Mobile device adoption in the workplace is not yet mature, found a recent survey from Gartner. Although 80 percent of workers surveyed received one or more corporate-issued devices, desktops are still the most popular corporate device among businesses, with more than half of workers receiving corporate-issued desktop PCs. The survey findings are based on the 2016 Gartner Personal Technologies Study, which was conducted from June to August 2016 among 9,592 respondents in the U.S., the U.K. and Australia.

Worldwide tablet shipments are expected to decline by 12% in 2016, rounding out the year at 182.3 million shipments, according to a new forecast from the IDC. An analyst expects the market will rebound in 2018 though growth will remain in the low single digits as detachable tablets slowly gain traction.

In the third quarter of 2016, the Western European Technical Consumer Goods market contracted by 2.4 percent, compared to the same quarter in 2015., according to GfK. The market was heavily affected by the GBP/Euro exchange rate. There were sales value increases in the major domestic appliances, small domestic appliances and telecommunications sectors. All other sectors declined in value. The TCG market in Western Europe in Q3 2016 generated revenue of €49.7 billion.

Worldwide PC shipments are forecast to decline by 6.4% year over year in 2016, according to an updated forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. This is an improvement over August's projection for a decline of 7.2% in 2016. While IDC's outlook for 2017 remains at -2.1% year-over-year growth, the absolute volumes are slightly higher based on stronger 2016 shipments.

Futuresource has recently published the latest findings from the 6th wave of Kids Tech. Its consumer research programme specifically focused on children aged 3 through to 16 across USA, UK, Germany & China, providing ongoing monitoring of their digital media consumption and its influence on their habits and interests.

In the third quarter of 2016, worldwide server revenue declined 5.8 percent year over year, and shipments declined 2.6 percent from the third quarter of 2015, according to Gartner. Among the top five vendors, only Cisco increased revenue in the third quarter, while Huawei and Inspur Electronics saw growth in shipments. HPE, Dell and Lenovo all experienced declines in both revenue and shipments.

Worldwide smartphone shipments are expected to reach 1.45 billion units with a year-over-year growth rate of 0.6% in 2016 according to the latest forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. Although growth remains positive, it is down significantly from the 10.4% growth in 2015.

Cyber Monday barely retained its status as the biggest online spending day of the year after a surge of shoppers hit computers and phones instead of stores on Black Friday to chase deals earlier in the season, according to Bloomberg. Online spending rose 12 percent to a record $3.45 billion, according to Adobe. Black Friday almost caught up, with $3.34 billion spent online, a gain of 21.6 percent from a year ago and another record.

Smart smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, wireless doorbell cameras, and keyless entry are among the top 10 smart home technologies for homeowners age 50 and older, according to new research from The Hartford and the MIT AgeLab.

After a 2% decline in worldwide TV shipments last year, 2016 is showing signs of a turnaround, with the market flattening out to end the year on 225 million units, achieving a value of $86 billion according to a new report from Futuresource Consulting.

The first Worldwide Semiannual Small and Medium Business Spending Guide from IDCforecasts small and medium businesses (with less than 1,000 employees) will spend $564 billion on IT hardware, software, and services, including business services, in 2016. This amount is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate of 4.2%, reaching $668 billion in 2020. The new spending guide expands on IDC's previous small and medium business forecasts by offering greater detail on spending by technology, company size, and geography.

According to figures published by IDC, 8.2 million tablets were shipped into Western Europe in 3Q16, for a 6.7% decline YoY. The main trends in the quarter were the ongoing expansion of detachables and the penetration of tablets in the commercial segment.

The decades-old retail tradition known as Black Friday suffered another blow this week after early deals and online shopping robbed the event of many brick-and-mortar customers, according to Bloomberg. E-commerce orders surged on Thanksgiving, the day before Black Friday, eliminating the need for shoppers to wait in long lines and fight for deals at physical shops. For consumers who did want to visit shopping centers, many stores were offering deals on Thursday evening.

Despite double-digit growth this year and next, Americans’ use of mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Android Pay and Samsung Pay, as well as branded apps that include mobile wallets like the Starbucks app, Walmart Pay and CVS Pay, will not reach mass adoption in the foreseeable future. This year, 38.4 million Americans 14 and over will have used their mobile phones to pay at the point of sale at least once in the preceding six months. That’s just 19.4% of US smartphone users. By 2020, that figure will grow to 33.1%.

Personal computer sales are going from bad to worse. Since 2012, sales of PC manufacturers have declined every year with one exception: Apple. The company behind the Mac has escaped much of the misery engulfing the global PC market.

A new IDC Financial Insights Perspective analyses the results of an online survey of U.K. consumers of retail banking services, high-street bank customers, and a smaller sample of building society customers and midtier players. The survey allows IDC to drill down into the attitudes towards the various aspects of the retail banking customer proposition and the different delivery channels.

IDC Energy Insights announced the release of a new report assessing maturity and progress of mining organizations’ worldwide with regards to their Digital Transformation (DX) initiatives. The report highlights that as a whole, the mining industry is at a nascent stage of digital transformation, with 77% of mining companies worldwide just at the initial stages of IDC’s five stage maturity journey. The report also shows that the other 21% of mining companies are already organized and consistent in their DX initiatives, bringing repeatable and managed success in being DX-enabled.

During the core holiday shopping period of November and December, UK retail ecommerce sales will reach an estimated £16.90 billion and 20.3% of all holiday season retail sales, up from £14.65 billion and 17.8% last year, according to eMarketer.

The market for used and refurbished smartphones has witnessed rapid growth over the past several years, thanks to a wide variety of trade-in and buyback programs across multiple channels and platforms.

Two years ago, Oppo and Vivo couldn’t crack the top five in China’s smartphone market. Now they’re on top after elbowing Apple aside, thanks to people like Cheng Xiaoning, acorrding to Bloomberg. Samsung declined to comment for this story, while Apple didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Next year will mark a major milestone for media consumption in Germany as average time spent with digital media per day surpasses TV viewing time for the first time, according to eMarketer’s first estimates of time spent with media in the country. In 2017, eMarketer forecasts, adults in Germany will spend 3 hours and 44 minutes per day online on desktop or laptop PCs, or with nonvoice mobile activities.

The German technical consumer goods market declined in the third quarter of 2016 by 4 percent, compared to the same quarter in 2015. The total value of the market was € 13.3 billion. Four of the seven sectors declined, with the former presenting the largest fall by 16.7 percent.

Following a sluggish first half of 2016, global technology IPOs picked up steam in the third quarter, according to PwC’s Global Technology IPO Review. During the quarter, there were 20 tech IPOs globally, compared with 14 IPOs in the previous three months. Proceeds increased 264% in the third quarter reaching US$5.38 billion. The results also represent a significant change from a year earlier, when there were just 11 IPOs in the 2015 third quarter.

According to research by International Data Corporation (IDC), the Western European printer and multifunction (MFP) market declined by 1.5% in unit terms in 3Q16 compared with the same period a year ago, with a negative performance in the inkjet market but a positive trend for the laser market. For more than a year now, the market has declined quarter after quarter — this quarter with a 78,407 decrease in units with a shipment volume of 5.3 million devices, and a decline that is again largely due to the contraction in consumer printing but is relatively in line with forecasts.

Eight founders of the world’s leading unicorn startups are sitting on personal fortunes of $31 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The true value of those fortunes in the public market will be tested if Snapchat parent Snap completes the initial public offering it has filed confidentially for this month.

Established software companies in mature markets now face true competition, as well as partnership opportunities, in markets across the globe. PwC’s new ranking, Emerging Markets Top 30 Software Companies, identifies intriguing characteristics, common advantages and disadvantages, and signs for success among software companies based in emerging markets.

China sold more notebooks, monitors, desktops and printers online during the last week's Singles’ Day promotion than it normally does in 44 days. This year, the promotion period was extended to cover November 1 to 11.

EMarketer research shows that adults in Germany will spend more time online than watching TV for the first time next year as more content migrates to streaming platforms, according to Bloomberg. People 18 years or older will spend an average of 3 hours and 44 minutes a day online on desktop or laptop PCs, or on mobile devices without making calls, six minutes more than they’re forecast to spend watching TV.

As the highly competitive shopping weekend approaches, online merchants look to stand out during the shopping rush. Black Friday traditions in the US have expanded internationally, creating huge opportunities for retailers to boost sales figures and engage customers before the Christmas season. RTB House analyzed hundreds of campaigns in almost 40 markets to determine what kind of conversion growth advertisers can expect during the consumer surge.

By 2020, half of all the smart city objectives will include climate change, resilience and sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs), according to Gartner. Cities are defining new objectives and placing them into tangible programs. This creates measurable outcomes that meet the targets agreed upon at the COP 21 in Paris to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.