Digital Lifescapes

Personal computing device requirements are shifting across the globe, creating challenges for consumer electronics vendors who must respond to these evolving trends. Cloud computing adoption has contributed to the shift in demand, with pervasive mobile internet access being the enabler. The worldwide installed base of media tablets will become the next casualty of global market saturation, as shipments of the expensive larger slate devices continue their ongoing decline. Early media tablet sales in 2010 and 2011 enjoyed several good years of consumer usage with both Apple iOS and Google Android devices actively used for three to four years. New market intelligence data from ABI Research predicts the installed base of tablets will decrease for the first time in 2016 -- as growth from first-time buyers shifts to limited replacement purchases. "The global installed base of branded tablets will peak around 373 million units at the close of 2015," said Jeff Orr, Research D

Most modern smartphones can connect to Wi-Fi routers for broadband internet access. Voice calls placed over that connection, via a software app that converts voice to data, can provide superior quality communication when compared with the cell provider's mobile network. There are now numerous ways to apply this capability, essentially bypassing the mobile network service provider's traditional offerings. As awareness of these use-cases increase, so does market adoption. Over the Top (OTT) voice app service providers are expected to see an increase in their revenues by 2020, reaching over $10 billion and representing a five-fold increase over the next 5 years, according to the latest global market study by Juniper Research . Moreover, their market study uncovered that OTT mobile software application providers -- such as Skype and WhatsApp -- would experience a significant rise in traffic and revenue potential as 4G network roll-outs accelerate, thereby increasing their cap

IT security is top-of-mind in most enterprise organizations. It's no surprise, given recent events. Worldwide spending on information security will reach $75.4 billion in 2015 -- that's an increase of 4.7 percent over 2014, according to the latest market study by Gartner, Inc. The increase in spending is being driven by government initiatives, demand for new regulations or legislation and ongoing high-profile data breaches. As a result, affordable security testing or auditing, IT security support outsourcing, and identity or access management present the greatest growth opportunities for technology vendors and cloud service providers. According to Gartner, spending in areas such as network endpoint protection platforms and consumer security software is starting to see commoditization, leading to a downgrade in the forecast for these established segments during 2015. While the visibility and growing awareness of the impact of cyber threats keeps attention on security, the

A growing list of vendors, a proliferation of devices, superior user experiences, affordable price points, and steady adoption with more use-cases will fuel growth in the worldwide market for wearable devices. According to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), wearable device shipments will reach 76.1 million units in 2015 -- that's up 163.6 percent from the 28.9 million units shipped in 2014. By 2019, worldwide shipments will reach 173.4 million units, resulting in a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9 percent. Total shipments include both basic and smart wearables, which are two very different product categories. "Smart wearables only account for about a third of the total market today while basic wearables, led by fitness trackers, account for the rest," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst at IDC . Driven by advancements in user interface (UI) and product features, smart wearables are on track to surpas

Law enforcement officials often make the claim that "crime doesn't pay" and that criminals will always be punished, eventually. However, that's typically not the case for cyber criminals. Earlier this year Trustwave released the findings from a worldwide market study which revealed the top cybercrime, data breach and security threat trends from 2014. The resulting report disclosed how much criminals can profit from malware attacks, which data they target, how they get inside, how long it takes for businesses to detect and contain data breaches, what types of businesses criminals are targeting and where the majority of victims are located. Trustwave gathered data from the 574 breach investigations that the company's security experts conducted in 2014 across 15 countries, in addition to threat intelligence gleaned from their five global Security Operations Centers, security scanning and penetration testing results, telemetry from security technologies distribute

Government leaders in nations that seek to prosper in the Global Network Economy must ensure that they have the broadband internet access infrastructure that enables them to compete -- technology capabilities and retail price -- with the recognized market leaders around the world. Incumbent telecom service providers typically set the pace of infrastructure investment. However, broadband capabilities sometimes don't keep up with market demand and a stimulus is required. In the U.S. market that provocation came from the launch of Google Fiber deployments. In the UK market, the government regulator, Ofcom , has provided the catalyst for progress. One of the keys to economic growth in the 21st Century is access to adequate telecom networks. Raising Expectations for UK Broadband The UK will outperform other major European countries on a range of fixed telecoms measures for the next five years, and become one of the best performing countries worldwide by 2020, according to the l

The Internet of Things ( IoT ) is already having a significant impact on product development in the automobile industry. As the IoT applications mature, analysts are predicting the increasing adoption of open source hardware and software technologies. Moreover, while 4G networks would be preferred by automakers to power the connected car, it is 3G networks that will carry the data driving the majority of its global telematics and infotainment services revenues. In fact, according to the latest market study by ABI Research, it will be after 2020 that 4G becomes the leading connection technology for OEM telematics revenues. It is typical for verticals with long product lifecycles, such as automotive, to show delayed uptake of next generation technologies, such as 4G, due to slower penetration into the installed vehicle base. "There are exceptions. For instance, in the United States, Japan and Korea, 4G will lead revenue generation," said Dan Shey, VP and IoT practice di

The architects of today's hyperscale data centers have rejected the legacy vendor storage products, due to their high-cost and low-efficiency technologies. This progressive trend will also drive changes in traditional enterprise data centers that attempt to match the advances of the leading public cloud service providers. The transition started in North American and has already moved to other regions of the globe. The external storage systems (ESS) market in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) declined 11 percent year-over-year to $1.63 billion in the second quarter of 2015, according to the latest market study by IDC. While high-end storage systems fell 33 percent YoY in the region, flash storage systems recorded double-digit growth propelled especially by all-flash arrays (AFAs), which grew 113 percent YoY in user value. The total storage capacity in the region grew 2 percent YoY to 2.8 exabytes in the second quarter. According to the IDC assessment, the ESS market v

The smartphone market in America has reached a pivotal point, now that most mobile network service providers removed phone subsidies and Apple offers unlocked iPhones directly to consumers (bypassing the U.S. wireless carriers). And, the ongoing use of Facebook Messenger app is negatively impacting the legacy SMS revenue stream. That said, comScore released data from their latest study of key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for July 2015. Once again, Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 44.2 percent OEM market share. Meanwhile, Google Android continues to lead as the number one smartphone OS platform with 51.4 percent market share. Moreover, Facebook ranked as the top individual smartphone software application. Smartphone OEM Market Share 191.4 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (77.1 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in July. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 44.2 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 1.1

The aging population within many nations has huge implications for healthcare providers, as costs continue to rise and qualified staff remain in short supply. Technology can help to increase productivity and improve the quality of services. Moreover, mobile communications, the public internet and software are all likely to have a positive impact on remote monitoring applications. The connected hospital patient monitoring equipment market consisting primarily of blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters, and electrocardiogram monitors is set to grow at a 21.1 percent CAGR between 2014 and 2020, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. This increase is driven largely by government regulations and increasing demand in developed markets from a wider hospital patient population. These connected devices not only improve the reliability of patient monitoring but also improve caregiver workflow automation through integration with patient electronic health records. "The

Once upon a time, at a typical enterprise organization anywhere in the world, all business technology procurement decisions were dictated by the company's CIO and the execution was managed by their loyal technical team.  Meanwhile, life was good for most people in an IT vendor's sales force who were laser focused on the few they considered as their 'buyer' customers. But one day, the status-quo was broken by the rumble of militant Line of Business (LoB) leaders who rejected the IT establishment and their old ways. The LoB rebels demanded a change and pushed aside the legacy CIO and their 'preferred' vendor collaborators. Now, anyone that was armed by the CEO with an IT budget could lead the Digital Business Transformation that enterprise end-users have craved for so long. This is the new way, the path that is taken by an open organization that seeks to survive and prosper in the Global Networked Economy. End of Tyranny: Open Digital Transformation A wid

In 2015, the wearable technology market will reach $24.2 billion. However, 74 percent of that growth will be with mature wearable product categories -- such as smart watches, wireless earphones and blood glucose test strips, according to the latest market study by IDTechEx Research . The last five years has seen significant interest in new wearable devices and associated software applications -- particularly fitness trackers -- as demonstrated by the following Google Trends report. Many of the companies looking to commercialize a new wearable technology are searching for business partners within the healthcare and medical apparatus industry. The motivation is somewhat obvious. The upside opportunity for wearable devices is in the medical and healthcare apps environment. Moreover, including blood glucose monitoring use cases, healthcare is already the largest single sector -- measured by sales revenue -- in the established wearable technology marketplace. Some of the key adva

The ongoing adoption of cloud computing has shifted the demand for storage systems. Total worldwide enterprise storage systems revenue grew by 2.1 percent year-over-year to reach $8.8 billion during the second quarter of 2015 (2Q15), according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). However, revenue growth and new system demand was the greatest within the group of original design manufacturers that sell directly to Hyperscale data centers. IDC reported that this portion of the market was up by 25.8 percent year-over-year to $1 billion. The outlook for this segment is continued high-growth. Sales of server-based storage were up 10 percent during the quarter and accounted for $2.1 billion in revenue. External storage systems remained the largest market segment, but the $5.7 billion in sales represented a -3.9 percent year-over-year decline. Total capacity shipments were up 37 percent year-over-year to 30.3 exabytes during the quarter. "C

While manufacturing and industrial companies vary in their need for traditional security measures, the proliferation of communication networks and the growing use of off-the-shelf software has thrust cyber security concerns into the spotlight. Safety and security issues associated with the high levels of online connectivity and cloud integration are surfacing as the concept of the Internet of Things ( IoT ) takes shape across more industries. Furthermore, the frequency of sophisticated and targeted advanced persistent threats has given further weight to the online communication safety requirement across both process and discrete industries. According to the latest market study by Frost & Sullivan, the global cybersecurity market for control systems is expected to grow at a rate between 20 to 25 percent every year until 2021. North America and Europe are forecast to remain at the forefront of creating awareness and initiating security technology advancements that specificall

Mobile network operators and internet service providers have a significant new upside opportunity. The global market for mobile Location-Based Services (LBS) will demonstrate solid growth in the next few years, according to the latest market study by Berg Insight. Berg believes that LBS related revenues will to increase from €10.3 billion in 2014 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5 percent to reach €34.8 billion in 2020. "The increase in usage of LBS has resulted in significant revenue growth, especially for leading players such as Google, Facebook, Baidu, Tencent, Twitter and Yahoo," said André Malm, senior analyst, Berg Insight . Together, these companies accounted for an estimated 60 percent of the total global LBS revenues in 2014. The market development outlook includes the established leaders continuing to gain momentum. The social networking and entertainment category -- comprising services like mobile social media, messaging apps and games -- is no

While some mobile network service providers have yet to deploy 4G cell-based infrastructure, the global leaders are starting to plan for the next-generation of wireless communications. The mobile internet will become increasingly important to fueling economic growth, resulting in a new wave of market development. The concept of 5G services have yet to be fully-defined. Nevertheless, Juniper Research has forecast the rapid adoption for 5G mobile technologies starting in 2025, with active connections representing a threefold increase from 2024 to reach 240 million potential subscribers. However, this 5G deployment will likely represent a very limited global reach -- initially accounting for approximately just 3 percent of all mobile connections across the globe. Juniper found that the many advantages of 5G -- such as higher data rates, longer battery life, greater user/device support, and reduced latency -- should result in an ideal environment for the proliferation of new mobile i

The world's largest consumer electronics companies -- such as Apple, LG and Samsung -- have moved into the development of flexible battery technology, according to the latest global market study by IDTechEx Research . That recent event is due to progress in the wearable technology market, which will help drive the flexible battery market from $ 6.9 million in 2015 to over $ 400 million in 2025. Wearable electronics and Internet of Things ( IoT ) devices will increasingly require superior battery attributes such as thinness, flexibility, light weight and low charging thresholds that will ultimately create new applications. Indeed, they already have evolved -- as an example, the powered cosmetic skin patch from Estee Lauder using a printed battery can claim to be one of the earliest successes of flexible wearable electronics. According to the IDTechEx assessment, investment in flexible batteries is one of the key areas of progress for wearable electronics market development.

Digital entertainment now encompasses the inclusive aspect of services found on many smartphones, media tablets and connected TV sets. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research , the mobile and online entertainment industry will reach revenues in excess of $300 billion annually by 2019 -- that's up from $195 billion this year. The research observed that growth in the market would be driven by increased adoption of online television and video entertainment services, with the industry accounting for more than 60 percent of the net increase in market value over the next 5 years. The new study also found that Over-the-Top (OTT) video service providers -- such as Netflix and Hulu -- offer an attractive combination of third-party and home-grown content, with a subscription-based model that is supplanting the legacy on-demand pay-per-view approach. The research also found that while video game revenue will capture the lion's share of the digital entertainment m

According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), Apple shipped a total of 3.6 million wearable device units in the second quarter of 2015 (2Q15) -- that's 800 thousand units behind the market leader's (Fitbit) 4.4 million units. IDC reports that the total wearables shipment volume for the quarter came to 18.1 million units -- that's up 223.2 percent from the 5.6 million units shipped in 2Q14. "Anytime Apple enters a new market, not only does it draw attention to itself, but to the market as a whole," said Ramon Llamas, research manager at IDC . IDC believes that the Apple participation benefits multiple players and platforms within the global wearables ecosystem, and ultimately drives total market volumes higher. According to the IDC assessment, Apple could therefore become the consumer wearables market benchmark, and competing vendors need to monitor their design and technology development. Now that Apple is officially a

Data center technology continues to evolve, as revenue in the worldwide server market increased by 6.1 percent year-over-year to $13.5 billion in the second quarter of 2015 (2Q15), according to findings from the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). This quarter revenue grew in rack-optimized, blade, and density-optimized server form factors, while towers declined slightly. Global server shipments totaled 2.29 million units in 2Q15 -- that's an increase of 3.2 percent when compared with the second quarter of 2014. On a year-over-year basis, volume system revenue increased 8.1 percent and high-end server system demand increased 4.0 percent in 2Q15 to $10.1 billion and $2.3 billion, respectively. The volume segment was aided by a continued expansion of x86-based hyperscale server infrastructures coupled with enterprise and SMB refresh of x86-based platforms, while high-end systems were helped by IBM's z13 refresh. Meanwhile, demand for mid-range sys

Worldwide personal computer (PC) shipments are expected to fall by -8.7 percent in 2015 and not stabilize until 2017 at the earliest, according to the the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). According to the IDC assessment, the latest PC forecast has growth declining further through 2016 -- which will now amount to five continuous years of declining shipments. Growth should resume in 2017, led by the commercial market, while consumer volume continues a small decline through the end of the forecast period in 2019. Although IDC had expected the second quarter of 2015 to be a transition period, final results nonetheless shrank even more than expected due to the ongoing large inventory of notebook PCs from prior quarters and severe constraints posed by the decline of major currencies relative to the U.S. Dollar. In addition to economic issues, free upgrades of Windows 10, a relative dearth of newer models in the short term, and distribution channe

Overall worldwide international Internet capacity growth continues to slow, falling from 41 percent in 2011 to 31 percent in 2015. However, even with the declining pace of growth, backbone telecom network operators deployed 43 Tbps of new capacity in the past year alone. According to the latest global market study by TeleGeography , new growth in international Internet capacity connected to Africa continues to outpace that of any other region. Internet access continues to drive local economic development across the African continent. African Internet bandwidth grew 41 percent between 2014 and 2015, and 51 percent compounded annually over the last five years, to reach 2.9 Tbps. Oceania saw the second fastest growth rate of 47 percent per year between 2011 and 2015 to reach 2.1 Tbps, and capacity in Latin America and the Middle East grew 44 percent per year to 20.6 Tbps and 8.4 Tbps, respectively. While international Internet capacity in each of these regions has doubled every tw