Moving into 2014, MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), an ICT industry research institute based in Taipei, Taiwan, believes that the global software industry will concentrate on four technologies: mobile application, big data, cloud computing, and social media, with 10 major applications derived in 2014.
Mobile application not only unleashes the demand for smartphones and tablets, but also turns a new page on the development of software industry, said Victor Weng, senior analyst at MIC. Big data has evolved from discussion among experts to everyday applications. The development of cloud computing brings about the adoption of public cloud services and changes in data center architectures. Social media continues to expand its market by launching innovative content based on the social collaboration platforms.
- Mobile Apps Continue to Stretch into Various Fields
Originally focused on gaming and entertainment, mobile apps will continue to expand to new fields, such as personal health care, mobile learning, and professional financial services, thereby increasing the applications of mobile devices.
- Mobile Shopping Apps to Change Consumer Behavior
An increasing number of consumers will go shopping via mobile apps, which provide SoLoMo (Social, Location-based, Mobile) experience with a higher level of convenience and accuracy. Compared with online shopping on computers, mobile shopping apps give consumers more freedom in where and when they want to buy.
- Rise of Commercial Mobile Apps
Instead of developing and deploying commercial software, enterprises today are going mobile by releasing apps dedicated to the company or the field. Business process apps integrate ERP with CRM functions while other apps provide virtual banking services, booking system, or logistic management.
- Mobile Apps Trigger Click-to-Mortar Business Model
Mobile apps will continue to stimulate sales of both real and virtual goods, such as games, stickers, and virtual treasures in games, giving birth to virtual currencies like Bitcoin. The O2O (Online to Offline; Offline to Online) business model is expected to derive a wide variety of transaction methods.
- Big Data Essential to Cross-border e-Commerce
Cross-border e-commerce is the most intuitive commercial use of big data technologies, which can facilitate the analysis of consumers' data flow and more accurate forecast for logistic and supply chain management. The future of global shopping with 24-hr delivery will be achieved.
- Big Data to Help Risk Assessment and Forecasting
In view of the dramatic changes in climate around the world, together with the constant threats to food safety and the environment, big data technologies can be applied to disaster forecasting and risk assessment, including demographic and medical care research. In Taiwan, the major application of big data will focus on public health, food safety, and disaster prevention.
- Data Security to Become a Critical Issue
MIC finds that over 90% of the enterprises in its survey express their concerns over data security on mobile devices. With big data applications becoming widespread, the security issue will become more prominent. Data security and privacy protection of users on mainstream social media websites have been under intensive discussion.
- Adoption of Cloud Storage Services to Surge
According to MIC's survey on Taiwanese companies' plans of adopting cloud services in the future three years, 26% said they will consider using security services; 23.5% for mail services; 18.3% for storage services. Enterprises and individual users alike are moving from evaluation to practical application of cloud computing services.
- Launch of Software-Defined Data Centers
The continuous development of cloud computing is driving rapid deployment and flexible management of cloud data centers and related infrastructure. Following the concept of virtualization, SDN (Software-Defined Network), SDS (Software-Defined Storage), and SDDC (Software-Defined Data Center) will emerge as new technologies that enable compute resources to be abstracted from their underlying hardware.
- Social Media Users to Become Mobile Consumers
As social media continues to flourish, the number of its users is increasing. The economic benefits brought about by network externality have turned social media platforms to become partners of traditional enterprises. Through the integration of mobile devices and mobile content, social media is leading a new wave of mobile consumers.
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About MIC
Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), based in Taipei, Taiwan, was founded in 1987. MIC is Taiwan's premier IT industry research and consulting firm providing intelligence, in-depth analysis, and strategic consulting services on global IT product and technology trends, focusing on markets and industries in Asia-Pacific. MIC is part of the Institute for Information Industry. https://mic.iii.org.tw/english