Displaying items by tag: IDC

PC sales surged in the June quarter, driven by higher demand from workers and students forced to study and work from home amid the coronavirus, according to preliminary data from two industry-research firms.

Global PC shipments rose 11% to 72.3 million in the quarter, with the U.S. posting its highest quarterly-shipment volume in more than a decade, according to preliminary data from International Data Corp (IDC) and Gartner.

"The strong demand driven by work-from-home as well as e-learning needs has surpassed previous expectations and has once again put the PC at the center of consumers' tech portfolio," said IDC Mobile Device Trackers research manager Jitesh Ubrani.

"What remains to be seen is if this demand and high level of usage continues during a recession and into the post-COVID world since budgets are shrinking while schools and workplaces reopen."

Both market trackers ranked HP and Lenovo as the top two PC makers, with Dell in third place. Apple, which doesn't use Microsoft's Windows operating system but is nevertheless grouped among PC makers, came in fourth.

Gartner research director Mikako Kitagawa described the second-quarter figures as a short-term recovery, with some of the growth due to distributors and shops restocking supplies as they become available.

Early indicators suggest strong PC shipments for education, business, and consumer uses such as streaming entertainment, according to IDC's devices and displays research vice president Linn Huang.

"With inventory still back-ordered, this goodwill will continue into July," Huang said.

"However, as we head deeper into a global recession, the goodwill sentiment will increasingly sour."

Middle East organizations are adopting the latest Internet of Things (IoT) technology infrastructure to drive the wider region’s US$ 8 billion market, SAP said.

As the inter-connected Internet of Things era advances, Middle East organizations are forced to manage a vast network of connected devices, wearables, and physical objects – from cars to oil drills. Using machine-to-machine technology, organizations can provide a secure, usable infrastructure that shares machine and sensor data for actionable information in real-time.

In the Middle East and Africa, the Internet of Things spend is set to reach US$ 8 billion in 2017, according to a recent report by IDC. In particular, the highest-spending industry verticals include manufacturing and transportation, both at USD 1.3 billion, and utilities at USD 918 million.

“Every industry vertical in the Middle East is set to be transformed by the Internet of Things – from smart utilities predicting service outages, to healthcare providers predicting patient treatments,” said Gergi Abboud, Managing Director for the Gulf, Levant, North Africa, and Pakistan at SAP.

"The strength of an Internet of Things use case improves exponentially when you unleash the connectivity between all of the ‘things’ inside and outside of an enterprise across its supply chain. Hence, a secure Internet of Things platform on the cloud becomes vital for supporting next generation applications, which can scale up quickly and easily," added Abboud.

Showing the strong demand, 82 percent of organizations see the Internet of Things as “strategic” or “transformational” to their business, according to a recent survey by IDC.

In the Middle East, SAP is seeing strong demand for the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system. SAP Leonardo provides breakthrough technologies and services that let organizations take advantage of embedded Internet of Things capabilities and other technology innovations on the cloud.

SAP is already working closely with Middle East organizations on Internet of Things co-innovations, such as a remote inspection robot for the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, and Emirates NBD bank on augmented reality housing loans.

Exchanging global best practices, SAP’s global Internet of Things customers include Italy’s Trenitalia, Buenos Aires, Argentina to prevent floods, and the Hamburg Port Authority for smart port logistics.

According to the latest IDC (International Data Corporation) Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker May 2017, the overall India Traditional PC shipment for Q1 2017 stood at 2.16 million units (i.e. quarter on quarter growth of 12.5 percent over Q4 2016 and year on year growth of 8.5 percent over Q1 2016).

The overall consumer PC market registered a shipment of 1.05 million units in Q1 2017, with a healthy 14.5 percent growth from the same period last year and 19.4 percent quarter on quarter growth.

“Post demonetization reform, market observed an upbeat demand owing to an optimistic shift in discretionary spending from consumers in first quarter of 2017,” says Manish Yadav , Associate Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India.

The overall commercial PC market recorded a shipment of 1.11 million units in Q1 2017. On the backdrop of seasonality, execution of state-owned manifesto deals and increase spending from BFSI vertical, Q1 2017 observed a quarter on quarter growth of 6.7 percent and 3.3 percent year on year over Q1 2016.

“Commercial spending remained optimistic about the economic scenario and the potential for growth, despite uncertainty surrounding the stability of global economy,” says Sanjeev Sharma , Research Manager, Client Devices, IDC India.

“IDC India anticipates a short-term postponement and resistance by traders during GST implementation phase. But in the long run owing to this structured tax regime the effect will get neutralized and will propel growth owing to festive season,” adds Yadav.

With focus, around enriching gaming as potential segment in consumer business, OEMs are looking to revamp their product portfolio and upsell in mid to premium range. On the other hand, commercial business is expected to grow over the next few quarters driven by state owned education projects.

Top 3 Vendor Highlights:

HP Inc. led the market with a 29.5% share of the overall India traditional PC market in Q1 2017. In addition to their success in the consumer segment, HP Inc. picked up some key wins and executed a few state-owned education projects along with fulfillment of projects in the banking and financial sector. This has led to a 5.8% growth quarter on quarter in the overall India traditional PC market in Q1 2017.

Dell took the second spot with 22.5 percent market share in the overall India traditional PC market in Q1 2017. The vendor continues to drive new initiatives and programs to provide seamless experience of learning for students through technology. Owing to such initiatives the vendor grew by 19.9 percent quarter on quarter in overall traditional consumer PC market in Q1 2017. Simultaneously the Dell EMC merger has provided the vendor an extra space for customer expansion, which could prove to be beneficial in the near future as well.

Lenovo held on to the third spot, with a 17.7 percent market share in the overall India traditional PC market in Q1 2017 and recorded a quarter on quarter growth of 15.1 percent, owing to the complete execution of manifesto project. The vendor also grew by 16.9 percent quarter on quarter in the overall consumer market owing to the efforts observed in improving the after sales support with different initiatives using not just the traditional way, but also social media and other new age technologies.

IDC recently published a MarketScape report titled IDC Telecom MarketScape for Next-Generation Service Providers 2016-17, which evaluates the leading regional and global telecommunications service providers (SPs) in Asia-Pacific. According to the report, AT&T, BT, Orange, and Singtel were identified as “Leaders” of the next-generation telecom service providers in the region along with plenty of challengers in the market.

These service providers demonstrated a strong regional network presence, comprehensive suite of enterprise cloud and managed ICT service offerings, diverse portfolio of services in areas such as Internet of Things (IoT) and collaboration in the region, as well as a large base of mid and large-sized enterprises, multinational corporations (MNCs), and government clients across Asia Pacific.

This group of “Leaders” is closely followed by "Major Players" in the market which includes regional service providers, such as Telstra and NTT Coms, along with global service providers including Vodafone, Verizon, and Tata Communications. GCX is classified under the “Contenders” group.

"The telco landscape is being reshaped by enterprise demand for this transformation to digital platforms. The impact of key 3rd Platform technologies and accelerators, and the enterprise desire to leverage on these technologies for differentiation in a crowded marketplace is clearly visible,” said Nikhil Batra, Senior Research Manager for Telecom Practice, IDC Asia/Pacific.

"In the short term, SD-WAN and enterprise cloud connect will be important, followed by 5G, software-defined networks, and virtual network services (VNS), with a distinct focus on customer experience throughout. Most of the SPs today have responded to these enterprise requirements by expanding into adjacent areas and providing not just the technology, but the business expertise along with it. However, they continue to differentiate themselves based on their focus and key strategic capabilities," added Batra.

IDC enumerates some key differentiators to be successful in this market:
• A well-rounded portfolio of cloud services powered by secure cloud connect offerings
• Leveraging software-defined networking and virtual network services for internal and external efficiencies
• Comprehensive suite of managed security offerings
• Wide range of enterprise mobility, M2M, Big Data, and Analytics solutions
• Network partnerships beyond standard NNI agreements

The Middle East and Africa (MEA) Internet of Things (IoT) market is forecast to defy the region's moderate economic outlook by growing 19.6% year on year in 2017 to total $7.8 billion, according to a recent update to the ‘Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide’from International Data Corporation (IDC).

This compares favorably to the healthy 18.1% growth seen in 2016, with IDC attributing the market's performance to the proliferation of digital transformation initiatives across the region as businesses and government entities strive to boost productivity and improve efficiency.

"The MEA IoT market is becoming increasingly competitive, enabling organizations to source a range of innovative digital solutions aimed at transforming business operations, improving the customer experience, and enhancing employee engagement," says Wale Babalola, research analyst for telecommunications, IoT, and digital media at IDC MEA. "Indeed, IoT now offers a myriad of industry-specific solutions that can be easily deployed by organizations in a bid to stay ahead of competition.

"IDC expects the manufacturing, transportation, and utilities industries to see the highest levels of IoT-related spending in 2017 as organizations across these verticals look to digitalize their operations and improve their value proposition across different lines of business. The commitment of service providers, application developers, and OEMs to developing purpose built end-to-end IoT solutions is serving as a major driver of the growing adoption we are seeing across the region."

Manufacturing organizations will lead the way in 2017, with IDC forecasting IoT-related spending of $1.3 billion for this vertical. The 'manufacturing operations' use case will account for more than 51% of this investment. 'Manufacturing operations' is an IoT use case that supports digitally-executed manufacturing and the way in which manufacturers use intelligent and interconnected I/O (input output) tools (e.g., sensors, actuators, drives, vision/video equipment) to enable different components in the manufacturing field (e.g., machine tools, robots, conveyor belts) to autonomously exchange information, trigger actions, and control each other independently.

The transportation industry is also forecast to see IoT-related spending of around $1.3 billion in 2017. The 'freight monitoring' use case is expected to account for $849 million of this figure, which aptly highlights the increasing importance of monitoring goods and improving productivity. The use of IoT for freight management purposes (air, railroad, land, or sea) is based on RFID, GPS, GPRS, and GIS technology to create intelligent, internet-connected transportation systems. These systems perform intelligent recognition, location, tracking, and monitoring of freight and cargo by exchanging information and real-time communications via wireless, satellite, and other channels.

IDC forecasts IoT-related spending by MEA utilities to reach $918 million in 2017, with investments around 'smart grid' technologies to account for more than 82% of this total. Smart grids are rapidly gaining traction across the region as municipalities increasingly see the value proposition in deploying related solutions in an effort to efficiently distribute resources to their respective end customers.

"Numerous smart city projects are already underway across the region, and the propagation of such initiatives will continue to fuel IoT adoption by both public and private sector organizations," says Babalola. "Saudi Arabia and the UAE are leading the charge when it comes to smart cities, so it makes sense that these two countries will account for the highest contributions to overall IoT investment in MEA during 2017, with a combined value of more than $1.6 billion."

IDC is tipping IT spending in the manufacturing sector in the Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) region to exceed $US36 billion by 2020, representing a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.34 percent from 2016 to 2020. IDC says manufacturing related initiatives in China, India and the ASEAN countries will account for nearly 80 percent of this figure.

The Research Manager of IDC Manufacturing Insights, Sampath Kumar Venkataswamy, says high levels of industrial automation and the push for increased operational efficiencies are driving technology investments to overcome productivity-related challenges.

"Systems integration and consolidation remains one of the top investment areas for most manufacturing organizations that are on the path of implementing smart manufacturing platforms,” Venkataswamy says.

“The push to increase visibility on the shop floor and across the value chain will continue to drive the corresponding technology investment efforts in applications such as CRM, SCM and predictive analytics.”

IDC says APeJ IT spending in manufacturing is dominated by the high tech equipment sector, followed by the chemical and automotive industries. Spending on IT services is expected to reach $US14 billion by 2020 while software related spending is expected to grow 6.91 percent CAGR for the same period and exceed $US12 billion. Software spending includes engineering applications, operations management and supply chain management software. IDC expects lower growth for hardware related spending, to $US9.4 billion by 2020.

IDC’s figures come from its Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) IT Spending Guide 2016-2020, which measures investments on systems integration, IT outsourcing, application development/deployment, ERM, networking equipment and security at Asia Pacific level across fourteen countries and thirteen key industries.

IDC has released its latest Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker saying it shows OPPO has become the leading smartphone vendor in the Chinese market, shipping 20.1 million units and gaining a market share of 17.5 percent in Q3 of 2016.

OPPO’s rise has been dramatic. According to IDC’s figures it has more than doubled its shipment volumes and market share since Q3 2015 when it shipped 9.8 million units and had a 9.0 percent market share.

vivo also grew dramatically to reach number two position with 19.2 million units shipped and 16.7 percent market share, up from 9.5 million and 8.8 percent in Q3 of 2015.

2015 Q3 market leader Xiaomi has suffered a dramatic 42.3 percent decline in its fortunes to number four position. Volumes were down from 17.3 to 10.0 million and its market share down from 15.9 to 8.7 percent.

Apple also did very badly with a 34.1 percent decline from 12.4 to 8.2 million units and a market share decline from 11.4 to 7.1 percent, putting it in fifth position.

Former market leader Huawei managed a modest 5.1 percent growth but the runaway success of OPPO and vivo relegated it to third position with 18.0 million units shipped and a 15.7 percent market share.

IDC said OPPO and vivo had risen because the Chinese market had evolved beyond operator and online driven channels to an offline structure that dovetailed with OPPO and vivo’s strengths.

“There were three key growth phases of the Chinese smartphone market seen in the past few years,” IDC said. “The first phase (before 2014) was when it was driven mainly by operators. Samsung, Lenovo, and Coolpad led the smartphone market then with the help of huge subsidies offered by operators.

“In the second phase (2014-2015), with e-commerce booming in China, Xiaomi was one of the first vendors that rode on that e-commerce wave and disrupted the market by selling its phones online through its flash sales. That kicked off another trend as other vendors soon tried to follow suit and created their own online brands and sold their phones through their own websites and that of eTailers.

“The third phase unfolded in 2016, where the share of phones sold online has started to stabilize. OPPO and vivo triumphed due to their strengths in the offline channels especially in Tier 3 to Tier 5 cities. That, coupled with their other strengths in marketing and advertising, helped them to see strong growth in the market in 2016Q3.”

IDC said OPPO’s success had not been achieved overnight. “Back in the earlier years when vendors depended on operator subsidy to grow, OPPO was clear in its direction and focused on expanding its offline channels. It also had key strengths such as its VOOC fast charging technology and in the elegant design of its phones. This, coupled with its aggressive marketing tactics, helped it succeed in the market,” said Xiaohan Tay, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices Research, IDC Asia/Pacific.

Nokia and Jiangsu Telecom, a regional branch of China Telecom, are deploying China's first commercial Carrier WAN-SDN project in data centers in Yangzhou, Changzhou and other cities in Jiangsu, a neighboring province of Shanghai. The deployment will help Jiangsu Telecom achieve seamless, transparent and flexible management of Internet Data Centers (IDC) in a unified manner.

The popularity of cloud technologies has revealed the limitations of previous IDC router technology, showing that it fails to support a seamless connection with the WAN and meet ever-growing data demand. Older technology also keeps IDC management and maintenance efficiency at a low level, hindering the development of internet services.

"As IDC network loads get heavier, operators are turning to cloud-based technologies to balance their network and make IDC management more efficient, flexible and seamless,” said Mike Wang, head of the joint management team of Nokia Networks China and ASB. “Our industry-leading NSP and powerful 7950 XRS will let Jiangsu Telecom distribute its broadband resources intelligently and dynamically, and make its networks more agile, scalable and efficient. We're pleased to play such an important role in the first commercial Carrier WAN-SDN deployment in China."

Jiangsu is deploying Nokia's Networks Services Platform (NSP) to program its powerful core network router, the next-generation 7950 XRS (Extensible Routing System). The XRS provides the large capacity along with programmability to build the core that connects the datacenters. The NSP is then able to program the core to optimize the use of the resources by load-balancing the traffic and adjusting to changing traffic demands.

As a result, Jiangsu Telecom will dramatically increase the flexibility of its network, reduce overhead costs, meet the ever-growing data demands of its subscriber base and support various application scenarios such as accessing and connecting IDCs. Jiangsu will also be able to pave the way for the future development of applications, including High Definition video, IoT and smart homes.

IDC says it expects spending on IoT by Chinese manufacturing enterprises to reach $US127.5 billion by 2020, a compound average growth rate of 14.7 percent from 2016 to 2020.

IDC says software and services between them will account for 60 percent of expenditure. It notes that IoT has been enshrined in China’s 13th Five-Year Development Plan and has become a strategic emerging industry in the country.

“Made in China 2025 is the first 10-year action plan for the Chinese government to implement its strategy of building China into a manufacturing powerhouse,” IDC says. “With the policy and financial support of the Chinese government pushing forward the development of smart manufacturing, raising the level of networked, collaborative manufacturing and speeding up the manufacturing industry’s transformation into services have become the main development direction for the manufacturing industry.”

Wang Yue, Senior Research Manager at IDC China, said: “Many Chinese manufacturers have started to implement an IoT strategy with a view to improving their production and operational efficiency and speeding up their transformation from production to services. With the promotion of smart manufacturing, the fast integration of IT (information technology) and OT (operational technology), and the prevalence of the ‘digital twin’ concept, IoT technology will have more room for development in the manufacturing industry.”

Yue added: “With the integration of emerging technologies (such as cloud computing, big data and mobile technology) and IoT into this industry, and the integration between IT and OT, the potential of IoT technology will be released at an accelerated pace.”

IDC has identified three major development trends it expects to see in the next three years: IoT platform competition will intensify; IoT applications will accelerate innovation in the manufacturing industry; edge computing will become the next hotspot.

“With the large-scale deployment of IoT devices, IoT-generated data is expected to witness exponential growth,” IDC said. “Therefore, data filtering and processing through scattered devices and IoT gateways will become an important direction for IoT applications in the manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, data will gradually become an important asset for enterprises. Edge intelligence will ensure data security and help enterprises to avoid risks when there are network or data center malfunction.”

IDC Asia/Pacific has released as report assessing Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) organizations’ maturity and progress in their digital transformation initiatives, saying it shows Asia/Pacific organizations to be still at a nascent stage of digital transformation, with 45.4 percent of enterprises surveyed operating at the basic ad hoc level (ie digital resisters) and yet to establish basic  digital transformation capabilities and adopt digital solutions systematically.

"The pace of digital transformation is accelerating in Asia/Pacific, but 45 percent of organizations are still in the first stage of DX maturity (out of 5 stages), compared with 14 percent in the United States,” said Daniel-Zoe Jimenez, associate director and lead of IDC's Asia/Pacific Digital Transformation research practice. “Organizations in Asia/Pacific need to focus on accelerating their digital capabilities, otherwise they will face irrelevance. If successfully done, this will help drive competitive advantage, grow revenue, and ultimately increase market share.”

IDC identifies five stages of digital transformation: ad hoc, opportunistic, repeatable, managed and optimized. IDC also measures maturity across the five key dimensions of the IDC MaturityScape framework: leadership, omni-experience, worksource, operating model, and information.

Thirty three percent of organizations (the second largest group) fall within the opportunistic stage of digital transformation maturity, according to IDC. “These organizations have already established basic digital capabilities, but to progress to the next stage of maturity (repeatable) they need to focus on increasing the integration and consistency of its digital initiatives.”

Jimenez said: “Digital transformation is not just another technology trend, but a critical business priority for many CEOs and their leadership teams across Asia/Pacific. Processes and business models that were optimal a few years ago are now outdated — or simply don't provide the speed and agility required to compete.”

The IDC MaturityScape Benchmark: Digital Transformation in Asia/Pacific (Excluding Japan) provides sub-regional insights based on the analysis of 13 countries across the Asia/Pacific region (Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam).

IDC says the ANZ sub-region is the most mature and its results are more similar to respondents in the United States than the total results at the APEJ level. Financial services, communications and healthcare show the most relative maturity at the overall digital transformation maturity.