RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS outfit Gartner, reckons the number of installed PCs globally has now exceeded one billion units. And there was much rejoicing. Yay.

Gartner’s boffins, who define the installed base of PCs as the estimated number in use, not the number actually shipped, reckon the amount of machines is growing at almost 12 per cent a year. This means that by early 2014, the world will no doubt have already reached two billion units. Which is a lot.

Unsurprisingly, the research revealed that most PCs were to be found loitering in the urban jungles of established economies. George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, elaborated: "Mature markets such as the United States, Western Europe, and Japan currently account for 58 percent of the world’s installed PCs, but these markets only account for 15 percent of the world’s population".

Shiffler noted, however, that the electrifying pace of economic development across most emerging markets meant the gap was well on its way to closing. "We expect per capita PC penetration in emerging markets to double by 2013," he said.

Luis Anavitarte, research vice president at Gartner, concurred and added, " We expect emerging markets to account for approximately 70 per cent of the next billion installed PCs."

The key to increasing PC penetration in emerging markets, according to Shiffler, was the ongoing expansion of broadband and wireless connectivity, cheaper PCs and the eventual realisation that computers are pretty important when it comes to pulling one's country out of the gutter. Lower food prices, better medical care and third-world debt cancellation also wouldn't hurt, but that's a whole different story.

But a billion PCs also means a whole lot of rubbish, much of it, according to Gartner research analyst Meike Escherich, to end up unceremoniously dumped in a landfill with little or no regard for toxic content. In fact, of the 180 million PCs set to be replaced this year, a whopping 35 million are predicted to be dumped in un-eco ways.

No doubt GreenPeace will be frantically typing up its new and damning report as we speak. µ