Digital Lifescapes

Technology is a compelling catalyst for economic growth across the globe.  Artificial intelligence (AI) rides a seismic wave of transformation in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region — a market bolstered by bold government initiatives, swelling pools of capital, and vibrant tech ambition. The latest IDC analysis sheds light on this dynamic market. Despite a contraction in deal volumes through 2024, total AI venture funding surged to an impressive $15.4 billion — a signal of the region’s resilience and the maturation of its digital-native businesses (DNBs). Asia-Pacific AI Market Development The APAC AI sector’s funding story is not just about headline numbers but also about how and where investments are shifting. Even as the number of deals slowed, the aggregate value of investments climbed, reflecting a preference among investors for fewer but larger, high-potential bets on mature or highly scalable AI enterprises. The information technology sector led the AI investment charge. Top area...

The artificial intelligence (AI) server market stands at a crossroads, propelled by the dual engines of agentic AI and inferencing, even as it encounters the headwinds of global tariff pressures. As more organizations across industries race to harness AI's transformative power, the infrastructure underpinning these capabilities has become a focal point for investment, innovation, and strategic maneuvering. Recent findings from ABI Research underscore just how dynamic and lucrative this sector has become, forecasting robust growth and highlighting the technological and geopolitical forces at play. Agentic AI and Inferencing Market Development Agentic AI refers to AI systems capable of making independent decisions and taking actions to achieve specific goals, often with minimal human intervention. Inferencing is the process by which trained AI models generate predictions or decisions from new data inputs. Together, these advancements are driving a surge in demand for specialized serv...

Telecom service providers in the Asia-Pacific region are actively virtualizing their network architecture. A flurry of new applications development is driven by open source communities -- such as OPNFV and ONAP -- as well as from individual efforts by telcos. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the network function virtualization (NFV) market in the Asia-Pacific region will grow to $9.24 billion in 2022. NFV Market Development in Asia-Pacific Japan is the largest single market within the Asia-Pacific region, constituting 25.7 percent of the total NFV revenue. This is followed by South Korea and China, at 22.7 percent and 14.6 percent of the revenue growth respectively. "Japan leads in the region, not only because of the desire to design resilient and reliable networks in preparation for future disaster threats, but also to prepare for the 2020 Summer Olympics," said Lian Jye Su, senior analyst at ABI Research . South Korea and China are actively pr...

Consumer video entertainment is about to evolve, once again. High dynamic range (HDR) features will infiltrate some full high-definition (HD) television sets and thereby help to boost the emerging 4K TV set (UltraHD) market momentum. ABI Research forecasts that HDR TV shipments will grow at a 41 percent CAGR and reach 245 million units in 2022. According to their assessment, 8K TV sets are still years away from reaching the global market, with market hype currently centering on Japan’s plans to deliver 8K video at the 2020 Olympics. HDR TV Market Development "As evident with Sony’s recent announcement to include HDR in all its new TV sets, the next-generation TV technology will soon be a prominent feature in many UltraHD TV sets," said Khin Sandi Lynn, analyst at ABI Research . While some less expensive TV sets will not yet support the new technology, high-end TV manufacturers recognize the value that HDR functionality brings to the customer viewing experience. Vend...

The evolving Internet of Things (IoT) sector within the Asia-Pacific region will continue its rapid expansion, with the number of units connected to increase from 3.1 billion today to 8.6 billion by 2020, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Over this same period, the total Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) market size will increase from $250 billion to $583 billion in revenue. "The Internet of Things industry has matured considerably over the past year, with a number of large government initiatives across APeJ, and China in particular, driving demand," said Charles Reed Anderson, associate vice president at IDC . "This increase in market demand has led to an increased focus on IoT from the leading ICT vendors." China will continue to dominate IoT within the Asia-Pacific region -- accounting for 59 percent of the APeJ market opportunity by 2020 -- and is one of the leading markets globally with nearly 1 out of every 5...

The mobile internet is pervasive worldwide, as an essential part of more and more people's daily routines. While many of the emerging markets continue to deploy third-generation (3G) and a few deploy fourth-generation (4G) wireless technology, developed markets are already preparing for the future. According to the latest global market study by ABI Research, it will likely take more than 5 years for fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks to reach the 100 million subscriber mark -- that's two years longer than the 4G network experience. 4G subscriber growth was much faster than with previous wireless technology generations, fueled by the capabilities of increasingly powerful smartphones and the availability of other 4G-enabled devices. In contrast, 5G subscriber growth will likely be more muted at first, due to the increased complexity and the additional work required to plan and install 5G cells and associated networks, but infrastructure deployments should increase by 202...

Across a variety of formats, music is undoubtedly the most mature segment of mobile entertainment. The global revenues from streamed music services on mobile devices are expected to rise by more than 40 percent to $1.7 billion, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. For the first time, these revenues will thereby overtake those generated by full-track downloads to mobile devices. The study observed that growth in premium service adoption was increasingly being driven by mobile network operator partnerships with service providers. In Europe, several operators have seen an uplift in spend amongst the mobile users, notably TeliaSonera in Sweden, which bundles Spotify with TV, mobile and fixed line services. Furthermore, such services are also gaining traction in Germany, where O2 offers simfy and T‑Mobile has recently introduced Spotify. However, the most significant growth has come in the U.S. market, which is poised to overtake South Korea this year as the lea...

Emerging vehicle-to-vehicle technology based on Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) -- using the IEEE 802.11p automotive W-Fi standard -- will gradually be introduced in new vehicles, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Vehicular communication systems are a new type of wireless network in which vehicles and roadside units are the communicating nodes -- providing each other with information, such as safety warnings and traffic information. As a cooperative approach, these interactive automated systems can be used for emergency alerts -- to help avoid highway accidents and upcoming traffic congestion. This proposed technology deployment will be driven by government policy mandates and/or automotive industry initiatives, resulting in a penetration rate of 61.8 percent by 2027. "In the U.S. market there is a real possibility for a Department of Transportation mandate, depending on the outcome of the large scale V2X trial being held in Michigan," s...

​During the fourth quarter of 2012, the LTE subscription rate in Asia-Pacific increased by 60.92 percent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), reaching 34.6 million. ABI Research forecasts that the LTE subscription market will continue to grow rapidly in 2013 -- to reach 72.1 million. “The operators in South Korea have aggressively promoted LTE since launch," said Marina Lu, research associate at ABI Research . For example, SK Telecom, the largest operator in terms of subscriptions, had gained 7 million LTE subscribers by the end of 2012, and aims to secure 13 million by the end of 2013, a feat that will mean 50 percent of its subscribers will be on LTE. The Asia-Pacific 4G cellular market still has considerable potential. In 4Q-2012, Asia-Pacific had notched up 3.45 billion subscriptions, up 8.7 percent year-on-year (YoY), resulting in a cellular penetration of 87.5 percent. "The strong growth trend of mobile subscription is expected to keep up until 2015, where it will surpas...

The global wired broadband market -- including DSL, cable, and fiber-optic services -- generated $188 billion service revenue in 2012, that's a 7 percent increase from 2011. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, fixed broadband service revenue will grow to $251 billion by 2018. Across the globe in 2012, fiber-optic broadband service revenue had its strongest year-over-year growth of 24 percent, while DSL and cable broadband grew 2 percent and 6 percent respectively. Fiber to the home (FTTH) is expected to grow stronger than other platforms throughout the forecast period. In 2018, FTTH revenue should reach $81.6 billion, generating almost one-third of global broadband service revenue. Globally, overall broadband average revenue per user (ARPU) has continued to decline across all broadband platforms over the past few years. In some nations, consumers are getting more and paying less. "The trend is expected to endure as the majority of network operators ...

Juniper Research has shared its revised forecasts for the global mobile near-field communication (NFC) market, which now has scaling back its growth estimates for the North American and Western European markets. While their latest market study finds that by 2017 the proportion of NFC-enabled smartphones will be only marginally below previous estimates, global NFC retail transaction values are now expected to reach $110 billion in 2017 -- that's significantly below the $180 billion previously forecast. According to Juniper's assessment, the Apple decision to omit an NFC chipset from the iPhone 5 has reduced retailer and brand confidence in the technology, leading to reduced POS (Point of Sale) rollouts and less NFC campaigns. This in turn will lead to lower NFC visibility amongst consumers and fewer opportunities to make payments, thereby creating a cycle of indifference to NFC technologies in the short term. "While many vendors have introduced NFC-enabled smartphon...

According to the latest market study by ABI Research, LTE mobile network subscriptions are expected to exceed 40 million by the end of 2012, representing a fourfold increase over the nine million global LTE subscriptions in 2011. The wide range of expected LTE smartphone launches in 2012 from major OEMs -- such as Nokia, Samsung, and Apple -- as well as the surge in data consumption, are the main causes behind the rise in LTE subscriptions. Currently, the North American region accounts for 60 percent of total LTE subscriptions, followed by the Asia-Pacific region at 37 percent. However, Asia-Pacific LTE subscriptions are expected to overtake North America by 2014, primarily driven by adoption in China, India, Japan, and South Korea. "South Korea and Japan are witnessing amazing LTE subscription growth due to the availability of high-quality content, enabling the countries to be the next largest LTE markets after the U.S.," says Ying Kang Tan, research associate at ABI...

American online retailers have compelling reasons for selling to potential customers in other nations. According to the latest study by eMarketer, as ecommerce growth slows in the U.S. market, retailers are seeking new revenue opportunities in foreign markets. This is especially true in emerging internet economies such as China -- where B2C online sales are forecast to grow at a 94.2 percent compound annual rate from 2010 to 2015. "Some U.S. retailers have started to sell online internationally after seeing significant amounts of site traffic coming from abroad," said Jeffrey Grau, principal analyst at eMarketer . Retailers that hesitate now may face higher entry barriers later -- as competitors team up with the most desirable in-country business partners and earn the loyalty of local online consumers. The most popular foreign countries for American online retailers have been Canada, the UK and Australia -- highly developed markets that share linguistic and cultural ...

Global mobile network service provider subscriptions will reach over six billion by the end of this year. The Asia-Pacific region will account for more than half of the worldwide total in 2011, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Asia-Pacific added nearly one billion connections from two years ago. That growth is being fueled by rapid economic development in the region -- where increased rollout of mobile network infrastructure, citizen prosperity, and affordability of mobile handsets have increased adoption. That said, less than 18 percent of the three billion connections in Asia-Pacific are 3G and 4G enabled, but that is expected to change quickly as more subscribers create new demand for data services. "Mobile broadband connections will experience rapid growth over the next two years, driven by 3G network rollouts in India and China and 4G deployments in Japan and South Korea,” says Dan Shey, practice director at ABI Research . China successfull...

South Korea is already known for its leadership in landline broadband service adoption. Many of the nation's residents are also pioneers of mobile broadband service adoption. Nearly half (47 percent) of South Koreans polled intend to purchase a smartphone within the next six months, according to the results of a consumer survey conducted this year by ABI Research . South Koreans already own an average of 1.6 mobile devices each, and are among the world's most enthusiastic consumers of new mobile technologies, upgrading their devices frequently and utilizing many forward-looking applications. "South Koreans are keen adopters of mobile money services," notes practice director Neil Strother at ABI. They're using mobile devices to do banking (a very high 69 percent of respondents), and pay bills (40 percent). Curiously, though, most South Koreans have little confidence in the security of their mobile phones: only 7 percent believed they were completely or ve...

According to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media , Internet users will upload and download 1.2 million petabytes of data per year by 2015 -- around seven times more than in 2010. Video will experience the most significant growth due to the phenomenal popularity of over-the-top entertainment services -- such as the BBC iPlayer and Netflix -- and will account for over half of all Internet traffic by 2015. But other services -- notably online storage and back-up services such as Rapidshare and Dropbox -- will experience considerable growth. The amount of Internet application traffic will vary greatly from region to region and -- despite the popular focus on the U.S. market -- Asia will be the larger region in terms of traffic by 2015. The Asia-Pacific market share will have increased to 42 percent of all global Internet traffic -- by virtue of the sheer growth in user numbers that this region will see over the forecast period. "Much of the hype about In...