The Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in Orlando this week had the analysts forecasting the `Top 10' tech trends to watch in 2013; with the predictions largely based on the expected effect which the tech trends will have on businesses in the coming three-year period.

Topping the Gartner list of the `top 2013 tech trends to watch' was mobile device battles. The analysts have predicted that the year 2013 will witness the mobile handsets toppling the PCs to emerge as the most commonly-used devices for Internet access across the world.

According to the forecast by Gartner analysts, over 80 percent of the handsets which will be sold in the next three years will be smartphones. In addition, the analysts have also predicted that tablet shipments will increase to approximately 50 percent of the laptop sales in 2015; and that Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 8 OS will become the third-ranking OS, behind market leaders Google Android OS and Apple iOS.

Meanwhile, with the personal cloud trend already picking up pace, Gartner analysts predicted that PCs with on-board storage will ultimately be replaced by the personal cloud as the most preferred vault for personal content.

Predicting that personal cloud will be the "glue" which will bind an individual's "web of devices," Gartner analyst David Cearley said: "The personal cloud will entail the unique collection of services, Web destinations and connectivity that will become the home of their computing and communication activities."