Type of Article: MacTech Blog

Worldwide computer shipments are projected to total 366.1 million units in 2010, a 19.7% increase from 305.8 million units shipped in 2009, according to the latest preliminary forecast by Gartner (http://www.gartner.com). And the iPad will figure heavily into the equation.

According to the research group, worldwide computer spending is forecast to reach $245 billion in 2010, up 12.2 percent from 2009. This forecast is more optimistic than Gartner’s December 2009 forecast, which anticipated 13.3% growth in computer shipments in 2010 and 1.9% growth in spending.

As Google prepares to win over prospective Android developers at next week’s Game Developers’ Conference in San Francisco — the largest event of its kind — the latest data from Mplayit (http://www.mplayit.com) from its cross-platform app store on Facebook shows that games are four times as popular among iPhone users than among the Android user base.

BlackBerry users are twice as likely to be looking for game content than Android users, despite the device’s strong business reputation.

“North of Northeast” is a column that offers commentaries from a Canadian perspective. Google’s invested millions in it. Apple’s moving steadily towards it and Microsoft’s Office isn’t far behind.

Everywhere you turn, more and more companies are extolling the virtues of “the cloud.” My colleague, Dennis Sellers just wrote an interesting piece where he quotes an unnamed executive as saying “Apple want’s to eliminate the hard drive.”