Digital Lifescapes

Smartphones have changed the way that users interact with devices, where touch is the main method of interaction. Moreover, the development of wearables that provide VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) technology is helping to advance gesture control applications. While most software app developers are primarily focused on providing a method of control for VR and AR computing devices, such as head-mounted displays, there's an emerging ecosystem of companies working to bring this technology to smartphones and personal computers as well. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, gesture and motion control will become vital components for certain forms of human-computer interaction during the next decade. New User Interface Market Development The application of gesture and motion control technology in smartphone-based VR will be particularly important in promoting new usage. Juniper forecasts 128 million devices equipped with the technolog...

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...

Why are traditional pay-TV services being disrupted by alternative lower-cost video entertainment services? Perhaps it's due to the apparent ease-of-use in searching for something to watch. Or, maybe it's the variety of video consumption options, as well as the huge depth of available television series and movie content. Whatever the primary reason, and despite the widespread availability of inexpensive ancillary online video streaming devices, 32 percent of over-the-top (OTT) TV Users still prefer having the native connectivity of a Smart TV set. This finding is according to data from the latest TDG market study, a survey of 2,000 U.S. adult broadband users -- 60 percent of which use an OTT video streaming service on their home television set. Streaming Online Video Device Preference  When asked which TV streaming platform they prefer, 32 percent of OTT TV Users selected their smart TV. Interestingly, this is pretty much equal to the penetration of smart TVs in general...

A growing list of vendors, a proliferation of devices, superior user experiences, affordable price points, and steady adoption with more use-cases will fuel growth in the worldwide market for wearable devices. According to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), wearable device shipments will reach 76.1 million units in 2015 -- that's up 163.6 percent from the 28.9 million units shipped in 2014. By 2019, worldwide shipments will reach 173.4 million units, resulting in a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.9 percent. Total shipments include both basic and smart wearables, which are two very different product categories. "Smart wearables only account for about a third of the total market today while basic wearables, led by fitness trackers, account for the rest," said Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst at IDC . Driven by advancements in user interface (UI) and product features, smart wearables are on track to surpas...

Applications for new categories of wearable devices are beginning to evolve into some interesting areas -- particularly within the medical arena, where innovation is likely to have a very positive impact on the professional healthcare sector. Consumer wearable devices targeting health and fitness applications have already demonstrated some promising early-adopter use-cases. Moreover, advancements in neuroscience technology research have several manufacturers preparing to launch Brain-to-Machine Interface (BMI) enabled products. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, revenues from both medical-grade and consumer BMI related products will already approach $10 million in 2015. That said, let's be clear about the potential applications, BMI technology is unable to read your thoughts. However, tapping into brain activity -- as a means of understanding human behavior, or controlling an external activity -- are now becoming possible. Example BMI Application Scenario...

While all technology adoption will typically follow a somewhat predictable growth path, sometimes progression falters at the early-adopter stage of market development. Home Automation was gaining attention and experiencing robust growth in 2014, however a new market study by Argus Insights reveals that demand has slowed. Data show that as of May 2015, consumer demand for connected home devices -- such as thermostats, light bulbs, locks, sensors and cameras -- experienced its first drop below the level of a year ago, a sign that consumer interest has apparently stalled. "Based on our review of consumer interest, the state of home automation in 2015 is not looking good for anyone who sells or makes these devices," said John Feland, CEO at Argus Insights . “Even though Google and Samsung made big purchases in this space by buying Nest thermostats, Dropcam and the suite of SmartThings products demand is stagnating." Feland believes that it's obvious that the early ...

The introduction of progressive smartphone designs have truly been a game changer in consumer electronics -- essentially re-imagining the user interface (UI) on a hand-held device. Meanwhile, user expectations have been elevated, as these devices are applied in a broader range of use-cases. The result is that mobile handset manufacturers have had to innovate and explore new modes of interactive device control that enable users to operate a handset without having to touch it directly. It's anticipated that by 2019 the global market for services based on gesture and biometric interface technologies will be worth an estimated $1.2 billion, that's up from less than $2 million this year, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research . Juniper found that innovation in mobile phone hardware and software has paved the way for a new paradigm of handset interaction, including touch-less command and biometric identification. They believe that although advanced Human Int...

Small consumer electronics, such as smart wearable devices, create new challenges for user interface (UI) designers that must find innovative ways to enable human interaction via emerging technologies. As a result, semiconductor component integration and software development will also evolve. The dominance of touchscreen user interfaces will reduce over the next 5 years as more sensors are introduced to mainstream products and entirely new product form-factors emerge, enabling and necessitating new user interfaces -- such as voice, gesture, eye-tracking, and neural. The latest ABI Research market study examined popular UI methods as well as the natural sensory technologies transitioning from research labs into future consumer electronics product solutions. "Touch got mobile device usability to where it is today, but touch will become one of many interfaces for future devices as well as for new and future markets," said Jeff Orr, Senior Practice Director at ABI Research ...

When a buyer visits a company's website, will their visit result in a good user experience -- regardless of the device they're using at the time? More often than not, that experience is within a smaller screen on a mobile device -- such as a smartphone or media tablet. Savvy marketers are already starting to influence the adoption of mobile-first design strategies for their online properties.  Making it easier to buy something via a mobile device is a forward-thinking competitive advantage, because this activity will become more mainstream over time. eBusiness teams are working on rebuilding their legacy desktop site experiences to be responsive across all web-enabled touch-points, but it's a huge undertaking and few organizations have the budget or risk appetite to redesign all of their web assets in one fell swoop. Many teams start with the easy places on their website -- such as the home page, the category pages, the campaign landing pages -- after all, these pages...

Remote controls for a variety of consumer electronics in the home will start to get smarter as they're being redesigned for much greater utility. The new features and capabilities will help to redefine the inherent usability and value that these devices provide. In 2013 10 percent of the remote controls shipped with major home consumer equipment will be RF-enabled. This is just the beginning of a new trend -- the quest for the ultimate remote control. Over the next five years there will be a major surge in RF technology adoption for remote controls as vendors look to differentiate their products -- driving growth in smart home services, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. While at the same time RF solutions continue to fall in price, implementations become more simplified and lower powers are achieved. "RF technology has been considered for use in remote controls for many years but its adoption has been limited by a lack of perceived need among device...

According to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media, 31 percent of households worldwide will own at least one Smart TV in five years time, with household penetration much higher in North America (63 percent) and Western Europe (64 percent). They now forecast that over 220 million smart TV sets will be sold worldwide in 2017, that's up from the 54 million that have been sold in 2012. However, while smart TV connection rates are rising, they will continue to lag the connection rates of video game consoles and media streaming devices -- such as Apple TV and the Roku streaming player. With their long lifecycles, Informa believes that TVs are likely not the best device to be the hub of the digital home. Instead, smartphones, tablets, set-top boxes, media streamers and games consoles, will be the key devices driving the digital home experience. Smartphones in particular, with their short life-cycles and rapidly increasing processor power, will continue to define...

The latest smartphones and media tablets have already helped to evolve the user requirements for the human interface with computer-based devices -- people like to touch the screen. Now, notebook and all-in-one PCs will help drive total touch screen module revenue to nearly $16 billion in 2012, and almost double to $31.9 billion by 2018, according to the latest market study by NPD DisplaySearch. Touch screens used in smaller consumer electronics devices -- such as smartphones and tablets -- will continue to grow as well. Tablets are the fastest growing application for touch technology, with 2011 shipments tripling to 79.6 million units. NPD forecasts that more than 130 million touch screens will be shipped for tablets in 2012, and over 190 million in 2013. Revenues for touch screens in tablet PCs are expected to grow by more than $3 billion in 2013. "Over the next few years, demand for thin, lightweight, and lower-cost touch devices will drive strong touch screen growth in di...

Get used to the idea of talking to all your consumer electronics (CE) devices as a primary means of interaction -- for this is the future of human interface design, particularly with mobile communication devices. As mobile speech recognition technologies continue to improve in their efficacy, the vendors of the speech technology platforms are making concerted efforts to enable the long tail of mobile application developers with speech recognition capabilities. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the efforts of companies such as Nuance, AT&T, and iSpeech should be noted for exposing their APIs and developer programs as the foremost strategy in reaching the long tail of mobile device applications.   "Reaching a varied group of developers working on different operating system (OS) and hardware platforms makes cloud based solutions the optimum approach to enabling the masses," says Michael Morgan, senior analyst at ABI Research . It is ...

Infonetics Research released excerpts from the results of its latest market study, which captures pay-TV service provider requirements for hybrid IP-based set-top boxes (STBs) to deliver video entertainment services. "In a change from the 2011 edition of our IP set-top box survey, Cisco is now perceived as the overall top IP set-top box supplier by operators, while Motorola was top dog last year," notes Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and video at Infonetics Research . This is consistent with the Infonetics set-top box market share reporting -- where Cisco has led in global IP STB revenue share for a total of four straight quarters. Cisco's efforts over the past year to expand its IP set-top box lineup and customer base, and the major contracts it has scored with AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, and Telus are paying off -- according to the Infonetics assessment. That being said, device design and user interface innovation has been slow to emerge in ...

The total revenue for touch screen modules will reach $16 billion in 2012, and nearly double in six years, reaching $31.9 billion by 2018, according to the latest market study by NPD DisplaySearch. The market growth is being driven by increased demand from applications such as media tablets, smartphones, and emerging new notebook PCs. While the leading touch technology is projected capacitive touch, demand for other technologies is also on the rise. Touch screen penetration has rapidly increased in mobile phones, handheld games, and game consoles, as well as in tablet applications, which are forecast to collectively account for more than $13.6 billion in touch screen revenues this year. In addition, NPD DisplaySearch forecasts strong touch screen growth over the next several years driven by demand in larger display applications such as convertible or hybrid notebook PCs. Today, mobile phones are the biggest application for touch screens in terms of unit shipments, accounting f...

In the near future, gesture recognition technology will routinely add yet another dimension to human interactions with consumer electronic devices -- such as PCs, media tablets and smartphones. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , they now forecast that 600 million smartphones will be shipped with vision-based gesture recognition features in 2017. "Gesture recognition is a very exciting prospect, particularly for smartphones and tablets," says ABI Research senior analyst Josh Flood. Camera-based tracking for gesture recognition has actually been in use for some time. Leading video game consoles -- Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation -- both have gesture recognition built-in; known as Kinect and PlayStation Eye respectively. These devices are in their seventh and eighth generation. However, several challenges remain for gesture recognition technology for mobile devices, including effectiveness of the technology in adverse light conditions, vari...

The world was a much simpler place for pay-TV providers when all their competitor user interfaces (UI) had the same unintuitive design, set-top box remote controls had dozens of tiny buttons, channel guides were not interactive and nobody cared to change the status-quo of perpetual mediocrity. Then unwelcome outsiders introduced alternative offerings and the bar of UI design expectations was raised off the ground. The result? The legacy pay-TV companies are now struggling to keep up with the superior video experiences enabled by connected TVs, smartphones and media tablets. Their apparent situation, caused by an apathetic slow-moving business model, as well as serving less technically savvy consumers, is exacerbated by suffering a significant hardware disadvantage -- as they typically rely upon cheap set-top boxes that are based upon a 5-7 year-old technology. Meanwhile, the savvy consumers are looking at video content from a much wider selection of choices -- including more c...

Smartphones powered by the Google Android and Apple iOS mobile device operating system (OS) accounted for more than eight out of ten smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12). According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), these mobile OS leaders held shares of 59.0 percent and 23.0 percent respectively of the 152.3 million smartphones shipped in 1Q12. During the first quarter of 2011, the two operating systems held a combined share of 54.4 percent. The share gains mean that the Android and iOS mobile ecosystems have successfully distanced themselves from previous market leaders Symbian and BlackBerry, as well as Linux and Windows Phone 7 or Windows Mobile. "The popularity of Android and iOS stems from a combination of factors that the competition has struggled to keep up with," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst at IDC. "Neither Android nor iOS were the first to market with some of these features, but the way they...

The pricing trend for new media tablets is downward, as more smaller and less-expensive models are introduced into the marketplace by a growing variety of different vendors. That being said, despite a series of low-cost media tablet launches in the second half of 2011, Apple's iPad tablet has managed to maintain its premier position in the Indian market with 51 percent market share in 2011. Samsung's achievement at extending its success in the handset segment to the tablet segment, with its Galaxy Tab, allowed Samsung to be ranked in second place -- with 24 percent market share. Indian consumers also showed a strong penchant for RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook -- after prices were slashed significantly, making it the third largest player with a 10.4 percent market share. The presence of ultra-low cost media tablets with non-optimal specifications might ruin the user experience and, in turn, prove to be a dampener for media tablet growth. "Although there is lot of b...

As more consumers transition to smartphones that are intended for internet access, their device performance expectations evolve -- sometimes in ways that were not anticipated by device manufacturers or mobile network service providers. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , the rapid adoption and growth of smartphones -- and of other mobile computing devices -- have pushed the expectation needle for the ideal feature set to new levels. As a result, most handsets today already include a multitude of features like a digital camera, GPS, email capability, touchscreen, and speakerphone, among others. In-Stat's latest study of U.S. mobile phone service subscribers provides some insight into what features are included in respondents’ ideal phone. Surprisingly, 75 percent of the surveyed respondents included 4G in that category. It appears that the perceived need for greater broadband speed is apparent to most users. “Although 4G is an important feature for ...