In the new normal of future changes, whether it is the ICT industry, the supply chain, or even the industrial ecosystem, it is necessary to think about how to improve resilience to respond to environmental changes from a mid-to-long-term perspective. It will be important to improve the resilience of the supply chain from procurement to production. The key to future competitiveness.
What is the Scope of the ICT Industry?
The scope of the ICT industry includes "Electronic component manufacturing industry", "Computer, electronic product, and optical product manufacturing industry", "Telecommunications industry" and "Computer related information service industry". Because of the vigorous rise of the Internet and communication technology, drives the development of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry.
The ICT industry can be divided into:
- ICT manufacturing
- ICT maintenance industry
- ICT trade industry
- ICT service industry
- Media and content industry
Innovations and Trends in ICT:
Information and communications technology is the collective name of information technology and communication technology, covering the communication and integration of various information and communication technologies. It is a group of general-purpose technologies widely used in daily life. The latest technological developments such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Intelligent Internet of Things (AIoT), 5G, and Industry 4.0 are all based on ICT technology. In fact, in addition to information and communication technology, ICT also involves computer hardware, various software, intermediary software, storage, audio-visual devices, etc. This allows users to access and send information through the device.
In recent decades, the reason why the ICT industry has flourished and has had a wide-ranging impact on human economic activities is that its driving force comes from the rise of digital thinking models. However, in the process of digital transformation and productivity improvement, enterprises still need to consider carefully, such as how to avoid exacerbating or exposing the original shortcomings during the transformation. As the ICT industry has boomed over the past few years, some important technological developments have not only stimulated innovation in the ICT industry but have also made practical applications more feasible than ever before.
- The increasingly perfect cloud architecture enables smart devices using artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other technologies to access and share information through cloud networking, greatly improving operational efficiency.
- Obtaining relevant information through a large number of sensors, combined with the application of AI technology, makes the Internet of Things (IoT) more feasible in practical operation and helps to develop automation and remote control.
- The advent of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology has subverted the sensory experience of human communication, which is no longer limited to visual and auditory experience. Its technology is widely used in the field of entertainment.
- With the advancement of various basic technologies, the future network world is expected to become an organism close to intuitive response, which can process huge amounts of automated intelligent information in real-time.
- The improvement of security analysis technology is expected to create a new identity management mechanism tailored for people and devices, and establish a predictive security system instead of the current reactive security system.
The ICT industry is experiencing a wave of development, which comes from the development of cloud computing and 5G technology. When cloud computing has become an indispensable technology/solution for enterprises, coupled with the development of 5G, the network can transmit information faster, thereby making big data analysis no longer out of reach, and also making AI and IoT-related technologies (Such as edge computing) is more feasible in practice. These smart technologies are taking advantage of the trend to assist in the prosperity of the ICT industry. With the help of these technologies, people are expected to achieve a better life and even solve climate problems. However, it needs the assistance of new technology and quantum computing.
Quantum computing refers to computing technology based on quantum mechanics, using a new generation of quantum computers to process computing operations. The way quantum computers process information is completely different from that of ordinary computers. It has powerful computing capabilities. When the amount of information is extremely large, it can quickly solve computing tasks that would take a long time for ordinary computers to complete. However, this does not mean that quantum computers can solve any problem faster than ordinary computers. It is generally accepted that the strength of quantum computers lies in solving certain special problems, such as dealing with more complex systems, transmitting information with more efficient encryption techniques, developing optimal algorithms, improving machine learning efficiency, searching for non-structural chemical data, etc.
The Key of ICT Issues:
- Key topic 1: Driven by the data economy, the rise of DaaS and AaaS industries
Data-driven enterprises have become the benchmark for leading market development. Combining multiple external data mix-and-match analyses brings innovation opportunities to enterprises. Because of the market's demand for high-quality data and analysis capabilities, cloud services with flexibility and operational convenience have become an important trend in IT, driving the DaaS data services (Data-as-a-Service) and AaaS analysis services (Analytics -as-a-Service) industry model accelerated rise. To promote industrial innovation, various countries have promoted open data policies, and data is regarded as a source of sales profits by the industry. Provide value-added data services based on network data, social media data, and mobile location data. With the development of IT cloudification, analysis services will also move towards the cloud service model.
- Key topic 2: Industry consolidation and providing IoT integration solutions to drive the formation of a maker economy
Through the group, international players are aggressively deploying IoT integration solutions. Components must be equipped with five major components of sensing, transmission, control computing, memory, and power management, as well as matching software, to form a competitive and complete solution. In the past, there have been frequent mergers and acquisitions by international players, and this development will accelerate the reshuffle of the industry. Manufacturers may be at risk of being marginalized if the speed of integration is not as expected. Therefore, it is necessary to accelerate the pace of strategic cooperation to reverse the situation. The integration solution is conducive to the development of a small number of diverse products in the Internet of Things and drives the formation of the maker economy. At present, the maker economy is rapidly sprouting and developing all over the world. In terms of operation, it includes design services, hardware accelerators, crowdfunding, and other industrial chains seamlessly connected, quickly transforming concepts into products, and selling them all over the world. However, the scale of a single product of the Internet of Things is far less than that of traditional large-scale OEMs, which is a difficulty that the industry needs to face up to and face.
- Key topic 3: The emergence of the vertical market of the Internet of Things, accelerating the transformation of terminal operators to system integration service solutions
Judging from the dynamics of the layout of major international manufacturers, it can be seen that the terminal hardware industry has transformed into the vertical application market, and the development of system service solutions integrating software and hardware is a strategy for cutting into the Internet of Things. IoT applications highly emphasize the integration of software and hardware. By collecting environmental data in different application fields and constructing application services, manufacturers are encouraged to develop exclusive system services for different vertical application requirements. In the process of transformation, terminal manufacturers quickly integrate the terminal perception layer, network layer, cloud platform, service operation, and application layer software and hardware systems through platform construction or connection with existing platforms. In addition to the exclusive application platform that runs through each level vertically, vertical application services will not operate independently in the future but will carry out a large amount of data exchange and device interoperability across applications, thus promoting the horizontal intercommunication platform of equipment and cross-application service information. Become the focus of manufacturers' transformation layout. Driven by the rapid growth of demand for the Internet of Things, manufacturers will accelerate their investment in the development of vertical application system services. The investment and construction of platforms will become the key for manufacturers to accelerate the integration of system services and link cross-application services.
- Key topic 4: The development of smart cars is accelerating, and the demand for related automotive electronic components is taking off
With the rapid development of smart car infotainment, advanced networking, security, and other applications, the amount of data that automotive electronic systems need to process is increasing day by day. Automotive electronics account for an increasing proportion of vehicle costs and are the key to vehicle differentiation. In the automotive semiconductor market, the semiconductor market is actively imported by manufacturers, and it is expected that the memory capacity of automotive electronics will increase sharply in the future. Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), which is commonly used in microcontroller chips today, is no longer sufficient to support the storage requirements of smart car applications, software, and multimedia data. Therefore, dedicated DRAM and flash memory/storage components. In addition, the car display with free-form design will be introduced into the interior design of the car, including the free-form deformation design of the car dashboard and the center console display screen. In addition to improving the overall visual design of the car, the combination of the ADAS functional interface can improve the driving experience with safety and comfort. Driven by government regulations and consumer demand, the growth rate of memory for security applications will quickly surpass that of the infotainment market. Applications such as reversing cameras, intelligent transportation system V2X, and guiding vehicles to bypass congested/dangerous roads will all take off, which in turn will affect the product strategy and business model of future smart vehicles.
- Key topic 5: Wearable device market
Over the past year, various major manufacturers have invested in the wearable device market, but due to shortcomings such as high product homogeneity, failure to grasp demand, poor user experience, and privacy issues, the market has not expanded as expected. Salesforce, a leading cloud service provider for enterprises, has released a wearable application development platform, which has attracted many cooperative manufacturers to develop wearable device systems for enterprises. Deskless workers will benefit from smart glasses to improve work efficiency, including health care, manufacturing, retail, government, construction, transportation, resources, and other industries. With the support of the industry and consumers. It will promote a new wave of mobile payment and mobile commerce peaks and will push up the growth of overall wearable device shipments.
- Key topic 6: The mobile payment market has grown substantially
Biometrics has become the target of technology integration. In response to the high-frequency, close, and equal interconnection and transactions among enterprises, people, and objects, they will face increasing challenges to information security. Smartphone displays are moving towards embedded identification systems, providing users with more security and convenience from the mobile phone interface. The payment service operates electronic wallets. Smart handheld devices are important e-commerce platforms, and there is an increasing demand from consumers to enhance the security of electronic transactions. In the future, the system integration of the human-machine interface will become a trend. The first thing to happen will be the integration of touch sensing and display (such as in-cell, and on-cell) and the integration of touch and display drivers (such as TDDI-integrated IC). The biometric function will be the focus of integration in the next stage. In the future, displays will not only meet people's visual needs but will play an important role in human-computer interaction and transaction security.
- Key topic 7: Smart home ecological chains are formed separately, and the demand for main equipment is about to arrive
The past year was a critical year for the formation of the smart home ecological chain. Major manufacturers established IoT alliances through mergers and acquisitions. And use open API and other technical specifications as strategic cooperation mean to integrate third-party software and hardware resources to achieve interoperability and interconnection between home devices. Expand and co-create a mutually beneficial smart home ecosystem with developers. Global manufacturers continue to devote themselves to revolutionary products and innovative business models.
Software and hardware solutions for the main equipment of the family:
- The product or service can be quickly integrated into the user's family.
- It is convenient to integrate other household devices.
- It can become the center or medium of family data collection, access, distribution, and control.
Smart homes have the characteristics of differentiated family needs in regional markets. When enterprises enter different regional markets, they should launch smart home innovative applications from the integration and application of multiple sensing chip technologies, home device assembly, terminal devices, and cloud platforms to consumers. Smart home ecological chain, or develop a B2B2C one-stop business model to attract partners to expand the scale.
- Key topic 8: Quantum Dot (QD) wide color gamut LCD TV, opening a new battlefield for displays
In addition to the TV market as the market base for QD technology, QD technology is widely used in smartphones, tablet computers, and laptops. This shows that QD technology has long-term development potential and has a profound impact on the development of LCD technology. Since the quantum dot technology must be able to match with the panel, adding quantum dots to the wide color gamut LCD TV panel can improve the color performance, and increase the added value of the product and the competitiveness of the TFT LCD industry.
- Key topic 9: Distributed computing architecture, the introduction of SDx becomes the key to competition
Under the development trend of mobile, cloud, and Internet of Things innovative applications, it is necessary to build a more flexible underlying infrastructure to meet the rapidly changing application requirements. Through the development of SDx (Software-defined Everything) and distributed computing technology, from the hardware Starting from distributed deployment to the software integration management level, the scale of the system can be rapidly expanded and reduced in response to application requirements. In the future, with the large-scale deployment of IoT endpoint devices, the introduction of distributed computing technology will help improve infrastructure computing. To improve management efficiency, the layout of SDx technology will continue to be the focus. SDx will affect future ICT product development strategies and business models. Especially under the vigorous promotion of international manufacturers, SDx technology will be promoted in the form of an open-source standard to expand the scope of industrial applications. It is expected to gradually expand the ecological chain of manufacturer cooperation and cross-software definition technology consolidation is the goal to continue to build the mainstream position of the industry. To improve the integration of information hardware with SDx for rapid expansion, middleware, firmware, and even hardware specifications and architecture will gradually promote the design of SDx requirements with the maturity of SDx technology and the expansion of industrial application scale. The architecture and software support of the system have become hardware standard specifications. From the perspective of market development, X86 server virtualization technology has been developed for many years, and the market application is relatively mature. In the future, hardware infrastructure will be developed as infrastructure as code/app, and it will be combined with existing complex systems and evolved and transformed. Long-term planning and field trials should be made in advance.
- Key topic 10: The first year of Open API development in the telecom industry
In the first year of Open API, the network can be formed into a communication platform, and the omnichannel user experience can be directly performed in the form of voice, video, instant message, or photo, without downloading any additional software, and can provide application services including one-to-one or multi-party Calls and video conferencing, broadcasting digital content, and more. Through standard APIs and development tools, various vertical application services will begin to appear in large numbers. For example, healthcare companies can realize low-cost remote monitoring and remote diagnosis through Web RTC APIs. Imaging equipment manufacturers will have the opportunity to expand into the video conferencing market, and call center solution providers can also build a cross-device ecosystem, spanning wearables, mobile phones, tablets, PCs, automobiles, and the Internet of Things. Educational and security companies can also achieve telepresence services with high-resolution audio and video and multiple cameras capturing different angles. The Internet of Things device industry is booming, and it can combine the three major APIs of international telecom operators. Such as billing service API, network monitoring API, communication, and SMS API, to enrich the innovation of hardware upper-layer application development.