Bloomberg Briefing

Number of the day

2012

That's the year when tablet computers will start outselling netbooks, according to Forrester Research. Netbooks - sub-$500 laptops designed for surfing the Internet - were the computer industry's fastest-growing segment during the recession. But Apple's iPad and other new tablets serve a similar function.

Hear here

"Before, sales averaged 20,000 a month, but two weeks before the World Cup, we started selling 20,000 a day."

Clinton Currie of Vuvuzela Branding Co. on demand for the plastic stadium horns that are a staple for South African soccer fans. While the blast from the yardlong vuvuzela is louder than a lawnmower, the decibel level hasn't hurt sales at the World Cup: His company has reached its production capacity thanks to companies ordering as many as 200,000 in a single shot.

Story is on D2

Heads up

Cloud computing - the concept of delivering software and services via the Internet - is the topic of next week's Structure 2010 conference in San Francisco. Speakers will include Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff, VMware chief Paul Maritz and Akamai CEO Paul Sagan. They'll discuss everything from Web apps to the need for more bandwidth.

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle