Digital Lifescapes

Overall worldwide PC shipments are expected to fall by -3.7 percent in 2014, that's a slight improvement from the previous forecast of -6 percent, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). PC shipments in emerging regions remain constrained by ongoing competition from alternative devices such as media tablets, and a number of economic challenges. However, commercial demand and even a rekindling of consumer interest in mature markets helped to boost results for the first half of 2014 as well as the outlook for the rest of the year. PC shipments in mature regions are now projected to grow by 5.6 percent in 2014 – the highest since 2010 -- with both consumer and commercial segments showing positive growth. On the other hand, the outlook for emerging market has been lowered slightly to reflect reduced stability and economic conditions in Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMA). PC market drivers fo...

The video games industry has changed dramatically over the past decade. Historically, computers and consoles were essentially the only devices used to play video games, requiring a significant initial investment in hardware and software. However, these legacy devices have been supplemented by an array of alternative consumer games channels in recent years. First with the evolution of the smartphone, then with the emergence of the media tablet. Juniper Research has revealed that by 2019 worldwide revenues from media tablet games usage will reach $13.3 billion -- that's a threefold rise on the 2014 revenue of $3.6 billion. The latest Juniper market study highlights that growth will be fueled by a number of key factors including improved storage capacity of devices, better graphical capabilities, increasing mobile broadband penetration and consumer preference for convenience and ubiquity. The Juniper market study also found that 2015 could be critical for smaller, independen...

To be totally honest, the introduction of 3D television was an anticlimax. Moreover, the initial forecasts for the upcoming adoption of 4K or Ultra-HD video were overly optimistic. While 4K will ultimately reach the mainstream consumer, it will remain a small niche market for at least another five years, with widespread viewing of 4K content arriving around 2019, according to the latest market study by TDG Research.. TDG says that short-term viewership of 4K video will be mostly driven by consumer purchases of new smart TVs with 4K functionality. However, the adoption of 4K televisions will occur more slowly than many believe due to poor consumer awareness, high prices, and lack of 4K video content. That being said, the emergence of 4K-enabled devices will help to fill this gap, over time. For example, TDG predicts that set top boxes (iSTBs) from companies like Amazon, Apple, and Roku will join smart TVs in supporting 4K streaming from over-the-top (OTT) streaming video servi...

In the first quarter of 2014, the overall worldwide mobile service provider revenue increased by just 0.58 percent year-on-year (YoY) to $264 billion, according to the latest global market study by ABI Research. The aggregate service revenue for 2014 will grow 2.9 percent YoY to $1.01 trillion, mainly driven by the robust growth of the mobile Internet market. Proliferating mobile data subscriptions and enhanced network capacity will drive global mobile Internet service revenue to $456.7 billion by 2019 -- that's 44.7 percent of total mobile service revenue. That being said, despite global service revenue growth, the Western European market is shrinking do to aggressive competition and lower proces -- 1Q 2014 service revenue declined by 5.2 percent YoY. "Facing continued price pressure driven by the competitive mobile market, mobile carriers have had to take on higher subscriber retention and acquisition costs to support their market positions. This has affected profita...

As more consumer electronics manufacturers contemplate a future in wearables, it's time to ask the decisive market development questions. Such as, where are the most appealing high-margin opportunities -- are they in making devices or within the software applications? The wearable band market grew 684 percent on a worldwide basis in the first half of 2014 compared with the first half of 2013, according to the latest global market study by Canalys. Canalys currently tracks wearable device shipments and segments the market into Smart bands -- which are capable of running third-party applications (apps), and Basic bands, which are not an opportunity for an ecosystem of developers. Fitbit and Jawbone have very successfully grown and strengthened their relationships with channel partners internationally to grow global shipment volumes. They took first and second place respectively in the basic wearable band market in the first half 2014. "Nike's market share has fallen ...

Across a variety of formats, digital music is undoubtedly the most mature segment of mobile entertainment. Mobile devices are uniquely positioned to become a key platform in the music industry, given their ubiquity, connectivity and continual presence with the end-user. That being said, the music industry itself continues to be plagued with difficulties, particularly as far as recorded music is concerned. Juniper Research found that the digital music industry will experience slow growth in revenue over the next 5 years, growing from $12.3 billion this year to $13.9 billion in 2019. The latest global market study also found that a strong performance in the robust streamed music sector will largely be offset by decline in revenues from legacy services -- such as mobile ringtones and ringback tones. Streaming Music in the Mobile Cloud  According to the market study findings, the worldwide digital music market will be characterized by consumer migration to cloud based services...

Imagine a world where all manner of electrical and electronic devices are connected together via a wireless link -- that's the Internet of Everything. The installed base of active wireless connected devices will exceed 16 billion in 2014, that's about 20 percent more than in 2013, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Moreover, the number of devices will more than double from the current level, with 40.9 billion forecast for 2020. "The driving force behind the surge in connections is that usual buzzword suspect, the Internet of Things (IoT)," said Aapo Markkanen, principal analyst at ABI Research . If we look at this year’s installed base, smartphones, tablets, PCs, and other hub devices still represent 44 percent of the active total, but by the end of 2020 their share is likely to drop to 32 percent. In other words, 75 percent of the growth between today and the end of the decade will come from non-hub devices -- such as wireless sensor nodes ...

The transition to digital marketing is still a huge challenge for many legacy marketers, so when they gain access to additional budget they choose to spend it on media that's within their comfort-zone. For those with a traditional media buyer mind-set, that often translates into spending more on television advertising. Global TV advertising expenditure will reach $236 billion in 2020, up by 38 percent ($64 billion) from 2013 and up by 54 percent ($82 billion) on 2010, according to the latest market study by Digital TV Research. Regardless of the relatively poor ROI performance, TV ad spend is expected to grow by 4.0 percent in 2014 for the 55 countries covered in the study -- and that's better than the 2.2 percent recorded in 2013. "Positives for TV advertising in 2014 include World Cup soccer in Brazil and economic improvement in much of Europe. However, not all countries have fully recovered economically. Devaluation is a factor in some markets, such as Venezuela. ...

As the worldwide marketplace absorbed more low-cost smartphones for mobile internet access, a new era gained momentum in the Global Networked Economy. The worldwide smartphone market reached a new milestone in the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14), moving past the 300 million unit mark for the first time in its history. According to the latest study by International Data Corporation (IDC), vendors shipped a total of 301.3 million smartphones worldwide in 2Q14, that's up by 25.3 percent from the 240.5 million units shipped in the second quarter of 2013. The dominant smartphone operating systems (OS), Google Android and Apple iOS, saw their combined market share swell to 96.4 percent for the quarter, leaving little space for competitors. Android was the primary driver with its vendor partners shipping a total of 255.3 million Android-based smartphones in 2Q14 -- that's up by an impressive 33.3 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, iOS saw its market share decline despite posting...

People who view long-form video content on their mobile devices appreciate the new higher resolution displays. Quad HD (2K) screens currently occupy the premium end of the smartphone market. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, by 2015 we will likely see Ultra HD (4K) capable mobile devices. Mobile devices with 4K screens are forecast to reach 478 million units by 2019. This resolution race, however, is more about marketing and differentiation than user experience, given current video content that's availability. Considering the relatively close proximity of the screen to the user it is possible for some consumers to see and benefit from these higher resolutions, but differences are incremental and not dramatic for most consumers. "While some content owners and broadcasters have or are preparing to launch 4K programming, video resolution delivered to mobile devices will continue to lag behind screen pixel densities," said Michael Inouye, senior anal...

In order to manage the growth of digital media applications, as well as the increase in online video consumption on multiple screens, the media and entertainment industry must balance the need to support complex production and distribution-oriented IT workflows with an uncertain product revenue potential. Cloud services offer an attractive solution to this dilemma, as they can help all types of media and entertainment companies to automate their business processes and workflows more effectively -- because they're more scalable, flexible and reliable in the cloud. These agile cloud solutions are also more cost-effective and convenient, since they do not require any upfront infrastructure investment and can be paid for according to usage or through a subscription model. According to the latest global market study by Frost & Sullivan, they found that this nascent cloud services market earned revenue of only approximately $100 million in 2013, but will grow nearly nine-fold b...

With an enhanced user experience model, and bolstered by the increasing presence of GPS receivers embedded into smartphones, the Mobile Location Based Services (MLBS) market has now come of age. Enabled by faster mobile internet connections, a richer mobility experience is available -- with the possibility to leverage a cloud-based applications (apps) back-end. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, they now forecast that the mobile context and location services market will reach $43.3 billion in revenue by 2019 -- that's rising from an estimated $12.2 billion in revenue during 2014. Their study highlighted that over two-thirds of revenues will be driven through highly targeted and contextually aware ad-supported apps by the end of the forecast period. Online Digital Marketing Leads the Way According to the Juniper study findings, social apps are forecast to be the primary driver behind app ad-supported revenues. Apps such as Facebook enable marketers t...

More Americans are using smartphones. As adoption reaches full market saturation, the analyst focus continues to shift toward software apps. comScore released data reporting key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for June 2014. Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 42.1 percent OEM market share. Meanwhile, Google Android was the leading smartphone platform with 51.9 percent platform market share. Facebook ranked as the top individual smartphone application, but Google had three apps in the top five positions. Smartphone Vendor Market Share 173 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones -- that's 71.6 percent mobile market penetration -- during the three months ending in June, up 4 percent since March. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 42.1 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 0.7 percentage points from March). Samsung ranked second with 28.6 percent market share (up 1.6 percentage points), followed by LG with 6.4 percent, Motorola with 5.9 per...

Here in the United States, when high-definition television sets were first introduced in the marketplace there was a very limited supply of HD video content available. Moreover, even today, most American pay-TV service providers still offer a modest amount of HD-quality live broadcast or archived video content. Ironically, if you're interested in access to an abundance of better quality high resolution video content, streaming it from the Internet (as an example, via HBO GO) or using a Blu-ray disc player is still the best approach for HDTV owners. So, what's the overall market outlook? According to the latest market study by ABI Research, 4K or Ultra HD is the future -- but it's going to be a market development marathon, not a sprint to higher resolutions. And, while 1080p TV screens are the norm and mobile screen resolutions continue to climb, plenty of streamed HD content is still distributed in 720p or lower. Over-the-top (OTT) video entertainment services such ...

According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, the number of household bill payments made via PCs, media tablets and smartphones will exceed 20 billion this year, representing approximately 16 percent of all global consumer household bills. This trend is being driven by a growing consumer acceptance of transactional digital banking, and the sharp rise in mobile banking adoption overall. The Juniper study found that usage will continue to increase over the next five years as consumer -- especially Generation Y users -- opt for a multiple and immediate channel approach and use the mobile channel increasingly to manage their accounts. Mobile and Online Banking Trends The new study also found that despite the higher numbers of mobile users making use of bill payment and presentment services, it was still the PC and tablet users that produced the higher transaction values. This highlights the importance of larger screen platforms for purpose of banking and bill payments...

Internet of Things related technologies can be applied to add automation and analytic intelligence to legacy industries that may have lacked significant new innovation in decades -- take passenger and freight train logistics, as an example. TechNavio Research has studied the Global Smart Railway System market. Their report analyzes the diverse market trends and growth opportunities pertaining to the rail transportation industry in the coming years. According to the TechNavio market assessment, smart railway system comprises solutions, devices, components and services that automate or otherwise optimize the usage of railway infrastructure to carry out advanced functions. It has several key components such as passenger reservation and information systems, freight operations information systems, railway traffic management, operations and asset management, IP-based security monitoring, communications, ticketing, and railway analytics. "Within the Railway industry, the need to ...

Demand for mobile internet access remains strong around the globe. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research , smartphone shipments reached over 290 million in Q2 2014, representing 26 percent year-over-year growth and 2 percent quarter-over-quarter growth. Indicative of a growing new trend, both Apple and Samsung witnessed a decline in their global market share as other vendors -- including Huawei, LG and Lenovo -- made significant gains at their expense. Samsung accounted for 26 percent of all smartphone shipments globally, with an estimated 75 million shipments during the quarter. While the Samsung market share declined y-o-y and q-o-q, shipment volume were estimated to be up by 4 percent, when compared to Q2 2013. However, the company does not disclose actual shipment numbers. Apple posted its best ever second quarter, shipping over 35 million iPhones, representing a y-o-y growth of 13 percent. However, Apple’s market share slipped from 15 percent in Q1 2014 ...

The Internet of Things is a compelling concept, especially where industrial applications are involved. Electrical power generation and distribution is one of those applications. But there are also other practical apps within the energy sector. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, spending on big data and analytics in the energy industry will amount to $7 billion in 2014, representing over 15 percent of the overall cross-industry spending. In 2019, the spending on energy analytics will exceed $21 billion, following a CAGR of 25 percent. As a sector, energy has traditionally been very conservative -- slow to change and unimaginative -- in adopting new forms of business technology, but the resistance to change has already started softening. "Greater shareholder pressure is pushing many energy groups to improve their returns after having it easy in the past. In such a highly asset-intensive field, huge cost savings are possible by making the operations more dr...

Cloud-based software solutions, biometric terminals and mobile applications are among the key trends in the years to come for managing the workforce in business settings, according to the latest market study by IHS. These trends increasingly point to a pattern where automated or remote systems are taking over individual and locally situated responses. These market dynamics generate significant growth opportunities for those companies that take advantage and innovate -- they will also displace the ones that fail to act. The growth prospects are especially positive for cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS). Revenue for the global SaaS market will rise to $983.9 million in 2018, that's up from $539.0 million in 2013. "The adoption of SaaS will be driven by the strategic advantages offered to using cloud-based software," said Samuel Grinter, analyst at IHS . "The cloud enables customers to centralize management of workforce solutions over several sites, to outso...

The worldwide smartphone market grew 23.1 percent year over year in the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14), establishing a new single quarter record of 295.3 million shipments, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Following a very strong first quarter, the market grew 2.6 percent sequentially, fueled by ongoing demand for mobile internet access and an abundance of lower-cost smartphones. Second quarter shipments were in line with IDC's forecast and all expectations are that the market will continue apace in the second half of the year -- surpassing 300 million units for the first time ever in a single quarter in 3Q14. "A record second quarter proves that the smartphone market still has plenty of opportunity and momentum," said Ryan Reith, program director at IDC . Despite a challenging quarter for Samsung, and to a lesser extent Apple, the strong market demand boosted results for most smartphone vendors. Emerging markets, suppor...

The notion of a Smart Home -- where technology is a central part of enabling new digital lifestyle advances -- has been discussed for more than a decade. It appears that the concept is finally gaining traction in 2014, even within Europe. According to the latest market study by Strategy Analytics, 11 percent of UK households will have at least one smart system by the end of this year, rising to over 27 percent of households in five years. The number of UK households with some form of smart home system -- automated entertainment, energy, appliance, security or healthcare systems typically controlled remotely through internet technology -- will increase 43 percent on last year to 3.1 million in 2014, spending a total of £715 million. This is forecast to double to £1.4 billion across 7.7 million UK households by 2019. "While telecom brands are leading the drive in Europe, energy companies are dominating the early take-up of smart homes in Britain," said Bill Ablondi, dir...