Type of Article: MacTech Blog

Worldwide Wi-Fi deployments reached a total of 4.2 million hotspots in 2013, and will continue to grow at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 15.0% between 2013 and 2018, to exceed 10.5 million, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

Among the global Wi-Fi hotspots, 68.6% of Wi-Fi is in Asia-Pacific, followed by 12.3% in Latin America, 9.0% in Europe, 8.7% in North America, and 1.4% in Middle East and Africa. The number includes Wi-Fi hotspots deployed by mobile and fixed-line carriers as well as third party operators.

Bluetooth shipments broke an annual two billion shipments in 2012 and are set to surpass three billion shipped during 2015 and four billion during 2018, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

“Cumulatively, over 19 billion chipsets will ship over the next five years,” says research director Philip Solis. “Of various integration levels, standalone Bluetooth chipsets will be the largest group in 2019 followed by combo chipsets with Bluetooth and then integrated platforms with Bluetooth.”

Good Technology (www.good.com), which specializes in mobile security, announced key findings from the “Q1 2014 Good Mobility Index Report.” This quarter, as organizations declared security as a top IT concern in 2014, the data shows a monumental increase in activations of more complex secure enterprise apps, most notably secure browsing. 
 

The worldwide cable, DSL and fiber-optic fixed-line broadband subscriber base grew 6% in 2013 surpassing 665.4 million subscribers, according to ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com).

The fiber-optic broadband segment grew at a robust rate, 29% from 2012 to 126.6 million subscribers in 2013. By 2019, fiber-optic broadband subscriptions will grow to 265 million subscribers, with a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 11.7%, according to the research group.

Worldwide customer relationship management (CRM) software totaled $20.4 billion in 2013, up 13.7 percent from $18 billion in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

“High levels of end-user investment in digital marketing and customer experience initiatives were the primary growth drivers of the market in 2013,” said Joanne Correia, research vice president at the research group. “CRM will be at the heart of digital initiatives in coming years. This is one technology area that will get funding because digital business is critical for companies to remain competitive.”