Analysis

According to the IDC Worldwide Hardcopy Peripherals Tracker for the fourth quarter of 2016 (Q4 2016), the printer and multifunctional peripheral (MFP) market in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) region grew 1.9% in unit terms in 2016. This represents the first positive development since 2011, when the printing market started to decline.

Consumer sentiment in Germany sends mixed signals in March, according to new GfK study. While economic expectation and the propensity to buy picked up again after a decline in the previous month, income expectations fell slightly. Because propensity to save also rose again in March, the consumer climate prognosis in April is 9.8 points, and thus slightly lower than the 10.0 points in March.

Telecom operators, regulators and competition authorities need to update their knowledge of what creates competition in the market, according to Strand Consult’s report. Consolidation in the telecom market is heating up around the world, particularly in Europe.

A new update to the Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide from IDC forecasts worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics (BDA) will reach $150.8 billion in 2017, an increase of 12.4% over 2016.

Data center colocation market in APAC is about to grow at a CAGR of more than 16% during the forecast period, according to the latest report published in latest forecast made by Technavio market research analysts.

EMEA purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) vendor revenues declined 6% year over year to reach $254 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Purpose-Built Backup Appliance Tracker.

A 17-country report just released by global market analysts GfK, shows that 30 percent of the international online population read books “every day or most days”. This is lead by China at 36 percent, closely followed by Spain and the UK at 32 percent each.

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) IT spending is projected to reach $155.8 billion in 2017 a 2.4 percent increase from 2016, according to the latest forecast by Gartner. The devices segment will represent nearly 17 percent of total IT spending in 2017.

Western European personal computing devices (PCDs), including traditional PCs (a combination of desktop, notebook, and workstations) and tablets (slates and detachables), will total 76.4 million shipments in 2017, a 6.1% YoY decline, according to IDC.

Global revenue in the business intelligence (BI) and analytics software market is forecast to reach $18.3 billion in 2017, an increase of 7.3 percent from 2016, according to the latest forecast from Gartner. By the end of 2020, the market is forecast to grow to $22.8 billion.

Following three years of double-digit decline, the traditional PC market in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is showing signs of stabilization. A total of 12.6 million units of traditional PCs (desktop, notebook, and workstations) were shipped in 2016, representing a decline of 8.0% year on year, according to IDC’s Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.

On Sunday, President Jeff Jones quit after just six months, becoming the latest executive to leave the world’s most valuable startup, according to Bloomberg. Jones’ exit comes in the wake of a long string of controversies, ranging from allegations of sexual harassment and a toxic work culture to the combative behavior of Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick.

According to eMarketer research, US digital ad spending will reach $83.00 billion in 2017, representing an increase of 15.9%, according to eMarketer’s latest forecast. Google will maintain its dominance and account for 40.7% of US digital ad revenues in 2017, more than double Facebook’s share.

Total EMEA external storage systems revenue fell by 10.6% in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to the IDC EMEA Quarterly Disk Storage Systems Tracker 4Q16. The all-flash market grew 53.6% in the region, driven mainly by Central and Eastern European growth.

For the first time in five years, CEOs of private companies are more confident of revenue growth in the next 12 months than their public counterparts, according to PwC. They are also more confident about recruiting a larger number people in the year ahead. At the same time, while private companies are more at risk of cyber threats, they seem less prepared to protect themselves against attacks.

The worldwide wearables market reached a new all-time high as shipments reached 33.9 million units in the fourth quarter of 2016 (4Q16), growing 16.9% year over year. Shipments for the entire year grew 25% as new vendors entered the market and previous champions refreshed their product lineups.

In the fourth quarter of 2016, worldwide server revenue declined 1.9 percent year over year, while shipments fell 0.6 percent from the fourth quarter of 2015, according to Gartner. In all of 2016, worldwide server shipments grew 0.1 percent, but server revenue declined 2.7 percent.

IDC EMEA Server Tracker shows that in the fourth quarter of 2016 the EMEA server market reported a year-on-year (YoY) decline in vendor revenues of 12.9% to $3.4 billion and a YoY decrease of 4.7% in units shipped to just under 600,000.

According to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Server Tracker, vendor revenue in the worldwide server market declined 4.6% year over year to $14.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016 (4Q16). Overall server market growth has recently slowed in part due to a slowdown in hyperscale datacenter growth and continued drag from declining high-end server sales.

New IDC study shows that Western European revenues for the augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) market to reach $2.5 billion in 2017, showing a 131% increase over the $1.1 billion spent in 2016. AR/VR spending will further accelerate in the coming years, achieving a compound annual growth rate (2015-2020 CAGR) of 210% and totaling $25.7 billion in 2020.

Adoption of newer connected home solutions is still at the early adopter phase, according to a recent survey by Gartner. The survey, of nearly 10,000 online respondents in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia during the second half of 2016, found that only about 10 percent of households currently have connected home solutions.

A new update to the Worldwide Digital Transformation Spending Guide from IDC forecasts worldwide spending on digital transformation (DX) technologies to be more than $1.2 trillion in 2017, an increase of 17.8% over 2016.

Every day, millions of people make buying decisions based on search: products to buy, restaurants in the neighborhood, and tons of other choices. According to the Nielsen Report “Global Trust in Advertising” however, while consumers rely on online opinions or price comparisons, more often than not, it’s word-of-mouth recommendations that are the most effective.

Smart Glasses as the highest growth sector of the consumer wearables segment over the next five years, reaching 11% of the overall wearables market by 2021, according to the new study from Juniper Research. Revenues are forecast to grow from $327m this year, to $9bn in 2021 as the new generation of smart glasses emerges.

A new report from Juniper Research forecasts that smart home automation and monitoring devices will grow to over 770 million globally by 2021, representing an eleven-fold rise from just 68 million estimated in 2016.