How the Next ‘Cloud Price War’ will Impact IT Vendors

As the proportion of the IT budget allocated to cloud increases, the focus on cloud costs will increase, and cost efficiency will once again rise as an area of focus and a decision driver for customers. And it is reasonable to expect this focus on costs to drive yet another wave of price reductions and price wars among cloud providers.

via IDC

Consumption-Based AI Pricing Enables Greater Adoption

Cost is one of the biggest inhibitors to enterprise AI adoption. Suppliers can empower their clients to overcome this hurdle by offering granular, consumption-based pricing and flexible licensing for all AI offerings, from core technologies, applications, APIs, or services.

via IDC

Cloud Object Storage: Another Race to the Bottom?

451 Research revealed that the cloud price battlefield has shifted from virtual machines (VMs) to cloud object storage. The analyst firm predicts that other services — particularly databases — will undergo the same pricing pressures over the next 18 months.

Source: Digital Lifescapes

New Reality for Mobile Service Providers in North America

Sometimes the only way to increase market share is to go downward. Within the North American mobile communication market, where the monthly service price has remained relatively high when compared to more competitive markets, lowering subscriber costs was an inevitable outcome.

Source: Digital Lifescapes

Pay-TV High Cost Continues to Drive Shrinking Demand

The traditional pay-TV industry is anxious to appeal to young consumers, who subscribe at much lower rates than other age groups. This market segment includes both cord-cutters, who have dropped pay-TV, and cord-nevers, who have never subscribed (and likely never will, given the current cost of pay-TV services).

Source: Digital Lifescapes

Why Much Lower Prices will Drive Global Smartphone Upside

IDC analysts believe that as phablets gain in popularity, they expect to see vendors further expanding their portfolio of large-screened devices, but at much more affordable price points — compared to market leaders Samsung and Apple.

Source: Digital Lifescapes

Value-Added Cloud Computing Services Still Matter to Buyers

According to the latest global Cloud Price Index (CPI) study, the cloud services sector isn’t a commodity market, with price barely impacting market share as customers look for value-added services. Moreover, cloud computing skills and proven experience are still in short supply. That’s why cloud service buyers seek information, guidance and support.

Source: Digital Lifescapes

Why PC Market Forecasts Now Reflect the Upside Reality

According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, 163 million notebook personal computers (PCs) shipped globally during 2015. The majority of shipments were laptop computers, which constituted nearly 80 percent of the category.

Source: Digital Lifescapes

Smartphone Market Growth Reaches Turning Point in 2016

In developed markets, people who want a smartphone have one. And, the majority don’t crave the new models. Demand for new devices still comes from the emerging markets that have yet to reach saturation. According to IDC, 2015 will therefore likely be the last year of double-digit growth.

Source: Digital Lifescapes

Update on Worldwide Public Cloud Computing Price Trends

There are a variety of reasons why senior executives and IT managers will choose to adopt cloud computing services. While a business transformation goal is often a high-priority for many, IT investment and operational cost reduction is also very important to most decision makers. Buyers ultimately seek the best value for their IT spend.

Source: Digital Lifescapes