by 2011. Deployments and revenues of in-building wireless systems will be dominated by distributed antenna systems, commanding over 60% of the deployments and over 75% of the equipment revenues. These systems are most economical for buildings larger than 100,000 square feet, a size where coverage and signal level capacity from outdoor networks into buildings begin to fall significantly.

Residential subscriptions to broadband Internet services surged 20% in 2006 to exceed 50 mln US households. Parks Associates estimates US residential broadband subscriptions will surpass 60 mln households by year-end 2007, accounting for 55% of all US households.

Total DTH pay-TV subscribers are expected to reach over 117 mln in 2010. Global DTH-TV revenues will exceed $88 bln by 2010, In-Stat says.

Revenue from shipments of image sensors for mobile phones will grow to $5.9 bln by 2010, increasing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 27.4%, up from $1.7 bln in 2005. Unit shipments of image sensors to mobile phones will grow to 1.2 bln by 2010, increasing at a CAGR of 19.7%, up from 484 mln units in 2005. In 2005, 199 mln image sensors were sold for all other applications outside of mobile phones, including digital still cameras. By 2010, this disparity will grow more, with nearly 1.2 bln sensors shipped for mobile handsets and slightly less than 350 mln shipped for other applications.

The number of Flash-enabled devices shipping worldwide has tripled since January 2006, to reach more than 200 mln. More than 300 Flash-enabled phones and consumer electronics devices have been manufactured, and more than 70% of all Flash devices now ship outside of Japan, Adobe says.

Registrations of new hybrid vehicles in the United States increased 28% in 2006, but that was the second-smallest increase since 2000, and represented just 1.5% of new vehicle registrations, R.L. Polk & Co. reports.

Slow seasonal sales and oversupply in Q1 2007 will push prices to less than the $300 level for 32″ LCD TV panels in March, which is below the manufacturing cost level, iSuppli believes. Many suppliers are continuing to cut their utilization rates at fabs that are producing these types of panels in order to stave off any further rapid price declines. Prices for 37″ television panels are experiencing a stronger rate of reduction than the 40/42″ television panels. Suppliers are cutting 37″ pricing in a bid to boost demand.

Silicon wafer area shipments in 2006 totaled 7,996 mln square inches (MSI), up from the 6,645 mln square inches shipped during 2005. Revenues grew to $10.0 bln from $7.9 bln posted in 2005, according to SEMI.

The NAS-on-chip market will grow from under 1 mln units shipped in 2006 to over 7.5 mln units shipped by 2011, ABI Research says.

Strategy Analytics predicts that consumer spending on mobile data services (including cellular data transport, messaging and content) will ramp from $125 bln in 2007 to just over $200 bln by 2011.

Asia claims the world’s largest regional Internet market. With an estimated 375 mln Internet users (a user penetration of 11%) by end of 2004, Asia was maintaining its lead over Europe (292 mln) and North America (227 mln). Internet application in Asia continues to be led by the developed economies of the region - Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. This group has been joined by China. With a penetration of 8.5%, China had a massive 111 mln Internet users at end-2005. In the area of broadband Internet access, South Korea has continued to be a world and regional leader with 70% of households having a broadband connection by end-2005. The two major technologies supporting broadband in Asia were Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and cable modem. By March 2006, there were 153 mln DSL subscribers and 76 mln cable modem subscribers across the region, Research and Markets says.

Sharp in Q4 2006 was toppled from the top spot in the global LCD-TV market, falling to fourth place, down from first in Q3 2006, according to iSuppli. Samsung took Sharp’s previous position at the top of the rankings with a 16.8% share of LCD-TV unit shipments in Q4 2006, up from 13.5% in Q3 2006. Second place belonged to Philips Electronics with 15.1% of the market, while Sony came in third with a 13.1% share of unit shipments. Sharp was fourth with 11.4% of the market in Q4 2006, down from 13.9% in Q3 2006.

Online job advertising market is on track to hit $5.9 bln 2007 and will continue to grow over the next five years, approaching $10 bln by 2011. Newspapers, meanwhile, will flatten out at $5.4 bln 2007 and appear to be headed for another downward slide, reversing four years of moderate growth, Borrell Associates says.

With over 93 commercial networks in operation, HSPA is likely to account for the majority of investment in global mobile broadband networks over the next five years, according to Arthur D. Little. By comparison mobile WiMax will be a niche technology within the overall global mobile broadband wireless access market, likely to account for at most 15% of this network equipment market and perhaps 10% of mobile broadband wireless subscribers by 2011-2012.