How 50 Billion Connected Devices Could Transform Brand Marketing & Everyday Life - ReadWrite How 50 Billion Connected Devices Could Transform Brand Marketing & Everyday Life Posted on marshall kirkpatrick Contributing Writer Web-connected devices, not just mobile phones and 3G tablets but everything from home electronics to consumer packaged goods instrumented to transmit data to the Web, have become a part of every major speech here at the wireless industry’s giant conference in Orlando, CTIA . “All devices that can benefit from connectivity will be connected,” Hans Vestberg, CEO of Ericsson, said in a keynote, predicting that the world’s nearly 5 billion mobile phone subscribers today will be surpassed by 50 billion connected non-phone devices in 10 years. Some people think that may be a conservative estimate of the possible impact of what’s called The Internet of Things . Chetan Sharma is one of the most respected analysts in the wireless industry; his original research is cited everywhere from the world’s biggest business and technical publications to the CTIA leadership’s opening adress at this, the wireless industry’s leading conference. I sat down with Sharma today and listened to him describe what he thinks a future of ubiquitious connectivity will look like.

We write about the Internet of Things frequently here, but Sharma’s vision of how it will unfold (especially in the marketing world) is one of the most compelling articulations I’ve seen yet. It’s a rich vision of the future – and it’s quite simple at the same time. Chetan Sharma was educated as an electrical and biological engineer, then worked in early mobile startups, did consulting in wireless R&D strategy and has now had a private mobile analyst practice for 10 years. I admire his work a lot, follow him closely on Twitter and was very honored to get to talk to him. “There are so many things we don’t do or don’t think about because we don’t think of our objects as network connected and it takes too much energy to make them connected,” Sharma says, “but if the embedded connectivity is there in a plug-and-play way…then you go beyond 3 screens and look at controlling everything inside a house, outside a house, controlling your surrroundings.” Disrupting Industries & Everyday Life Smart Utility Grids or Smart Homes are the most familiar vision of this kind of connectivity. They may have hit mainstream consciousness before they were really ready to hit the market, but vision and reality are coming together quickly now.

“A few years back I was working with a company that makes blinds, the idea was to control blinds with a cell phone,” Sharma says. “For a home it doesn’t make that much sense, but if you think about buildings, the touch of a button can be huge energy savings. “I think education is just dying for innovation. Kids can interact with more than just books and reading about history, imagine transforming that where you are using augmented reality instead of just reading. Learning about planets, instead of just looking in a book, imagine the solar system around you where you can touch and feel the planets. “Information about energy use in a house, where energy might be leaking, that’s interesting. All these things can be done now but it takes too much energy to figure them out. If we can get all that info coming at you and just think about how to process it, it’s a no brainer. “This work is already underway in healthcare, automotive and other industries. V2V, or vehicle to vehicle communication, is in the works – cars communicating between eachother to say you are too close to me, stay away.

The roads could communicate with the cars and say ‘it’s too congested, take a different route.’ “This is where it needs to go and will go in 10 years, making everyday experiences much better and friction free. If a person has a desire to learn or shop or engage in social interaction… you’ll be able to do these things on a wall anywhere. It’s about reducing friction.” “This is where it needs to go and will go in 10 years, making everyday experiences much better and friction free. If a person has a desire to learn or shop or engage in social interaction, it’s right there. Beyond just doing things on televisions and cell phones, you’ll be able to do these things on a wall anywhere. It’s about reducing friction. You can accomplish any given task today with 50 different steps but this future of connected devices is all about making things much easier.” How Realistic is This Vision? That sounds awfully futuristic, doesn’t it? The proccess of instrumentation, turning something quantifiably trackable, requires deployment of a new interface for every object that would become networked. “All these sensors that will need to be deployed? That’s tenable,” says Sharma, calmly.

“If you’re talking about 50 billion connected devices, that’s seven sensors per human being. We probably already have seven sensors with us right now. Imagine a house having 50 or 100 sensors, using different technologies obviously, cellular is just one part of it. “It sounds trivial but the fact of connectedness, interconnectedness and high bandwidth availability, I think that’s transformative in nature. TV experiences are familiar, but if we can connect TV and tablets and mobiles, that creates new ways of experiencing and sharing.” Marketing Will Drive Adoption Gadgets and gee-gaws sound like fun for some, but how will there ever be enough demand to make this real? Isn’t this ubiquitous computing stuff just for super-nerds from the 1980s and 1990s? Mobile broadband and super-low cost sensors could enable brands to interact directly with consumers, for marketing and order fullfilment, from the objects themselves, through the web, with the retail middleman (and obfuscation) cut out. “Mobile internet has been around since ’98 but broadband wasn’t,” Chetan Sharma explains.

“The experience was lowsy, but with LTE coming, and latency low, that has a multiplier effect on usage. The fact is that connectedness is going to be there across multiple types of objects. “It’s not just electronics, it’s cereal boxes, all kinds of objects will have intelligence and the ability to communicate. Connectivity is a significant multiplier. P&G ships 40 trillion some objects per year, imagine them all connected.” What do you do with a connected cereal box? “With a cereal box? You’ll communicate about health related issues, add social elements, easy ordering. A brand can build a direct relationship with the consumer without relying on retail stores. Look at the aftermarket, 30% of the diapers ordered are now ordered online. There’s no reason why that can’t happen on other objects. I think the chance for the brand to interact with consumers directly is huge. “Brands have been losing direct relationships with consumers over the year, they want to get back in the game. When you have that many devices in the market of course every cent counts, but there are a number of things in development in the market working on dropping those costs.” Is this environmentally tenable, I asked?

Are there enough minable minerals to pull this off? “When you say 50 billion devices, a lot of people think of tablets and smart phones,” Sharma said. “It’s true that’s going to be a constraint and new thinking may be required. If you look at companies like Kovio, NFC, printed electronics. Over the next five or 10 years new forms of electronics will come into play. If there is a need and a big enough market, humans are good at figuring things out.” Is Cisco's Forecast of 50 Billion Internet-Connected Things by 2020 Too Conservative? Source: Cisco Fifty billion sounds like a big number, but one could argue Cisco's forecast is pretty conservative. Of their estimated 1.8 trillion total things in 2020, 50 billion would be a mere 2.7% of the total. Yes, it's an increase from 2012's 0.6%—but a fairly modest increase as these things go. Cisco is a big company, and it pays to be careful. Maybe we can go out on a limb where Cisco can't. The firm bases its projected annualized growth rate primarily on the decreasing price to connect.

But there are other drivers too—the declining price and increasing power of embedded chips, for example. Or rapidly improving "big data" software that makes all that new information useful, and therefore more highly demanded. In a world of exponential technology, things can move faster than our linear brains can fathom. If the number of connected things grew at twice Cisco's predicted annualized rate, we'd have 223 billion connected things, or 12% of the total, by 2020. At a little less than quadruple Cisco's forecast, we'd be talking 1.5 trillion connected things, or 82% of the total, by the end of the decade. Is Cisco undercutting annualized growth by a factor of four? Hard to say for sure. But it might not be out of the realm of possibility. How many cell phones were connected to the internet seven years ago? And how many are now? Whatever the ultimate pace is, Cisco is right about one thing. The world is moving toward greater interconnectivity and smarter things, and the pace is accelerating.

9 Bold Predictions for the Digital World of 2020 9 Bold Predictions for the Digital World of 2020 3.1k 9 Bold Predictions for the Digital World of 2020 1. Virtual Avatars "By 2020 retail virtual avatars – on screens and in holographic projection – will start to become popular. Their A.I. will be powered by realtime analysis of affinity data for product recommendations and neural network enhanced sales closing strategies. Similarly, service desks in hotels, shops, banks and other retail destinations will disappear. They will be replaced by nomadic staff equipped with in-ear devices that provide them real-time insights into your preferences, based on your NFC emissions." Image courtesy of Scott Wilcoxson 2. Intelligence in Anything "The models I develop explore what it will feel like to be a human in the year 2020. We use these models to then go and build the technology needed to bring this vision about. I’m part designer, part engineer – so I’m really pragmatic. The models I build are based on a mix of social and computer science, statistical data and my constant travels around the world talking to people about the future.

The folks in my lab say that I’m futurehunting. One thing I’m super excited about also gives the deep geeks I know goosebumps. As we approach 2020 the size of computing moves to zero. If you look at the size of computational power of the past few decades it’s been getting smaller and smaller, from mainframe computers in the '70s, to desktops in the '80s, up through smartphones and tables. The size of the meaningful computational power keeps getting smaller and smaller. So, as we approach 2020 the size of the intelligent gets closer to zero in size, nearly invisible. This means we can put intelligence in anything. We no longer have to ask ourselves can we get this device to work, can we make this smartphone smaller; in 2020 we can ask ourselves what we want to do. We can put computational power in anything. Everything can become a computer that’s as smart as your smartphone or tablet. That’s awesome! That means that as we get to 2020, we will be living in an environment where we are surrounded by computational intelligence. In 2020 it’s up to us what we want to do.

How do we want to make the lives of people all over the world better by infusing our lives with intelligence?" Image courtesy of Steve R 3. The Cloud to Become the Norm "My prediction is that the term 'cloud' will have disappeared from the phrase 'cloud computing' by 2020, because the majority of computing will simply assumed to be done in the cloud. As a result of this transition, the market capitalization of major networking firms will be slashed to less than one-third of their 2012 levels, and 50% of all of today's IT vendors will be out of business by the decade's end." Image courtesy of Florian Rieder 4. Connecting the Cloud With the Crowd "By 2020 everything will have moved into the cloud: content, media, health records, education. Connecting the cloud with the crowd will become a huge business. Related to this, access will replace ownership in almost all forms of media. Future media 'consumers' will simply have music, films, TV shows, games, etc.

in the cloud, paid 'with attention,' i.e., advertising and data mining (Facebook cloud), subscription (Apple new iTV), and bundles (i.e., with mobile operators). Most importantly, many consumers will not pay for 'content' per se, but for all the added values around the content, such as curation, packaging, design, social connections, interfaces, apps, etc. Finally, all media that is not social and mobile will shrink; all that combines with their current models will prosper." Image courtesy of Kerstin Kollmann 5. Virtual Hospitals Thanks to Bio-Connectivity "By 2020, if not before, most industries – health care, agriculture, financial – will have found that they have been transformed by the velocity of Moore's law. Mobility, wireless, pervasive connectivity – everywhere we look, we see that the big trend for the next eight years is that technology will drive the pace of innovation in every single industry. Credit cards will be replaced by smartphone transactions systems; auto insurance will be forever changed through GPS-based monitoring devices that reward good driving performance; hospitals will become virtual through the extension of bio-connectivity, involving remote medical monitoring and management.

The big trend is that as tech comes to change industries, change in those industries will occur faster than ever before. The winners will have been those who understand this reality, and adjust their innovation engine to keep up with this new speed of change." Image courtesy of Friendly Joe 6. Ultra-Intelligent Electronic Agents "By 2020, 'ultra-intelligent electronic agents' will be our primary interface with both people and devices connected to the online world. Think of it as a mobile concierge that looks human, but is actually an avatar with a personality. It will have a supercomputer brain in the cloud, and will be available to you on any connected device, with the ability to learn more about how to help you as you use it. Image courtesy of oerendhard 7. New Image and Video Analysis Algorithms and Tools "By 2020 predicting the future will be commonplace for the average person – futurists could be out of a job. We are amassing unprecedented amounts of data – a zettabyte alone this year. This data is social and public (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc.).

Billions of devices (25-50 billion by 2020) will contribute exponentially to this avalanche of data. By some estimates, 90% of all the content is rich media (video, photos). Facebook is home to [roughly] 140 billion photos (4% of all pictures ever taken by people*). By 2015, Cisco Visual Networking Index predicts 1 million video minutes will traverse the Internet every second. Vast amounts of knowledge is sequestered within this rich media. New image and video analysis algorithms and tools will unlock this rich source of data, creating unprecedented insight. Cloud based tools will allow anyone to mine this data and perform what-if analysis, even using it to predict the future. We are seeing the early signals of this now. For example, Twitter is already being used to predict financial markets , and social media can predict unemployment. " Image courtesy of Jeff Minarik 8. Improved Call Sound Quality "Quality voice service on wireless devices will become an option, if not standard. Improved handsets and the increased bandwidth afforded by 4G and 4G advanced will make this possible.

It may be a carrier-provided service, or an application riding on the Internet, or a combination of the two. Younger generations will hear something that theretofore only older generations remember: the sound of a pin dropping." Image courtesy of S58y 9. Digital Jewelry Finally, Dr. Ian Pearson gave us his brief prediction: "By 2020, many people will be unwilling to admit to still using a smartphone." We asked Dr Pearson what he thought they'd rather be using instead. His reply: "Digital jewelry and video visors." 50 Billion Connected Devices by 2020, How Many Robots?

- RobotShop Blog Subscribe to the feed Tag Cloud Aldebaran Robotics Animatronic Arduino Tutorials Arm Art Asimo AUV AUVSI Black Friday Boston Dynamics Christmas Cloud Robotics code Contest Cyborgs DARPA design Discounts Domestic Drone FlowBotics FlowBotics Studio Google Grand Tutorial Series Honda How To Humanoid iRobot Japan kits learning Lego Lego Mindstorms lesson Litter-Robot lynxmotion Make a Robot Mars Military Mindstorms Mint Motors Movie MultiWii MyRobots.com Nao NASA Neato NXT Pleo PR2 robot Robot Litter Robot Pet Care RobotShop RobotShop TV RobotShop Ultimate Challenge Robot Vacuums Roomba Roomba 400 series Roomba 500 series Roomba Discovery Sale Sensors Servo software Testimonial Toys Tutorial Underwater Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Vacuum Vex Vision Willow Garage XV-11 Contributors Brahim Daouas Electrical engineer, interested in robotics and automated systems. It's great to be able to put robotics at your service! Coleman Benson Senior robotic product specialist and passionate creator of all things robotic. Dragos Iosub CEO itbrainpower.net - "The Alphabet Project" Insane about electronics, software and DIY since I was a kid.

Eric Nantel I have been working for years in Industrial Automation and building the DiaLFonZo-Copter UAV/Drones name on my own, making the move to RobotShop seems like the next step. Now enjoying the fusion of my hobbies and day work all in one. Francisco Dominguez Product Manager at Tadel - Electrical and Electronic Engineer with dedication to automation systems. Robotics and learning as a hobby, always keen to learn and share. Gordon McComb Gordon is a bestselling author of more than 65 books and thousands of magazine articles. For 13 years, Gordon wrote a weekly syndicated newspaper column on computers, which reached several million readers worldwide. He's been called "The father of hobby robotics" by MAKE Magazine. Julie Gendron VP Consumer Robots Division - RobotShop Inc. Here to put robotics at your service and ensure exceptional customer experience. Mathieu Bélanger-Barrette Production engineer at Robotiq - I strive to constantly optimize the production line for Robotiq Grippers and am always looking for new manufacturing processes to make operators as efficient as possible. I also seek out new robotic applications and their effect on improving our world. Mathieu Thibault Passionate about personal and domestic robots.

There will be a robot in every home in the near future and it starts at RobotShop. How Many Internet Connections are in the World? Right. Now. How Many Internet Connections are in the World? Right. Now. Karen Tillman - July 29, 2013 - 22 Comments Right now, in 2013, 80 “things” per second are connecting to the internet. Next year that number will reach almost 100 per second, and by 2020, more than 250 things will connect each second. Add all of these numbers up, and we believe that more than 50 billion things will be connected to the internet by 2020. Today we’re launching the Cisco Internet of Everything (IoE) Connections Counter so that we can watch in real time as everything comes online. By the way, what are all of these “things”? Mobile devices, parking meters, thermostats, cardiac monitors, tires, roads, cars, supermarket shelves, and yes, even cattle . The list is endless, and it just keeps getting longer and more interesting. Literally, by the second.

Even more exciting is when all of these things are combined with people, process and data via the network to deliver transformational value to the world by improving the way we make decisions, saving us time and money, and so much more. That’s the Internet of Everything , and its value increases every time we connect the unconnected. So we’re paying close attention. The connections counter will help us keep track of exactly where we are in this journey, starting now and continuing through 2020. We encourage you to keep track as well. Cisco invites journalists, analysts and other interested parties to check out the IoE Connections Counter and to feature it in your own content. Let the countdown to 2020 and 50 billion connections begin! Our methodology: To estimate the number of connected objects during 2013-20 we first estimated the total number of ‘things’ in the world and then determined the proportion of connected things. For 2012, we had estimated the total number of ‘things’ in the world to be 1.5 trillion and the number of connected objects to be 8.7 billion, implying 0.6% penetration rate of connected objects.

We expect the number of things to reach 1.8 trillion in 2020, growing 3% annually. Subsequently, we have assumed that connectivity costs will decline by 25% annually during 2013-20. Conservatively, we assume the price-elasticity of demand to be ~1 and consequently expect annual growth in number of things to be 25% CAGR during 2013-20. Based on these assumptions, we estimate that the number of connected objects to reach ~50 billion in 2020 (or 2.7% of the total things in the world).

Tags: Gartner Says 6.4 Billion Connected "Things" Will Be in Use in 2016, Up 30 Percent From 2015 STAMFORD, Conn., November 10, 2015 View All Press Releases Gartner Says 6.4 Billion Connected "Things" Will Be in Use in 2016, Up 30 Percent From 2015 Analysts to Explore the Value and Impact of IoT on Business at Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015, November 8-12 in Barcelona, Spain Gartner, Inc. forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. In 2016, 5.5 million new things will get connected every day. Gartner estimates that the Internet of Things (IoT) will support total services spending of $235 billion in 2016, up 22 percent from 2015.

Services are dominated by the professional category (in which businesses contract with external providers in order to design, install and operate IoT systems), however connectivity services (through communications service providers) and consumer services will grow at a faster pace. "IoT services are the real driver of value in IoT, and increasing attention is being focused on new services by end-user organisations and vendors," said Jim Tully , vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. Enterprises to Bolster IoT Revenue "Aside from connected cars, consumer uses will continue to account for the greatest number of connected things, while enterprise will account for the largest spending," said Mr. Tully. Gartner estimates that 4 billion connected things will be in use in the consumer sector in 2016, and will reach 13.5 billion in 2020 (see Table 1). Table 1: Internet of Things Units Installed Base by Category (Millions of Units) Category 3,010 Source: Gartner (November 2015) In the enterprise, Gartner considers two classes of connected things. The first class consists of generic or cross-industry devices that are used in multiple industries, and vertical-specific devices that are found in particular industries.

Cross-industry devices include connected light bulbs, HVAC and building management systems that are mainly deployed for purposes of cost saving. The second class includes vertical-specific devices, such as specialised equipment used in hospital operating theatres, tracking devices in container ships, and many others. "Connected things for specialised use are currently the largest category, however, this is quickly changing with the increased use of generic devices. By 2020, cross-industry devices will dominate the number of connected things used in the enterprise," said Mr. Tully. About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the world's most important gathering of CIOs and senior IT executives. This event delivers independent and objective content with the authority and weight of the world's leading IT research and advisory organization, and provides access to the latest solutions from key technology providers. Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of attendees' annual planning efforts. IT executives rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use IT to address business challenges and improve operational efficiency. Additional information about Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2015 in Barcelona is available at .

Video replays of keynotes and sessions are available on Gartner Events on Demand at . Follow news, photos and video coming from Gartner Symposium/ITxpo on Gartner News at , on Twitter at and using #GartnerSYM, Facebook at and LinkedIn at . Contacts rob.vandermeulen@gartner.com About Gartner Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. The company delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the valuable partner to clients in approximately 10,000 distinct enterprises worldwide. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role.

Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, USA, and has almost 9,000 associates, including more than 1,800 research analysts and consultants, and clients in more than 90 countries. For more information, visit . Comments or opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual contributors only, and do not necessarily represent the views of Gartner, Inc. or its management. Readers may copy and redistribute blog postings on other blogs, or otherwise for private, non-commercial or journalistic purposes. This content may not be used for any other purposes in any other formats or media. The content on this blog is provided on an "as-is" basis. Gartner shall not be liable for any damages whatsoever arising out of the content or use of this blog.

STAMFORD, Conn., December 12, 2013 View All Press Releases Gartner Says the Internet of Things Installed Base Will Grow to 26 Billion Units By 2020 The Internet of Things (IoT), which excludes PCs, tablets and smartphones, will grow to 26 billion units installed in 2020 representing an almost 30-fold increase from 0.9 billion in 2009, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner said that IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services, in 2020. It will result in $1.9 trillion in global economic value-add through sales into diverse end markets. The Internet of Things is the network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment. "The growth in IoT will far exceed that of other connected devices. By 2020, the number of smartphones tablets and PCs in use will reach about 7.3 billion units," said Peter Middleton, research director at Gartner.

"In contrast, the IoT will have expanded at a much faster rate, resulting in a population of about 26 billion units at that time." Due to the low cost of adding IoT capability to consumer products, Gartner expects that "ghost" devices with unused connectivity will be common. This will be a combination of products that have the capability built in but require software to "activate" it and products with IoT functionality that customers do not actively leverage. In addition, enterprises will make extensive use of IoT technology, and there will be a wide range of products sold into various markets, such as advanced medical devices; factory automation sensors and applications in industrial robotics; sensor motes for increased agricultural yield; and automotive sensors and infrastructure integrity monitoring systems for diverse areas, such as road and railway transportation, water distribution and electrical transmission. "By 2020, component costs will have come down to the point that connectivity will become a standard feature, even for processors costing less than $1. This opens up the possibility of connecting just about anything, from the very simple to the very complex, to offer remote control, monitoring and sensing," said Mr. Middleton. "The fact is, that today, many categories of connected things in 2020 don't yet exist.

As product designers dream up ways to exploit the inherent connectivity that will be offered in intelligent products, we expect the variety of devices offered to explode." The IoT encompasses hardware (the things themselves), embedded software, communications services and information services associated with the things. Gartner refers to the companies that provide the hardware, software and services as IoT suppliers. The incremental IoT supplier revenue contribution from IoT in 2020 is estimated at $309 billion. Economic value-add (which represents the aggregate benefits that businesses derive through the sale and usage of IoT technology) is forecast to be $1.9 trillion across sectors in 2020. The verticals that are leading its adoption are manufacturing (15 percent), healthcare (15 percent) and insurance (11 percent). IoT value-add is composed of the combination of mature IoT, which is already yielding benefits, and a high-growth emerging IoT opportunity. It is derived from a combination of sector-specific technology (such as connected, automated manufacturing systems), and more generic, widely used technology, such as the suite of "smart building" technologies, including light-emitting diode (LED) lighting and smart HVAC systems. Emerging areas will witness rapid growth of connected things.

This will lead to improved safety, security and loss prevention in the insurance industry. IoT will also facilitate new business models, such as usage-based insurance calculated based on real-time driving data. The banking and securities industry will continue to innovate around mobile and micropayment technology using convenient point-of-sale (POS) terminals and will invest in improved physical security systems. IoT will also support a large range of health and fitness devices and services, combined with medical advances, leading to significant benefit to the healthcare sector. Emerging connected sensor technology will lead to value creation in utilities, transportation and agriculture. Most industries will also benefit from the generic technologies, in that their facilities will operate more efficiently through the use of smart building technology. More detailed analysis is available in the report "Forecast: The Internet of Things, Worldwide, 2013." The report is available on Gartner's website at . View Free Research: Information 2020 - Beyond Big Data Contacts rob.vandermeulen@gartner.com About Gartner Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day.

From CIOs and senior information technology (IT) leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to supply chain professionals, digital marketing professionals and technology investors, Gartner is the valuable partner to clients in more than 10,000 distinct enterprises. Gartner works with clients to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual roles. Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has almost 9,000 associates, including 1,900 research analysts and consultants, operating in more than 90 countries. For more information, visit . Comments or opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual contributors only, and do not necessarily represent the views of Gartner, Inc. or its management. Readers may copy and redistribute blog postings on other blogs, or otherwise for private, non-commercial or journalistic purposes. This content may not be used for any other purposes in any other formats or media. The content on this blog is provided on an "as-is" basis. Gartner shall not be liable for any damages whatsoever arising out of the content or use of this blog.

14 tech predictions for our world in 2020 | World Economic Forum 14 tech predictions for our world in 2020 Written by Fulvia Montresor, Director, World Economic Forum Tuesday 26 August 2014 Fulvia Montresor Director, World Economic Forum Published Share Latest Articles We asked our 2015 intake of Technology Pioneers for their views on how technology will change the world. From printable organs to the “internet of everywhere”, here are their predictions for our near-term future. The ‘humanized’ internet The evolution of modern connectivity is often summarized as: the internet – the world wide web – mobile devices – big data/the cloud – the internet of things. For the next stage, it seems inevitable that even more personalization will be an important component. What we refer to as the internet of things will be central. However, more than simply connecting humans with devices, the next stage in connectivity will include “humanized” interfaces that constantly evolve to understand the user’s patterns and needs and, in a sense, self-optimize. This would include the functions and features on our devices, as well as the selection/curation of information we receive.

It may not be the kind of artificial intelligence found in science fiction, but I expect this injection of personalization will bring monumental changes as our level of connectivity continues to grow. Sirgoo Lee, co-CEO of Kakao The end of the 19th-century grid One of the biggest changes we will see (or at least have made substantial progress towards) by 2020 is global electrification. In the US and Europe, most people take electricity for granted. But that is not the case in many parts of Latin America, Africa and Asia. More than 1.3 billion people still aren’t connected to the grid. More than 1.5 billion still don’t have regular access to electric light: they use oil lamps, which are a safety hazard. Even where the grid exists, it’s fragile: power blackouts are a major problem in many megacities. Power theft also plagues Brazil, India and South Africa. Safe, reliable power will have a transformative effect on these countries. Not only will there be near-term benefits such as greater productivity, but we will see long-term quantum leaps in educational achievement, healthcare and quality of life. These communities don’t have power now because our 19th-century grid is too expensive.

The advent of new technologies is changing both the business models and use-case scenarios to make it possible. In a few years, the world will finally, truly, be wired. Amit Narayan, CEO of AutoGrid The end of scarcity The world said humans were not meant to fly. Hundreds of years of human invention had been unable to make it work. But in a small bicycle-repair shop, two brothers with no government funding and only a basic education had a vision, and a will to invent. And in 1903, thanks to the determination of these two unsuspecting inventors, humans flew. The distance of the first human flight was 120 ft. Years later, one of the inventors of that breakthrough would marvel that the wingspan of modern airplanes was longer than the entire distance his first plane had flown. The potential of technology is limited only by our imagination, and our will. Abundance of water, food, clean air … peace: the end of scarcity in the supply of our basic needs is possible.

Perhaps not by 2020, but it starts with the dream, the determination to turn dreams into reality, and the understanding of this truth, so well embodied in the invention and rapid evolution of human flight: that all things are possible. Mark Herrema, CEO of Newlight Technologies Fewer fancy phones, more fulfilment The world many of us live in is changing at an exciting pace. Innovations are generating new gadgets, more convenient services and greater opportunities. But many of these changes target a small percentage of the globe’s population. In the villages I’ve worked in, nobody has seen an iPhone or can download an app. However, there is tremendous room for entrepreneurs to adapt innovations intended for the wealthy to serve the world’s poor. Solar panels and LED lights, designed for sale in rich nations, are stimulating growth in commercial off-grid electrification in India and Africa. Mobile telecommunication is being used to facilitate financial inclusion in developing countries across the world. Once-expensive medical procedures can be done amazingly cheaply. Even the financial sector is innovating in order to reach the world’s poor; as well as investors looking for opportunities that not only help them increase their net worth but also improve the world.

Better financing opportunities are opening up for social entrepreneurs who build businesses to serve the poor profitably. I see a slight but significant shift in innovation, that instead of producing fancier phones, we will create more fulfilling lives for people who have been mostly ignored to date. Nikhil Jaisinghani, co-founder, Mera Gao Power Cheaper, more widespread solar power By 2020, solar technologies could account for a significant portion of global power generation, helping economies and businesses guard against rising energy costs and the impact of climate change. However, finding opportunities to further reduce the cost of solar technologies will be key to unlocking this potential. Because polysilicon, the primary raw material used by solar module manufacturers, is the single largest cost in the solar supply chain, it represents the most significant opportunity for cost reduction. Over the next several years, new lower-cost methods of polysilicon production will commercialize, providing the solar industry with a more affordable source of raw material. In turn, these cost improvements will trickle down throughout the solar supply chain, accelerating the adoption of solar energy around the world and helping the industry realize its global potential.

Terry Jester, CEO of Silicor Internet of things no longer about things Just about every business will become an internet of things (IoT) business. The convergence of the digital and physical worlds makes this inevitable. When the products companies sell are connected 24/7/365, dynamic and ever-improving value can be delivered to customers throughout the product’s life cycle. This will become the norm. Therefore, launching a successful IoT business requires a fundamental shift, a transition from product-centric to service-centric business models. Companies looking to capitalize on IoT will become IoT service businesses. Operations dependent on one-time product sales will become obsolete as business value moves from products to the experiences they enable. This transformation will fundamentally change how businesses operate, interact with customers and make money. Those who recognize that the internet of things isn’t about things but about service will be positioned to meet these new customer demands, unlock new sources of revenue and thrive in this connected world.

Jahangir Mohammed, CEO of Jasper Technologies, Inc New cures from the bacteria that live in the human body In life sciences, we’ll have greater understanding of the dynamics of how our microbiome – the tiny organisms, including bacteria, that live in the human body – influences multiple systems in our body, including our immune systems, metabolic processes and other areas. This will result in seminal discoveries related to a variety of conditions, including autoimmune diseases, pre-term birth and how our metabolism is regulated. Regenerative medicine approaches to creating new tissues and organs from progenitor cells will expand significantly. Finally, the long-awaited ability to employ precision medicine, providing specific treatments to a specific patients, will become much more common. Mark Fischer-Colbrie, CEO of Labcyte Inc The beginning of the end for cancer The emergence of real-time diagnostics for complex diseases will mark the beginning of the end of their debilitating reign by 2020. The ability to monitor cancer, the dynamic immune system, intestinal flora and pre-diabetes in real-time will change the nature of medicine and usher in a new era of human health where wellness is protected versus illness treated. As a result, fundamental shifts in healthcare will occur, causing it to become largely preventative rather than fire-fighting.

It’s far more productive and economical to stop a fire from happening in the first place than to rebuild something after the fire has taken its course. Helmy Eltoukhy, CEO of Guardant Health Data-driven healthcare The amount of data available in the world is growing exponentially, and analyzing large data sets (so-called big data) is becoming key for market analysis and competition. Analytics will dramatically shift away from reporting and towards predictive and prescriptive practices, dramatically improving the ability of healthcare providers to help the ill and injured. Even more importantly, it will create the possibility for truly personalized healthcare by allowing providers to impact the biggest determinants of health, including behaviours, genetics and environmental factors. John L Haughom, MD, senior advisor, Health Catalyst Printable organs Today, we are already at a turning point in our ability to 3D “bioprint” organ tissues, a process that involves depositing a “bio-ink” made of cells precisely in layers, resulting in a functional living human tissue for use in the lab. These tissues should be better predictors of drug function than animal models in many cases. In the long-term, this has the potential to pave the way to “printing” human organs, such as kidneys, livers and hearts.

By 2020, our goal is to have the technology be broadly used by pharmaceutical companies, resulting in the identification of safer and better drug candidates and fewer failures in clinical trials. Keith Murphy, CEO of Organovo The ‘internet of everywhere’ We are on the verge of the “internet of everywhere”. It will be far more democratic: accessible to everyone, rich and poor. The excitement of the internet of things will be a small footnote in history as the internet of everywhere becomes our reality. Do you remember the old movie, Minority Report , with Tom Cruise? Ultra cheap, internet-enabled solar-powered screens that display in HDTV resolution will be on bus stops, in shopping centres, at tables in restaurants – all operating on a centralized advertising model. Gone are the days of the static acetate poster on the wall of a shopping mall. And finally, since these HD monitors have beacons, they will dynamically change content as your phone passes by, telling the monitor all your preferences. Yobie Benjamin, COO of Avegant Renewables will power mobile networks We have become dependent on mobile communications in our daily lives, but the dirty secret is that mobile networks around the globe are notoriously energy inefficient.

In fact, we are stuck with outdated mobile network technology that basically performs as poorly as incandescent lightbulbs, with the result that 70% of the energy used is wasted as heat. By 2020, we predict that pioneering innovations in radio engineering will have a positive impact on the world’s economy, environment and quality of life. We even foresee a time when advances allow renewable energy to power the mobile industry, helping bridge the digital divide and extend communications to the 1.7 billion people living off-grid. Mattias Astrom, CEO, Eta Devices Learning on the job will never stop The skills gap is actually an information gap. The problem is not that workers are unskilled; it’s that workers don’t know what skills employers need. Technology is already disrupting existing jobs, and creating new jobs that never existed before. In fact, the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not even exist in 2004. Change is happening so rapidly that 65 percent of today’s grade school kids in the U.S. will end up at jobs that haven’t even been invented yet. How will our education institutions keep up? Today, there is a disconnect between education providers and employers.

In the future, however, technology will enable education and training to respond dynamically to real-time labor market changes. With widespread access to training and courses online and available on-demand, workers can be informed of skill updates while they work, and will regularly top up their education with the skills they need to remain relevant in the workforce. Alexis Ringwald, Cofounder and CEO, LearnUp Wastewater is an asset, not a liability Water is one of our most precious resources, yet our infrastructure is failing. Driven by global population growth and rising water scarcity, the UN reports that 75 percent of the world’s available freshwater is already polluted. Under-investment in water management is exacerbating the problem, causing serious impacts on human health and the environment. A key challenge is the high capital cost, and high energy requirements, of current wastewater treatment and management systems. By 2020 I predict that a new class of distributed systems, powered by advances in our ability to use biotechnology to extract resources, such as energy, from waste, and the dropping cost of industrial automation, will begin to change our approach to managing water globally.

Rather than a liability, wastewater will be viewed as an environmental resource, providing energy and clean water to communities and industry, and ushering in a truly sustainable and economical approach to managing our water resources. Matthew Silver, CEO of Cambrian Innovation Author: Fulvia Montresor is Director, Head of Technology Pioneers for the World Economic Forum All images provided by Reuters. Share this: 6.1B Smartphone Users Globally By 2020, Overtaking Basic Fixed Phone Subscriptions | TechCrunch 6.1B Smartphone Users Globally By 2020, Overtaking Basic Fixed Phone Subscriptions Posted Revel Adds Ethernet To Its iPad Point-Of-Sale Platform For More Secure Connections Today there are 2.6 billion smartphone subscriptions globally, and while growth has been levelling off in developed markets like the U.S. and Europe, it’s not stalling altogether by a long shot. By 2020, globally there will be 6.1 smartphone users led by huge growth in less mature markets. And with 6.1 billion smartphones in circulation, we will see a tipping point of sorts: smartphones will finally overtake the number of active fixed line subscriptions worldwide in 2020.

The numbers come from the latest annual Mobility Report from Ericsson , which is being published today. Using data gathered from around 100 carriers globally, Ericsson uses this to paint a picture of what is going on right now, as well as what to expect in the future, covering not just how many people are using mobile networks but also how they are using mobile. Those 6.1 billion smartphone users works out to some 70 percent of the world’s population using smartphones in five years’ time, a measure of just how central these devices are becoming to how we communicate with each other and do much more. In fact, “total mobile” subscriptions by 2020 will actually number 9.2 billion. When you take into account Internet-of-things and M2M services, mobile broadband and even some basic remaining feature phones, there will be 26 billion connected devices in five years’ time. (As some point out , however, this is actually a downward revision from Ericsson’s previous forecast of 50 billion connected devices.) Still, despite the rise of these new mobile-based services, and the growth of other categories like tablets, it’s smartphones that are leading the mobile charge.

By 2020 they will account for 80 percent of all mobile data traffic. This growth has a big impact in more ways than one. For one, it points to how our own behaviour as consumers is evolving. But on a more practical level, it also points to a need for carriers to invest in networks to carry all that data traffic (or — as Facebook and Google may hope will be the case — look for other alternatives to provide connectivity); and it highlights the opportunity for startups and bigger businesses to create apps and other services to meet our mobile demands. There is a ton of data in the report; here’s a run-down of some of the more interesting stats, graphics and predictions: — Emerging markets are where all the growth is at. Ericsson predicts that regions like Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa will account for 80 percent of all new subscriptions in the next five years, continuing on with with trend that it is already tracking.

In Q1 of 2015, the top five countries by net additions were India, China, Myanmar (which is truly far behind; it’s only now starting to sort out certain aspects of its services such as international roaming), Indonesia and Japan saw the most net adds of the 108 million new subscriptions around the world in that period. — 80 percent of mobile data traffic will be from smartphones by the end of 2020. While we hear a lot about how people are now using their smartphones as their primary computing devices, the fact is that we are in the midst of a veritable explosion of mobile data usage. Ericsson says it will grow tenfold in the next five years, with Asia Pacific alone accounting for 45 percent of that. Although growth is happening in one place, usage will be taking place elsewhere. As is the case today, the U.S./North America and Europe will continue to see the most data usage per smartphone, as people continue to consume more bandwidth-heavy services like video on their devices. — Video already accounts for 45 percent of app traffic, will rise to 60 percent.

The story here is about OTT providers like YouTube and Netflix, which are the two most popular and therefore the biggest gobblers of bandwidth. This is a fact that is not going away: video consumption on mobile is currently growing at a rate of 55 percent annually, Ericsson says. It further notes that YouTube alone accounts for between 40-60 percent of all video traffic today. Interestingly, music streaming is in a firm second place, and although it is “gaining popularity” its unlikely to overtake video at any point. Part of the reason for this is because a lot of music consumption is offline. Social network only accounts for 15%. In contrast to the traffic we are seeing in apps, mobile web browsing traffic will continue to decline. Today it accounts for just 10 percent of traffic and that will decline to 5 percent by 2020. — Marquee events are driving huge amounts of usage. Ericsson notes that the 2014 football world championship was “one of the biggest social media events of 2014,” and that boom also played out on mobile with people using their smartphones to text, talk and post on social networks.

In all the World Cup generated 26.7 TeraBytes (TB) of traffic, “the data equivalent of 48.5 million digital photos plus 4.5 million voice calls.” — Size matters. It’s long been known that the size of the screen impacts what and how much a person consumers. Specifically, video continues to be a magnet service for tablet users — no surprise, given the larger screen and overall better experience. What’s interesting is that this does not trickle down to other kinds of functions that are more interactive. — Among the many things that we can do with our phones today, SMS is still the most-used app in the U.S., with old-fashioned voice calls remaining in second place. Still, collectively we are seeing a major spike in data usage in North America when you consider all of the other services in aggregate. Average monthly data usage per smartphone in North America will increase from 2.4 GB today to 14 GB by 2020, Ericsson says. A lot of this continues to be down to power users. “Heavy data users represent 10 percent of total subscribers but generate 55 percent of total data traffic,” Ericsson notes.

“Video is dominant among heavy users, who typically watch around one hour of video per day, which is 20 times more than the average user.” 0

Question: The predicted online connectivity of 50 billion smart gadgets by 2020 is called The Internet of?
Answer: Things