PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
We roundup the latest news from IT analysts and firms to see which tech categories have been doing well, which haven’t, and what’s forecast to be big next year.
According to IDC, the total security appliance market showed positive growth in both vendor revenue and unit shipments for the third quarter of 2015.
Worldwide vendor revenues increased 9.6 per cent year over year to $2.7 billion, and shipments grew 9.7 per cent year over year to a total of 585,282 units.
IDC has also revealed that it believes worldwide spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) will grow at a 17 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from $698.6 billion in 2015 to nearly $1.3 trillion in 2019.
Juniper Research has forecast that over one in 10 American households will own a consumer robot by the end of the decade. At this early stage in the market, shipments are expected to be dominated by so-called ‘task’ oriented robots assigned to take over household chores, such as lawn mowing or vacuum cleaning.
Juniper has also announced that operator-billed mobile roaming revenues are expected to experience a marked decline in 2017 as new EU regulations come into force.
The annual revenues – worth an estimated $52 billion in 2017 – will fall by seven per cent globally, but by 28 per cent in Europe with operators obliged to phase out any premiums currently for international calls, text and data while roaming within the EU.
On the topic of mobile devices, Gartner has predicted that by 2018, 50 per cent of consumers in mature markets will use smartphones or wearables for mobile payments.
"Innovation in apps, mobile devices and mobile services are impacting traditional business models, particularly in the way people use personal technology for productivity and pleasure," said Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner.
In the new report, IDTechEx research forecasts that shipment of quantum dots will increase significantly in the next ten years.
Quantum dots are nanocrystals of semiconductor. What makes them so attractive is that their optical properties can be tailored for various applications. Inside a TV, they help deliver colours that are more faithful to the original image.
Quantum dots were initially designed to replace the fluorescent tags often used in life science. However, they never became mainstream in life science, due in part to the fact that they were very expensive. Today, quantum dots are used in research labs to develop advanced sample imaging.
