Spending on new technologies is on track to accelerate across Asia Pacific, driven by increased demand for 3D printing, smart technologies, Internet of Things and security solutions.
According to IDC research, regional spending will reach US$1.5 trillion by 2021 across this segment of the market, representing a 16.6 per cent growth rate.
Alongside 3D printing, IoT and security, key emerging technologies include augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, cognitive computing and robotics.
IDC estimates that this group of solutions will grow at a faster pace than more established technologies such as big data and analytics, cloud, mobility and social, an area projected to grow at 5.2 per cent.
“Innovation accelerators, including IoT solutions, robots and drones, AR/VR headsets, and 3D printers, will account for almost 40 per cent of the total ICT spending by 2021, estimated at around US$619.1 billion,” said Ashutosh Bisht, research manager of Asia Pacific, IDC.
In terms of contribution to total ICT spending, the share of the established technologies to the overall Asia Pacific market will decline from 49.7 per cent in 2017 to 43.9 per cent in 2021.
Geographically speaking, China accounts for 60.7 per cent of the overall 3rd platform ICT spending in 2018, followed by ASEAN countries with 29.2 per cent share.
Meanwhile, India will observe double-digit growth rate of 11.1 per cent for the five-year forecast period (2016-21), followed by the rest of Asia Pacific with 9.7 per cent.
Credit: IDC Tech predictions
Looking ahead, and of note to channel partners, IDC predicts that by 2020, 90 per cent of large enterprises will generate revenue from data-as-a-service, with task-level intelligent apps that augment human efforts accounting for 30 per cent of the enterprise apps market within four years.
Delving deeper, IDC defines IoT as a network of “uniquely identifiable end points (or things) that communicate bi-directionally without human interaction using IP connectivity”.
Looking ahead, the analyst firm predicts that by 2021, expanding mobile IoT use cases – particularly 5G – will drive 70 per cent of G2000 companies to spend $1.2 billion on connectivity management solutions.
By 2022, 75 per cent of new IoT applications deployed will be packaged applications, compared to 25 per cent today.
Specific to 3D printing, by 2020, IDC forecasts that more than 30 per cent of companies using 3D printers will rely on 3D print management software to secure, monitor, and manage their 3D printers as they would other IT assets.
As a result, within three years, revenue from 3D printers will be a US$2.32 billion industry.
From an AR/VR standpoint, by 2019, 20 per cent of all new enterprise IT mobile applications will include an AR feature set, while one-third of information workers will leverage AR to collaborate and interact with real-world objects by 2022.
By 2027, 80 per cent of large organisations will utilise virtual reality for employee training.
Finally, and specific to robotics, IDC predicts that by 2020, 45 per cent of newly installed robots will have at least one intelligent feature.
Furthermore, by 2022, one-third of fulfilment centres will use robots for picking and packing functions, with the first commercial healthcare robot to be launched by 2027.
