Apple still the one to beat according to IDC

"The overall impact of the recall was marginal. Though, AMD benefited from the glitch and experienced a significant uplift following the recall," said IDC analyst Amy Cheah."There was a slight pickup in SMB spending driven mainly by businesses and channel partners looking to replace damaged or lost PCs as recovery efforts from the Queensland flood crisis took place," said Cheah. "A stronger push into the channels from vendors just as Toshiba and Acer in anticipation of the end of financial year tax rush furthermore contributed to the growth."In spite of a sluggish Q4 2010 and weak consumer sentiment, Apple and Toshiba significantly outperformed the market with double digit sequential growth respectively. Toshiba recovered from a disappointing performance last year by driving an aggressive 40% price discount on all Toshiba notebook brands exclusively in Harvey Norman stores nationwide. Apple on the oher side of the coin consistently gained market share since Q3 2010, fueled by strong demand for its Macbook Air and Macbook Pro range just in case to its growing retail presence through its Apple stores."The halo effect of the success of the iPod which furthermore progressed to the iPhone and iPad is now proving to be a strong driver behind Apple's growing market share," said Cheah. "It has been instrumental in building a vast installed base of Apple users accustomed to the Apple experience, which ultimately worked in favour of Apple's Mac range. Interestingly, its influential force in end users' purchasing decisions may have long been underestimated by other vendors."

AVG Pty Ltd, the distributor of the award-winning AVG anti-virus and Internet security software in Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, will again be shining the spotlight on personal and small business security at the upcoming CeBIT Australia 2011 exhibition, the most influential event of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region.