Market Research Blog

Amazon had recently announced about its new headquarters, however the company wasn’t expecting a negative response out from public. The technology graveyard has been riddled with unsuccessful products and developments such as Amazon’s Fire Phone and Apple Newton. The technology giants in the long run are expected to focus on high-tech marketing organization, which needs an understanding of market-adoption process. The most common misunderstanding that most of the companies consider is that customers are early-adopters or hold similar characteristics or personalities.

Multi-Billion-Dollar Tech Firms to Witness Downfall in Revenue Sales

In the chosen territories of Amazon, which is Virginia and New York, the local politicians recoiled at the taxpayer-funded incentives promised to Amazon. Journalists throughout the political spectrum had panned deals and the social media has been flooded with Virginians and New Yorkers’ voices pledging resistance.

There were revelations that Facebook had exploited the anti-Semitic conspiracy ideas for undermining the legitimacy of critics, which in turn led to a negative impact on public view regarding the same. Even Apple and Amazon have been witnessing their share market values heading nearly US$1 trillion. All of the above factors has resulted in loss of the public trust in technology companies that have been promising to remake the planet politically, environmentally and socially. With each new scandal as well as failed response, companies are witnessed as turning out to be a serious danger for the society.

Warning Alarm for Tech Giants to Ramp up from What’s Left

The technological firms are definitely wealthy and powerful, however, their days of hiding scrutiny are about to end. American public have begun suspecting that technology giants are unprepared or perhaps unwilling for taking up the responsibility of tools that they introduce to the world. Future of the corporate offices of Amazon is shaping up as multi-sided brawl amongst the elected officials as well as people who they are planning to represent. The response of each technology firm to every new revelation draws up a standard pattern.

It’s high time that the tech giants should be changing themselves dramatically by either breaking themselves up or taking hold of responsibility for the damage caused to consumers because of their products and platforms. Using any technology holds related risks but increasing technological systems in complexity and size stimulates the probability of damage. In addition, the tech giants are also likely to focus on developing models that would help them in differentiating between discontinuous and continuous innovations.

Currently, as market leader, Samsung holds around 20 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, followed by Huawei and Apple at around 14 and 13 per cent respectively during the third quarter of this year.

Giants Fall to Technology Transition

Earlier, when the telecommunications industry moved from 2G, 3G and to 4G, a number of major smartphone market players lost significant amounts of market share owing to challenges rising from design innovations to keep up with technological advancements.

The biggest example of this was the fall of Finland-based Nokia which was a market leader during the period of 2G, and lost significant traction during 3G, and almost completely faded away during the era of 4G. The company was unable to keep up with new advances such as dual-sim capabilities. Despite the acquisition of the company by Microsoft, the business had to stop.

Similarly, Motorola also lost significant market share during the move from 2G to 3G. While Samsung was the biggest gainer during the 3G period, with an increase of double the market share, the company is anticipated to face a tough time with 5G, as China is anticipated to be one of the major markets for the new technology, with Chinese smartphone manufacturers taking center stage.

In addition, Huawei is also anticipated to face a challenging time during the period of transition, owing to the blockage of the company’s smartphone and 5G business within the United States.

Expected Winners of the 5G Battle

Small scale players including Sony, and Sharp are anticipated to gain market share in the local markets, provided they display agility in brand marketing and technology building. On the other hand, brands such as OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi, are anticipated to gain market share on a global scale, with the enhancement of distribution and marketing networks, leading to profitable sales of several million units. All of these companies already have a strong network in Asia and Europe and are anticipated to put forth strong competition in North and South America during the 5G phase.

At a time, when consumers are unwilling to pay high amounts on new phones which show only small improvements, the intense competition between smartphone manufacturers will largely come down to who has the wider portfolio of useful intellectual property.

Market players such as Lenovo-Motorola and LG will require smart strategizing to transition successfully in to 5G or risk heavy losses, While Samsung and Huawei, will face challenges owing to their limited presence in the China and US markets.

The top science and space agency of Australia announced a massive $35 million investment into space technology and artificial intelligence, which is anticipated to act as a significant part of the state run science and space agency’s portfolio for the Future Science Platforms, which was initiated by the organization during 2016.

Investment to Develop Solutions for Real-world Problems

A large chunk of the $35 million investment will be spent on developing machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities, to improve understanding and predictions on complex information build upon solutions for global issues of high importance including sustainable energy production, environment protection, and food security among others.

$16 million will be pressed into development of advancements in space technology that will primarily be used for the observation of the earth, efficient utilization of resources in space, manufacturing equipment for Mars and Moon missions, improving life support systems, alongside the accurate tracking of interstellar objects. The activities will also involve the employment of post-doctoral researchers and students, and a number of collaborations within the industry.

Apart from artificial intelligence, machine learning, and new space technology CSIRO’s future science platforms portfolio also includes modules such as environomics, precision health, synthetic biology, active integrated matter, probing bio-systems, digiscape, hydrogen energy systems, and deep earth imaging. For instance, the initiative made automotive hydrogen powered systems work through hydrogen extracted from ammonia.

Australian Space Agency Projected to Triple in Size

The $16 million investment combined with the $26 million from the federal budget earlier this year, will be key to the formation of a dedicated Australian Space Agency. This move is anticipated to grow the size of the Australian space sector by three times to $20 billion by the year 2030. The researchers at CSIRO are also currently researching laser technology that is touted to bring about a revolution in how data is captured from space. The process is anticipated to increase data capture by up to 10 times through the use of optics and light instead of radio waves.

The Future Science Platform is anticipated to utilize the challenging environment of Australia to opportunities for scientific growth that will put the country on center-stage on a global scale, by bringing the best expertise in regards to technology, science, math, and engineering. This will be able to develop innovative solutions for problems for various regions around the world, giving Australia an edge in the market.

One of the most-traded food commodities worldwide is, Fish with developing nations exporting the most of fish to the rest of the world. According to representatives and experts from the food industry, the oceans and inland waters exhibit colossal window of opportunity- even more in the coming future- contributing to food security and adequate nutrition of the growing population worldwide. Aquaculture is the “breeding, rearing, and harvesting of animals and plants in all types of water environments.” Experts believe that aquaculture is one of the most efficient and sustainable ways to produce protein- thereby, catering to nutrition needs and food security in many parts of the world. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA Fisheries) a US government body responsible for studying, analysis, and protecting the nation’s ocean resources and their habitat, in 2014 alone, the value of the aquaculture market was US$160 billion.

Fish produced from aquaculture is mostly meant for human consumption, however, the by-products are used for non-food purposes. The global aquaculture market is predominantly dominated by Asia (89 percent), with China accounting for almost 62 percent, followed by India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Egypt. Leeching on the opportunity, “startups in seafood and aquaculture technology, raised US$193 million in 2016, a 271% increase on the US$52 million raised across both 2014 and 2015”, according to Agfunder, a leading platform for accredited investors looking to invest in curated food and agriculture technology companies. Additionally, the ‘2030 Agenda’ adopted by United Nations member states in 2015,  “sets aims for the contribution and conduct of fisheries and aquaculture towards food security and nutrition in the use of natural resources so as to ensure sustainable development in economic, social and environmental terms.”

This brings us to the next part. What more can be done to enhance and improve aquaculture production? Enter Internet of Things (IoT) that has taken the world by storm. Established players and startups are leveraging the power of IoT to develop technologies that pulls data from various sensors and satellites. The massive data recovered from such sensors is put to use to make aquaculture operations more efficient and eco-friendly using cloud-based analytic software tools.

Predictive Software, Cloud-Platforms, and Counting Fish Larvae among More IoT Technologies to Drive Aquaculture

Predictive Platform for Shrimps: Recently, Cargill, a key player in the aquaculture market, launched a predictive software platform that uses machine learning to help farmers manage risks and make better decisions in shrimp farming. Experts believe that this platform will help the shrimp farming industry as shrimps are often exposed to disease and weather risks. Data such as shrimp size, health, quality of water, feeding patterns and weather conditions can be collected by farmers using mobile devices, sensors and, automated feeders. The farmers then make sense of the data using algorithms and make informed decisions regarding feeding strategies and favorable harvest dates. Using IoT-enabled sensors and software, an Indonesian startup is helping shrimps farms to monitor water quality. Conditions like dissolved oxygen, temperature, humidity, pH, salinity and total dissolved solids is measured by this all-in-one device and the data is instantly accessible on a smartphone application. Employing specific algorithms, the data is then used for making corrective actions.

Weather Predicting Technology for Oysters: The Yield is an IoT-powered platform made especially for oyster farming industry uses sensors to collect climate-related data like water temperature and depth, salinity, barometric pressure in the water and sea-tide height- which is then used for a three- day weather prediction on harvesting conditions.

Fish Counting Made Easy: A Canada-based aquaculture-focused startup launched a technology empowered by AI and computer vision to better control fish inventories in fish farms and hatcheries. This IoT-enabled device helps in counting shrimp larvae. The device named XperCount- that allows people one person to count up to five bags of larvae in about 25 minutes, is connected to a portal where consumers can access data and analytics related to counting in the fisheries and hatcheries.

Watching Fish Behavior: An IoT device that runs on solar energy using sensors and machine learning to detect fish behavior and if the fish is ready to be fed was added to the aquaculture industry. Experts believe that the device named UmiGarden is important when it comes chances exercising caution interms of overfeeding. The device uses computer-vision technology for facial recognition to study fish behavior. Additionally, UmiGarden also uses satellite imagery resources to leverage data about environmental conditions, which might affect fish behavior including water temperature. Additionally, Indonesia-based eFishery launched a smartphone-controlled automatic fish feeder that uses sensors to track hungry fish. Experts believe that hungry fish become aggressive creating more turbulence and ripples in the water- sending a signal to the sensors.

IoT for Deep Ocean Research: Scientific agency NOAA and other research institutions have been collectively studying Deep Ocean life through various offshore ranches. NOAA and other research institutions use Navy Oceanographic Meteorological Automatic Device (NOMAD) that helps them to collect and transmit diverse oceanographic data. This data is then used for assessing environmental footprint and optimize farming operations accordingly. An addition to this facility, a device named Cytobot was introduced- enabled with microscope and machine vision that detects harmful algae growth in deep ocean.

What’s next? 

Considering that the consumption of fish is on an all-time rise, fish farming is witnessing an overhaul worldwide and exploring ways to make it more efficient and fruitful in terms of breeding and quality and quantum of production. From using artificial intelligence for monitoring and behavioral analysis of species to machine learning for analytics and predictive modeling, the fish farming sector is continually leveraging the power of IoT. Additionally, mergers and acquisitions will further solidify the IoT trend in aquaculture boosting the market further.

Research experts at the UAE University have come across impressive findings, which state that the robot teachers are substantially effective high-tech tools for boosting the attention levels of children diagnosed with autism. The academics at UAEU College of Informations Technology have ascertained that by leveraging the capabilities of artificial intelligence it is possible to assist future developments in healthcare as children are likely to devote exceeding attention towards robots than they would to any human.

According to researchers, children suffering from autism gave a better response to simple instructions provided by robots as found in the research study. The research further indicated that the learning of children, however, was usually hindered with the intricate ideas by a human face.

Dr. Fady Al Najjar, assistant professor at the UAEU College stated that complex behaviors presented to autistic children would not be accepted by them and the children would try avoiding an eye contact. This would inhibit their learning owing to which their team tried to solve this complexity with the introduction of a robot that presents limited behaviors and lesser physical complexities. He further added that their idea is to present robots to children while a medical professional would add commands behind the scenes. Such an activity would enable them to control the amount of information passed through the robot on to the child from the teacher or doctors.

For this research, the team at UAE University made use of a specific testing with robots. The children were introduced to several screen characters to gauge their response on them.

The research team at the University aims to build an interaction enabled with artificial intelligence between the children and robots so that the machine could learn the commands that are gaining greater attention and response from the child. With this development, doctor’s inputs are likely to reduce enabling them to monitor instead of inputting commands to stimulate and trigger attention from autistic children. Artificial intelligence is not just simplifying tasks for teachers dealing with autistic children but is expected to bring major transformations in the future.

As technology enables several developments in key areas of growth, robotics is gaining increasing significance owing to the endless possibilities that come along with it. The capabilities of robotics and technology are expected to foster the future capabilities of medical treatment and learning. This would enable healthcare professionals to gain effective assistance for complex medical treatment procedures in the foreseeable future.