Digital Lifescapes

Chief executives have approved digital technology budgets and updated strategic plans, now the Line of Business leaders and their IT counterparts must address the tactical execution for 2015 and beyond. In hindsight, 2014 was a pivotal year for cloud service platform adoption. Regardless, the trend will accelerate next year. International Data Corporation (IDC) has shared their 2015 predictions about the global cloud computing platforms market, based upon their latest outlook. These predictions are intended to help senior executives and IT leaders capitalize on the most profound emerging market opportunities and plan for their future growth. "Digitization and transformation to virtualized, on-demand services are driving very rapid internal IT change. All business technology buyers are now shifting steadily toward cloud-first strategies," said Robert Mahowald, vice president at IDC . Moreover, nearly all organizations are reconsidering their IT best practices to embrac

The demand for mobile enterprise applications among businesses across North America is increasing rapidly, according to the latest market study by Frost & Sullivan. Companies that reported the deployment of at least one mobile worker app has risen from 73 percent in 2013 to 82 percent in 2014. Currently, 49 percent of businesses across North America adopt between one and ten applications, indicating a significant acceptance of these solutions. Market analysis finds that nine out of ten current app users are very or somewhat satisfied with these solutions -- based on a survey of 300 decision-makers -- including mobile asset tracking, mobile sales force automation (SFA), mobile workforce management and wireless email apps. "Satisfaction levels among businesses that have implemented new mobile worker applications have risen after previously showing a descending trend," said Diana Herrera, customer research analyst at Frost & Sullivan . Strategic Business Outcomes

The Internet has had a profound impact on the Global Networked Economy during the last year, with more changes still to come -- as applications expand and evolve. International Data Corporation (IDC) has shared its worldwide Internet of Things (IoT) predictions for 2015. Their latest forward-looking view provides C-level leaders with insight and perspective on the long-term trends. The IDC research report is designed to help leaders capitalize on emerging market opportunities and plan for future growth. "The Internet of Things will give IT managers a lot to think about," said Vernon Turner, senior vice president at IDC . According to the latest IDC assessment, enterprises will have to address every IT discipline to effectively balance the deluge of data from devices that are connected to the corporate network. In addition, IoT will drive tough organizational structure changes in companies -- allowing innovation to be transparent to everyone, while creating new competi

While digital media players enable the use of over-the-top streaming video content and other platforms that enhance viewer control, new research suggests that they may also provide a net gain for traditional television program viewing. According to the findings from the latest market study by GfK, 19 percent of TV viewers now own at least one of the three major digital media players -- Roku Stick, Google Chromecast, or Apple TV. This represents a 10-fold increase over the 2010 ownership level of approximately 2 percent. Overall, 43 percent to 50 percent (the levels vary by device brand) of digital media player owners say that they use the devices in addition to their regular TV viewing – larger than the proportions (31 percent to 42 percent) that use them as a substitute for traditional TV. Chromecast owners are most likely to report that their digital player usage supplements, rather than replaces, traditional broadcast television viewing. But roughly one third (38 percent to

Media tablet ownership among American consumers is on the rise, and growing at a faster rate than that of any other connected consumer electronics device. According to the NPD Group, as of the third quarter of 2014, there were 109 million tablets in use -- that's up by 35 million from last year. "Now that the tablet market is unmistakably past the early-adopter stage we are able to gain visibility into what the user base is still doing with their devices, and in this case it's often video focused activities," said John Buffone, executive director at NPD Group . Moreover, 55 percent of U.S. tablet users report leveraging a video feature of their device. This includes video calling; taking, posting, and uploading videos -- as well as watching video from a streaming service or app from a TV channel or pay TV provider. Video feature usage is even more prominent among younger consumers. Two-thirds (67 percent) of tablet users aged 18-34 use these video features compa

The number of European households within a reach of high-speed broadband of at least 30 Mbps download speeds reached 62 percent of EU homes at the end of 2013, according to a new market study by IHS. The study, sponsored by the European Commission (EC), also shows that 4G LTE wireless coverage across Europe recorded a dramatic 32 percent increase in 2013. One of the main goals of the "Digital Agenda for Europe" is a universal high-speed (at least 30 Mbps download) broadband coverage across the EU by 2020. "According to our research, challenges remain in passing this target, with rural Next Generation Access (NGA) coverage continuing to be especially problematic," said Alzbeta Fellenbaum, senior analyst at IHS . Only 18.1 percent of EU rural homes had access to NGA broadband at the end of 2013. While this represents a considerable improvement by nearly six percentage points compared to 2012, a lot remains to be done if universal NGA coverage is to be achieved

The aftermath from the ongoing Shadow IT trend will have a significant impact in 2015. Line of Business leaders that satisfied their forward-looking IT needs by utilizing the facilities of the public cloud service providers -- such as AWS and Google -- will refuse to retreat back to obsolete corporate data centers, unless major enhancements are deployed. We have reached a pivotal point in time where the visionary among us can foresee an infinity of open hybrid cloud computing possibilities -- without the obligatory limitations that were imposed from a bygone era of uninspired IT mediocrity. The advent of next-generation data center capabilities have raised the bar of expectations -- the disruption of the status quo has been in motion for some time. Traditional IT leaders that deferred important decisions about infrastructure investment and staff retraining must now prepare to concede. International Data Corporation (IDC) has highlighted their Data Center predictions, based on a r

This is the season for predicting trends, and 451 Research recently shared their list of key issues that will dominate the IT industry over the coming year. The following are some of these trends. There is an explosion of activity around software containerization, leading 451 analysts to anticipate disruption in IT departments during 2015, as they start to use Docker. Savvy vendors are already in sync with this phenomena. While containerization technology has existed for years, in particular as a software component of Linux distributions, Docker is a more lightweight form that is widely viewed as a next-generation virtualization technology. 451 analysts believe Docker will be adopted by large enterprises to work alongside, as well as replace, traditional virtual machines (VMs) because of its management and efficiency advantages. Docker has not yet achieved parity with traditional VMs in some critical areas, including orchestration and security, and a large number of vendors are

The applications for smartphones within physical retail environments already extend beyond in-store product or pricing comparisons by consumers. Moreover, the future use-cases that are likely to emerge in the coming year will expand across a variety of retail sectors. It has been a breakthrough year for indoor wireless location applications for retail, with ABI Research forecasting deployments to approach 25,000 by the end of 2014 -- that's up by more than 100 percent from 2013. "Vertically, the bulk of deployments are in clothing, big box, grocery, and shopping malls in 2014, driven by a variety of applications such as customer analytics, offers or coupons, product search, staff management, and navigation," said Patrick Connolly, senior analyst at ABI Research . Looking toward 2015, we can expect to see the quick serve restaurant (QSR) market growing with a significant demand for queue management technologies -- as illustrated by companies like Starbucks and Taco

The introduction of progressive smartphone designs have truly been a game changer in consumer electronics -- essentially re-imagining the user interface (UI) on a hand-held device. Meanwhile, user expectations have been elevated, as these devices are applied in a broader range of use-cases. The result is that mobile handset manufacturers have had to innovate and explore new modes of interactive device control that enable users to operate a handset without having to touch it directly. It's anticipated that by 2019 the global market for services based on gesture and biometric interface technologies will be worth an estimated $1.2 billion, that's up from less than $2 million this year, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research . Juniper found that innovation in mobile phone hardware and software has paved the way for a new paradigm of handset interaction, including touch-less command and biometric identification. They believe that although advanced Human Int

Netflix has global mind-share, even though it's officially available in only a handful of countries. The consumer awareness of the subscriber benefits are a testament to the apparent pent-up demand for affordable over-the-top (OTT) streaming video entertainment services. Growing interest in the Netflix video entertainment offering also demonstrates how the legacy pay-TV business model is equally vulnerable to disruption in other nations -- as it has already proven to be in the U.S. market. Netflix is expected to achieve 17 million paying subscribers to its international operations by the end of 2014, following its official announcement of 14.4 million international subscribers in September. Launches in six European countries during September will help to boost the total, according to the findings from the latest worldwide market study by Digital TV Research. "We have made several adjustments to our previous estimates, based on the June results -- subscriber numbers are

The mobile internet is pervasive worldwide, as an essential part of more and more people's daily routines. While many of the emerging markets continue to deploy third-generation (3G) and a few deploy fourth-generation (4G) wireless technology, developed markets are already preparing for the future. According to the latest global market study by ABI Research, it will likely take more than 5 years for fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks to reach the 100 million subscriber mark -- that's two years longer than the 4G network experience. 4G subscriber growth was much faster than with previous wireless technology generations, fueled by the capabilities of increasingly powerful smartphones and the availability of other 4G-enabled devices. In contrast, 5G subscriber growth will likely be more muted at first, due to the increased complexity and the additional work required to plan and install 5G cells and associated networks, but infrastructure deployments should increase by 202

As 2014 draws to a close Juniper Research has offered up a list of predictions for the coming year. The following are some of the highlights. Over the past year, technology industries have evolved at a rapid pace. New devices present challenges that must be addressed, in particular the security of consumer data. In the wake of a number of high profile security breaches, some enterprise companies will need to regain trust. Therefore, Juniper expects to see an increasing investment in encryption and tokenization solutions, as a means of reducing the risk of data loss or theft during 2015. While smart watches have now arrived, they have yet to endear themselves to most consumers. The release of new wearable devices by big name brands will increase awareness, as well as a series of smaller less known players. Notwithstanding the continuing reluctance of a number of U.S. retailers to accept Near Field Communications (NFC) technologies, Juniper believes that Host Card Emulation should

comScore released their latest data reporting key trends in the U.S. smartphone sector for October 2014. While the overall market for new user adoption remains flat, the Google Android platform share appears unchanged -- even after the introduction of Apple iPhone 6 models. Perhaps this is yet one more reason why software application developers choose to support both iOS and Android platforms. Therefore, we should anticipate that more app developers will join the open-source Android ecosystem in 2015. Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 41.9 percent OEM market share, while Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 52.3 percent platform market share. Once again, Facebook ranked as the top individual smartphone app. However, Google continues to have the most combined share of the top five apps, by a wide margin. Smartphone OEM Market Share 176 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (72.9 percent mobile market penetration) during the th

Mobile internet adoption worldwide is being enabled by ongoing infrastructure investment. 4G Americas reports that the North American market remains in the leadership position of LTE market share worldwide -- with 39 percent of the world’s 373 million LTE connections at the end of September 2014. LTE connections in North America have grown to 145 million subscriptions, representing 36 percent of the 398 million total mobile subscriptions in the region at the end of the third quarter of 2014, according to Informa Telecoms & Media research. Latin America continues its growth of HSPA and LTE mobile broadband reaching a 35 percent market share of all mobile connections in the region. LTE and HSPA in North America Market "LTE adoption in North America continues to set the course for further growth in mobile broadband innovation with operators continuing to evolve their networks," said Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas . "It is evident that customers continu

The device that broadband service providers place in a subscriber's home could be a point of differentiation, but most are basically alike. The vendors merely attempt to reach parity with the stated industry standard requirements. The products are often procured based upon the lowest price. It's surprising that there is no start-up company that's truly attempting to disrupt this product category. Surely, the service providers would notice if anyone created some meaningful and substantive innovation. Telecom and cable companies have said that they crave vendors that offer new ideas. Worldwide broadband customer premise equipment (CPE) shipments are expected to reach 151.9 million by the end of 2014, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. "The residential gateway segment continues to grow at a rapid pace. We expect global shipments will grow more than 9 percent in 2014," said Jake Saunders, VP and practice director at ABI Research .

International Data Corporation (IDC) announced its top predictions for the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector during 2015. Worldwide ICT spending will grow 3.8 percent in 2015 to reach $3.8 trillion. Nearly all new investment will be focused on what IDC calls 3rd Platform technologies. "IDC first identified the 3rd Platform in 2007 and predicted that it would eventually become the new core of ICT market growth. In 2015, the 3rd Platform will account for one third of global ICT spending and 100 percent of spending growth," said Frank Gens, senior vice President and chief analyst at IDC . On a geographic basis, ICT spending in emerging markets is forecast to grow 7.1 percent year over year, while mature markets across the globe will reach just 1.4 percent growth. Wireless data will emerge as the largest ($536 billion) and fastest growing (13 percent) segment of telecom spending. Mobile devices and software apps adoption will continue grow in 2015. Sale

Over the past 5 years, the scale of mobile commerce in its various forms -- such as banking, money transfer, retail, ticketing and coupons -- has grown at a remarkable rate. Several key factors have served to fuel the deployment of new transaction-based services and their adoption by end users. Juniper Research has found that the combination of mobile phone and media tablet users will make 195 billion mobile commerce transactions annually by 2019 -- that's up from 72 billion in 2014. According to their latest worldwide market study, highest growth rates are expected in the NFC (Near Field Communications) sector. Moreover, usage is expected to be buoyed by the launch of Apple Pay, together with a host of anticipated deployments by banks using solutions based on HCE (Host Card Emulation) technology. However, the highest net increase in transaction volumes will occur in the digital goods sector, fueled by a surge in micro-payments for in-app purchases, notably within arenas su

The early-adopters of cloud services already know what they want to achieve from each new deployment, and are somewhat confident that they're able to plan, implement and manage their own projects. In contrast, the typical CIO or IT manager in the majority of enterprises still need the help and wisdom of experienced practitioners -- people who have been there, done that. That's why business decision makers are seeking cloud professional services guidance at twice the rate of private and public cloud vendors, according to the latest worldwide market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). Today, these consulting engagements are a pivotal point of the mainstream buyer's journey, as more executives make the decision to migrate to a cloud services model and consultants provide advice and education to prospective cloud customers. Public, private and hybrid cloud integration guidance demand will follow basic cloud professional services growth in coming years, once adop

Independent software developers closely monitor the trends for smartphone shipments. Developers flock to the most vibrant ecosystem -- with the greatest market potential. In contrast, they tend to shun the niche mobile device operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows Phone . Besides, as more markets across the globe become saturated with smartphones and growth slows, the ongoing upside opportunities will continue to move towards software applications. That's one reason why Google Android will maintain its leadership position over time. Just like the growth trajectory for Enterprise Linux, the open source movement will have a bright future in the mobile sector. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide smartphone shipments will reach a total of nearly 1.3 billion units in 2014, representing an increase of 26.3 percent over 2013. IDC forecasts 1.4 billion smartphones to be shipped worldwide in 2015, for a 12.2 percent year-over-

The competition for market share in the mobile cloud arena will escalate during 2015. The cloud content and services markets -- enabled by the ubiquity of smartphones and media tablets -- are now the battleground between major content providers, device manufacturers and internet service providers. ABI Research recently conducted a worldwide market study of several key growth segments of cloud content and services -- including gaming, music, social networking and search. Overall, revenues in these important digital content ecosystems are expected to grow 122 percent from 2014 to 2020 and approach $320 billion, according to the ABI Research assessment. Search and Social are each led by dominant international companies, with Google capturing 60 percent of 2013 search revenue while Facebook has 55 percent of 2013 social networking revenue. ABI believes that while some regional differences exist, these positions should remain relatively defensible for the foreseeable future. The g

The worldwide media tablet market experienced a significant change in 2014 -- with year-over-year growth slowing to 7.2 percent, down from 52.5% in 2013, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). At the core of this slowdown is the expectation that 2014 will represent the first full year of decline in Apple iPad shipments. However, both the iPad and the overall market slowdown do not come as a surprise, as device lifecycles for tablets have continued to lengthen -- increasingly resembling those of PCs more than smartphones. "The tablet market continues to be impacted by a few major trends happening in relevant markets," said Ryan Reith, program director at IDC . "In the early stages of the tablet market, device lifecycles were expected to resemble those of smartphones, with replacement occurring every 2-3 years. What has played out instead is that many tablet owners are holding onto their devices for more than 3 years and

Wearable technology research and development has gained momentum during the last two years. Once compelling use cases become established, wearable devices will become a significant new product category in consumer electronics. Fitness trackers have been in use for several years, and are still the most widely used wearable devices. Although they have an uncertain future, with the challenge from multi-functional smart watches, trackers can carve out their own niche by appealing to different markets and consumer needs. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research , fitness wearables in-use will almost treble by 2018, compared to an estimated 19 million in-use devices during 2014. Juniper believes that fitness will remain the dominant wearables segment until that time, driven by intuitive software applications (apps) and lower retail prices. However, the broader appeal of smart watches will mean that they will be used more frequently in later years. Their study findings