Why PC Sales Are Shrinking

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Gartner: PC Shipments Down 11% In The Second Quarter (Gartner)
It was the fifth straight quarterly decline, indicating that the release of Windows 8 has done little to stanch the bloodletting in the market. Tablets are partly to blame because they basically killed the market for notebooks, but the upgrade cycle for PCs has been lengthening as well, sapping growth. Lenovo regained the top spot as the world's largest PC manufacturer. Read >

Google's Sub-$300 Chromebooks Defy PC Malaise (Bloomberg)
In the past eight months, they have grabbed a 20% to 25% market share of U.S. laptops that cost less than $300, making it the fastest-growing part of the PC industry. Overall, they had a 4% to 5% share of the market in the first quarter, up from 1% to 2% in 2012. Read >

Mobile Traction Is Getting Harder, Not Easier (Andrew Chen)
Even with a more developed mobile ecosystem, Andrew Chen argues its harder than ever for services to gain traction among users. He provides four main reasons: product differentiation is more difficult in a crowded field, Cost-Per-Install has gone up, the app store operators pursue their own strategic goals, and investment money is drying up for new consumer mobile apps. Read >

Foursquare Targets Nokia Feature Phone Users (VentureBeat)
The company released a version of the app for Nokia's Series 40 phones. Facebook and Twitter have made similar moves to makes their services available on feature phones, but neither of them are struggling with revenue and user growth like Foursquare has. Read >

Samsung, Intel Offer Prize Money For Tizen Apps (CNET)
In an effort to spur development on their fledgling operating system, Samsung and Intel are offering $4 million in prizes for an app development contest. The first Tizen phones are expected to ship by in the fourth quarter. Read >

Google Releases A New Google Maps App (Google Blog)
Maps are, in many ways, at the center of Google's mobile strategy, so any time it releases a new app it could signal a shift in strategy. It has better navigation, incorporating incident reporting, in addition to traffic conditions. It also includes an Explore feature that helps users finds restaurants, bars, etc around them. Read >

BlackBerry's 2013 Smartphone Lineup Leaked (Business Insider)
It won't matter much, however, unless sales start picking up soon. Read >

BlackBerry 10 Usage Grows (Chitika)
Its new platform now accounts for 16% of North American Blackberry traffic. Given lackluster BlackBerry 10 sales, it probably testifies to the fact that relatively few BlackBerry devices are still in circulation. Read >