Global sales of “smart devices,” which include smartphones and tablets, will hit 821 million worldwide this year and 1.2 billion next year, a research firm said on Tuesday.
Gartner Inc said these devices are gaining strong momentum, as many consumers opt to use them instead of personal computers.
“For most businesses, smartphones and tablets will not entirely replace PCs, but the ubiquity of smartphones and the increasing popularity of tablets are changing the way businesses look at their device strategies and the way consumers embrace devices,” Gartner research vice president Carolina Milanesi said.
By 2016, “two-thirds of the mobile workforce will own a smartphone, and 40 percent of the workforce will be mobile,” Milanesi said.
She said tablets would be a key to mobility for workers, with 13 million tablets used for business this year, rising to 53 million by 2016.
Gartner estimates that 56 percent of smartphones purchased by businesses in North America and Europe will be Android devices in 2016, up from 34 percent this year.
“Today the wide range of brands and price points that the Android ecosystem is offering is winning over users. While Apple remains the heartbeat by which the market moves, Google has rapidly become its archrival,” she said.
A separate survey by research firm IDC last week found three out of four smartphones shipped worldwide used the Google-backed mobile platform, even though Apple’s iOS devices are growing.
Milanesi said BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, long the dominant force in smartphones, “has a huge challenge ahead in regaining its key presence in the enterprise.”
She said that in the business market, Windows 8 will take the No. 3 position in the tablet market behind Apple and Android by 2016, with interest coming more from businesses than consumers.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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