We expect IBM to invest in DT sales and delivery talent to improve signings and achieve sustainable and profitable revenue growth.

GBS reported growth of 4.1% in 4Q18 as IBM Services’ technical and industry expertise resonate well with clients, transitioning its pipeline to revenue growth. GTS revenue declined 3.8% during the quarter, following declines in technical support services, offsetting growth from IBM Cloud Private adoption. — Kelly Lesiczka, Research Analyst

“‘Though Ericsson’s focused strategy has proved to be a viable approach to stabilize the company, return it to profitability, and provide incremental organic growth, the key concern will be how sustainable that stability and growth will be over the long term,’ wrote Chris Antlitz, a senior telecom analyst at Technology Business Research (TBR), in a new report.

“Antlitz cited Ericsson’s focus on the wireless access domain that he noted was undergoing significant competitive disruption due to the launch of 5G networks and increased use of virtualization technologies. He explained that Ericsson’s focus could allow it to take market share from rivals, particularly Nokia, Huawei, and ZTE, but that business trends like virtualization, cloud, and white box could impact those efforts down the road.

“‘Ericsson is betting its [Radio Systems RAN gear] will offset the impact of these adverse trends and hasten its shift to a more software-centric entity with a more recurring, license-based software model that carries relatively high, sustainable margins, but this shift will take years to unfold, and there is significant legacy business at risk of disappearing in the interim,’ Antlitz noted.”

TBR’s telecom predictions for 2019 indicate that 5G will enable Industry 4.0, which will spur revenue generation opportunities for service providers that provide the connectivity layer and value-added services to businesses — in the long run.

“While the AI-centric strategy played to Google’s strengths, it didn’t help much with more boring workloads such as storage and website hosting that drive Amazon’s dominance and are the bulk of the cloud market. ‘They’ve been making the right moves and saying the right things, but it just hasn’t shown through in performance financially,’ says Meaghan McGrath, who tracks Google and other cloud providers at Technology Business Research. She says Google is still hamstrung by a perception that it doesn’t really know how to work with corporate IT departments—an area where Microsoft has a long track record.”

“With undergoing development, 5G technology is expected to get the show on the road by 2020. That can seem to be a long wait, but it still remains an ambitious timeline. According to Technology Business Research Inc., network operators are expected to spend billions of dollars on 5G capital expenses by 2030.”