Digital Lifescapes

The traditional point-of-sale (POS) terminal has traveled a remarkable journey since IBM's first mainframe-connected models emerged in the 1970s. What began as clunky screen interfaces tethered to distant computers has evolved into a diverse ecosystem of payment solutions. Today, we stand at the precipice of the most significant transformation yet: the rise of soft POS technology that promises to democratize digital payments for businesses of all sizes. At its core, this evolution reflects a broader shift from hardware dependency to software flexibility. Global POS Market Development With their dedicated terminals, fixed installations, and substantial upfront costs, traditional POS systems have long served as gatekeepers to in-store or mobile payment acceptance. Small businesses, micro-enterprises, and mobile retailers often found themselves locked out of the digital economy, forced to rely on cash transactions or make significant capital investments in POS hardware. Soft POS techn...

The past decade has witnessed an explosion in Artificial Intelligence (AI) use cases. From facial recognition software to virtual assistants, AI is rapidly reshaping our digital world. However, most of this AI processing power has resided in the public cloud, requiring a broadband internet connection and raising concerns about personal data privacy. This deployment model is about to evolve. The future of AI is the ability to function directly on our devices, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. On-Device AI Market Development The research predicts a significant growth in AI chipset shipments, reaching over 1.3 billion units by 2030.  This surge signifies a critical shift towards on-device AI, empowering smartphones, PCs, tablets, and other gadgets with the ability to process AI tasks locally. This transition is driven by two key factors. Firstly, smartphone and PC vendors are prioritizing the development of chipsets specifically designed for on-device AI,...

New restrictions by the U.S. government will limit the supply of advanced semiconductors to China in the high-performance computing market. As a result, Chinese technology companies must now work with local chip vendors to ease the effects of export bans. Other trends will impact global demand. Global semiconductor revenue is projected to decline by 11.2 percent in 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. In 2022, the market totaled $599.6 billion, which was marginal growth of 0.2 percent from 2021. The short-term outlook for the semiconductor market has deteriorated further. Global semiconductor revenue is forecast to total $532 billion in 2023. Semiconductor Market Development "As economic headwinds persist, weak end-market electronics demand is spreading from consumers to businesses, creating an uncertain investment environment. In addition, an oversupply of chips which is elevating inventories and reducing chip prices, is accelerating the decline of the...

While it's true that CEOs plan ongoing spending in IT during 2023, it likely won't include a significant investment in end-user computing devices. By and large, digital transformation continues to be driven by software advances. Worldwide shipments of total end-user computing devices are projected to decline by 4.4 percent in 2023, to a total of 1.7 billion units, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Note, in 2022, the devices market already declined by 11.9 percent. "The depressed economic market will continue to dampen demand for devices throughout 2023. In fact, end-user spending on devices is projected to decline 5.1 percent in 2023," said Ranjit Atwal, senior director at Gartner . End-User Computing Market Development Just as business confidence was beginning to recover after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has now fallen significantly in most regions. Moreover, Gartner doesn't expect relief from inflation and the bottom of the recession to...

The global pandemic changed how organizations provide information technology (IT) solutions for their knowledge worker and front-line employees that require access to software applications while working from home. It also accelerated the delivery of online education. To ensure access to those distributed IT use cases, traditional desktop and notebook PCs coexist with media tablets, Chromebooks, and a variety of smartphone devices. This device diversity also created the demand for better management. The second quarter of 2021 (2Q21) was another strong quarter for both Chromebooks and media tablets with both device categories recording growth despite a challenging year-over-year comparison. Unified Endpoint Management Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), Chromebook shipments grew 68.6 percent year-over-year with volumes reaching 12.3 million units. While this wasn't a record quarter for Chromebooks, it wasn’t far o...

The consumer electronics and mobile device vendors have experienced a significant slowdown in demand, due to a number of related factors that result in the ongoing downward trend. This is a global phenomenon, where few markets across the globe are likely to drive significant new growth opportunities. The combined personal computer (PC), media tablet and smartphone markets are on pace to record 0.9 percent growth and eventually reach 2.28 billion units in 2018, according to the latest worldwide study by Gartner. The PC and tablet market is estimated to decline by 1.2 percent in 2018, while the mobile phone market is forecast to increase by just 1.4 percent. Digital Device Market Development "The PC market is still hindered by the undersupply of the DRAM market for all of 2018, due to the lack of new wafer capacity coming online. As a result, PC vendors will continue to increase their prices throughout 2018," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner . "Larger ...

The global adoption of public cloud computing services, the increased performance of smartphones and the demand for Chromebooks continue to negatively impact the rest of the consumer electronics market and to a somewhat lesser degree the enterprise IT marketplace. Results for the second quarter of 2018 (2Q18) showed shipments of traditional personal computers (PCs) totaled 62.3 million units -- that's a year-on-year growth of just 2.7 percent, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). While it's a relatively small improvement, it's actually better than IDC's initial forecast of 0.3 percent growth. Personal Computing Market Development Although helped to some extent by a weak second quarter in 2017, which was somewhat impacted by key component issues, the 2Q18 results reversed the trend from the previous three quarters, which had the market hovering slightly above or below flat growth. Business volume appeared to be t...

Once upon a time, a few years ago, technology industry analysts reported on global market growth for new devices -- where personal computers, media tablets and smartphones were in demand by both consumers and businesses. However, then came widespread market saturation, and declines in demand. Worldwide tablet and PC shipments will fall by 2.1 percent to 398 million units in 2018, according to the latest market study by Canalys. But this represents the smallest decline of the past four years and sets the tone for an era of stability. So, when does the market trend return to growth? That remains a mystery. Personal Computing Device Market Development Consumer refresh cycles have started to stabilize, and the legacy PC vendors have focused on new categories, such as gaming PCs, Chromebooks and convertibles. On the commercial side, Microsoft Windows 10 migration is a driver for hardware refresh, as some businesses are forced to move from Intel Skylake-generation architectures to newe...

According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), global shipments of personal computing devices (PCDs), comprised of traditional PCs (desktops, notebooks, and workstations) and media tablets (slates and detachables), will continue a decline through 2021. The study results show PCD shipments declining from 435.1 million units in 2016 to 398.3 million in 2021, which represents a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -1.7 percent. Personal Computing Market Development While growth for the overall PCD market is not expected at any point within the forecast period, there are a few interesting trends that continue to develop. Apart from 2018, notebook PCs show small but steady year-over-year growth throughout the forecast period. Detachable tablets and convertible notebooks, which represent more versatile designs, will be the fastest growing segments in PCD with a 5-year CAGR of over 14 percent. Ultraslim notebooks are also expected to...

Many enterprises across the globe are not creating mobile applications. According to the findings from a recent Gartner survey, 39 percent of respondents said they had not built, customized or virtualized any mobile apps in the previous 12 months. "Many IT teams will have significant backlogs of application work that need completing, which increases the risk of lines of business going around IT to get what they want sooner," said Adrian Leow, research director at Gartner . "Development teams need to rethink their priorities and span of control over mobile app development, or risk further erosion of IT budgets and the perceived value of IT development." Enterprise Mobile App Market Development According to the survey, those enterprises that have undertaken mobile app development have deployed an average of eight mobile apps, which has remained relatively flat when compared with 2016. On average, another 2.6 mobile apps are currently being developed and 6.2 are ...

The personal computer sector is stuck in a downturn. Worldwide shipments of personal computing devices (PCDs) -- including a combination of desktop, notebook, and workstation PCs, plus slate and detachable tablets -- are forecast to decline from a total of 435 million units in 2016 to 405.2 million units in 2021, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). This latest forecast represents a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of -1.4 percent. IDC reduced its overall PCD forecast from the previous version by up to 3 percent depending on the year, with the largest reductions coming from the media tablet product categories. PC Market Development Remains Bleak Always the optimist, IDC analysts now believe that the troubled market could return to an overall growth trajectory in 2019. Led by a modest recovery in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific regions within the first quarter of 2017, the traditional PC market registered ...

The worldwide media tablet market contracted in the first quarter of 2017 (1Q17) with total shipments of 36.2 million -- that's a year-over-year decline of 8.5 percent, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The first quarter contraction marks the tenth straight quarter that tablets have experienced a decline over the same quarter a year earlier, with the previous five quarters recording double-digit drops. Meanwhile, the market for Google Chromebooks continues to rise, and phablets continue to gain market share. Media Tablet Market Development The tablet market is comprised of two different product categories. Devices offering a keyboard, which IDC refers to as detachable tablets, continue to grow. The other product category is slate tablets (those lacking this keyboard option), which saw shipments peak in 2014 and is now in a steep decline. "As far as most are aware, the tablet market was created in 2010 with the launch of the o...

Global consumer electronics vendors experienced a challenging environment in 2016, due to the shift in product preferences of savvy buyers. With the exception of Chromebooks, the personal computing category has not had the market demand or device shipments that could sustain the vendors. Case in point; consumer spending during the holiday quarter of 2016 was clearly not aimed at consuming media tablets, as the market continued its downturn. The fourth quarter of 2016 (4Q16) marked the ninth consecutive quarter that tablet shipments have declined. Media Tablet Market Development Vendors shipped 52.9 million tablets in the fourth quarter, which was a decline of 20.1 percent from the same quarter one year ago, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC) . Similarly, shipments of 174.8 million units for the full year 2016 were down 15.6 percent compared to 2015 -- marking the second straight year of declining shipments of media tablets...

Offloading to Wi-Fi can help to transfer cellular mobile traffic by using complementary network technologies for the delivery of data. It enables mobile network operators to reduce the congestion in the cellular networks, while for the end-user it provides cost savings on data services and higher bandwidth availability. It's now forecast that annual cellular data traffic -- generated by smartphones, media tablets, connected cars, and other M2M modules -- will reach 129,000 Petabytes (PB) by 2018 -- that's equivalent to approximately 14 billion hours of 4K ultra high-definition video streaming. Mobile Data Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, as 4K video content becomes more widely available, the average data usage will increase leading to almost threefold rise in cellular network traffic to exceed 318,000 PB by 2021. This will put a significant pressure on mobile network providers who will see greater usage. Meanwhile, t...

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...

Smartphones and media tablets are proven business technology tools within most work situations today. Mobile enterprise communication continues to grow across the globe, as more organizations make mobility software apps an essential component of their digital transformation agenda. The global mobile workforce is forecast to increase from 1.45 billion in 2016 -- accounting for 38.8 percent of the overall workforce -- to 1.87 billion in 2022, thereby accounting for 42.5 percent of the workforce. Mobile Internet Market Development Trends Globalization and continued advancements in mobile internet technology and applications will increase levels of mobility among executives, consultants, sales professionals, and many other professions, according to the latest worldwide market study by Strategy Analytics. "In overall terms, the traditional workforce in the United States and Canada have been aging, along with the world's population in general," said Gina Luk, senior ana...

Retail in-store payment capabilities are evolving with near-field communication (NFC) for point-of-sale (POS) terminals. NFC is a secure wireless technology that enables two devices in close proximity to exchange data. It's used for a variety of applications, including contactless payments. The market for NFC-ready POS terminals continued to show momentum in 2016 with annual shipments anticipated to reach an estimated 16.1 million units, according to the latest worldwide market study by Berg Insight. Retail Payments Market Development The attach rate for NFC was highest in EU28+2 and the North America regions, where 93 percent and 92 percent respectively of the POS terminals shipped featured NFC. NFC was also a popular feature in many other major markets worldwide -- including Brazil, Turkey and China. On a global basis, almost three out of every five POS terminals shipped in 2016 included NFC. Berg Insight projects the global installed base of NFC-ready POS terminals wil...

Consumer electronics product lifecycle management is often challenging for most vendors, but it's particularly problematic when customer needs and wants are constantly changing. Such is the case with media tablet users around the globe. As the market matured, distinct customer use case segments evolved. Worldwide media tablet shipments, inclusive of slates and detachables, reached 38.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 (2Q16) according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Growth continues to decline with the market receding 12.3 percent year-over-year as vendors begin to refocus their product lines and consumers wait on purchases. An overwhelming majority of tablets shipped this past quarter were Google Android-based systems (65 percent) followed by Apple iOS, which captured 26 percent, and Microsoft Windows for the remaining share. Media Tablet Market Development Segments Though this trend has been constant for years there are earl...

As more digital content migrates to online platforms, the trend moves away from content ownership and towards content access. It also means that the device on which you pay for the content may not be the device where you primarily access that same content. The value of digital content transactions paid for by telecom service provider billing is expected to reach $47 billion by 2020 -- that's more than four times 2015 results of just under $11.3 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. Exploring Digital Content Payment Options According to the study findings, Apple’s decision to test telecom carrier billing in Germany and Russia is likely to drive a substantial number of new deployments in the medium term. The move will be essential if Apple is to monetize unbanked owners of refurbished mobile devices in emerging markets, who would otherwise be limited to paying for content via iTunes gift cards. Mobile network service provider billing s...

As more people around the globe discover that they don't need a personal computer (PC) to participate in the Global Networked Economy, the market for smartphones and phablets has satisfied the demand for internet access and web browsing. This is now the pervasive trend worldwide. Besides, the ongoing adoption of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps meant that mainstream users learned what has become common knowledge -- just about anything you need to accomplish can be done in the cloud. The impact of this disruptive trend on traditional PC manufacturers has been devastating. "The global PC market had a bad start to 2016 and it is difficult to see any bright spots for vendors in the coming quarters. The tablet boom has faded in the distance and the market is fully mature. Global shipments declines are expected to continue unless vendors bring some remarkable new innovation to the market," said Tim Coulling, senior analyst at Canalys . Market Declines Dominate the PC Lan...