PCs, smartphones buckle under high memory costs

Soaring memory costs are projected to drive worldwide PC shipments to decline 10,4% and smartphone shipments to drop by 8,4% in 2026, compared to 2025 levels, according to Gartner. Gartner estimates a 130% surge in combined DRAM and solid-state drive (SSD) prices by...

Manufacturing stabilises as PMI holds steady

The seasonally adjusted Absa Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) remained just below the neutral 50-point mark, following January’s strong rebound. While the index can be volatile month to month, recent readings indicate that the sharp contraction at the end of 2025 has...

Africans are online, but not necessarily secure

Most adults across seven African countries access the Internet frequently – but many remain unfamiliar with digital security measures and practice them inconsistently if at all. This is according to an Afrobarometer telephone survey that polled users in Angola,...

Pentagon signs OpenAI as Anthropic deadline passes

The US Department of War has ended negotiations with Anthropic over artificial intelligence (AI) safety rails, named the company a supply chain risk and signed a contract with OpenAI instead. Anthropic, negotiating a $200-million contract, insisted on guidelines to...

Routed shifts to evoila Africa

Local cloud provider Routed, acquired by German multinational evoila, is officially now operating as evoila Africa, marking a significant shift in the continent’s VMware cloud landscape. Andrew Cruise, evoila Africa MD, says that the move follows sweeping changes to...

Memory shortage to ravage smartphone sales

Worldwide smartphone shipments are forecast to decline 12,9% year-on-year (YoY) in 2026 to 1,1-billion units, according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker. This decline will bring the smartphone market to its lowest...