Editor’s note: In October 2020, Gartner released the trend report “The Impact of Emerging Technologies on Products and Services” for the electronics industry, which aims to provide decision-making references for electronics manufacturers and R&D engineers to select emerging technologies and grasp the pace of the market.
A few days ago, Mr. Junkuan Lv, senior research director of Gartner, accepted an interview with the author, explained the maturity radar chart of emerging technologies in detail, and introduced the application, popularization and development process of some emerging technologies.
Junkuan Lv, Senior Research Director, Gartner
Emerging Technologies and Trends Radar Overview
With the rapid development of the mobile Internet, Electronic terminal equipment is becoming the center of the business and consumer world. They play a central role in expanding the channels people use to access applications and information and enhance interactions between people, communities, governments and businesses.
At the same time, emerging technologies (such as 5G, computer vision, and edge AI) and interface modes (such as virtual assistants and AR) that promote more personalization, intelligence, and intuitiveness of electronic terminal devices are becoming important forces to change future trends.
In addition to smartphones, personal computers, laptops and tablets being the most common and commonly used devices today, Junkuan Lv, senior research director at Gartner, introduced that the 18 emerging technologies monitored by Gartner’s “Emerging Technologies and Trends Radar Chart”, It will also have a huge impact on emerging devices such as wearables, hearables, clothing, home audio and the Internet of Things.
Although some emerging technologies and trends may not yet see specific device applications, these technologies and trends are expected to greatly improve current devices and may even create a new terminal device branch or a new business model in the future.
The impact of emerging technologies and trends on products and services
Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Electronic Devices Market Forecasts Show More Business Opportunities for New Technologies as Demand for Device Capabilities Enables Safe Distancing, Remote Collaboration, Tracking/Location Tracking, and Zero-Touch/Contactless Interfaces must be big.
Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies are becoming a must for devices, enabling new user experiences and creating new use cases. This will accelerate device diversity for more business opportunities while replacing existing devices that offer limited user benefits.
The equipment market is reaching the limits of technological differentiation, where one equipment supplier dominates a technology that is no longer competitive. Partnerships with an ecosystem strategy are key to success in the new era.
Junkuan Lv, senior research director at Gartner, believes that the pace of technological update and innovation has accelerated the diversity of devices, while also shortening the lifespan of devices. Product owners in the equipment market must take advantage of emerging technologies to remain competitive, capitalize on market opportunities, and produce different products.
Opportunities and challenges and suggestions for countermeasures
Lv Junkuan, senior research director of Gartner, said that the technical leaders of electronic terminal equipment are facing unprecedented challenges, and the application of emerging technologies is also bringing them opportunities.
In addition to analyzing the above-mentioned influencing factors, this report also made recommendations to the technical leaders of electronic terminal equipment.
First, identify synergies by uncovering combinations of two or more emerging technologies and trends that enable new device scenarios to address business problems and consumer pain points, especially in the post-pandemic era.
Second, reduce development time on devices that support AI use cases by using AI toolkits or joining AI marketplaces to find, acquire, and work with third-party developers.
Third, build or join an ecosystem that maximizes the commercial impact of emerging technologies and trends by working with suppliers, partners and even competitors, including participants in shared technological advancement routes.
Through research on 18 emerging technologies and trends, Garner gave three key trends in the development of new electronic terminal equipment.
First, AI technologies are accelerating the diversity of devices (for example, virtual personal assistants[VPA]Speakers, wearables, and portables are creating new market opportunities), while disrupting existing devices (e.g., smartphones with advanced camera capabilities are replacing digital cameras).
Second, the ability to improve user interfaces is enhancing personalized experiences and can shape new business models (such as AI stores, AR stores, freemium, and devices as a service). For example, AI can improve the photo-taking experience and expand new apps that will enable new businesses, such as TikTok.
Third, new communication technologies (including 5G, Wi-Fi6 and Bluetooth 5) coupled with high-bandwidth, low-latency network applications will create new business models (such as streaming video on e-commerce) and provide the opportunity to develop new devices opportunities such as mobile AR and mixed reality (MR).
Facing the coming opportunities and challenges, Lv Junkuan, senior research director of Gartner, gave specific countermeasures for practitioners.
1. Practitioners can use a combination of two or more emerging technologies and trends to make products recognizable and differentiated. Combining a conversational user interface (UI) with short-range radar, for example, could make a zero-touch/contactless interface a reality.
2. Build an ecosystem that includes participants in the technological progress route. For example, partnerships with suppliers around computer vision, 3D sensing cameras, AR and MR can maximize business impact.
3. Provide third-party developers and other service providers with easy access to technology and functionality by providing APIs and software development kits on the device.
All in all, this Gartner study is very practical. Not only provides technology and service providers with basic information on how emerging technologies and trends are evolving, but suppliers can use this information to determine what is most important to their business and when to make investments to advance their products and services .
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