Digital Lifescapes

Vendor revenue from sales of infrastructure products -- server, storage, and Ethernet switch -- for cloud IT grew by 45.5 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2018 (1Q18), reaching $12.9 billion according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). IDC also raised its forecast for total spending on cloud IT infrastructure in 2018 to $57.2 billion with year-over-year growth of 21.3 percent. Let's consider the key trends that are driving this phenomena. What really matters most, going forward? Cloud Infrastructure Market Development Public cloud infrastructure quarterly revenue has more than doubled in the past three years to $9 billion in 1Q18, growing 55.8 percent year-over -year. Private cloud revenue reached $3.9 billion for an annual increase of 26.5 percent. The combined public and private cloud revenues now represent 46.1 percent of the total worldwide IT infrastructure spending, up from 41.8 percent a year ago. Traditional (...

Ongoing disruption of the video entertainment industry is most apparent in North America, where incumbent pay-TV service providers continue to report significant subscriber declines. Past attempts to slow or reverse the customer losses have proven to be unsuccessful. Clearly, it's a huge challenge. Furthermore, relatively new rivals in the sector, such as AT&T and Verizon, have invested heavily to acquire legacy media and online advertising companies in the hope of finding a viable business model to compete with more innovative offerings from a growing list of alternative providers. Video Entertainment Market Development Meanwhile, the growth of subscription over-the-top (OTT) video services has been driving the changing trends in the pay-TV landscape. OTT video services have attracted hundreds of millions of subscribers worldwide, causing pressure on traditional pay-TV operators. This OTT growth trend is expected to continue, reaching a subscriber base of 400 million i...

While there's less commentary about the challenges of "Shadow IT" projects within the enterprise market, the underlying issues that created this phenomena are still very apparent in the workplace. Bypassing the legacy IT organization is a common practice. It's now somewhat expected. As many IT workers develop greater technology skills and apply them to advance their careers, savvy digital workers in non-IT departments believe their CIO is out of touch with their technology needs. Less than 50 percent of workers (both IT and non-IT) believe their CIOs are aware of digital technology problems that affect them, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. The Gartner survey further revealed that European workers said that their CIO is more aware of technical challenges (58 percent) than U.S. workers believe they are (41 percent). Clearly, it's a big problem. Ongoing Indifference to Legacy IT "Non-IT workers aren't likely to use the IT h...

Across the globe, more CIOs and CTOs are exploring new applications for internet-related technologies. As a result, mobile network service providers continue to make infrastructure investments to support the growing demand. Global IT vendors are also developing new product offerings. International Data Corporation (IDC) announced that Internet of Things (IoT) technology spending will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.6 percent over the 2017-2022 forecast period and reach $1.2 trillion in 2022. The forecast is based on the latest worldwide research in the burgeoning IoT technology and associated applications market, which offers business investment opportunities across a spectrum of industries and illuminated through new use case implementations. IoT Applications Market Development As the diverse IoT market reaches broad-based critical mass, innovative offerings in analytics software, cloud computing technologies, business and IT services have expanded rapidl...

While mobile service subscriber growth rates are slowing, operator-billed ARPU (Average Revenue per User) levels continue to shrink. The decline in certain regions is exaggerated because of the depreciation of local currency bundles against the dollar (e.g. in Latin America and Europe), but the implications are clear. Juniper Research believes that the key trends of recent years are likely to continue. In pluralistic markets typically inhabited by at least three network operators and MVNO providers, competitive pricing will continue to impact service provider revenue growth. Mobile Services Market Development Juniper Research has found that annual global mobile network operator-billed revenues from voice and data services are expected to fall by over $50 billion during the next 5 years -- that's from $837 billion last year to $785 billion in 2022. Their latest global research findings attributed the anticipated decline to further consumer migration toward Over-the-Top (OTT)...

As more organizations in different industries consider emerging applications for robotics technology, new business models for vendors are also envisioned. Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) is an elastic concept. It refers to robotics systems providers that in addition to selling products, will now rent or lease their product to customers as a full-service solution. Though the total market continues to grow, competitive pressure on robotics vendors to maintain profit margins means that they'll have to broaden growth opportunities beyond selling robots as products. Following a recent worldwide market study, ABI Research highlights the potential of RaaS in unlocking the next phase of robotics adoption. Robotics Market Development Overall, ABI Research estimates that the installed base for RaaS will grow from 4,442 units in 2016 to 1.3 million in 2026. The yearly revenue from RaaS providers is expected to increase from $217 million in 2016 to nearly $34 billion in 2026. "This w...

Once upon a time, a few years ago, technology industry analysts reported on global market growth for new devices -- where personal computers, media tablets and smartphones were in demand by both consumers and businesses. However, then came widespread market saturation, and declines in demand. Worldwide tablet and PC shipments will fall by 2.1 percent to 398 million units in 2018, according to the latest market study by Canalys. But this represents the smallest decline of the past four years and sets the tone for an era of stability. So, when does the market trend return to growth? That remains a mystery. Personal Computing Device Market Development Consumer refresh cycles have started to stabilize, and the legacy PC vendors have focused on new categories, such as gaming PCs, Chromebooks and convertibles. On the commercial side, Microsoft Windows 10 migration is a driver for hardware refresh, as some businesses are forced to move from Intel Skylake-generation architectures to newe...

Across the globe, CEOs continue to promote business technology-enabled growth. Worldwide spending on the technologies and services that enable digital transformation (DX) is forecast to be more than $1.1 trillion in 2018 -- that's an increase of 16.8 percent over the $958 billion spent in 2017, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). DX spending will be led by the discrete and process manufacturing industries, which will not only spend the most on DX solutions but also set the agenda for many DX priorities, programs, and use cases. Discrete manufacturing and process manufacturing are expected to spend more than $333 billion combined on DX solutions in 2018. This represents nearly 30 percent of all DX spending worldwide this year. Digital Transformation Market Development From a technology perspective, the largest categories of spending will be applications, connectivity services, and IT services as manufacturers build out their digital ...

Who is leading digital transformation at the most forward-thinking organizations across the globe, and what are the most significant roadblocks to their progress? That depends, on who you ask. Let's consider the most common digital business challenges today, and how savvy leaders overcome them. Digital growth tops the list of CEO business priorities in 2018 and 2019, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. However, as growth becomes harder to achieve, CEOs are concentrating on changing and upgrading the structure of their companies -- including digital business investments. Exploring Digital Business Transformation Culture "Although growth remains a CEO's biggest priority, there was a significant fall in simple mentions of it this year, from 58 percent in 2017 to just 40 percent in 2018. This doesn't mean CEOs are less focused on growth, instead it shows that they're shifting perspective on how to obtain it," said Mark Raskino, vice pr...

There has been a significant evolution in the variety of use cases for mobile Application to Person (A2P) messaging. Historically, A2P was used for alerts and as a billing mechanism and carrier for simple content and services, both for one-off downloads or actions (e.g. voting) and for recurring payments. The latter use case has declined in the past 5 years, due to a combination of the transition to an app-based economy, largely driven by card billing and by regulatory action -- in markets such as the U.S. and the UK -- against the many known fraudsters. However, the near demise of this use case has been more than offset by the emergence of alternative opportunities, many of which have themselves been created by consumer adoption of software apps and smartphones. A2P Messaging Market Development A recent worldwide market study by Juniper Research found that revenues from Rich Communication Services (RCS) messaging will exceed $9 billion by 2022 -- that's up from an estimate...