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From Gaming to Gaining: AR/VR Headsets and Smart Glasses Go Mainstream, says IDC

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

NEEDHAM, Mass., September 17, 2025 – Worldwide shipments of AR/VR headsets combined with display-less smart glasses are expected to grow 39.2% in 2025 with volumes reaching 14.3 million units, according to new data from the International Data Corporation (IDC ) Worldwide Quarterly Augmented and Virtual Reality Headset Tracker. The market will be driven by smart glasses such as Meta’s Ray-Bans, with the category growing 247.5% during the year thanks to new product launches from Meta as well as numerous other companies joining the race to put artificial intelligence (AI) on consumers’ faces.

Splunk .conf25: Delivering on Promised Synergies with Machine Data?

Michelle Abraham, Frank Dickson, Christopher Kissel — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Splunk’s .conf25 conference showcased Cisco’s Data Fabric initiative, which aims to unify and enrich machine-generated data for AI applications. Splunk also announced Agentic AI capabilities for Enterprise Security to automate threat triage, malware analysis, and SOC workflows while adding to its open data ecosystem with the introduction of Federated Search for Snowflake and Azure.

Industry Conversation Handbook: Worldwide Retail, 2025

Jose Ignacio Diaz, Nigel Wallis, Filippo Battaini, Cristiano Quattrini — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Industry Conversation Handbook is designed to provide general and synthetic knowledge to support technology suppliers’ salespeople when they first approach buyers in the retail industry. It is aimed at enabling meaningful customer engagement through the discussion of various topics, which are selected by senior IDC analysts based on in-depth, ongoing research about the key technologies applied to operations in this industry.

The handbook equips sales professionals with basic information concerning the apparel, footwear, and accessories subverticals, enabling them to contact buyers with confidence. It provides a toolkit to spark discussions, helping salespeople show preparedness and stimulate interest among technology buyers with significant conversational teasers and examples. It does not provide an in-depth analysis of the industry or of buyer personas, nor does it seek to present a comprehensive sales strategy.

“With only 13% of retailers having truly integrated digital transformation strategies, technology suppliers have a massive opportunity to help the industry bridge the gap between digital ambition and operational reality.” — Research Manager Filippo Battaini, IDC Retail Insights

MPS Monitor Hires Long-Time Industry Veteran — Looks to Significantly Expand Its Presence in North America

Robert Palmer — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

MPS Monitor has announced the appointment of Kevin Tetu as senior vice president of Sales and Partner Alliances. As the original architect and founder of FM Audit, Tetu brings extensive experience and expertise to MPS Monitor. The company has some ambitious goals that include reaching the market leadership position within the device management category, and Tetu's appointment is positioned as a key component of MPS Monitor's long-term growth strategy.

Opticon 2025 Highlights: Optimizely's AI Agent Orchestration Platform — Vision and Innovations for Marketing

Tapan Patel — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

Opticon 2025 advanced Optimizely's vision of digital experience platform (DXP) by elevating Opal from an embedded assistant to an AI agent orchestration layer that unifies content, experimentation, and analytics into one workflow. At the event, Optimizely introduced specialized and custom AI agents, a no-code UI embedded in Opal to build agents and connecting Opal to existing or third-party data sources for context, bringing AI into workflows where teams plan, build, test, and adapt digital experiences.

Optimizely recently introduced Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)–ready Content Management System (CMS) to enhance content visibility for humans who demand clarity, and machines that extract and summarize the content. With rising pressure from enterprise and pure-play DXP and CMS competitors, Optimizely's unified data and warehouse-native analytics approach will offer continued differentiation, though attention to governance and trust layer, agent observability, resource monitoring, and life-cycle management is also important for AI agent orchestration.

2025 U.S. Dealer Channel Support Programs Assessment Index

Keith Kmetz, Robert Palmer — Mon, 15 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study evaluates the various offerings provided to the office equipment channel by its OEM partners. This study takes survey responses from office equipment dealers to establish a framework that evaluates and measures the OEM offering from this channel's perspective.

This study's assessment framework focuses on nine (update) major criteria that include:

Financial
Marketing
Sales/Support
Office Print Hardware
Software/Solutions
Print Services
Portfolio Adjacencies
Operations
Business Transformation

Under each major criteria, there are four to six subcriteria that dealers rated their OEM partners.

"IDC's 2025 U.S. Dealer Channel Support Programs Assessment Index special study articulates the 'voice of the channel' as it pertains to the strengths and vulnerabilities of all major printer/copier OEMs," said Keith Kmetz, program vice president for Imaging, Printing, and Document Solutions research at IDC. "Office equipment dealers evaluated OEMs that they work with on 45 key industry criteria. IDC used this criterion to compare how OEMs were rated by dealers versus an industry average benchmark."

Industry Buyers Handbook: Asia/Pacific Utilities, 2025

Heriberto Roman, Jean-François Segalotto, Nigel Wallis — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation Industry Buyers Handbook aims to help technology vendors understand the areas of technology investments of the Asia/Pacific (AP) utilities industry. Vendors can use this Industry Buyers Handbook to:

Align the company's proposition to the buyer's tech priorities as they relate to domain processes
Position the technology offering and innovation capabilities to respond to the buyer's business transformation objectives
Develop a compelling narrative that resonates with the buyer's requirements

Technology vendor executives in areas including marketing, sales, and product strategy can leverage the insight from this Handbook to inform and formulate their approach with buyers within the utilities sector. The insights provided in this Handbook are largely based on IDC survey data and also leverage senior IDC analysts' knowledge, IDC research, and ongoing conversations with key industry players.

"Asia/Pacific utilities are accelerating digital and ESG transformation, prioritizing operational resilience, workforce modernization, and customer experience — driven by shifting regulatory landscapes and market liberalization across the region," says Jean-François Segalotto, senior associate advisor, IDC Energy Insights.

Semiconductor and the AI Revolution: A Defining Moment

Helen Chiang — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

The IDC Market Presentation highlights the unprecedented challenges and opportunities for semiconductor market. Geopolitical and tariff issues have brought great impact and uncertainties to the semiconductor market, causing panic in the supply chain. At the same time, AI and edge computing have brought new development opportunities to integrated circuit (IC) design, advanced processes, advanced packaging, and downstream applications. This report discusses opportunities and trends in the semiconductor market, especially on major advanced process and advanced packaging companies and countries from the perspective of the semiconductor supply chain to help build a strategy for this market.

Western Europe Hardcopy Page Volume Market Forecast, 2025–2029

Phil Sargeant — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Forecast quantifies the Western Europe hardcopy (printers plus multifunction) page volumes, analyzing issues, trends, and product advances. It contains IDC's review and forecast of the Western Europe page volume market for the home and office segments from 2025 to 2029. Data for 2024 is recorded and data for 2025 to 2029 is forecast.

"Page volumes have been in decline for several years and will continue to contract as demand for the printed page weakens. Factors behind the decline include the impact of digitization and AI as well as the hybrid office working culture that has led to less office footfall over recent years, which in turn has led to reduced page volumes," said Phil Sargeant, senior program director, IDC Imaging, Printing, and Document Solutions.

What We Saw — 2Q25: Trends and Developments in Wide Format and Production Print

Tim Greene — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation highlights some of the major developments and new products in the production and large format digital printing markets from the second quarter and first half of 2025. This presentation includes some data on shipments, new products, and financial results, as well as important strategic developments from the quarter.