Digital Lifescapes

Real-time locating systems (RTLS) are used to automatically identify and track the location of things in real-time within a building or other confined areas. While numerous existing RTLS technologies, including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and UWB have been available, they haven't captured the market potential. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, 87 percent of enterprises said they have not yet deployed RTLS technology within their business, primarily because of the significant barriers to adoption. Most of the challenges of RTLS deployment mentioned in the ABI study point to the fragmentation of existing solutions, which impact the total cost of ownership, the complexity to implement, operate and maintain them. There are also uncertainties around reliability and maturity. RTLS Technology Market Development "All the barriers identified by the survey are currently constraining the RTLS ecosystem from developing and flourishing. Current solutions addressing this...

The emerging new applications of the global positioning system (GPS) and the internet of things (IoT) are only limited by a savvy vendor's imagination. Exploring the full potential of these enabling technologies is resulting in significant new upside revenue opportunities. According to the latest market study by Berg Insight, the market for consumer GPS pet trackers and services in Europe and North America is forecast to grow from € 60 million in 2017 to reach about € 340 million in 2022. GPS Tracking Market Development The European market is slightly larger than the North American market. At the end of 2017, there were around 270,000 active pet tracking devices in Europe and 240,000 devices in North America. The number of active pet trackers is estimated to grow at a compound average growth rate (CAGR) of 48 percent in Europe and 52 percent in North America, to reach around 1.9 million active units in each region at the end of the forecast period. Annual shipments of pet...

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...

Global positioning system (GPS) wireless technology has transformed terrestrial travel and navigation, but there are numerous other uses. Now these nascent technology applications and new use cases are emerging both inside and outside the home. GPS personal tracking device shipments will more than double by 2021 with a 21 percent CAGR, as the industry shifts away from traditional markets, such as family and pet locator devices. ABI Research predicts that non-traditional markets -- including elderly or health, corporate, and personal asset tracking -- will embrace ubiquitous indoor and outdoor location technology. Indoor Location Market Development "Traditional markets still attract attention, given the huge total available market, but they remain too fragmented, with no obvious sales and distribution channels," said Patrick Connolly, principal analyst at ABI Research . As a result, a number of established companies in this space are being forced to consider new area...

Mobile network operators and internet service providers have a significant new upside opportunity. The global market for mobile Location-Based Services (LBS) will demonstrate solid growth in the next few years, according to the latest market study by Berg Insight. Berg believes that LBS related revenues will to increase from €10.3 billion in 2014 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5 percent to reach €34.8 billion in 2020. "The increase in usage of LBS has resulted in significant revenue growth, especially for leading players such as Google, Facebook, Baidu, Tencent, Twitter and Yahoo," said André Malm, senior analyst, Berg Insight . Together, these companies accounted for an estimated 60 percent of the total global LBS revenues in 2014. The market development outlook includes the established leaders continuing to gain momentum. The social networking and entertainment category -- comprising services like mobile social media, messaging apps and games -- is no...

Retailers are investing more on in-store digital technology that has the potential to improve the shopping experience. The ABI Research quarterly indoor location database has forecast well over one million indoor location retail deployments by 2020, with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons now established as the key building block for indoor location. "What is really interesting is how rapidly beacons are spreading into all 11 retail or venue verticals covered in the database, in particular quick service restaurants (CAGR 84.4 percent) and convenience stores (CAGR 47.1 percent) are two of the fastest growing verticals over the forecast period" said Patrick Connolly, principal analyst at ABI Research . ABI has forecast some major chain-wide technology deployments over the next 12 months, and there will also be significant new growth in key retail verticals -- such as Grocery, Big Box, and Malls. Total BLE beacon shipments are now expected to approach 200 million by 2020 a...

As 2014 draws to a close Juniper Research has offered up a list of predictions for the coming year. The following are some of the highlights. Over the past year, technology industries have evolved at a rapid pace. New devices present challenges that must be addressed, in particular the security of consumer data. In the wake of a number of high profile security breaches, some enterprise companies will need to regain trust. Therefore, Juniper expects to see an increasing investment in encryption and tokenization solutions, as a means of reducing the risk of data loss or theft during 2015. While smart watches have now arrived, they have yet to endear themselves to most consumers. The release of new wearable devices by big name brands will increase awareness, as well as a series of smaller less known players. Notwithstanding the continuing reluctance of a number of U.S. retailers to accept Near Field Communications (NFC) technologies, Juniper believes that Host Card Emulation should...

​As the mobile service provider's traditional sources of communications revenues decrease, the move towards 4G LTE enables new potential streams of revenues -- including in-store retail applications, big data analytics, customer experience management (CEM) and personalized advertising. Location-based technologies are at the center of these market developments. According to their latest global market study, ABI Research has considered the applications, industry verticals and technologies that will drive new location-based revenue growth for mobile carriers worldwide. "Location for carriers is no longer about navigation applications. Location will become an essential tool in network optimization and CEM, as we move to LTE, HetNets, and personalized subscriber packages," said  Patrick Connolly, senior analyst at ABI Research . While these advances gives a clear return on investment, ABI says that there is also significant upside on new areas -- such as retail/indoor ...

As smartphone use grows around the globe, the demand for creative new mobile software application innovation will explode. Mobile Internet access is crucial in modern app functionality. Naturally, with faster broadband connection speeds, a richer mobile experience is available, with the possibility to leverage a cloud-based software app backend system. Juniper Research predicts that increasing contextual awareness in mobile apps -- as seen in digital assistants such as "Google Now" -- will transform the process of app discovery and thereby limit future use of the cluttered app tray. In addition, Google recently opened its deep linking API to allow apps to be indexed in a similar way to web pages, further accelerating the movement towards the Android platform. According to the latest market study findings by Juniper Research, they now forecast that the number of smartphone and tablet apps in use, that leverage contextual or location data on devices, will near 7.5 billion...

With an enhanced user experience model, and bolstered by the increasing presence of GPS receivers embedded into smartphones, the Mobile Location Based Services (MLBS) market has now come of age. Enabled by faster mobile internet connections, a richer mobility experience is available -- with the possibility to leverage a cloud-based applications (apps) back-end. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, they now forecast that the mobile context and location services market will reach $43.3 billion in revenue by 2019 -- that's rising from an estimated $12.2 billion in revenue during 2014. Their study highlighted that over two-thirds of revenues will be driven through highly targeted and contextually aware ad-supported apps by the end of the forecast period. Online Digital Marketing Leads the Way According to the Juniper study findings, social apps are forecast to be the primary driver behind app ad-supported revenues. Apps such as Facebook enable marketers t...

comScore released the results from a study of mobile social networking check-in service users. The study found that 16.7 million U.S. mobile subscribers used location-based check-in services on their phones in March 2011 -- representing 7.1 percent of the entire mobile population. About 12.7 million check-in users did so on a smartphone -- representing 17.6 percent of the smartphone population. The study also found that they showed a high propensity for mobile media usage, including accessing retail sites and shopping guides, and displayed other characteristics of early adopters -- including a higher interest in tablet devices and accessing tech news, when compared to the average smartphone user. "Although still in their relative infancy, location-based mobile check-in services are seeing rather impressive adoption among smartphone users," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. "The ability to interact with consumers on this micro-local level t...

Shipments of GPS-enabled mobile phones will hit a speed-bump in 2009, but will still manage to post year-to-year unit growth through the current economic downturn, according to a new technology, media and telecom  (TMT) market study by ABI Research. While global handset shipments are expected to drop by 4—5 percent in 2009, GPS-enabled phones will climb to 240 million units -- an increase of 6.4 percent over 2008. This surprising performance will be driven by the ongoing demand for feature-rich smartphones. Although slowing slightly in 2009, demand for smartphones, a group that includes the Apple iPhone 3G, RIM's BlackBerry devices, and Nokia N series phones among a growing list, will increase at an average annual unit shipment rate of 19 percent through 2014. During the period, GPS chipsets will continue to penetrate this segment -- nine of every ten smartphones will contain GPS ICs in 2014, compared with one in three in 2008. Falling component prices and increasing consu...