Type of Article: MacTech Blog

Increasing urbanization is putting unprecedented pressure on city mayors to constantly balance the challenge of resource constraints against environmental sustainability concerns.

Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com)estimates that 1.1 billion connected things will be used by smart cities in 2015, rising to 9.7 billion by 2020. 

Smart homes and smart commercial buildings will represent 45% of total connected things in use in 2015, due to investment and service opportunity. Gartner estimates that this will rise to 81% by 2020, according to the research group.

According to the Sandler Research group (www.sandlerresearch.com), the global headphones market will see a 12.70% CAGR [compound annual growth rate] between now and 2019.

According to the report, one key trend being witnessed in the market is the rapid adoption of over-ear headphones. The rise in disposable income, especially among individuals in developed countries, the proliferation of smartphones, and the availability of headphones with advanced features, has increased the purchase of over-ear headphones.

According to Strategy Analytics’ AppOptix Telemetry Intelligence Platform (www.strategyanalytics.com), the total data traffic (Wi-Fi andcellular combined) doubled between the first quarter [Q1} 2014 and Q4 2014, with the bulk of the growth coming from an older demographic.

The analysis is based on over one million individual application sessions from 3000+ panel members in the US. The results are powered by Strategy Analytics’ elemetry Intelligence Platform. Additional findings from the study include:

Sponsored data business models benefit consumers by expanding the mobile ecosystem to new partners that want to foot part of the bill for consumers to use wireless data — according to the Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com) Wireless Operator Strategies (WOS) service report, “Measuring the Success of Sponsored Data.”