Digital Lifescapes

Technology is a compelling catalyst for economic growth across the globe.  Artificial intelligence (AI) rides a seismic wave of transformation in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region — a market bolstered by bold government initiatives, swelling pools of capital, and vibrant tech ambition. The latest IDC analysis sheds light on this dynamic market. Despite a contraction in deal volumes through 2024, total AI venture funding surged to an impressive $15.4 billion — a signal of the region’s resilience and the maturation of its digital-native businesses (DNBs). Asia-Pacific AI Market Development The APAC AI sector’s funding story is not just about headline numbers but also about how and where investments are shifting. Even as the number of deals slowed, the aggregate value of investments climbed, reflecting a preference among investors for fewer but larger, high-potential bets on mature or highly scalable AI enterprises. The information technology sector led the AI investment charge. Top area...

The artificial intelligence (AI) server market stands at a crossroads, propelled by the dual engines of agentic AI and inferencing, even as it encounters the headwinds of global tariff pressures. As more organizations across industries race to harness AI's transformative power, the infrastructure underpinning these capabilities has become a focal point for investment, innovation, and strategic maneuvering. Recent findings from ABI Research underscore just how dynamic and lucrative this sector has become, forecasting robust growth and highlighting the technological and geopolitical forces at play. Agentic AI and Inferencing Market Development Agentic AI refers to AI systems capable of making independent decisions and taking actions to achieve specific goals, often with minimal human intervention. Inferencing is the process by which trained AI models generate predictions or decisions from new data inputs. Together, these advancements are driving a surge in demand for specialized serv...

The personal computing device market continues to demonstrate remarkable resilience despite recent fluctuations. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), global PC shipments are projected to reach 273 million units in 2025—a modest but significant 3.7 percent increase over the previous year. This growth reflects the market's adaptation to post-pandemic realities and evolving technology needs across the globe. Personal Computing Market Development While COVID-19 initially triggered unprecedented demand for computing devices during the shift to remote work and online education, we now see a more measured growth pattern. IDC has slightly adjusted its projections downward, indicating a market growing steadily rather than explosively. "In light of so many challenges around the world, Japan is a much-needed source of double-digit growth this year. Enterprises there as well as SMBs have been quickly replacing PCs in advance of the Window...

Across the globe, digital business transformation has a new catalyst for substantive advancements. Generative AI (GenAI) is about to transform many industries around the world. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), spending on GenAI in the Asia-Pacific region will reach a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 95.4 percent between 2022 and 2027. "China is projected to maintain its position as the dominant market for GenAI, while Japan and India are set to become the most rapidly expanding markets in the forthcoming years," said Deepika Giri, head of research, IDC APJ . Asia-Pacific  Generative AI Market Development The IDC market study clearly shows the burgeoning Generative AI landscape in the Asia-Pacific region. Here are some of the most significant insights. Surging GenAI Spending: The study predicts a growth trajectory for GenAI spending in the region. By 2027, expenditures are expected to reach $26 billion, reflecting the widespre...

Demand and spending on Artificial Intelligence (AI) ) within the Asia-Pacific region will grow to reach $78.4 billion in 2027, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The increase in AI spending reflects a shift toward leveraging technology to transform operations, improve customer experiences, and maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly changing market. IDC forecasts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.5 percent for the period 2022-2027. Artificial Intelligence Market Development With a market share of 28.5 percent in 2023, the Professional Services industry is the primary leader in AI application adoption, growing at a CAGR of 22.4 percent during the forecast period. AI investment in professional services is on AI infrastructure provisioning, where end-users gain access to the resources for computing and storage, and for AI system development or the provision of AI services. In the banking industry, AI is revolutionizing customer experien...

Preparing for the adoption of new technologies is challenging for many large enterprise organizations. That's why savvy CIOs and CTOs seek information and guidance from vendors that can assist them on the journey to achieve digital business transformation. Meanwhile, investment in artificial intelligence (AI) systems and services will continue on a high-growth trajectory. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), spending on AI systems will reach $97.9 billion in 2023 -- that's more than two and a half times the $37.5 billion that will be spent in 2019. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for AI in the 2018-2023 forecast period will be 28.4 percent. Artificial Intelligence Market Development "The AI market continues to grow at a steady rate in 2019 and we expect this momentum to carry forward," said David Schubmehl, research director at IDC . "The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) is oc...

Distributed ledger technologies (DLT) will gain new momentum this year. Worldwide spending on blockchain solutions is forecast to reach $2.1 billion in 2018, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The industry analyst expects blockchain investment to grow over the 2016-2021 forecast period with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 81.2 percent -- with total spending to reach $9.2 billion in 2021. Blockchain Application Market Development "Interest and investment in blockchain and distributed ledger technology is accelerating as enterprises aggregate data into secure, sequential, and immutable blockchain ledgers, transforming their businesses and operations," said Bill Fearnley, research director at IDC . The United States market will see the largest blockchain investments and deliver more than 40 percent of worldwide spending throughout the forecast period. Western Europe will be the next largest region f...

Telecom service providers in the Asia-Pacific region are actively virtualizing their network architecture. A flurry of new applications development is driven by open source communities -- such as OPNFV and ONAP -- as well as from individual efforts by telcos. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the network function virtualization (NFV) market in the Asia-Pacific region will grow to $9.24 billion in 2022. NFV Market Development in Asia-Pacific Japan is the largest single market within the Asia-Pacific region, constituting 25.7 percent of the total NFV revenue. This is followed by South Korea and China, at 22.7 percent and 14.6 percent of the revenue growth respectively. "Japan leads in the region, not only because of the desire to design resilient and reliable networks in preparation for future disaster threats, but also to prepare for the 2020 Summer Olympics," said Lian Jye Su, senior analyst at ABI Research . South Korea and China are actively pr...

Consumer video entertainment is about to evolve, once again. High dynamic range (HDR) features will infiltrate some full high-definition (HD) television sets and thereby help to boost the emerging 4K TV set (UltraHD) market momentum. ABI Research forecasts that HDR TV shipments will grow at a 41 percent CAGR and reach 245 million units in 2022. According to their assessment, 8K TV sets are still years away from reaching the global market, with market hype currently centering on Japan’s plans to deliver 8K video at the 2020 Olympics. HDR TV Market Development "As evident with Sony’s recent announcement to include HDR in all its new TV sets, the next-generation TV technology will soon be a prominent feature in many UltraHD TV sets," said Khin Sandi Lynn, analyst at ABI Research . While some less expensive TV sets will not yet support the new technology, high-end TV manufacturers recognize the value that HDR functionality brings to the customer viewing experience. Vend...

Personal computer (PC) vendors will remember 2016 as yet another year where their hopes for a market growth recovery failed to materialize. Worldwide PC shipments are forecast to decline by 6.4 percent in 2016, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Ironically, this is considered an improvement over an earlier projection for a decline of 7.2 percent in 2016. While the current IDC outlook (subject to change) for 2017 is at -2.1 percent year-over-year decline, the absolute volumes are likely to be slightly higher based on stronger 2016 shipments. PC Market Development Trends The third quarter of 2016 (3Q16) saw a year-over-year decline in shipments of 4.6 percent, more than 2 percentage points ahead of expectations. The 3Q16 market gains were due in part to momentum in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan, and are driven by channel build up in anticipation of component shortages. This inventory accumulation is expected to s...

Pay-TV service providers across the globe are responding to the emergence of agile video entertainment competitors. The over-the-top (OTT) television and video service revenues for 17 countries within the Asia-Pacific region will reach $18,396 million in 2021 -- that's up from $5,741 million in 2015. Furthermore, China will overtake Japan in 2016 to become market leader in the region. "Smartphone users will continue to drive OTT TV and video audiences. Smartphones are a more important OTT TV reception method than fixed broadband in the Asia-Pacific region -- with the notable exceptions of Australia and New Zealand," said Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research . Advertising on OTT sites will remain the main revenue source, bringing in $8,745 million by 2021 -- that's up by $6 billion from $2,609 million on 2015. China will supply $4,911 million of the 2021 total, with Japan providing a further $1,475 million. OTT Video Market Development in APAC ...

Cloud computing infrastructure vendor revenue for public and private cloud grew by 21.9 percent year-over-year to reach $29 billion in 2015, with the fourth quarter (4Q15) growing 15.7 percent to $8.2 billion, according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Compared to overall global IT infrastructure spending, the share of cloud IT infrastructure sales climbed to 32.2 percent in 4Q15 -- that's up from 28.6 percent a year ago. Revenue from infrastructure sales to private cloud grew by 17.5 percent to $3.3 billion, and to public cloud by 14.6 percent to $4.9 billion. By comparison, revenue in the traditional (non-cloud) IT infrastructure segment decreased by 2.7 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter 2015, with declines in all three technology segments (server, storage and networking). Cloud Computing Market Development All three technology markets showed strong year-over-year growth in both private and public cloud segments, except...

While some mobile network service providers have yet to deploy 4G cell-based infrastructure, the global leaders are starting to plan for the next-generation of wireless communications. The mobile internet will become increasingly important to fueling economic growth, resulting in a new wave of market development. The concept of 5G services have yet to be fully-defined. Nevertheless, Juniper Research has forecast the rapid adoption for 5G mobile technologies starting in 2025, with active connections representing a threefold increase from 2024 to reach 240 million potential subscribers. However, this 5G deployment will likely represent a very limited global reach -- initially accounting for approximately just 3 percent of all mobile connections across the globe. Juniper found that the many advantages of 5G -- such as higher data rates, longer battery life, greater user/device support, and reduced latency -- should result in an ideal environment for the proliferation of new mobile i...

Smart card technology use-cases typically include the authentication and identification of users across multiple applications and vertical sectors. This technology is most often associated with the financial services, telecom, government and transportation markets, but the application scenarios are evolving as other sectors explore the benefits. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, in 2014 a total of 454 million government ID smart card credentials -- primarily consisting of driver licenses, healthcare, national ID cards, and passports -- were issued, resulting in a year-over-year growth rate of 2.4 percent. Over the past two years the government ID market has been evolving slowly, reflecting short-term expectations. The worldwide market continues to be affected by ongoing prior project delays, along with an overall lack of new projects or contracts awarded in 2014. Russia and Japan placed a hold on their respective smart national ID card projects. Moreover, Fran...

Applications for new categories of wearable devices are beginning to evolve into some interesting areas -- particularly within the medical arena, where innovation is likely to have a very positive impact on the professional healthcare sector. Consumer wearable devices targeting health and fitness applications have already demonstrated some promising early-adopter use-cases. Moreover, advancements in neuroscience technology research have several manufacturers preparing to launch Brain-to-Machine Interface (BMI) enabled products. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, revenues from both medical-grade and consumer BMI related products will already approach $10 million in 2015. That said, let's be clear about the potential applications, BMI technology is unable to read your thoughts. However, tapping into brain activity -- as a means of understanding human behavior, or controlling an external activity -- are now becoming possible. Example BMI Application Scenario...

Worldwide personal computer (PC) shipments totaled 68.5 million units in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15) -- that's a year-on-year decline of -6.7 percent, according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Following a strong second half of 2014, the PC market in the first quarter of this year faced multiple headwinds -- including inventory build-up of Windows Bing based notebooks, commercial slow down following the Windows XP refresh and constrained demand in many regions due to unfavorable economic conditions. As a result, growth and volume declined with Q1 2015 shipments below 69 million units -- that's the lowest recorded volume since Q1 2009. "Despite the decline, PC shipment in the United States declined at a slower rate than all other regions in first quarter, outperforming worldwide trends for the eleventh consecutive quarter. The strength from key vendors, adoption of emerging products, improvements in the consumer market an...

The mobile internet is pervasive worldwide, as an essential part of more and more people's daily routines. While many of the emerging markets continue to deploy third-generation (3G) and a few deploy fourth-generation (4G) wireless technology, developed markets are already preparing for the future. According to the latest global market study by ABI Research, it will likely take more than 5 years for fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks to reach the 100 million subscriber mark -- that's two years longer than the 4G network experience. 4G subscriber growth was much faster than with previous wireless technology generations, fueled by the capabilities of increasingly powerful smartphones and the availability of other 4G-enabled devices. In contrast, 5G subscriber growth will likely be more muted at first, due to the increased complexity and the additional work required to plan and install 5G cells and associated networks, but infrastructure deployments should increase by 202...

The video entertainment sector is still going through a period of transition, as consumer viewing habits shift and evolve. Besides, in the mature markets -- such as North America -- more subscribers are expected to totally abandon pay-TV due to the rising cost of traditional services. Meanwhile, the worldwide pay-TV market is expected to surpass 920 million subscribers by the end of 2014, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Overall, pay-TV average revenue per user (ARPU) is expected to drop slightly due to increasing price competition, but at a lower rate compared to the ARPU drop in 2013. "The growing number of high-definition (HD) subscribers as well as major sporting events such as the World Cup 2014 have contributed to improving ARPU," said Jake Saunders, VP and practice director of core forecasting at ABI Research . As a result, the total pay-TV service provider market is expected to generate over $269 billion by the end of 2014. Notably, Dire...

LTE is a fourth-generation (4G) global standard which is the natural development route for GSM/HSPA network operators -- it's also the next generation mobile broadband system for many CDMA network operators. Juniper Research forecasts a rapid uptake of 4G LTE mobile technology in the next five years, with active connections crossing the 1 billion mark in 2017 -- and reaching 1.8 billion by 2019. This will represent 22 percent of the global active mobile subscriber identity module (SIM) connections by this time. Their latest global market study finds that, with the rate of LTE network commitments and roll-outs at an all-time high, network and device vendors have significantly improved their position to offer products and solutions to network operators. The GSA (Global Mobile Suppliers Association) confirmed that 168 manufacturers have announced 1,889 LTE-enabled user devices, including operator and frequency variants, along with 300 commercial network launches. TD-LTE t...

The emerging technology and application ecosystem around Augmented Reality (AR) has continued its evolution towards image recognition, as opposed to relying solely on Global Positioning Systems and Digital Compass apps. New findings from the latest market study by Juniper Research has shown that the mobile AR market is set to increase dramatically -- from 60 million unique users this year to nearly 200 million in 2018. The evolving market will expand from the early adopting gaming segment and navigation based utility to becoming an integral part of the mobile device user ecosystem. The market study uncovered that despite initial trepidation and single use applications of the technology, Juniper forecasts AR to become a key future platform for mobile communication and commerce. AR has a potential to engage a new generation of consumers in a unique manner, combining the personal nature of mobile devices with the Internet’s wealth of accessible information. Augmented Reality...