Digital Lifescapes

The collaborative robot (cobot) industry is advancing globally as more companies seek to lower manufacturing costs and increase the speed of production. While the established industrial robot vendors have made some progress, the pure cobot developers are creating ergonomic systems. Guided by early innovators and adopters, the collaborative robotics market will become mainstream over the next 10 years. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the yearly revenue for cobot arms will reach $11.8 billion by 2030 -- that's an increase from $711 million in 2019. Collaborative Robot Market Development Furthermore, the total value of the collaborative market is much greater, when accounting for software-related revenues and end-of-arm tooling (EOAT) accessories. Under this broader definition of the market, the cobot ecosystem is worth just over $1 billion in 2019 and will be worth $24 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 28.6 percent. "The prospects for the co...

Historically, the traditional insurance sector has been reluctant to change established methods. However, the relationship between insurance companies and technology vendors has evolved, as emerging Insurtech offerings disrupt the legacy insurer business model. The overall insurance market is experiencing significant upheaval, as new technology-enabled solutions impact the prior status quo. As an example, the use of price comparison websites is commonplace and other forms of customer-facing online services are widespread. However, the internal processes of loss notification, claims management and underwriting have not changed much from those used by insurers many decades ago. Therefore, savvy Insurtech vendors can help to revolutionize outmoded methods and introduce new ideas to the insurance marketplace. Insurtech Market Development That said, traditional insurers are now becoming increasingly involved within the Insurtech space, through direct investments and strategic partne...

The world of high-performance computing (HPC) will continue to evolve, as enterprise CIOs and CTOs anticipate the future demands for IT Infrastructure capable of supporting new workloads. That said, there isn't enough computing capability today to process the amount of data being created and stored, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The processing power required to convert the flood of structured and unstructured data into useful and valuable insights, for a new class of digital business workloads, must now scale faster than Moore's law ever predicted. HPC Platform Market Development To address this gap, the computing industry is taking a new path that leverages alternative computing architectures like DSPs, GPUs, FPGAs for acceleration and offloading of computing tasks in order to limit the tax on the general-purpose compute architecture in the system. IDC believes these architectures are key to the enablement of artificial i...

In the Global Networked Economy, your digital identity is very important. Every organization wants to know, from retailers to banks. There are two issues: fraudsters can exploit the system when an email address or password is all that's required. When the burden of proof is higher, this can be problematic for users. According to the latest worldwide study by Juniper Research, the applications of unique mobile identifier services, which provide secure digital identity verification through SIMs, will generate over $7 billion for mobile network operators in 2024. This estimate is up from an expected $859 million in 2019 -- a growth rate of over 800 percent. Digital Identity Market Development The new research findings noted that, particularly in emerging economies with limited government identity provision, mobile phones will become the primary source of digital identity for over 3 billion people by 2024. These will be used heavily because they are simpler to scale than card-b...

Why are more organizations creating Chief Digital Officer (CDO) roles? Why are CMOs and CIOs more likely to collaborate on new digital transformation projects? Digital business growth is driven by the development and deployment of superior online experiences. Three-quarters of the organizations surveyed by Gartner increased customer experience (CX) technology investments in 2018. Customer analytics continues to be one of the biggest investments, with 52 percent intending to increase funding in 2019, focusing on customer journey analysis, customer needs analysis, voice of the customer (VoC) and digital marketing. Customer Experience Market Development Gartner's 2019 survey gathered data from respondents in seven countries within North America, Western Europe and Asia-Pacific regions, across a wide range of industries. The objective of the study was to understand the priorities, technology investments and high-stakes situations faced by organizations in the planning of their CX...

The Internet of Things (IoT) has numerous applications within the energy and utility sector. As an example, smart meter penetration in North America is forecast to reach 81 percent by 2024. A smart meter is a new kind of gas and electricity meter that can digitally send meter readings to the energy supplier for more accurate consumption readings. Smart meters can also provide in-home displays that enable the consumer to better monitor and manage their energy usage. According to the latest worldwide market study by Berg Insight, the installed base of smart electricity meters in North America will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8 percent between 2018 and 2024 to reach 142.8 million units at the end of the forecast period. Smart Meter Market Development Over the next five years, smart meter penetration among electricity customers in the U.S. and Canada is projected to increase from around 60 percent in 2018 to more than 80 percent by the end of 2024. "North Americ...

Most enterprise CIOs and CTOs now operate in a 'coexistence environment' where traditional data center (non-cloud), private cloud and public cloud all are an essential part of their IT infrastructure. This technology mix will continue in the foreseeable future. Furthermore, this mix will change slowly. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), vendor revenue from sales of IT infrastructure products for cloud environments -- including public and private cloud -- grew 11.4 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2019 (1Q19), reaching $14.5 billion. IDC also lowered its forecast for total spending on cloud IT infrastructure in 2019 to $66.9 billion – that's down 4.5 percent from last quarter's forecast – with slower year-over-year growth of 1.6 percent. Cloud Infrastructure Market Development Vendor revenue from hardware infrastructure sales to public cloud environments in 1Q19 was down 13.4 percent compared to t...

The advantage of a digital wallet is that -- for both online and offline transactions -- it affords the user an opportunity to make secure, quick payments, obviating the need for a physical card or to enter bank details for every purchase. For the unbanked, it goes further, providing a means of economic inclusion, both as an alternative to cash payments and as a way of accessing financial services such as loans and savings accounts. For the wallet provider, service evolution from the early days of online payments and person-to-person remittance has enabled several fintech vendors to achieve a strong presence across the payments and retail ecosystems. This now extends both to offering offline and online goods payments on their own and third-party storefronts, together with loyalty programs, bill payments and digital banking services. Digital Wallet Market Development Spending via digital wallets across Europe and North America will increase by 40 percent this year to nearly $7...

New satellite constellations are being launched to improve the connectivity options for the Internet of Things (IoT) market. Many application segments will benefit from these new constellations due to the larger range of coverage they offer when compared to terrestrial communication networks. Different IoT application segments require different types of communication connectivity. Some IoT apps will require real-time connectivity to have a constant flow of data and information, yet some will only require near real-time. IoT App Connectivity Market Development By 2024, there will be 24 million IoT connections made via satellite, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. Their analysis unveils the long-term opportunity within the satellite space for the growth of IoT deployments, particularly in application verticals, such as agriculture and asset tracking. "Terrestrial cellular networks only cover 20 percent of the Earth’s surface, while satellite netw...

The legacy insurance sector has experienced disruptive pressures from new technologies, start-up Insurtech competitors and changing customer demands. Within this environment, organic growth hasn't provided business transformation. Thus, insurance companies have relied on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to leapfrog traditional competitors. That said, the number of M&As in the industry has grown by 1,096 percent since 1985, and 128 percent in the past 10 years. However, business technology innovation and IT-enabled automation will likely drive the majority of new growth via digital transformation strategies. Insurtech Automation Market Development  Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a software solution which is designed to complete activities originally performed by humans. RPA is the future of most repetitive tasks that do not require cognitive capabilities, allowing employees to focus on things that deliver greater value. Moreover, RPA has proved to be much more a...

Managing big data apps is a challenge for many IT organizations. Moreover, chief data officers (CDOs) and their data and analytics (DA) teams are not achieving the best balance required to deliver superior performance, according to the latest market study by Gartner. "CDOs are generally focused upon the right things, but they do not have the right mix of activities," said Debra Logan, vice president at Gartner . Data and Analytics Market Development The Gartner survey found that while the creation of a data-driven culture was ranked the number one critical factor to the DA team, there were conflicting rankings for technical and nontechnical activities (data integration and data skills training), and strategic and tactical activities (enterprise information management [EIM] program and architecting a DA platform). While the implementation of a DA strategy was ranked the number three most-critical success factor by 28 percent of CDOs, another strategic activity – creati...

Worldwide spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) is forecast to pass the $1 trillion mark in 2022, reaching $1.1 trillion in 2023. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for IoT spending over the 2019-2023 forecast period will be 12.6 percent, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). "Spending on IoT deployments continues with good momentum and is expected to be $726 billion worldwide this year," said Carrie MacGillivray, group vice president at IDC . Internet of Things Market Development While organizations are investing in hardware, software, and services to support their IoT initiatives, their next challenge is finding solutions that help them to manage, process, and analyze the huge amounts of data being generated from all these connected things. The three commercial industries that will spend the most on IoT solutions throughout the forecast period are discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, and transportati...

Fintech vendors will continue to target more international financial service applications. The World Bank estimates that official money transfer flows to low- and middle-income countries reached $529 billion in 2018 -- that's an increase of 9.6 percent over the previous record high of $483 billion in 2017. Global remittances, which include flows to high-income countries, reached $689 billion in 2018 -- that's up from $633 billion in 2017. In 2019, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are expected to reach $550 billion, to become their largest source of external financing. Money Transfer Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the volume of domestic money transfers via mobile phones will exceed 203 billion in 2024 -- that's up from 130 billion in 2019. Domestic person-to-person (P2P) payments will drive this growth, accounting for 80 percent of all domestic transfers in 2024. According to the Juniper asse...

In theory, a blockchain is an open, distributed ledger technology that can record transactions between two parties efficiently, in a verifiable and permanent way. That said, there is still some confusion in the marketplace for blockchain-related products and services that apply this emerging technology. By 2021, 90 percent of current enterprise blockchain platform implementations will require replacement within 18 months to remain competitive, secure and avoid obsolescence, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Blockchain Application Market Development "Blockchain platforms are emerging platforms and, at this point, nearly indistinguishable in some cases from core blockchain technology," said Adrian Lee, senior research director at Gartner . According to the Gartner assessment, many CIOs overestimate the capabilities and short-term benefits of blockchain as a technology to help them achieve their business goals, thus creating unrealistic expectati...

Unlicensed wireless communication has transformed internet access across the globe. The upward growth trajectory continues to rise for Wi-Fi applications. More than 20 billion Wi-Fi devices are forecast to ship between 2019 and 2024, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. Continued adoption in traditional markets of strength, alongside traction in mesh networking systems, smart home, automotive, and IoT applications will drive the Wi-Fi market forward to nearly 4 billion annual device shipments by 2024. Wi-Fi Device Market Development "2019 marks the 20th anniversary of Wi-Fi, though the technology shows no signs of slowing down," says Andrew Zignani, principal analyst at ABI Research . "Wi-Fi 6 is quickly gaining momentum in networking devices, while client devices are already arriving into the market and are anticipated to ramp up considerably over the next 12-18 months." According to the ABI assessment, demand for faster, more r...

Ongoing investment in cybersecurity solutions continues to grow. According to the latest worldwide market study by Canalys, cybersecurity solutions for public cloud and 'as a service' accelerated in the first quarter of 2019. Those deployment models collectively grew 46 percent year-on-year. These type of solutions accounted for 17.6 percent of the total cybersecurity market value -- that's up from 13.8 percent in the same period a year ago. Virtual security appliances and agent solutions also grew significantly, up by 18.2 percent on an annual basis. Cybersecurity Solutions Market Development Traditional security hardware and software deployments still dominate, representing almost 75 percent of the total market. Both deployment models continued to grow but at a slower rate of just over 8 percent. This growth highlights the ongoing transition in cybersecurity solutions, as organizations look to protect more data assets and workloads located in the public cloud. Mor...

The ongoing commitment to spend more on advertising is primarily driven by legacy marketers. The majority of CMOs in these organizations have difficulty embracing progressive methods of market development, such as digital content marketing. They continue to explore new media but stay within their comfort zone. As traditional advertisers witnessed the growth in smartphone use, they've shifted their digital ad spend -- such as display and search advertising -- to focus more on mobile devices. Most types of online advertising growth are now due to mobile internet use, which will overtake online desktop use. Digital Advertising Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the total spend on digital advertising is forecast to reach $520 billion by 2023 -- that's rising from $294 billion in 2019. That's a CAGR of 15 percent over the next 5 years; driven by the adoption of AI-based programmatic advertising to deliver highly targete...

Many enterprises are now investing in technologies and services that enable the digital transformation (DX) of their business models, products and services. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), global DX spending will reach $1.18 trillion in 2019 -- that's an increase of 17.9 percent over 2018. "Worldwide DX technology investments are expected to total more than $6 trillion over the next four years," said Eileen Smith, vice president at IDC . "Strong DX technology investment growth is forecast across all sectors, ranging between 15 and 20 percent, with the financial sector forecast to be the fastest with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.4 percent between 2017 and 2022." Digital Transformation Market Development The two industries that will invest the most in digital transformation in 2019 are discrete manufacturing ($221.6 billion) and process manufacturing ($124.5 billion). For both industries, the top DX...

Digital transformation fuels upside market opportunities, and related growth goals are now the CEO's top business priority, according to the latest worldwide study by Gartner. Moreover, a growing number of CEOs will focus more on financial priorities -- especially profitability improvement. The annual survey of CEO and senior business executives in the fourth quarter of 2018 examined their business issues, as well as some areas of technology agenda impact. In total, 473 business leaders of companies with $50 million or more -- and 60 percent with $1 billion or more -- in annual revenue were qualified and surveyed. Digital Business Market Development  "After a significant fall last year, mentions of growth increased this year to 53 percent, up from 40 percent in 2018," said Mark Raskino, vice president at Gartner . "This suggests that CEOs have switched their focus back to tactical performance as clouds gather on the horizon." The survey results showed th...

The benefit of a digital wallet is that, for both online and offline transactions, it enables the wallet user to easily make secure, quick transactions, thereby removing the requirement for a plastic card -- or the need to enter bank account details for every online purchase. For the 'unbanked' populous across the globe, the availability of a digital wallet and cryptocurrency on a mobile phone will provide a means of financial inclusion, both as an alternative to cash payments and as a way of accessing services such as personal loans and savings accounts. Digital Wallet Market Development For the savvy digital wallet provider, the fintech revolution in online payments and person-to-person remittance has enabled several new players to achieve a growing presence across the global financial services and retail ecosystems. In some cases, this transition enables vendors to provide offline or online payments on their own and via third-party storefronts, together with consumer...