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Google Introduces Pixel 8A: A High-End Smartphone Masquerading at a Midrange Price

Ramon T. Llamas — Wed, 08 May 2024 04:00:00 GMT

On Tuesday, May 7, Google announced the upcoming availability of its Pixel 8A smartphone. Sharing much of the same hardware and many of the same camera and AI features as its Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro cousins, the Pixel 8A looks and feels like a high-end smartphone hiding behind a midrange price ($499). Given Google's history with the "A" series, it can look forward to selling millions of units once again, but it faces a shrinking sub-$500 market where historically it has collected less than 1% market share. Still, with its compelling value proposition, the Pixel 8A — like its "A" predecessors — should appeal to users looking to save money without sacrificing functionality.

IBM Maintains Momentum and Extends Its Hybrid Cloud and Automation Reach as AI Becomes the Next Strategic Workload

Rick Villars, Robert Parker, Ritu Jyoti, Jason Bremner, Stephen Elliot — Tue, 07 May 2024 04:00:00 GMT

IBM's earnings release for 1Q24 reported revenue of $14.5 billion (+3% y/y @ cc, +1% y/y as reported) – the balance of this document will use constant currency growth unless otherwise noted. IBM generated free cash flow of $1.9 billion for the quarter. Concurrent with its earnings release, IBM announced its intent to acquire HashiCorp Inc., a provider of multicloud infrastructure automation software, for $6.4 billion. IBM expects to close by the end of 2024, with HashiCorp operating as a division inside IBM.

Other important company metrics align with the currently positive, but uncertain outlook for 2024. Consulting signings were up 4% y/y, which yielded a current annual book to bill ratio of 1.15. Annual recurring revenue (ARR) on the software-side ARR (after removing The Weather Company and security services that were sold during the quarter) is now $13.9 billion, up over 8% y/y. In comments on the AI Pivot, CEO Arvind Krishna reported, "Book of business related to watsonx and generative AI (since launching in May 2023) is greater than $1 billion, with sequential quarter-over-quarter growth. Like last quarter, this remains heavily weighted toward consulting."

The Rising Value of Co-Creation Activities in Optimizing Vendor-Carrier Relationships Within Complex Ecosystems

Josh Budd, Andreas Storz, Stuart Wilson — Tue, 07 May 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Perspective analyzes the engagement model between technology vendors Cisco and Dell and telecom operators with a focus on co-creation activities. It explores how technology vendors support, engage, and interact with telecom operators to optimize these relationships and how this type of collaboration integrates alongside wider partner engagement frameworks and ecosystem strategies.

"Building and maintaining co-creation teams and resources is an indirect investment that major infrastructure and networking vendors are utilizing to drive pull through sales of solutions and services into telecom operators based on mutually beneficial business outcomes," said Stuart Wilson, senior research director, EMEA Partnering Ecosystems at IDC.

Worldwide Enterprise Peripheral System Support and Deployment Services Forecast, 2024–2028

Rob Brothers — Tue, 07 May 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study provides the forecast for the worldwide enterprise peripheral system support and deployment services market for the 2024–2028 period. This market covers government/education, SMB, and enterprise support sales defined by business segments based on the number of employees.

"The hardware support market is a very mature segment," says Rob Brothers, vice president, Datacenter and Support Solutions at IDC. "But with GenAI PCs, and Windows 10 going end of support in 2025, these events will drive demand for IT services such as deployment and asset disposition as well as others."

IDC Forecasts Slower Growth for Global Telecommunications Services Market: Could AI Help Telcos to Maintain Healthy Margins?

Fri, 03 May 2024 04:00:00 GMT

Worldwide spending on Telecom Services and Pay TV Services reached $1,509 billion in 2023, an increase of 2.1% over 2022, according to the IDC Worldwide Semiannual Telecom Services Tracker.

Tablet Shipments Show Signs of Recovery in Q1 2024, According to IDC

Fri, 03 May 2024 04:00:00 GMT

Worldwide tablet shipments grew 0.5% year over year in Q1 2024, totaling 30.8 million units, according to preliminary data from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker.

AT&T Delivers Another Strong Quarter Driven by 5G and Fiber Growth

Jitesh Bhayani — Thu, 02 May 2024 04:00:00 GMT

On April 24, 2024, AT&T announced its first quarter 2024 financial earnings. Top-line revenue was $30.0 billion, a YoY decline of 0.4%. AT&T's Mobility and Consumer Broadband were the major drivers of this growth, while the company's operations in Mexico also contributed to positive results. The postpaid phone net adds continued to highlight strong momentum as well. The company also achieved free cash flow of ~$3.1 billion and was up by $2.1 billion from a YoY perspective. The major negative for AT&T continues to be its decline in Business Wireline operations, a 7.8% YoY revenue decline, which is partially offset by growth in other parts of the business such as fiber and other advanced connectivity services.

What Are the Top Network Priorities of Wholesale Telcos in EMEA?

Jan Hein Bakkers — Thu, 02 May 2024 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight highlights data from IDC's Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) Telco Survey, conducted in July 2023. The data provides insights into the key network priorities of wholesale operators.

Meta's Release of Llama 3 Is Set to Catalyze Generative AI Innovation as Developers Embrace a Best-in-Class Open Large Language Model

Arnal Dayaratna — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 04:00:00 GMT

On April 18, Meta announced the release of Llama 3, the family of large language models that constitutes the successor to the Llama 2 family of models that Meta released in July 2023. This release of Llama 3 is defined by 8B and 70B parameter models that include pretrained and instruction fine–tuned versions for each. This document reflects on the significance of Llama 3 as a developer tool that enables the development of bespoke digital solutions that leverage a foundation model. As such, the document examines Llama 3's differentiators and implications for developers, software development, and the start-up community.

Worldwide Smart Vacuum Market Shipped 18.5 Million Units in 2023, According to IDC

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 04:00:00 GMT

Worldwide shipments of smart vacuum devices reached 18.5 million units in 2023 with a total market value of $7.8 billion, according to new data from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Smart Home Device Tracker.