Type of Article: MacTech Blog

For the second quarter in a row, Apple lost a substantial share of the tablet market as shipments declined and growth of the overall market remained stagnant, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

For the fourth quarter (4Q) 2014, Apple shipped 21.42 million iPads, causing the company to experience an 18% year-over-year (YoY) decline. In its most recent quarter, the results for 1Q 2015 depicted the company only shipping 12.62 million iPads, resulting in a 23% year-over-year (YoY) decline.

A growing roster of smart home services and device providers are using home security monitoring as a beachhead to introduce home automation services. In the key U.S. market, a bellwether for developed markets around the world, some 15 million more U.S. homes will invest in new connected home security services in the next 5 years, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Harbortouch (www.harbortouch.com), a supplier of point of sale (POS) systems, has published the results of a recent survey investigating the changing attitudes consumers have toward mobile payments technology.

The results of the survey of 1,000 U.S. adults, fielded in April 2015, examined the current state of mobile payment adoption, and demonstrated a shift in consumers’ comfort level and acceptance, with a greater focus on interface and experience.

Mobile data traffic, generated by smart phones, feature phones and tablets will approach almost 197,000 PB (Petabytes) by 2019, equivalent to over 10 billion Blu-ray movies, according to Juniper Research (www.juniperrsearch.com).

A survey by Absolute Software Corp. (www.absolute.com) — which specializes in endpoint security and management solutions for computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones — says Millennials prove to be a greater risk to data security as compared to other user categories.