Comms Dealer

Analysys Mason predicts that there will be 3.9 billion smartphone connections worldwide in 2018, a growth of 136% over the next five years.

However, non-smartphones will still account for the majority of handset connections worldwide for the next four years and smartphones' share of connections will reach only 52% in 2018.

The gap between mature and developing markets will widen, as some countries approach saturation, while in others the smartphone market is only nascent.

Ronan de Renesse, Principal Analyst, said: "2014 will be a pivotal year for vendors as the high-end smartphone market reaches saturation in developed countries. 76%, 82% and 88% of handset connections will be smartphones in Western Europe, North America and Developed Asia-Pacific in 2018.

"Smartphone unit sales will decline as early 2015 in some countries, such as the Nordics in Europe and the USA, as smartphone replacements fail to compensate for the lack of non-smartphone-to-smartphone conversions. It will therefore be critical for smartphone vendors and operators to shorten replacement cycles further and retain existing customers. Stakeholders will also need to look at new areas of growth such as low-end smartphone segments and wearables."

Ronan de Renesse noted that launch of Apple's iPhone 6 will not stop iOS from losing market share. iOS will correspond to 13% of smartphone unit sales in 2018, down from 16% in 2013. Android will maintain its comfortable lead with a 72% share of unit sales in 2018. The level of native software customisation and the size of the ecosystem are significant drivers for Android's adoption compared with competing operating systems. Windows Phone will continue to grow its market share, particularly in the high-end segment, but will remain below the 10% mark. Other OSes such as Firefox OS, Tizen and Ubuntu have yet to prove their ability to disrupt the market and will take a long time gain market share; they will only correspond to 5% of smartphone unit sales in 2018.

Ronan de Renesse added: "Chinese smartphone manufacturers are well positioned to dominate the worldwide market. 1.3 billion smartphones will be sold in China in the next 5 years. Assuming an average selling price of USD50-100, the Chinese smartphone market will generate between USD65 billion and USD130 billion in that period. China's smartphone vendors like Coolpad, Meizu, Oppo and Xiaomi will use this revenue to drive international expansion.

"The pole position for the smartphone market in terms of operating systems and device manufacturers will not change much in the next five years. However, like a tugging war, much strength will be required from the major stakeholders to maintain their position and capture whatever little market share they can. The low-end smartphone segment will be paramount in maximising smartphone adoption across the world. The user experience on low-end smartphones is as important if not more than on the latest iPhone or Samsung Galaxy S."

Smart city projects launched across the globe are driving the creation of new sources and types of data as well as enabling technologies and ways of consuming data.

These factors are boosting the prospects of ICT providers that offer big data analytics software, open data platforms, cloud computing, and broadband connectivity services.

Recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan, The Role of ICT in Building Smart Cities - Infrastructure, focuses on the ICT investment outlook in the smart energy, transportation, and water segments. Smart energy and transportation are currently top research priorities, and thus will prove to be the main growth areas for ICT providers.

"Smart transportation is receiving the most attention in cities across the globe and hence opening up the maximum opportunities for ICT providers," noted Frost & Sullivan Information & Communication Technologies Research Analyst Ewa Tajer.

"ICT providers should particularly tap the large European cities, where numerous tenders for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) are being issued and novel functionalities are expected to be introduced to reduce traffic congestion, noise and pollution."

The smart energy segment - presently in an early development stage as energy companies look to build a business case for smart grids - is also heightening the demand for ICT. In fact, the smart energy market value is likely to exceed the smart transportation market value by 15 to 20 percent in 2020.

Unlike the smart transportation and energy segments, there are limited opportunities for ICT providers in the smart water segment due to a lack of proper standards, poor regulatory support, and inadequate project financing extended by authorities in most countries. Hopefully, this will change over time as new funding schemes prompt water companies to invest in smart water technologies that significantly will reduce operational costs.

Another set-back for ICT providers is the fragmented implementation of smart city projects as a result of poor cross-sector coordination and cooperation between different stakeholders. Other restraints are unwillingness of some stakeholders to test new technologies, the limited involvement of local authorities and the lack of a holistic vision when deploying smart technologies.

"ICT providers, acting as trusted advisors, should work with city stakeholders to help create a robust smart city vision and implementation plan that will ensure a key role for them in regions looking to build a more sustainable future," concluded Tajer.

The benefits of secondary site data centres topped the agenda at the first of this year's Virtual1's Seminar Series staged at Epsom Downs Racecourse.

Partners were invited to attend the Investec Spring Meeting which was co-hosted by Sentrum Colo to take part in a discussion and debate around the benefits of secondary site data centres.

Laurie Buxton, Sentrum Colo's Operations Director led the presentation focusing on why Virtual1 Partners can't afford to not have a secondary site.

The key everyday issues of disaster recovery; business continuity; latency; ownership of network; multiple access routes and commitment in terms of power and space were debated.

The benefits of the Virtual1 solution through Sentrum Colo which provides on-net capability, diversely connected to the Virtual1 network with the added advantages of security, location and outstanding facilities, were then discussed.

James Hickman, CTO, Virtual1, said: "A back-up site needs to be considered so that business continuity can be provided at a location where access is easy following a disruptive event such as fire, flood or act of terrorism. Some may say that the goal posts have changed and it is not a question of 'if this may happen' but has now become - 'when this will happen'."

Simon Durrant, Sales Director at Virtual1, added: "It is essential that Partners consider a secondary site data centre to mitigate risks and we can provide outstanding facilities. We can ensure that data can be replicated to a redundant infrastructure at a secondary site, significantly reducing risks associated with operating a single data centre."

Britannic Technologies has been accredited with the ISO 27001, the international standard for information security management by the British Standards Institute (BSI).

Combined with the ISO 9001 accreditation the ISO 27001 reaffirms Britannic Technologies commitment to professional business standards and practice, underpinning its inherent understanding of the importance of security and management of financial and confidential data.

Peter Corning, IT Director, ISS, commented: "It is important for us as a business to know that our data is being handled safely and correctly. Britannic Technologies have shown a commitment to us and all of their customers by obtaining this Information Security Management accreditation, and it has reinforced our decision in choosing them to handle our business communications and renewed our trust in their capabilities."

The accreditation follows several months of testing and implementation, followed by a final audit conducted by BSI to ensure Britannic met the criteria for securing all financial and confidential data.

Risks can also be identified with controls and contingency plans in place should anything fail. This will increase Britannic Technologies to gain stakeholder and customer trust that their data is protected.

Richard Dendle, Managing Director, Britannic Technologies, added: "Receiving this world class accreditation is an acknowledgement and validation of our processes and procedures - all part of our continual improvement programme.

"Compliance with these world-class standards is helping to give customers the trust and belief that Britannic Technologies are the right choice for their business systems, demonstrating high levels of due diligence and utmost professionalism while providing confidence and assurance to new customers and prospects."

8x8's Virtual Office SuiteApp and the Virtual Contact Centre SuiteApp have achieved 'Built for NetSuite' verification.

8x8's cloud communications SuiteApps, built using NetSuite's SuiteCloud Computing Platform, provide NetSuite customers with an integrated business telephony and contact centre solution that simplifies the execution, management and reporting of day-to-day customer interactions.

Built for NetSuite is a program for NetSuite SuiteCloud Developer Network (SDN) partners that provides them with information, resources and a method to verify that their applications and integrations, built using the NetSuite SuiteCloud Computing Platform, meet NetSuite's standards and best practices. The Built for NetSuite program is designed to give NetSuite customers additional confidence that SuiteApps have been built to meet these standards.

"8x8 places a priority on bringing high performance solutions to our customers, as every business moving their mission critical IT applications to the cloud is demanding," said 8x8 Sr. Vice President of Business Development, Huw Rees. "We look forward to delivering our best of breed cloud communications, customer interaction and business management solutions to NetSuite customers across the globe."

C4L has launched a point of presence at LDeX Group, signalling the strength and growth of the carrier neutral London based data centre colocation and network services provider.

As a Data Centre, Connectivity, Cloud and Communications provider with over 100 points of presence across the UK alone and 300 globally, C4L provides private fibre-optic network connectivity solutions complementing LDeX's existing list of tier 1 carriers and ISPs which already have POPs in LDeX1 based in Staples Corner in London.

Commenting on the news, Robin Garbutt, CEO said: "We are delighted that C4L has decided to launch a POP at the group's London based data centre facility, LDeX1. This strategic move will enable our customers to have faster and scalable connectivity between LDeX and C4L's 100 data centres in the UK and internationally, helping to deliver faster Internet services."

Matt Hawkins, Chairman & Founder of C4L said: "Our goal is to create the largest DC network in the UK, and by adding POPs in premium facilities like LDeX1 allows our customers to access all the products and services available in the North London location plus it connects LDeX1 customers to the 100 DCs in our UK network."

Speaking at the DaisyWired14 technology event on May 7th, CBI Director General John Cridland called on the government to give more help to growing businesses.

He said that mid-market companies have often been overlooked by government policy in favour of small businesses, but Cridland identified them as the true engines of future economic growth in the UK.

The Director General was speaking to an audience of 200 businesses at Daisy Group's industry summit, which brought together some of the UK's best known and most entrepreneurial companies to debate the global impact and influence of technology on business.

Cridland also called on the entrepreneurial community to take advantage of the ubiquity of technology available to deliver a steady growth period.

Cridland said: "Some businesses, with a turnover of £100-200m, have the potential for gazelle-like growth and could be worth £500m in about five years time. They are our true national champions - but we don't have enough of these companies making that growth spurt in Britain. We need to concentrate on nurturing the £20m, £40m or £100m turnover businesses so that they become the future national champions we can be proud of.

"We cut off the support for businesses when they get to around £10m turnover, but why are we doing that? We need to focus on this ‘forgotten army' of entrepreneurs and help them make that progression. This medium sized group makes up less than 10,000 of the 3m business of the UK but it is worth 23% of the UK economy.

"Daisy represents a perfect example of these companies that, with a helping hand, are more likely to innovate and create more jobs than either the small or large businesses."

Cridland went on to draw a contrast with Germany, which he said had managed to support the continued growth of a much larger number of mid-size businesses, contributing significantly to real strengths in its economy.

Cridland continued: "All industries have the potential, particularly in the exports market, to make this decade the UK's, just as the previous one belonged to Germany. We need to nurture these companies with capital and management systems to help them break into the markets around the world which want to buy our products and services, but are not particularly easy to get into."

Cridland also called for the term SME to disappear, claiming that it now describes an obsolete concept. Small businesses and growing businesses that have become medium-sized businesses have different policy requirements.

Matthew Riley, Daisy Group's Chief Executive Officer, said: "Businesses today are using combinations of cloud computing, social computing, big data and mobile to innovate and achieve their business goals. This is changing business models, creating new markets, transforming customer service and accelerating product innovation. It is quite simply affecting every business, particularly those mid-market companies who have the resources and the courage to move quickly and invest in working these technologies to their advantage.

"Daisy itself has grown from a small team operating out of my garage to a £350m turnover business employing more than 1500 staff around the country. We were a small business; we're now a medium sized firm and technology is both what we do best and what has propelled us into this position."

UK IT retailers Carphone Warehouse and Dixons have agreed a £3.8bn merger to create an electricals retail giant with 3,000 stores and sales of almost £12bn.

The new company, called Carphone Dixons, will bring the household names Currys, PC World and Carphone Warehouse under one umbrella. Dixons and Carphone shareholders will each own 50% of the combined group under the deal.

The companies said the merger made sense because their two markets (phones and IT) were converging as consumers increasingly use multiple devices. Dixons, which has just reported good results, still has some businesses in Europe; both firms were boosted by the withdrawal of competitor Comet in the UK two years' ago.

CA Technologies has named software specialist Amit Chatterjee as executive vice president, Enterprise Solutions and Technology Group, effective immediately.

Chatterjee will have overall responsibility for strategy and execution across the full portfolio of Enterprise businesses, from development to commercialisation.

In addition, Chief Technology Officer John Michelsen will now report directly to Chief Executive Officer Mike Gregoire. Peter Griffiths, who served as executive vice president, Enterprise Solutions and Technology Group since 2011, will leave the company to pursue other interests.

Chatterjee brings a 20-year track record of success in technology and software at both high-growth start-ups and global multinationals. Fortune Magazine named him 'Top 40 Under 40' in 2010, and Ernst & Young named him as 'Entrepreneur of the Year - Venture Capital' in 2011. He will be based at CA's Silicon Valley Technology Center in Santa Clara, California

"Amit is a successful innovator, business builder and team leader, and I am excited to have attracted an executive with his unique experience and capabilities to our company," said Gregoire. "His proven ability to connect innovation to opportunity and develop differentiated solutions is exactly what we need to further strengthen our portfolio, serve our customers and drive our continued success."

Amit Chatterjee was the founder and CEO of Hara, a cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service company that provides enterprises with the data and information they need to manage energy consumption. He also held senior executive positions at SAP.

Researchers say over half of the service providers participating in a survey have sizeable M2M businesses (ie, providing at least one million M2M connections to customers) and that the automotive/transport/logistics and utility segments together account for nearly half of all M2M connections.

M2M is still predominately a 2G-based system, a study by Infonetics found: LTE remains nascent, making up only 1% of total devices; however, both 2G and LTE are expected to be the fastest-growing M2M access technologies in the near term. National coverage tops the list of M2M solution features rated very important by respondents, followed by web-based management tools and service-level agreements (SLAs).

For many service providers entering the M2M space, a service platform is key to jump-starting an M2M business: Those surveyed most often named Jasper Wireless and Ericsson as the top M2M platform providers

Market research firm Infonetics Research has done this research and released excerpts from its new M2M Strategies: Global Service Provider Survey, which provides insights into the machine-to-machine (M2M) market - also referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT) - through the eyes of service providers providing or planning to offer M2M services.

"Service provider focus and prioritization of the M2M segment has been a relatively recent phenomenon, but as our latest M2M service provider survey shows, M2M is now scaling to be a significant business for a good number of providers around the world," notes Godfrey Chua, directing analyst for M2M and The Internet of Things at Infonetics Research.

Continues Chua: "The leading tier of M2M players have committed meaningful resources to developing their M2M businesses and now have significant scale to show for it - between 2 million to just under 10 million M2M connections. They have strategies in place and have created standalone M2M business units comprised of overlay go-to-market and technical organizations. M2M is no longer just an extension of the enterprise business unit for these service providers."

Some 55% of respondents are using internally-developed M2M service platforms, it found.