Worldwide shipments of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headsets were down 30.5% year over year, totaling 1.2 million units in the first quarter of 2018 (1Q18), according to IDC.

According to Gartner, a significant shift toward digital business models that harness technology trends, such as cloud computing, (IoT), analytics and AI, is boosting worldwide spending on application infrastructure and middleware (AIM).

EMEA purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) vendor revenues increased 24.8% year over year to reach $243.2 million in the first quarter of 2018, according to IDC.

The worldwide wearables market is forecast to ship 124.9 million units by the end of 2018, up 8.2% from the prior year, according to IDC.

A Gartner survey concluded that only 7 to 18 percent of organizations possess the digital dexterity to adopt new ways of work (NWOW) solutions, such as virtual collaboration and mobile work.

Internet of Things (IoT) spending will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.6% over the 2017-2022 forecast period and reach $1.2 trillion in 2022, according to IDC.

Worldwide spending on information technology (IT) by financial services firms will be nearly $500 billion in 2021, growing from $440 billion in 2018, according to IDC.

LTE technology, the most widely used wireless cellular technology worldwide, achieved more than 38.5 percent market share in the first quarter of 2018.

Industry cloud spending across four major industry groups (finance, manufacturing, healthcare, and the public sector) will total $22.5 billion globally in 2018, according to IDC.

The majority of people between 18 and 34 would be willing to let insurance companies dig through their digital data from social media to health devices if it meant lowering their premiums, according to Bloomberg.

According to IDC, the total security appliance market saw positive growth in both vendor revenue and unit shipments for the first quarter of 2018 (1Q18).

New data from Juniper Research has revealed that the total number of connected IoT sensors and devices is set to exceed 50 billion by 2022, up from an estimated 21 billion in 2018.

The total EMEA external storage systems value increased almost by 24% in dollars in the first quarter of 2018 (+7.4% in euros), according to IDC.

Retail ecommerce sales in India will climb 31.0% this year to reach $32.70 billion, according to eMarketer’s latest forecast.

IDC found that in the first quarter of 2018, the EMEA server market reported a year-on-year increase in vendor revenues of 35.0% to $3.9 billion and a YoY increase of 2.0% in units shipped to 542,000.

The combined consumer and enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments decreased 1.3% year over year in the first quarter of 2018 (1Q18) with worldwide revenues of $2.24 billion, according to IDC.

A new study from Juniper Research forecasts that consumer spend on Digital Commerce will reach $14.7 trillion by 2022, up by 60% on last year’s figure of $9.2 trillion.

The EMEA region's smartphone market showed some stability in the first quarter of 2018 in unit terms, while its value grew to exceed its previous first quarter peak result in 1Q15, according to IDC.

While Airbnb has benefited from a surge in overall digital travel bookings, its growth is being hampered by increasing competition and guests’ concerns over safety and security.

Worldwide spending on the technologies and services that enable the digital transformation (DX) of business practices, products, and organizations is forecast to be more than $1.1 trillion in 2018, an increase of 16.8% over the $958 billion spent in 2017, according to IDC.

A new study from Juniper Research has found that annual global operator-billed revenues from voice and data services are expected to fall by over $50 billion over the next 5 years, from $837 billion last year to $785 billion by 2022.

The total worldwide enterprise storage systems factory revenue grew 34.4% year over year during the first quarter of 2018 (1Q18) to $13.0 billion, according to IDC.

Worldwide shipments of wearable devices grew 1.2% during the first quarter of 2018 (1Q18) as shipments reached 25.1 million units according IDC.

A new study from Juniper Research forecasts that unique viewers of eSports and let’s play content will reach 858 million by 2022, up from 630 million this year.

The worldwide Ethernet switch market (Layer 2/3) recorded $6.29 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2018 (1Q18), a healthy increase of 10.9% year over year, according to IDC.

The growth at the end of 2017 continued for the worldwide server market in the first quarter of 2018 as worldwide server revenue increased 33.4 percent and shipments grew 17.3 percent year over year, according to Gartner.

Starbucks will remain the most popular proximity mobile payment app, staying ahead of Apple Pay and other competitors, according to eMarketer’s latest forecast on US proximity mobile payments.

According to IDC, vendor revenue in the worldwide server market increased 38.6% year over year to $18.8 billion during the first quarter of 2018.

Worldwide shipments of hardcopy peripherals increased 1.7% to nearly 23.8 million units in the first quarter of 2018, according to IDC.

According to PwC, the ongoing rapid evolution of the entertainment and media industry has entered a dynamic new phase.