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The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore has identified 9 key technological trends which are expected to impact the adoption of information and communications technology over the next 3 to 5 years. These trends were revealed during a symposium on the island republic and this is Part 2 of the coverage.
Today, 82% of the worlds online population (or 1.2 billion people) visit social networking sites. Besides the high adoption rate, the time spend on social networking activities has more than trippled since 2007. In Singapore, more than 90% of out nearly 3 million Internet users visit social networking sites such as Facebbok, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Increasingly, social media access will mostly be accessed through devices such as tablets and mobile phones, highlighting the trend of instant access to information and personal networks for mobile user.
7) New Digital Economy
The widespread adoption of consumer infocomm technologies such as social media and mobile telephony, coupled with the increased acceptance of online activities like online shopping, e-banking and content sharing, has enabled a new digital economy to emerge. These trends are powered by the Internet and driven by the consumers.
There is no authoritative definition for the Digital Economy although the term has been in use since 1990s. Most definitions of Digital Economy will include more than just the internet Ecoonomy (economic value derived from the Internet) to incorporate economic and social activities resulting from other infocomm technologies.
With the Internet Economy migrating to the mobile-centric platform, businesses and governments need to be ready to provide their information and services effectively through the mobile channel.
Both incumbent financial institutions and new entrants such as telecommunications operators, web and IT companies are introducing next-generation digital payment solutions. They are aiming to establish strategic cash and physical credit card replacement solutions which will be used by the masses in the fast growing digital age.
Consumers expect their experiences to be seamless in both the digital and real worlds. The real world will see increased influence and integration from the digital world while the digital world will see more real world objects digitised and represented within it.
8) User Interface
User interface and interaction technologies provide users with new ways to interact with data, systems and the environments in which we work, live and play. Today, there is a paradigm shift in the concept of user interface in which the user is now the new interface and multiple user interface technologies and enablers could converge to provide a more holistic and immersive user experience.
In Singapore, projected figures of smartphone and tablet shipments suggest that a 100% penetration of smartphone is nearly possible while a tablet adoption of about 30% by 2013. The economic opportunities that could be derived from uesr interface and interaction technologies would be be trivial, with the size of the global user interface market predicted to grow from US$10 billion in 2011 to US$25 billion by 2012.
Several market trends provide the main drivers of change for user interface and interaction technologies. Visual info-gratification refers to consumers accessing information about real world objects, naturally and on-the-go, simply by pointing their smart devices at anything interesting. There are already existing consumer apps such as WhereToGet.It and Google’s Skymap that provide value-added services through visual info-gratification.
Natural user interface has finally gained more prominence, such as gesture and motion recognition, surface computers, electronic paper, interactive visualisation, voice and speech analytics, eye tracking, facial recognition and etc.
Smarter devices are also emerging to increase the richness of the user experience.
9.) Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things (IoTs) defines a reality where IP-based entities such as devices, sensors, servers and etc perform pervasive connectivity with one another. Earlier IoT solutions took the form of machine-to-machine communication. IoT makes it possible for virtually any object to be connected and working seamlessly to enhance information exchange and improve the quality of life of users.
IoTs can also be described as automation of IP-based data communication.
In 2010, the estimated number of devices connected to the Internet was 12.5 billion. This massive figure exceeded the world’s human population of 6.8 billion, making it the first time in history that there were more connected devices than human beings. This is partly set forth by the explosive proliferation of mobile devices.
The opportunities for IoTs lie on top of the benefits of data communication automation such as improvisation of public transportation via analytics of real time traffic data, usage of smart grid to achieve green initiative, reducing costs of operation for supply chain processes, improving sales with targeted marketing for retail industry and many more.
Stay tuned for the IDA’s final report in November.
