Smartphones and Beyond: The Best of Mobile World Congress 2018

The world’s biggest mobile technology event was upon us again this week. Over 100,000 tecchies descended on Barcelona this week to showcase the latest and greatest smart devices and network technologies that is Mobile World Congress (MWC). Despite reports of an overall global decline in sales at the end of last year, just one look at the show this year will tell you that consumers’ love affair with their smartphones is far from over. However, MWC is increasingly also about showcasing other kinds of connected devices and technology platforms.

Will the rapidly falling price of VR lead to mass adoption?

One of the biggest stories for VR in 2017 has been the significant reduction in price for VR headsets. Possibly spurred on by Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality headsets attempt to undercut the Rift, Oculus dropped the price of its headset with touch controllers from $600 to $400 for its “Summer of Rift” campaign. This is much closer to the initial price point that Oculus’s founder Palmer Luckey suggested the commercial headset would retail for and results so far indicate that units have been flying as a result. With CONTEXT’s 2017 VR Research Group survey indicating that the cost of the headset is still a major deterrent for 45.4% of respondents, 38.1% of gamers would spend $400 or more on a VR headset, compared to only 11% willing to spend over $600.

The other major barriers with regards to cost are those associated with buying a PC powerful enough to run VR games to an acceptable level. Road To VR reports that Wallmart will be selling a comfortably “VR Ready” HP Pavilion Power Desktop with GTX 1060 graphics card for $500 as a part of their Black Friday promotions. For the first time it will be possible to buy a fully VR capable solution with PC and headset for under $1,000 which is considered a sweet spot for gamers and a long way below the $2,500 figure widely acknowledges to be the minimum investment for VR only a couple of short years ago.

On the console front as well, a PS4 and PSVR was available for $200 from selected retailers on Black Friday, down from $399 normally. Combined with a strong line up of PSVR exclusives, this may enable Sony to maintain or even grow their already substantial lead in the high-end tethered VR headset market.

The question remains as to whether these price drops will be enough to drive mass adoption in Q4. While it is likely that the install base will benefit dramatically from falling prices, which will be encouraging to developers and others with a stake in the industry, there are still a few barriers to VR hitting its inflection point.

Interest in VR among non gamers is growing, but not nearly as quickly as some had hoped. While there are undoubtedly many uses for VR both seriously and as a general entertainment medium, it is clearly gamers who show the strongest interest in the technology for now. Only 4.8% of UK gamers think VR is a gimmick compared to 30.2% of non-gamers (down from 48.3% last year) suggesting that this demographic will be the easiest to target in the short term.

Still, while the potential for gaming in VR is widely acknowledged, many gamers are still waiting for the technology to improve. 61.9% would like to see higher resolution headsets, 74.5% would like to see “better quality content overall” and 51.3% said “one really exciting big budget game” would increase their interest in buying a VR headset.

Will Q4 see the stars align for VR to start seeing significant market penetration and finally create the virtuous cycle required to fuel this exciting new industry? Only time will tell, but here at CONTEXT, we’ll be watching the data come through with bated breath for the first signs of that mythical inflection point.

by BB

If “Content is King” for engagement, how do you get it?

By Chris Petersen and Adam Simon

One of the most misunderstood and missed dynamics of retail today is the critical importance of “content”. Historically, mass marketing drove content creation. Brands provided “air cover content” for launching products and educating customers. Content was the “stuff” of ads, marketing and promotions. So what changed?

Digital transformation created many new points of access for customers. Customers are now free to interact directly with brands, retailers and between each other. More than 75% of today’s customers begin their journey online. “Digital Content” has become “King” as the point of entry. Consequently, one of the single greatest opportunities in today’s retail ecosystem is to curate the “rich content” that engages customers early, often, and even after the sale.

Why content matters even more in today’s retail ecosystem
Customers have always wanted to “see” the product. They have relied on photos in print and TV ads to get a first glimpse to determine whether they are interested. With the growing migration online, customers not only expect multiple product photos, they are also expecting much richer and in-depth information. They want far more than product features and specs. They want to evaluate as much as they can before clicking the mouse to purchase, or making a trip to the store to see the product first hand.

In the simplest sense, “rich content” is all the collective visuals, information and experiences that help customers answer fundamental questions:

• What is the product, and what does it do for ME?
• Why would I want it?
• Where and when would I use it?
• Who else do I know that uses this product, or would use it?
• How many options do I have?

Since a majority of today’s customers begin their journey, online, rich content is critical for engagement. It also increases the potential to “help a customer decide to buy”, or at least make a trip to a store to experience the product in person.

Rapidly emerging, and evolving “Rich Content” opportunities
In terms of rich content optimizing engagement and customer experience, AR is becoming more widely adopted across more categories. There are online experiences that now let you virtually “try on” clothes and cosmetics. IKEA and others let you simulate furniture in your room. DIY retailers like Lowes are even creating VR “holorooms” where you visualize your home and furnishings in store.

The “rich” aspect of content does not always require innovative visual technology. Content becomes rich when it engages customers. More web sites are implementing simple chat windows to provide interactive feedback and content not found in regular copy. Some customers prefer engagement through “chat bots” to get answers. Who is responsible for all of this rich content? More importantly, how is it produced.

Bridging content gaps through strategic collaboration
In the new ecosystem that spans time and place there are many new opportunities for content collaboration. In fact, the traditional roles of content creation are changing.   New content contributors are emerging. Indeed, if there was a prima fascia case for value and potential of strategic collaboration it would be in the area of rich content which engages customers.

Retailers
Historically, retailers have relied on brands to produce the product images and content required for ads and web pages. While retailers like to enhance the customer experience, resource constraints have limited in-house production for many retailers. Most retailers will continue to collaborate with brands to evolve richer content like videos. Some retailers are investing AR in ways that customers can visualize rooms, wearing clothes or applying cosmetics. Nevertheless, bricks and mortar retailers should never forget or neglect the richest content “source” retailers have to engage customers — their associates on the retail floor. Brands would also do well to find innovative ways to collaborate and support store staff on a real time basis.

Brands
Brands will continue to be a primary source of content about their products and services. Enlightened brands will work with retailers, as well as customers to develop richer content that highlights the value of their products in the customer’s life. Rich content is not only important in the retail space. Major technology brands are increasingly creating rich content and support for installers and resellers, with the focus on improving services that ultimately create a better experience for their customers before and after the sale.

Distributors
Distributors have historically served as the “box movers”. In today’s ecosystem, they certainly become critical collaborators for logistics and the last mile of delivery.   However, the best distributors are also becoming a key line of support for retailers and resellers. Not only do distributors support products, they now serve as a critical content source for customer trends, and how to curate by local markets and demographics.

Customers
Historically, customers have been the primary consumers of content.   Make no mistake about it, today’s customers are rapidly escalating demands for rich content online, via mobile and in store.   However, we have reached a unique tipping point where customers are now in fact major producers of content. In fact, customers trust what they hear from other customers 10X more than what they see in an ad.

Much of Amazon’s success has come from how they have strategically engaged customers. Amazon was one of the first to feature customers as collaborators in their reviews, their videos and Q&A with other customers.   The most successful brands and retailers are rapidly turning to customers as one of the powerful collaborative sources for producing, evaluating and sharing content.
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Chris Petersen and Adam Simon are collaborating on a series of blogs that explore the rise of strategic collaboration and new customer centric ecosystems. This blog series will culminate with a worldwide panel discussion at the ContextWorld CES CEO Breakfast, where a global Brand, Distributor and Retailer will share their perspectives on strategic collaboration. If you are interested in more information on this CES event, contact tgibbons@contextworld.com.

 

 

 

 

Immersive Technologies in the Arts

At one of Vastari’s Frieze breakfast briefings last week, the panel of leading art world figures discussing the “The Evolving Gallery” seemed almost entirely in agreement that virtual and augmented reality is going to play an enormous role in the future of art.

For the gallery, VR is both a tool and a new platform, enabling them to reach a much wider audience than might be able to visit any given location in person. Beyond the simple novelty of an exciting new technology, parallels with social media’s unexpected prevalence were drawn and VR and AR are seen as a way to fundamentally redefine the relationship between exhibitions and the public. Both Facebook and Snap have announced plans to augment the world with digital public artworks viewable through their respective apps, while DSLcollection has partnered with Ikonospace to curate and market their exhibition in virtual reality in ways not previously possible.

For the artist, VR is particularly exciting as a medium newly open for exploration. It isn’t limited merely to the art programs like Tilt Brush, Medium, Blocks or Quill passed down from on high by tech giants like Google or Facebook, although these tools are themselves immensely popular with artists. Those with more ambition and technical knowledge such as the infamous Android Jones are creating their own tools with a specific aesthetic quality in mind. In the case of his latest work, Microdose, it is the tool itself which almost becomes the work, blurring the line between creator and spectator.

In theatre too, there is a trend towards immersive experiences, of which virtual and augmented reality may well play a part. While some traditionalists will scorn the invasion of new technologies into their craft, there is no doubt that there is significant overlap in the skills required to develop narrative experiences in virtual reality and on stage, which has always had to use creative approaches to direct the audiences attention. As such it may be that “theatre in VR”, such as the National Theatre’s Draw me close turns out to be far more successful than attempts to shoehorn VR into theatre.

While not every artistic endeavour in VR will suit all tastes, and some are very rudimentary in their execution, this is fundamentally a rare new medium for expression, the rules for which have not been written yet. As with the early days of cinema, artists will be instrumental in exploring the language and capabilities of immersive technologies, setting the ground for commercial applications as the industry matures.

by BB

Immersive Technology in the Workplace – Part Two: Automotive and Aerospace Industries

In this second post in a series of blogs, we are looking at Immersive Technology, the blanket term for virtual, augmented and mixed reality and associated techniques and specifically where it is currently being used in the workplace.

In the last part, we looked at how this technology is being used in Healthcare. This time we’ll be looking at the engineering sector, specifically as it relates to Automotive and Aerospace.

Design

Even from the earliest concept stages, VR sketching tools allow designers to visualise their creations at full scale in interactive and collaborative environments, even with remote colleagues, as demonstrated recently by Seymourpowell.

The real power of immersive technology is that it gives designers and technicians all of the same advantages that other digital tools offer, but allows them to interact with projects spatially and at the scales they are used to from traditional prototyping techniques.

Production

Collaborative production planning via virtual environments also allow certain classes of issues to be spotted early, as demonstrated by Lockheed Martin who were “seeing a significantly reduced error rate in the construction stage”. Even NASA is well documented as having promoted the use of VR to share work and “break down the barriers of understanding”.

The high tech engineering sector has also taken readily to incorporating immersive technologies into the production work flow. Volkswagen for example, recently announced partnerships with HTC for workers to collaborate on both production and logistics via virtual reality to “make daily teamwork much easier and save a great deal of time”.

Meanwhile, Ford has been using virtual manufacturing technology to analyse assembly line workflows via its ergonomics lab. This has reportedly seen employee injuries be reduced by 70% and ergonomic issues lowered by 90%.

Maintenance

Much like we mentioned last week in the medical industry, visualising a complicated, three dimensional piece of machinery clearly can be difficult on a two dimensional screen. With virtual reality, however, inspecting complex systems and communicating with colleagues about those systems becomes much easier.

While not a commercial application, upcoming game prototype Wrench illustrates perfectly how useful interactive visualisations are in communicating how a complex product is assembled. For a more industrial example, look no further than ESI Group’s IC.IDO, who work with some of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world.

Training maintenance technicians in virtual reality will encourage much better process adherence and understanding, reducing maintenance costs in the long run. Furthermore, as illustrated brilliantly in Microsoft’s promotional videos for the Hololense, the ability to have a maintenance professional remotely assist an unskilled on-site worker or end customer will allow those experts to work remotely and maximise their effectiveness.

Conclusion

It seems clear that large engineering companies are taking immersive technology seriously and seeing promising results across the scope of their business. Many of these techniques and others will also be relevant to other industries, including the ability to showcase products virtually, both in B2B and B2C settings. While this is clearly an attractive proposition for the aerospace and automotive industries, we will look at this in more detail in part three, Architecture and Real Estate.

by BB

*Photo Credits: Shutterstock.com & Editorial credit: Darren Brode / Shutterstock.com

 

 

 

Immersive Technology in the Workplace – Part One: Healthcare

At CONTEXT, in addition to providing world class data and insight into well established, multi billion dollar technology industries, we are also constantly looking to the future and keeping an eye on new emerging industries. In this series of blog posts we’ll be looking at Immersive Technology, the blanket term for virtual, augmented and mixed reality and associated techniques and specifically where it is currently being used in the workplace.

Our first industry in which immersive training is already gaining ground and may well be a game changer is Healthcare.

Surgical Training

Immersive technologies are already working their way into the medical training environment. Medical Realities was the first to allow medical students to experience the practical realities of an operating theatre from the perspective of the surgeon via spherical video but many others are hot on their heels.

There is an expression in surgery that for rare procedures the process is often to “watch one, do one, teach one”, highlighting the fact that it is difficult to practice such activities without a certain amount of risk to patients.

In an environment where risk and liability plays a major role, any technology which allows doctors to plan and practice a technique to perfection will be warmly welcomed by the medical industry, assuming that it is able to pass the necessary regulatory hurdles.

Medical Device Integration

It is not just surgeons who will benefit from training in VR. Any specialised medical device requires strict adherence to designated procedures, the communication of which is extremely well suited to virtual reality. Rolling out new devices and procedures is no easy feat, but a fully simulated environment allows for staff to be brought up to speed as new technology is integrated into their daily workflow.

Virtamed and others are already providing physicians with the ability to practice certain device usage techniques via VR and we are likely to see more device manufacturers offering virtual training solutions in an effort to secure vital contracts.

Visualisation

Beyond training applications, there are increasingly sophisticated technologies for capturing rich, three dimensional patient data. As in many other industries, being able to visualise and interact with three-dimensional information makes it far easier to digest, both to the specialist and the layman.

Immersive technology not only allows medical professionals to better inspect a patient’s unique set of circumstances, but also to better communicate details to other members of the care team and even to the patient themselves.

For now, the use of headsets is likely to be limited in this use case, but as the form factor and capabilities of augmented reality devices improves, expect to see them replace many of the traditional props doctors use to explain conditions and treatments.

Conclusion

We’ve focused on a few ways professionals will use immersive tech and it seems more use cases will be identified as the technology develops. We’ve not even touched on therapeutic patient experiences like those from psious, Virtually Better and Bravemind which aid in the rehabilitation from anxiety, phobias, PTSD and other mental health issues.

It is clear that healthcare has been one of the first industries to open its arms to immersive technology, ripe as it is to disruption anywhere that costs and risks can be reduced while improving effective outcomes.

In the next part, we’ll look at how Immersive Technology is being used in the Automotive and Aerospace Industries.

by BB

Peddle Faster to Fly Your Unicorn: Could VSports Cause Unintentional Fitness?

In three decades of video gaming there have been some very odd on-screen instructions. The Grand Theft Auto series introduced a controversial healing mechanic, and in PS3’s 2010 title Heavy Rain players were encouraged to “press x to Jason [sic]”, however being instructed to pedal in order to start your unicorn must now be a close contender. It’s also fair to say that very few eSports or sit-down video games will draw much more than nervous perspiration, or perhaps the dreaded Nintendo Thumb some of us used to suffer when attempting to finish seemingly impossible titles like Battletoads (which if played with two players was actually impossible). The Nintendo Wii was the first mass-market gaming platform to show the potential for video games to help users truly exercise, and the motion controllers and uses beyond sedentary gaming were a major selling-point over seemingly superior competing products. The majority of users eventually grew to see the Wii Fit as a novelty workout video with interaction, and slowly consoles were retired in garages, ignored and eventually abandoned like so many gym memberships. Few of those Wii Fit owners have looked back since.

As the VR industry has grown over the last two years a new form of exercise has emerged – Vsports. In this instance, the user is immersed in a 360 degree 3D world, transforming a session on an exercise machine into a totally different experience. Often complaints of reluctant joggers is that running through the streets of Balham is hardly exciting, and thudding on a treadmill whilst watching Simon Cowell’s latest autotuned starlet in the gym is drastically worse. What about running along the banks of the River Tiber whilst chasing rogue legionnaires, or indeed, flying a pedal-powered unicorn? The latter has been made possible by VirZOOM, a company so sure of its product that they are targeting their marketing directly at lapsed gym bunnies. My own aversion to jogging is the lack of competition and the abstract nature of lonely cardio exercise, however a gameplay element and opponents, both virtual and real, will push me the extra mile. Interestingly, in a 2016 CONTEXT survey of EU consumers, sport was the gaming category which excited them the most for VR, with 1 in 5 respondents expressing an interest; this could now mean sport in a very physically-active sense.

For those of us in the ICT industry who have been lucky enough to try VSports at events such as CES, general consensus is that this could be a big category for VR, both at home and in larger installations. As an analyst, I am frequently asked where the opportunities for VR lie for the channel, and VSports offer both a B2B and consumer market. Health technology is persistently strong in terms of sales, and the industry is accustomed to disruptive technology and wearables. Moreover, gyms have long been a customer of AV installers and resellers: almost all gyms contain dozens of TVs and LFDs. The sanitary aspect of VR headsets has not been missed by start-ups, with companies such as VR Cover popping up to sell washable VR peripherals.

Perhaps the most interesting example of the convergence of games, VR, and VSports is the phenomenon of accidental exercise. My own serendipitous encounter with VSport was whilst playing Knockout League on the Oculus Rift/Touch recently. After over an hour of shadow boxing I removed my headset to discover the sort of sweat I’d expect after a 5km run. I’m not the only industry professional to accidentally work out during a normal gaming session: Job Stauffer, Telltale’s head of creative communications recently announced that he’d lost over 50lb playing a VR game, in this case Sandboxing. For those of you in the channel who have routes to the healthcare verticals and are also lucky enough to be distributors or resellers of one of the high-end VR HMDs, my advice is to start some serious conversations about the new categories of VR Fitness Devices and Accessories.

by JW

CeBIT 2017 Points the Way to VR and Smart Device Growth

With 200,000 participants flocking to Hanover this year, the week-long CeBIT show can be an intimidating prospect. Over 3,000 exhibitors set up shop at the world’s biggest technology expo. And while this is not a show for big name product launches, it still provides a very useful snapshot of what’s hot in the tech industry from one year to the next.

This year, as we predicted, there was plenty of buzz around smart devices, the Internet of Things and Virtual Reality (VR)/ Augmented Reality (AR). These, after all, will be the technologies that in years to come delight consumers and power the next generation of European businesses.

VR/AR catches the eye
CeBIT 2017 had a bigger focus on VR/AR than ever before, highlighting the growing maturity of this burgeoning technology. If you were in any doubt of the scale of interest in this space, half of Hall 17 – one of the show’s aircraft hangar-sized expo spaces – was devoted entirely to firms exhibiting VR-related tech. As we predicted at the end of 2016, gaming will continue to drive forward interest in VR on the consumer side. But, as evidenced by its exposure at the business-centric CeBIT show, more and more companies are exploring corporate applications.

Examples included the “Virtofy” VR presentation system, which offers companies an opportunity to demo products and showcase projects to prospective clients/customers. Another interesting use case developed by engineers at the Zwickau University of Applied Sciences incorporates integrated data goggles into the helmets worn by steel workers – designed to flash up safety warnings and the like.

In Hall 2 Intel, in cooperation with Microsoft, presented the dataflow the companies expect in the near future. Based on the BMW i8, Intel presented with the Microsoft AR Hololens how cameras and sensors scan the environment of a future car in order to drive autonomously. Intel predicts that approximately 4000 GB of data will be tracked, processed and uploaded from cars in the future, which creates brand new business scenarios in this market.

IoT everywhere
As we mentioned in December, the Smart Home market is really heating up, with Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung and Microsoft set to battle it out for hearts and minds in 2017 and beyond. True to form, the Internet of Things formed a major part of CeBIT 2017, with over 270 exhibitors from 29 countries participating. The IoT also had its own spin-off summit at the conference – a first for the organisers and again illustrative of the growing interest in smart products.

The IoT, of course, extends far beyond the smart home. In fact, attendees were treated to demos of everything from smart shirts and dog collars from Telefonica Deutschland, to Toshiba’s industrial applications for the energy sector.

Drones are taking off
The smart device revolution also increasingly extends up into the sky. As evidenced by the buzz at CeBIT, drones are fast carving out an IoT niche of their own. A large outdoor area sponsored by Intel drew many of the crowds, with much attention drawn to the bright orange H520 hexacopter from Chinese firm Yuneec. When combined with an on-board camera and Intel RealSense tech, it’s able to detect movements and distances like the human eye – enabling it to avoid obstacles in flight.

The Drone Park even drew the interest of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

by AD

 

 

 

2016 was always going to be the year of democratised VR, not mass adoption

Estimating shipments of products in new areas of IT is a bit like being the only lighthouse in view above banks of thick fog. It’s the only light you can see, so you’ve nothing to lose heading for it. We’ve been there with pocket PCs, Smartphones and Tablets. And while the fog has cleared for these products, the true state of the market for the much anticipated Virtual Reality headsets is still shrouded in mist.

At CONTEXT, as part of the work with our VR Research Group made up of major PC, HMD, and software vendors, our first predictions estimating the total number of VR headsets shipped in 2016 are conservative compared to some estimations from this time last year. If the basic HMDs are included, the lowest possible total global shipped units start at 8.5m, with true figures probably being closer to 12m+ once the plethora of minor Chinese brands are included. Theo Valich of global consortium VR First commented: “While we are seeing that the adoption of VR is waiting on content, the growth of VR in the emerging markets in Asia-Pacific is not being properly covered. The number of VR start-ups on both the hardware and software side is almost exponential.” The shipped units for the high-end headsets such as the HTC Vive, PSVR, and Oculus Rift CV1 are <15% of the total market, but to get a true picture of what has happened in 2016 and will develop in 2017, it is important that all types of headsets are included.

There are many factors to be considered when attempting to get a handle on the true state of the VR headset market. For a start, 2016 was never going to be about mass adoption for companies such as HTC and Oculus and here are several reasons why: in terms of the headsets designed for use with a PC, a very powerful machine is required and that rules out all but the most dedicated gamers and developers. Awareness of the category is only just starting to become widespread, and even for those with the required hardware, there is a lack of major hit AAA titles to drive sales.

In a recent survey, CONTEXT showed that only 10.5% of members of the general public in the EU had heard anything significant about VR, compared to 79.9% of gamers, with 26.5% of people having not heard anything at all. The issue facing the VR industry right now is that there is a transformative effect of trying it out that needs to happen; simply describing the experience is akin to attempting to explain the taste of Cola to a Martian. As a result, even the cheaper headsets – and yes, we are including the Google Cardboard – can make a profound impact on consumers. In 2016 anyone with a Smart Phone was able to experience VR for the first time, and thanks to Google and others there is a wealth of apps to demonstrate what VR can do. In the early stages of VR, such products are vital to raise awareness. Taking the analogy to the extreme, why would anyone spend $1000 on a sound system when they’ve never heard music on a transistor radio?

In summary, CONTEXT expect VR headset shipments to increase in 2017 for all types of VR headsets, with new industry verticals opening up. We’re seeing more and more VR technologies going through the ICT sales channels into a huge variety of sectors, including healthcare, education, elderly care, military, as well as major public entertainments. With current VR price points, the democratisation – and therefore unit shipments – can only increase, and all types of headsets will continue play a significant role, not just premium products.

by JW

Tech Predictions: 2017

PC’s in 2017
In 2017 European PC sales in the business segment are likely to benefit from a gradual pick up of Windows 10 refreshes. In Western Europe in particular, the commercial PC segment is expected to also benefit from the need for enterprise mobility solutions which will be a co-driver in sales of both notebooks and mobile 2-in-1 products.

The consumer PC segment is expected to remain more challenged across Western Europe. There is a possibility that component shortages, which impacted product availability in 2H 2016, will lead to price increases in the first half of 2017which could affect demand. However, on a positive note, the market is likely to benefit from continuing high demand for gaming PCs. While this segment remains small in terms of volume, new technologies – including virtual reality – will also drive growth that will have a positive effect on revenue and margins.

From a wider, macroeconomic perspective, PC sales in a number of EMEA countries are likely to continue to be affected by uncertainties including currency fluctuations and political instability.
Marie-Christine Pygott, Senior Analyst, PCs

View on Apple
Although you never know what Apple will pull out of the hat when launching new products, the last few years have been quite staid. The last “new” new Apple product was the Watch: but this was heavily trailered so, when it finally arrived, it wasn’t a surprise. We have waited in vain over the years for an Apple TV, and recently yawned when the new MacBook’s Touchbar was announced. In 2017 we have the prospect of yet another phone, the iPhone 8, and not much else.

Except, after much speculation, Apple has acknowledged for the first time that it is investing in autonomous car technology. In a letter to US transport regulators, Apple said the company was “excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation”. Apple was first rumoured to be working on an autonomous vehicle in early 2015, when reports suggested that the company already had 600 employees working on an electric car design. Later that year, more rumours suggested that the company hoped to launch an electric car to the public by 2019.

So maybe Apple can surprise us next year. The race for electric vehicles is hotting up, and with the word being that Apple has been in talks to buy luxury-supercar maker McLaren, we may just see a prototype iCar roll onto the stage in 2017 after hearing those words, “one more thing”.
Jeremy Davies, CEO & Co-founder

Enterprise
CONTEXT will be closely tracking the evolution of storage systems and converged architecture: as cloud-managed wireless network service companies slowly but surely replace in-house wireless LAN appliances, we expect continued strong growth on these two fronts. Companies to watch: Cisco Meraki, Open-Mesh, Zebra (part of Extreme Networks), Ruckus.

Sales of solid-state drives (SSDs) have increased throughout 2016 and, for the first time, surpassed those of hard disk drives. As the price of SSDs fall and their capacity increases, 2017 will see this trend continue. In 2014, we predicted that 90% of storage components would be SSDs by 2020, and the industry is well on track to achieve this.
Gurvan Meyer, Senior Research Analyst, Enterprise Team

Displays
Large Format Display sales in 2017 are expected to continue to grow strongly with demand being driven by the education and corporate sectors. For AV providers, the corporate business market continues to be a huge growth opportunity, with a big shift towards interactive products for meetings rooms, as corporates increasingly collaborate over multiple sites, with numerous remote attendees.  The education market is also expected to be a key driver of growth in the LFD segment with educational institutions increasingly adopting display solutions to change and enhance the ways they communicate with students, staff and visitors.
Lachlan Welsh, Senior Analyst, Displays

Imaging
Printer hardware sales will continue to contract overall, though some segments are expected to register growth in 2017, such as business inkjets with higher end products due to be released in 2017 to compete with laser devices. The shift from hardware to contract sales continues, therefore, the importance of partnerships and focus on channel partners will prevail. HP’s acquisition of Samsung printer business is expected to complete in the second half of 2017, as companies join their efforts aiming to disrupt the A3 copier market business.
Zivile Brazdziunaite, Senior Market Analyst, Imaging

3D Printing
2017 will continue to see the two sides of 3D printing – the personal/desktop side (those under $5,000) and the industrial/professional side – evolve separately.  Desktop 3D printers will become even more affordable (some already cost as little as $300!) while the some of the world’s biggest brands will increase their presence in the Industrial/Professional market where technology will continue to advance and improve.

Desktop market leader XYZprinting has already expanded its brick-and-mortar retail presence – at Best Buy, Toys-R-Us, and Barnes and Noble in the US, and Darty, Dixons and Media Saturn in Europe – and it is expected to continue with aggressive price points in to promote further retail expansion around the globe. Next year will see HP fully enter the 3D printing world with the first shipments of their professional Multi-Jet Fusion 3D Printers, and a new business is to emerge from GE after their acquisition of two of the top five metal 3D printing companies in 2016.  HP and others will champion a change of focus in the plastics 3D printing market from rapid prototyping to mid-range production.
Chris Connery, Vice President Global Analysis and Research

VR & Gaming
The world of eSports will continue to grow in both popularity and recognition, as a movie is planned starring Will Ferrell on the burgeoning phenomenon. Vendors and retailers will pay more attention to PC gaming as the category offers them the chance to make up for losses in a sector which has been declining in the last few years. High average selling prices for gaming products, excellent attach rates and margins for gaming accessories, and the availability of unsecured consumer borrowing will be major drivers. Virtual reality will also continue to grow in the consumer space, although still at a modest pace. However we expect to see more HMDs going into the B2B and corporate reseller channels for which products such as the Hololens are a gift.
Jonathan Wagstaff, Country Manager UK & Ireland

Smart Home – Battle of the Giants
Back in October 2015 we predicted that new forms of control for smart home devices would stimulate growth in the market. We highlighted three: voice activation, gesture recognition and mind control. The first two are already here: voice control has exploded since Amazon launched the Echo in 2016 and 5 million devices have already been sold. We predict that this trend will grow quickly in 2017 with the Amazon Echo continuing to sell and the launch of Google Home in 2017. Google will apply a massive marketing budget – in the US they are already paying for end-of-gondola slots for Google Home devices.

With this in mind, we see four, and potentially five, giants battling for the smart home in 2017: Amazon, Google, Apple (with Homekit), Samsung (with Smart Things) and Microsoft. The ace up their sleeve for Amazon is entertainment (access to Prime Music), for Google it is search, for Apple and Samsung it is interoperability (potentially using the TV), and for Microsoft it is building out from the PC. We are optimistic that consumers will benefit: with a more coherent offer, small start-ups will no longer be able to create proprietary systems and existing systems will make themselves linkable to the big five in order to survive. It is too early to place bets on a winner, but Amazon has rapidly taken advantage of being first-mover. Gesture control will grow and develop in 2017, but mind control will need to wait for another year!
Adam Simon, Head of Retail