PEER 1 Hosting's flagship data centre is up and running in Toronto, RIM debuts into top five mobile handset manufacturers, 24 million next-gen iPhones will be shipped in 2010, there’ll be no Skype software for Windows Phone 7, Skype releases video conference beta, and Cisco versus Avaya – a close battle for CPE market leadership.

PEER 1 Hosting's flagship data centre up and running in Toronto

Vancouver-headquatered PEER 1 Hosting’s new, $40 million data centre located in Toronto is officially up and running. The 40,000 square foot flagship data centre is also the first PEER 1 Hosting data centre to offer all three of its hosting solutions. The centre provides colocation, managed hosting and dedicated hosting, all under one roof, which enables small- and mid-sized businesses to conveniently choose the right solution for their business.

RIM debuts into top five mobile handset manufacturers

Worldwide mobile phone sales to end users totalled 314.7 million units in the first quarter of 2010, a 17% increase from the same period in 2009, according to Gartner, Inc. Smartphone sales to end users reached 54.3 million units, an increase of 48.7% from the first quarter of 2009. Among the most successful vendors were those that controlled an integrated set of operating system (OS), hardware and services. "In the first quarter of 2010, smartphone sales to end users saw their strongest year-on-year increase since 2006," said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. “This quarter saw RIM, a pure smartphone player, make its debut in the top five mobile devices manufacturers, and saw Apple increase its market share by 1.2 percentage points.” Android’s momentum continued into the first quarter of 2010, particularly in North America, where sales of Android-based phones increased 707 % year-on-year.

Videotron in final tests for AWS network

Videotron’s new network is targeted to launch sometime during this summer. With millions of dollars invested and over 1,200 employees hired, the company states that the “Build-out of the AWS network is progressing quickly” and they’ve started the last phase of testing with 100 individuals in various locations across Québec.  Robert Dépatie, President & CEO said “Consumers know that we are committed to maintaining superior-quality service for our customers. This is why we are already beginning extensive testing, with about a hundred selected individuals, of the entire customer experience, covering both services and products.”

24 million next-gen iPhones to be shipped in 2010

The next-gen iPhone is not even officially announced yet – but there have been plenty of leaks from videos, pictures and teardowns. A new report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Digitimes Research claims  that the device will start shipping in June and that Foxconn (manufacturer of the next iPhone) “will ship 4.5 million units in the first half and 19.5 million units for the rest of 2010. Apple is expected to unveil the iPhone 4G on June 7, 2010 during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference.”

No Skype software for Windows Phone 7                                                           

Skype is not planning on developing software for Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 OS. Dan Neary, the company's Vice President for the Asia Pacific region, said that it's "not developing software for the new Windows Mobile software due later this year." This would be a major competitive disadvantage for Microsoft's great new hope on the mobile front, which is already expected to launch with a few things missing.

Skype releases video conference beta

Skype has released a new beta that supports video calling with up to five people – great news for web workers, as it should make conducting remote meetings a lot easier. While there are plenty of services that already offer group video chat (TinyChat, for example), Skype’s existing popularity could make it a more natural choice.

Cisco versus Avaya: close battle for CPE market leadership

It is estimated that Cisco Systems and Avaya will collectively control half of the North American market and one third of the global market. Based on TEQConsult Group analysis of the reported shipment data it appears that Cisco (713,000 lines) will edge out Avaya (687,000 lines) in the North American market by about a single market share point, while Avaya (1.67 million lines) can lay claim to global market leadership over Cisco (1.63 million lines) by a fraction of a market share point. Cisco and Avaya will each have more than double the market share than the next leading supplier (NEC) in North America and be more than several market share points ahead of their closest competitors (Siemens and Alcatel-Lucent) for global shipments.