LifeLock (http://www.lifelock.com), provider of proactive identity theft protection services for consumers and fraud and risk solutions for enterprises. has announced newly commissioned research conducted by Forrester Consulting about consumer attitudes, behaviors, and exposures related to identity theft.

The February 2014 survey revealed that individuals who experience life milestones related to "new beginnings," including getting married, becoming new parents, buying a home or entering the dating scene, are more likely than the average population to become victims of identity theft.

"Life milestones in this day and age are often accompanied by significant sharing of personal data. Whether you’re getting married or buying a new home, you’re filling out many different forms both digitally and on paper – and you may have very little control over where your highly personal information goes," says...

Both glass-based and film-based sensors are evolving to improve performance, while at the same time becoming thinner and lighter, and increasing optical quality, according to new data from NPD DisplaySearch (www.displaysearch.com).

The research group forecasts that the total touch sensor area yield of projective capacitive, in-cell, on-cell, and resistive sensors, will reach 23.3 million square meters in 2015, up from 18 million square meters in 2014. Capacity for sensors for film substrates will be higher than for glass substrate, due to expected area growth of each type of film structure.

"Metal mesh, sliver nanowires, and other new materials will be used in the production of larger displays with better sheet resistance at affordable prices, and these new materials might be used for curved or flexible-touch sensors soon," says Shoko Oi, deputy director of touch panel and emerging display...

Worldwide PC monitor shipments totaled nearly 33.7 million units in the first quarter of 2014 (1Q14), a year-over-year decline of -0.4%, according to the IDC (www.idc.com) research group. IDC expects worldwide shipments to continue on their current trajectory, slipping to 106 million units for the full year 2018.

"Despite the overall decline, the shipment totals were stronger than the forecast of 31 million units," says Phuong Hang, program director, Worldwide Trackers at IDC. "Geographically, Japan and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) regions delivered the largest gains during the first quarter while Dell and HP both experienced solid shipment growth."

LED backlight technology adoption continues to increase with a new high of 92% market share in 1Q14. This represents a year-over-year increase of 16.4%. Screen size of 21.x-inches wide has held the largest worldwide share for the last six quarters, with 20.5% share...

A new report from Juniper Research (http://www.juniperresearch.com) says that 2016 total revenues from mobile games will reach US$28.9 billion, a growth of over 38% on the 2014 figure of $20.9 billion.

The report found that with the domination of casual gamers playing free-to-play games, developers’ approach has shifted from bulk acquisition of unique players. Under the new strategy, which brings mobile analytics to the fore, developers are increasing lifetime value through analyzing, (re)engaging and monetizing users, allowing for higher overall returns on investment.

The Juniper report finds that tablet users will spend more on in-game purchases and generate more revenues per device than smartphone users. The research group argues that in turn, the enhanced performance and graphical capabilities of tablet games is resulting in accelerated migration from traditional portable gaming...

With digital business blurring the line between the physical and the digital worlds, consumer-centric mobile apps are playing an important role, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com)

The research group predicts that, by 2015, most mobile apps will sync, collect and analyze deep data about users and their social graphs, but most IT leaders are failing to consider the deep impact that mobile apps have on their information infrastructure. Gartner also predicts that, by 2017, wearable devices will drive 50% of total app interactions. This includes desktop-based app interactions and mobile apps, with mobile apps making up the majority of these interactions. 

"IT leaders should ensure they have infrastructure in place that takes into account data collected, not only via mobile apps, but also from apps running on wearable devices," says Roxane Edjlali, research director at Gartner. 

To date, most...

Increasing adoption of a more mobile, social, data-driven and consumer-like workplace is causing the breakdown of traditional security models and strategies, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).


The research group predicts that by 2018, 25% of large organizations will have an explicit strategy to make their corporate computing environments similar to a consumer computing experience. Security organizations and leaders that fail to alter strategies to accommodate a more consumerized workforce will be sidelined by engaged organizations.

"Significant changes that impact an organization's approach to security are underway," says Tom Scholtz, vice president and Gartner Fellow. "Employee digital literacy has led to a growing consumerization movement within most enterprises, with employees using a wide variety of consumer-oriented apps for business purposes. Other workplace trends — such as out-tasking,...

Mobile phone Users with access to music bundled into their phone tariffs listen to music on their phones more actively than users without music bundles, according to the Strategy Analytics report "Listening to the Listeners: Mobile Music Survey Results" (http://sa-link.cc/zW).

The study – conducted across the US, China, France, Germany, Spain and the UK — revealed that 72% of mobile phone owners listen to music on their phone actively, or at least once a week, when music is bundled into their tariff compared to 46% for users without music bundled mobile plans.

"Mobile operators and handset manufacturers have a significant role to play in enabling the music industry to grow revenue through access to music that is bundled into customers' phone tariffs, or into the price of the phone," says Nitesh Patel, Director of Wireless Media Strategies, at Strategy Analytics. "Fast growing streaming digital music...

Nearly 2.2 billion smartphones and tablets will be sold to end users in 2014 according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) While security incidents originating from mobile devices are rare, the research group says that by 2017, 75% of mobile security breaches will be the result of mobile application misconfiguration.

"Mobile security breaches are — and will continue to be — the result of misconfiguration and misuse on an app level, rather than the outcome of deeply technical attacks on mobile devices," says Dionisio Zumerle, principal research analyst at Gartner. "A classic example of misconfiguration is the misuse of personal cloud services through apps residing on smartphones and tablets. When used to convey enterprise data, these apps lead to data leaks that the organization remains unaware of for the majority of devices."

With the number of smartphones and tablets on the increase, and a decrease in...

Spending on video game hardware grew 47% to US$983 million during the first quarter of 2014, but overall total industry consumer spending on video gaming fell 1 percent to $4.6 billion compared to the same period in 2013, according the NPD research group (www.npd.com).

The dramatic increase in hardware sales can be attributed to the new Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and these strong year-over-year trends are likely to continue through most of 2014, according to NPD Analyst Liam Callahan. Overall content was down 8% due to a decline in new physical format spending of 27% or $372 million. In contrast to the physical declines, digital format spending collectively increased by 4%, driven by full game downloads and DLC for consoles and portables.

"For the first quarter of 2014, content spending increased for used games, digital full games, DLC, and mobile with a modest increase in subscription revenue." Callahan said. "This...

The worldwide continuous-feed, digital production print market is experiencing significant opportunity thanks to a major technology shift. According to new research from IDC (www.idc.com), the much anticipated shift from electrophotography (EP) to high-speed inkjet (HSIJ) came to fruition in 2013, and will continue through the 2014-2018 forecast period.

Placements of both monochrome and color EP equipment declined in the past year, while HSIJ installations continue on their growth path. IDC expects HSIJ to reach US$1 billion in equipment sales by 2018 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.8%.

Not only was HSIJ the only growth technology segment in the continuous feed production print market, but for the closely watched high-volume segments of 150+ ipm monochrome and HSIJ, HSIJ became the overall market share leader, achieving 54% of the placements. While the cross over in placements occurred in 2013, HSIJ...

By Rick Sutcliffe

Queue theory is something every programmer needs to know--especially if attending WWDC. First we entered our names in a request queue. After a wait of some weeks, The Spy and 6000 other fortunate ones received an invite to purchase a ticket to WWDC for $1700.

That taken care of, it was time to request accommodation from the convention management folk. Wait more weeks and the task became getting there. Since his wife needed a diversion, he decided to drive, abandon her to her own devices in downtown San Francisco for the five days, then holiday up the California and Oregon coasts on the way home. The arrangements for six more hotels took about the same amount of time as finding churches for the two Lord's Days involved, and in the end the tabbed paperwork filled a small looseleaf binder.

The three day drive from Abbotsford to San Francisco provided more exercises in queues--around and through Seattle, near Portland, and the...

In light of the recent Heartbleed bug that left user credentials and sensitive information potentially susceptible to hackers and identity thieves, LifeLock (www.lifelock.com), a provider of identity theft protection services, has announced survey results that reveal consumers’ behavior and attitudes surrounding the security flaw.

The recent survey, conducted online April 28-30 by Harris Poll on behalf of LifeLock among over 2,000 U.S. adults who are online, demonstrated that, despite the potentially increased exposure due to Heartbleed, nearly half (47%) of consumers who have heard of Heartbleed had not taken measures to protect their personal information by changing online account passwords.

According to earlier LifeLock research conducted by Forrester, 70% of people believe they are using strong passwords. In the recent LifeLock study conducted by Harris Poll, less than half (42%) of those who use...

Bluetooth shipments broke an annual two billion shipments in 2012 and are set to surpass three billion shipped during 2015 and four billion during 2018, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"Cumulatively, over 19 billion chipsets will ship over the next five years," says research director Philip Solis. "Of various integration levels, standalone Bluetooth chipsets will be the largest group in 2019 followed by combo chipsets with Bluetooth and then integrated platforms with Bluetooth."

The market for Bluetooth chipsets has evolved greatly over the past decade, expanding from phones and headsets to a multitude of personal devices, accessories, and home automation devices. Of the 10 different combo chipset combinations ABI Research forecasts that include Bluetooth,

"Bluetooth + Wi-Fi + FM” chipsets will be the highest shipping combo type in 2014 as well as 2019. In 2014 this combo...

The worldwide cable, DSL and fiber-optic fixed-line broadband subscriber base grew 6% in 2013 surpassing 665.4 million subscribers, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

The fiber-optic broadband segment grew at a robust rate, 29% from 2012 to 126.6 million subscribers in 2013. By 2019, fiber-optic broadband subscriptions will grow to 265 million subscribers, with a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 11.7%, according to the research group.

The global cable broadband market grew nearly 7% to 161 million subscribers while the DSL broadband market contracted around 1% to 378 million subscribers in 2013. An increasing number of customers opting for high-speed fiber-optic broadband service contributed to a decline in DSL broadband subscriptions in Asia-Pacific and North America.

"Global DSL broadband service revenue dropped nearly 2% in 2013, mainly due to a declining subscriber...

With over 2.6 billion chipsets expected to ship during 2014, Wi-Fi is currently the most ubiquitous wireless connectivity technology for Internet access. As the technology continues to adapt and expand with new protocols such as 802.11ac, 802.11ax, 802.11ad (WiGig), and Wi-Fi Direct, nearly 18 billion more chips will ship cumulatively from 2015 to 2019, according to ABI Research (www.abirsearch.com).

"There will be a roughly even split in 2019 for Wi-Fi chipsets of different integration levels," says research director Philip Solis of ABI Research. "Standalone, or discrete, Wi-Fi chipsets — increasingly targeting the Internet of Things – will be the largest group, followed by integrated platforms with Wi-Fi targeting mobile devices, followed by Wi-Fi combo chipsets."

Wi-Fi protocols will continue evolving as well. By the end of the forecast period, dual-band 802.11n/802.11ac will comprise the vast...

The MarketsandMarkets (www.marketsandmarkets.com) research group says that the cloud security market will be worth US$8.71 billion by 2019.

The increase in adoption of cloud computing, and growing demand for managed security services are playing a major role in shaping the future of cloud-based security services market. Even though there are various on-premise solutions available for all types of security, cloud security has become the prime importance for business who want to reduce CAPEX and support growing number of remote work force, according to MarketsandMarkets.

Cloud vendors provide better security solutions and are compatible with the complex cloud processing. It also enables the companies to become cost-efficient, scalable and increase the business agility. The biggest players in this market which contribute to the major market share are CA Technologies, IBM, Symantec,...

Location analytics is the next revolution of business intelligence, according to MarketsandMarkets (www.marketsandmarkets.com). Enterprises now focus on marketing effectiveness for competitive and market intelligence. Innovative technologies help them to achieve such goals, according to the research group.

Maps and location analytics provide a whole new concept to organizations, which they incorporate into their operations to achieve high sales and operational profitability. Location analytics helps in creating a profitable distribution channel by gaining insights through tracking and monitoring routes.

The high demand of location analytics has led to the invention of new technologies and solutions. Deploying location analytics by analyzing data using a Geographical Information System (GIS) within business is becoming an important core strategy for success, says MarketsandMarkets....

Digital interactions influence 36 cents of every dollar spent in the retail store, or approximately US$1.1 trillion, according to the latest study from Deloitte Digital.  By the end of 2014, that number will climb to 50%, or $1.5 trillion of total store sales.

"Mobile and online transactions represent only a sliver of total retail revenue potential," says Kasey Lobaugh, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP and Deloitte Digital's chief retail innovation officer.  "Retailers that narrowly focus on digital commerce – rather than the full journey that leads to a purchase – often fail to recognize how their customers shop and make decisions in the store.  The result is a digital divide between what consumers do and what retailers deliver.  This gap not only threatens overall revenue, but requires retailers to reset the way they measure and invest in digital efforts."

Looking solely at smartphones, industry estimates put mobile commerce sales at roughly $40 billion today.  By...

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight (www.berginsight.com), the total value of the global real-time mobile location-based advertising and marketing (LBA) market will grow from € 1.2 billion in 2013 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 54% to € 10.7 billion in 2018.

This will then correspond to 38.6% of all mobile advertising and marketing. Location-based advertising and marketing will thus represent around 7% of digital advertising, or 2% of the total global ad spend for all media, according to the research group.
 
The past year has seen a number of significant developments in the real-time mobile LBA space. One example is the concept of beacons based on Bluetooth low energy (BLE).

"The concept of Bluetooth marketing has been reinvigorated following Apple’s introduction of iBeacon in 2013,"says Rickard Andersson, senior analyst, Berg Insight....

Following OTT and content licensing announcements at NAB and the Aereo, Inc. case before the Supreme Court, Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) says that pay-TV penetration remains fairly steady at around 85% of U.S. broadband households but over-the-top (OTT) video use is increasing on multiple devices, particularly with younger viewers.

"Pay-TV subscriptions remain high among Millennials, but at the same time, nearly 40% in this age group consider online video the most important source for video content," says Glenn Hower, research analyst, Parks Associates. "As consumers diversify their viewing resources, the licensing process becomes more complex. Additionally, the Supreme Court case in ABC v. Aereo could drastically reshape the licensing environment for retransmission. A win by Aereo may set legal precedent for a method to rebroadcast without compensation."

Parks Associates...

In the last week of March, major Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) in Asia dropped their prices for core services dramatically and IDC (www.idc.com) believes that this will make it very difficult for smaller CSPs to remain in business if they continue to rely on provision of basic, undifferentiated services.

"If the smaller CSPs are strong enough with decent customer bases, they will be acquired by larger providers. If not, then they're road-kill. In any case, both of the above will drive consolidation amongst the cloud vendors," says Chris Morris, AVP, Services Asia Pacific, and Lead Analyst, Cloud Services & Technologies, IDC Asia/Pacific.

Morris explains that Cisco's announcement of its InterCloud partnerships with several major SPs is based on differentiated Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) - differentiated by way of linkage of the Cisco technology layers (hardware and software) to provide a network service...

New research from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows that over 50% of U.S. smartphone and tablet owners are interested in tech support services that provide protection against loss, theft, or virus/infection, despite less than 10% experiencing such problems.

The research also notes that over one-fourth of U.S. broadband households are likely to purchase Internet-capable home monitoring products.

"Even though consumers encounter a wide range of problems with smartphones and tablets, they show highest interest in receiving support services that protect and secure their devices," says Patrice Samuels, research analyst, Parks Associates. "For example, 55% of smartphone owners want a service that protects their device from viruses and identity theft, and approximately 50% want a service that repairs or replaces their device if accidentally damaged, even though short battery life and...

The news is full of stories concerning augmented reality; mostly in the context of the Google Glass project. Google glasses have been banned from bars, casinos, locker rooms, healthcare facilities and many government agencies.

The fear is that, armed with a forward facing camera, the devices will compromise peoples’ privacy and perhaps disclose confidential information. The dynamic is definitely one of concerned skepticism.

Nevertheless, augmented reality is entering the market, riding on the coattails of increasingly capable smartphones and a rich ecosystem of innovative software applications. Add in the new wave of wearable devices, such as smart watches, and the market is primed for explosive growth that will transform both mobility and consumer communication services, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

Regarding smart watches, just about every...

The hallmark of a digital business will be the ability to spot opportunities that might span a matter of just seconds, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). The research group introduced the concept of a "business moment" — a transient opportunity that is exploited dynamically — in 2013 and expects these moments to occur more and more frequently as enterprises migrate from today's world to the digital business world. 

Digital business is the creation of new business designs by blurring the digital and physical worlds. It promises to usher in an unprecedented convergence of people, business and things that disrupts existing business models, even those born of the Internet and e-business eras. Gartner predicts that by 2020, more than seven billion people and businesses, and at least 30 billion devices, will be connected to the Internet. With people, businesses and things communicating, transacting and even...