Digital Lifescapes

Cloud service management is going to become yet one more segment of the legacy enterprise software sector that's being affected by the ongoing adoption of open-source software subscription models. The shift in end-user IT consumption preference to cloud services will trigger disruption and pressures old-school Infrastructure Management (IM) software vendors on two fronts, according to the latest market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). Cloud consumption models rely on subscription revenue. The revenue recognition patterns for subscriptions are in stark contrast to the expensive software vendor license models that include ongoing maintenance support agreements, generally purchased after the first year of deployment. The shift to subscription models negatively impact margins as traditional IM software vendors shift go-to-market and delivery strategies to align with end-user consumption preferences -- and the growing demand for a lower-cost IT operations model. ...

​The augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) markets are experiencing increased growth potential, from new devices and new content, to existing content that's being adapted to make use of the emerging communication medium. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, head mounted displays (HMDs) will be the prevailing form-factor for both AR and VR devices. That said, AR will see varied form-factors as the technology progresses into more diverse user applications. "Among the three categories of devices -- which are standalone, mobile-reliant, and tethered -- mobile-reliant devices such as the Samsung Gear VR will see the most success early," said Eric Abbruzzese, research analyst at ABI Research . Meanwhile, tethered devices such as the Oculus Rift -- and standalone devices like those manufactured by ODG for industrial applications -- will need more time to mature before establishing a large user base. Virtual reality will be most popular in the g...

Cloud service brokerage market development is still in the early stages. A recent survey of enterprise cloud adopters showed a near even three-way split between adopting, considering or not planning to adopt brokerage services, according to the latest market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). TBR believes that as things stand today in the marketplace, there is a global lack of education pertaining to the solutions available and benefits or outcomes of cloud computing brokerage adoption by forward-looking IT organizations. Moreover, as vendors are still making decisions regarding their participation within the cloud brokerage market, TBR anticipates it will be a few years before the brokerage concept reaches mainstream status within the typical IT organization globally. "It seems enterprises are adopting brokerage services mostly to have a third-party perform their cloud integration and management tasks, either because they want their IT departments to focus on high...

A positive economic growth outlook for Africa is strongly dependent on improved institutional performance and better governance. GDP growth in Africa in 2015 is forecast at 4.4 percent. Nigeria will be the strongest performer at 6.7 percent growth in 2015, but heavily dependent on natural resources and vulnerable to global demand. Telecom services, and mobile internet access in particular, could help boost the economy. That said, the Nigerian telecommunications market is expected to generate $10.9 billion in 2019, that's up from a total of $9.2 billion in 2013, according to the latest market study by Pyramid Research. Although growth in the market will be slightly reduced in 2015, as the market recovers from the large number of fixed-line disconnections, long-term growth of the telecommunications sector will not to be affected. Nigerian Telecom Market Outlook The telecoms market will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 2 percent over the next five years, with ...

Online collaboration, and videoconferencing in particular, has been a significant catalyst for business productivity during the last decade. However, the demand for expensive telepresence systems and traditional room-based videoconference installations has reached its pinnacle. Enterprise videoconferencing infrastructure and endpoint hardware revenues are forecast to be relatively flat through 2020 -- growing slightly at a 2.1 percent CAGR -- according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. Software solutions are becoming a more popular choice, with the ability to extend existing infrastructure and endpoints and lessen the need for installing new permanent hardware. "With the current market focus on cloud computing and hardware virtualization, dedicated hardware sales will see little growth in all video delivery markets, including videoconferencing and telepresence hardware,” said Eric Abbruzzese, research analyst at ABI Research . According to the ABI asse...

Mobile communication network infrastructure is a proven catalyst for economic growth. Therefore, more nations have assigned and auctioned radio spectrum to accommodate anticipated traffic that results from increasing mobile internet usage. 4G LTE-Advanced networks have been actively deployed around the world, according to the latest global market study by ABI Research. At the end of 2014, LTE-Advanced covered its first 100 million people worldwide -- that's just 4 years since the network technology inception. ABI Research predicts that the coverage will reach 1 billion mobile subscribers in 4 more years. At the end of 2014, there were 49 commercially available LTE-Advanced networks around the world. Western European operators lead the commercialization with 20 operators, followed by 13 in Asia-Pacific; however, North America still commands the largest population coverage at 7.8 percent. "All four major operators of the United States have either commercially deployed ...

What strategies are being employed in leading smart cities? What are the key trends shaping the smart city landscape? And, what is the value of cost savings that can be expected from smart city projects? These are the questions that were asked during a new global market study, and an assessment of the resulting findings. Juniper Research has revealed the top ranking Smart Cities globally for 2015. They are (in order of rank), Barcelona, New York, London, Nice and Singapore. The Juniper Smart City Rankings have been compiled following an analysis of the Smart capabilities offered in each city, with particular focus on their use of smart grids, smart traffic management and smart street lighting. Furthermore, the ranking considered other aspects of a Smart city -- such as technological capability and social cohesion, among others. It was found that the leader, Barcelona, performed consistently well across all metrics and serves as an exciting model of success from which others can...

The ongoing adoption of more powerful mobile devices and machine-to-machine (M2M) connections are key contributors to significant mobile data traffic growth, according to the latest annual update of the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast . In 2014, 88 percent of global mobile data traffic was considered Smart traffic, with advanced computing or multimedia capabilities and a minimum of 3G connectivity, but that figure is expected to rise to 97 percent by 2019. The worldwide shift to smartphones -- combined with the continued growth in media tablets, as well as expanding machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless applications -- are key factors supporting the increasing Smart traffic trend. From a global mobile network perspective, 3G is expected to surpass 2G as the top cellular technology, based on connection share, by 2017. By 2019, 3G networks will support 44 percent of global mobile devices and connections; 4G networks will support 26 percent of c...

Security is top of mind for most CIOs, and for good reason. Moreover, the emergence of new and pervasive technologies will present unique security challenges. A case in point: managing identities and access is going to become very important in the evolving Internet of Things (IoT). However, the current form of Identity and Access Management (IAM) cannot provide the scale or manage the complexity that the IoT brings to the enterprise, according to the latest market study by Gartner. "IAM leaders must reconsider how traditional approaches to cyber-security and IAM work in a world where devices and services are so abundant, in so many different forms and positioned at so many different points within the IT ecosystem," said Earl Perkins, research vice president at Gartner . The growth of these technologies means that today's digital businesses must now require a way of defining and managing the identities of entities -- people, services and things -- within a single, s...

Attractive design will always be important, but software development is now a leading factor in the ongoing adoption of wearable devices. Over 720,000 Android Wear devices shipped in 2014 out of a total of 4.6 million smart wearable bands, according to the latest worldwide market study by Canalys. Motorola was the clear leader among Android Wear vendors. The LG round G Watch R performed significantly better than its original G Watch, while Asus and Sony entered the market with their own Android Wear devices. Pebble meanwhile shipped a total of 1 million units from its 2013 launch through to the end of 2014. Continual software updates, more applications in its apps store and price cuts in the fall helped maintain strong sales in the second half of the year. "Samsung has launched six devices in just 14 months, on different platforms and still leads the smart band market. But it has struggled to keep consumers engaged and must work hard to attract developers while it focuses on...

Looking back, last year was a period of great change and disruption for some of the legacy video entertainment market leaders across the globe. As an example, the overall worldwide pay-TV market is expected to have grown by just 5 percent in 2014 -- surpassing 924.4 million subscribers. Many saturated markets continue to shrink, but there's still pockets of regional expansion. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, global cable TV market growth is now being driven by the Asian-Pacific and Latin American markets. "IPTV is expected to grow a market leading 14 percent in 2014, followed by satellite TV platform at 7 percent. The growth rates of cable and terrestrial TV platforms are expected to slow to around 3 percent," said Jake Saunders, VP and practice director at ABI Research . A combination of the two growth regions is likely to add over 13 million new subscribers in 2014, while the cable TV market in North America is expected to decline by approxim...

An increasing trend toward personal manufacturing and small scale production is leading to incremental growth for three-dimensional (3D) printing technology across the globe. Furthermore, there has been an increase in interest with the development of heterogeneous material manufacturing capability, according the latest worldwide market study by Frost & Sullivan. Significant new opportunities have emerged with prototyping technologies, with 3D printing gaining momentum across various industries -- from printing a mobile phone cover to reconstructing human organs. Emerging as a technology of choice for a wide range of applications, 3D printing is expected to increase its market share rapidly by about 40 percent during 2015. Frost & Sullivan finds that personal manufacturing and small scale production is already starting to pave the way for further 3D printing adoption. Plus, combined with the automobile and aerospace industries, consumer goods manufacturing and healthcare...

Imagine that a marketer could reach more than 70 percent of Americans without utilizing traditional mass-media, such as TV or radio. Well, that's the allure of mobile marketing via smartphone apps. We're just beginning to see the full potential of the mobile cloud phenomena in America. The latest market research will reveal the upside opportunity. ComScore released data reporting key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for December 2014. Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 41.6 percent OEM market share in America, while Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 53.1 percent platform market share. Facebook continues to rank as the top individual smartphone app, while Google has the lion's share of apps in the top ranking positions. Smartphone OEM Market Share 182 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (74.9 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in December, up 4 percent since September. Ap...

Historically, the Grammys event is an annual celebration of songwriter and performing artist accomplishments during the course of the year. It's not usually an event where copyright reform becomes the focal point, or where honorees air their concerns about the state of the music industry. But times have changed. The transition to digital content production and online streaming distribution has disrupted various parts of the entertainment sector -- with the overall recorded music market still adapting to the big changes that have impacted the prior status-quo. The consumption of music on mobile devices is the key trend to watch. It's a huge market. Strategy Analytics says that the total global mobile music market value will grow from $12.8 billion in 2014 to reach $21.3 billion by 2021. New growth will be driven by the combined effect of the dominance of mobile music streaming -- both paid subscription and ad-funded free listening -- in all markets, the transition from phy...

The media tablet market continues to evolve, as new devices help to shape the growing demand from both new and previous mobile internet users. That said, worldwide tablet shipments recorded a year-over-year decline for the first time since the market's inception in 2010. Overall shipments for tablets and 2-in-1 devices reached 76.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14) for -3.2 percent growth, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Although the fourth quarter witnessed a decline in the global market, shipments for the full year 2014 actually increased 4.4 percent -- totaling 229.6 million units overall. "The tablet market is still very top heavy in the sense that it relies mostly on Apple and Samsung to carry the market forward each year," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst at IDC . Although Apple expanded its iPad lineup by keeping around older models and offering a lower entry price point of $249, it still w...

One by one, more industries are being disrupted by the strategic use of mobile and cloud technology plays, as savvy new competitors seek ways to shift consumer preference to favor their online digital offering. The emerging Mobile Cloud phenomena will eventually disrupt the enterprise IT arena. Meanwhile, it will certainly continue to change the dynamics of the video entertainment sector. According to latest worldwide market study by The NPD Group, mobile gamers -- those who play on a smartphone, iPod touch, or tablet -- are playing more often, and for longer periods of time, than they were two years ago. The study uncovered that the average time spent playing in a typical day has increased 57 percent to over two hours per day in 2014 versus one hour and 20 minutes in 2012. The growth of the media tablet market has seen these devices become central to the mobile gaming story. New and improved devices enable the transformation of creative online gaming experiences. Not only ar...

Along with the increasing reports of IT security breaches comes the growing concern that traditional methods of managing access to devices and systems is inadequate. Therefore, we'll see more organizations seek ways to improve the technologies and methods that are being applied in their environment. Mobile devices are particularly viewed as being vulnerable to unauthorized use, because they can more easily be lost or stolen. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the global mobile multi-factor authentication software and service market will be worth $1.6 billion by the end of 2015. Username and passwords have been widely used to authenticate user identity but fail to provide adequate authentication. The growth in authentication-based attacks continue to plague organizations of all sizes, with the majority of breaches being attributed to weak or absent authentication. This situation has created significant market demand for mobile user authentication technologie...

Low-cost smartphones are the catalyst for a significant worldwide economic phenomenon that you'll hear more about in 2015. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), smartphone vendors shipped a total of 375.2 million units during the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14), resulting in 28.2 percent growth when compared to the 292.7 million units shipped in 4Q13 and 11.9 percent sequential growth above the 335.3 million units shipped in 3Q14. But here's the big news. For the full year, the worldwide smartphone market grew to a total of 1,301.1 million units shipped -- that's up by 27.6 percent from the 1,019.4 million units shipped in 2013. Having spent 11 quarters prior to 4Q14 as the number two smartphone vendor in terms of shipments, Apple managed to close the gap to a near tie with Samsung in 4Q14. Led by the success of its newer, larger iPhone 6/6+ models, Apple reduced the volume gap to just 600,000 units in the fourth quarter. Despite ...

The personal computing market continues to evolve as new device demand shifts to reflect the ongoing changes in vendor pricing strategy. Case in point: worldwide media tablet shipments fell 12 percent year-on-year to 67 million units in Q4 2014, according to the latest market study by Canalys. The desktop computer market fell back into a decline in the fourth quarter, as demand for Microsoft Windows XP upgrades decreased. Moreover, the notebook PC market held firm with another quarter of just 1 percent growth. Clearly, the overall personal computing market has been somewhat volatile. Given the current market outlook, that's unlikely to change in the foreseeable future. Total PC shipments (desktops, notebooks and tablets) fell by 6 percent in Q4 to reach 148 million units, resulting in full-year 2014 shipments of 528 million units, that's up by just 3 percent on 2013. Apple regained the top spot in the PC market on the strength of holiday sales, with just under 27 millio...

The phablet is a relatively new type of mobile consumer electronic device, which emerged as the smartphone grew ever larger and began to shift focus away from communications and towards more mobile multimedia applications. In terms of the device hardware, phablets are virtually identical to smartphones, with only the bigger screen and battery to differentiate many models. Moreover, the market for these devices is evolving beyond the initial consumer focus, with the ongoing exploration of more enterprise mobility use-cases. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, over 400 million phablets will ship in 2019 -- that's a five-fold increase over the 138 million devices estimated to be shipped in 2015. While the Apple iPhone 6 Plus has brought the phablet category further into the limelight, it is more affordable Google Android devices that will drive phablets into the global mainstream. The Juniper study has found that with steady increases in sm...