Consumers

• The world of synced devices, home appliances and wearable technology will start to mainstream.
• Smart-home, health-related and connected-vehicle applications will churn out higher average revenue per user than industrial and enterprise or public infrastructure applications.
• 'Smart Bands' will add blood oxygen, respiratory rate, blood pressure, and body temperature sensors to Watches.
• 130m smart wearable devices will ship in 2018 - 10 times the number in today's market.
• Wearable band shipments will grow 129% year on year to reach 43.2 million units in 2015.
• Smart clothing will deliver to a sports fan tactile, visceral sensations as they watch a game from her living room, while couples will share immersive intimate moments across vast distances.
• Devices like smart watches, headbands and belts will all work well using magnetic field human body communication.
• Smart Classrooms Market is expected to grow from USD 43.27 Billion in 2015 to USD 93.76 Billion in 2020, at a CAGR of 16.7%.
• Sales of AR smart glasses are expected to be worth $1.2 billion in two years' time (2017).
• For brands prepared to invest in smart engagement strategies, the rise and rise of athleisure presents a key opportunity to exploit a new obsession.

Buildings

• Rapid urbanization, global connectivity and digital convergence of next-generation IT solutions will open up growth opportunities for IoT and cloud-based solutions in smart buildings.
• Valuing a smart building will be even more difficult as its valuation will have to rely on physical structures as well as digital features within the building and its environment.
• Smart cities are a $7.5 billion annual opportunity for technology providers by 2020.
• Annual smart city technology investment in Asia Pacific will almost quadruple by 2023.
• World-leading names in lighting and smart cities solutions will leverage strengths in real-world Internet of Things applications.
• Property value drivers will be increasingly embedded into digital maps.
• Living architecture affecting buildings' structures will become the norm.

Security

• Samsung smart TVs could capture ambient audio collected from its customers and transmit that to "third parties".
• Home security will factor in as a related growth area with the rise of the smart house and appliances.

Transport

• Technology will enable smart ticketing to work across thousands of devices including railway station gates, validators and ticket machines.
• Upcoming AI and vehicle robotics technologies could allow the elderly to maintain their independence.
• Automakers are already developing cars that can anticipate a driver's heart attack or sudden disability to bring the vehicle to a safe halt.

Business

• The total cost of ownership for business operations will be reduced by 30% through smart machines and industrialized services.
• Purpose-built data centres will become an essential component within the infrastructure of every smart city.
• Companies that aim to enhance the value of the grid to all customers will use technology to improve system performance and customer engagement and to provide flexibility.
• There will be huge opportunity for businesses who can offer smart home technology as a service-installing, monitoring, and maintaining it.
• The number of networked devices will surge to 25 billion units by 2020 from about 900 million in 2009.
• Big Data analytics and decision support tools will be a major driver in tomorrow's digital hospital.

Manufacturing

• Enabling collaborative manufacturing and real-time connectivity between the end consumer and the manufacturer will accelerate plant-floor automation and help ICT providers anchor their place in the global smart plants space.
• Collaborating with industrial automation providers to design, integrate and implement fully automated plants based on manufacturer requirements will be a crucial step in bringing the concept of smart plants to reality.

Risks

• Connected home technologies like thermostats and home security systems could introduce new risks that home owners and even manufacturers hadn't considered.
• Weather forecasts and historical data predict the likely magnitude of an outage based on the age of the equipment in the area and other factors.
• One possibility is that the tech could be used by the UK government to police the bedroom tax in council housing (Big Brother! is watching you!)
• Data gleaned from smart heating systems in rented housing could be extracted by landlords keen to cut their heating bill.

Smart dust

• Smart Dust could measure the health of water supplies or nuclear facilities or even large groups of people.
• Military tacticians could envision Smart Dust as some kind of advanced scout in theaters of war.
• Some consumers will fight employer tracking.

Knowledge

• Smart information systems could be implemented that enable participants at the distribution level to see the real costs of all aspects of the electricity system.
  

Work

• Smart machines will increase productivity.
• One in three jobs will be converted to either software, robots or  smart machines.
• ICT will be used for communicating between surveillance systems, transportation sectors, control centers and service providers for providing traffic management, building management, security services.
• The economic future of people will increasingly depend on being able to live and work in a connected and interactive smart city.

Learn More
What future opportunities and risks could arise for your organization from advances in smart technologies? Develop your answer and response here.

Find the sources and more resources on Shaping Tomorrow’s ‘Smart Everything’ some of which were used in this Trend Alert, or ask us for our ready-made and free, in-depth PowerPoint report or more detailed GIST briefing on this or any other topic of interest to you.

Also, click here to find out how Shaping Tomorrow can help your organization rapidly assess and respond to these and other key issues affecting your business.