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Both IDC and Gartner say PC shipments fell again last quarter. They respectively estimate PC shipments fell 5.6% and 6.9% Y/Y in Q4. Those numbers represent improvements from estimated Q3 declines of 7.6% and 8.6%, however.

For the full year, both firms think shipments dropped 10% (to 315m and 316m, respectively). Gartner thinks US PC sales (which outperformed in Q3) have bottomed, but nonetheless estimates they fell 7.5%, and says "consumer spending during the holidays did not come back to PCs as tablets were one of the hottest holiday items."

IDC thinks U.S. shipments only fell 1.6%, thanks to healthy enterprise demand. EMEA and much of Asia-Pac remained weak, it says, but Japan delivered positive growth.

Lenovo added to its market lead in Q4: IDC assigns the company an 18.6% share (+250 bps Y/Y). #2 HP, which performed well in its October quarter, is given a 16.8% share (-50 bps); both IDC and Gartner think HP's US sales were weak. #3 Dell, which has been cutting prices to gain share, is given a 12.2% share (+130 bps). HP and Lenovo have each rolled out a slew of new Windows and Android notebooks, tablets, and convertibles at the CES event this week, where Lenovo's pricing has arguably been more aggressive than HP's.

Ericsson has teamed up with AT&T to offer improved connectivity for products powered by the Ericsson Connected Vehicle Cloud aimed at the automotive cloud ecosystem.

Connected Vehicle Cloud is based on Ericsson's Service Enablement Platform, providing drivers and passengers with access to applications directly from a screen in the car. This includes the ability to detect vehicle repair issues, book service appointments, subscribe to in-vehicle Wi-Fi and on-demand infotainment.

Connected Vehicle Cloud leverages Ericsson's M2M service enablement capabilities and portfolio in the OSS/BSS domain and can be deployed on standard cloud infrastructures, it says.

"AT&T recognises the vast potential that exists to transform digital experiences in and around the car, and has built a wireless network that can truly bring the connected vehicle ecosystem to life. As Ericsson ramps up connected efforts with AT&T, we continue to expand the value and direct consumer impact of the Connected Vehicle Cloud service offering. When selecting and consuming services, drivers will indirectly benefit from faster response times, data security and Quality of Service," says Per Borgklint, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Support Solutions, Ericsson.

French IT group Altran has started its second innovation competition for its staff with a €100,000 prize. THE iPROJECT (where 'i' stands for innovation) is designed to promote in-house research and innovation by way of a competition open to all Group employees, whatever their profession, industry or country of operation.

Candidates must submit their proposition of a useful innovation, either in the form of a concept or a prototype, to a jury.

Altran's programme aims to encourage personal initiative, promote team work and give employees the opportunity to come up with and develop concepts which they are passionate about.

Because of the Group's strategic objective to anticipate its customers' new and future needs, these projects must demonstrate the potential benefits they can offer Altran in terms of business (customers, reputation, appeal) new markets, and innovative, added value.

The most innovative projects selected within the context of the in-house competition receive financial support of €100,000 each. For Altran, the ultimate objective is to flesh out and complete its offering so that the Group can better meet its customers' needs.

Commenting on the success of the first season of the programme, Michael Bailly, Executive Vice-President in charge of programmes and innovation for the Altran group, said: "The first season of THE i PROJECT has been a veritable success in terms of the commitment demonstrated by the Group's Innovation Makers and the quality of the projects presented. This perfectly illustrates the fact that innovation is indeed the DNA of the Group!"

For the first season of THE i PROJECT, five project winners were selected out of a total of twenty finalists. The first season rallied a truly enthusiastic response within the Group resulting in the participation of 340 people from 15 different countries on 104 projects.

The second THE i PROJECT season is now underway with another wave of candidates. The new projects are due to be unveiled on 5 March 2014.

Although European TMT M&A activity was lower in December, the number of deals in the last quarter of 2013 was the highest since the second quarter of 2006, says financial M&A advisor Regent Associates.

This marks a rising trend and consistently high number in the months towards the year end.

Total deal value in the month was slightly lower at $15bn. The Price/EBITDA multiple increased to 9.3 and the Price/Sales multiple remained at 1.2.

UK pricing is among the highest in Europe and is significantly higher than in the other largest markets including Germany, France & the Netherlands says TCL (Tariff Consultancy Ltd). It has just introduced a revised Data Centre Pricing UK 2014 to 2019 report, which provides details of the main Data Centre trends across the UK market.

Pricing in the UK is set to stay stable, it predicts with standard average UK Data Centre pricing (excluding power) is forecast to increase by only 3% over the 5-year period from 2014, with rack space priced at €1031 per month.

The UK Data Centre market is the largest in Europe with over 650,000 square metres of floor space forecast to be available as of the end of 2014. In the report TCL surveys 61 Data Centre providers with 151 facilities across the UK.

The report forecasts that "new UK Data Centre capacity is to grow by 22% over the 5-year period." New raised floor space outside the London area is to be the main growth with a range of campus-based and regional Data Centre providers being developed with clusters of service providers developing their own digital ecosystem.

Data Centre space outside of London now accounts for 56% of all raised floor space in the UK including new geographical areas seeing Data Centre expansion include cities such as Slough, Birmingham, Manchester & Leeds.

Power for the Data Centre is being provided by operators in a number of ways - including bundles of power ranging from 1kW up to 6kW per rack - and power being included with the rack space. Established Data Centre providers such as TelecityGroup, Equinix & Interxion are offering metered power as standard - charged by kW per Hour - in their new facilities.

Additionally the UK Data Centre market is seeing the introduction of Premium Data Centre facilities, which can cater for standard power of 20kW per rack and are being positioned as a "flexible" facility with a series of data halls catering for different SLAs, tiers of service, power bundles and price levels. Data Centre providers are also increasing the amount of power available in their facilities.

The use of additional power per suite or rack allows the Data Centre provider to bundle power with space - to preserve a higher price point. Additionally older Data Centre facilities - with unused space - are also bundling power with rack space in order to attract customers.

UK telecoms providers are also increasingly renting new Data Centre space from Carrier Neutral Data Centre providers rather than building their own facilities. The trend towards outsourcing of Data Centre facilities is increasing with providers - such as Digital Realty Trust (DRT) and NTT Com - offering purpose-built Data Centres for particular specialist users.

Although there is a range of new Data Centre capacity entering the UK market overall pricing is set to remain relatively stable over time and providers are offering high power bundles suitable for high density IT applications, it says.

D-Link has announced the appointment of Paul Routledge to lead its growth strategy in the UK and Ireland (UKI). He will be in charge of driving the UKI sales and marketing teams to meet the company's ambitious growth plans.

Routledge has been with D-Link for over three years, previously responsible for European Business Development, spearheading tremendous growth in IP Surveillance and Storage solutions across Europe. He will use this extensive vendor and channel experience to now focus on the UKI market.

Routledge said: "This is an exciting new challenge for me. UKI is one of D-Link's biggest potential growth markets in Europe and I'm looking forward to the challenge of expanding our footprint here further. D-Link offers innovative solutions to both businesses and consumers and I want to ensure we exceed the expectations of our customers in all of their dealings with us."

He will report into Luigi Salmoiraghi, Sales and Marketing Director Southern Europe and UKI, who added: "Paul has been key to driving D-Link growth in the IP surveillance and storage markets across Europe. Now he can capitalise on his experience and lead the UKI team to achieve organic and sustainable growth in the traditional channel, while developing new business opportunities and partnerships."

Routledge has over 20 years of experience developing channels in the UK and across Europe. Before his appointment at D-Link he held Business Development and Channel Sales Management roles with vendors and distribution partners including CCI Distribution, Adaptec and Eurologic Systems.

The number of Samsung systems shipped by Nimans reached an all time high in 2013 with a record breaking Q4.

SIP trunks account for around 35% off all installed trunk ports on Samsung systems and the distributor expects this trend to continue following the launch of a dedicated SIP trunk service.

The OfficeServ7200 system which serves up to 128 extensions had a record month towards the end of the year with sales growing 100% against monthly averages.

Nimans' Head of Category Sales, Paul Burn, says IP handset growth continues to gather pace with in excess of 40% of all Samsung handsets being shipped now IP. 

"With the introduction of the Samsung IES4028 and IES4024 PoE switches Nimans will be able to offer a fully Samsung branded IP system and applications suite further driving the Samsung IP offering.

"We ended 2013 with a bang and expect similar levels of performance this year as Nimans strengthens its reputation as the place to come for Samsung solutions."

Chris Huggett has joined Alternative Networks as Group Sales Director, moving from HP where he was Networking Sales Director for the last six years.

Prior to that he was VP UK and East EMEA for 3Com and was promoted following the acquisition of 3Com by HP.

Huggett has also held enterprise sales director roles at Vodafone, Dell and Cisco.

Edward Spurrier, Chief Executive Officer of Alternative Networks, commented: "Chris brings a wealth of experience and sales leadership from market leading businesses."

UK-based Prodec Networks, mobile data connectivity and wireless networks solutions specialist, has announced its new partnership with Aruba Networks.

Thanks to this deal, Prodec will strengthen its unified communications offering, it says.

As an Aruba's silver partner, Prodec will offer the full suits of Aruba products and solutions as well as managed service of two solutions.

Jabra's primary headsets and speakerphones now offer fully integrated call-control with the latest Cisco Jabber 9.6 for Windows.

Jabra is also the first headset vendor to complete the Cisco certification process, which allows Jabra to provide a complete USB, Bluetooth and DECT offering on key audio devices.

With the launch of Cisco Jabber 9.6, Jabra has stepped up the competition within headset manufacturers worldwide to deliver compatible headset call-control functionalities. 

Jabra is the first to announce built-in drivers with Cisco Jabber. Earlier this year, Jabra was also the first to launch the PC Suite based call-control for Cisco Jabber 9.2.

The built-in Jabra driver will allow for seamless installation, without the external drivers to complicate a mass-deployment.

Jabra's fully integrated call-control with Cisco Jabber is the latest step in the continued integration of Jabra audio devices with Cisco solutions, which enable businesses to make an easy choice on communication infrastructure and increase the productivity of their end-users at the same time.

The continued compatibility updates are the result of Jabra's participation in the Cisco Developer Network Programme, which unites Cisco with third-party developers of hardware and software to deliver tested interoperable solutions to joint customers. As a Preferred Solution Developer, Jabra is continuously working with Cisco to deliver new solutions that offer end-users with all the benefits of unified communication.

"Building on Cisco's software and Jabra's headsets, businesses will have a broader portfolio of validated solutions designed to meet their individual needs and budget requirements," said Chris Briglin, Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Jabra.