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Apple Fiscal 3Q26: June Quarter Records; Looking Ahead, Memory Costs and Supply Constraints Could Hamper Growth

Tom Mainelli — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

CX Path: Executive Summary, 2026 — Examining the CX Buyer’s Journey

Nadia Ballard, Aly Pinder, Eric Newmark, Tiffany McCormick, Douglas Hayward — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation provides an executive summary of the worldwide findings from IDC’s 2026 CX Path program.

IDC’s 2026 CX Path polled 2,530 respondents across 12 countries to collect information on CX application and AI adoption, the CX buyer’s journey, and CX vendor preferences and ratings.

Coverage includes application adoption, use of generative AI and/or agentic AI, deployment models, budget plans and replacement cycle timing, purchasing preferences and attitudes toward CX buying channels, pricing options, CX management platforms, ratings, spend, and advocacy scores. The study covers 14 functional application markets: advertising; marketing; sales; digital commerce; configure, price, quote (CPQ); product information management/experience management (PIM/PXM); contact center and customer service; voice of the customer (VOC); customer experience orchestration; content and experience management; customer data platforms (CDPs); customer and digital experience analytics; aftermarket service life-cycle management; and price optimization.

IDC Survey: The AI Front Door, Earned Trust, and Diversified Buying Committees — The New Rules of B2B Tech Buying in 2026

Sudhir Rajagopal — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey uses insights from IDC’s 2026 Tech Buyer Behavior Survey to assess the impact of digital, omni-channel, AI, and consumer experience expectations on B2B buying behavior and practices; instill a deeper understanding of marketing practices desired by tech buyers; and identify the role of the human-to-human experience as agentic AI rises.

The B2B buying journey is now truly omni-channel, with technology buyers pulling multiple sources of content across multiple channels, both digital and human led, simultaneously. This raises the stakes for vendors to orchestrate marketing and sales engagement based on real-time buyer intent signals. In addition, the technology buying journey is heavily disintermediated by AI throughout the customer life cycle, requiring vendors to engage the human buyer as well as the buyer’s AI agents, as AI-mediated discovery and task delegation become core practices.

In An Effort to Entice Consumers and Developers, Snap Unveils its SPECS

Ramon T. Llamas — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note analyzes Snap's SPECS glasses announcement at AWE USA 2026. It traces the company's roots for hardware and software, how it has built an active user base and developer base worldwide, and how the company can court customers with its first AR-powered glasses.

"Snap's SPECS represents a new opportunity for the company and the market at large," says Ramon T. Llamas, research director, XR Hardware and 3D Software team, IDC. "Snap SPECS builds on the company's rich heritage of hardware and software development, bringing AR to an audience already familiar with the company. Consumers will be the first tranche of customers, yet there is also a sizable commercial opportunity for the company to tap into. Altogether, Snap stands to help move the worldwide AR market forward."

Market Analysis Perspective: Worldwide Telecom Operations and Monetization, 2026

Chris Silberberg — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Analysis Perspective provides insight into the current and future state of the telecom operations and monetization market. It includes an overview of the current market landscape, a technology buyer perspective, a market outlook, and IDC’s advice for technology and services suppliers.

This year 2026 is a year of execution as telecom operators and vendors face the reality that we are far from truly autonomous networks, and deploying agentic AI at scale is easier said than done. Technological progress is being made but needs to be accompanied with organizational and process change for the industry to really scale outputs from AI.

Market Forecast: Worldwide XR Headset Forecast, 2025–2030: CY 3Q26

Ramon T. Llamas — Wed, 05 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC presentation analyzes the future of the XR headset market, including augmented reality (AR), extended reality (ER), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR) headsets, with shipments, average selling prices (ASPs), and value breakouts by region and usage segmentation.

"We have adjusted our XR forecast slightly downwards, but the overall trajectory remains the same: a slow increase in volumes propelled primarily by extended reality and mixed reality headsets. In addition, the market will tilt more and more toward consumer ownership, thanks to vendors focusing on media, entertainment, and personal productivity. As a result, we anticipate a 22.0% increase in volumes in 2026 over 2025 levels, and a 34.6% five-year CAGR before landing at 22.7 million units in 2030," says Ramon T. Llamas, research director, Mobile Devices and XR, IDC.

IDC Survey: U.S. Enterprise XR Survey, 2026 — Collaboration

Ramon T. Llamas — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC presentation draws on IDC’s Commercial XR Survey, fielded among U.S. professionals who used a VR, MR, AR, or ER headset for work in the first quarter of 2026, narrowed to those who named collaborating with colleagues, whether through virtual meetings or shared virtual spaces, as their primary use case.

The study covers which headsets and delivery models this group has standardized on and how many hours a week they spend in one, how far their deployments have progressed and how broadly they reach the workforce, how collaboration software is acquired (e.g., in-house, through a partner, or off the shelf) and where it runs, and how expected outcomes such as knowledge sharing, error reduction, productivity, and the core collaboration experience compare with what organizations report once the tools are in use.

Headset makers, software vendors, and the integrators between them can use the study to see how enterprise XR collaboration is structured today.

European 5G Mission Critical: Models, Technologies, Adoption, and Trends

Alejandro Cadenas — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Perspective examines the current state of the European 5G Mission Critical (MC) market across public safety and other verticals like FRMCS, focusing on the commercial models, technologies, adoption patterns, and trends visible in 2026. It draws on public disclosures from national programs, vendor announcements, and industry consortia, mapping the four business models in active use, the country-by-country technology and delivery status, and the wider set of players competing for the commercial value layer above pure connectivity. The document highlights the heterogeneity of mobile network operator (MNO) engagement across European MC programs and offers recommendations for MNOs, MC-focused vendors, integrators, and MVNOs on how to position for the 2026–2030 investment window.

"European Mission Critical is a growing commercial market where the winners have not yet been chosen. The countries where operators have invested seriously, like Spain with Telefónica, Germany with Deutsche Telekom BOS, and the United Kingdom with EE/BT, already show that the productizer role can be defensible for a decade or more," says Alejandro Cadenas, associate vice president, Global Telecom Research at IDC. "The question every other European operator now faces is straightforward: Engage in the next 24 months and shape the value layer or accept that systems integrators, specialist vendors, cloud hyperscalers, and satellite operators will define it without you."

IDC 2026 State of the Telco Market

Fri, 31 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Built around 10 key predictions, this IDC Market Presentation explores the strategic, technological, and operational shifts that will define telco success through 2026, from the rapid acceleration of AI investment and the rise of sovereign infrastructure, to LEO satellite integration, vendor ecosystem consolidation, and the wholesale market transformation. This IDC "2026 State of the Telco Market" presentation distills IDC's perspective on how these forces will reshape the industry over the next several years.

The global telecommunications industry is entering a defining moment. As connectivity becomes the backbone of digital economies, telcos are under increasing pressure to deliver sustained growth while navigating slowing revenue expansion, rising network costs, regulatory complexity, intensifying competition, and rapid technological change.

Based on IDC's latest market data, forecasts, and expert analysis, this presentation is designed for telecom executives, technology leaders, and industry strategists to provide actionable intelligence on where the industry is heading and what decisions need to be made now to remain relevant, resilient, and competitive in the years ahead.

IDC Survey: 2026 Commercial XR Survey — Mixed Reality Headsets

Bryan Bassett — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey examines the results of IDC’s 2026 Commercial XR Survey: Mixed Reality Headsets to gain insight into an extensive array of topics related to workplace mixed reality adoption and software use. Key topics of coverage include primary headset preferences, deployment stages, employee reach, software delivery models, sourcing paths, expected benefits, and realized workplace outcomes. The goal of this survey was to identify the significance of mixed reality headsets, software, and deployment strategies and their growing influence on enterprise productivity, collaboration, training, and workflow execution.