Wearables

• Wearables ownership will increase from 7% in 2014 to 14% in 2015.
• Wearables will play an integral part in the Internet of Things and enable an Internet of nearly everything.

Internet of Things

• Internet of Things in-home devices will increase from 4% to around 60%.
• There will be over 30 billion devices connected.
• Points of connection will be everywhere-smartphones.
• Internet of Things will create $1.9 Trillion of Economic Value Add.
• Sensors based on microelectro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) technology will continue to play a significant role in enabling Internet of Things applications.
• Cameras and recognition technologies will create 'everyware'.
• There will be a million times more machines.
• 3D printing must here also be seen as a direct IoT effect (where the 'thing' is the microproduction facility) as it will become even more the new-normal and mainstream.
• Bitcoin could be the answer to unlocking the business model of the Internet of Things market by 2020.

Social media

• Internet and social media will play a much stronger role in the core processing infrastructures in the next few years and could be a major challenge for the payment-processing operators.
• Social media and Cloud services will become much more decentralized.
• Global mobile Internet advertising revenue is forecast to leapfrog classified advertising to become the third-largest Internet advertising channel.
• Spending on Internet display advertising in the US will nearly double over the next five years.

Consumers

• Nearly half the world's population will be connected to the Internet by 2017.
• Billions of people and devices will come online in the next five years.
• Consumers and professionals will take the internet with them not just in their pockets but directly in front of their eyes.
• Consumers expect to have instant access to the internet regardless of whether they are indoors or outdoors.
• Corporate and private hacking (as well as government surveillance) will continue to creep into everyday ICT usage.
• Smart security will be crucial.
• Premium services that offer more privacy will be valued.
• There will be unparalleled collaboration, productivity and innovation.
• New technologies such as virtual walls and virtual mirrors will further help improve the retail customer experience.

• Teachers are increasingly expected to be knowledgeable on the practices, skills, and resources that will be useful to students as they continue their education and seek gainful employment.

Leadership

• Leaders will need to commit resources to the digital transformation to maintain their position.
• CIOs and other technology specialists will need to change their mind-set about big data.
• Internet capabilities will require much more than a focus on customer-facing operations.
• Start-ups based on digital models will gain momentum.
• A new operating strategy will integrate Internet technologies into back-office functions, production processes, and supply chains.
• The open-ended characteristics of Internet technologies will challenge traditional business models that keep value-chain activities in-house.
• Improvements will take shape in marketing and distribution as sales organizations deploy the Internet to expand their reach and enrich customer interactions.

Technologies

• Internet-of-Things arrival will mean a surge in demand for sensors of many kinds.
• Total traffic over IP networks will grow threefold.
• Businesses will need big data and storage technologies to collect, analyze and store the sheer volume of information.
• Drone delivery will build a physical Internet.
• Many kinds of services will be delivered entirely virtually.
• Driver-less cars will be an integral component of the Internet of Things.

Workforce

• Workers who can combine knowledge of the pertinent sector with top-notch technology skills will be in high demand.
• Labor-intensive industries will need to attract more knowledge workers as digital technologies become "wrappers" for many goods and services.
• People will operate in an environment in which decisions about the information they get and the media encounters they have will be organized by machines and cooperating devices.
• Employees will also want to wear their devices to work.

Beneficiaries

• Consumers and businesses alike will benefit from lower prices and transaction costs.
• There will be renewed demands for more privacy controls from consumers and citizens.
• The idea of self-driving cars and internet-regulated traffic is expected to add an extra six months on average to life expectancy.
• Disruptive technologies could transform the delivery of public health by 2025 through remote health services and digitally enabled healthcare workers.

Learn more
To find the sources and more resources on Shaping Tomorrow about the future of growth some of which were used in this Trend Alert. View Internet report.

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