Digital Lifescapes

The digital video games industry has changed dramatically over the past decade. Historically, computers and game consoles were essentially the only devices to play games on. However, these devices have been supplemented by an array of alternative games channels in recent years. Many mobile devices -- such as smartphones and tablets -- can also be used to play various types of games, encouraging those who perhaps would not normally play games to now begin. By 2016, total revenues from mobile games will reach $28.9 billion – that's a growth of over 38 percent on the 2014 figure of $20.9 billion, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research . The study findings highlight that in an effort to maximize their apps' potential, developers are turning their focus on increasing user lifetime value. The new study found that with the domination of casual gamers playing free-to-play games, the game developer's approach has shifted from bulk acquisition of unique play

​Mobile application management (MAM) is seeing increased adoption levels as enterprises seek solutions that are more flexible than traditional mobile device management (MDM). Furthermore, open source software projects are starting to gain momentum. OpenMEAP is the first open source HTML5 mobile application platform that enables businesses and consumers with no programming experience to easily create, manage and deploy mobile applications that are automatically optimized for every device -- including desktops, smartphones, and tablets. Currently, MDM solutions comprise over 60 percent of enterprise mobility management solution users, according to the latest global market study by ABI Research. However, by the end of 2019, MDM share will drop to a bit more than 30 percent and MAM will command the lion's share at over 60 percent. Thanks to large growth in the Asia-Pacific region, MAM will supplant MDM as the preferred enterprise mobile management choice. "MDM is a tool

Three-dimensional (3D) printers, with the ability to print a variety of objects, have evolved significantly and are currently used for industrial and consumer prototype design applications. With use cases ranging from high-end industrial devices to children's toys, consumer 3D printing is witnessing an increased visibility among the do-it-yourself (DIY) and other early-adopter communities. New market study findings from Juniper Research reveal that the combined market value from consumer 3D Printer hardware sales and material spend is forecast to exceed the $1 billion mark by 2018, compared to just over $75 million this year. While 3D printer shipments are at relatively low levels, representing a limited opportunity in the medium term, Juniper expects them to increase significantly beyond the 5 year period. Industry leaders, including 3D Systems and Stratasys, confirmed a stronger demand for professional 3D printers and materials compared to a softer consumer demand. Howeve

It happened, as forecast, the media tablet market momentum lost some traction at the beginning of the year. Overall, the first quarter of 2014 was disappointing for most tablet vendors, experiencing a 30 percent decline in unit shipments. That being said, ABI Research expects growth to resume over the balance of the year, as branded OEM shipments will exceed 200 million in 2014, according to their latest global market study. According to ABI's assessment, this year should also be a watershed for the tablet installed base, with active Google Android devices surpassing Apple iOS for the first time. It's yet one more example of where an open source  software project becomes the determining factor in market development success. "Tablet hardware sales from branded OEMs are likely to top $85 billion this year," says Jeff Orr, senior practice director at ABI Research . ABI believes that we have yet to reach the top of the tablet market and with many world regions jus

Having thoroughly researched the topic, IDTechEx has mapped the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, where things are collaborating with other things without human intervention at the time. These things have internet protocol (IP) addresses, micro-controllers for local data processing and they sometimes include sensors. The Internet of People (IoP) is very different -- a renaming of the world of smartphones and other internet-enabled personal electronics, it is maturing but adding wearable personal devices and new human interfaces. Thirdly, there are many other dedicated identification and sensor systems for things but these do not have IP addresses at the item level, using other data standards or proprietary systems. According to the  IDTechEx assessment, these are  NOT truly IoT as a result -- but some include them as part of the topic which leads to widely varying market forecasts. IDTechEx see two main application sets emerging for IoT – consumer applications, driven by t

Worldwide smart connected devices (SCD) are forecast to grow 15.6 percent year over year in 2014, reaching close to 1.8 billion devices, according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Smartphone growth is expected to lead the upside market potential, as PC and tablet (plus 2-in-1 device) forecasts have been lowered in light of a weak first quarter of 2014. By 2018, IDC now estimates shipments will grow to 2.4 billion units. "Apple's iOS-ification of Mac OS, and Microsoft's implementation of Modern UI throughout different form factors are clear indicators that we're living in a mobile-first world," said Jitesh Ubrani, research analyst at IDC . In future, the PC will become the new accessory to mobile devices, as smartphones become the first and primary computing device for many people around the world. IDC expects smartphone shipments to outpace total PC shipments by more than 6 to 1 in 2018. The smartphone install

American smartphone buyers are quickly adopting device "early upgrade" plans offered by their mobile service providers. Upgrade plan enrollment has more than quadrupled since September 2013 -- going from 7 to 31 percent by the end of the first quarter (Q1) 2014, according to the latest market study by NPD. The rapid acceptance of these new plans can be attributed to the awareness among some mobile phone owners. Overall, 73 percent of mobile phone owners who were asked if they were aware of the early upgrade plans being offered confirmed their awareness -- with about half of these people being "very aware." "As one might expect, older consumers are less interested in frequently upgrading their phones; but, surprisingly, Android smartphone owners are as interested in upgrading as their iPhone counterparts," said Stephen Baker, vice president at The NPD Group . In fact, 22 percent of Android and 25 percent of Apple owners are extremely interested in upg

ABI Research reports that activity trackers dominated sales of smart wearable devices in Q1 2014, outselling much-hyped smart watches by 4 to 1 -- with 2.35 million devices shipped during the period. Fitbit remains the market leader, with a majority share, but will face growing competition in Q2 2014 and over the course of the year, especially with Samsung about to launch the hybrid Samsung Gear Fit. "Activity Trackers are currently the most viable consumer electronics wearable device category, because they have a clear use case that cannot be matched by smartphones, in contrast to smart watches," said Nick Spencer, senior practice director at ABI Research . People have been happy to ditch their watches and use smartphones to tell the time, so extending smartphone functions to the watch is a weak use case and retrograde step. Smart watch sales dropped significantly in Q1 2014 compared to Q4 2013, due in small part to the seasonal effect of Christmas, but largely due t

The market for computer server disk storage systems has had its ups and downs. The current downward trend is partly due to the effective use of virtualization software and the adoption of public cloud computing services -- whereby, the resulting IT operational efficiency has the effect of reducing hardware demand. Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues fell -5.2% year over year to $5.6 billion during the first quarter of 2014 (1Q14), according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). For the quarter, the total (internal plus external) disk storage systems market generated $7.3 billion in revenue, representing a decrease of -6.9 percent from the prior year's first quarter and a sequential decline of -17 percent compared to the seasonally stronger 4Q13. Total disk storage systems capacity shipped was 9.9 exabytes, growing just 19.9 percent year over year. "The poor results of the first quarter were driven by several fac

Most smartphones have a very similar shape, but that's about to change as new technology is applied to forward-looking designs. Mobile phones and associated wearable electronics are now part of what is called the Internet of People (IoP). The IoP encompasses internet-enabled personal electronics. It is rapidly spreading into the fabric of society giving a burst of new growth to add to the easing growth of mobile phones, tablets and other conventional personal electronics and associated networks and services. Many internet-enabled peripherals and alternatives are arriving that are worn, embedded in textiles and in products. This is thanks to new materials and ways of making electronics and more suitable human interfaces. They will often have very flexible displays, some tightly rolled into a conventional phone body. When pulled out, these screens will gather useful amounts of electricity from the sun as the user enjoys the large screen created with its haptic (feel what you do

The shift to cloud computing, the rise of open-source solutions and the ongoing adoption of hybrid cloud models will continue to change the dynamics of the global enterprise software market. Emerging applications with significant new compute and storage requirements, such as Big Data analytics, will most likely migrate to cloud service platforms. The shifting demand has a resulting effect on traditional software licence sales growth. International Data Corporation (IDC) released the latest forecast from the Worldwide Semi-annual Software Tracker. For 2014, the worldwide software market is forecast to grow 5.9 percent year over year in current US dollars (USD). In constant USD the growth rate has been revised to 5.7 percent -- that's down from the 6.2 percent year-over-year growth forecast in November 2013. IDC believes that the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 2013-2018 forecast period will remain close to 6 percent. Structured Data Management Software, Collabo

Mobile internet usage and digital media consumption in America continues to be driven by the growing number of subscribers with smartphones. comScore released market data for key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for April 2014. Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 41.4 percent OEM market share, while Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 52.5 percent platform market share. Once again, Facebook was ranked as the top individual smartphone application. Smartphone OEM Market Share 167.9 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (69.6 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in April, up 5 percent since January. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 41.4 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers. Samsung ranked second with 27.7 percent market share (up 1 percentage point from January), followed by LG with 6.5 percent, Motorola with 6.3 percent and HTC with 5.3 percent. Smartphone Platform Market Share Android

Worldwide PC shipments are expected to fall by -6.0 percent in 2014, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Mature regions did benefit primarily from a recovery surge in Western Europe while other mature regions performed modestly above expectations in the first quarter of 2014 (1Q14). Emerging regions continued to see weak demand and difficult conditions, although the economic environment in Latin America had the largest impact. The impact to emerging regions – a cornerstone of long-term market stability – outweighed the short-term boost seen in mature regions. As a result, longer-term growth was lowered slightly (by less than a percent for 2015-2017), with 2015 at -1.6 percent year on year with subsequent years still between 0 and -1 percent growth. "2014 represents an important shift for the PC market in emerging regions," said Jay Chou, senior research analyst at IDC . "Shipments in these parts of the world are expected to

The Global Network Economy is clearly being fueled by the skills and talents of software developers and hardware engineers. ABI Research estimates that the number of developers involved in Internet of Things (IoT) activities will reach 1.7 million globally by the end of 2014. The size of the ecosystem is forecast to surpass 3 million developers in 2019. For comparison, this would by then account for approximately 10 percent of all software developers. "Currently, the IoT activity is largely polarized between hobbyists and makers at one end, and enterprise-level developers at the other end," said Aapo Markkanen, principal analyst at ABI Research . But owing to a combination of various enablers, ABI says they can also see a growing number of start-ups taking the commercial plunge and starting to productize the concepts they've prototyped earlier with Arduino or Raspberry Pi. That productization, however, can be an extremely difficult feat to execute, requiring very

The Internet of Things (IoT) market momentum has grown steadily and the upside promise is slowly becoming a reality. According to a market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), a transformation is underway that will see the worldwide market for IoT solutions grow from $1.9 trillion in 2013 to $7.1 trillion in 2020. IDC defines the Internet of Things as a network of networks of uniquely identifiable endpoints (or things) that communicate without human interaction using Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity – be it locally or globally. Globally, informed people are developing a high affinity for full-time online connectivity, which makes consumer IoT a compelling value proposition. Meanwhile, enterprise leaders are intrigued by the efficiencies, business process implications, and revenue opportunities that IoT solutions can generate over time. "Businesses are taking the necessary steps to gain a deeper understanding of IoT and the overall value," said Vernon Turner

Wearable technology for humans is already somewhat in vogue. What's next? Wearable tech applications for animals -- from ultrasound-delivering treatment patches and electronic saddle optimization for horses to collars on many other animals that variously track, identify and diagnose. The new market study by IDTechEx explored the needs, technologies and markets of wearable electronics for livestock, pets and wild animals. Their study findings forecast that the global market, incorporating both RFID and non-RFID technologies, will reach $2.6 billion in 2025. The research analyzes in detail six application markets sectors. IDTechEx research predicts that during the next decade expenditure on medical diagnosis devices will increase in value market share from 11 percent to 23 percent and medical treatment (such as heating, cooling, ultrasound and drug delivery) will increase from a mere 1 percent to 13 percent. According to the IDTechEx assessment, we are in the decade of we

Since 2011, expectations have been high that mobile contactless payments -- enabled via Near Field Communications (NFC) -- would rapidly gain traction around the world. This has not come to pass. Disagreements and uncertainties over business models and standards, combined with a failure to communicate the benefits of a transition to contactless, led to a cycle of indifference towards NFC. Juniper Research has found that the number of consumers making contactless payments via their mobile handsets would reach 300 million globally by 2017 -- that's up from just over 110 million last year. The Juniper global market study found that many markets were being seeded for mobile contactless adoption by accelerated rollout of contactless cards. These rollouts were being accompanied by marked increases in contactless POS (Point of Sale) terminals, with leading vendors VeriFone and Ingenico both now shipping the majority of their terminals with NFC as standard. Apparent Need to Educa

Wi-Fi technology demand continues to increase across the globe, as more people seek wireless access to the internet and a variety of cloud services. The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) market segments increased 7.0 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2014 (1Q14). According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), the enterprise segment continued to grow at a healthy rate and increased 10.3 percent over the same period last year. While the pace of the enterprise WLAN market growth has been steadily decreasing over the last several quarters, the market continues to be one of the faster growing networking market segments. The consumer WLAN market also had a stable quarter in 1Q14 and grew 3.8 percent year over year. The growth in the consumer WLAN space benefited from the ongoing transition from the older 802.11n Wi-Fi standard to the newer and faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard as well as a so

What happens when the global market for media tablets shows signs of saturation in key regions? The analyst focus should shift toward the progressive software applications for these mobile devices. Meanwhile, industry analysts will continue to address the apparent market volatility, by adjusting their shipment forecasts. Based on a greater decline in demand than predicted in the first quarter -- and real concerns that vendors will face additional market challenges the rest of the year -- International Data Corporation (IDC) has lowered its 2014 worldwide tablet plus 2-in-1 forecast to 245.4 million units. That's down from the previous forecast of 260.9 million units. The new forecast represents a 12.1 percent year-over-year growth rate, which is notably lower than the 51.8 percent year-over-year growth of 2013. "Two major issues are causing the tablet market to slow down. First, consumers are keeping their tablets, especially higher-cost models from major vendors (like A

By the end of 2013, global LTE-related cellular subscriptions had surpassed 230.9 million -- that's 3.3 percent of all mobile subscribers worldwide -- and will continue to grow at a CAGR of 36.6 percent between 2014 and 2019, to exceed 2 billion. Mobile internet usage isn't the only market driver. The extensive presence of 4G LTE networks is also stimulating the deployment of Voice over LTE (VoLTE) technologies. By the end of 2014, there are expected to be 59.6 million VoLTE subscriptions in place, and it's forecast that nearly 56 percent of LTE-related cellular subscriptions will be using VoLTE services by the end of 2019, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. For VoLTE to be a success, there needs to be widespread adoption of the technology by mobile handset vendors and not just the mobile network operators. "There are some promising signs, though -- it is anticipated that Apple will incorporate VoLTE into iPhone 6," said Marina Lu, resea

Virtualization and the shift to cloud computing continue to refocus market demand. Revenue in the worldwide server market decreased -2.2 percent year over year to $10.9 billion in the first quarter of 2014 (1Q14), according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). This is the fifth consecutive quarter that the server market has experienced a year-over-year decline in worldwide revenue. Server unit shipments improved 2.1 percent year over year in 1Q14 to 2.1 million units as investments in hyperscale datacenter capacity were largely offset by consolidation, which continued to be a strategic focus for many large and small customers around the globe. On a year-over-year basis, volume systems experienced 3.9 percent revenue growth. This was the fourth consecutive quarter that volume system demand increased year over year.  At the same time, demand for midrange and high-end systems experienced year-over-year revenue declines of -4.8 percent and -25.6 percen