Increased uptake of tablets and high-end smartphones is also having a positive effect on corporate equipment sales, as companies scramble to update networks to handle an increase in traffic from the new devices.

For example, global WLAN (wireless LAN) equipment sales jumped by 28 percent to $769 million in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009, according to a report last week from Infonetics Research. On Wednesday, said that for all of 2010, WLAN equipment sales jumped 25 percent to surpass $5 billion.

"We believe this to be a another sign of the continued importance of wireless LAN to companies; networking infrastructures, and of a worldwide economy that is on the upswing," said Loren Shalinsky, senior analyst of Wireless LAN research at Dell'Oro, in the report.

With attention on corporate software and mobile devices, the PC sector hasn't gotten much respect lately. But iSuppli this week pointed out that global PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2010 totaled 93.1 million units, up 5.7 percent from 88.1 million in the third quarter of 2010, and a 4.7 percent increase from 88.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.

PC shipments during the fourth quarter hit a new quarterly record, "blowing past" the prior record of 88.9 million units set in the fourth quarter of 2009, the report said.