According to the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, India’s smartphone market shipped 70 million smartphones in 1H25, with a 0.9% growth YoY (year-over-year)—2Q25 registered growth of 7.3% YoY, shipping 37 million smartphones. While the market has rebounded from a two-quarter slump, subdued consumer demand and rising average selling prices (ASPs) are expected to limit the pace of annual recovery.

While early digital transformation in legal was marked by fragmented point solutions and patchwork systems, the focus today is on platform-based approaches that unify data, workflows, and decision-making. Embedded AI is at the heart of this transition, promising to automate repetitive tasks, streamline case management, and support more informed strategic choices. The goal is not simply to add another layer of software but to make AI a seamless, ever-present element of the practice — as invisible as spell-check, yet as essential as billing.

IDC estimates India’s overall software market to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 18.8% potentially reaching US$35.9 billion during the 2025–2029 forecast period. During this period, the three primary categories of the software market, as classified by IDC – applications, application development and deployment (AD&D), and systems infrastructure (SI) software, are expected to grow at a CAGR of 15%, 31.2% and 13.2% respectively.

Artificial intelligence is beginning to redraw the competitive landscape in the legal sector, particularly among mid-market law firms that have historically lagged in technology adoption. Once reliant on spreadsheets, word processors and stitched-together case management tools, these firms are now facing pressure to standardize workflows, increase caseload throughput, and manage rising client expectations for speed and efficiency. The shift is less about experimenting with flashy new applications and more about embedding AI directly into core legal operations.

Public cloud services spending in the Asia/Pacific region is accelerating, fueled by rapid IT infrastructure modernization and the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Software and Public Cloud Services Spending Guide, public cloud services market in the region is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 19.8% from 2025 to 2029, expanding from $53 billion in 2024 to $131 billion by 2029. This growth is fueled by the increasing adoption of Infrastructure as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Software as a Service solutions, which are becoming essential for businesses aiming to enhance operational efficiency and drive innovation. Key sectors such as government, healthcare, and banking are leading the charge in IT infrastructure modernization, further accelerating cloud adoption across the region.

GCs and legal leaders often have a poor understanding of what is needed for effective technology implementation and use in their functions,” said Maesea McCalpin, Senior Principal, Research in Gartner’s Assurance Practice. “Many are unaware of necessary workflow changes, lack a realistic view of how systems can improve workflows, do not fully grasp the obstacles to implementation and effective use, and few have plans to address these challenges.

The ISG Buyers Guides for Data Platforms, produced by ISG Software Research, provide the rankings and ratings of 38 software providers and their products to support data storage, processing, analysis and presentation. The research finds that the traditional distinction between analytic and operational data platforms is blurring as more business applications use real-time, AI-powered analytic processing for functions such as personalization, real-time predictions and contextually relevant recommendations. To enable intelligent applications driven by GenAI and machine learning, providers are delivering data platform capabilities to support hybrid operational and analytic workloads.

The report highlights how a rapidly shifting and fragmented regulatory environment is driving a fundamental reset in enterprise technology and risk strategies. From data localization mandates to AI governance frameworks, organizations in markets such as India, Singapore, Japan, and Australia are now embedding regulatory foresight into their digital infrastructure. These mandates increasingly go beyond compliance—strengthening operational resilience, digital sovereignty, and customer trust.

“The MENA region is rapidly emerging as a global tech powerhouse, with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leveraging its stability, infrastructure and forward-looking policies to attract global partners and build digital skills that empower innovation and support resilient AI-driven economies,” said Mim Burt, Practice VP at Gartner. “Even amid global economic and geopolitical uncertainty, chief information officers (CIOs) in MENA are making strategic investments in AI, intelligent automation and multi-cloud strategies, while strengthening cyber defenses and advancing talent upskilling. These efforts are not only driving innovation and economic diversification but also contributing to the region’s projected IT spending growth in 2026.”

After decades in the background, high-speed aviation is drawing renewed attention from investors, manufacturers, and regulators. The convergence of global economic pressures, advanced materials science, and digital engineering is reshaping what’s possible for commercial and cargo at high flight speeds. While Concorde proved the allure of supersonic travel, it also revealed the technical,  operational and economic constraints that grounded the aircraft in 2003. Now, the next generation of aerospace innovators is targeting more sustainable, economically viable, and mission-flexible platforms.

After decades of false starts, high-speed aviation is moving closer to a commercially viable comeback — this time driven not by prestige or Cold War competition, but by structural shifts in global commerce, advances in propulsion and materials, and new approaches to financing large-scale aerospace programs.

The 2025 ISG Provider Lens Private/Hybrid Cloud — Data Center Services report for the U.S. Public Sector finds that state, local and educational (SLED) organizations are focusing their technology investments on modernization, cybersecurity and hybrid clouds. The growth of the SLED IT market is slowing due to limited resources and recent changes in the federal government. Despite these hurdles, 90 percent of SLED agencies are expected to adopt hybrid cloud models.

According to an IDC Market Forecast titled Asia/Pacific Whole Cloud Services Forecast, 202 5 –202 8, the Asia/Pacific whole cloud spending is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.2% and reach US$471.2 billion by 2028. Asia/Pacific whole cloud spending grew at a year-over-year (YoY) rate of 34.6% in 2024, and IDC expects the market to grow at 23.4% in 2025, as cloud-related spending continues to accelerate.

AI agents and AI-ready data are the two fastest advancing technologies on the 2025 Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, according to Gartner, Inc., a business and technology insights company. These technologies are experiencing heightened interest this year, accompanied by ambitious projections and speculative promises, placing them at the Peak of Inflated Expectations.

The 2025 ISG Provider Lens Private/Hybrid Cloud — Data Center Services report for the U.K. finds an upward trend in the adoption of hybrid and multicloud infrastructure models, with significant growth anticipated within the next three years. Performance, data sovereignty, security and regulatory pressures are the primary drivers of this growth. Hybrid cloud is now the preferred model for many U.K. enterprises, because it lets organizations align workloads with appropriate environments and improve data protection.

Worldwide tablet shipments grew 13.1% year-over-year in the second quarter of 2025 (2Q25), totaling 38.3 million units, according to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. Growth continued from the first quarter with product refreshes, replacement cycles, active education projects and subsidies in China driving the shipment volume. Growth continued from the first quarter with product refreshes, replacement cycles, active education projects and subsidies in China driving the shipment volume.

Asia Pacific’s spending on IT and business services slowed in the second quarter as enterprises remained cautious in the face of uncertain macro conditions, according to the latest state-of-the-industry report from Information Services Group (ISG), a global AI-centered technology research and advisory firm.

As the structure of work evolves and more Americans turn to small businesses and self-employment, traditional models of retirement planning are being reimagined. The 401(k), once the domain of large enterprises and well-staffed HR departments, is now becoming accessible to the long tail of the economy—thanks to technology, fiduciary automation, and cloud-first service models.

Cloud providers are investing heavily in AI infrastructure and capabilities to become leaders in the rapidly evolving AI-optimized IaaS market. They expect that AI will become a much larger revenue contributor in the future, even though it currently remains a relatively small slice of their overall revenue within the IaaS space,” said Singh.

In an economy where 33 million U.S. businesses operate outside the Fortune 1000, the traditional retirement system remains stubbornly tilted toward scale. While large enterprises have long enjoyed structured 401(k) programs and institutional-grade investment options, most small employers—and the vast population of self-employed professionals—continue to be underserved.