Digital Lifescapes

Smartphone data security is growing in importance as more people are storing and accessing personal, business and financial data on their devices. Alphanumeric passwords are the common method of authentication, but can be difficult to enter accurately while on the move. Furthermore, the small screen size on smartphones -- relative to that of a desktop or notebook computer -- means that password input is more difficult, while an accidental keystroke can increase the user frustration. That said, biometric authentication is able to move beyond fingerprint scans and include a range of identifiers, from facial recognition to voiceprints, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. Biometric Technology Market Development These methods will become part of many more consumer lives, installed on an estimated 190 million mobile devices  in 2016 -- including smartphones and wearables -- before exceeding 600 million devices by 2021. The new research found that...

Smartphones and media tablets are proven business technology tools within most work situations today. Mobile enterprise communication continues to grow across the globe, as more organizations make mobility software apps an essential component of their digital transformation agenda. The global mobile workforce is forecast to increase from 1.45 billion in 2016 -- accounting for 38.8 percent of the overall workforce -- to 1.87 billion in 2022, thereby accounting for 42.5 percent of the workforce. Mobile Internet Market Development Trends Globalization and continued advancements in mobile internet technology and applications will increase levels of mobility among executives, consultants, sales professionals, and many other professions, according to the latest worldwide market study by Strategy Analytics. "In overall terms, the traditional workforce in the United States and Canada have been aging, along with the world's population in general," said Gina Luk, senior ana...

According to the latest market study by Frost & Sullivan, the financial services industry is on the brink of disruption as widening technology use challenges existing products, services and fee structures. Stakeholders across the traditional global banking, insurance, funding, lending, payments, business and retail finance segments are reviewing processes to align with their digital transformation agenda. For instance, progressive customers and younger investors are more reliant on digital channels. Similarly, automation is reducing human activity and decreasing costs, creating lower fee structures across the board. The ongoing evolution of financial services will focus on empowering customers to choose and customize the services they receive or the products they purchase. Market trends to emerge by 2025 include: Pervasive use of convenient biometric authentication. Cloud-based, software-as-a-service infrastructure model. Robot advisors that reduce processing fees for cu...

Self-driving or autonomous vehicle (AV) technology may improve road safety and reduce traffic accidents -- the vast majority of which are caused by human error -- as well as provide mobility for the elderly or disabled population around the globe. ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) are the core elements of AVs and their adoption in production automobiles is increasing rapidly, partly as a result of stringent safety specifications. Autonomous Vehicle Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the annual production of self-driving cars will reach 14.5 million in 2025 -- that's up from only a few thousands in 2020 -- to give a global installed base of more than 22 million consumer vehicles by 2025. The study found that the market adoption of AV technology is likely to accelerate over the next few years, propelled by new regulatory requirements, environmental pressures, and rapid technological developments. The market anal...

Blame Netflix, but they're not alone. Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services continue to disrupt the traditional video entertainment sector in major markets worldwide. In addition, North America has been a proving ground for innovative new offerings. According to the findings from a recent study, North America will have 112 million SVOD subscribers -- that's for movie and TV services only; excluding sports -- by end-2016, which is up by 19 million when compared with 2015. Moreover, the SVOD total is forecast to climb to 138 million by 2021. However, the North America study by Digital TV Research anticipates 117 million TV households in the market by 2021, so the SVOD total will represent 104 percent of all TV households in the region. SVOD Market Development Trends "It is important to stress that these SVOD figures are gross – some homes take more than one SVOD platform, especially in the U.S. market," said Simon Murray, principal analyst at Digital TV R...

Wireless communication technology is a key component of most Internet of Things (IoT) projects. Choosing the best-fit solution can be challenging, due to the use of competing technologies. Mobile network service providers prefer open standards-based technology. So, that's a key market driver. ABI Research forecasts that although proprietary Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWANs) using LoRa, RPMA, and SIGFOX dominate today, the imminent commercialization of cellular LPWANs using the LTE Cat-M1, NB-IoT, and EC-GSM-IoT technologies will quickly rival the proprietary footprint. Cellular LPWANs promise wide support from a large ecosystem, interoperability among vendors and mobile network operators, and the ability for existing cellular networks to rapidly scale up through a straightforward software upgrade with no new spectrum or hardware required. Market Development of IoT Infrastructure Telecom service providers throughout North America, Western Europe, and the Asia Pacific reg...

While it's true that cloud computing service adoption has been driven mainly by organizations in developed markets within North America, Western Europe and the Asia-Pacific regions, we're now seeing significant upside opportunities in emerging markets, such as India. The overall public cloud services market in India is already predicted to grow by 35.9 percent in 2016, to reach a total of $1.3 billion, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Public Cloud Market Development The highest growth in this emerging market will come from cloud system infrastructure services  -- such as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) -- which is projected to grow by 45.5 percent in 2016. This cloud service adoption in India is followed by platform as a service (PaaS), and Gartner analysts have projected that segment of the market will grow 33.5 percent by the end of this year. "The overall global public cloud market will mature, and its growth rate will slightly slow down ...

Retail in-store payment capabilities are evolving with near-field communication (NFC) for point-of-sale (POS) terminals. NFC is a secure wireless technology that enables two devices in close proximity to exchange data. It's used for a variety of applications, including contactless payments. The market for NFC-ready POS terminals continued to show momentum in 2016 with annual shipments anticipated to reach an estimated 16.1 million units, according to the latest worldwide market study by Berg Insight. Retail Payments Market Development The attach rate for NFC was highest in EU28+2 and the North America regions, where 93 percent and 92 percent respectively of the POS terminals shipped featured NFC. NFC was also a popular feature in many other major markets worldwide -- including Brazil, Turkey and China. On a global basis, almost three out of every five POS terminals shipped in 2016 included NFC. Berg Insight projects the global installed base of NFC-ready POS terminals wil...

As we look back on the business technology-related trends of 2016, the huge adoption of Hybrid IT methodologies come to mind. More enterprises have combined on-premises systems of record with off-premises systems of engagement to form a cohesive foundation for their digital transformation agenda. Business leaders currently spend about 28 percent of their total enterprise IT budgets on hosting and cloud computing services, according to the latest worldwide market study by 451 Research. Moreover, the outlook for 2017 is encouraging -- that investment is now forecast to reach 34 percent. The analyst believes that there's a growing reliance on external sources of infrastructure, application, management and security services. Although vendors frequently position themselves as primarily suppliers of infrastructure, the study finds that just 31 percent of spending goes towards infrastructure services. Meanwhile, nearly 70 percent of enterprise budgets for hosting and cloud is being ...

There are numerous factors driving the adoption of financial technology (fintech) market development. Particularly within emerging nations, technology vendors and service providers are looking at ways to provide services to individuals who previously have never used financial services -- they're often referred to as the un-banked population. Fintech platform revenues to support lending and financing are set to reach $10.5 billion globally by 2020, doubling the $5.2 billion expected this year, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. The analyst has predicted that growth would be driven by a combination of factors including an acceleration in peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, crowdfunding becoming a viable alternative to traditional lending mechanisms, and the deployment of next generation analytics platforms. Fintech Market Development Opportunities The study findings uncovered that, in the absence of credit checking bureaus in emerging markets, a credi...

Most savvy CEOs already know it requires accomplished talent to lead a digital transformation agenda. The execution of the key strategies often results in the development of software capabilities. That said, finding and retaining the qualified technical talent is likely to be one of the big challenges facing business leaders. We're in the early stages of a software developer skills shortage, according the the latest Cloud Foundry  global perception study. The majority of their survey respondents say there's a looming shortage of skilled developers. Most already feel the impact. They're having difficulty hiring and retaining technical staff. Key Findings from the study include: The majority (64%) of IT professionals and business executives agree that the developer shortage is a real threat to progress. Most respondents (57%) state that this shortage has already impacted their ability to hire skilled people. The developer shortage is most acutely felt by companies ...

While a variety of devices have been in development for virtual reality (VR) platforms, the technology has blossomed in recent years due to developments in sensor technologies and the availability of lower-cost solutions -- such as mobile. Today, there are a growing number of diverse industries that stand to benefit from the development of emerging applications -- as an example, from entertainment to medical and military use cases. There will be nearly 60 million smartphone VR headsets shipped in 2021, that's an increase of around 240 percent on an expected 16.8 million this year, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. VR Market Development Trends However, according to the Juniper assessment, the lower price of these devices means they will only account for 7 percent of the total hardware revenue. While millions of consumers are already using VR on smartphone-based devices --such as Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR -- software developer...

Technology will continue to displace humans in job roles that can be automated. For certain, business and government leaders will have a choice -- accept progress and prosper, or wait for the inevitable outcome of regression. Historically, while most of the Luddites eventually concede, it's a complicated scenario. By 2020, smart machines will be a top five investment priority for more than 30 percent of CIOs, according to the latest market study by Gartner. That being said, with some smart machines moving towards fully autonomous operation for the first time, balancing the need to exercise control versus the drive to realize benefits is crucial. As an example, Google’s self-driving car project team may discover that pursuing full autonomy is neither possible nor desirable in smart machines. "Human beings are still required as the final point of redundancy in an autonomous vehicle, so a fully autonomous car requires a steering wheel should a driver be required to take con...

The legacy enterprise networking environment within enterprise data centers continues to transition away from proprietary platforms to more open standards-based solutions. Traditional hardware vendors will gradually embrace the trend, as their customers seek to lower networking costs and improve performance. Software-defined networking (SDN) is approaching adoption by an early majority of enterprises and will compose nearly 40 percent of global enterprise network infrastructure revenue -- that's about $12.7 billion by 2020 -- according to the latest market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). Vendor revenue displacement will be incremental during this time, as SDN solutions largely coexist with legacy networking technologies. However, the ongoing virtualization of network functions is already starting to disrupt the incumbent status-quo. SDN Market Development Opportunities "Today’s business environment is characterized by globally distributed pools of informat...

As the growing applications for mobile internet access place greater demands on wireless broadband communication networks around the globe, telecom service providers are updating their infrastructure to support the traffic. There are more than 7.2 billion wireless connections, including 1.45 billion LTE connections, around the world today that are operating with the technology standards developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). 5G Americas, the industry trade association and voice of 5G and LTE for the Americas, announced the publication of a technical Executive Summary titled "Inside 3GPP Release 13- Understanding the Standards for LTE Advanced Enhancements" that outlines many of the innovations that will lay the groundwork for future mobile wireless networks. "LTE is not a yesterday story. It is a technology for today and tomorrow. LTE to LTE-Advanced Pro provides transformational innovation and will be the mobile broadband foundation for the ne...

Across the globe, the mobile phone is one of the most important technology advancements for developing nations, as an enabler of economic growth. In fact, many of these emerging countries have already seen a rapid adoption of mobile remittance. Very basic money transfer services can help fuel a local economy. According to the World Bank, there are 80 countries where less than 50 percent of the adult population has a bank account. Mobile money transfers can provide financial inclusion for those un-banked and under-banked citizens. The total transaction value of Mobile Financial Services in emerging markets  -- including domestic money transfers, deposits on loans, insurance products, and savings accounts -- will approach $500 billion in 2021, that's up from an estimated $198 billion in 2016. Mobile Money Service Market Development Juniper Research discovered that by introducing insurance offerings, mobile network operators had the opportunity to substantially reduce custo...

Disruption is coming to the traditional freight and parcel delivery sector, enabled in part by the Internet of Things (IoT). Freight as a Service (FaaS) will represent 30 percent of total goods transportation revenues by 2030, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. The benefits of FaaS -- which are similar in concept to Mobility as a Service (MaaS) -- include cost reductions, resource utilization improvements, and new convergence via the adoption of a 'sharing economy' business model. FaaS streamlines freight and parcel delivery services through new advancements in cargo marketplaces, on-demand transportation, freight brokerage, and ride-sharing. With emerging IoT applications fueling its current growth rate, FaaS revenues are already on track to exceed $900 billion by 2030. FaaS Market Development Opportunities "With an average global air cargo Freight Load Factor of as low as 44 percent and a structural 20 percent long-haul truck cargo ca...

Legacy insurance sector CIOs must embrace the innovation and disruption potential of technology start-ups to complement their own digital insurance strategies, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Sixty-four percent of the world's 25 largest insurance companies have already invested directly or indirectly -- via their venture capital arms -- in what Gartner refers to as the emerging Insurtech start-up market. Gartner predicts that 80 percent of life, property and casualty insurers globally will partner with or acquire Insurtech companies by the end of 2018. Analysts believe that these pioneers can stimulate or accelerate innovation among incumbent industry players, and complement existing digital transformation strategies. Insuretech Market Development Opportunities "Gartner has seen growing interest among insurance business and IT leaders in collaborating with Insurtechs or making them part of their overall innovation policies, but most insurance...

Many of today's CIOs feel like they're under siege by demanding Line of Business (LoB) leaders that seek a change in the IT organization status-quo. At least one industry analyst believes that today's IT organizations are divided. So, stop and think about it. Can one person lead two different agendas and be successful? International Data Corporation (IDC) believes there are those that thrive by effectively leveraging digital technologies, new business models, and entrepreneurial cultures (they're in the minority). Then, there's everyone else that is typically consumed by technical debt, obsolete business processes, and the lack of a meaningful and substantive vision for the future of business technology. To help CIOs and IT executives successfully lead their organizations through accelerating digital transformation, IDC unveiled their Worldwide CIO Agenda 2017 Predictions. According to the IDC assessment, these predictions describe the ten most important shift...

As 2016 comes to a close, industry analysts start to share their outlook for next year, and beyond. International Data Corporation (IDC) has announced its worldwide information technology (IT) industry predictions. IDC foresees digital transformation (DX) attaining macroeconomic scale over the next three to four years, changing the way enterprises operate and reshaping global commerce. From their perspective, this is the dawn of the DX Economy. "We are at an inflection point as digital transformation efforts shift from 'project' or 'initiative' status to strategic business imperative," said Frank Gens, senior vice president at IDC . "Every growing enterprise, regardless of age or industry, must become 'digital native' in the way its executives and employees think, what they produce, and how they operate." Top Ten IDC Predictions for 2017 By 2020, 50 percent of the Global 2000 new growth will depend on their ability to create digitally...

As more business leaders work on their strategies for the Internet of Things (IoT), industry analysts are researching use cases for these technologies. Having evaluated similar technologies in the past, one of the most successful devices was deemed to be the anti-theft tag known as electronic article surveillance (EAS). That's because it's disposable and some major retailers around the globe believe that it deters thieves. Over ten billion EAS tags are produced yearly, mostly sold at around one cent with 0.5 cent ones available from several vendors, according to the latest market study by IDTechEx . Lessons Learned from Past Experience Next comes disposable radio frequency identification (RFID) tags which help stock control at around eight cents apiece. There is one standard portfolio for the highest volume applications. Both EAS and highest volume RFID took at least 20 years to get there. Then comes mobile phones which are not disposable but they are mostly replaced wi...

Wireless technologies are adding new fuel to the emerging Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) market. As an example, ultra-wideband (UWB) indoor location technology that's used for logistics apps is ready for substantial market growth. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, there's a significant emerging opportunity for the high-accuracy, low-cost ultra-wideband radio technology in industrial and IoT markets -- with total revenues to reach $15 billion by 2021. “High-precision UWB technologies are nothing new, with companies like Time Domain, Ubisense and Zebra Technologies being long-established vendors in the RTLS/asset tracking market," said Patrick Connolly, principal analyst at ABI Research . UWB Technology Market Development ABI analysts believe that while it's true that UWB is able to perform well in challenging RF environments, the cost/accuracy trade-off previously limited this technology to very niche applications. But now startups are i...