Stories by Lexton Snol

302 million smartphones shipped in 2010, up 71 percent on 2009 shipment levels.

In the same week that Apple released version 2 of its iPad tablet PC arch rival Microsoft is rumoured to be delaying its own version of Windows for tablets until late next year.

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) has been busy certifying hardware, with more than 9,000 consumer electronics products receiving its stamp of approval. Now its software certification is the spur to new growth in home media networks.

Markets for advanced charging technologies (including solar-powered handsets, solar chargers, wireless power units, fuel-cell battery charging products and public charging kiosks), worth about $1.5 billion in 2010, are forecast to grow at a robust Compound Annual Growth Rate of more than 86 percent to exceed $34 billion in 2015.

11 million tablets, led by Apple's iPad, are expected to be sold by the end of 2010. This is three times the estimate ABI Research made just six months ago.

While Apple's iPad, a device belonging to the ultra-mobile device (UMD) category, is all the rage among consumers, enterprise suppliers are already preparing it for business use, even though UMDs add even more support and control complexity for IT managers currently trying to manage an expanding base of smartphone platforms such as the iPhone 4.

The global market for business IT continuity and disaster data recovery solutions will grow from $24.3 billion in 2009 to exceed $39 billion in 2015, according to ABI Research.

A new research study estimates that 163 million "smartbooks" will ship worldwide in 2015 - a significant rate of growth given that the very first models only appeared in 2008.

Future smartphones will come pre-loaded with anti-virus software clients to prevent the loss of data and services to malware. And mobile banking and person-to-person payments will be authenticated by fingerprint sensors on the handset.

The family of Blade Runner author Philip K. Dick is to sue Google for infringement of intellectual property rights over the name of its recently announced Nexus One smartphone.