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IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Small and Medium-Sized Business 2026 Predictions

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC FutureScape presents 10 key predictions for worldwide SMBs (1–999 employees) through 2026 and beyond, focusing on AI, cybersecurity, and macroeconomic forces shaping digital strategy.

"This IDC FutureScape for worldwide SMB offers data-driven insights to guide IT planning and reveals how SMBs are leveraging emerging technologies to compete in a rapidly evolving landscape," says Elisabeth Clemmons, research analyst, Worldwide Small and Medium Business Markets at IDC.

Worldwide Augmented, Extended, Mixed, and Virtual Reality Headset Forecast Update, 2025-2029: CY 4Q25

Ramon T. Llamas — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC presentation forecasts shipments of augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR), mixed reality (MR), and virtual reality (VR) headsets. In addition to providing shipment information, this presentation shows forecasts by average selling price (ASP), revenue, region, and segment.

"The augmented, extended, mixed, and virtual reality headset market is anticipated to shrink in 2025 due to limited device updates and trade concerns. Yet, the launch of major releases in 2026 and beyond is expected to revive the market, underscoring the need for new, cutting-edge headsets. Nevertheless, products will not follow uniform trajectories: AR volumes will remain stagnant, while XR and MR volumes will propel the market forward, and VR volumes will gradually diminish." — Ramon T. Llamas, research director, Mobile Devices and AR/VR

2025 Canadian Consumer Mobile Phone Brands and Models

Praveen Datta — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey presents findings from IDC Canada's recent consumer surveys focusing on mature hardware — mobile phones. The showcased data highlights mobile phone brands in use in Canada, including segmentation of mobile phone brands in use by carrier, generations, and household income. One of the main goals of these surveys is to identify/measure the current state of the consumer device markets including mobile phones.

IDC Canada's consumer research group conducts quarterly surveys to understand the current and future adoption plans for a variety of consumer devices. For this document, we surveyed 2,000 Canadian consumers in July 2025.

Further, details are provided for the top 2 mobile phone brands of Apple and Samsung, revealing which phone models are in use in Canada from those two brands. Segmentation data is also provided giving insight into which phone models are being adopted over time and which are currently in use by different age groups and different household income levels.

Survey data from previous IDC Canada surveys has been used where appropriate to best illustrate market trends. This document references data from IDC's Canadian Consumer Surveys from 2Q23 (July), 2024, and 2025 as well as 1Q25.

There is a considerable volume of data from our surveys beyond what is provided in this presentation, and more detailed cross-tabs can also be provided. We encourage you to contact your IDC account representative if you have any specific questions about a market or segment of interest.

U.S. Enterprise Augmented Reality Survey, 2025

Ramon T. Llamas — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey analyzes the state of enterprise augmented reality (AR) headset adoption and usage in the United States. During 1Q25, IDC polled 108 IT decision-makers on how their organizations are using AR headsets. Because we had a strong turnout of Microsoft HoloLens and HoloLens 2 users, we broke them out separately from the total set of respondents. Topics of inquiry include user demographics, a profile of users' enterprise AR usage and users' top use cases, color on the primary AR software/tool used and user satisfaction with it, IT considerations, and AI's importance, deployment challenges, and success factors.

To qualify for the survey, respondents had to be 18+ years old, have a part-time or full-time job (or own a business), use XR tech for work purposes in the past month, and couldn't work for an enterprise that made XR hardware, made XR-specific software, or focused on advertising or market research.

"AR headsets have been used by U.S. enterprises for multiple purposes, including training, knowledge transfer, and collaboration, all of which have served to enhance and increase general productivity," said Ramon T. Llamas, research director with IDC's XR Hardware and Interactive 3D Software team. "The survey shows that Microsoft HoloLens 2 deployments were large and that its older cousin, the HoloLens, was still very much in use today. Respondents have reported primarily using AR for collaboration, productivity, and training; they use software that shipped with the headset and expect improvement in productivity and work efficiency. Finally, they also reported the most satisfaction with saving money and time for both customers and the company."

GenAI Smartphones in the United States, 2025: An Overview, Including Ownership, Interest, Benefits, and Resistance

Ramon T. Llamas — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey analyzes how consumers are adopting, using, and resisting generative AI (GenAI) smartphones. In the spring of 2025, IDC polled 2,034 consumer smartphone users about whether they owned a GenAI smartphone, what features they used, and how satisfied they were with them. In addition, we polled those who did not want to own a GenAI smartphone, why they resisted, and what it would take for them to consider a GenAI smartphone.

"Gen AI smartphones have had only a short history in the United States mobile phone market, yet they have become the battleground for many smartphone vendors eager to shape the smartphone experience," said Ramon T. Llamas, research director with IDC's Mobile Phones team. "To date, adoption and usage is low pointing to a need of continuing end-user education, but among current owners, satisfaction is mostly high."

"As with many new technologies, resistance is expected, and we found that to be the case against GenAI smartphones as well," continued Llamas. "This is where smartphone vendors can address concerns with testimonials and steps they are taking to safeguard end-user privacy."

Shopware Community Day 2025: Advancing Agentic AI, B2B Commerce, and Ecosystem Collaboration

Mark Casidsid — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note discusses the main takeaways from Shopware’s Community Day held in September 2025. It also outlines key strategy and product updates and provides IDC's analysis of Shopware’s ongoing initiatives and announcements from the event.

"Discussions at Shopware’s Community Day underscored the importance of coupling automation through agentic AI with transparency and merchant oversight to address practical adoption barriers. As B2B commerce increasingly incorporates autonomous AI, ensuring clear governance and control mechanisms remains central to industry acceptance and operational reliability. In this regard, there are significant opportunities to collaborate across the ecosystem to drive joint innovation and develop shared standards that support responsible AI adoption." — Mark Casidsid, senior research analyst, AI-enabled business commerce, partner relationship, and ecosystem management, IDC.

U.S. Business Wireline Telecommunications Services Forecast, 2025–2029

Denise Lund, Avinash Naga, Courtney Munroe — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC presentation analyzes the U.S. business wireline telecommunications services market. In addition to presenting key trends, the presentation forecasts business wireline voice and data services revenue through 2029.

"U.S. business wireline telecom services revenue will continue to decline by 2029," said Denise Lund, research vice president, Worldwide Telecom and Unified Communications at IDC. "But together, the IP voice and broadband segments will keep the five-year CAGR for the market above water for providers that adapt and lean into the growth areas tied to business needs of the future."

5G Americas Analyst Forum 2025: Opportunities Abound in 5G's Second Act and Ahead of 6G

Jason Leigh, Pahul Singh, Phil Solis — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

The 2025 edition of 5G Americas' newly virtual Analyst Forum continues to paint an optimistic outlook about the potential for 5G, both now and in the near term. While spectrum constraints persist and are beyond the industry's control, there remains a struggle to translate 5G's "art of the possible" into commercial scale and material revenue generation.

Contentsquare CX Circle 2025: Bridging Digital Behavior and Conversational Intelligence Through AI

Tapan Patel — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

At Contentsquare's CX Circle 2025 event in New York, the company announced its progression toward autonomous digital analytics, shifting from AI assistant to AI agent to AI automation. The centerpiece announcement was Sense Analyst, an autonomous agent that continuously maps customer journeys, analyzes page elements, runs parallel comparisons, and delivers proactive recommendations to improve digital experience. Contentsquare's broader strategy encompasses AI-powered mapping automation, enhanced Sense Chat 2.0 capabilities, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration.

The upcoming Loris AI acquisition will integrate conversational intelligence with behavioral analytics, enabling complete customer life-cycle visibility from acquisition through service interactions. Contentsquare faces the challenge of balancing small and midmarket offering simplicity with enterprise-grade capabilities while competing against rapidly advancing digital analytics providers. Success depends on road map prioritization, clear messaging, transparent AI agents, and continuous customer education to build confidence in autonomous analytics adoption.

How will EMEA Manufacturing Organizations' Investment Priorities in Manufacturing Applications Shift over the Next Two Years?

Gunjan Bassi — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Tech Buyer Survey Spotlight looks at the top manufacturing applications that EMEA manufacturers are looking to invest in today and in the next two years. Data presented here is from IDC's Industry Intelligence — Manufacturing Survey, conducted in April 2025.