Digital Lifescapes

Traditional telecom service providers and mobile network operators have many challenges that impact their ability to generate new growth. That said, the situation is more problematic for those companies that had also invested in legacy pay-TV business models. Looking ahead, the next few years are likely to be confounding. Worldwide spending on telecom services and pay-TV services will reach $1,633 billion in 2019, and that's an increase of 0.8 percent year-on-year, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Furthermore, IDC forecasts that those same services will reach $1,647 billion in 2020, representing an increase of just 0.9 percent. Given that assessment, the senior executives that lead these companies will seek ways to change the status quo and transform their business model. Telecommunications Market Development Mobile communications remain the largest segment of the market, accounting for 52.8 percent of the total in 2019. The mobi...

The Global Networked Economy is fueled by the growing adoption and application of digital commerce innovations. In many instances, digital commerce enables wholesale supplier or retailer customers to purchase goods and services through an interactive and self-service experience. It includes the people, processes and technologies to execute the offering of development content, analytics, promotion, pricing, customer acquisition and retention, and customer experience at all touchpoints throughout the customer buying journey. That's one view of the evolving eCommerce landscape. Digital Commerce Market Development Industry analysts also segment the overall digital commerce market into payments, banking and gambling as its principal segments, which are then further broken down into their respective sub-segments. It's important to appreciate that these segments are not mutually exclusive and necessarily intersect with one other to varying extents. Boundaries between the segme...

Telecom service providers across the globe have invested significantly in updating their network infrastructure to take advantage of the operational efficiencies enabled by each new generation of wireless communications technology. The next wave of investment has already begun. According to the latest global market study by ABI Research, fifth-generation (5G) wireless is expected to have 12 million connections worldwide by the end of 2019. The number of 5G connections will then grow rapidly to 205 million worldwide at the end of 2020. 5G Infrastructure Market Development The new generation is expected to grow much faster than anticipated, and it's believed that 5G connections will overtake 4G connections in 2025. ABI Research expects approximately 3 billion 5G connections in 2025 with 4G declining from its current 3.9 billion to 2.2 billion in the same year. "Despite the challenges faced by early adopters and the relatively high prices of 5G-capable smartphones in 2019...

Information Technology (IT) infrastructure investment can fluctuate based upon the annual shifts and changes in demand. Worldwide IT spending is forecast to total $3.7 trillion in 2019 -- that's an increase of just 0.4 percent over 2018, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. That said, this has been the lowest IT growth forecast in 2019. However, Gartner believes that global IT spending will likely rebound in 2020 with forecast growth of 3.7 percent, primarily due to enterprise software spending. Information Technology Market Development "The slowdown in IT spending in 2019 is not expected to stretch as far into 2020 despite concerns over a recession and companies cutting back on discretionary IT spending," said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner . Today’s complex geopolitical environment has pushed regulatory compliance to the top of organizations’ priority list. Overall spending on security increased by 10.5 percent in 2...

Digital transformation is a strategic priority for many organizations. It involves managing the legacy IT environment while building a new infrastructure to enable digital growth. Savvy CIOs and CTOs will adopt intelligent platforms that enhance their internal business processes and improve external stakeholder engagement. That's why enterprise investment in the technologies and services that enable digital transformation is forecast to reach $2.3 trillion in 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Digital Transformation (DX) spending is expected to steadily expand throughout the 2019-2023 forecast period, achieving a five-year compound annual growth rate of 17.1 percent. Digital Transformation Market Development "We are approaching an important milestone in DX investment with our forecast showing the DX share of total worldwide technology investment hitting 53 percent in 2023," said Craig Simpson, research man...

The initial commercial interest in cryptocurrency IT infrastructure was the potential to enable an alternative to government-backed fiat currencies. However, now most of the forward-looking focus is on blockchain, the distributed ledger technology that underpins the new applications. Although deployments are still very much in the realm of the early adopter, blockchain has proven advantages across several vertical industries: it is safe, decentralized, transparent and can reduce intermediary costs. Blockchain Use Case Market Development While many CIOs and CTOs believe that blockchain likely has a way to go before becoming a mainstream technology within their sector, five compelling use cases across asset tracking, financial services and digital identity are already in production. They offer valuable business process improvements to the pioneering organization that has already deployed a blockchain -- whether in terms of increased efficiency, reduced fees and fraud, or full tra...

How can IT vendors and cloud service providers differentiate their artificial intelligence (AI) offering, when the solutions tend to have the same basic capabilities? The answer could be new semiconductor chipsets that disrupt the status quo. During the last two years, several hyperscale cloud service providers -- including Alibaba, Amazon, Facebook, Google, Huawei, and Tencent -- have been busy designing their own in-house chipsets for handling AI workloads in their data centers. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, cloud service providers commanded a 3.3 percent market share of the total AI Cloud chip shipments in the first half of 2019. AI Chipset Market Development These players will increasingly rely on their own in-house AI chips and will be producing a total of 300,000 cloud computing AI chips by 2024, representing 18 percent of the global cloud AI chipsets shipped in 2024. The requirements for intelligent services by many enterprise vertical...

Outdoor surveillance cameras will be the largest market for 5G wireless Internet of Things (IoT) solutions worldwide over the next three years, according to the latest global market study by Gartner. The municipal deployed surveillance camera market will represent 70 percent of the 5G IoT endpoint installed base in 2020, before contracting to 32 percent by the end of 2023. 5G IoT installed endpoints for outdoor surveillance cameras will reach 2.5 million in 2020, 6.2 million units in 2021 and 11.2 million units in 2022, but will be surpassed by connected cars in 2023. 5G IoT Applications Market Development "Cameras deployed by city operators or used to ensure building security and provide intruder detection offer the largest addressable market as they are located outdoors, often across cities, and require cellular connectivity," said Stephanie Baghdassarian, senior research director at Gartner . Gartner predicts that the 5G IoT endpoint installed base will more than...

By the end of 2019, eCommerce will have a significant role to play in economic growth, with 44 percent of the global population forecast to purchase physical goods and 27 percent purchasing digital goods. Moving deeper in the digital era, retailers are now focused on customer retention and reduced costs through the application of new technologies -- such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, internet of things (IoT) and machine-to-machine communications (M2M), among others. The growth of eRetail transactions has been so significant over the last decade that online payments for physical goods purchases exceeded the $2 trillion mark for the first time in 2017. Two years later, the market size has grown to $2.9 trillion spent online for the purchase of physical goods worldwide in 2019; reaching a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8 percent. Payment Platforms Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, revenue from payment p...

Demand for computer servers, disk storage systems, and networking hardware deployed within an enterprise hybrid cloud environment remains strong. Moreover, the investment in non-cloud on-premises infrastructure seems assured by the CIO and CTO need to deliver superior security and compliance with IT regulatory requirements in several key industries. 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 -- declined 10.2 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2019 (2Q19), reaching $14.1 billion. Cloud IT Infrastructure Market Development IDC also lowered its forecast for total spending on cloud IT infrastructure in 2019 to $63.6 billion, down 4.9 percent from last quarter's forecast and changing from expected growth to a year-over-year decline of 2.1 percent. Vendor revenue from hardware infrastructure sales to publi...

As more digital technology innovations reside in software apps, and part of those software functions reside in a public cloud, the value of device-centric innovation has been eclipsed. Chances are, the device that you already have in your possession is 'good enough' to access those software-defined services. Worldwide shipments of devices -- personal computers (PCs), media tablets and mobile phones -- will decline by 3.7 percent in 2019, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Personal Device Market Development Gartner estimates there are more than 5 billion mobile phones used around the world. After years of growth, the worldwide smartphone market has reached a tipping point. Sales of smartphones will decline by 3.2 percent in 2019, which would be the worst decline the category has seen. "This is due to consumers holding onto their phones longer, given the limited attraction of new technology," said Ranjit Atwal, senior research director at...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been portrayed as a technology that can revolutionize the industrial manufacturing sector. The sentiment is somewhat valid, but the scenario is complex. AI in industrial manufacturing is a collection of use cases at different phases of the manufacturing process. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the total installed base of AI-enabled devices in industrial manufacturing will reach 15.4 million in 2024 -- with a CAGR of 64.8 percent from 2019 to 2024. Artifical Intelligence Market Development "AI in industrial manufacturing is a story of edge implementation," said Lian Jye Su, principal analyst at ABI Research . "Since manufacturers are not comfortable having their data transferred to a public cloud, nearly all industrial AI training and inference workloads happen at the edge, namely on device, gateways and on-premise servers." To facilitate this, AI chipset manufacturers and server vendors have de...

Across the globe, millions of people don't have a bank account -- they're the 'unbanked' masses. Mobile Financial Services (MFS) are alternative financial instruments that allow individuals, without an account at a traditional banking institution, to engage in financial activity via their mobile device -- such as a low-cost smartphone or media tablet. Since the inception of 'mobile money' services from the telecom provider in Kenya over ten years ago, these solutions have been instrumental in enabling financial inclusion in emerging markets, where large segments of the population have been unserved, or underserved, by traditional banks. Mobile Financial Services Market Development With the ability to reach anyone who owns a mobile device and the benefit of rolling out cost-effective agent networks, MFS players have managed to fill a gap which has been a challenge for traditional financial institutions within emerging markets. According to the latest worl...

Preparing for the adoption of new technologies is challenging for many large enterprise organizations. That's why savvy CIOs and CTOs seek information and guidance from vendors that can assist them on the journey to achieve digital business transformation. Meanwhile, investment in artificial intelligence (AI) systems and services will continue on a high-growth trajectory. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), spending on AI systems will reach $97.9 billion in 2023 -- that's more than two and a half times the $37.5 billion that will be spent in 2019. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for AI in the 2018-2023 forecast period will be 28.4 percent. Artificial Intelligence Market Development "The AI market continues to grow at a steady rate in 2019 and we expect this momentum to carry forward," said David Schubmehl, research director at IDC . "The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (ML) is oc...

More CEOs have now voiced concerns that their workforce is not ready for the implications of digital business transformation trends. Few believe that their HR team is capable of reimagining the future of work to drive high-performance across the organization. Just imagine, 45 percent of managers say they don’t feel confident in their ability to develop the skills employees need to succeed. In addition, managers lack time to coach their direct reports -- they're spending on average 9 percent of their time on skills development. Bridging the Digital Skills Gap Employee skill development challenges are particularly problematic in a multi-generational work environment. Millennials report wanting feedback 50 percent more often than other employees -- a Gartner survey found that more than 70 percent of HR executives believe that managers should get more involved in coaching employees compared with three years ago. "Today’s organizations are undergoing a digital transformatio...

Wireless communications technology continues to transform the telecom landscape. Projected growth across the smart home, wearables, beacons, healthcare, smart cities, automotive, and commercial building automation, will help accelerate the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth share of device shipments. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, Internet of Things (IoT) end markets will represent 31 percent of total Bluetooth and 27 percent of Wi-Fi device shipments in 2024 -- that's up from 13 percent and 10 percent respectively in 2018. Wireless Technology Market Development Smartphones will continue to be important markets for both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, however, when it comes to the Bluetooth shipments, the IoT market is expected to overtake the smartphone market for the first time in 2024 as its share of the market falls to less than 30 percent. Furthermore, the share of smartphones as a proportion of Wi-Fi device shipments is also set to fall below 40 percent by 202...

With the Fintech market gaining momentum across the globe, other markets -- such as Insurtech -- are now being examined to assess the disruptive potential of digital business technology. Regulatory compliance is one such area where IT innovation can transform the sector. More than $340 billion in fines have been imposed on financial institutions in the decade since the financial crisis -- one report estimates that the total is likely to top $400 billion by 2020. Increasing requirements for transparency and growing scrutiny of ethical practices means that the cost of regulatory compliance will surely increase. With an average of 10-15 percent of employee staff dedicated to compliance, banks and insurers are spending more each year to comply with government-imposed regulatory obligations. One solution to this growing challenge is better automation. Robotic Process Automation Market Development According to the latest market study by Juniper Research , insurers will spend $634 mil...

Digital business growth continues to fuel the Global Networked Economy, which requires a corresponding investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) infrastructure. Despite the trade war between the United States and China, purchases of ICT systems and services will maintain steady growth over the next five years. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), ICT spending on hardware, software, services, and telecommunications will achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8 percent over the 2019-2023 forecast period, reaching $4.8 trillion in 2023. ICT Infrastructure Market Development Digital transformation and the adoption of automation technologies will be driving ongoing investment in applications, analytics, middleware, and data management software -- as well as increasing demand for IT server and storage capacity. Commercial purchases will account for nearly two-thirds of all ICT spending by 2023 -- that...

As artificial intelligence (AI) evolves, applications of augmented intelligence -- the combination of human and AI capabilities -- will likely deliver the greatest benefits. CIOs should prioritize augmented intelligence to scale their employee talent as one of the most valuable contributions to business innovation. In 2021, artificial intelligence (AI) augmentation will create $2.9 trillion of business value and 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity globally, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Augmented Intelligence Market Development Gartner defines 'augmented intelligence' as a human-centered partnership model of people and AI technologies working together to enhance cognitive performance. This includes learning, decision making and new experiences. "Augmented intelligence is all about people taking advantage of AI," said Svetlana Sicular, research vice president at Gartner . "As AI technology evolves, the combined human and A...

Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies have received a significant amount of media attention over the last couple of quarters. Regardless, the market for these emerging technologies is still in the early stages of applications growth. That said, global revenues for blockchain technology are on track to reach almost $10 billion by 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. Blockchain Market Development Enterprise organizations continue to show growing interest in blockchain applications, in contrast to the significant decrease in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) during 2018. Vendor Investment continues to swell, buoyed primarily by an increase in venture capital (VC) funding, notably in blockchain infrastructure development. VC funding is catching up to ICOs, with 620 investment rounds totaling $3.1 billion in 2018 -- that's up from 153 rounds at $850 million in 2017. "Tighter regulation (including securities) and taxation on cryptocu...