by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Markets, SMEs, Technology
By Nishant Arora,
New Delhi : Smart home speakers are steadily gaining ground in India and Amazon’s Echo range has been appreciated the most so far, followed by Google Home.
Led by Amazon Echo, with 59 per cent market share, the smart speakers category in India grew 43 per cent in the second quarter (July-September) this year, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report.
Analysts see the nascent smartphone market in India growing beyond entertainment and Amazon, with its top-of-the-line voice-based Alexa platform, has brought the second iteration of its Echo smart home speaker to the country that is able to control connected devices around you and does not need third-party support.
The Indian smart home devices market which consists of connected lights, smart speakers, connected thermostats, smart TVs, home monitoring/security products and digital media adapters saw a healthy year-on-year growth of 107 per cent to hit 1.4 million shipments in the second quarter.
Let us see what the Rs 14,999 All-New Echo Plus (2nd Gen) with a smarter Alexa has to offer.
The top has four buttons — two to adjust volume, one to wake up Alexa and one mute button — along with seven ergonomically-placed microphones.
This time, the 780-gram device goes beyond reading daily news, playing music, announcing weather or ordering food.
The All-New Echo Plus comes with a built-in smart hub that helps you set up compatible Zigbee-enabled smart home devices directly, just using your voice.
Zigbee is a wireless technology developed to enable low-cost, low-power wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) and IoT (Internet of Things) networks.
Just ask Alexa to discover your devices and begin controlling compatible lights, plugs, locks, thermostats, sensors and in-wall switches.
For example, Echo Plus connected directly to Philips Hue light-bulbs.
Insert the bulb into a receptacle and tell Alexa to discover new devices. Within no time, she will throw up the name of the device (in this case, the light-bulb).
Start controlling the device, like “switch on the light Alexa”.
You can also control compatible lights and plugs from Syska, TP-Link and Oakter.
With seven microphones, beam-forming technology and noise cancellation, Echo Plus heard us from almost all directions.
Housing new speakers powered by Dolby and enhanced back volume, the bass felt stronger and the sound crisp and clear.
One feature that is worth mentioning is the equaliser (EQ) feature that allows users to personalise sounds by adjusting the bass, mid-range and treble.
Just ask Alexa to increase or decrease a specific band like “turn up the bass” or “decrease the treble” and she does it for you.
We could also made adjustments through the Alexa app.
The new Echo Plus also has a temperature sensor, making it possible for Alexa to tell the temperature in any room (it works with a compatible smart home thermostat).
With the device, call or message your friends and members in the family who also has an Echo device or the Alexa App.
Simply ask “Alexa, how do I set up calling?” and get started.
What doesn’t work?
Alexa is getting smarter by the day and we will soon have more local functionalities in it. At the moment, the device gives the best smart speaker experience.
Conclusion: From a tall, metal cylinder look in the first generation, Echo Plus has come a long distance in terms of look and feel. The second-generation Echo Plus with a far more intelligent Alexa is a real upgrade if you have experienced the first generation Echo.
(Nishant Arora can be contacted at nishant.a@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Emerging Businesses, Investing
San Francisco : Worldwide revenues for Big Data and Business Analytics (BDA) solutions will reach $260 billion in 2022 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.9 per cent over the 2017-2022 period, according to a new forecast from International Data Corporation (IDC).
BDA revenues are expected to total $166 billion this year, an increase of 11.7 per cent over last year, showed the updated “Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide” from IDC on Wednesday.
The industries making the largest investments in Big Data and Business Analytics solutions throughout the forecast period are banking, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, professional services, and federal/central government, the report said.
Combined, these five industries will account for nearly half ($81 billion) of worldwide BDA revenues this year, it added.
“At a high level, organisations are turning to Big Data and analytics solutions to navigate the convergence of their physical and digital worlds,” Jessica Goepfert, Program Vice President, Customer Insights and Analysis at IDC, said in a statement.
More than half of all BDA revenues will go to IT and business services over the course of the forecast, said the report, adding that two of the fastest growing BDA technology categories will be Cognitive/AI Software Platforms and Non-relational Analytic Data Stores.
The US is by far the largest geographic market, delivering nearly $88 billion in BDA revenues this year and more than half of the worldwide total throughout the five-year forecast.
Western Europe is the second largest geographic market with 2018 revenues expected to reach $35 billion, followed by the Asia/Pacific region with $23.9 billion, IDC said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise, Markets, Technology
San Francisco : Phablets (smartphones with screen size of 5.5-7 inches) will far outpace total market growth by climbing from 611 million units in 2017 to one billion units in 2021, representing a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.1 per cent.
In comparison, the total smartphone market is expected to grow at three per cent CAGR during the same period, while normal smartphones (under 5.5 inches) will decline 7.4 per cent, the International Data Corporation (IDC) said on Thursday.
The smartphone shipments will grow from 1.5 billion units in 2017 to 1.7 billion units in 2021 globally.
In 2012, phablets were just one per cent of smartphone shipments and now they are approaching 50 per cent of the market.
“The rapid transition to bezel-less smartphones will help minimise the device footprint while growing the screen size from previous generations,” said Ryan Reith, Programme Vice President with IDC’s “Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Device Trackers”.
Android-based phablets have been the primary driver of large-screen smartphones and IDC expects this trend to continue in the years to come.
Samsung’s early dominance of the phablet category has been short-lived as other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) – many of which are Chinese OEMs – quickly pushed the category into the mainstream and even low end.
As a result, China consumed 50 per cent of the 437.4 million phablets shipped in 2016.
IDC expects China will remain the largest market for large-screen smartphones and to grow at a CAGR of 12.6 per cent.
“There is no doubt that 2017 gave birth to the new ultra high-end segment of the smartphone market,” said Anthony Scarsella, IDC Research Manager.
“The latest flagship devices from Samsung, Apple, Google, LG, and others has pushed the high end to the $850-plus level for the first time.”
Android-powered smartphones have already captured 85 per cent of total market volume and IDC expects this share to remain relatively stable.
—IANS
