SK Telecom puts Android on SIM

South Korea's SK Telecom says it has put the components needed to run Google's Android OS inside a SIM card, reports PC World.

The carrier's Android SIM prototype, showcased at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, includes an ARM-based processor, companion memory and 1GB of flash memory to store the OS and other data.

SK Telecom envisages the SIM card to be used between a number of dumb terminals. The SIM card uses USB 2.0 to communicate with the terminal. All user's applications and data is stored alongside the OS in the SIM card, allowing the user's desktop to be transported between devices by switching the SIM card between them.

Gartner says PC shipments in Western Europe totalled 20.2 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009, an increase of 4% from the same period in 2008, states DigiTimes.

Shipments reached 64.8 million units in Western Europe, representing flat unit growth from 2008. "For the first time in 2009, it was in the fourth quarter that we saw the three major countries in Western Europe post growth," says Ranjit Atwal, principal analyst at Gartner.

"The Western European PC market performed better than expected. Despite the tough economic conditions, the consumer PC market provided vendors with a source of growth."

Sales of PC processors and PC servers are predicted to go up this year, with the average selling price of the chips being on the decline over the next two years, says EE Times India.

Wall Street analyst firm Barclays Capital has not changed its ratings for AMD, Intel or Nvidia, but was most bullish on the outlook for Intel. Barclays issued an updated report of PC server sales forecasting unit growth at 12% in 2010 versus 8% in its previous forecast. It estimated unit growth in notebook sales for 2010 at 27% with desktops about flat at 3% growth.

The firm cited strong Q4 sales, with businesses buying new computers and an overall economic recovery as reasons for its improved forecasts. PC processors sales rose 6.2% in 2009 to 339 million units.