New U.S. tariffs against China and weakening consumer demand will result in a slower market for PCs and tablets than originally forecast, IDC said Wednesday. Global PC volume is now expected to hit 273 million in 2025, a 3.7% increase over 2024, while tablet shipments are expected to shrink 0.8%, IDC said. It projects an anemic compound annual growth rate of 0.4% for PCs in 2025-29. “Price hikes stemming from tariffs in the US combined with subdued demand are leading to a negative impact within the largest market for PCs,” said Jitesh Ubrani, research manager with IDC's Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers.
Demand for Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses helped drive a 210% year-over-year jump in global smart glasses shipments last year, Counterpoint said Wednesday. It said Metas represented more than 60% of the market share in 2024. An array of competing smart glasses have come on the market since late 2024, most of them from Chinese companies, it said, and numerous other launches are expected this year and next.
Apple's iPhone 15 was the best-selling smartphone in 2024 internationally, Counterpoint Research said Monday. For a third straight year, Apple and Samsung products claimed the 10 top spots on the list, it said.
Testing platform LambdaTest said Monday that developers can now use the company’s platform to validate apps for the Samsung Galaxy S25 series of devices before they launch commercially Feb. 7. “This makes LambdaTest the first in the market to offer developers and testers worldwide the opportunity to run manual and automated tests at scale on the latest Samsung Galaxy real devices before anyone else,” the company said. "From web to mobile applications, users can now seamlessly validate their app’s performance, compatibility, and user experience on Samsung’s flagship S25 series -- days before it reaches the hands of consumers."
Global smartphone shipments increased 2.4% year-over-year to 331.7 million units in Q4, IDC reported Monday. That marked the sixth consecutive quarter of shipment growth, closing 2024 with 6.4% growth and 1.24 billion shipments, “marking a strong recovery after two challenging years of decline,” IDC said: “We expect the market to continue growing in 2025, albeit at a slower pace, as refresh cycles continue growing and pent-up demand is fulfilled.” Apple led with a 23.2% market share, Samsung (15.6%) followed, with China’s Xiaomi (12.9%) after that. Of the three, only Xiaomi saw its market share grow over Q4 2023. “This past quarter was particularly remarkable for the largest Chinese smartphone vendors: Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Honor, Huawei, Lenovo, realme, Transsion, TCL, and ZTE,” IDC said: “They achieved a historic milestone as they shipped the highest combined volume ever in a quarter, representing 56% of the global smartphone shipments in Q4.”
The market in India for premium smartphones saw a compound annual growth rate of slightly more than 50% in 2021-2023, ResearchAndMarkets.com reported Tuesday. Premium smartphones were defined as devices costing more than $350. “The swift expansion of the premium smartphone market is driven by increasing disposable income, urbanization, and a change in consumer preferences in favor of upgrading to high-end devices for better performance, advanced features, and superior user experiences,” the report said.
Virtual reality headset shipments globally fell 4% year over year in Q3, the third consecutive quarter of declines, Counterpoint said Friday. The augmented reality/AI smart glasses segment is set to grow in 2025, with the debut of the Android XR operating system and new entries from major tech companies as main drivers. Counterpoint said the VR market is struggling with hardware limitations and costs, and expects slight growth in the global VR market in coming years, compared with "significant expansion" in the global augmented reality smart glasses market.
AI and devices such as smart glasses and enterprise drones will drive uplink traffic demands in 2025, ABI Research said this week. That in turn will create changes in telecommunications network design, it added. Moreover, Chinese operators, early adopters of 5G stand-alone core networks, are already heavily into network slicing and priority packages. Other telecom operators will need to adapt quickly to shifting traffic, ABI added. In addition, it said 2025 will see telecom vendors facing slowing capital expenditures as 5G rollouts flatten in mature markets like North America and Western Europe. To remain competitive, they must partner with AI-focused firms, ABI added.
The extended reality market is starting to mature, and the time is ripe for rollout of Google's Android XR platform for XR headsets and glasses, a Counterpoint note said Tuesday. While Apple has Vision OS for Apple Vision Pro and Meta has an operating system only for Meta devices, Google is trying to create a unified platform with Android XR, letting developers build apps for XR devices. With Android as its base, the OS benefits from an existing ecosystem, making it easier for developers to port apps into XR devices, Counterpoint said. With the Android XR OS, "Google is looking to create the ‘smartphone’ moment, like it did with Android, allowing OEMs to build devices without worrying about the underlying software."
Walmart said Tuesday it completed its $2.3 billion purchase of Vizio. The retailer said Vizio's smart TV SmartCast operating system would open the door to additional advertising services, especially when coupled with the Walmart Connect advertising unit.