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Industry Ships 1 Billionth PC
IT has taken the computer industry 25 years to ship 1 billion PCs, but it will take only five or six years to ship another billion.
According to a report issued last week by Gartner Dataquest, the industry passed the 1 billion milestone in April, and it will reach the 2 billion target in 2007 or early 2008.
Fueling future sales will be a few things, most notably the growth of demand for PCs in emerging markets and the increasing adoption rates of broadband, the report says.
There also will be challenges. The price of PCs will have to continue to drop, which could lead to more consolidation in the industry, the report says.
In addition, the report says, the telecommunication industrys resistance to true broadband service will hamper Internet connectivity by slowing adoption of the technology.
Publishers Sue Over Pop-Up Ads
Some news publishers want to drive unauthorized pop-up ads away from their Web sites.
A group that includes the parent companies of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and The Washington Post is suing Gator Corp. to stop the Internet advertising enterprise from using its software to place the pop-up advertisements on their sites.
Users get Gators software a number of ways, such as by unwittingly installing it on their systems via free software from other companies.
Then, while theyre surfing the Web, the Gator software pops up the ads, which come in addition to whatever other ads they get on the site.
The group called Gator a parasite, but Gator denied the charge, saying it is not infringing on copyright laws or trademarks.
New Bid for Mcafee.Com
Network associates is making another bid for the 25 percent of anti-virus services company McAfee.com it doesnt already own.
Network Associates bid $224 million in a stock-swap proposal in April, but it rescinded the offer because of accounting problems. The new deal is worth about $180 million.
McAfee officials said in a statement to shareholders that they will review the offer and make a recommendation later.
Source: Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance