CFOs seeking to bolster their organizations’ recession preparedness should start by assessing their deal pipelines, testing the speed of their team’s financial analysis and ensuring their balance sheets can support countercyclical investments, according to Gartner, Inc.

The arrival in 2019 of 5G wireless wide-area networking technology promises to leave an indelible mark on any industry that stands to gain from the rapid evolution of the Internet of Things (IoT), and will place network service providers in an ideal position to serve this market.

A new study from Juniper Research has found that there will be 8 billion digital voice assistants in use by 2023, up from an estimated 2.5 billion at the end of 2018.

Amazon (AWS), Google, IBM, Microsoft (Azurea) and Alibaba were named “leaders” by IHS  Markit's new scorecard on off-premises cloud IT service providers.
“Leadership in the cloud IT infrastructure services market requires a diverse portfolio, and all of the leaders have strong brand awareness and a reputation of innovation,” said Devan Adams, principal analyst, cloud and data center research practice, IHS Markit.

Emerging digital trends are top of mind for customer service and support leaders in 2019, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. Customer-facing artificial intelligence (AI), big data, customer activism and rising CRM costs are key priorities for customer service and support leaders this year.

In an era of continuous change, a proactive and adaptive culture is a critical asset and CIOs will play a key role in establishing the right mindsets and practices. Gartner, Inc. predicts that by 2021, CIOs will be as responsible for culture change as chief HR officers (CHROs).

Information and communications technology (ICT) spending by service providers will reach $426 billion by 2022, representing average growth of 6 percent per year, as the ongoing shift from on-premise IT management to the "as-a-service" model continues to gather pace in many regions around the world, IDC finds.

Despite the smartphone market’s slowing growth due to saturating addressable markets, ballooning Average Selling Prices (ASPs), prevailing consumer price fatigue, and lengthening replacement cycles, all is not lost. In fact, the market will witness a 4.1 percent rise in shipments in 2019, growing to just under 1.6 billion for the year, according to ABI Research.

New research from Parks Associates finds smart speakers inspire strong brand loyalty among owners—97 percent of smart speaker households own only one brand in this device category. New research from 360 Deep Dive: Consumer Demand for High-End Entertainment Devices reveals two-thirds of smart speaker households own an Echo device, while almost one-third own a Google Home. Low-end models such as the Echo Dot and Google Home Mini are the most common products owned, but the trend of brand loyalty in this early market creates opportunities for device makers to upsell premium products.

The smartphone is now a nearly ubiquitous consumer technology; almost 90 percent of consumers in developed countries own a smartphone, with an average of 2.5 smartphones in every U.S. households, according to latest Consumer Survey from GSMA Intelligence.

Revenues generated by technology in the global supply chain will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11 percent, reaching $440 billion by 2023, according to ABI Research. Suppliers, manufacturers, retailers, and logistics service providers (LSPs) will continue to adopt increasingly sophisticated and impactful digital technology strategies to deliver value along the entire logistics value chain.

Wearable technology continues to capture the interest of consumers and is riding an upward trend, with close to 105 million wearables shipped in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 10 percent, according to the latest Wearable Technology market report from Futuresource Consulting.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly making its way into the workplace, with virtual personal assistants (VPAs) and other forms of chatbots now augmenting human performance in many organizations. Gartner, Inc. predicts that, by 2021, 70 percent of organizations will assist their employees’ productivity by integrating AI in the workplace. This development will prompt 10 percent of organizations to add a digital harassment policy to workplace regulation.

After a content-starved market introduction, virtual reality (VR) is ready to thrive off a swath of new and compelling content choices. ABI Research forecasts total VR device shipments will reach 110 million by 2021.

Revenues for the European Internet of Things (IoT) market are forecast to increase by 19.8 percent year on year to reach $171 billion in 2019, according to the latest update to the Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC).

Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.76 trillion in 2019, an increase of 3.2 percent from 2018, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. Additionally, all segments are forecast to exhibit growth in 2019 despite threats such as recession and Brexit.

A new study from Juniper Research has found that revenues from VR-specific games will reach $8.2 billion by 2023, rising from an expected $1.2 billion in 2019. It argued that development of smartphone VR content is essential to increase consumer confidence in VR across all platforms, following a disappointing year of hardware sales in 2018.

A new study from Juniper Research found that users of mobile ticketing will total 1.9 billion by 2023, up from 1.1 billion in 2019. In comparison, the total number of digital ticketing users across mobile, online and wearable channels, will reach 2.2 billion by 2023. Juniper Research forecasts that mobile will account for more than half of all digital ticketing users in 2019.

The eSports phenomenon continues to gain momentum with a business expected to reach over a billion dollars in revenue this year, according to a new report from Futuresource Consulting. This market comprises games publishers’ revenues, media rights, event ticket sales and merchandise, advertising and sponsorship, this figure is expected to triple over the next five years.

The bloom was apparently back on the rose for augmented reality (AR) virtual reality (VR) and computer vision startups in 2018, according to new research from Digi-Capital.  The gains in Q4 2018 driven by large, late-stage deals in China.