Gartner, Inc.

Gartner said Tuesday that Apple succeeded in capturing market share from Nokia and other smartphone producers last year. The iPhone OS held 14.4 percent of the worldwide market at the end of 2009 -- sharply up from Apple's 8.2 percent share in the prior year -- enabling Apple to slip by Microsoft and become the world's third-largest smartphone vendor, the research firm said.

It has been only one day since Oracle announced details of its $7.4 billion acquisition of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun Microsystems, and the dust is far from settling. Oracle, a software company, needs to pacify Sun's customers and build confidence in those asking how they will conduct business with a hardware company operated by a software company.

Sun's hardware customers may especially be questioning Oracle's devotion to Sun's hardware business since Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in the past attempted to acquire only Sun's software assets.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. posted its first quarterly profit in three years because it got $1.25 billion in a legal settlement with its archrival.

The world's No. 2 maker of computer microprocessors said Thursday it would have lost money were it not for the payment it received from Intel Corp. to squash a long-running antitrust battle.

AMD also appeared to benefit from a lift in the overall computer market. Revenue was up 42 percent over last year, and unit sales of microprocessors and graphics chips grew, even though prices fell.

Eastman Kodak filed complaints with the International Trade Commission Thursday against Apple and BlackBerry maker Research In Motion. According to Kodak, mobile devices from both companies infringe on technology pertaining to its patented method for previewing color images.

Global PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2009 increased 22.1 percent year-over-year to surpass 90 million units, according to Gartner. However, worldwide shipments were largely driven by sales of low-cost notebooks and netbooks to price-sensitive consumers.

Small and inexpensive "netbooks" were some of the most popular computers in the recession, wooing consumers with their portability and prices that were often below $400. Now with the economy improving, consumers will be asked to open their wallets to new styles of computers, including some costing a bit more.

Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told investors Tuesday that the world's number-one handset maker remains committed to the open-source Symbian and Maemo operating systems as the main platforms for smartphones, advanced handsets, and web tablets. Among other things, Kallasvuo said Nokia intends to drive user-experience improvements in 2010 by taking the Symbian user interface to a new level.

Apple will soon begin offering its iPhones through carriers in South Korea. On Wednesday, Apple jumped its last hurdle in getting the iPhone into the hands of mobile-phone users in South Korea.

Scientists developed the so-called X-Y position display for monitor systems all the way back in the 60s. That breakthrough begat the mouse, which gained dominance in the '80s. It has remained the number one user input device ever since.

Yet new developments are nibbling away at the rodent's lead. More and more displays are designed using touchscreens. Computers are learning to take voice commands. New sensors are even allowing controls to be given via gestures.

To upgrade or not to upgrade? Enterprises may not have the choice they did between Windows Vista and Windows XP, when many opted to continue with XP rather than switch to Vista.

The move from XP to Vista entailed serious hardware upgrade costs, not to mention the soft costs of installation, training and support. If Vista offered security enhancements over XP, the benefits were more than overwhelmed by user dissatisfaction, upgrade headaches, and the cost.