IoT Megatrends 2015 is a short overview of four major IoT trends, created as a collaboration between VisionMobile and Topp. 4 key trends that hint at the IoT’s future are presented in the report, as follows: Breaking free of Internet and Things Data is the new currency Consumers outweigh the CIO Everyone will be a developer

The Shadow Economy in Europe, 2013  Change is coming fast these days. Globalisation and digitalisation have dramatically altered the way in which we live, work, and communicate. Across Europe, consumers are adopting smartphones—in the United Kingdom and Spain, more than 6 in 10 mobile users own smart – phones—providing connectivity anytime, anywhere. An abundance of easily obtainable information has made today’s consumers more sophisticated and demanding of convenience across channels, devices, and applications. A shopper today can go to the local mall to try out several pairs of sneakers, then compare prices to other retailers—and even make a purchase— using her mobile phone. Paradoxically, as consumers achieve this “modernity,” they still rely primarily on old-fashioned cash for most of their transactions. Dirty and heavy, cash is also easy to hide from authorities, fuelling one of society’s most damaging phenomena: the shadow economy—that blurry area of commerce that includes legal activity hidden deliberately from public authorities. The shadow economy in Europe today is worth more than €2.1 trillion. It is facing increased scrutiny as national governments seek to balance budgets while avoiding the tax increases and benefit cuts that can hamper economic recovery. It is nurtured by several interlocking factors: the predominance of cash, a lack of transparency surrounding transactions, and limited enforcement of laws. The shadow economy offers questionable individual benefits at the expense of many, resisting the world’s Increasing digitalisation and connectivity and hampering the public good. A.T. Kearney and Friedrich Schneider, PhD, professor of economics and chairperson of the Department of Economics at Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria, have teamed up once again to study the structure of the shadow economy in Europe and identify measures to reduce it. The study is based on an analysis of the shadow economy within 12 industry sectors in six focus countries in Europe (see appendix: About the Study on page 20). This report examines the findings of our study and how to address them.

Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy, a report from the McKinsey Global Institute, cuts through the noise and identifies 12 technologies that could drive truly massive economic transformations and disruptions in the coming years. The report also looks at exactly how these technologies could change our world, as well as their benefits and challenges, and offers guidelines to help leaders from businesses and other institutions respond. We estimate that, together, applications of the 12 technologies discussed in the report could have a potential economic impact between $14 trillion and $33 trillion a year in 2025. Mobile Internet: In just a few years, Internet-enabled portable devices have gone from a luxury for a few to a way of life for more than one billion people who own smartphones and tablets. In the United States, an estimated 30 percent of Web browsing and 40 percent of social media use are done on mobile devices; by 2015, wireless Web use is expected to exceed wired use. Read the full report here

HP Worldwide has honored Obrela Security Industries by recognizing them as an industry leading innovator in the field of Managed Security Services by profiling them in the recently published “Obrela Keeps your business in business with HP Arcsight” case study. The case study features the high level of services and innovation that Obrela provides to their customers based on the world’s number one SIEM platform (as defined by 10 consecutive years of Gartner Magic Quadrants). Obrela’s services are used by major domestic and Global 500 corporations.  

In 2012 the EAS Market in Greece declined 8,2% from the previous year. SAP continued to lead, followed by SingularLogic, Oracle, Microsoft and Entersoft. Enterprise Resource Management (ERM) remained the top functional area in the Greek EAS market in 2012, accounting for slightly more than 50% of total EAS spending, followed by supply Chain Management (SCM) and business analytics (BA).   IDC – Greece Enterprise Application Software Market 2013-2017 Forecast

Senior analyst, Andreas Pappas, takes another look at the results of VisionMobile’s Developer Economics 2012 survey and comes up with interesting new insights on app monetisation: how does app revenue vary by app-category and by country? Is there a correlation between time spent developing an app and they money it makes? take a look

50 Percent Will Make A Purchase with a Mobile Device; 61 Percent of Consumers Would Be More Willing To Make Mobile Payments if Improvements were made to the Current Landscape. According to a joint national survey conducted by Sybase 365, the mobile services arm of SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and global leader in mobile interconnection services and mobile commerce solutions, and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the leading global trade association for the mobile industry, mobile devices are playing a more crucial role than ever before in influencing consumers’ shopping decisions at the point of sale and across every stage of the purchase funnel.This survey of 1,000 adults in the U.S. found that mobile’s influence over consumer shopping behaviors is far greater than it was a year ago. As confirmed in the study, a vast majority (87%) of respondents reported that they will use their mobile device to change the way they shop this holiday season. Additionally, 50 percent of consumers plan to make a purchase with their mobile device this holiday season either through mobile web, apps, using their mobile at the POS or also using SMS/text or voice on their device. Consumers also plan to use their mobile devices for comparing prices, researching deals and coupons, locating product reviews, avoiding long shopping lines, and tracking loyalty points. In a similar survey conducted by Sybase 365 and the MMA a year ago, 62 percent of respondents said they would use their mobile device to help them make purchasing decisions over the holiday season, thus indicating that consumers today are more eager to use their mobile device as a tool of transaction. view the survey

A presentation by Stijn Schuermans at WAN-IFRA 2012 (October 30 2012 @ Frankfurt). Mobile ecosystems and the new role of media publishers in the app economy. view the presentation

Mobile communication is now a key European industry, comparable in size to aerospace and larger than pharmaceuticals. This report updates the Observatory with the latest statistics and market developments, providing a reference point for participants in the mobile industry, for policy makers and other interested stakeholders. GSMA – European Mobile Industry Observatory 2011

Worldwide spending on public IT cloud services will be more than 40 billion USD in 2012 and is expected to approach 100 billion USD in 2016. Over 2012-2016 forecast period, public IT cloud services will enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 26,4%, five times that of the IT industry overall, as companies accelerate their shift to the cloud services model for IT consumption.