Digital Lifescapes

While we continue to see reports about the growing fear of job loss due to robotics in the workplace, more industry analyst reports shed light on the apparent upside opportunities for vendors. ABI Research identified 'collaborative robotics' as one of the fastest growing market segments. Small-to-Medium Businesses (SMBs) are driving the increased demand for these collaborative robots, as 'cobots' provide solutions that allow for a more flexible kind of manufacturing that makes no assumptions as to volume levels or types of products being manufactured. Robotics Technology Market Development From 2016 to 2025, the global revenue of collaborative robotics shipments is set to reach a compound average growth rate of 49.8 percent -- that's compared to 12.1 percent for Industrial robots and 23.2 percent for commercial robotics. The term ‘collaborative’ refers to human scale robotic systems that can share a workspace with humans, interact with humans while also mov...

Artificial intelligence (AI) projects are slowly gaining momentum, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. That said, just four percent of CIO respondents have already implemented AI technologies, while 46 percent have started to work on deployment plans. "Despite huge levels of interest in AI technologies, current implementations remain at quite low levels," said Whit Andrews, vice president at Gartner . "However, there is potential for strong growth as CIOs begin piloting AI programs through a combination of buy, build and outsource efforts." Artificial Intelligence Market Development As with most emerging technologies, the early adopters are facing many obstacles to the progress of AI within their organizations. Gartner analysts have identified the following four lessons-learned that have emerged from these early AI projects. "Don’t fall into the trap of primarily seeking hard outcomes, such as direct financial gains, with AI proje...

Demand for blockchain solutions are accelerating across the globe. Given the maturity of the technology and the need for specialized skills and experience, the majority of blockchain spending in the near-term will be on business and technology services. According to the latest global study by International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide spending on blockchain services growing from $1.8 billion in 2018 to $8.1 billion in 2021 -- achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 80 percent. Blockchain Market Development Distributed ledgers technology (DLT) allows new transactions to be added to an existing chain of transactions using a secure, digital or cryptographic signature. To develop, build, deploy, and maintain these distributed ledgers and smart contracts, enterprises are turning to professional services firms, systems integrators, and application developers. "IDC believes the short-term blockchain services opportunity is small but strategically important, as deve...

Last year may be remembered for many years to come, for a variety of reasons, including significant market transactions. Mergermarket , an Acuris company, has released its global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) roundup report of the Technology, Media and Telecom (TMT) sector for the whole year. In 2017, global dealmaking in the TMT sector saw 3,389 deals worth a combined $498.2 billion. Although total deal value fell 26.3 percent compared to the $ 676.3 billion tallied in 2016, a new Mergermarket record by deal count was set, increasing by 233 transactions over 2016 (3,156 deals) to reach an all-time high. Technology Sector Market Development The latest market trends highlight the increasing influence of technology in just about everything. In fact, senior executives in various industries have been under pressure to incorporate digital transformation projects, in order to survive and prosper in the evolving global marketplace. This has already forced company consolidations ...

Information and communications technology (ICT) is an enabler of economic progress, and a driving force of the Global Networked Economy. Those organizations that have mastered the applications of next-generation technologies are making waves of market disruption everywhere. That said, expect more of the same, at an accelerated pace in future. Worldwide spending on ICT will be nearly $4 trillion in 2018, according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Ongoing growth will be driven by enterprise investment on cloud services, software and Hybrid IT infrastructure. Global ICT Market Development The consumer market will account for more than $1.5 trillion in ICT spending in 2018 and will deliver more than one third of all worldwide spending throughout the forecast period. Consumer spending will also experience the slowest growth over the forecast period with a CAGR of 1.2 percent. Roughly 80 percent of consumer spending will go to devices and mobil...

Distributed ledger technologies, or blockchain, is gaining momentum across the globe. What's the appeal to apply the new eCommerce related benefits? There's no proprietary owner or administrator. As a result, interest in open blockchain technologies -- such as Hyperledger -- are attracting many new ecosystem participants. According to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), Western Europe will be the second largest region at a worldwide level, starting from around $200 million in 2017, including all the experimentation projects. Blockchain Technology Market Development The initial investment in proof-of-concept use cases will nearly triple the spending in 2018, to reach $1.8 billion in 2021. There is interest in blockchain across industries, with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) expected to be 66.6 percent during 2016–2021. "During 2017 many companies across a wide range of industries started to understand the feasibility, sust...

The common goals of artificial intelligence (AI) in computer programs can be described as problem-solving and task completion. In general, these productivity enhancements are intended to either replace or complement human functions. In particular, AI has a significant transformative potential for most retailers, with a potential that's based on changes already underway within the retail industry, which are making AI apps more applicable. Retailer AI Application Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, global retailer spending on AI will reach $7.3 billion per year by 2022 -- that's up from an estimated $2 billion in 2018, as retailers target new avenues to increase personalization of the customer experience. The study found that retailers will heavily invest in AI tools that allow them to differentiate and improve the services they offer customers. These range from automated marketing platforms that generate tailored, timely...

Establishing goals for a new digital transformation project is often the easier part of the process. In contrast, moving the people within an organization to act on the execution is more likely to be the difficult part of the change management process. Big data and analytics adoption is a case in point. A worldwide survey of organizations by Gartner showed that 91 percent of organizations have not yet reached a transformational level of maturity in enterprise data and analytics -- despite this area being a number one investment priority for CIOs and CTOs in recent years. Data and Analytics Market Development "Most organizations should be doing better with data and analytics, given the potential benefits," said Nick Heudecker, research vice president at Gartner . "Organizations at transformational levels of maturity enjoy increased agility, better integration with partners and suppliers, and easier use of advanced predictive and prescriptive forms of analytics. This...

Being first-to-market with the latest wireless infrastructure can help drive local economic development. That said, according to industry analysts, the introduction and deployment of 5G communication services will take a different path to market. Therefore, mobile network operators cannot rely on previous methods of implementing 4G networks. 5G needs ultra-low latency at the edge. A reduction in network power consumption is also a key requirement. 5G M2M Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the total number of cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) connections will reach 1.3 billion by 2022 -- that's a 220 percent increase from an estimated 400 million in 2017. The new research found that emerging cellular networks -- including NB-IoT, LTE-M and 5G -- will grow together to account for just under 10 percent of all cellular M2M connections by 2022. Mobile network operators are now racing to provide the underlying connectivity for...

More senior business leaders are recognizing the value of their core data assets. Enterprise data applications are now driving a broad cross-section of business technology investment and associated high-profile digital transformation projects. According to the latest worldwide market study by 451 Research, enterprise IT leaders are embracing a new model of off-premises, service-oriented IT solutions and will be harnessing data in new ways to differentiate themselves in 2018. Enterprise Data Apps Market Development 451 Research finds that an IT organization's ability to exploit digital transformation is uneven, with over 60 percent of organizations having no formal transformation strategy in place and many admitting they face challenges in achieving optimal business-IT alignment. Sixty percent of those organization surveyed say they will run the majority of their IT outside the confines of enterprise data centers by the end of 2019, primarily utilizing off-premises service p...

If you're a CTO or CIO that has escalated your organization's move to the cloud, then clearly you're not alone. Worldwide spending on public cloud services and infrastructure is forecast to reach $160 billion in 2018 -- that's an increase of 23.2 percent over 2017, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Although annual spending growth is expected to slow somewhat over the 2016-2021 forecast period, the market is forecast to achieve a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.9 percent with public cloud services spending totaling $277 billion in 2021. Public Cloud Services Market Development The industries that are forecast to spend the most on public cloud services in 2018 are discrete manufacturing ($19.7 billion), professional services ($18.1 billion), and banking ($16.7 billion). The process manufacturing and retail industries are also expected to spend more than $10 billion each on public cloud services in 2018. ...