The trend towards mobility and connectivity as outlined in Q2 continues to drive growth in the tech sector in Q3. Both consumers and businesses are investing in new hardware that enables them to be more productive and to access a diverse and exciting mix of services and software. This unquenchable thirst for advanced technology has resulted in 2.2% year-on-year growth (value of EUR 44.0 billion) for the Western Europe technology sector. The technology industry is showing great resilience to the recession as total revenue is expected to reach the same level of Q3 2008, just a year on after the economic crisis. Sales of notebooks and smartphones are all driving factors of growth in Q3 2010, which is highly likely to continue into 2011.

The shape and direction of the digital music industry can be hard to evaluate at the best of times. This week saw BSkyB give up on their Sky Songs service just a year after launching it [1], while Spotify continues to grow a paying subscriber base (albeit not yet to a level deemed profitable) [2]. Given these contrasting fortunes, it seems an appropriate time to revisit demand for streaming services, and see whether they’re any closer to establishing the mass-market audience the model relies on.

With growing smartphone and tablet ownership, and increasing connectivity of home stereo/entertainment systems, the notion of being always-on and seamlessly interacting across multiple devices is becoming a way of life for many consumers. Within this context, a service offering unlimited access to any song, artist, or label catalogue, across any internet-enabled device, can surely have never been a more enticing proposition?

Facebook’s new email service, which combines a variety of communication methods, has been hailed to be the next Gmail- or even Email-killer, but recent GfK NOP data shows otherwise – that Facebook Messages is likely to be used alongside current email and instant messaging clients, and is unlikely to replace them, at least in the short term.

Known before only as “Project Titan”, the new Facebook messaging service is said to combine email, SMS, chat and Facebook email; users will also have the option to have a @facebook.com email address. Launched on 15 November this year, the service is, at present, by invitation only, but users can apply for an invite on the popular social networking site.