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Gartner today announced eight predictions for IT in 2015. Last week, we looked at the broad trends Gartner and two other analyst firms expect to shape the future of IT. This latest announcement makes some more specific predictions about changes the firm's analysts expect to see by 2015 or earlier. For example, the firm predicts that 80% of enterprises will support tablets by 2013 and by 2014 90% of organizations will support enterprise applications on personal devices.

Google's vice president for Chrome engineering, Linus Upson, believes that 60% of businesses could immediately switch to Chrome OS and put corporate system administrators out of work. At least that's what The New York Times reported he said, though the paper didn't quote Upson directly. But would YOU want to use Chrome OS for your work?

We frequently write about enterprise mobility and how it's enabling remote work. But we don't spend much time on the implications of mobile technology on the personal lives of workers. Reading Ben Kepes' recent essay on the subject, I had a thought: should enterprise software start tracking workers time and locking them out if they work too much?

The number of web sites infected with malware has doubled, according to Dasient's Q3 Malware Update. Planting malware on legitimate sites, through malvertising or other methods, is now the preferred method of criminals distributing malicious software. McAfee, in its own third quarter report, claims that daily malware infections are increasing at the highest rate ever. Meanwhile, as we've reported, BitDefender estimates that one in five Facebook users is exposed to malware. And Palo Alto Networks told us recently that Facebook use is rampant in enterprises, even where it's forbidden.

Considering all this, are you planning on changing your organization's anti-malware strategy?

SAP has been ordered to pay $1.3 billion to Oracle - the largest fine ever levied for a copyright infringement case.

According to Bloomberg, in 2002, the Recording Industry Association of America was awarded $136 million in a case that involved copying and distributing 1,500 songs by artists including Elvis Presley, Madonna and James Brown. Bloomberg also reports the Oracle verdict is the largest jury award this year and the 23rd largest of all time.

The Oracle case has nothing to do with music. Instead, this case is about SAP stealing intellectual property to provide low cost support for Oracle customers. In turn, the hope was was to lure these Oracle customers over to SAP.

If you still think Apple isn't taking the enterprise seriously you'd better think again: Apple has hired at least five former RIM sales staff in the past in the past 18 months. The Wall Street Journal discovered the defections on LinkedIn, and Apple confirmed that each of the employees the Journal found are indeed Apple employees.

As we said last week, it's prediction season. We've kicked off our own trends to watch series, but we also wanted to check in with what the analyst firms are saying. Forrester, Gartner and ZapThink have all published their own trend watch-lists. Common themes include cloud computing, mobility and analytics.

Forrester recently found that among the 5,519 information workers the firm polled in US, Canada, the UK, France, and Germany, only 27% would recommend their employer's products or services to a friend or family. The results are discussed in a new report and a blog entry by analyst Matthew Brown. Interestingly, employees that use social media and smart phones for work were significantly more likely to advocate their companies products or services. Does this mean more access to technology and social tools will lead to a more engaged workforce?

Two new enterprise apps are debuting today that work on the iPad. Last week, Google Docs became available on the iPad.

All three apps follow a theme. They provide new ways for a mobile workforce to get work done. With an iPad, workers in the field do not have to carry a laptop or dedicated device that has limited capabilities besides what it is hard coded to do.

ServiceMax launched an iPad app today that gives service people a tool for managing their schedules, routes and the work they do for clients in the field. WatchDox is for securely sharing documents in a mobile environment. For its part, Google made good on its promise to port Google Docs to the iOS and Android platforms.

Independent software company Attachmate will purchase Novell for $2.2 billion the companies announced today. CPTN Holdings LLC, a consortium of companies lead by Microsoft, put up $450 million of the $2.2 billion in exchange for 882 patents from Novell, ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley discovered. Microsoft isn't talking about what patents it's purchasing from Novell.