The growth of 802.11ac and 802.11ad will occur in very different ways. 802.11ac will explode into devices, including smartphones, from the start while 802.11ad will see a more modest and staggered growth, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

802.11ac is being pushed into smartphones by key carriers’ device requirements that are in sync with 802.11ac hotspot plans for more robust Wi-Fi offloading.

"The push towards 11ac adoption overpowers the minor additional cost of dual-band 802.11n/802.11ac chipsets that will be used in smartphones," says research director Philip Solis. "Perhaps surprising even to industry insiders, we will likely see 2X2 802.11ac implementations in smartphones in a few years."

The proportion of various 802.11ac-enabled products will remain relatively consistent from 2013 to 2018, with smartphones making up 40% of those in 2013 and 46% in 2018, where over 3.5...

According to new data from the IDC research group (www.idc.com) global shipments of smart connected devices (PCs, tablets, and smartphones) are expected to surpass 1.7 billion units by 2014 with roughly one billion units delivered to emerging markets.

Within the emerging markets, the BRIC countries -- China, India, Brazil, and Russia -- are expected to generate shipments of 662 million units with a shipment value of more than US$206 billion. More than 650 million units are forecast to be shipped to developed markets, with the United States, UK, and Japan capturing more than 400 million units with a shipment value of $204 billion.

With the BRIC countries expected to surpass the total shipments to developed markets by 2014, it is clear that demand for smart connected devices is quickly shifting from developed to emerging markets. The emerging markets are expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17...

Just over 950 million mobile phone users worldwide are expected to use their handsets for mobile ticketing by 2018, up from 458 million this year, according to a new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com).

Growth is expected to be driven primarily within key transport verticals, although latterly significant uptake is anticipated across sectors such as live entertainment events and cinema ticketing. Juniper Research notes that the airline industry was a particularly strong proponent of mobile ticketing, with adoption of mobile boarding passes rising sharply since the worldwide implementation of BCBPs (Barcoded Boarding Passes) in 2010.

What's more, the research group observed that while mobile has for some years been a key ticketing delivery channel across Scandinavian metros, deployments were increasing both elsewhere in Europe and in the US and were achieving strong levels...

The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments experienced year-over-year growth of 12.5% in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13), per IDC (www.idc.com).

The enterprise segment continued to grow at a healthy rate of 19.3% over the same period last year, says the research group. The first quarter of 2013 was the thirteenth consecutive quarter with annual growth greater than 15%. The consumer WLAN market also started the year 2013 on a relative high note, growing 6.2% year over year.

"The explosion of mobile devices and the uptake of enterprise mobility applications continue to be top of mind for enterprise IT in terms of driving WLAN infrastructure growth across a wide range of enterprise verticals and use cases," says Rohit Mehra, vice president, Network Infrastructure, at IDC. "While this quarter saw some slowing of growth in Wi-Fi infrastructure rollouts for mobile...

The shift of video consumption to tablets and smartphones is causing operator requirements for video on demand (VOD) systems to change as vendors struggle to keep up with current generation needs, according to ABI Research.

Equipment and system vendors, such as Arris (including Motorola Home), SeaChange, Cisco, and Ericsson are expected to lose ground to cloud-oriented companies such as thePlatform, Synacor, and KIT Digital (expected to emerge from bankruptcy as Piksel), according to the research group (www.abiresearch.com). VOD vendors will see less than 30% growth over the next five years, while content management system (CMS) vendors will capture the market and see nearly 100% growth to seize half of the total VOD management markets.

Classic VOD back-office systems are built around delivery to the TV via a set-top box, leveraging a single video format, a managed network, a modest number of...

Global mobile data traffic expanded at 69% in 2012 and is anticipated to grow at 72% in 2013 to reach 23,000 Peta Bytes (PB), according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). By 2018 total mobile data traffic will likely eclipse 131,000PB, adds the research group.

"There has been much 'doom-mongering' about this growth in mobile data traffic but mobile carriers should not panic just yet. There are indications that mobile carriers have a number of options to handle the traffic loads," says Jake Saunders, vice president and practice director for core forecasting at ABI Research.

According to the research group:

° Carriers are commercializing LTE but there are additional benefits to be gained from quickly adopting the LTE-Advanced roadmap. LTE-A’s release 10 introduces enhanced Multi-In Multi-Out antenna technology as well as interference mitigation technologies such as CoMP and eICIC. A crucial...

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) research group (www.idc.com), factory revenue in the worldwide server market decreased 7.7% year over year to US$10.9 billion in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13).

This is the fifth time in the previous six quarters that the server market has experienced a year-over-year decline in worldwide revenue. Server unit shipments decreased 3.9% year over year in 1Q13 to 1.9 million units as consolidation continued to be a strategic focus for many large and small customers around the globe.

On a year-over-year basis, volume systems experienced a 3.1% revenue decline. This was only the third time in the previous fourteen quarters that volume system demand declined year over year. At the same time, demand for midrange and high-end systems experienced year-over-year revenue declines of 18.3% and 17.1% respectively in 1Q13. The midrange and high-end markets were impacted by...

NFC momentum continues to build despite the on-going delays affecting the launch of NFC payment services, according to new data from ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). The research group raised full year 2012 shipments of secure elements to 147 million with 125 million enabled handsets being shipped.

Growing inclusion of embedded solutions by OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] will account for the majority of secure elements in 2013 as MNOs seed the market with close to 100 million SWP SIM cards, says ABI Research. Expected NFC-enabled device shipments were increased, with 2013 forecasted to reach a minimum of 320 million units across all product categories -- an increase of 118% over last year. This will drive the market past the half billion NFC devices in use in 1H13.

"This is certainly encouraging after many years of 'will they, won’t they.'The market has now passed the tipping point and...

The use of ICTs within the electrical grid means an evolution from isolated structures into open and networked environments where the subversion of power control systems has become a reality. The restructuring of the power sector and the emergence of the smart grid has largely ignored the issue of cyber security, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Industrial control systems have poor methods of authentication, little encryption, and are not often capable of detecting intrusions, according to the research group. By failing to address cyber security, and focusing on the cost-savings and gained efficiencies of a market-oriented model, the susceptibility to cyber-attacks has grown. ABI Research estimates the spending on cyber security solutions to secure the infrastructure will total US$2.9 billion globally by the end of 2013.

"Cyber-attacks that can cause serious damage to electrical...

From the C-level on down, the buzz about mobile in retail has steadily increased ever since Apple began using mobile devices in their stores. The use of tablets (such as the iPad) is growing rapidly, with shipments increasing at a rate of 38% in 2013, according to "Mobile POS: Hype to Reality," a new study from research firm IHL Group.

According to the research findings, the Mobile POS market will surpass US$2 billion in hardware/software sales in North America in 2013, and 28% of North American retailers plan to adopt Mobile POS in some form by the end of 2013. An even greater number (33%), however, do not plan to adopt Mobile POS at all within the next three years. The adoption rate is very dependent on the type of retailer and volume of transactions.

"Mobile POS continues to receive a lot of hype, and some specific announcements have received a lot of press," says Greg Buzek, president of IHL Group. "But the vast majority of retailers are taking a slow and...

ChangeWave's previous three monthly surveys picked up improvements in US consumer spending, and the research group's latest survey shows another uptick for May.

Importantly, the survey of 2,252 US consumers shows the best overall spending environment in the past year, along with a modest uptick in expectations and confidence. ChangeWave (www.http://changewaveresearch.com) is also seeing improvements for several categories, including travel/vacation, durable goods and consumer electronics.

Among retailers, Amazon is best positioned to outperform on the home entertainment front, while spending intentions for most other major retailers are holding steady this month, according to the research group.

The worldwide personal and entry-level storage (PELS) market grew 73.4% year over year with 20.2 million units shipped in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13), according to the IDC research group (www.idc.com).

Shipment value experienced growth of 54.1% year over year to $1.8 billion. This is the second consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in worldwide shipment value.

"The first quarter of 2013 brought strong shipment and revenue growth as well as continued recovery to the personal and entry-level storage market," says Liz Conner, senior research analyst, Storage Systems, IDC. "A year after the PELS market saw record declines due to the Thailand floods and resulting hard disk drive (HDD) shortage, the PELS market has recovered back to pre-flood levels. Continued end user data growth, increased awareness on the need for data storage/back-up, declining average selling prices, and evolving vendor product offerings...

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that by 2017, two billion mobile and tablet users will watch TV and video on their devices. This is attributed to the growing popularity of short and easily shared video clips, and the increased global uptake of connected devices with faster processors and better displays.
The report examines how mobile is increasingly being used as the primary screen for consuming TV and video content among younger demographics, and the seamless integration of streaming services with social networks. Sharing content via handsets or tablets has become an intuitive experience for many.

What's more, the success that many streaming providers such as Netflix, have achieved online has led them to offer truly multi-screen experiences via smartphones and tablets. This move has begun to affect the Pay-TV business, with the threat of consumers "...

ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) predicts subscribers of enterprise mobile content management (MCM) solutions will grow at double-digit rates to over 110 million by 2018. Smartphone subscribers of MCM will grow at a modest 12% YoY [year-over-year] whereas corporate-liable tablet subscribers will grow 21% over the next five years, according to the research group.

North America and Western Europe are the largest subscribing markets;.Asia Pacific will stay in the number three position throughout the forecast period but grow nearly twice as fast as the regional leaders.

"As the Bring-Your-Own-Device phenomenon becomes more widely accepted within enterprises, more corporate content is being placed in the cloud using consumer-grade storage solutions. As such, more corporate content is susceptible to leakage and theft, placing a higher need on mobile content security and protection," says Jason McNicol,...

LTE-capable networks will continue to mushroom around the globe through 2018. In particular, frequency-division duplex (FDD) networks will see their population coverage expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33% between 2012 and 2018 to hit 57%, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Time-division duplex (TDD) networks will gain ground at a more rapid rate of 43% during this period but will only reach 52% population coverage due to fewer licensed markets currently, according to the research group. This overall picture is consistent with the contracts awarded to vendors thus far this year. Slightly more than half of the contracts concluded are related to LTE-FDD.

"However, LTE-TDD will start to close the gap," says Ying Kang Tan, research associate at ABI Research. "Dual-mode device chipsets supporting both variants as well as converged FDD/TDD network solutions are already...

Organizations across the globe are searching for ways to capture the power of “Big Data” to unlock workforce insights. Unfortunately, many organizations get lost in the fog of big data analysis. The latest release of Mercer Analytics (www.mercer.com) addresses this challenge by leveraging the power of Long Data to unlock insights into an organization’s most valuable asset: its talent.

Long Data, a term coined by mathematician and network scientist Samuel Arbesman, is described as "data sets that have massive historical sweep." In terms of workforce analytics, Big Data provides deep analysis typically focused on a point in time, while Long Data provides insights from stories that have unfolded over time. Thoughtful analysis of Long Data therefore allows organizations to identify, segment and analyze data as part of an ongoing process to drive meaningful results, according to Mercer Analytics. It can also mitigate the...

For the ninth year in a row, CEOs rate Texas as the #1 state in which to do business, according to Chief Executive Magazine's annual Best & Worst States Survey.

Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Indiana also made the top five. The states rated worst for business are California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and New Jersey.

The Best & Worst States Survey measures the sentiments of CEOs on a range of issues, including regulations, tax policies, workforce quality, educational resources, quality of living and infrastructure. For the 2013 survey, 736 CEOs from across the country evaluated the states between Jan. 16 and Feb. 14, 2013. Ohio was the biggest gainer in this year's survey, rising 13 spots from #35 to #22. \

CEOs say California's poor ranking is the result of a perceived hostility to business, high state taxes and onerous regulations, all of which drive investment, companies and jobs to other states. According to the California...

Worldwide service revenue, year-on-year (YoY) for 4Q-2012 grew 2.8% to US$240.5 billion, according to new data from ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Western Europe and Africa’s mobile operator actually demonstrated a contraction in service revenue YoY of 8.2% and 6.9%, respectively, according to the research group. Middle East, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific are still showing reasonably robust rates of growth of 7% to 11%. Eastern Europe and North America, however, are only barely keeping their service revenue growth in positive territory.

"As the underlying lift from accumulating subscribers has matured, carriers are starting to cast around for additional revenue streams that don’t just boost revenues but also profitability," says Jake Saunders, vice president for core forecasting at ABI Research. "There is still tremendous income to be generated from mobile services; the Top 10 Mobile Carriers...

Forty-seven percent of home entertainment devices (Internet-capable TVs, Blu-ray disc players, video game consoles, and streaming media devices) are currently connected and being used for their online capabilities. But the degree to which these devices are used online varies significantly, according to global information company, The NPD Group (www.npd.com).

Internet capable TVs and Blu-ray disc players are the least likely to actually be connected to the Internet and used for their online features, while streaming media players and video game consoles are connected and used the most.

"While there are more Blu-ray disc players installed and connected to the Internet than streaming media players such as Apple TV and Roku, we expect that to change in the next year," says John Buffone, director, devices, NPD Connected Intelligence. "Streaming media players will exceed the number of installed and Internet connected Blu...

Global macroeconomic developments and technological advances, personal computers, and memory markets are expected to drive demand for the global semiconductor market at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 4.3% over hte next five years and reach an estimated US$394 billion in 2017, according to new data from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

The global semiconductor industry is a fragmented market. The Asia Pacific (APAC) region dominates this market and represents approximately three-fourths of the global market. Some of the major players include Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics, Taiwan Semiconductor, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba Corporation. The combination of factors such as continuing transfer of worldwide electronic equipment production to China and the above-average semiconductor content of that equipment influences market dynamics tremendously, says Research...

This summer, a number of new domain names will likely start appearing on the Web. Generic names such as .apple, .home, .app, .vegas or .music could join such stalwarts as .com, .net and .org.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a non-profit organization charged with administering the system, has been considering the expansion for several years. University of Houston Law Center professor Jacqueline D. Lipton recently spoke on the topic at the Second Annual International Intellectual Property Law Scholar’s Roundtable at the University of San Diego. Lipton sees the new system as a significant test in the development of innovative systems for global governance of commerce and free speech.

"The new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) process is unique in legal and political terms in several respects," she said. "It is the first time ever that words and phrases have been auctioned off to those with the financial wherewithal to pay large sums for...

By Rick Sutcliffe

A sudden spate of email from last October last week should have been a clue that not all was well with the Spy's own company virtual server, where he has most of his mail accounts and the billing system for Arjay Web Services (WebNameHost and WebNameSource). Unfortunately, he failed to investigate until the following day, after customers complained about receiving bills they had already paid, even having their accounts suspended (all they on his big dedicated production server).

A few minutes examining the server revealed it had been rolled back to October 19, 2012. Relying on the actual date and the old database, his WHMCS billing system had dispatched a flock (or is that a gaggle or a murder) of overdue notices (including two customers no longer with the company) and suspended all the accounts it deemed in arrears. Following a herd of trouble tickets, his own ticket to the Atjeu data centre yielded a "yes, we had an outage and...

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the total value of the global real-time mobile location-based advertising and marketing (LBA) market will grow from US$526 million in 2012 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 65% to $6.5 billion in 2017.

This will then correspond to 32.8% of all mobile advertising and marketing. This means that location-based advertising and marketing will represent around 5% of digital advertising, or more than 1% of the total global ad spend for all media.

SMS, mobile search and coupons are today important high-volume LBA formats. The ability to precisely target prospective customers using real-time location is currently one of the most promising additions to the advertising toolbox. Key drivers for LBA include the growing adoption of both outdoor and indoor location technologies, as well as the increasing consumer acceptance of location-based services in general, says Rickard Andersson, telecom analyst...

New data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) shows that smartphones and tablets are expanding their role in video second-screen experiences, with 22% of U.S. broadband consumers checking or updating their social network on a smartphone or tablet while watching TV.

The research group reports instances of mobile activities while watching TV increases significantly among Millennials, where consumers 18-34 are 70% more likely than other age groups to look up TV listings via a mobile device.

"The mobile device is the implied peripheral in the second-screen concept, but increasingly it is the first screen consumers look at during a video-viewing experience," says Brett Sappington, director, research, Parks Associates. "The growth of OTT (over-the-top) services, pay-TV initiatives such as TV Everywhere, and increases in mobile apps have all contributed to this shift. Eighteen percent of...