Digital Lifescapes

During the last couple of years, machine-to-machine (M2M) technology has become part of the product portfolio on offer by global mobile network operators and a significant revenue stream for M2M specialists. Telematics remains an area of growth in the broader M2M market, as is security and a variety of mHealth applications. In other sectors, such as the smart home and consumer electronics, Wi-Fi is becoming the dominant technology, though mobile technology is used to access the cloud and is likely to play a subsidiary role. Meanwhile business models are beginning to account for new technology and open source software related concepts and developments -- one of the latest to gain significant traction is the notion of an Internet of Things (IoT). Juniper Research now forecasts that the Far East and China region will account for 22 percent of global cellular M2M connections by 2019 -- that's a substantial increase from 15 percent in 2014. The new research found that concerted...

A new market study by Mergermarket, reveals that 84 percent of Technology, Media and Entertainment (TME) companies expect to see more cross-sector merger and acquisition (M&A) deals over the next two years. The resulting report from this study outlines the rapidly evolving M&A landscape for global TME companies. This change is being driven by an increasingly fierce battle fought by TME firms who are attempting to gain a competitive edge in the market, via convergence. In fact, 2014 saw new levels of convergence deals amounting to $34.5 billion, with this trend predicted to increase further, according to the latest worldwide assessment by the Mergermarket Group. Cross-sector convergence varies widely across the TME sectors. Entertainment businesses are the most willing to branch out, with more than 33 percent planning non-entertainment purchases. This willingness has the potential to put acquisitive businesses ahead, but they must be aware of the potential risks involved i...

Following the launch of the Netflix and Hulu video streaming services in America, most savvy industry analysts knew that while it wasn't clear how long it would take for these offerings to gain momentum, one thing was blatantly obvious -- the disruption of the legacy pay-TV model had begun. Fast-forward to today, North America already had 50.6 million subscription video on demand (SVOD) homes -- for movie and TV services only, excluding sports -- by end-2014. That SVOD adoption translates to 38.8 percent of all TV households and 48.1 percent of fixed broadband homes, according to the latest market study by Digital TV Research . They have assessed that this market penetration represents considerable growth since 2010, when there were just 16.7 million SVOD homes -- that was about 13% of all TV households. Therefore, it has been said that the North American region is the world's most mature for SVOD services. However, the disruption in the North American video entertainme...

The emergence of connected infotainment services -- such as off-board navigation, social media integration, music streaming, and in-car Wi-Fi -- is driving the adoption of cloud-based vehicle platforms enabled by embedded or tethered 4G cellular wireless connectivity. However, more strategic functionality such as OTA for vehicle lifecycle management, analytics and big data for smart mobility and autonomous driving -- and how cars will interact with the wider Internet of Things for services such as vehicle-to-grid and vehicle-to-home -- will be the key drivers propelling cloud service applications into a mainstream automotive technology. By 2020, more than 40 million cloud-enabled vehicles will ship yearly, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. "Despite the numerous benefits of the cloud, including flexibility, scalability, real-time updates and customization, the specific nature of automotive solutions imposes the need for hybrid solutions -- guara...

As mCommerce services continue to gain new users across developing regions -- such as sub-Saharan Africa and emerging Asia -- the early-adopter nations have experienced a mobile money revolution that has empowered the local economies. While in some early-adopter markets -- such as Kenya and Uganda -- mobile money usage already occurs across more than 50 percent of the adult population, there are still significant sections of the un-banked population it has yet to reach. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, mobile network service providers are now benefiting from the boom in mobile money transfer services -- with $2 billion in revenues forecast for this year and $4 billion annually by 2018. Market Development in Africa The new research points to the African continent as the leading mCommerce market. In fact, several regional mobile network operators -- such as Vodacom Tanzania and MTN Uganda -- are now generating more than 10 percent of their revenues from m...

Over the Top (OTT) television and video entertainment revenues in Latin America -- across thirteen countries in the region -- are forecast to reach $2.91 billion by 2020, that's up from the $1.13 billion expected in 2015. From the $2.13 billion in revenues to be added between 2014 and 2020, it's estimated that Brazil will contribute $938 million and Mexico $437 million, according to the latest market study by Digital TV Research. "Subscription video on demand (SVOD) will remain the region’s largest OTT revenue source," said Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV Research . This emerging SVOD market is forecast to contribute $1.75 billion by 2020 -- Murray says that's up from next to nothing in 2010. Pan-regional video services -- such as Netflix, Clarovideo and Movistar -- are now reported to be making an impact and are adding a competitive edge to the SVOD sector in Latin America. According to their latest assessment, Digital TV Research estim...

The worldwide pay-TV market has surpassed more than 900 million subscribers during the first quarter of 2015, representing 48 percent penetration, according to the latest study by ABI Research. The traditional pay-TV market is likely to grow slowly but steadily over the next 5 years, mainly boosted by the upside opportunity in emerging markets. "Half of the world's households will have access to pay-TV service by 2017, representing 1 billion subscribers," said Jake Saunders, vice president at ABI Research . As pay-TV service providers experience increasing competition from alternative platforms -- such as over the top (OTT) video services -- ARPU continues to decline across the various platforms in most markets. Many of the legacy operators have added OTT content, multiscreen services, and on demand services in order to compete with alternative video entertainment providers. These services have contributed additional revenue to pay-TV operators, as well as aid in ...

While all technology adoption will typically follow a somewhat predictable growth path, sometimes progression falters at the early-adopter stage of market development. Home Automation was gaining attention and experiencing robust growth in 2014, however a new market study by Argus Insights reveals that demand has slowed. Data show that as of May 2015, consumer demand for connected home devices -- such as thermostats, light bulbs, locks, sensors and cameras -- experienced its first drop below the level of a year ago, a sign that consumer interest has apparently stalled. "Based on our review of consumer interest, the state of home automation in 2015 is not looking good for anyone who sells or makes these devices," said John Feland, CEO at Argus Insights . “Even though Google and Samsung made big purchases in this space by buying Nest thermostats, Dropcam and the suite of SmartThings products demand is stagnating." Feland believes that it's obvious that the early ...

Global 4G LTE subscribers are projected to grow 35 percent compounded annually over the next five years, from 516 million to 2.3 billion, according to the latest market study by TeleGeography . LTE market penetration has been the greatest in South Korea, where the 4G technology accounted for 63 percent of wireless subscribers in 2014. Close behind South Korea is the United States market, where LTE overtook 3G as the leading mobile communications technology last year -- to account for just over half of wireless subscribers, and Japan, where LTE had a subscriber market share of 41 percent in 2014. While 4G LTE will continue to grow in each of these leading nations over the next five years to account for between 80 and 90 percent of their respective mobile subscribers, mobile networks in the rest of the world will now begin to catch up. The country to watch is China, where a boom in TD-LTE network deployment and soaring use of mobile internet access and data service usage are occurr...

Cellular wireless Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine to Machine (M2M) connections will increase nearly fourfold globally from 252 million in 2014 to 908 million in 2019, according to the latest worldwide market study by 451 Research. This significant increase in active cellular IoT or M2M connections will be driven by a number of key factors. First, hardware and bandwidth costs have dropped to a point where nearly every enterprise can reap the benefits of virtualizing the physical world. Second, cloud-based open source middleware software and data platforms are making it easier to securely generate insights from machine data at greater scale than ever before possible. Last, the growing interest is generating awareness of the transformational potential of IoT or M2M in terms of return on investment, competitiveness and support of completely new business models. "We continue to be bullish that ultimately the hype of IoT will be proven to be warranted back on business impa...

Mobile internet traffic continues to grow at an unprecedented pace across the globe, driven primarily by video usage. The increase in mobile subscriptions, smartphone usage and software app availability have resulted in significantly more data traffic per mobile device user. Traffic offloading helps in moving mobile data from one network to another, by using complementary wireless network technologies -- such as Wi-Fi hotspots -- for the delivery of data via cellular networks. Offloading enables mobile network operators to reduce the congestion in their cellular networks, while for the end-user it provides cost savings on data services and higher bandwidth availability. Wi-Fi networks are forecast to carry almost 60 percent of smartphone and media tablet data traffic by 2019, reaching over 115,000PB (Petabytes) by 2019 -- that's compared to under 30,000PB in 2015, representing almost a four-fold increase. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, m...

The North American video entertainment distribution industry is a perfect example of where disruption was desperately needed to unseat the incumbent providers who had become complacent. First, it was the video rental stores, then the legacy pay-TV service providers. The only question that most savvy consumers asked was "why did it take so long for someone to offer a substitute to pay-TV?" The introduction of over-the-top (OTT) video offerings, such as Netflix, was a much-needed alternative to the high-cost traditional pay-TV service that's most known for its programming re-runs and perpetual interruptions from advertising. Slow Pace of Pay-TV Disruption The consumer rebellion to abandon pay-TV is becoming a worldwide, but slow moving, phenomena. Parks Associates latest market study found that global OTT video service subscription revenues will increase from nearly $9 billion in 2014 to over $19 billion in 2019. Currently, 57 percent of U.S. broadband households su...

The latest self-service technologies are gradually revolutionizing the process of human interaction with a variety of devices placed in public places, deployed to create improved levels of customer access or convenience. The global self-service market is technology driven and involves the use of automated teller machines (ATM), self-service vending machines and interactive kiosks within retail stores and other commercial environments. Self-service technologies offer human interfaces that enable customers to purchase a product or avail a service independent of direct involvement from a sales or service employee. Over time, many of these interactive devices may become an integral part of the Internet of Things , via enabling wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) cellular technologies. The prominent factors impacting the self-service technology market include, the rising adoption of self-service machines by consumer goods and service sector industries -- such as banking, healthcare, r...

The commercial building management systems (BMS) market has been the epitome of a steady market for several years. However, growing BMS connectivity and rising energy prices now mean that this is a market that is closely mirroring developments within other technology driven markets. The growing integrated building management systems market is now estimated to be worth $34 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. More than eight million building management systems will be integrated with some form of Internet of Things (IoT) platform, software application or service offering by 2020. However, like many suppliers in established markets today, commercial building management system vendors face both opportunities and threats when navigating the emerging IoT ecosystem. The opportunity is IoT integration transforms the traditional BMS from an unconnected monolithic system to part of a wider and integrated sensing and control network. Support for ope...

Every adult in America that wanted a smartphone already has one. That's why the research metric that matters most is mobile software applications adoption. comScore released data from their latest market study, reporting the key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for April 2015. Findings from this report is based on their MobiLens study, which combines data on smartphone and media tablet ownership -- it also features new insights on American consumer mobile device usage behaviors. In April 2015, Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 43.1 percent OEM market share. Meanwhile, Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 52.2 percent platform market share. Once again, Facebook ranked as the top individual smartphone software application on smartphones. However, Google leads with the most apps in the top fifteen list. Smartphone OEM Market Share 188.6 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (76.9 percent mobile market penetration) duri...

Mobile network service provider revenue streams continue to be disrupted by alternative providers. As an example, the messaging market is forecast to decline from $113.5 billion in 2014 to $112.9 billion in 2019 – that's a reduction of $600 million, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research . Ironically, messaging traffic is forecast to double by 2019. This is driven by over-the-top (OTT) messaging software applications -- such as WhatsApp and LINE -- seeing a threefold increase in message traffic from almost 31 trillion in 2014, to 100 trillion by 2019 globally. Importantly, the revenue generated from each OTT message is forecast be less than 1 percent of that from mobile service provider SMS and MMS in 2019. Juniper's latest study found that OTT messaging services are facing a struggle to monetize their freemium services. Combined with users switching from SMS and MMS services, this will contribute to a contraction in the overall revenue pot. OTTs ha...

The ongoing adoption of 4G LTE mobile network deployment continues to rapidly accelerate, with nearly 635 million total connections worldwide as of the first quarter of 2015 -- that's a 151 percent increase year-over-year according to Ovum research. North America led the world by increasing its LTE market share to 44 percent -- compared to a global market share for LTE of 9 percent. Latin America led the world in the growth rate of LTE connections with an impressive 396 percent growth increase year-over-year. North America Market Development LTE has a 44 percent share of market of all mobile wireless connections in North America -- this compares to the next highest ranking regions, Western Europe at 16 percent and Asia Pacific at 13 percent. Penetration of LTE in North America is at 50 percent compared to Western Europe at 21 percent and Asia Pacific at 14 percent. "North America continues to prove its leadership in LTE with metrics such as population coverage, share ...

Purpose-built applications designed to run on Smart Wearable devices are expected to grow from a base of 2,500 at the end of 2014 to 349,000 in 2019, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). While the majority of these software applications will likely be consumer-focused, IDC believes that a significant opportunity exists for enterprise-oriented apps. Third-party developers capable of delivering clear benefits and a transformative experience will catalyze demand and further accelerate application development on the supply side. With the Apple Watch expected to capture up to two thirds of the smart wearable device market in 2015, Apple's influence on the wearable applications market could be considerable. "It has been clear since well before it was launched that the Apple Watch, with the WatchKit SDK, is poised to set a tone for the broader market," said John Jackson, research vice president at IDC . IDC says that i...

Big Data market development is a hot topic, but it's merely an ingredient of the larger data platforms landscape. There will be significant new revenue growth within the Total Data market, according to the latest worldwide market study by 451 Research. Consisting of data platforms, data management, data analytics, and data mining the total data software market is expected to nearly double in size, from $60 billion in 2014 to $115 billion in 2019. "The market continues to evolve and new approaches have emerged that more efficiently store and process data, while also providing access to those that need it to analyze it and gain business insight," said Matt Aslett, research director at 451 Research . The specific market segments included in their latest analysis includes operational databases, analytic databases, reporting and analytics, data management, performance management, event/stream processing, distributed data grid/cache, hadoop and search-based data platforms...

The next wave of Internet commercial applications market development is already in motion. The Internet of Things (IoT) will continue to gain momentum as more organizations embrace the opportunities this evolving market presents. The worldwide Internet of Things market will grow from $655.8 billion in 2014 to $1.7 trillion in 2020 -- with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.9 percent -- according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Devices, connectivity, and IT services will make up the majority of the IoT market in 2020. Together, they are estimated to account for over two-thirds of the worldwide IoT market in 2020, with devices (modules/sensors) alone representing 31.8 percent of the total. By 2020, IDC now anticipates that IoT purpose-built platforms, open source application software, and cloud-based "as a service" offerings will capture a larger percentage of the revenue growth. "While wearable devices are the...

During the last couple of years, machine-to-machine (M2M) offerings have become a key part of the product portfolio at telecom service providers and a significant new revenue stream for the few specialists. The management of devices is key to M2M offerings, and it distinguishes the capabilities from the broader Internet of Things ( IoT ), where any object may be furnished with wireless connectivity on an ad-hoc basis. Juniper Research has forecast that the telematics sector will continue to outperform all other M2M markets over the next five years, in revenue terms, with one in five passenger vehicles connected globally by 2019. Smartphone-based models have become the key disruptor for M2M, as sectors such as healthcare, consumer electronics and retail continue to evolve. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the M2M sector will generate service revenues of over $40 billion globally by 2019 -- that's essentially doubling the size of today's...

Worldwide, public internet traffic characteristics will continue to evolve. According to the latest Cisco  Visual Networking Index  (VNI) Forecast, the annual Internet Protocol (IP) traffic will triple between 2014 and 2019, when it will reach a record 2 zettabytes. By 2019, more than 14 percent of monthly global IP traffic will come from cellular mobile connections and 53 percent of monthly IP traffic will come from Wi-Fi connections -- that's 67 percent of the total monthly IP traffic. Cisco now predicts that global IP traffic will reach 168 exabytes per month by 2019 -- that's up from 59.9 exabytes per month in 2014. In 2019, nearly as much traffic will traverse global IP networks than all prior Internet-years combined. "It took 32 years -- from 1984 to 2016 -- to generate the first zettabyte of IP traffic annually. However, as this year’s VNI forecasts, it will take only three additional years to reach the next zettabyte milestone when there will be more than 2 z...