Digital Lifescapes

Now on a path to reaching billions of connections for the Internet of Things (IoT), M2M software platforms are facilitating the next wave of mobile network growth. ABI Research projects that revenues from two platforms currently dominating this market -- Application Enablement Platforms (AEPs) and Connected Device Platforms (CDPs) -- will grow to $3.85 billion by 2017. AEPs try to do what mobile application development platforms do for smartphone applications -- decrease M2M application development time and extend application reach. AEP application development functionality seeks to abstract away from the developer those aspects of the application that are common across many M2M applications such as data normalization and a data rules engine. CDPs automate the provisioning and management of M2M module connectivity, which is critical in this low ARPU market. CDPs also provide connectivity monitoring, real-time charging and policy control, and can integrate with existing BSS an...

Since the financial crisis, venture capital (VC) firms have been actively investing in mobile, social, and over-the-top (OTT) app start-ups, while showing little interest in the core telecom networking sector. In fact, VC support for telecom infrastructure start-ups has dropped from $796 million in 2009 to just $270 million in the 3Q 2011 to 2Q 2012 period. According to the latest market study by Ovum, they have found reason for new optimism -- but not from where you would expect it. While VC support for network infrastructure has declined, overall VC investments have recovered -- growing from $20.1 billion in 2009 to $27.8 billion in the four quarters ended 2Q12. Matt Walker, principal analyst at Ovum , said "A funding disconnect has thereby emerged between network builders and network users. Lots of innovation and venture capital is targeting the network users, such as mobile apps and OTT platforms. However, little of it is directly helping the network builders." Wi...

With over eight million smart meters already deployed in the U.S., the market for residential energy management (REM) has taken the first significant steps in deploying Smart Grid technologies and advanced meter infrastructure (AMI) on a broad scale, according to the latest market study from Parks Associates. The international research firm, which recently completed the report Residential Energy Management: Company, Alliance & Technology Profiles, says these deployments will open up significant opportunities for companies in the REM value chain. Public, private, and consumer factors are all driving this growth, and the Federal stimulus bill, with the support of the Obama Administration, allocates $11 billion for smart grid initiatives through 2010. "Already over six percent of all U.S. meters are smart meters, and utilities throughout the U.S. are announcing new deployments and pilot programs daily," said Bill Ablondi, home systems research, Parks Associates. "We com...

Do you find yourself online more often? Well, you're not alone. Americans are spending more time online, on both a daily and weekly basis. Home Internet access far outstripped work access time in 2008, according to the latest market study by Harris Interactive. Both trends could continue in 2009, as America's growing pool of unemployed people use the Internet to search for new jobs, financial aid and 21st century skills training opportunities. However, Americans are not the trailblazers in usage. That distinction goes to Internet users in China, who invested 44 percent of their leisure time on the Internet in 2008, according to TNS Global. Americans now rank fifth worldwide, with 30 percent of their leisure time spent online -- virtually tied with Italy (31 percent), Spain and Australia (29 percent each). The U.S. could potentially move up in the world rankings in coming years, especially if the Obama administration is successful in reversing the declining status of American ne...

The datacenter network market reached $8.7 billion in 2007, up 17 percent from $7.6 billion in 2006, according to one of three new "Place in the Network" market studies published by IDC. The IDC study shows that the datacenter network continues to support strategic initiatives, including customer migrations to new virtualized dense computing in the datacenter. As a result, IDC predicts this market will continue to grow at a healthy 6 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), reaching $11.9 billion in 2012. "The datacenter is in the midst of unprecedented change driven by a combination of factors all converging to make the datacenter a real-time responsive resource for organizations," said Lucinda Borovick, research vice president, Datacenter Networks. "Our research shows that the datacenter network has an important and unprecedented role to play in the datacenter of the future as infrastructure changes, such as multicore processors and server virtualization c...