New research says that today’s kids spend 5 to 7 hours each day in front of a screen, whether it is watching television, playing video games, or surfing the web. Over the holidays, screen time only increases as kids have long, cold days ahead of them and parents become desperate for ways to keep them occupied.
 
“Screen time in this country has become a huge problem,” says Karl Volkman, tech expert and CTO of SRV Network. “Even traditional holidays activities have become overwhelmed by screen use—kids watch videos in the car while traveling to see Grandma, or they play with the iPad during Christmas recitals, or they play video games instead of baking cookies and wrapping gifts and getting in the Christmas spirit.”
 
Not only is this bad for their health and their brain development, it can also come with risks from online predators (1 in 7 kids will be solicited by predators online). Here, Karl Volkman outlines his "Holiday Screen Time Rules" to help kids...

Mobile-based proximity payments are gaining prominence in the U.S. Although mobile payments are still small compared to well-established payment methods such as payment cards, they reached a new milestone with the launch of Apple Pay, Alipay, Android Pay, and Samsung Pay, according to a new report from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com)

Increasing consumer awareness of mobile payment solutions and rising penetration of contactless terminals are likely to drive further growth in mobile-based proximity payments, adds the research group. The U.S. is the second-largest e-commerce market in the world, with a total of $742 billion spent by consumers online in 2017.

Debit and credit cards remain the preferred method of payment for e-commerce purchases, and accounted for 24.5% of total e-commerce transaction value in 2017. In addition to payment cards, emerging payment methods...

The holiday shopping report from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows millennials will lead the smart home and CE purchasing the holiday season, with 46% reporting high intentions to buy at least one device and 36% planning to give one as a gift.

The Internet of Things (IoT) research firm, which surveyed U.S. broadband households on their purchase intentions for this holiday season, found one-third of U.S. broadband households report a high intention to purchase a CE or smart home device this holiday season.

"Consumer marketing strategies and technology evangelism by Amazon and Google have created attention for smart home and connected CE devices, creating an opportunity for a big jump in these products this holiday season," said Elizabeth Parks, SVP, Parks Associates. "Fourteen percent of U.S. broadband households intend to purchase a smart video doorbell, potentially driving...

According to a study by Scalar Decisions (www.scalar.ca), an information technology solutions provider, almost three quarters of Canadian organizations have migrated at least some of their IT delivery to the cloud. That's up from 59% in 2016.

Scalar's second annual Cloud Study shows Canadian organizations have moved past security concerns as a barrier to adoption, and are now focused on maximizing the return on their investment in cloud delivery. According to the study, highly publicized security breaches haven’t caused organizations to avoid adopting cloud-based delivery. While 35% of companies saw security as a factor in determining how much to use the cloud, 90% of respondents overcame those concerns to move forward with some level of cloud integration.

"The cloud has become not just a standard IT delivery model, but THE standard IT delivery model," says Rene Heroux, chief technology officer, Scalar...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that smart speakers such as Amazon Echo, Google Home, and the Sonos One will be installed in over 70 million US households by 2022, reaching 55% of all homes. Total installed devices will exceed 175 million.

Juniper forecasts that voice assistant devices across all platforms - smartphones, tablets, PCs, speakers, connected TVs, cars and wearables, will reach 870 million devices in the US by 2022, an increase of 95% over the 450 million estimated for 2017. The research group found that the ability to pass information between device platforms will become critical for digital assistants in future, due to many users engaging multiple assistants.

However, despite rising numbers of smart home assistants, Juniper forecasts that most voice assistant usage will be on smartphones, with over five billion in use globally by 2022....

Adtaxi (www.adtaxi.com), a digital marketing agencies, has released the results of its inaugural “State of Ecommerce” in America survey, an in-depth look at ecommerce trends and consumer preferences nationwide. From small inexpensive household items to mega, high-priced purchases such as automobiles, the scope and willingness of consumers to make purchases online has proven to be powerfully pervasive.

The survey reveals just how often consumers are making purchases online, what they are purchasing and the method in which they are purchasing them. Highlights of the survey:

° A majority of consumers (55%) would be happy to purchase everything online.

° Convenience was the number one reason (50%) people shop online.

° Seventy-two percent of consumers purchase something online at least once a month.

° A third of consumers (32%) would purchase a car online.

° Three out of five (59%)...

The worldwide public cloud services market grew 28.6% year over year in the first half of 2017 (1H17) with revenues totaling $63.2 billion, according to new results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) research group.

"Public cloud adoption is accelerating in large part as enterprises recognize that the cloud has become the launchpad for virtually every new IT innovation in the last 24 months – including AI, blockchain, quantum computing and more. Organizations not on the public cloud will be increasingly isolated from the world of tech innovation," said Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC (www.idc.com).

While stronger than expected growth was seen across all regions, Asia/Pacific saw the highest regional growth at 38.9% and Asia/Pacific now represents 11.5% of all public cloud services revenues. A big part of this was driven by strong public cloud spending in China, which saw 55.6%...

Software developers are involved at all levels of the software purchase process, with 43% often involved with evaluating software and 50% sometimes involved. Only 7% are never involved according to the recently released Evans Data Global Development Survey, a survey of developers worldwide conducted in six languages this fall.

Just over 50% spend between one and four hours evaluating software, not including time spent on downloading, installing and configuring the software - a task that takes between five and 30 minutes for 70% of the developers in the survey. Developers in the EMEA region spend the least time on their evaluations, with 29% spending less than an hour, while North Americans spend the most time.

"Developers are crucial to software use throughout an organization," said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data, "They are looked up to as experts and often find themselves evaluating software for line of business units as well as their own tools and platforms."

The global indoor location market size is expected to grow from $7.11 billion in 2017 to $40.99 billion by 2022, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42% during the forecast period, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

The growing trend of digitalization, increasing use of connected devices, and reliable assistance from governments for ensuring public safety are the major factors driving the growth of the indoor location market, while deployment and maintenance challenges are some of the major restraints for the growth of the indoor location market, adds the research group.

Among the technologies, the sensor and tag-based technology is a high-growth segment in the indoor location market. To monitor natural phenomena, such as heat, pressure, humidity, and air pollution, in a certain indoor space, multiple sensors are integrated with connected devices....

The global smart TV market is expected to reach $292.55 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research (www.grandviewresearch.com). The introduction of 4K resolution-equipped televisions, coupled with the shifting preference toward OLED and QLED displays, is expected to emerge as a major trend in the smart TV industry, adds the research group.

Streaming devices such as the Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Google Chromecast are changing the consumers' viewing experience, says Grand View Research. Several manufacturers are teaming up with OTT content and device providers to provide built-in features with no further requirement of a set-top box. For instance, TCL Corporation has teamed up with Roku and introduced a 4K HDR Roku TV. The China-based vendor is using the Roku platform for its television product line. Additionally, Hitachi, Ltd., Hisense Co. Ltd, and Sharp Corporation...

Higher education CIOs recognize that key organizational priorities are enrollment and student success, but fail to show innovation with regard to the top technologies required to differentiate themselves and win, according to a survey from Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Yet, a majority of respondents (59%) think there will be significant business model change due to digital transformation, adds the research group.

Gartner’s 2018 CIO Agenda Survey gathered data from 3,160 CIO respondents in 98 countries and across major industries, including 247 higher education CIOs.
Higher education CIOs ranked digital business/digital transformation as the fifth most strategic business priority. However, when it comes to the top technology areas these institutions are investing in to differentiate themselves, digitalization/digital marketing ranks only eighth amongst higher education respondents, compared to second across...

New consumer research from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates. om) shows 53% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to both a pay TV service and at least one OTT video service. OTT stands for “over-the-top,” the term used for the delivery of film and TV content via the internet, without requiring users to subscribe to a traditional cable or satellite pay-TV service like a Comcast or Time Warner Cable.

The research group reports more than 200 OTT video services are active in the U.S. market as of the third quarter of 2017, with more than 100 active in the Canadian market. The report notes that 60 players introduced OTT video services during 2016 and 2017, while only seven services closed during that same period.

"Many OTT services are evolving to be complementary to the market's largest players, instead of trying to compete directly against Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu," said Brett Sappington, senior...

According to the research group, one driver in the market is increase in the digitization of banking services. The increased use of smartphones and tablets has led to a digital reformation in the banking sector. The BFSI sector is one of the prominent users of portable devices (for digital payments and cashless financial transactions). With the growing transaction volumes and the introduction of new digital payment solutions, the banking sector is challenged with the need to keep the magnitude of fraudulent activities low, without compromising on the convenience of the customers, according to Research and Markets.

One trend in the market is NFC-based payments. Near-field communication (NFC) works if two devices are placed within a few centimeters to exchange data. It requires both devices to be equipped with an NFC chip. Apple is partnering with various financial institutions to introduce NFC-powered mobile payments. Before Apple launched NFC mobile payments, this technology...

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that digital advertising spend will grow by 18% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over the next five years, rising from $184 billion in 2017 to $420 billion in 2022. These figures include advertising spend across mobile, desktop, wearables and DOOH (digital-out-of-home) signage.

The research group predicts that the annual growth of online advertising spend will slow to only 4% globally by 2022, owing to the impact of ad blocking adoption across desktop devices and the increasing usage of mobile devices as the primary means for browsing. According to the research, ad platforms will seek a greater degree of control over the types of ads being blocked through increased involvement in “acceptable ad” initiatives.

Through these initiatives, platforms are beginning to shift focus to encouraging the use of adverts that aren’t...

Worldwide information and communications technology (ICT) spending is set to accelerate over the next five years, thanks to the growth of new technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and cognitive computing and artificial intelligence (AI).

While the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Black Book forecasts traditional ICT spending to lag GDP growth by 2020, total ICT spending including these new categories will return to growth rates double that of the global economy.

According to IDC (www.idc.com), total ICT spending on traditional IT, telecom services, and new technologies will grow from $4.3 trillion in 2016 to $5.6 trillion by 2021, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6% in constant currency terms. Annual growth will accelerate through the forecast period, from 5.5% in 2017 to 6.5% in 2021, as new technologies...

TripWire (www.tripwire.com), a provider of security and compliance solutions for enterprises and industrial organizations, has announced the results of a survey conducted by Dimensional Research that looked at the need for soft skills in cybersecurity. The survey was conducted in July, and its respondents included 315 IT security professionals at companies with over 100 employees.

According to Tripwire’s survey, 100% of respondents believe soft skills are important when hiring for their security teams. The three most important soft skills cited were analytical thinker (selected by 65%), good communicator (60%) and troubleshooter (59 %). Tied for fourth place, “strong integrity and ethical behaviour” and “ability to work under pressure” were selected by 58 percent of participants.

“The cybersecurity industry should not overlook the soft skills that are needed to build a strong security program,” said Tim...

IDC has published its first Marketscape assessment of the worldwide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market. The Marketscape is focused on global public cloud IaaS providers with mature public cloud IaaS services and revenue in multiple regions worldwide as of calendar year end 2016.

The growing acceptance and use of IaaS has transformed how users procure and manage compute and storage infrastructure, according to the research group. This transcends new as well as traditional enterprise applications, and enterprises are now looking at public cloud IaaS as a viable alternative to capital investments in infrastructure hardware. This has led to increased investments and greater competition among a number of public cloud IaaS providers and heightened strategic focus on their offerings.

IDC says that, today, IaaS is far from a commoditized offering. AWS's early entry and momentum – supported by its pace of feature expansion and innovation – have enabled it to remain in a...

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that annual cost savings derived from the adoption of chatbots in healthcare will reach $3.6 billion globally by 2022, up from an estimated $2.8 million in 2017. This growth will average 320% per annum, as AI (artificial intelligence) powered chatbots will drive improved customer experiences for patients.

Using chatbot systems, patients will be able to access care more quickly and easily, improving access to care and reducing pressure on overworked healthcare systems by ensuring more efficient interactions, according to the research group. Juniper found that, despite trials by, for example, the UK’s National Health Service, chatbot deployment will be dominated by Far East & China over the next five years. Over half of the annual savings realized by chatbots will be attributable to this region in 2022. Owing to the varied...

According to Parks Associates' Home Security NUMBERS research, more than 26 million U.S. broadband households will have professionally monitored security by 2021. The research also shows that total annual revenue for professionally monitored security in U.S. households will exceed $14 billion by 2020.

"The residential security industry is changing along many dimensions," Tom Kerber, director of IoT Strategy, said. "The addition of interactive services and home control products has expanded the market and changed the value chain and competitive landscape. Cable and telecom operators have entered the market with security services. New approaches to selling professional monitoring including self-installed solutions and on-demand monitoring services, and service providers are working to expand the market by connecting smart products to monitoring services.”

Security is the strongest driver for smart home adoption. Among U.S. smart home device owners, 37% made this...

Amazon Go and other ‘invisible payment’ technologies, aimed at reducing or removing physical checkouts from the retail experience, will process over $78 billion in transactions by 2022, up from an expected $9.8 billion this year, a new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found.

These deployments, in single figures today, will reach over 5,000 retail outlets over the next five years as retailers seek to make consumer experiences frictionless and more engaging, the research group adds. Meanwhile, the number of consumers using checkout apps, which allows them to scan their own shopping, will grow from just under 4 million to over 30 million in the same period.

Juniper Research found that the cost and complexity of infrastructure integration will constrain deployments of invisible payments systems in the short term. It argues that initially, the majority of revenues from new...

According to International Data Corp., vendor revenue from sales of infrastructure products (server, storage, and Ethernet switch) for cloud IT, including public and private cloud, grew 25.8% year over year in the second quarter of 2017 (2Q17), reaching $12.3 billion.

Public cloud infrastructure revenue grew 34.1% year-over-year and now represents 33.5% of total worldwide IT infrastructure spending at $8.7 billion, up from a 27.0% share one year ago, according to IDC. Private cloud revenue reached $3.7 billion for an annual increase of 9.9%. Total worldwide cloud IT infrastructure revenue has almost tripled in the last four years, while the traditional (non-cloud) IT infrastructure revenue continues to decline and is down 3.8% from a year ago, although it still represents 52.4% of the worldwide share of overall IT revenue at $13.6 billion for the quarter.

Public cloud now represents 70.2% of the total cloud IT infrastructure revenue, according to IDC. The market with...

According to a report by Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com), revenues from the global digital games market are estimated to reach the $100 billion milestone by the end of this year.

The report indicates that contrary to previous estimates, the PC market has been reignited thanks to F2P (Free to Play) games. F2P allows gamers to access the game for free. Revenues are then made by purchases within the game, which is known as the freemium model; popularized by mobile games, in order to grow the number of players and accelerate spending. Combined with the continued growth of mobile, Juniper projects that the industry will reach revenues of $132 billion by 2021.

The outlook for the gaming industry is positive, according to the research group Developers are integrating in-game advertising, which is most effective when users are rewarded. For example, watching a short video to provide...

More than half of U.S. businesses (53%) have experienced a cyber attack in the past year, according to a survey of business executives released today by The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (HSB), part of Munich Re.

Of those businesses hacked in the previous 12 months, 72% spent over $5,000 to investigate each cyber-attack, restore or replace software and hardware, and deal with other consequences, the nationwide study conducted by Zogby Analytics for HSB showed.

“In addition to the rising number of cyber attacks and related costs, businesses are increasingly anxious about protecting their data” said Timothy Zeilman, vice president for HSB, a leading provider of cyber insurance. “Data is what drives a business and the loss or corruption of information can be devastating.”
More than a third of the hacked businesses (38) percent spent more than $50,000 to respond: 10% spent $100,000 to $250,000, and 7% more than $250,000. Seven in 10...

IDC (www.idc.com) is forecasting the combined augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headset market to reach 13.7 million units in 2017, growing to 81.2 million units by 2021 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56.1%.

According to the research group, VR headsets will account for more than 90% of the market until 2019 while AR will account for the rest. In the final two years of forecast (2020—2021) IDC expects AR headsets to experience exponential growth as they capture a quarter of the market by the end of the forecast.

"AR headset shipments today are a fraction of where we expect them to be in the next five years, both in terms of volume and functionality," said Jitesh Ubrani senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. "AR headsets are also on track to account for over $30 billion in revenue by 2021, almost twice that of VR, as most of the AR headsets will carry much higher average...