Gartner Says Worldwide IT Spending To Grow 2.4 Percent In 2017
Worldwide IT spending continues to increase, with emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, blockchain, and smart machines in retail behind the climb. That’s according to the latest analysis from Gartner, which forecasts global IT spending to total $3.5 trillion (£2.7tn) in 2017, up 2.4 percent from the year before.
Microsoft Says Windows 10 Creators Update Is Ready For Business Deployment
Microsoft is christening the Windows 10 Creators Update release that began rolling out in April 2017 as ready for businesses to deploy. Previously, Microsoft called the version of Windows 10 ready for business deployment the “Current Branch for Business,” or CBB. As officials said earlier this year, the new name for CBB is “Semi-Annual Channel” — a designation that Windows 10 will share, going forward with Office 365 ProPlus.
Biometric Authentication Methods Preferred Over Passwords For Banking
The vast majority of consumers prefer biometric authentication methods over traditional passwords, according to a recently conducted study. Conducted by the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and Mastercard, the study showed 93 percent of consumers surveyed are inclined toward biometric authentication methods.
Apple Users Can Now Make App Store Purchases With PayPal
Apple has said PayPal customers will soon be able to pay for App Store, Apple Music, iTunes, and iBooks purchases across iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and desktop devices using their PayPal account.
Defending Against Cyberwar
Cyberwar has evolved from the theoretical to the ominous. TechRepublic went inside one of the defenders vs. hackers war games that’s helping nations prepare to defend themselves.
Microsoft To Outfit HoloLens AR Headset With AI Chip
HoloLens, Microsoft’s self-contained augmented reality headset, is set to receive an artificial intelligence (AI) upgrade. The technology giant is working on an AI co-processor for the next HoloLens, the company revealed this week. Currently, HoloLens packs a custom chip dubbed the Holographic Processing Unit (HPU), which enables the device to map out a user’s environment and anchor virtual objects to those surroundings, among other tasks required to turn sensor data into convincing mixed-reality experiences.
Enterprise Mobile Apps Are Still Treated As Second-Class Citizens
Mobile has been steadily increasing its role within the client side of enterprise computing, yet many still seem to be struggling with mobile app development and management. There’s a solid business case to be made for opening up core enterprise applications and data to mobile access. In a recent survey of 200 executives by IFS, digital transformation leaders were shown to be more open to mobile app access. They were more than twice as likely to access their software from a mobile device than those who said their software did a poor job of preparing them for digital transformation.
A2P SMS And Chat Apps Are Increasingly Favored By Enterprise Businesses
A recent report by Ovum’s Enterprise Messaging Survey canvassed 100 companies in seven countries to investigate their use of messaging as a channel for customer engagement, notification, and authentication and revealed a growing business appetite for more interactive forms of messaging. The strongest indication of growth is the deployment of chat bots, the survey said. A quarter of respondents indicated that they are using the nascent technology to automate customer interactivity with specific demographic groups such as millennials.
In-App Shopping: The Growth Of Mobile Commerce
The evolution of mobile shopping, encouraged by increasingly sophisticated devices and 4G mobile internet, is more obvious in Europe and Asia, but the US is fighting to catch up with them. According to the latest Criteo State of the Mobile Commerce 2016 report, the United States took 7th place on the list of countries with the largest volume of mobile use for shopping, with Japan, the United Kingdom and South Korea leading the top.
Highlights From 2017 Enterprise Mobility Exchange Report
The question of where IT is headed is always a difficult one to answer. To track some of that progress, each year, the Enterprise Mobility Exchange surveys IT professionals to get a sense of how enterprises are leveraging technology, what is trending up or down, and what is upcoming or outgoing. This year’s survey, titled “Industry Insight 2017: The State of Enterprise Mobility,” dives head first into those questions.
An Enterprise Without Borders: Solving The Disconnect With Connected Platforms
Business leaders have more progressive expectations than before. Their forward-looking business goals call for integration with new capabilities and technologies — from artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) to bots and cloud services. None can be easily integrated into older platforms.
Google’s Trusted Contacts Safety App Is Now Available For iOS
Google has brought Trusted Contacts, its personal safety app for emergencies, to Apple’s mobile devices. The app, which launched on Android last year, lets you set up select or ‘trusted contacts’ who can then check whether you’re online and moving around. The app is meant for emergency scenarios or everyday situations if a contact wants to know you’re OK.
WhatsApp: Now One Billion People Send 55 Billion Messages Per Day
The eight-year old messaging app WhatsApp is now used by one billion people every day. WhatsApp reached the one billion active monthly user milestone a year ago, and now has 1.3 billion monthly active users, most of whom use it daily, according to the company. WhatsApp shared the daily active user numbers in a blogpost along with other metrics showing how people use the app, following the release of Facebook’s Q2 2017 earnings yesterday.
Four In Five Organizations Concerned Digital Transformation Is Leaving Them Behind
Another day, another report, which warns against slow progress when it comes to digital transformation: according to a study from Couchbase, 80 percent of organizations are at risk of being left behind. The survey from the NoSQL database firm, which polled 450 heads of digital transformation – in other words, CIOs, CTOs and CDOs (chief digital officers) – found that the vast majority (89 percent) said their industry was either already being disrupted by digital technology or that it was a ‘matter of time’.
Apple AR Smart Glasses Patent Points To How They Could Be Used
A new eyewear patent application from Apple may shed some light on the company’s much discussed augmented reality (AR) and smart glasses plans. Rumors have swirled for a while that Apple could be working on smart glasses following initial AR development for the iPhone. Now a patent application has been spotted by Patently Apple from Metaio, an AR company that Apple bought in May 2015, but is now attributed to Apple.
Starbucks To Step Up Rollout Of “Digital Flywheel” Strategy
Starbucks will start rolling out more of its “digital flywheel” strategy in the fall as it aims to keep store sales growing via customer personalization, frequency and its rewards program. In its fiscal third quarter results, Starbucks said that its Starbucks Rewards membership was up 8 percent from a year ago to 13.3 million members. Starbucks Rewards also accounted for 36 percent of U.S. company operated sites. Mobile payment was 30 percent of transactions in the U.S. and mobile order and pay was 9 percent of transactions.
Microsoft Digital Transformation: CIOs To See Industry, Partner Focus
At Microsoft, digital transformation has emerged as a key corporate theme and, as a result, CIOs can expect to see the company place a greater focus on industry verticals and pursue a go-to-market strategy that relies on business partners.
The CIO’s Role in Driving Digital Transformation Initiatives in Their Organization
Enterprises around the globe are under pressure to drive digital transformation processes that enhance efficiency and employee productivity in the workplace. However, the journey towards digital transformation in the enterprise has proven not to be an easy one, with many lacking the information-related skilled needed to be successful. Read this blog post for the steps CIOs must take to adapt to digital transformation in the workplace.
Three In Five Global Organizations Have Adopted Windows 10
Gartner said back in April that 85 percent of enterprises will have started deploying Windows 10 by the end of 2017 – and now according to new data from Spiceworks, 60 percent of global organizations have adopted the operating system today.
