gartner

All top five server vendors globally saw declines in revenue and shipment in the third quarter of 2009, with Sun Microsystems registering the biggest fall, according to the latest figures from Gartner.

In a report released Monday, the research firm noted that Sun saw its server revenue drop 32 percent and unit shipments dip 38 percent in the third quarter, compared to the same period last year.

IBM experienced a 12 percent decline in revenue growth, though it clocked the highest revenue in the market for the quarter at $3.4 billion. Hewlett-Packard and Fujitsu saw their revenue decline 15 … Read more

Is Apple an enterprise software or hardware company? That's the question Gartner's Nick Jones asks, ultimately answering with "you have to have a pretty relaxed definition [of enterprise] before Apple fits it."

With this definition in mind, Apple clearly fits the "enterprise" moniker, whether Apple wants it or not. As BusinessWeek reported back in 2008, the Mac is finding its way into enterprise computing, with or without the IT department's blessing. … Read more

If smartphones aren't already helping us navigate the modern world, they are certainly on track to do so soon.

In Gartner's top 10 predictions for how consumers will use their mobile devices in the year 2012, location-based services landed the No. 2 position, just behind money transfer.

There aren't many surprises on the list, released Wednesday by the analyst firm, though I would have expected to see gaming enter the top 10 consumer applications for mobile devices within the next two years, especially considering the firm previously predicted that mobile gaming revenue would experience a compound annual … Read more

Global semiconductor sales are now expected to fall this year by 11 percent--an improvement over the previous estimate of a 17 percent drop, according to research released Monday by Gartner. And the outlook for 2010 is sunny.

Revenue is projected to drop this year to $226 billion, an 11.4 percent decline from last year's $255 billion. Next year however, it's expected to bounce back by 13 percent from this year's level, hitting the same $255 billion figure it did in 2008.

Personal computers are the largest factor driving semiconductor sales. In another recent report, Gartner said … Read more

Gartner has had a rocky relationship with open source in the past, but recent research suggests that its views on open source have evolved. It's therefore time for the open-source world's views on Gartner to evolve, too.

Gartner hasn't historically been much of a friend to open source. While Forrester, Redmonk, the 451 Group, IDC, and other analyst firms long ago began recording the rise of open source within enterprise computing, Gartner seemed to side with the proprietary vendors in steadfastly arguing that open source's impact was negligible.

This resulted in some suggesting that Gartner's … Read more

ORLANDO, Fla.--Eric Schmidt runs a company that earns most of its money from consumers, but the Google chief executive believes business customers are the company's next big opportunity for growth after selling ads.

"Enterprise is a huge priority for the management team and me personally," Schmidt said Wednesday in an onstage interview in the belly of the enterprise technology beast, the Gartner Symposium here. "It's the next big billion-dollar opportunity after our display (ad) business."

Google might not be at the core of every company's operations, but Schmidt has some roots in … Read more

ORLANDO, Fla.--Cloud computing isn't going to be vapor much longer, Gartner said Tuesday.

The general idea--shared computing services accessible over the Internet that can expand or contract on demand--topped Gartner's list of the 10 top technologies that information technology personnel need to plan for. It's complicated, poses security risks, and computing technology companies are latching onto the buzzword in droves, but the phenomenon should be taken seriously, said analyst Dave Cearley here at the Gartner Symposium.

Specifically, companies should figure out what cloud services might give them value, how to write applications that run on cloud … Read more

ORLANDO, Fla.--Cloud computing? It's got its place, but apparently not one very close to the heart of Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd today.

At the Gartner Symposium here, Hurd said cloud computing has promise but that he and customers he speaks to are leery of moving important applications to another company's infrastructure outside the company's own firewall.

"I think it's a very attractive model, but there will be challenges," Hurd said. "At the end of the day, if you tell a CEO, 'Put our e-mail in the cloud,' a certain amount of … Read more

ORLANDO, Fla.--Gartner offers a Justification Toolkit to argue the financial merits of attending the Gartner Symposium, but a show perk might carry more personal appeal: each attendee gets a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, packaged with a slab of chocolate.

Well, maybe not free exactly.

It costs $3,695 to attend the show. And as one wag commented, "The chocolate's the better part. You'll get fewer headaches."

Perhaps stung by the contrast between its Windows Vista's tarnished reputation and its flashy "The Wow Starts Now" promotional campaign, Microsoft is sticking to … Read more