The HEXUS.channel 2009 review: Q4

by Scott Bicheno on 31 December 2009, 07:00

Tags: General Business

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qavia

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October

The convergence between the PC and telco industries was a major theme once more in October as both Dell and Acer unveiled new smartphone offerings. At the same time, the old PC world order was disrupted, with Acer overtaking Dell as the second biggest PC vendor, thanks to its stronger consumer mobile proposition.

However, the big news of the month was the launch of Microsoft's new operating system - Windows 7 - generally viewed as being what Vista should have been. Lenovo was quick to take advantage of the new touch-screen capabilities offered by Windows 7, but Apple couldn't resist having a pop.

ARM continued its manoeuvrings by announcing a strategic partnership with GlobalFoundries and launching a lower-end version of its Cortex A application processor designs. Qualcomm, the biggest company in ARM's ecosystem, created a subsidiary dedicated to the open source community and specifically allied itself to Symbian.