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Nov 25
Base of 802.14.4-enabled devices to exceed two billion...

The installed base for 802.15.4-enabled devices is forecast to increase almost fivefold over the next 5 years, rising from just under 425 million today to over 2.1 billion in 2019, finds ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"The low-power, low-cost, mesh networking capabilities of 802.15.4 networks make them the primary wireless technology choice across a number of different vertical markets including home, building and industrial automation, smart metering, and home entertainment," says Andrew Zignani, research analyst at ABI Research.

With support from a number of chipset suppliers including Microchip, Silicon Labs, Freescale, GreenPeak, and Texas Instruments, among others, annual 802.15.4 device shipments are set to grow from 206 million today to over 730 million in 2019. ZigBee-enabled devices, currently accounting for 74% of all 802.15.4 shipments, are set to continue leading the way throughout...

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Nov 24
Wearable electronics market to reach $25.19 billion by...

A new report by Allied Market Research (www.alliedmarketresearch.com) says that the wearable electronics market, which includes the Apple Watch, is expected to reach $25.19 billion globally by 2020.

Usage of wearable is still at its nascent stage; nevertheless, the dawn of mobile wireless systems and smart phones have sparked a new era for wearable electronics, globally, according to the research group. Gadgets, which were deemed to be just used in industrial and commercial applications are now finding place in mundane activities, enhancing quality of life through various applications such as healthcare, sports & fitness, and lifestyle to name a few.

The industry is being driven by various factors such as convergence of technologies, rising number of customers adopting digital services, and due to the presence of wireless connectivity. However, lack of design features, higher...

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Nov 21
73% of organization says BYOD creates greater security...

Kensington (www.kensington.com), which makes computer accessories such as locks for computers and mobile devices, has announced findings from a North American survey on the security risks created by bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies in the enterprise.

The findings show 73% say that BYOD represents greater security risks for their organization. Yet 59% still approve the use of personal devices for business usage.

According to MarketsandMarkets, a research and consulting firm, forecasts the global market for BYOD and enterprise mobility to nearly quadruple in size over the next four years. Currently valued at US$72 billion, MarketsandMarkets expects annual growth of 26.6% for a projected value of $284 billion by 2019.

The Kensington survey found that across multiple B2B vertical industries – including education, health care, financial services, retail and manufacturing – CEOs, CIOs, CSO, and...

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Nov 20
Gartner: 4.9 billion connected 'things' will...

Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) forecasts that 4.9 billion connected things will be in use in 2015, up 30% from 2014, and will reach 25 billion by 2020. The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a powerful force for business transformation, and its disruptive impact will be felt across all industries and all areas of society, according to the research group.

(The IoT is the network of dedicated physical objects (things) that contain embedded technology to sense or interact with their internal state or external environment. The IoT comprises an ecosystem that includes things, communication, applications and data analysis.)
 
"The digital shift instigated by the Nexus of Forces (cloud, mobile, social and information), and boosted by IoT, threatens many existing businesses. They have no choice but to pursue IoT, like they’ve done with the consumerization of IT," says Jim Tully, vice president and analyst at...

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Nov 19
Carrier Wi-Fi to hit US$8 billion in revenues

The pieces of the carrier Wi-Fi puzzle are falling into place as the standardization process speeds up with the recent updates on Hotspot 2.0 and commercial Next Generation Hotspot deployments counting more than 12 networks worldwide—implementing Cisco and Ruckus equipment, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

The increasing appetite for Carrier Wi-Fi solutions will result in revenues growing to nearly US$8 billion by 2019. Other main market players include Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia, and Ericsson.

Asia-Pacific is the top region in number of installed Wi-Fi hotspots while Europe and North America continue to grow their networks through the use of community hotspots. MSOs like BT, Liberty Global, and Comcast are advertising millions of public hotspots, thanks to switching on the dual-access feature in their massive home gateway deployments.

"This is a cost-effective way to increase...

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Nov 18
IDC sees growth, consolidation in global datacenter...

A new forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that the transition to the 3rd Platform is having a direct impact on datacenter construction and remodeling.

IDC (www.idc.com) expects the total number of datacenters (all types) deployed worldwide will peak at 8.6 million in 2017 and then begin to decline slowly. This shift will be triggered by a decline in internal datacenter server rooms starting in 2016 and internal server closets starting in 2017.

All other datacenter categories will continue to grow throughout the forecast period, with the number of service provider datacenters increasing much faster. Despite a decline in the number of datacenters, total worldwide datacenter space will continue to increase, growing from 1.58 billion square feet in 2013 to 1.94 billion square feet in 2018.

The datacenter and server rooms/closets are no longer just the places where organizations house their...

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Nov 17
North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific head to $8 billion...

ABI Research's latest data forecasts North American activity will drive the overall in-building wireless market while Europe and Asia-Pacific pick up the pace by 2016. The market for in-building wireless equipment and deployments will nearly double the current outlook by 2019.

North America will continue to be the region with maximum DAS spend with sports venues, transportation and healthcare continuing to be the verticals which attract the most DAS investment while shopping malls and hospitality will rank a close second place, according to ABI Research. Together these verticals in North America account for about two-thirds of DAS spending. North America is followed by Asia-Pacific and then Europe for market size.

"While the Asia-Pacific region today accounts for less than a quarter of the total market, ABI Research expects it to exceed that by 2019 at a compound annual growth rate of more than 20%," says Nick Marshall, Research Director at ABI Research. "The activity...

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Nov 14
ABI Research: robot OS evolving to foundational...

New data from ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) analyzes how ROS—open source software libraries, tools, and a run-time environment—reduces the complexity of robotics software engineering, increases the speed of development and deployment, as well as improves the robustness and maintainability of the resulting systems.

The report describes the components of the ROS framework, characterizes the adoption rate of ROS and the current state of ROS Industrial—ROS-based solutions for industrial robotics technology—and provides examples of commercial systems currently employing ROS and estimates for future growth. The current limitations of ROS, and how they are being addressed, including in future versions of ROS and new ROS initiatives, is also analyzed.

"The complexity, difficulty, and glacial pace of robotics software development has stifled robotics innovation and slowed the rate of commercialization...

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Nov 13
Strategy Analytics: 25% of households have Wi-Fi

Over 450 million households worldwide currently have Wi-Fi networks set up in 2014, a 5% increase from 2013 according to Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com)

"Contrary to common perception, not all consumers have embraced Wi-Fi networks in their homes despite the fact that global connected devices per household stand at 5.5 in 2014 – Wi-Fi router adoption in fixed-line broadband households still has much room to grow globally," says analyst Eric Smith. "As Wi-Fi technologies continue to advance, prices fall, and the technology becomes more familiar to the average consumer, nearly 80% of fixed-line broadband households will have established Wi-Fi networks by 2018."

Jason Blackwell, director of Service Provider Strategies at Strategy Analytics, adds: "Broadband penetration in developed markets is reaching saturation point and emerging markets face infrastructure costs in expanding...

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Nov 12
ABI Research: there's a low appetite for WAN...

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) forecasts that Bluetooth Low Energy will dominate wearable connectivity by 2015 with a 33% share of the market, as consumers struggle to justify the added tariff cost and remain happy to rely on their smartphone as the central hub.

While the wearable use case remains nascent and unproven to the average consumer, price, battery life and component size constraints affect the viability of wearable devices having a wide area network connection.

"Wearables are not about the consumption of content, because of the small size of the screens found on most devices within this category. Wearables are about the quantified self, more than likely, communicated via Bluetooth to a smartphone to view the results and then possibly from there to a cloud-based service for aggregation and further analysis," says Nick Spencer, senior practice director, Mobile Devices at ABI Research....

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Nov 11
Study: 62% of consumers are unfamiliar with smart home...

According to a new report from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) approximately two-thirds of U.S. broadband households are unfamiliar with smart home products or services. Further, few consumers know what smart home devices and services are, who sells them, or where to buy them.

Parks Associates with the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) analyzed the results of a Q2 2014 survey of 10,000 U.S. broadband households. The results include recommendations for the connected home industry, analysis of consumer demand for smart home products, and strategies to raise awareness of smart home devices and their sales channels.

"Today, smart home service providers control almost every aspect of their offerings while consumers make only one choice - the service provider," says Tricia Parks, CEO and Founder, Parks Associates. "Deploying open solutions that give consumers a degree of control...

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Nov 10
Money ready for Mac OS X Yosemite

Jumsoft (http://www.jumsoft.com) has upgraded Money, its finance and budgeting application for Mac OS X, to version 4.6 features a number of interface and functionality improvements designed for full compatibility with OS X Yosemite.

Money provides small businesses and home users with a tool to track their finances. Version 4.6 includes various fixes of the CSV export functionality, improved data downloads from Bank of America, French localization improvements, and other minor fixes and refinements.

Money requires Mac OS X 10.7 or higher. It costs US$38.99 and is available worldwide through the Mac App Store in the Finance category.

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Nov 10
Independent ad technology to reach $6 billion in 2014

The independent ad technology market is explosive, showing 52% annual growth from 2011 through 2014, with nearly a US$6 billion expected market size in 2014. In addition to revenue growth, the pace of acquisition has been frantic, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Acquisitions from publishers reduces the independence of providers, although they continue to have public platforms. Some of the major recent publisher-acquisitions have included Facebook (LiveRail), Twitter (MoPub), Yahoo (Flurry), AOL (Adap.tv) and Comcast (FreeWheel), with strong focus on bringing ad technology in-house.

In addition, consolidation among independents, such as Ooyala’s just announced acquisition of Videoplaza continues to change the landscape. Adobe and Criteo lead this space, with 17% and 15% market share, respectively. Adobe’s advertising business was built from the Omniture acquisition, with additional...

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Nov 07
U.S. retailers anticipate 4.1% increase in total...

After a tumultuous first half of the year and unremarkable back-to-school results, U.S. retailers have emerged with an optimistic outlook for the upcoming holiday season. According to a recent BDO USA survey (http://bdo.com), chief marketing officers (CMOs) at leading U.S. retailers forecast a solid 4.1%increase in overall holiday store sales.

This year’s projection falls directly in line with the National Retail Federation’s 4.1% expected increase in holiday sales, and is a full percentage point higher than actual retail sales gains in the 2013 season. Overall, a majority (65%) of retailers believe sales will increase this year, with only 12% expecting a sales decrease. The increased optimism in growth likely points to ongoing improvements in the broader economy: housing markets are recovering, the employment picture is slowly rebounding and consumer confidence is rising, though still volatile.

Amidst ongoing hype...

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Nov 06
Residential smart light bulb market to approach a...

The market for connected LED or “smart” light bulbs is in its embryonic stage of development, with shipments totaling fewer than 2.5 million units in 2013.

However, falling LED prices and the endorsement of ZigBee Light Link as the preferred connectivity solution by a number of leading lighting manufacturers means that annual smart bulb shipments are set to increase to 223 million by 2020, achieving a total installed base of over 400 million, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

"Because of the additional dimensions smart lighting brings to the consumer lifestyle, including lighting automation, and because of its carbon footprint efficiency, this industry will rapidly become one of the key technologies that could bring IoE closer to consumers," Malik Saadi, practice director at the research company. "Because of the additional dimensions smart lighting brings to the consumer lifestyle,...

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Nov 05
IDC: public IT cloud spending with reach $127 billion...

Public IT cloud services spending will reach US$56.6 billion in 2014 and grow to more than $127 billion in 2018, according to a new forecast from International Data Corporation (www.idc.com), which is about six times the rate of growth for the overall IT market. In 2018, public IT cloud services will account for more than half of worldwide software, server, and storage spending growth.

Among the factors driving public IT cloud services growth is the adoption of "cloud first" strategies by both IT vendors expanding their offerings and IT buyers implementing new solutions. More importantly, IDC believes the cloud services market is now entering an "innovation stage" that will produce an explosion of new solutions and value creation on top of the cloud.

Many of these new solutions will be in industry-focused platforms with their own innovation communities, which will reshape not only how companies operate their IT,...

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Nov 04
Video delivery requires new codecs, improved network...

Standards committees and industry consortiums are working through a number of video standards to support UltraHD video as well as the next-generation of mobile video services, such as HEVC and DASH packaging, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). 

However, some pain points remain unaddressed by the majority of vendors going in predictable directions; meanwhile, a few trailblazers are working on disruptive innovations, says the research group. Areas such as the inability of TCP delivery to keep up with high throughput demands, the lack of perceptual tools in modern codecs, as well as the inefficiency of storage within CDNs all pose significant additional challenges within the ecosystem.  A number of innovative companies, from startups to more mature businesses, are addressing these issues: bitmovin, beamr, Akamai, Aspera (part of IBM), Vantrix, and Conviva.

"Of the areas we examined,...

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Nov 03
Revenues for aftermarket accessories to hit US$51...

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) says that mobile phone accessories in the aftermarket will generate revenues of US$51.1 billion by the end of 2014.

Protective carry cases continue to generate the highest revenues and shipment numbers (US$13 billion and 556,855,035 respectively) with additional chargers and memory cards among the other major contributing product categories.

"Consumers are seeking additional protection for their smartphones, with most modern devices coming with larger screens and therefore more susceptibility to damage if dropped or carried in a pocket unprotected," says Thomas McCourtie, research analyst at ABI Research. Some protective cases also offer compartments to store debit and credit cards, and with an increasing number of consumers opting to pay for goods and services via contactless payment systems, there is more of an incentive to carry all essential items (phone and...

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Oct 30
U.S. broadband households watch 17.4 hours of non-...

New research from the Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) research group shows the average U.S. broadband household now watches more than 17 hours of non-linear video per week, compared to 11.5 hours of linear video.

"Non-linear video accounts for 49% of the video consumed on the TV, and it is already the majority, 60%, of TV video viewed by consumers 18-24," said Barbara Kraus, director of research, Parks Associates. "Growing consumer demand, alongside new OTT service announcements from HBO and CBS, is driving all players in the video ecosystem to add streaming capabilities to their devices."

Parks Associates research shows consumers are also using connected CE for purposes outside video. Nearly 40% of U.S. broadband households that use the smart TV as their primary connected device regularly access and spend at least one hour per week using Facebook on this device.

"We are at...

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Oct 29
64% of U.S. broadband households have Internet-...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) says that 64% of U.S. broadband households have an Internet-connected CE (consumer electronic) device and 55% have an OTT [over-the-top] service subscription. This is an area poised for strong growth following HBO's announcement that it will launch a stand-alone HBO Go service, notes the research group.

"The HBO OTT service announcement should not really be a surprise given the overall trends in the video service space," said Brett Sappington, director, research, Parks Associates. "HBO has been aggressive in the online space for some time, first testing a direct-to-consumer approach in Europe through HBO Nordic, its OTT video service offering. Competition in this space is set to increase massively as pay-TV providers, broadcasters, cable networks, and other content producers introduce new OTT services. In our research reports, we analyze the...

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Oct 28
Chromebook shipments increase by 67% quarter-over-...

Chromebook shipments increased by 67% QoQ [quarter-over-quarter] and are projected to double in size YoY [year-over-year], according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Acer continues to maintain its lead over other vendors in the market, including Samsung, HP, and Dell. The top three leading vendors – Acer, Samsung, and HP – accounted for 74% shipment share during the first half of 2014 and are forecasted to maintain market control through the second half of the year, according to quarterly data from the research group.

"Consumers are hungry for a product that is cost effective but also provides the versatility and functionality of a laptop," says ABI Research Analyst Stephanie Van Vactor. "The growth of the Chromebook market demonstrates a niche that is gaining traction among consumers."

The questionable need of Chromebooks by consumers contributed to the slow start of these devices;...

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Oct 27
ABI Research: wearable vendors are struggling with...

The dominance of touchscreen user interfaces will reduce over the next five years as more sensors are introduced to mainstream products and entirely new product form-factors emerge, enabling and necessitating new user interfaces like voice, gesture, eye-tracking, and neural, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com.

"Touch got mobile device usability to where it is today, but touch will become one of many interfaces for future devices as well as for new and future markets," says ABI Research Senior Practice Director Jeff Orr. "The really exciting opportunity arrives when multiple user interfaces are blended together for entirely new experiences."

Across 11 unique features from wireless connectivity to embedded sensors, ABI Research found that hand and facial gesture recognition will experience the greatest growth in future smartphone and tablet shipments with a compound annual growth rate of 30...

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Oct 24
Gartner: 40% of U.S. employees use personal devices...

Approximately 40% of U.S. consumers who work for large enterprises said they use their personally owned smartphone, desktop or laptop daily for some form of work purposes, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

The study, which was conducted in June 2014, surveyed more than 4,300 U.S. consumers about their technology usage and attitudes in order to gain a better picture of how devices are used for work and leisure. 

"The lines between work and play are becoming more and more blurred as employees choose to 'use their own device' for work purposes whether sanctioned by an employer or not," said Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner. "Devices that were once bought purely for personal use are increasingly being used for work and technology vendors and service providers need to respond to this." 

The survey studied the use of devices by consumers, whether as a...

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Oct 23
Entry-Level, Mid-Range Smartphones Boost On-Cell TFT...

More than 20 million on-cell TFT LCD touch panels shipped globally in 1H’14, after only 4.7 million were shipped in all of 2013, as the technology has been adopted in the expanding entry-level and mid-range smartphones market. By 2018, according to the latest NPD DisplaySearch (www.displaysearch.com) data, shipments of on-cell TFT LCD panels are expected to reach 129 million.

Embedded touch panels of all types, including in-cell and on-cell TFT LCDs, as well as on-cell AMOLED panels, accounted for 20% of all mobile phone displays in 2012, 29% in 2013, and an expected 32% in 2014.

"Overall the total embedded touch panel display market is expected to grow. However, individual manufacturer shipment shares still depend on Apple and Samsung, since they are the biggest customers for in-cell TFT LCDs and on-cell AMOLED panels," says Calvin Hsieh, research director at NPD DisplaySearch. Other brands...

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Oct 22
Slow movement of deals leads to 'de-growth'...

According to IDC's Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) "Quarterly Enterprise Storage Tracker, Q2 2014" India's external storage market saw a double digit year-on-year de-growth (in vendor revenue) and stood at US$54.4 million, the lowest market has reached since the second quarter of 2012 (Q2 2012).

However terabytes sold in Q2 2014  saw a double digit year-on-year growth due to decrease in dollar per gigabyte and is allowing the terabyte sold to grow irrespective of the revenue de-growth, says IDC. Q2 2014 witnessed a declining trend majorly due to slow movement of deals and vendor's focus on technologies like compression and de-duplication that is making the traditional storage  more efficient, notes the research group.

The market is expected to revive in the coming quarters due to the positive business sentiment, investment announcements from the government and rising demand from the SMB segment particularly. Growing volume of data is pushing organizations to revisit...

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Oct 21
Thin is in, 'fat' desktops are out in...

Insurance industry IT managers in the UK plan to put their desktops on "diets" over the next 24 months. Research by IGEL Technology (http://tinyurl.com/pfxatqh), shows that thin and zero client adoption will increase by 19%.

Flexibility, security and speed of deployment are the main advantages of deploying thin client devices, according to the managers. Of the insurance companies recently surveyed, 78% currently run a centralized IT infrastructure.  Eighty percent of these organizations have at least some thin or zero client desktops deployed.

While PCs still dominate the desktop landscape (they're at 42%), thin and zero client deployment has risen to 20%. Other players in the arena are notebooks—23% of users prefer these—and tablets with 19% of the user base. According to the managers running insurance industry IT departments, however, thin clients will rise to 39% of desktops within two...

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Oct 20
ABI Research: Internet of Things is cybersecurity...

Securing the Internet of Things (IoT) is going to be a considerable challenge in the next decade, not least because the security implications are more varied than for traditional IT settings, according to ABI Research (www.abirsearch.com).

New variables come into play, including safety considerations, consumer privacy, and data protection. Media coverage has hyped the advent of hacked toilets and spammer fridges, but the underlying trend is worrying because it highlights the fact that secure product development is not the norm for connected things.

The IoT is subject to numerous vulnerabilities at all of its core layers: perception, network, and application. The balance between cost and risk often means Things are less likely to employ more complex, resource-intensive security, such as access control and authentication.

"Some of these issues will be addressed at the gateway level or at the...

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Oct 17
Two-thirds of Amazon Instant Video subscribers also...

New data from the Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) research group says 37% of U.S. broadband households regularly use transactional services for OTT [over the top] video, such as online video rentals and downloads.

The vast majority of consumers making these a la carte purchases also have a streaming video subscription, emphasizing the potential role of transactional services to supplement subscription OTT. For example, approximately two-thirds of Amazon Instant Video subscribers also rent or purchase titles through the service, and their average expenditures are increasing. By contrast, expenditure on downloads among Netflix subscribers is decreasing.

"Subscription services are the most popular form of OTT video, but a transactional service that offers a wide selection of titles and easy-to-use controls can score with consumers and create new revenues," says Barbara Kraus,...

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Oct 16
By 2017 50% of all IoT solutions will originate with...

Makers and startups, not tech providers, consumer goods companies or enterprises, will drive acceptance, use and growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) through the creation of a multitude of niche applications, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). The research group predicts that, by 2017, 50% of IoT solutions (typically a product combined with a service) will originate in startups that are less than three years old.

Gartner defines "makers" as inventors, tinkerers and entrepreneurs who create and manufacture products using traditional tools and new digital design and rapid prototyping and manufacturing technologies. "Startups" are fledgling businesses that are often technology-focused and have the potential for high growth.

"Conventional wisdom is that the growth of the Internet of Things is driven by large enterprises. As is always the case, there is an element of truth in conventional wisdom and...

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Oct 15
Battery/charging solutions will be needed for 8...

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) says that the installed base of mobile devices (smartphones, basic mobile phones, wearables, tablets, and notebooks) will reach 8 billion by 2019, providing a huge installed base for rechargeable batteries and charging solutions.

“Mobile device hardware, software, and usage have developed at an incredible rate in recent years, from network speeds, to screen resolution and size, to processing power," says Nick Spencer, senior practice director with the research group. "End user’s reliance on their smartphones also grows and grows, with mobile data usage experiencing exponential growth. One crucial part of the overall solution, battery life and charging technology, has been a laggard to date. Short battery life remains the biggest irritation to smartphone users and is a clear opportunity for handset vendors and carriers to improve the user experience by adopting new, longer-...

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Oct 14
802.11ac Wi-Fi CPE shipments to capture 18% of the 176...

The worldwide Wi-Fi customer premises equipment (CPE) market is expected to grow 11% in 2014, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). The research group says total shipments of Wi-Fi access points, routers, and residential gateways are set to surpass 176 million units by the end of 2014.

"Growth is expected in all regions, driven by increased broadband penetration and more connected devices in homes," says Jake Saunders, vice president and practice director, ABI Research.

Since its WLAN market inception in 2013, shipments of the 802.11ac standard have accelerated. In the consumer Wi-Fi equipment market, D-Link and NETGEAR lead 802.11ac access point shipments.

"The combined shipments of the two companies represented more than 20% of worldwide 802.11ac shipments in 1Q 2014. ABI Research expects that nearly 32 million 802.11ac access points will be shipped in 2014," adds Khin Sandi Lynn...

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Oct 10
Connected gaming console owners frequently access non-...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows 46% of U.S. broadband households have a game console connected to the Internet and over one-quarter (28%) use the connected gaming console as their primary connected CE device. Among these primary console users, roughly three-quarters use the gaming console to access non-gaming content online at least weekly, and nearly 40% access such content for more than 10 hours per week.

"Gaming consoles are the most frequently used connected CE device because of their high adoption rates-of the broadband households that have only one connected CE device, nearly 60% have a game console," says Barbara Kraus, director of research at the research group."As the non-gaming capabilities of consoles have expanded, so too has the potential for consoles to become an entertainment platform for online content such as video, music, and apps."

Two-thirds...

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Oct 09
Survey: mobile device security is sacrificed for...

While mobile devices are an integral part of the workplace, the cyber security practices and budgets in most organizations are not keeping pace with the growing number of devices that must be managed and kept secure. According to a new survey issued by Raytheon Company (http://www.raytheon.com), 52% of organizations and employees frequently sacrifice security practices to realize the efficiency benefits of mobile connectivity.

The report was conducted by information security industry company, Ponemon Institute. The comprehensive report is based on 618 respondents who implement enterprise security, manage mobile technologies and platforms, and set mobile strategy. Fifty-seven percent of respondents identified themselves as senior executives/managers.

According to the research, on average one-third of employees use mobile devices exclusively to do their work and this is expected to increase...

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Oct 08
Consumer expectations increase with each smart home...

Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) says the importance of interoperability for consumers increases with each smart home device purchased. Currently 13% of U.S. broadband households own at least one smart home device, and 60% of those who have purchased three devices feel it is very important for the devices to work together as part of a system, says the research group.

"Smart home products are entering the market through a variety of channels, often separate from any system, but regardless consumers expect interoperability among devices," says Tom Kerber, director, Home Systems and Energy, Parks Associates. "Multiple players, including device manufacturers and service providers, have a stake in the connected home, but their objectives are not always aligned. This webcast examines the technology and business challenges in this ecosystem and analyzes the solutions necessary to deliver a...

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Oct 07
IDC: PC monitor market sees growth in touch screen...

Worldwide PC monitor shipments totaled 32.5 million units in the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14), a year-over-year decline of -2.9%, according to IDC (www.idc.com). The research group expects worldwide shipments to continue on their current trajectory, slipping to 107 million units for the full year 2018.

"Despite the overall decline, there was a strong quarter-over-quarter growth rate of 11% in the United States and a slight increase in PC Monitor shipments in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan). In addition, the shipment totals were stronger than forecast by 4%," says Keerthi Maganti, research analyst, Worldwide PC Monitor Trackers at IDC.

The research group says:

° LED product technology adoption continues to increase with a new high of 93% market share in 2Q14. This represents a year-over-year increase of 10.5%.

° Screen size of 21.x-inches wide has held the largest worldwide share for the last seven...

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Oct 06
Gartner: 73% of organizations to invest in big data in...

Investment in big data technologies continues to expand, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc.(www.gartner.com), which found that 73% of respondents have invested or plan to invest in big data in the next 24 months, up from 64% in 2013.

The survey also indicates organizations are starting to get off the fence about their big data investment — the number of organizations stating they had no plans for big data investment fell from 31% in 2013 to 24% in 2014.  The Gartner survey of 302 Gartner Research Circle members worldwide, which was conducted in June 2014, was designed to explore organizations' technology investment plans relating to big data, stages of big data adoption, business problems solved, data, technology and challenges and compare the results with those from previous years. 

"Big data investment continues to be led by North America, with 47% of organizations reporting investment, up...

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Oct 03
Most senior, influential B2B buyers use online social...

A recently completed Social Buying Study from the IDC (www.idc.com) research group concludes that 75% of the business-to-business (B2B) buyers studied and 84% of C-level/vice president executives use social media to support purchase decisions.

According to the findings of this global study, B2B buyers most active in using social media to support the buying process were more senior and had 84% bigger budgets, made 61% more purchase decisions, and had influence over a greater span of purchase decisions than those buyers who did not use social media to support their purchase process. The study indicates that social media increases decision-making confidence by providing more efficient access to an executive's professional network.

In the final stage of the purchasing process, when stakes are highest, online professional networks are the number 1 information resource preference of buyers. IDC believes that social...

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Oct 02
U.S. Federal Cloud forecast shows sustained growth...

The IDC (www.idc.com) research group has evaluated how the U.S. Federal Government is spending part of its IT budget on cloud-based solutions. According to the new forecast, cloud spending now represents about 5% of all IT spending by the federal government. IDC Government Insights expects that the growth will continue into FY2015 (fiscal year 2015).

For five years, both the U.S. Federal CIO Council and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) have been pushing government agencies to move some types of IT systems to the cloud, particularly new systems, stored data, and mobile solutions. The ongoing level of spending on cloud solutions indicates that this effort is finally having a significant long-term effect. Total cloud spending is going up and the nature of cloud spending itself is changing.

Key highlights from the IDC forecast include:

° Federal cloud spending for FY2014 will come in higher that...

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Oct 01
The Northern Spy: iOS 8, ShellShock and much more

By Rick Sutcliffe

iOS8 was introduced at WWDC with much hoopla but actually arrived with some problems, and has needed two updates since, the current one being 8.0.2. Also many users find it is too large to install without deleting a great deal of material from their iPuds. Hint: Use iTunes for the update. Given the usual spit and polish Apple puts into new releases, this whole episode seems odd, even a little Microsoftish--as if something has slipped there. Heads may roll.

ShellShock

As if that weren't bad enough, the world learned this week that good old reliable, well-hammered-upon UNIX in many flavours, including BSD (beneath OS X) and Linux has been harbouring a flaw in the Bash Shell most people use that would allow arbitrary code to be executed under some circumstances. It appears that some form of access would be needed to do this, but many systems are potentially vulnerable, including Macs not behind a firewall or...

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Oct 01
Government ID, payment, SIM apps account for 87% of...

Smart card shipments totaled eight billion units in 2013, with government ID, SIM, and payment and banking applications accounting for 87% of all shipments, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Of these three market verticals, Gemalto, Oberthur Technologies, G&D, and Morpho led the way with a combined 2013 market share of 66%. It is expected that these three applications will spurn market growth and account for 89% of all smart card shipments in 2019. The expectations and drivers for each of the three vertical markets are as follows:

° Government ID: Shipment volumes are expected to increase over twofold between 2013 and 2019. Opportunities in the continued migration to e-passports will be further boosted by the introduction of the SAC specification alongside migration to second generation credentials by those countries that wish to utilize and integrate contactless functionality...

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Sep 30
Gartner: over 20% of enterprises will deploy digital...

By year-end 2017, over 20% of enterprises will have digital security services devoted to protecting business initiatives using devices and services in the Internet of Things, according to Gartner (www.gartner.com)/ Business cases using Internet of Things (IoT) devices already exist and their role in business and industry will force enterprises to secure them, according to the research group.

"The power of an Internet of Things device to change the state of environments and of itselfwill cause chief information security officers (CISOs) to redefine the scope of their security efforts beyond present responsibilities," says Earl Perkins, research vice president at Gartner. "IoT security needs will be driven by specific business use cases that are resistant to categorization, compelling CISOs to prioritize initial implementations of IoT scenarios by tactical risk. The requirements for securing the IoT will be complex,...

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Sep 29
Mobile data sharing plans gaining popularity, but come...

Mobile data sharing plans gaining popularity, but come at a higher cost
The aggressive deployment of LTE networks has encouraged higher data consumption, providing an opportunity for mobile operators to focus on introducing mobile plans with a higher data quota. According to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) data, countries that have a monthly data quota in the range of 8 to 10 GB have increased from 21% in 1Q 2014 to 83% of the total in 2Q 2014.

Facing a downward trend in ARPU [average return per user], mobile operators are in search of solutions to boost their income. The introduction of multi-tier, multi-device shared plans allow mobile operators to target different customer segments more effectively, and in some cases, increase the price.

"This shift in monthly data quota provides an opportunity for mobile operators to actually revise their pricing strategy," says Lian Jye Su, research...

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Sep 26
Mobile audio streaming up more than 35%

Triton Digital (http://tritondigital.com), a technology provider for the audio industry, has unveiled its monthly "Ranker for July 2014," revealing the month’s 20 top streaming audio providers, as well as insights into listening trends. Overall listening continued to rise steadily in July 2014, increasing by more than 20% compared to July 2013.

Streaming audio on mobile devices was the big story this month, with listening increasing by more that 35% compared to the same period last year.

"The July Ranker gives strong support to a mobile listening trend that we expect to continue and even accelerate moving forward," says Rob Favre, CCO/GM Measurement & Analytics at Triton Digital. "As mobile devices proliferate and expand to include wearables such as the Apple Watch, streaming audio will play an important role in consumers’ experiences on those devices."

Key findings of the July 2014...

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Sep 25
Workstation market breaks out with record-setting...

In light of a lackluster recent history coupled with rampant negativity associated with any PC-related market as of late, analyst firm Jon Peddie Research (JPR) is calling Q2'14 for the workstation market just that: a breakout quarter.

Completing its survey and analysis of market results for the second quarter, JPR (http://www.jonpeddie.com) reports the workstation industry achieved record levels for both unit volume and revenue. Worldwide, the industry shipped approximately 1.05 million workstations in the second quarter, corresponding to growth of 10.8% sequentially and 11.5% year-over-year (YoY).

The welcome jump in volume shook the market loose from its recent doldrums. While results from previous quarters had clearly shown the workstation market was on a different, healthier trajectory than the related market for mainstream client PCs, the basic truth is the market had been drifting sideways...

| Read more »
Sep 23
Storage software market sees continued strong demand

The worldwide storage software market increased 6.3% year over year during the second calendar quarter of 2014 (2Q14), according to IDC (www.idc.com). Revenue during the quarter totaled nearly US$3.8 billion, says the research group.

EMC, IBM, and Symantec were the top ranking storage software suppliers with market shares of 25.9%, 16.0%, and 13.3%, respectively. Data Protection & Recovery software sales were up 10.2% year over year to $1.45 billion in sales. Sales of Storage Infrastructure Software were up 10.8% year over year to $448 million. And Storage & Device Management Software sales were up 4.1% year over year to $708 million.

"The storage software market experienced broad growth across most functional markets in the second quarter," says Eric Sheppard, research director, Storage Software at IDC. "Sales of data protection and recovery software accounted for almost 60% of the net-new spending during...

| Read more »
Sep 22
Enterprise drives femtocell market to $4.32 billion

The femtocell market will see a steady growth as revenues reach $4.2 billion in 2019 owing to a rise in enterprise unit shipments, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Top vendors focusing on the enterprise market are Alcatel-Lucent, Airvana, and Cisco. Interestingly, while enterprise shipments are on the rise, residential shipments are slowing down. ABI Research predicts slow steady growth at best for residential products for the foreseeable future.

With femtocell deployments mainly focusing on coverage, 3G units dominated shipments. However, with global roll-outs of LTE there is a growing demand for multi-mode products, especially in advanced markets such as the United States which is characterized by a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 130% in the next 5 years.

Wi-Fi integration continues to advance with major vendors supplying integrated solutions; either built-in or add-...

| Read more »
Sep 19
Worldwide external disk storage system revenue falls...

Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues fell -1.4% year over year to nearly $5.9 billion during the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14), according to the IDC research group (www.idc.com).

For the quarter, the total (internal plus external) disk storage systems market generated almost $7.8 billion in revenue. The modest 0.3% year-over-year increase was driven by strong internal storage sales within Asia/Pacific and emerging markets. Total disk storage systems capacity shipped was 11.5 exabytes. Growth of new capacity consumption improved during the quarter, but the 23.9% year-over-year growth was still relatively low by historic comparisons.
 
"High-end storage sales fell for the fourth consecutive quarter in 2Q14," says Eric Sheppard, research director, IDC. "The high-end decline was not as striking as last quarter but it was coupled with a drop in midrange sales, suggesting weak demand is spreading...

| Read more »
Sep 18
Indoor location market accelerating into the mainstream

The indoor location market is now accelerating into the mainstream, with new contracts and deployments announced on an almost daily basis, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). The arrival of iBeacons has caught the imagination, but the reality is there are many more location technologies available, all of which have unique benefits.

"Many companies have focused on one technology or vertical, but it’s clear that both the opportunity and competition is much greater," says Patrick Connolly, ABI Research senior analyst. "The industry needs to consider the whole ecosystem and which technologies are best suited to each application and vertical."
For the first time, the industry can now see the full playing field, with a number of key trends already emerging:

° BLE beacons will take indoor location into a wide variety of verticals; this is not just for retail.

° Handset-based...

| Read more »
Sep 17
Global facial recognition market to reach US$2.19...

According to a new market research report from Transparency Market Research (www.transparencymarketresearch.com/), the global market for facial recognition will reach US$2.19 billion by 2019.

The market is driven by increased demand for surveillance systems by civil and government agencies, according to the research group. This is majorly due to rising number of crimes and terrorist activities across the globe that would elevate the demand for efficient facial recognition solutions/systems in the near future.

In addition, acceptance of facial recognition in the entertainment industry coupled with extensive use of facial recognition in consumer electronics is expected to fuel the demand for facial recognition technology in future. The report provides in-depth analysis of the market by segmenting it on the basis of parameters such as technology type and end-use...

| Read more »
Sep 16
Worldwide WLAN market grows in the second quarter of...

The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments grew 9.2% year over year in the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14).

According to IDC (www.idc.com), the enterprise segment continued to grow at a steady rate and increased 7.7% over the same period last year. While the pace of the enterprise WLAN market growth has been steadily decreasing over the last several quarters, the market continues to be one of the faster growing networking market segments, according to the research group.

The transition from the 802.11n standard to the newer and faster 802.11ac standard is progressing rapidly and above expectations in the enterprise segment. After just four quarters of product availability, the 802.11ac standard already accounts for 19% of dependent access point shipments and 30% of dependent access point revenues, a noticeably faster adoption rate than what the market experienced...

| Read more »
 

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