Digital Lifescapes

The APAC region is undergoing a shift in business technology investment, with artificial intelligence (AI) emerging as the cornerstone of its digital transformation journey. IDC's latest forecast reveals that AI spending in the region will surge to $175 billion by 2028, driven by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 59.2 percent for Generative AI (GenAI). This significant growth underscores the potential across industries, from healthcare to financial services, as organizations race to harness intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and next-generation customer experiences. Artificial Intelligence Market Development Generative AI leads the charge, with its ability to automate complex tasks and generate novel outputs, reshaping operational paradigms. The technology's rapid enterprise adoption is evidenced by a projected tripling of GenAI investments between 2025 and 2028. Healthcare and education sectors are also accelerating deployments, using AI for personalized medi...

The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to expand. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, they forecast a 90 percent growth in cellular IoT devices by 2028, with the global number reaching 6.5 billion. This exponential rise presents both exciting opportunities and significant challenges. While the growth of cellular IoT unlocks a vast potential for innovation in smart cities, industrial automation, and remote monitoring, it also requires device management and security advancements. Cellular IoT Market Development Juniper's research highlights the critical role of intelligent infrastructure management solutions. These platforms will empower the users to automate critical tasks such as device configuration, real-time security management, and optimized wireless connectivity. The surge in cellular data usage, projected to reach 46 petabytes by 2028 compared to 21 petabytes today, further underscores the need for automation. This is where federated learning i...

The demand for smart traffic management systems has grown due to rising urban populations and increasing vehicle ownership. With more people and cars concentrated in cities, problems like traffic congestion, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions are pressing issues. Since the early 2000s, government leaders have been exploring ways to leverage advances in IoT connectivity, sensors, artificial intelligence (AI), and data analytics to address these transportation challenges. The concept of a Smart City emerged in the 2010s, with smart mobility and intelligent traffic management as key components.  Smart Traffic Management Market Development Concerns about continued climate change, as well as cost savings from improved traffic flow, have further motivated local government investment in these advanced systems. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, they found that by 2028, smart traffic management investment will be up by 75 percent from a 2023 figure...

Fifth-generation (5G) wireless technology for cellular networks is a successor to fourth-generation (4G) wireless technology. By 2023, Juniper Research anticipates that there will be over 1 billion 5G connections globally. The technology will provide the data infrastructure for the advancement of wireless communications and for new developments in the Internet of Things (IoT) -- including smart cities and healthcare. 5G IoT Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, 5G IoT connections will reach 116 million globally by 2026 -- that's increasing from just 17 million connections in 2023. Juniper analysts predict that the healthcare sector applications and government or other smart city services will drive this outstanding 1,100 percent growth over the next three years. Juniper examined 5G adoption across key industry sectors -- such as the automotive, mobile broadband, and smart homes -- and forecasts healthcare and smart cities will accoun...

Urban dwellers have seen shared bikes and scooters popping up around their city. Initially, there was untapped demand. As traffic congestion increased, legacy public transportation couldn't keep up with the needs of a growing population. Micro-mobility operators were eager to expand, paying minimal attention to developing a sustainable business model. However, now they're forced to evolve from 'growth at any cost' strategies. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, by reformulating business models, operations, and strategic goals, shared micro-mobility companies can unleash the potential of a market worth $9 billion in ride revenues by 2030. Micro-Mobility Service Market Development Most service providers have high idle rates and low profitability in several markets, due to a mismatch between vehicle supply and demand. To thrive in the shared micro-mobility market, operators must now optimally relocate or expand operations based on data-driven insights and...

Urban areas within cities account for more than 50 percent of Earth's population and are estimated to be responsible for more than 70 percent of global carbon emissions. To combat this, decarbonization strategies are being employed by forward-thinking city leaders around the globe. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, smart city technologies will be a critical asset for this transformation. Municipal decarbonization will be a component of local government efforts for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) policies. Government ESG Market Development "The principles behind smart city technologies, such as increasing efficiency, better data management, and better decision making are also essential for decarbonization and reaching net-zero goals," said  Dominique Bonte, vice president at ABI Research . Technologies such as digital twins, smart street lights, micro-grids, computer vision, smart city management platforms, and micro-mobility are al...

The COP26 Summit (in Glasgow, Scotland)  brought parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Meanwhile, the circular economy is a key sustainability strategy adopted by industry leaders in their efforts to achieve progress. While the circular economy is still in its infancy in terms of data and metrics, it's a growing phenomenon where technology sectors -- such as the Internet of Things (IoT) for asset tracking -- are set to grow rapidly within the next five years. Global technology intelligence firm ABI Research forecasts that the world will achieve over 10.5 percent circularity by 2030, as sustainability efforts and incoming legislation start to take effect. Circular Economy Tech Market Development "The circular economy is an often-misunderstood concept that goes much further than waste management and can become a blueprint for cities. It is a movement away from our take-make-waste economy ...

Access to centralized cloud servers had led telecom network operators and their enterprise customers to assume that hyperscale public cloud service offerings would potentially enhance the storing and processing of all data being generated. However, performance issues arising from network latency translate into public cloud services being unsuitable for some data-intensive computing activities, such as analyzing complex data workloads and delivering real-time insights. Cloud edge computing, a form of distributed computing, where the device that collected the data, or an on-premises gateway, or an off-premises edge node close by, solves many problems associated with wide-area network latency. Cloud Edge Computing Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research , the telecom network operator spend on Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) will grow from $2.7 billion in 2020 to reach $8.3 billion in 2025.  Multi-access edge computing (formerly mobile ed...

When governments invest in new infrastructure, information technology (IT) is now a key component of their development plan. Very large municipal governments, in particular, are spending more on Smart City projects that provide their citizens with many unique advantages. Furthermore, the IT infrastructure advancement trend is gaining momentum across the globe, as established and emerging technology applications are adopted by the forward-thinking leaders. Global spending on smart cities initiatives are forecast to total nearly $124 billion this year -- that's an increase of 18.9 percent over 2019, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Smart City Initiative Market Development The top 100 cities investing in smart initiatives in 2019 represented around 29 percent of global spending, and while growth will be sustained among the top spenders in the short term, the market is quite dispersed across midsize and small cities investi...

Smart city projects will gain new momentum in 2020 as more municipal government leaders adopt new technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine to Machine (M2M) communications. Street lighting is the area where adoption is noteworthy. According to the latest worldwide market study by Berg Insight, the installed base of smart street lights was 10.4 million worldwide at the end of 2018. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.5 percent, the installed base will reach 31.2 million in 2023. Smart City Market Development Global market leadership continues to evolve as new projects are launched. Europe is the leading smart street lighting market accounting for nearly 40 percent of the installed base. Characterized by a higher degree of utility ownership of street lighting assets, the North American market has seen a more scattered uptake of smart street lighting but is nevertheless home to several of the world’s largest deployments. North America acc...

Digital ticketing adoption is growing in two core areas -- Mobile ticketing and Online ticketing. A mobile ticketing user is someone who either purchases and/or stores a ticket using their mobile handset for later redemption, at the point of travel, the event venue, the cinema, etc. In contrast, an online ticketing user is typically someone who purchases a ticket online via any Internet-connected device, thereby avoiding the conventional offline ticket purchase process. Digital Ticketing Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, users of mobile ticketing will total 1.9 billion by 2023, up from 1.1 billion in 2019. In comparison, the total number of digital ticketing users across mobile, online and wearable channels will reach 2.2 billion by 2023. According to the Juniper assessment, mobile ticketing has become a primary driver of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) -- which is considered as the future of urban transportation-related mobilit...

Smart City initiatives are one of the most important developments worldwide in public sector digital transformation. Given the crucial role that cities will play in both overall digitization efforts and the development of national economies, the largest or fastest-growing use cases have the attention of municipal leaders across the globe. Smart City initiatives will attract technology investments of more than $81 billion globally in 2018, and spending is forecast to reach $158 billion in 2022, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Smart City Initiatives Market Development "We are now delivering detailed sizing of 25 named use cases, as well as the first release of a new database of spending at City level," said Serena Da Rold, program manager at IDC. Intelligent transportation and data-driven public safety remain the largest investment areas, but IDC analysts report they are also finding significant pockets of investme...

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...

Around the globe, metropolitan and suburban municipalities continue to explore digital transformation projects. Emerging technology spending for Smart City applications is forecast to reach $80 billion in 2018, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). IDC has provided a detailed look at the technology investments associated with a range of Smart City priorities and use cases. As these initiatives gain traction, IDC expects spending to accelerate over the 2016-2021 forecast period, growing to $135 billion in 2021. Smart City Market Development "Smart Cities have recently evolved from a collection of discrete flagship projects to a sizeable market opportunity that will drive significant technology investments in 2018 and beyond," said Serena Da Rold, program manager at IDC . IDC believes that strategic priorities  will drive digital transformation across cities of all sizes, but the analyst's research demonstrates there...

Smart City projects have gained momentum over the last decade, as more municipalities across North American have launched a wide variety of digital transformation initiatives. That said, some cities have achieved significant outcomes that enable them to improve services for citizens. Los Angeles, New York, Chicago are the smartest cities in the United States, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Cities were evaluated across various metrics such as deployment of LED streetlights, smart meters, renewable energy, electric mobility, smart parking, mobility-as-a-service (MaaS), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) technologies, smart waste, and first responder communications. American Smart City Project Assessment "New York is the leading city with the highest deployment of LED streetlights in the U.S., followed closely by Los Angeles," said Raquel Artes, analyst at ABI Research . Chicago will have the highest upgrade of current legacy streetlights as the local gov...

Managing urban transportation challenges in large metropolitan areas has motivated local government leaders to consider alternative solutions to traditional public transit. More major cities across the globe now have programs in place to test the applications of autonomous vehicle (AV) technologies. According to the latest worldwide market study by Canalys, four cities are leading the way to being prepared for autonomous vehicles. To date, San Francisco is out in front, followed by Shanghai, Singapore and London. These rise to the top of a group of cities that, due to their size and populations, have some of the most complex transport networks in the world. The leaders have a significant need for autonomous vehicles to transform and evolve their transit systems, combined with the ability and desire to make it happen. Autonomous Vehicles Market Development These conclusions come from the recently published Autonomous Vehicle Readiness Index (AVRI), which ranks, weights and score...

There's more growth for the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies sector during 2017. According to the latest market study by Berg Insight, global shipments of cellular IoT devices will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7 percent from 155.6 million units in 2016, to reach 530.1 million units in 2022. Strong growth is fueled by fast-growing demand in China and the global adoption of connected car technology in the automotive industry. Berg Insight believes that the maturity of the ecosystem is a crucial advantage for 3GPP-based standards in the IoT market. "LTE-M and NB-IoT are the latest in a long line of cellular standards already connecting hundreds of millions of devices worldwide," said Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst at Berg Insight . "Alternative non-cellular LPWA technologies have a very long way to go before they achieve the same prominence.” Berg Insight estimates that annual shipments of non-cellular LPWA devices for IoT reached 13.5 mi...

The Internet of Things (IoT) has many use cases within the public sector, but none will likely have the positive economic impact of comprehensive smart city initiatives across the globe. A key component of these plans is transportation optimization and enhancement in congested urban areas. Berg Insight released new findings about the growing market for Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). The market value for ITS deployed in public transport operations in Europe was €1.35 billion in 2015. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2 percent, this number is expected to reach € 1.91 billion by 2020. ITS Technology Market Development The North American market for public transport ITS is similarly forecast to grow at a CAGR of 8.1 percent from €0.59 billion in 2015 to reach €0.87 billion in 2020. According to the Berg Insight assessment, the market for ITS in public transport is in a growth phase which will continue throughout the forecast period. Increased funds made ava...

Smart Cities are applying Internet of Things (IoT) based solutions. A smart city is an ecosystem that places emphasis on the use of digital technology to drive efficiency for existing social, economic and environmental processes, while developing new, data-driven processes. According to findings from the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, smart traffic management and smart parking initiatives will save 4.2 billion man-hours annually by 2021 -- that's equivalent to each city driver saving nearly an entire working day per year. Juniper analysts also found that while the smart city remains a relatively young concept, many metropolitan governments are beginning to recognize the need to improve in terms of competitiveness and quality of life. Moreover, increasing urban populations around the world are creating pressure on city resources, driving the need for new and efficient solutions. Smart City Transportation Juniper’s comprehensive study found that traffic ea...

The progressive American companies have adopted the notion that there's real value in connecting their Things to the public Internet. International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts that U.S. firms will invest more than $232 billion in the Internet of Things (IoT) hardware, software and services market in 2016. Furthermore, IDC expects IoT revenues in the U.S. market will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.1 percent over the 2015-2019 forecast period -- eventually reaching more than $357 billion in 2019. According to the IDC assessment, the industries leading the way in U.S. IoT investments are Manufacturing and Transportation at $35.5 billion and $24.9 billion, respectively, in 2016. U.S. IOT Market Development Momentum However, cross-industry investment -- which represents use cases that are common to all industries -- will approach $31 billion this year. The IoT use cases receiving the greatest levels of investment from U.S. organizations across these t...