Mikako Kitagawa

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.

Hot new tablet computers are shaking up the stodgy computer industry -- possibly giving consumers reason to buy yet another PC.

Dell, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard each unveiled tablet PC models at [the] Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Each features a touch-screen that eliminates or reduces the need for a keyboard.

Apple is expected to come out with its own tablet later this month. Apple declined to comment.

The global PC market is showing signs of a recovery, according to industry analysts. Gartner reports that worldwide PC shipments totaled 80.9 million units in the third quarter -- a 0.5 percent increase from the year-earlier period and a reversal of the research firm's expectations for a 5.6 percent decline in the quarter.

"Sequentially, third-quarter shipments grew 18 percent, which is higher than the historical seasonal growth from the second to third quarter," said Gartner Principal Analyst Mikako Kitagawa.

Tech news headlines abound around Windows 7. Some are looking at the improvements. Others are looking at Microsoft's past mistakes with Vista. Still others are looking at how to upgrade. Then there's the behind-the-scenes wrangling between Microsoft and PC manufacturers.

Some analysts compare it to a soap opera. Soap operas thrive on sickness, and the PC segment is currently ailing. Worldwide PC shipments totaled 68.1 million units in the second quarter, a five percent decline from the second quarter of 2008, according to preliminary results from Gartner.

Bigger is not necessarily better anymore. Lugging around a heavy notebook is becoming a thing of the past as users lean toward lighter, smaller netbooks.

But Microsoft and others could control the netbook market by changing the specifications and pricing. Depending who provides the specs, a netbook has a screen size as large as 13 inches or as small as five inches, weighs two to three pounds, and has a 160GB hard drive, or 32BG if it's a solid-state drive, to 250GB and 64GB for a SSD.

HP has just unveiled three mini-notebook PCs in a push to dramatically build upon the inaugural Mini 100 model it rolled out for education applications in April. The PC maker's overriding goal is to match speeds with rivals in what is fast becoming a high-growth segment globally.