Digital Lifescapes

The Internet of Things (IoT) will impact all industries, including farming. As an example, robots and drones have already started to transform parts of the global agriculture sector. According to the latest worldwide study by IDTechEx Research , it's already a $3 billion market in 2016, and it will grow to reach $10 billion by 2022. IDTechEx analysts believe that agricultural robots and drones encompass many different technologies -- each serving a different sub-market, and each enjoying a different degree of technology and market readiness. Dairy farms: Thousands of robotic milking parlors have already been installed worldwide, creating a $1.9 billion industry that is projected to grow to $8.5 billion by 2026. Mobile robots are also already penetrating dairy farms, helping automate tasks such as cattle feed pushing or manure collection and removal. Autonomous tractors: More than 300 thousand tractors equipped with auto-steer or tractor guidance will be sold in 2016, risi

The leading global users of IT infrastructure and related services -- such as financial services and manufacturing companies -- continue to invest in cloud computing, enterprise mobility and big data applications as part of their ongoing digital business transformation efforts. Worldwide revenues for information technology products and services will grow from nearly $2.4 trillion in 2016 to more than $2.7 trillion in 2020, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.3 percent for the 2015-2020 forecast period. Given the recent growth trends, IT vendors will likely continue to target four key industries -- banking, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, and telecommunications -- which are forecast to generate nearly a third of all global IT revenues throughout the forecast period. That being said, consumer purchases accounted for nearly a quarter of all IT revenues in 2015

One of the interesting new application categories for Internet of Things (IoT) technology is the augmentation of existing consumer electronic devices. While most of the market coverage to date has been focused on wrist-based wearables, one of the less prominent areas has been the development of ear-based wearables -- also know as hearables. A new worldwide market study by Juniper Research has found that revenue from the overall category of 'smart audio' hardware will more than triple over the next four years, rising from an estimated $1.4 billion this year to over $5.5 billion by 2020. While Juniper expects part of this to be driven by ear-based wearables like the Bragi Dash and HERE Active Listening, the category will be most successful in the smart home space, with Amazon Echo, Google Home and other unit-based smart audio devices vying for popularity as the next platform for smart devices. Smart Audio Market Development The resulting research report found that the lik

Cloud computing adoption is a global phenomena. Line of Business (LoB) leaders are at the forefront. Worldwide revenue from public cloud services will reach over $195 billion in 2020, more than doubling the current market size, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Western Europe will continue to represent around a fifth of the global market, with revenues growing from a $15 billion in 2015 to $38.6 billion in 2020, at a 20.8 percent five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Software as a service (SaaS) -- including the service enablement of applications and system infrastructure software -- accounted for 66.9 percent of all public cloud revenue in 2015, and will continue to represent the largest portion in 2020. Vendor Go-to-Market Approach Evolves However, according to the IDC assessment, Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) revenues are forecast to grow at a faster rate than SaaS -- expanding their sh

Protecting their organization from new cyber threats continues to be top-of-mind for the vast majority of CIOs. Worldwide spending on information security products and services will reach $81.6 billion in 2016 -- that's an increase of 7.9 percent over 2015, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Consulting and IT outsourcing are currently the largest categories of spending on information security. Until the end of 2020, the highest growth is expected to come from security testing, IT outsourcing and data loss prevention (DLP). Preventive security will continue to show strong growth, as many security practitioners will have a buying preference for preventive measures. However, solutions such as security information and event management (SIEM) and secure web gateways (SWGs) are evolving to support detection-and-response approaches. Gartner expects the SWG market will maintain its growth of 5 to 10 percent through 2020 as organizations focus on detection and response.

Traditional telecom networking equipment vendors have been preparing for the ongoing transition from hardware-centric business models of the past to a more software-oriented model. Meanwhile, the leading telecom service providers continue to adopt low-cost commodity hardware and open source software. According to the latest worldwide market study by IHS Markit , 100 percent of the telecom service providers participating in their recent survey say they will deploy Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) at some point, with 81 percent expecting to do so by 2017. Moreover, 59 percent of telecom network operator respondents have already deployed or will deploy NFV this year. However, integrating NFV into existing networks is an issue for a majority of survey respondents, as is the perceived lack of carrier-grade products. Regardless of these concerns, telecom service providers around the globe are rapidly moving toward NFV, which the latest study by IHS Markit bears out. NFV and SDN M

In the last couple of years machine-to-machine (M2M) has become part of the arsenal of products offered by global telecom service providers and a significant revenue stream for M2M technology specialists. They've developed new value propositions, designed to reduce costs and increase efficiency for their clients. Meanwhile, new business models are beginning to account for new technology concepts and developments, one of the latest to gain significant market traction being the Internet of Things (IoT). New technologies, combined with existing ones, are now making the IoT vision a reality. Embedded SIM cards will increasingly dominate the M2M category, accounting for more than 50 percent of connections by the end of the decade, according to the latest study by Juniper Research. M2M Application Market Development  Outlined as a market driver in their study findings, the introduction of the GSMA embedded specification is likely to fuel the opportunity for mobile network service

Some consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers have learned from mistakes of the past. Maybe it was the flashing '12:00' on VCR clocks, or the TV remote controls with 40 near-identical tiny buttons, designers knew we needed better ways to program and control the everyday devices that we use. Now, on a growing number of CE devices, we can simply use our voice to perform routine tasks. While Apple Siri and Google Now are well-established smartphone features, it's in the emerging smart home that voice control systems will discover their full potential. Smart TVs, smart refrigerators, smart plugs, and many more devices will extend the reach and simplicity of managing the smart home environment using our voice. CE Voice Control Market Development With ABI Research forecasting more than 120 million voice-enabled devices to ship annually by 2021, voice control -- which combines speech recognition and natural language processing -- is becoming the key user interface within th

The emergence of Bitcoin and other alternative cryptocurrency options has the potential to significantly impact the Global Networked Economy. During the last couple of years, huge amounts of these new currencies have been traded on the dedicated exchange platforms that already launched. Meanwhile, some merchants accept Bitcoin as a payment method. And, numerous banks are now trialing the technology as a means of reducing settlement costs, while a host of other use cases -- as an example, smart contracts and secure ID verification -- are also seeing their first deployments. Blockchain Technology Market Development A new worldwide market study by Juniper Research has found that the total value of Venture Capital (VC) investment into blockchain technologies and Bitcoin companies totaled $290 million in the first 6 months of 2016, with more than thirty startups receiving funding during that time. More than a third of all VC investment was accounted for by three companies: Circle -

The occupational use of new video technologies is about to transform the way that many people perform their daily work. As an example, augmented reality is the blending of virtual reality and real life. Software developers can create video images within applications that enhance our experience in the real world. Worldwide revenues for the augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) market will grow from $5.2 billion in 2016 to more than $162 billion in 2020, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 181.3 percent over the 2015-2020 forecast period. New Applications Drive Market Development Sales of AR/VR hardware will generate more than 50 percent of worldwide revenues throughout the forecast period. AR/VR software revenues will grow more than 200 percent year over year in 2016. However, services revenues will overtake software in the middle years of the forecast, as logistics and manufa

The digital TV and video entertainment market will expand via online and mobile delivery of new media. This new growth will be driven by network operator owned services, such as Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), or through Over The Top (OTT) video streaming services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu among others. Meanwhile, traditional pay-TV operators and terrestrial over-the-air TV broadcasters will continue to be disrupted by new digital technologies and new business models. Furthermore, the impact of the ongoing video entertainment transformation could also create new challenges for the Cinema theater sector. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, ultra high-definition television (UHDTV) streaming video services -- i.e. 4K OTT -- content will start to reach the mainstream market soon, with adoption set to soar over the next 5 years. How Connected TV Fueled the Disruption Note, 4K is a term that was originally used to describe the cinema projection

Current estimates of the commercial impact from the Internet of Things (IoT) market opportunity are already being rated in the billions and trillions. Machina Research recently published its annual guidance on the growth of the global IoT market, adding more data and insight to the future projections. China and the U.S. will compete for dominance of the global market by 2025. China, which will account for 21 percent of global IoT connections, will be slightly ahead of the U.S. 20 percent IoT connections share, with similar growth proportions for cellular connections. However, the U.S. market will lead in terms of IoT revenue over China -- 22 percent vs 19 percent. Furthermore, the third largest market is forecast to be Japan with 7 percent of all connections, 7 percent of cellular connections and 6 percent of the global revenue. The total IoT revenue opportunity will be $3 trillion in 2025 -- that's up from $750 billion in 2015. Of this figure, $1.3 trillion will be accounted

The global third party Internet of Things (IoT) platform market increased by 36 percent to € 610 million in 2015, according to the latest worldwide market study by Berg Insight. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.8 percent, revenues are now forecast to reach € 3.05 billion in 2021. There's a wide range of software platforms available. They're intended to reduce cost and development time for IoT solutions, with standardized components that are shared across many verticals to integrate devices, networks and applications. Most of these IoT solutions can be categorized as being a connectivity management platform, a device management platform or an application enablement platform. Although, there are many IoT-related products that offer overlapping functionality. IoT Application Market Development Many organizations have already been involved in various machine-to-machine (M2M) deployments that have been characterized by custom solutions deployed within si

The global retail sector is undergoing a significant disruption from technology-based innovations. Online eCommerce is part of the story, but there's nearly as many dramatic changes occurring within physical retail stores -- particularly at the point of sale (POS). A POS terminal is an electronic device used to process card or contactless mobile payments at retail or merchant locations such as stores, restaurants etc. The terminal can be owned by the retailer or an acquirer-owned terminal (i.e. provided on a rental basis to the merchant). According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, the global value of contactless POS terminal transactions -- conducted in-store via cards, mobile phones and wearables -- will approach $500 billion annually by 2017; that's up from an estimated $321 billion this year. However, the low value nature of contactless payments means that it will only represent just 5 percent of the total value of all worldwide POS transactions in 2017.

Streaming video entertainment services, such as those available from Netflix and Amazon, have already had a significant impact on the pay-TV sector in North America. As a result, European pay-TV operators that witnessed this disruption are eager to consider options that would enable them to transform their business. Amazon Video has announced it will be launching its Amazon Streaming Partners Program (ASPP) in Europe. Amazon operates a platform business model for video; it provides flexible video entertainment services to consumers and content rights holders, plus it's already present in every part of the value chain. Amazon is becoming a credible and more direct competitor to pay-TV service providers, despite not competing with core live content, according to the findings from the latest market study by Analysys Mason. Pay-TV Market Development in Europe This platform business model allows video content owners to offer their own subscriptions through Amazon Video, instead

The ongoing threat of cyber attacks on enterprise IT environments is driving new security-related investments. Worldwide spending on information security products and services will reach $81.6 billion in 2016 -- that's an increase of 7.9 percent over 2015, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Consulting and IT outsourcing are currently the largest categories of spending on information security. Until the end of 2020, the highest growth is expected to come from security testing, IT outsourcing and data loss prevention (DLP). Preventive security will continue to show strong growth, as many security practitioners continue to have a buying preference for preventive measures. However, solutions such as security information and event management (SIEM) and secure web gateways (SWGs) are evolving to support detection-and-response approaches. Gartner expects the SWG market will maintain its growth of 5 to 10 percent through 2020, as organizations focus on detecti

If you really want an immersive experience, there's nothing better than a 360-degree three-dimensional visual representation of an environment. Innovative forms of visual experiences are going to transform the world as we know it. Can you image that? Soon, you will see. As a variety of new augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) devices reach the market, ABI Research predicts that business leaders should be prepared for a plethora of new enterprise applications for enhanced video -- as the focus shifts to the corporate and gaming verticals. AR usage in enterprise environments is on the rise, with smart glasses for gaming forecast to grow by 82 percent through 2021 -- VR will see similar crossover into enterprise, with an 88 percent CAGR through the same forecast period. AR/VR Applications Market Development "The promising use cases for AR in enterprise remain the primary drivers for the technology; though, it is worth noting that the consumer AR market opportun

Consumer electronics product lifecycle management is often challenging for most vendors, but it's particularly problematic when customer needs and wants are constantly changing. Such is the case with media tablet users around the globe. As the market matured, distinct customer use case segments evolved. Worldwide media tablet shipments, inclusive of slates and detachables, reached 38.7 million in the second quarter of 2016 (2Q16) according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Growth continues to decline with the market receding 12.3 percent year-over-year as vendors begin to refocus their product lines and consumers wait on purchases. An overwhelming majority of tablets shipped this past quarter were Google Android-based systems (65 percent) followed by Apple iOS, which captured 26 percent, and Microsoft Windows for the remaining share. Media Tablet Market Development Segments Though this trend has been constant for years there are earl

If you thought that the upside potential for FinTech growth -- and the likelihood of a big disturbance within the banking industry status-quo -- was limited to North American and Western European markets, then you would be mistaken. This very significant intrusion is truly a global phenomena. New research has uncovered data that suggests the FinTech sector in Africa is now poised for exponential and rapid growth that will challenge existing financial services providers, despite the fact that it's in the early stages of adoption relative to the rest of the world. According to a worldwide market study by Frost & Sullivan, the FinTech industry in Africa may experience a similar disruption seen in Australia -- a country with financial services development comparable to South Africa. African FinTech Market Development Outlook A case in point: the financial sector in Australia is set to take $10 billion in revenues away from the big Australian banks and contribute $3 billion

Given that the financial services sector thrives on large quantities of data, it is not surprising that new technology is expected to play a key role in this industry's digital transformation. Innovative and disruptive financial technology (Fintech) ventures will create new business models that drive progressive change. Juniper Research has found that Fintech platform revenues for unsecured consumer loans issued using machine learning technology are set to grow by 960 percent during 2016 to 2021, rising to $17 billion globally. This growth is being driven by advances in big data analytics and cognitive computing. Juniper's latest market study found that machine learning investment in Fintech will advance rapidly, owing to the highly data-driven nature of the market -- it's anticipated that AI integration is likely to produce substantial benefits. Machine learning technology advances -- a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) -- have grown significantly since 2011, wi

Car manufacturers are both excited and cautious about how new technology is reshaping their industry. As an example, innovative automotive applications for Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) will redefine the vehicle driving and ownership experience, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. AR Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) will enable advanced autonomous vehicle operation by painting 3D navigation instructions onto road geometry, highlighting moving obstacles like crossing pedestrians, and enhancing driver awareness of autonomous operation. By 2025, ABI Research analysts predict that more than 15 million AR HUDs will ship -- with more than 11 million to be embedded solutions. However, there are numerous issues that must be resolved, in order for mainstream market development to blossom. Automotive Use Cases for AR/VR Technology "Automotive OEMs need to address technological challenges before AR HUDs hit the mainstream market," says Domin

As more companies choose to shift some of their IT platforms to cloud computing infrastructure, they seek information and guidance that will help them to evaluate the vendor leaders in the market. In particular, CIOs and enterprise Line of Business leaders want open architectures for their Hybrid IT scenarios. IHS Markit released findings from its latest study, which profiles and analyzes the top seven revenue producers for cloud IT infrastructure services: Amazon (AWS), CenturyLink, Equinix, Google, IBM, Microsoft (Azure) and Rackspace. IHS created a scorecard that evaluates the leading off-premises cloud IT infrastructure service providers on criteria using available data -- including direct feedback from buyers, provider market share, market share momentum, company financials, brand recognition, reputation for innovation and other benchmarks. Cloud infrastructure providers are classified by IHS as a Leader, Established or Challenger depending on their overall score. Cloud

Line of Business leaders and forward-thinking CIOs have applied cloud computing services to deliver new applications quickly. At first, IT industry analysts were really unsure of the long-term impact -- because they had assumed that organizations would move cautiously to adopt this progressive business technology. Meanwhile, most traditional IT vendors were monitoring the enterprise shift to cloud computing, particularly SaaS offerings, as the trend started to impact their enterprise software and hardware revenues. Yes, they anticipated change, but they didn't foresee the speed of disruption to their legacy business models. Ultimate Cost of IT Vendor Complacency More than $1 trillion in IT spending will be directly or indirectly affected by the shift to cloud during the next five years, according to the latest worldwide study by Gartner. According to their market assessment, this transition will make cloud computing one of the most disruptive forces of IT spending across the