Digital Lifescapes

The major players in the smartphone ecosystem are driving growth with value-added services. The emergence of several high profile mobile payment service offerings has provided the sector with much needed new growth opportunities. Apple, Samsung and Google have all expanded their mobile wallet range across the globe: by the end of 2016, the services were available in 13, 8 and 9 markets respectively. Between the three vendors, they have rapidly scaled their active mobile wallet user base -- which had reached an estimated 74 million by the end of 2016. Global spend via mobile wallets is expected to rise by nearly 32 percent in 2017 to $1.35 trillion, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. Mobile Wallet Market Development The study found that spend is currently concentrated in the Far East & China, due primarily to the success of mobile services such as Alipay and WeChat. However, Juniper analysts believe that moves by PayPal and Apple to of...

Enterprise applications for big data continues to gain momentum across the globe. Moreover, cognitive computing and cloud technologies are making it much easier to extract valuable insights from vast amounts of stored data. That insight is a key component of successful digital transformation projects. The Internet of Things (IoT) analytics market is rapidly expanding from the cloud to the edge of the network as advances in compute capabilities -- and the lower cost of communications hardware -- unlock new opportunities to apply analytics closer to the thing where data is generated or collected. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the volume of data captured by IoT-connected devices will grow nearly six-fold over the forecast period and reach 2,000 exabytes (2.0 zettabytes­) in 2021. IoT Data Analytics Market Development Today, only a fraction of captured data is recorded at the endpoint for further processing or storage. The goal with edge analytics ...

Given the upside potential opportunity for the Internet of Things (IoT) -- most of which is yet to be realized -- enterprise leaders are making significant investments in partnership with key technology service providers to explore new growth areas. As a result, Everest Group forecasts that the IoT services market will more than double in the next three years, reaching $18 billion by 2020. IoT Services Market Development Enterprises are already exploring ways that IoT can be used to achieve higher efficiency, enable data-driven decision-making and develop new revenue opportunities through customer-centric products and services. With enterprises and service providers considering IoT as their next big opportunity, Everest Group has identified several trends that are emerging from the current adoption pattern: Eighty-seven percent of enterprises are optimistic about the returns on their investments in IoT. The percentage of IoT projects moving from pilot to production has jumpe...

Some traditional pay-TV service providers have already supported their customer's expectations for better apps on smart TVs, which enable service subscribers to overcome the limitations of their provider's set-top box and limited on-demand video programs. Moreover, the leading online video subscription services -- such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu -- enable millions of American smart TV owners to independently access video entertainment (without traditional pay-TV). Internet-Connected TV Market Development According to new research from The Diffusion Group (TDG), the penetration of Internet-connected TVs among U.S. broadband households has increased nearly 50 percent since 2013 -- from 50 percent market penetration to 74 percent at the end of 2016. Connected-TV market penetration grew by 22 percent between 2013 and 2014, and another 15 percent between 2014 and 2015. However, new growth has slowed to only 4 percent, indicating that the market has matured, which is...

Looking across the Internet of Things (IoT) overall security landscape, it's clear that 'consumer IoT' should be viewed as a separate segment, given that current trends in the implementation and adoption of robust security measures. The consumer market is composed of a very wide range of hardware vendors -- from large companies to crowdfunded start-ups. Competition in the market is high, but the IoT security value proposition is much more difficult to present to the end-user, relative to other IoT segments. For context, note that the overall number of connected IoT devices, sensors and actuators in all market segments are forecast to reach over 46 billion in 2021. Consumer IoT Security Market Development The consumer IoT installed base will reach over 15 billion units by 2021, an increase of 120 percent over 2016, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. As evidenced at the CES show earlier this month, embedded connectivity is increas...

Across the globe, cloud computing service applications are maturing and evolving as more C-level executives guide enterprise digital transformation strategies with their industry-specific business requirements. Moreover, the expectation is that cloud services will also comply with region-specific regulations. IT infrastructure spending for public and private cloud computing in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) grew 19.5 percent year-over-year to reach $1.5 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2016, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Cloud Market Development Trends "IDC expects this market to reach a value of $10.9 billion by 2020, from the five-year forecast, or 35.4 percent of the total market expenditure. Fueled by increasing maturity and adoption rates of many new cloud-dependent technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud continues to represent an area of tremendous growth for the European infrastruct...

Artificial intelligence and robotics were top technology policy issues debated at the World Economic Forum 2017 in Davos last week. Meanwhile, new economic reports indicate that globalization trends and technology continue to raise concerns as more people assess the global employment impact. However, technology vendors typically don't focus on the social impact of their products. Besides, the current market data can be interpreted in a variety of ways. As an example, more new jobs will be created across the globe to support the industrial robotics growth phenomenon. Industrial Robotics Market Development ABI Research forecasts that industrial robot shipments will exhibit an average year-over-year (YOY) growth rate of 16 percent by 2021. As industrial robots continue to infiltrate the workforce to increase production efficiency, this will result in annual revenue exceeding $30 billion in 2020 and nearly $45 billion in 2025. The automotive sector will remain the leading acq...

Large enterprises continue to move some of their IT data center infrastructure to colocation facilities. That said, there was more vendor consolidation activity during last year, as a few key players decided to reduce their presence or totally exit the market. According to the latest worldwide market study by 451 Research, the global colocation and wholesale market revenue will top $48 billion by 2021 in its latest quarterly release of the Data Center KnowledgeBase (DCKB), which tracks nearly 4,500 data centers operated by 1,193 companies worldwide. Colo Data Center Market Development In Q3 2016, the data center colocation and wholesale market gained $28.9 billion in annualized revenue. The majority of this revenue (42 percent) was generated in North America, with Asia-Pacific generating 31 percent. Following a year of significant M&A activity in 2015, the first three quarters of 2016 maintained the momentum with notable industry consolidation that included Equinix completi...

In today's economy, information technology (IT) is the essential foundation for new digital business transformation projects. It's also the open innovation platform that enables an enterprise to harness the collective capabilities of their commercial ecosystem that's online. Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.5 trillion in 2017, a 2.7 percent increase from 2016, according to the latest market study by Gartner. However, this overall global growth rate is down slightly from earlier projections of 3 percent. IT Infrastructure Market Development "2017 was poised to be a rebound year in IT spending. Some major trends have converged, including cloud, blockchain, digital business and artificial intelligence. Normally, this would have pushed IT spending much higher than 2.7 percent growth," said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner . However, Gartner analysts believe that some of the political uncertainty in global markets has foster...

When the smartwatch market came into being, most industry analysts assumed that Apple would dominate the new category. Now it seems that Google Android will likely lead the market, via its extensive open ecosystem of software developers. While the number of high-end smartwatches is faltering, hybrid watches remain largely unaffected by the market slow-down, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. These watches have traditional watch faces but offer some connected functions -- such as tracking the user's steps or enabling NFC payments -- and claim a larger portion of the market than previously anticipated. Smartwatch Market Development Trends While basic smartwatches account for around 30 percent the current market value, Juniper anticipates that this share will grow to almost 40 percent within the next five years. The new research findings anticipate that as the high-end multi-functional smartwatch market slows, vendors will refine or remove unpopular fu...

Cloud computing will gain significant new adoption in the large enterprise market, with growth coming from public cloud services and increased on-premises cloud IT infrastructure investment, as more CIOs execute their hybrid cloud strategies. Total spending on IT infrastructure products -- server, storage, and networking -- for deployment in cloud environments will increase by 18.2 percent in 2017 to reach $44.2 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Cloud Infrastructure Market Development Of this spending, 61.2 percent will be on public cloud data centers, while off-premises private cloud environments will contribute 14.6 percent. Furthermore, spending on IT infrastructure for on-premises private cloud deployments will growth by 16.6 percent. By comparison, spending on traditional -- i.e. non-cloud -- IT infrastructure will decline by 3.3 percent in 2017, but will still account for the largest share (57.1 percent) of ov...

The savvy CEOs anticipate that trends in 2017 are likely to follow the path of disruptive events in 2016. Change is the norm. Digital technology will continue to have a dramatic impact on legacy players in the marketplace. Technology, Media and Telecommunication (TMT) sectors completed 3,021 deals worth $698.2 billion in 2016, representing a decrease of 4.5 percent in value and 5.7 percent in deal count compared to a record 2015, while deal count remained consistent, according to the latest market study by Mergermarket . The TMT sector accounted for 21.4 percent of global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity -- that's up from 18.5 percent in 2015, and its second highest share on Mergermarket record (since 2001) after 2013 (22.4 percent). TMT Sector Market Development Deal activity accelerated towards the end of 2016, with deals announced in the final quarter of the year (683 deals, $295 billion) marking the highest Q4 value on record. U.S. M&A activity rampe...

According to a U.S. government study, advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have opened up new markets and new opportunities for progress in critical areas of the American economy. In recent years, robots have surpassed humans in the performance of certain tasks related to intelligence. Although it is unlikely that robots will exhibit superior intelligence to that of humans in the next 20 years, it is to be expected that they will continue to reach and exceed human performance on certain types of tasks. It's inevitable, more robots will enter the workplace. Robotics Sector Market Development Worldwide spending on robotics and related services will more than double by 2020, growing from $91.5 billion in 2016 to more than $188 billion in 2020, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). "The market for robotics continues to experience tremendous growth," said John Santagate, research manager at IDC . "This growth is really f...

Ever since the mainstream adoption of the mobile smartphone, the word 'smart' is used broadly to define any device that has some form of on-board communication connectivity. Likewise, a Smart Home is designed to deliver a number of digital services inside and outside the home, through a range of networked devices. Juniper Research believes the entertainment segment to be the most viable in terms of consumer uptake, for the simple reason that these services are almost universally desired. Revenues from smart home hardware and services will reach $83 billion this year, rising to $195 billion by 2021, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. This revenue upside will be generated through entertainment, automation, healthcare and connected devices. Smart Home Market Development The new research also found that home automation and smart appliances will be the two fastest growing segments over the next 5 years, driven by established manufacturers such as Sa...

By 2025, just about 15 percent of new passenger car sales worldwide will be autonomous vehicles, with either conditional or full autonomy (level 3 or level 4) capabilities, according to the latest market study by Canalys. Canalys also estimates that only 1.3 percent of cars sold in 2016 will offer partial autonomy (level 2) and the only cars with conditional or full autonomy in 2016 are for research and development purposes or being used in small public trials. The few cars available in 2016 with level 2 autonomy come from premium car brands, and the functionality is an optional feature. Autopilot from Tesla, Pilot Assist from Volvo, Intelligent Drive from Mercedes-Benz, and Traffic Jam Assist from Audi and BMW are the leading examples of level 2 autonomy solutions. Autonomous Vehicle Market Development The functionality has taken a long time to reach the market in volume, reflecting the slow pace of innovation and the high level of conservatism in the regulation-bound automoti...

Data center server virtualization and cloud computing requirements are evolving. More CIOs and IT managers will be deploying Linux container based solutions in 2017, as the market matures and the vendors gain new momentum with their go-to-market strategies. The market will grow from $762 million in 2016 to $2.7 billion by 2020, according to the latest worldwide market study by 451 Research. Despite making up a relatively small portion of the overall Cloud-Enabling Technologies (CET) market, application containers will  experience a CAGR of 40 percent through 2020. The entire CET market  -- which includes virtualization, containers, Private PaaS, and other automation and management software -- is estimated to be worth approximately $23.1 billion in 2017. It is expected to grow at a 15 percent CAGR to $39.6 billion at year-end 2020. Application Container Market Development The application container market can be compared to the OpenStack market. But based on the numbe...

The Internet of Things (IoT) has many use cases within the public sector, but none will likely have the positive economic impact of comprehensive smart city initiatives across the globe. A key component of these plans is transportation optimization and enhancement in congested urban areas. Berg Insight released new findings about the growing market for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). The market value for ITS deployed in public transport operations in Europe was €1.35 billion in 2015. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2 percent, this number is expected to reach € 1.91 billion by 2020. ITS Technology Market Development The North American market for public transport ITS is similarly forecast to grow at a CAGR of 8.1 percent from €0.59 billion in 2015 to reach €0.87 billion in 2020. According to the Berg Insight assessment, the market for ITS in public transport is in a growth phase which will continue throughout the forecast period. Increased funds made ava...

The augmented reality (AR) market in industrial industries, specifically the logistics and manufacturing sectors, will reach an inflection point in 2017 and grow by more than 400 percent over the previous year, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. This momentum will continue into 2018 with shipments expected to jump from 440,000 in 2017 to more than three million. Given the current growth trajectory, industrial AR shipments are now forecast to reach 16 million by 2021. This adoption will occur as large multi-national companies -- such as Boeing, DHL, GE, and Shell -- complete trials of the technology alongside the support of device manufacturers and platform vendors. Augmented Reality Market Development "Many companies see the potential value of AR within the space, and while a level of misunderstanding surrounding the technology and its capabilities can cause challenges, trials will allow workers to test and understand the benefits of the techno...

When smartphones are combined with cloud services, the converged capabilities are truly remarkable. And, cognitive computing and machine learning are enabling a new era of communication. By 2019, 20 percent of all user interactions with a smartphone will take place via virtual personal assistants (VPAs), according to the latest market study by Gartner. Gartner's annual mobile applications survey found that 42 percent of respondents in the U.S. and 32 percent in the UK used VPAs on their smartphones in the last three months. More than 37 percent of respondents (average across U.S. and UK) used a VPA at least one or more times a day. "The role of interactions will intensify through the growing popularity of VPAs among smartphone users and conversations made with smart machines," said Annette Zimmermann, research director at Gartner . Personal Assistant Market Development Apple 'Siri' and Google 'Now' are currently the most widely used VPAs on smartph...

All this week, industry analysts and numerous other attendees will arrive in Las Vegas to participate in CES 2017. It's the annual event where people come from all over the world to learn about the latest tech gadgets. Truly, there's many parts of the industry that are still growing. Consumer spending on digital devices, services, and content will reach $3.4 trillion worldwide in 2020, rising 4.7 percent annually from 2015, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Their forecast is from a newly launched research program, "Consumer Spending Priorities: Tech and Services," which provides a holistic view of all related spending across the consumer electronics sector. Consumer Electronics Market Development That said, the share of consumer digital spending on devices will fall from 28 percent in 2015 to only 22 percent by 2020, while consumer spending on digital content will rise at a rate of 12.6 percent. However, ...

More enterprise data centers are being impacted by a shift to cloud-based hosted service offerings. CIOs have acknowledged that when it comes to commodity x86 servers, the hyperscale service providers are often much better at delivering IT infrastructure for mainstream workloads. With the exception of high-performance computing (HPC) systems and purpose-built mainframes or supercomputers, it's becoming increasing difficult to justify maintaining a corporate data center. Meanwhile, the number of large data centers operated by hyperscale service providers reached the 300 mark in December of 2016, after a flurry of year-end data center openings by the leading providers. One notable feature of the global footprint is that despite a major ongoing push to locate new operations in countries around the world, the U.S. market still accounts for 45 percent of major cloud and internet data center sites, according to the latest worldwide market study by Synergy Research Group (SRG). Hype...

Sometimes the only way to increase market share is to go downward. Within the North American mobile communication market, where the monthly service price has remained relatively high when compared to more competitive markets, lowering subscriber costs was an inevitable outcome. Wireless revenue increased by just 1.1 percent year-to-year among benchmarked U.S. mobile network operators in 3Q16, according to the latest market study by Technology Business Research (TBR). Let's give credit where it's due. This situation is primarily the result of T-Mobile growing revenue 17.8 percent year-to-year on the strength of its 'Un-carrier' go-to-market strategies. Mobile Phone Service Market Development "While T-Mobile and Sprint remain able to increase wireless revenue by generating higher postpaid phone additions through competitive pricing, Verizon and AT&T are relying on value-added services to offset declining revenue from slowing phone subscriber growth,"...