Type of Article: MacTech Blog

Smart card shipments totaled eight billion units in 2013, with government ID, SIM, and payment and banking applications accounting for 87% of all shipments, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Of these three market verticals, Gemalto, Oberthur Technologies, G&D, and Morpho led the way with a combined 2013 market share of 66%. It is expected that these three applications will spurn market growth and account for 89% of all smart card shipments in 2019. The expectations and drivers for each of the three vertical markets are as follows:

By year-end 2017, over 20% of enterprises will have digital security services devoted to protecting business initiatives using devices and services in the Internet of Things, according to Gartner (www.gartner.com)/ Business cases using Internet of Things (IoT) devices already exist and their role in business and industry will force enterprises to secure them, according to the research group.

Mobile data sharing plans gaining popularity, but come at a higher cost
The aggressive deployment of LTE networks has encouraged higher data consumption, providing an opportunity for mobile operators to focus on introducing mobile plans with a higher data quota. According to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com) data, countries that have a monthly data quota in the range of 8 to 10 GB have increased from 21% in 1Q 2014 to 83% of the total in 2Q 2014.

Triton Digital (http://tritondigital.com), a technology provider for the audio industry, has unveiled its monthly “Ranker for July 2014,” revealing the month’s 20 top streaming audio providers, as well as insights into listening trends. Overall listening continued to rise steadily in July 2014, increasing by more than 20% compared to July 2013.

Streaming audio on mobile devices was the big story this month, with listening increasing by more that 35% compared to the same period last year.

In light of a lackluster recent history coupled with rampant negativity associated with any PC-related market as of late, analyst firm Jon Peddie Research (JPR) is calling Q2’14 for the workstation market just that: a breakout quarter.