The wearables market maintained its upward trajectory in the first quarter of 2015 as new vendors, including Apple, prepared to enter the market.

A new forecast from International Data Corporation (www.idc.com) estimates that 72.1 million wearable devices will be shipped in 2015, up a strong 173.3% from the 26.4 million units shipped in 2014. Shipment volumes are expected to experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.6% over the five-year forecast period, reaching 155.7 million units shipped in 2019, according to the research group.

"The demand for basic wearables, those that do not run third party apps, has been absolutely astounding," says Jitesh Ubrani, senior research analyst, Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers, IDC. "Vendors like Fitbit and Xiaomi have helped propel the market with their sub-$100 bands, and IDC expects this momentum will continue throughout 2015."

"We expect smart wearables,...

By the end of 2017, market demand for mobile app development services will grow at least five times faster than internal IT organizations' capacity to deliver them, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

The research group forecasts mobile phone sales will reach 2.1 billion units by 2019, which will fuel demand for apps in the enterprise that meet the high performance and usability of consumer apps. Gartner principal research analyst Adrian Leow says enterprises find it a challenge to rapidly develop, deploy and maintain mobile apps to meet increasing demand, as it is exceedingly difficult and costly to hire developers with good mobile skills.

"Organizations increasingly find it difficult to be proactive against competitive pressures, which is resulting in their mobile apps becoming tactical, rather than strategic," he adds. "We're seeing demand for mobile apps outstrip available development capacity...

Limelight Networks (www.limelight.com), which specializes in digital content delivery, has released new data that shows consumers are nearly always plugged in and are increasingly updating and adding content to their phones and other connected devices.

In addition, the research shows that consumers, especially Millennials, expect and demand a seamless and consistent experience when downloading digital content. Other findings illustrate the hunger for consuming digital content on smart phones, tablets, computers and gaming consoles. Forty nine percent of Millennials report that they are more likely to download content than just one year ago, versus 43% of all respondents. However, 75% of those surveyed currently find downloading content frustrating, especially when it takes too long to complete, gets interrupted, or simply doesn’t work.

"There’s a clear shift underway to a connected society demanding a...

A new report from 451 Research (www.451research.com), an information technology research and advisory company, says cellular Internet of Things (IoT) and machine to machine (M2M) connections will increase nearly fourfold globally from 252 million in 2014 to 908 million in 2019. A monumental increase in active cellular IoT/M2M connections will be driven by a number of key factors, according to 451 Research.

First, hardware and bandwidth costs have dropped to a point where nearly every enterprise can reap the benefits of virtualizing the physical world. Second, cloud-based middleware and data platforms are making it easier to securely generate insights from machine data at greater scale than ever before possible. Last, the buzz around this topic is generating overall awareness of the transformational potential of IoT/M2M in terms of return-on-investment, competitiveness and support of completely new business...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) finds global OTT [over-the-top] video service subscription revenues will increase from nearly US$9 billion in 2014 to over $19 billion in 2019.

Currently, 57% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to an OTT video service. Among European broadband households, 57% in the U.K., 29% in Spain, and 24% in Germany subscribe to an OTT service. The research group also finds that in 2015, approximately 7% of all U.S. households, or 8.4 million households, subscribe to broadband and at least one OTT video service but do not subscribe to pay TV.

This figure includes consumers who have discontinued pay-TV service and those who have never subscribed to pay TV. In other Western nations, this same figure is approximately 4% or less among all households. Operators are introducing their own OTT services to appeal to consumers who are not currently...

The collaborative robotics sector is expected to increase roughly tenfold between 2015 and 2020, reaching over US$1 billion from approximately US$95 million in 2015, according to a new study published by ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

The research group says the growth will be fueled by three key markets: electronics manufacturers and electronics manufacturing services companies, small-to-medium manufacturers, and manufacturers seeking robotic solutions optimized to support agile production methodologies.

"Collaborative robotic systems, such as ABB’s YuMi and Gomtec/Roberta platforms, Rethink Robotics’ Baxter and Sawyer, Universal Robots (Teradyne) UR family of robots, KUKA’s LBR iiwa and Kawada Industries’ Nextage, were developed in response to a number of pressing social drivers and businesses imperatives, and aided by ongoing technological innovation and dropping prices for powerful enabling...

The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to gain momentum as vendors and enterprises begin to embrace the opportunities this market presents. According to new research from IDC (www.idc.com), the worldwide Internet of Things market will grow from US$655.8 billion in 2014 to $1.7 trillion in 2020 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.9%.

Devices, connectivity, and IT services will make up the majority of the IoT market in 2020. Together, they are estimated to account for over two-thirds of the worldwide IoT market in 2020, with devices (modules/sensors) alone representing 31.8% of the total. By 2020, IDC expects that IoT purpose-built platforms, application software, and "as a service" offerings will capture a larger percentage of revenue.
IDC's IoT taxonomy includes a view to the horizontal technology stack of hardware, software, services, and connectivity as well as a vertical view to the industries and use...

According to a new forecast from IDC (www.idc.com), the number of third-party applications designed to run on smart wearable devices is expected to grow from 2,500 at the end of 2014 to 349,000 in 2019.

While the majority of these applications will be consumer focused, the research group believes a significant opportunity exists for enterprise-oriented applications. Developers capable of delivering clear benefits and a transformative experience will catalyze demand and further accelerate application development on the supply side.

With the Apple Watch expected to capture up to two thirds of the smart wearable device market in 2015, Apple's influence on the wearable applications market will be considerable.

"It has been clear since well before it was launched that the Apple Watch, with the WatchKit SDK, is poised to set a tone for the broader market," says John Jackson, research vice president, Mobile and...

Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com) has identified that the camera of a smartphone is the most-used, on-device feature thus far, while also being a consumers’ number one priority when purchasing a new mobile device.  It is clear that users are always looking for value-added features to improve their photo capturing experience.

A recent study from the Wireless Device Lab (WDL) at Strategy Analytics, surveying smartphone camera behaviors, found that when capturing a photo, consumers are most interested in "lining up the shot," "angling the camera correctly" or "positioning the subject the right way" prior to capturing a photo. Concern was highlighted when capturing photos in dim lighting, as shadows appeared on the photos and flash caused unwanted "red eyes" or "washed out skin color."
 
“To solve these issues, camera phone manufacturers need to work on improving the low...

Semi-autonomous features like adaptive cruise control (ACC) and traffic jam assist (TJA) represent early real-world tests for human-machine interaction (HMI).  At their best, when operated correctly in proper conditions, ACC and TJA completely control all acceleration, braking, and steering, removing some of the cognitive load from the driver.  From an HMI perspective, this presents the challenge of how to convey control and status information on a number of different subsystems, in an immediately clear and meaningful way to users.

A new expert evaluation of ACC and TJA implementations in 2015 model year vehicles by the Automotive Consumer Insights group (ACI) at Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com), found that the current offering of semi-autonomous driving systems lacked refined HMIs. 

"Current TJA and ACC systems do not reliably inform the driver when any driving assistant...

The worldwide production print market enjoyed 7.5% year-over-year growth in unit shipments in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15), according to IDC (www.idc.com). Unit shipments grew to approximately 11,167 units (printers and MFPs), and shipment value increased 3.6% to nearly US$1.2 billion in the same time period, according to the research group.

Highlights from the first quarter results include the following:

° All of IDC's regional markets saw positive year-over-year shipment growth in the production print market, with the exception of Latin America and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). Key contributors to the overall growth worldwide were Japan, which grew 12.4% year over year, Western Europe (13.7%) and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) (16.0%).

° All categories in the Production Print space recorded double-digit year-over-year gains. Mid-Production experienced 2.5% shipment growth, Production had 31.7%...

By Rick Sutcliffe

Last month the Spy opined on the software crisis--safety, security, and reliability having been abandoned for quick-and-dirty-get-it-out-the-door and let the customers do our debugging, software has become prey for the black hats.

There are too many vulnerabilities in both commercial packages and the Internet, and one day this house of cards is going to come crashing down upon us all. We have sound software engineering techniques and universities such as the ivory basement where the Spy toils do teach them--but they are not used because too few developers are university trained, too many managers haven't a clue what those principles are, and have other priorities that do not necessarily eventuate in quality code, and too many people use tools that are not optimized for producing that quality code--even mitigate against doing so.

This month, the Spy will begin presenting a new dialect of Modula-2 that he and Telecom engineer...

Worldwide Chromebook sales to end users is on pace to reach 7.3 million units in 2015, a 27% increase from 2014, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Education is the primary market for Chromebooks and represented 72% of the global Chromebook market in 2014, says the research group.

"Since the first model launched in mid-2011, Google's Chromebook has seen success mainly in the education segment across all regions," says Isabelle Durand, principal analyst at Gartner. "In 2014, the education sector purchased 72% of Chromebooks in EMEA, 69% in Asia/Pacific, and 60%in the U.S."
 
In the business segment, purchases of Chromebooks remain low despite interest from small and midsize businesses (SMBs) and vertical industries. Google is increasingly targeting the business segment with its Chromebook for Work suite of office applications and has continuously improved access and functions by making more...

Maintain has served up Cocktail 8.4 (Yosemite Edition), the latest maintenance update for users running OS X Yosemite.

Cocktail is a general purpose utility for OS X that lets users clean, repair and optimize their Macs. Version 8.4 adds ability to clear applications (App Store, Automator, Contacts, Dashboard, Dictionary, Game Center, iBooks, iTunes, Maps, Photos, System Preferences, Xcode) caches and adds compatibility with OS X 10.10.4. It also contains updated Automator actions.

Cocktail 8.4 (Yosemite Edition) requires OS X Yosemite 10.10 to run. Cocktail (Mavericks Edition) for OS X 10.9, Cocktail (Mountain Lion Edition) for OS X 10.8 and Cocktail (Lion Edition) for OS X 10.7 are available for download from Maintain website (http://www.maintain.se/cocktail). Cocktail 8.4 (Yosemite Edition) costs US$19 for a single user license and is available for purchase from the Maintain...

A growing roster of smart home services and device providers are using home security monitoring as a beachhead to introduce home automation services. In the key U.S. market, a bellwether for developed markets around the world, some 15 million more U.S. homes will invest in new connected home security services in the next 5 years, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"After decades where penetration into U.S. households stalled, home security adoption is set for significant growth. However, it will not be the sole preserve of traditional professionally monitored home security providers. Consumers can now choose from an array of non-traditional suppliers, new technologies, and innovative services that balance value with cost," says Jonathan Collins, principal analyst, ABI Research.

Through managed smart home offerings from retailers such as Lowes and Staples as well as standalone devices...

Mobile data traffic, generated by smart phones, feature phones and tablets will approach almost 197,000 PB (Petabytes) by 2019, equivalent to over 10 billion Blu-ray movies, according to Juniper Research (www.juniperrsearch.com).

However, the research group found that only 41% of the data generated by these devices will be carried over cellular networks by 2019, with the majority of mobile data traffic offloaded to Wi-Fi networks. Juniper Research estimates that the average monthly data usage by smartphone and tablet users will double over the next four years. The daily media consumption by mobile users will continue to rise, bolstered by the rise in 4G adoption and factors such as HD video usage.

“"Certainly, video is forming an ever-greater proportion of network traffic. For example, Juniper Research anticipates that video traffic over smartphones will increase by nearly 8 times between 2014...

More U.S. households now own a smartphone than a desktop, according to new research that Parks Associates (www.parkassociates.com) will discuss at the 19th-annual CONNECTIONS: The Premier Connected Home Conference. The conference runs May 19-21 in San Francisco.

In the last five years, desktop adoption declined from 90% to 69% among U.S. broadband households, while smartphone adoption increased from 36% to 78%, according to the research group. Tablet adoption increased from 7% to 63%.

"The U.S population has made a dramatic shift to mobile devices and services, which they are using to access content in the cloud and check the smart devices in their connected home," saysStuart Sikes, president, Parks Associates. "At CONNECTIONS, we will analyze the implications of this new post-desktop world."

There will be 1.6 billion video viewers worldwide at end of 2015, increasing to 1.9 billion in 2019, according to new data from the Parks Associates research group (www.parksassociates.com).

The global LTE user base will top 700 million in 2015, led by substantial subscriber gains in the U.S., Europe, China, and Latin America. The research firm based its findings on in-depth calculations from NUMBERS, a service forecasting adoption and revenue growth for connected products and services within the connected home ecosystem. 

"With the proliferation of content and streaming options, providing a best-in-class user experience becomes increasingly critical to pay-TV providers and CE manufacturers in terms of increasing sales, subscriptions, and usage," says Barbara Kraus, director of Research, Parks Associates. "Access to desired content is critical, as is ease and speed of search, sufficient broadband...

According to the IDC (www.idc.com) research group, the overall certified workstation market experienced disappointing growth in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15) after seven consecutive quarters of strong growth.

Worldwide shipments for the quarter recorded a year-over-year decline of -1.7%, less than forecast projected growth of 2.4%. Overall shipments fell to 838,400 compared to 858,667 in the same quarter a year ago. Emerging markets continued to perform better than developed markets with a quick turnaround in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region after a decline of -15.2% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2014. MEA was the fastest growing region in 1Q15 with 11.0% year-over-year growth and gained global market share of 0.5 points sequentially and 0.3 points year-over-year.

For the first time in five consecutive quarters, the Latin America region was not able to achieve double-digit growth although it did...

The rapid development of LTE-U standards and the increasing number of its proponents brings into question the relationship between cellular network and Wi-Fi, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"While a number of mobile operators, especially Wi-Fi laggards, would strongly back LTE-U and look forward to it to compensate for late or poor Wi-Fi adoption, the carrier Wi-Fi space continues to grow, attracting other players like fixed and cable operators. We expect a total shipment of nearly two million units in 2015,” says Ahmed Ali, an analyst at the research group. "Wi-Fi calling, for example, provides opportunities for non-mobile carriers to enter and compete in the wireless market. Also, dual-SSID gateways allow operators with massive home and enterprise footprints to move into public Wi-Fi segment through community Wi-Fi."

Technical advances in Wi-Fi transform operators’ objectives for...

New research from Juniper Research (www.juniperrsearch.com) has found that global brand and retail spend on digital marketing activities will reach $200 billion this year, up by 15% on 2014 levels.

The research group says that nearly 70% of the net increase on digital marketing spend this year would be concentrated on mobile and tablet devices, as brand strategies evolve to deliver campaigns within an omni-channel digital environment. According to the research, factors behind the migration to smartphones and tablets include their capabilities to enable timely, targeted, personalized campaigns, to enhance customer engagement and to analyse the relative success of campaigns.

Juniper Research noted that, in the case of mobile coupons, redemption rates were typically significantly higher and costs per redemption much lower than for traditional mechanisms such as direct mail or newspaper coupons....

The worldwide consumer Wi-Fi equipment market increased 5% in 2014, surpassing 166.1 million unit shipments, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"Shipments of devices which support the 802.11ac standard grew significantly in 2014, representing more than 11% of total access point shipments," says Jake Saunders, vice president and practice director, ABI Research. "In 2014, total shipments of consumer Wi-Fi devices with the 802.11n standard declined 3% from 2013. New generation 802.11ac products are expected to gain market share in the years to come. ABI Research expects that nearly 71 million 802.11ac access points will be shipped in 2015."

Since 802.11ac device shipments started to accelerate, the market share of devices with older generation Wi-Fi standards has started to decline. In 2014, total shipments of consumer Wi-Fi devices with the 802.11n standard declined 3% from 2013. New...

Research firm Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) reports 47% of U.S. broadband households have privacy or security concerns about smart home devices. The connected home industries need to formalize strategies, such as consumer privacy rights, in order to push these markets forward, according to the research group.

"Recent high-profile media reports of hacks into smart baby monitors and connected cars, whether valid or not, have heightened consumer concerns over privacy and security for connected home systems," says Tom Kerbersaid, director of Research, Home Controls & Energy, Parks Associates. "Companies need to move quickly to reinforce the security of their solutions as well as ensure the consumer's right to privacy."

Parks Associates says that if firms offer a bill of rights to consumers, specifically the rights to be invisible, to approve who uses the data, and to be erased,...

According to the latest 451 Research Vendor Window from 451 Research (www.451Research.com), Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains the leader in Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) adoption among enterprise IT buyers.

These findings are based on responses from over 1,500 global IT professionals, including 1,000 unique vendor evaluations. The 451 Research Vendor Window assessment is based on both overall enterprise adoption rates and customer ratings of vendor performance.  

AWS is used by the majority of enterprise IaaS customers in the study (57%) and is also cited as the most important IaaS provider by 35% of these current IaaS customers. Additionally, AWS received some of the highest ratings overall for its ability to fulfill customer needs, particularly in terms of experience and technical innovation. Other important findings from the 451 Research Vendor Window for IaaS include:

° Microsoft...