A survey conducted by market research firm IDC shows that 1.004 billion devices were delivered to customers during the course of the year, a 38.4 percent increase on 2012’s results. This means that smartphones made up considerably more than half of the 1.8 billion phones sold in total.

One of my clients was recently honored as the “Supplier of the Year” by one of their major customers, a relationship that was barely four years old. In discussing this achievement, a senior executive from the supplier organization cited famed artist Andy Warhol’s observation that “In the future, everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes”. This executive’s comments were insightful along several dimensions:

Of all the economies in Africa that are waking up to the resources they are blessed with, Tanzania stands out for several reasons. Not least among these must be its stability. Though it has never been a rich country, since independence in 1962 it has hardly ever been in the news. Turbulent decades have attracted the wrong type of attention to every one of Tanzania’s neighbours: cross-border conflict, inter-ethnic tension and population displacement have too frequently characterised the post colonial era.

The London-based oil exploration group, which focuses on Africa, doubled its estimate of its discovery in Kenya's South Lokichar basin, currently around 600 million barrels, following two successful well results. During the coming two years the company says it plans further exploration, predicting that the region could yield more than a billion barrels.

Net income for the technology giant came in at $6.56 billion for the October-to-December period, up from the $6.38 billion posted a year earlier. Earnings for the firm were boosted by sales of the new Xbox One console and its range of Surface tablets, as well as strong demand from businesses for its cloud computing services. Sales of the firm's cloud programs, such as Office 365 and Azure, more than doubled in the December quarter from a year earlier, while sales of its Surface tablets doubled from the previous quarter.

10. Malware is on the rise
The threat of malware on mobile platforms is growing steadily as more and more cyber criminals target mobile devices in increasingly sophisticated ways.

9. Byod is a challenge
There are obvious benefits to the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend, but it also creates IT challenges and exposes your company to new threats.

8. Choose devices carefully
Not all devices and platforms are created equal – some are more secure than others.

The figure represents a two percent increase on Toyota’s sales figures for 2012 and placed it 270,000 vehicles ahead of its closest rival, General Motors (GM). It also comes at the start of a year during which time the company hopes to see 10.32 million vehicles worldwide.

This marks something of a turnaround for Toyota, which had suffered in recent years from reputation issues following a series of recalls and safety issues, events that saw more than 14 million vehicles recalled in the US alone.