Odd to learn that Apple (AAPL) was considering such a move. After all, advertising isn’t exactly one of its core businesses, though it might have become one had it managed to buy AdMob, which is one of the largest sellers of advertisements on the iPhone.

“If a lot of traffic goes through my devices, why can’t I become the middleman that serves ads against that inventory?” said IDC analyst Karsten Weide. “AdMob would have allowed them to do that quickly.”

Indeed. If that’s what Apple wanted. And perhaps the company is interested in expanding into online advertising, as this “Advertising in Operating System” patent seems to suggest.

That said, it’s equally conceivable that Apple met with AdMob hoping to temper Google’s (GOOG) fast-expanding footprint in the mobile space and on the iPhone. With the acquisition of AdMob, the search sovereign is now the Internet’s largest mobile advertising company, with a dominant presence on the iPhone and any handset running its Android OS. Perhaps Apple’s intent was simply to make this a more costly endeavor for Google. But perhaps it was something more.

“Demand for converged mobile devices has remained strong all year,” said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. Driving that demand: Nokia (NOK), which maintained its position as the overall leader in the converged mobile device market, Research In Motion (RIMM), whose BlackBerry made some significant share gains internationally, and Apple (AAPL) and the iPhone, whose share of the smart-phone market rose to 17.1 percent from 16.6 percent in the previous quarter (see table below; click to enlarge).

“Apple reached its highest volume yet in a single quarter,” Llamas said. “The nearly global availability of the iPhone 3GS sparked another round of annual replacements for Apple loyalists, while the lower price on the iPhone 3G put the device well within reach of customers wary of the price. Although the iPhone has struggled within emerging markets, its arrival at China Unicom this year could foreshadow greater shipment volumes.”

[Image credit: AMUSEMENT]

Gartner (IT) figures Acer sold 12.5 million PCs in the quarter, a year-over-year increase of 23.6 percent from last-year’s third quarter and 15.4 percent of the global market. By contrast, it says Dell (DELL) sold 10.3 million PCs–6.7 percent fewer than it sold a year ago–for a 12.8 percent market share. Meanwhile, IDC pegs Acer at 14 percent global market share and Dell at 12.7 percent.

Both research houses put Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) on top, with Gartner showing the company at 19.9 percent of PCs shipped and IDC at 20.2 percent.

But perhaps those restrictions were better left in place. Because on Thursday, the DOJ opened a preliminary investigation into IBM’s business practices, seeking to determine if the company has abused its monopoly position in the mainframe market. The inquiry stems from a complaint filed by the Computer and Communications Industry Association that claims IBM (IBM) has undermined sales of competing mainframe hardware products by refusing to license its mainframe operating system and certain other intellectual property.

“IBM has used its power to resurrect and create a formidable set of barriers in the mainframe market by their misuse of intellectual property,” CCIA CEO Edward J. Black, told the New York Times. “Once IBM walls are taken down by the government enforcing the law, there will be a rush of people looking to get part of this marketplace.”

Perhaps. Certainly that’s not really the case now. As the CCIA and T3 Technologies–which filed an antitrust complaint against IBM in Europe earlier this year for similar reasons–would argue, IBM has essentially left the industry with a single mainframe vendor: itself. And if that sounds like an exaggeration, consider this: A few years back, a company called Platform Solutions attempted to license IBM’s mainframe software. IBM refused and then sued Platform, accusing it of a raft of IP-related violations. Platform countersued. And then, in 2008, IBM acquired the company and promptly shut down its operations.

“For decades, IBM licensed its system software and intellectual property to other computer manufacturers,” T3 president Steven Friedman said earlier this year. “However, for no reason other than to remove all competition from the mainframe market, IBM eliminated programs to allow customers to buy its mainframe software for use on non-IBM mainframe solutions….[Now] only IBM…offers IBM- compatible mainframes and, based on IDC reports, controls over 99% of all existing IBM-compatible mainframes in use today.”

Worldwide spending on Internet advertising declined by five percent in the second quarter of this year, slipping to $13.9 billion from $14.7 billion, according to research firm IDC. That’s the second consecutive quarter that revenue has dropped year-over-year, and IDC expects it to do so again in the current quarter.

“We think the industry will continue to see losses in the third and fourth quarters, but the growth rates–or the loss rates, if you will–will eventually begin to improve,” IDC analyst Karsten Weide said in a statement. “We believe the industry may have to wait until mid-2010 until we see real growth again.”

That’s a bit long to wait. Still, it’s nice to hear things will turn around some day, because the hits the online advertising industry has taken have been brutal. In this last quarter, classified advertising fell 17 percent and display advertising 12 percent, dragging Monster.com (MWW), Yahoo (YHOO), AOL and others with them. Only Google (GOOG) remained unscathed, posting low single-digit growth.

Typical.

Under the terms of the deal, IBM will pay $50 per share in cash for SPSS. That’s a 43 percent premium over the company’s closing price Monday, but one that’s well worth it to IBM, which sees great value in SPSS’s specialized software and its expertise in data collection, predictive analysis and statistical modeling.

Big Blue says the acquisition will do great things for its newly-formed Business Analytics and Optimization Consulting structure, a unit that offers clients strategic guidance through data analysis.

This is IBM’s second business analytics-related acquisition this summer. In May, the company acquired data discovery technology provider Exeros for an undisclosed sum. When IBM CEO Sam Palmisano pledged earlier this year to “go on offense” in the recession by making acquisitions and investing in research, he wasn’t kidding. Business analytics powerhouse SAS best watch its back.

Or, they fell to 1.2 million, a decline of 12.4 percent.

All depends on whom you believe, Gartner or IDC. According to Gartner, Apple has an 8.7 percent share of the U.S. market. According to IDC, that share is 7.6 percent. In a quarter that saw overall PC shipments in the U.S. decline 1.2 percent or three percent, that’s either pretty damn good or troubling, again depending on whom you believe.

Good thing both firms describe these estimates as “preliminary,” right?

Anyway, according to Gartner’s preliminary data, Apple (AAPL) maintained its position as the nation’s fourth-largest computer maker in the second quarter, ranking between Acer and Toshiba. According to IDC, it dropped to fifth, one spot above the dreaded “All Other Vendors” segment.

So what are we to make of this? A disparity of more than 200,000 units between the the Q2 domestic Mac shipment estimates of two top market research outfits? Is it a 2.5 percent year-over-year increase. Or a 12.4 percent year-over-year decrease?

I have no idea. And clearly, Gartner (IT) and IDC (IDC) don’t either. Best to just wait until next Tuesday when Apple announces definitive sales figures during its third-quarter earnings.

It would appear that Intel’s loss is, for the most part, AMD’s gain. Intel’s (INTC) shipments declined 16 percent while those of its rival increased 13 percent. Great news for AMD (AMD), which has been having a rough time of it lately with more than two fiscal years of losses and little sign of an upturn.

And what of the broader chip market? IDC says it remains weak, but believes a bottom may be in sight. Overall, shipments were down, but their rate of decline appears to be slowing. During the first quarter, world-wide shipments fell 10.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2008. That’s not nearly as bad as their 17 percent decline from the third quarter to fourth. So the good news here in that the bad news could have been worse. Says IDC: “The PC processor market is still in weak condition. While OEM demand picked up notably towards the end of the quarter and going into April, IDC is wary that the demand was due to OEMs replenishing their inventories rather than reflecting a return of solid end demand and return to market normalcy. IDC continues to expect modest sequential processor unit shipment decline in 2Q09.”

“That the worldwide mobile phone market started off 2009 with a year-over-year decline highlights just how much the economic recession has affected all industries, including the wireless market,” Ramon Llamas, IDC senior research analyst, said in a statement. “The market continues to adapt to the new economic reality with both vendors and retailers exercising caution to remain profitable. In some cases, this has meant holding less inventory, or even reducing headcount. Fortunately, new features and demand for phones will help the market resist the financial pressure. We expect to see further year-over-year declines worldwide, even as some regions show signs of improvement.”

A grim assessment, and it’s only the beginning.

Also on the decline, the world-wide chip market. Gartner (IT) and IDC (IDC) both say the semiconductor industry is on pace to see near-record revenue declines in 2009. Gartner is predicting a 24.1 percent drop from 2008 revenue. IDC is a bit more optimistic. It’s forecasting a decline of just 22 percent. Neither firm sees things improving much for some time. Said Bryan Lewis, research vice president at Gartner, “We believe that the financial crisis has reset the semiconductor market. After the 2001 recession, in which semiconductor sales plummeted by a record 32.5 percent, semiconductor sales took about four years to get back to 2000 levels. The rebound after this recession will be similar to that in 2001 because there will be three years of modest growth after the worst year.”

Clearly, the global slowdown in tech spending is taking its toll on the company, though CEO Mark Hurd insists otherwise. Said Hurd, “HP is a market leader executing well in a tough market.”

Analysts begged to differ. “PC revenue declined 19 percent, server storage declined 18 percent, year over year,” Pacific Crest Securities analyst Brent Bracelin told Reuters. “Their printer hardware business declined more than 30 percent, year over year. The pace of the erosion in hardware was more severe than we expected….They did a good job of managing expenses in the quarter, but as you think about the fundamentals here going forward, they lowered their guidance from a revenue and profitability standpoint, and certainly we don’t have a ton of confidence, given the pace of erosion in their business. There could be further erosion from here.”

It’s nothing we don’t already know: Undermined by the worst recession in 50 years, PC sales are slowing. Drastically.

There will be no double-digit sales gains in 2009. The six consecutive years of rising PC shipments we’ve seen will not be followed by a seventh. Instead, they’re likely to be followed by a decline–the first since 2001. With business and consumer spending falling and economic fundamentals askew, technology research group IDC fears that its last official forecast for 2009 PC sales–four percent growth–is unlikely to hold.

“We’re definitely more pessimistic,” IDC’s Loren Loverde told the Financial Times. “As things sink in, it could easily be in negative territory.”

As expected, demand for PCs in the U.S. faced a challenging environment, with a substantial reduction in spending among both consumer and commercial segments amid tightening credit, eroding confidence, and growing unemployment. Not only unit growth was constrained, “but the value of the market also shrank as a result of competitive pricing and the introduction of lower-priced mini notebooks,” said IDC analyst Doug Bell. “Unfortunately, the first half of 2009 looks pretty shaky as the economic fundamentals need to recover before spending on PCs will resume.”

Gartner’s assessment of the quarter was slightly more upbeat, but nothing to celebrate. Fourth-quarter PC shipments worldwide rose 1.1 percent. That’s something. But it also represents the worst growth rate since 2002.

“The fourth quarter started out with a relatively optimistic view, but then it got worse every month,” Gartner analyst Mika Kitagawa explained. “In the fourth quarter, U.S. businesses quickly cut IT spending with public sectors, including some government and education buyers, postponing PC procurement due to budget crisis concerns. PC vendors focused on the professional market were especially hit by the weakening market conditions.”

Ya don’t say….

A few other bullet points worth noting here:

• Apple’s (AAPL) share of the U.S. computer market fell to eight percent during the fourth calendar quarter of 2008 from 9.5 percent, thanks to Acer apparently.
• Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) remains the top PC vendor worldwide, with 19.1 percent market share. Dell (DELL) is second with 13.2 percent–down a full percentage point from last year.