Book excerpt: Plunketts InfoTech Industry Almanac presents a complete analysis of the technology business, including the convergence of hardware, software, entertainment and telecommunications. This market research tool includes our analysis of the major trends affecting the industry, from the rebound of the global PC and server market, to consumer and enterprise software, to super computers, open systems such as Linux, web services and network equipment. In addition, we provide major statistical tables covering the industry, from computer sector revenues to broadband subscribers to semiconductor industry production. No other source provides this books easy-to-understand comparisons of growth, expenditures, technologies, imports/exports, corporations, research and other vital subjects. The corporate profile section provides in-depth, one-page profiles on each of the top 500 InfoTech companies. We have used our massive databases to provide you with unique, objective analysis of the largest and most exciting companies in: Computer Hardware, Computer Software, Internet Services, E-Commerce, Networking, Semiconductors, Memory, Storage, Information Management and Data Processing. We've been working harder than ever to gather data on all the latest trends in information technology. Our research effort includes an exhaustive study of new technologies and discussions with experts at dozens of innovative tech companies. Purchasers of the printed book or PDF version may receive a free CD-ROM database of the corporate profiles, enabling export of vital corporate data for mail merge and other uses.