Digital Lifescapes

Recent news headlines may not instill confidence in the overall Global Networked Economy, but that doesn't discourage spending on Digital Transformation initiatives that are focused on creating new  business models. IT market performance remained patchy in April, with some vendors experiencing a sharp decline in growth while others continued to benefit from long-term enterprise commitment to digital business. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), overall growth this year in constant currency will reach 4.8 percent to $3.27 trillion -- that's a slight improvement, which reflects the continued IT services market performance. IT Services Market Development IT services growth this year will be almost 6 percent, as large enterprises remain committed to long-term digital transformation investments despite the recent short-term economic turbulence. Overall software spending growth will be almost 11 percent, driven mostly by cloud soft...

Healthcare sector innovation tends to progress at a slow pace, due to a number of historical factors that inhibit agility. For example, the Smart Home healthcare market continues to grow and evolve, but the scale of the opportunity remains under-penetrated. Last year, new smart home healthcare shipment and service revenues grew 25 percent to reach $22.9 billion worldwide, but that growth rate may be hard to sustain, despite the potential for further growth. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, new smart home healthcare shipment and service revenues will reach $26.5 billion in 2023 -- that's up by 15 percent from 2022. Smart Home Healthcare Market Development Smart home healthcare, encompassing connected home care, remote patient monitoring, and social robotics, can improve the health and care of the most vulnerable while reducing staffing and other costs. It also represents an opportunity for a host of players from smart home vendors and beyond to extend ...

Across the globe, many employers are assessing their human resource policies to determine the most effective working model for their digital workers. While some CEOs still attempt to force employees to work full-time in offices, the enlightened leaders have embraced flexibility. According to the latest market study by Gartner, 77 percent of digital business workers want to participate in creating their Hybrid Work model, while 14 percent prefer to have their environment mandated. "One of the biggest challenges to hybrid work is the lack of alignment between the variability between what workers want and the predictability organizations, managers and workers need to be effective,” said Caitlin Duffy, director analyst at Gartner . Hybrid Work Market Development As employee wants and needs have shifted toward flexible working models, organizations must respond thoughtfully in order to maintain productivity and avoid attrition from oppressive mandates. Their fifth 'Digital Worker E...

Mobile Money is the most basic form of Mobile Financial Services (MFS) in emerging markets, which is comprised of a variety of offerings. It's a good model, due to the lack of infrastructure that supports access to services for the un-banked population of numerous nations. Where building and sustaining traditional financial institutions is very costly, landline telecom and mobile network operators offer a near-ubiquitous and reliable alternative to banking establishments. The concept is reliant on mobile handsets, taking the form of simple domestic money transfers, or micro-finance services that involve risk decision elements, such as lending and insurance. Mobile Money Market Development According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, the total value of mobile money transactions in emerging markets will reach $2 trillion by 2027 -- that's an increase of over $500 billion from 2023. Growing by 33 percent, the market is being driven by the transition to Payments-as-a-P...

Across the globe, CEOs and their leadership teams continue to seek information and guidance about planned Digital Transformation initiatives and the most effective enterprise organization change management practices. Worldwide IT and Business Services revenue will grow from $1.13 trillion in 2022 to $1.2 trillion in 2023 -- that's a 5.7 percent year-over-year growth, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The mid-term to long-term outlook for the market has also increased -- the five-year CAGR is forecast at 5.2 percent, compared to the previous 4.9 percent. Digital Sevices & Consulting Market Development IDC has raised the growth projection despite a weak economic outlook, because of vendor performances across 2022, growth indicators from adjacent markets, increased government funding, and inflation impacts. The actual 2022 market growth was 6.7 percent (in constant currency), which was 87 basis points higher than forecast last year, alth...

The global financial services sector continues to grow as more progressive organizations seek to gain a meaningful competitive advantage from their digital transformation initiatives. Across the globe, many regions are seeing a significant rise in 'instant issuance' activity from a physical and digital perspective, from both traditional and emerging innovative banking institutions. Digital Payments Market Development Customers increasingly demand instant access to banking services, with physical instant issuance enabling them to leave their branch equipped with a ready-to-go payment card. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, the market for instantly issued physical payment cards will increase from 243.2 million shipments in 2022 to a forecast of 471.1 million in 2027. "Critically, instant issuance of payment cards is no longer limited to the physical," said Sam Gazeley, industry analyst at ABI Research . Indeed, the growing digitization of p...

New restrictions by the U.S. government will limit the supply of advanced semiconductors to China in the high-performance computing market. As a result, Chinese technology companies must now work with local chip vendors to ease the effects of export bans. Other trends will impact global demand. Global semiconductor revenue is projected to decline by 11.2 percent in 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. In 2022, the market totaled $599.6 billion, which was marginal growth of 0.2 percent from 2021. The short-term outlook for the semiconductor market has deteriorated further. Global semiconductor revenue is forecast to total $532 billion in 2023. Semiconductor Market Development "As economic headwinds persist, weak end-market electronics demand is spreading from consumers to businesses, creating an uncertain investment environment. In addition, an oversupply of chips which is elevating inventories and reducing chip prices, is accelerating the decline of the...

The Open Banking business model has been advantageous for Third-Party Providers (TPPs), helping them to extend their offerings into other areas of financial services with new capabilities. Open Banking is also advantageous for traditional banking institutions, despite the perceived loss of custodianship over their data, by providing greater accessibility to more bank services. Furthermore, Open Banking can help serve Mobile Internet providers that are able to leverage it to create tailored services according to customers’ preferences and/or economic limitations. Open Banking Market Development Since traditional banking services are made more convenient by TPPs via greater data access, customers can proactively manage their finances and shape the development of new financial offerings. This is particularly noticeable in the realm of Digital Payments, where retail merchants and customers transact through eCommerce, which has the greatest number of use cases for Open Banking. These includ...

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul...

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year...

Across the globe, many CEOs invested in initiatives to expand their digital offerings. User experience enhancements that are enabled by business technology were a priority in many industries. Worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services is forecast to grow 21.7 percent to a total of $597.3 billion in 2023 -- that's up from $491 billion in 2022, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Cloud computing is driving the next phase of digital transformation, as organizations pursue disruption through technologies like generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), Web3, and enterprise Metaverse. Public Cloud Computing Market Development "Hyperscale cloud providers are driving the cloud agenda," said Sid Nag, vice president at Gartner . Organizations view cloud computing as a highly strategic platform for digital transformation initiatives, which requires providers to offer new capabilities as the competition for digital business escalates. "For example, generativ...

The recurring subscription payments market is undergoing significant growth, primarily driven by the acceleration of consumer adoption. The market deals with periodic subscriptions to a variety of goods and services offered as an alternative payment model. While subscriptions have existed for a long time, their use in the consumer products marketplace is still evolving. Despite the usage being relatively new, the proliferation has been rapid and has spanned many different vertical markets. Recurring Payments Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the transaction value of recurring payments will exceed $15.4 trillion globally in 2027 -- that's up from $13.2 trillion in 2023. This relatively slow growth of 17 percent reflects that recurring payments are a well-established market, but also disguises a rapid change of payment methods in the space, with Open Banking and Digital Wallet payments outstripping overall growth. As more retail me...

ChatGPT is trained to follow instructions in a 'prompt' and provide a detailed response. Prompt Engineering is a concept in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly natural language processing (NLP). While this topic has gained much attention, it's merely a sub-sector of the greater AI market upside. According to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), global spending on AI -- including the software, hardware, and services for AI-centric systems -- will reach $154 billion in 2023, that's an increase of 26.9 percent over 2022. The ongoing incorporation of AI into a wide range of products will result in a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27 percent over the 2022-2026 forecast period, with spending on AI-centric systems expected to surpass $300 billion in 2026.   AI-Centric Systems Market Development "Companies that are slow to adopt AI will be left behind – large and small. AI is best used in these companies to augment human ...

Wireless communication solutions in the enterprise continue to gain momentum from new technologies and associated software applications. Across all industries and geographies, the demand has increased substantially over the last couple of years. Meanwhile, the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) market is growing in complexity with the new Wi-Fi standards, 6 GHz spectrum availability, Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity integration, disruptive business models, and more value-added services. Enterprise WLAN Market Development Furthermore, the evolution of cellular and WLAN technologies is pushing CIOs and CTOs to consider deploying heterogeneous Wi-Fi + 5G networks that can optimize performance, cost, reliability, and enable new use cases fundamental to digital transformation. These market dynamics and innovative solutions can drive enterprise WLAN infrastructure revenues to reach $14.5 billion by 2028, according to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research. ABI analysts will n...

Throughout most industries, CEOs are focused on their digital transformation initiatives. While the economic outlook for this year includes many uncertainties, one thing remains certain -- the role of technology as the enabler for digital business growth. With that reality in mind, worldwide Information Technology (IT) spending will total $4.6 trillion in 2023, an increase of 5.5 percent from 2022, according to the latest market study by Gartner. Despite continued global economic turbulence, all regions worldwide are projected to have positive IT spending growth in 2023. Business technology investment is somewhat resilient to market conditions. Business Technology Market Development "Macroeconomic headwinds are not slowing digital transformation," said John-David Lovelock, vice president at Gartner . "IT spending will remain strong, even as many countries are projected to have near-flat gross domestic product (GDP) growth and high inflation in 2023." Prioritization ...

The global financial services market continues to evolve. With the rise of digital payment options, the ability to facilitate payments quickly became a vital element in the current convenience-driven Fintech landscape. Payment cards have previously been the end products of complex payment systems. They have also been instrumental in advancing the underlying payments technology infrastructure, constituting the cornerstone of a fully functioning payments ecosystem. Regardless of their evolution and popularity, plastic cards now stand at a crossroads and face new competition from purely digital payment platforms. The most prominent examples of such platforms are Digital Wallets and Superapps.  Fintech Payments Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the number of payment cards issued via digital platforms will reach 1.3 billion annually by 2027 -- that's up from just 500 million in 2023. This growth of 170 percent reflects the growing int...

Historically, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) role was considered the leader of enterprise Digital Transformation initiatives. The belief was based on the notion that the primary skill set required was Technology expertise. However, IDC now predicts that the focus has shifted to Business expertise, talent development, and digital growth strategy. This revelation is just one of IDC's predictions for 2023, and beyond. Digital Transformation Market Development CIOs who demonstrate a mix of strategic purpose and people skills can now co-lead with their business counterparts -- to demonstrate and align new technologies for sustainable business outcomes. "In this new world, the role of the CIO has evolved to be one that is a digital business enabler using technology to compete," said Linus Lai, chief analyst at IDC A/NZ. IDC's top CIO Agenda predictions are as follows: Chief Business Technology Officer: By 2026, 60 percent of CIOs will find their roles being challenged...

Broadband internet access is an essential enabler of the Global Networked Economy. National, regional, and local government economic development efforts are being supported by new telecom service provider investment in modern infrastructure. The upside growth opportunities in urban and rural areas could be significant, based on recent market research findings. 5G Cellular Services Market Development 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) allows Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to provide Quality of Service (QoS) offerings with higher speeds and unlimited data, creating a demand for 5G FWA, which will continue to grow over the next few years. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, 5G FWA subscriptions will reach 72 million by 2027, representing 35 percent of the total FWA market in 2027. Although LTE FWA services have already been widely deployed worldwide, they often cannot provide the speed needed to compete with wired broadband connections. 5G FWA is set to offer data...

Despite the current economic uncertainty, 72 percent of high technology industry leaders in the United States, Canada, and Western Europe have plans to grow revenue in 2023, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Furthermore, nearly half of those tech industry leaders believe they will be able to outperform their competition this year, as the upside opportunities for cloud and SaaS vendors continue to grow. Business Technology Market Development Gartner conducted a survey in the second half of 2022 to understand how economic turbulence poses challenges to general managers, how confident they are in their ability to achieve their plans, and the measures planned to tackle the uncertainty. "Outperforming the market through an uncertain market requires an above average ability to execute on revenue ambitions," said Mark McDonald, vice president at Gartner . Moreover, the Gartner survey results indicate that almost half of the firms (46 percent) do not have a s...

Online payment solution development continues to evolve. To date, blockchain has had a mixed impact across payments and banking, but the rise of Stablecoin and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) will accelerate the impact. Fundamentally, Stablecoins and CBDCs are two ways of solving the same inherent problem -- how to offer a better and more trusted digital payments solution. To date, most existing payment types have been designed around traditional systems intended for in-person or telephone payments, such as credit cards, or even cash. Therefore, Stablecoins and CBDCs are providing a system that's a significant payment use case transformation. Digital Payment Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the value of payments via CBDCs will reach $213 billion annually by 2030 -- that's up from just $100 million in 2023. However, this significant market growth opportunity of over 260,000 percent reflects the early stage of the sector,...