Type of Article: MacTech Blog

As network operators and vendors continue to achieve breakthroughs in upload and download speeds, the growth in total mobile data traffic shows no sign of slowing down. ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) predicts that the average monthly data consumed per wireless subscriber will increase from 445 megabytes in 2014 to 2,289 megabytes by 2019.

Is your car connected to the Internet? In 2013, approximately 23 million vehicles around the world had embedded Internet access, offering their drivers a multitude of smart options and benefits.

These include better engine controls, automatic crash notifications and safety alerts, to name just a few. Owners can also interact with their connected vehicles through apps from any distance.

New research from the Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) research group predicts rapid growth in the smart home in 2015, as 37% of U.S. broadband households intend to buy one or more smart devices this year.

This growing adoption of smart devices will raise the importance of interoperability and speed in innovation as consumers will expect all devices to work together and offer the latest benefits. In 2014, nearly two-thirds of devices purchased were part of a home controls or security system.

By 2020, there will be a quarter billion connected vehicles on the road, enabling new in-vehicle services and automated driving capabilities, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

During the next five years, the proportion of new vehicles equipped with this capability will increase dramatically, making connected cars a major element of the Internet of Things (IoT), says the research group. Gartner forecasts that 4.9 billion connected things will be in use in 2015, up 30% from 2014, and will reach 25 billion by 2020.

The relentless smartphone growth in the Asia-Pacific region is set to slow dramatically in 2015. Asia-Pacific’s growth is set to drop from 43% in 2013 to 17% in 2014 and then to just 10 % in 2015, largely driven as ever by China, according to market intelligence firm ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).