With the arrival of the age of the Internet of Things (IoT), government policies and technologies are being put in place to promote intelligent and connected solutions that are going to transform the manufacturing sector. According to the global market research firm TrendForce, the global market of technologies involved in smart manufacturing/factories is estimated to reach US$250 billion in size by 2018.
One of the most talked-about technologies shown at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is virtual reality (VR). Headset devices such as HTC’s VIVE, Oculus’s Rift, Samsung’s Gear VR 2 and Sony’s PlayStation VR drew huge crowds that wanted to try them out.
Revolutionary advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have led to the explosive growth of mobile devices and brought about the age of the Internet of Things (IoT). These developments also led to a massive overhaul of the manufacturing sector that is based the principles of “Industry 4.0”. As of now, countries have showcased their respective Industry 4.0/digital manufacturing initiatives – the U.S., Germany, Japan and others – are still in the exploration stage in terms of solutions and products offered by their industries. Mass commercialization has yet to take place.
The latest analysis from global research firm TrendForce reveals that the global demand growth for industrial robots continues to accelerate on account of workforce shortages and loss of demographic dividends. Harrison Po, senior manager of TrendForce’s photonics and innovative technologies research, said that China in recent years has been energetically pushing forward with the transformation of its economy, and sales of industrial robots in the country has been growing rapidly in response to the rising demand for automation. Based on TrendForce’s projection, the industrial robot demand in China is expected to reach 95,000 units in 2016.
Consumers’ relentless pursuit for richer audiovisual experience has propelled the popularity of virtual reality (VR) devices and drawn in more companies to invest in this market. Furthermore, the competition among the increasing number of players will bring about diversification and growth of VR applications.