Rings shipments rise 34.9% in 2023 while glasses without a display grew 128.2% due to the launch of new products from Amazon and Meta.
Rings avoid some of the key shortcomings of smartwatches and hence appeal to a broader audience.
Wearables devices to grow 10.5% year on year to reach 559.7m units in 2024 and reach 645.7m units by the end of 2028.
Wearable rings have caught the attention of consumers as new brands begin to roll out their products as users look for replacements during the second half of this year.
Rings, such as those from Oura and Ultrahuman, showed promise with the category growing 34.9 per cent in 2023 while glasses without a display grew 128.2 per cent due to the launch of new products from Amazon and Meta.
Ramon T. llamas, research director with IDC’s wearables team, said that the high-water mark for wearables came in 2020 and 2021 with volumes reaching record levels while the next two years saw the aftermath of that success as demand began to wane and shipments steadily declined.
“2024 will be the start of the rebound as users will look for replacements and this will carry into 2025 and beyond.”
By providing a discreet form factor and multi-day battery life, Jitesh Ubrani, research manager at IDC, said that rings avoid some of the key shortcomings of smartwatches and hence appeal to a broader audience.
However, he said the form factor has long relied on a subscription-based business model, which is expected to subside in the short term as competition heats up.
Wearables devices are poised for additional growth in 2024 as device shipments are forecast to reach 559.7 million units, up 10.5 per cent over 2023 and reach to 645.7 million units by the end of 2028 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.6 per cent.
In 2023, global shipments of wearable devices managed to grow 1.7 per cent.
“By providing a discreet form factor and multi-day battery life, rings avoid some of the key shortcomings of smartwatches and hence appeal to a broader audience. However, the form factor has long relied on a subscription-based business model, which is expected to subside in the short term as competition heats up,” Ubrani said.
Wired telecommunications faces the most impact, followed by wireless telecommunications, Data processing and hosting services.
Government services rose to second place following the outbreak of the Israel-Palestine conflict in October 2023, attributed to hacktivism, APT activity and state-sponsored cyber groups.
Healthcare industry experienced the highest year-on-year growth in attacks at 174%, followed by transportation at 116%.
The telecommunications sector remains the most targeted vertical (21 per cent share) of all DDoS attacks in 2023 in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), registering an 83 per cent year over year increase, according to cybersecurity solutions provider StormWall report.
Within this sector, wired telecommunications faced the most impact, followed by wireless telecommunications.
Data processing and hosting services ranked third while satellite and other telecommunications services were significantly less targeted.
However, government services (18 per cent attack share) have now risen to second place following the outbreak of the Israel-Palestine conflict in October 2023, attributed to hacktivism, APT activity, and state-sponsored cyber groups.
“The most targeted verticals shifted after the conflict began. In the first half of 2023, most attacks in MENA were initiated by for-profit hackers, rather than hacktivists. They mainly targeted e-commerce, fintech, transportation, oil and gas, and manufacturing industries for monetary gain,” the report said.
By the end of the year, the report stated that the situation flipped and saw more DDoS attacks by hacktivists, who bombarded healthcare, education and government industries with malicious traffic.
Immediately after the conflict began there was a spike in attacks on government services, healthcare (174 per cent year-on-year increase), and education (106 per cent year-on-year increase), mainly due to the massive growth in DDoS traffic that became concentrated around critical infrastructure and government services.
In Israel, the Electric Company, the Jerusalem Post, the Shabak official website, the Bank of Jerusalem, and The Israel Internet Association, which is responsible for managing “.il” domain names, were all hit hard, leading to temporary disruptions in service — and this represents just a small section of a much longer list of targets.
However, the conflict spilt beyond regional boundaries — many attacks were attributed to APTs, state-sponsored groups, and activists from Indonesia, Sudan and Iran.
The healthcare industry in MENA experienced the highest growth in attacks at 174 per cent year-over-year, followed by transportation at 116 per cent.
In examining the geographical distribution of DDoS attacks, the top 5 most attacked countries collectively accounted for 77 per cent of DDoS traffic in the MENA region.
The list includes the United Arab Emirates (26 per cent share), Saudi Arabia (18 per cent share), Kuwait (16 per cent share), Qatar (9 per cent share), and Bahrain (8 per cent share).
In 2023, many businesses from Russia relocated to the UAE and other business-friendly hubs to escape economic sanctions. This not only required them to rebuild their digital infrastructure — providing hackers with opportunities to exploit — but also drew the attention of hacktivists. Israel (7 per cent share), Iran (6 per cent share), and Palestine (4 per cent share) also hold significant shares, with Palestine’s inclusion being notable given its small geographical size.
High spots for these countries on the list illustrate the active involvement of hacktivists in these regions, receiving more DDoS traffic than some significantly larger nations.
Middle East on radar
Countries that did not make it onto the list, receiving less than 1 per cent of DDoS traffic, include Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Cyprus, Libya, and Oman.
In 2023, DDoS attacks in the Middle East and North Africa increased by 126 per cent compared to last year. This is an unprecedented figure and the region has never had to deal with so much malicious traffic
“DDoS Attacks in MENA are growing in sophistication as hacktivists and APTs become more active: out of all DDoS attacks, 67 per cent were multivector — an increase of 118 per cent compared to 2022,” the report said.
The product, made from vegetable esters, can give between 15 per cent and 20 per cent extra out of the fuel.
The liquid breaks down impurities and complex hydrocarbons that go uncombusted and allows the fuel to separate and find the free oxygen to produce better combustion and more power.
Only 75% of the fuel in the fuel tank is turning into power while 25 per cent is exhausted as emissions in the current scenario.
The company expects to sell between 600,000 and 700,000 litres per month after two years.
Mortimer says that fossil fuel is here to stay for decades, so use it efficiently and reduce emissions.
Fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and gas, have been at the heart of the climate crisis for many years and using vehicles powered by alternative fuels such as electricity, hydrogen and biofuels has been proposed as the ideal way to curb harmful emissions but it will take years to make significant inroads.
Big fossil fuel corporations are profiting from the continued consumption, which is driving global warming to dangerous levels.
Even though governments across the world are trying to cut fossil fuel usage and move away from it, it will take decades.
The American Petroleum Institute estimated in 1999 that the world’s oil supply would be depleted between 2062 and 2094, assuming total world oil reserves at between 1.4 and 2 trillion barrels
A Dubai-headquartered company – Fuelre4m (fuel reform) – is on a mission to make fossil fuel consumption more efficient, affordable and environmentally friendly with its Re4mx products.
It all started five years ago when Rob Mortimer, Managing Director of Fuelre4m, with a background in telecoms, designed a hybrid generator set which was improving fuel consumption by about 80 per cent and, at the same time, was looking for ways to make it more efficient.
“A colleague of mine came along with a magic liquid that can reduce fuel consumption and emission but we couldn’t find anything about this liquid. So, we started testing it for about six months and it showed the results,” Mortimer told in an exclusive to TechChannel News.
He decided to work with the people who invented it and produced it and took them into his company.
So, for the last five years, “we have been testing the magic liquid with several industries and improving the product. I changed my company name from Selcoms, registered in Dubai, to Fuelre4m which says what we are doing and more about our product function.”
How does the liquid work
Adding 1.25 millilitre per litre of fuel to the tank changes the structure of every fuel molecule by breaking down impurities and complex hydrocarbons that go uncombusted in traditional engines and allows the fuel to separate and find the free oxygen to produce better combustion and more power from the same fuel.
The cost of one litre of Refore4mix petrol is $59. One litre will treat 2,000 litres of petrol and get between 15 per cent and 20 per cent extra out of the fuel.
Moreover, it also helps to reduce NO, NO2, NOx, CO, SO and SO2 by between 40 per cent and 80 per cent and accelerates the global Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies.
Different varieties
The company has four varieties of the product – Re4mx diesel, Re4mx petrol, Re4mx fuel oil (for ships) and Re4mx pipeline.
“We are working with large shipping industries which were able to reduce consumption between 15 and 20 per cent and have multiple proofs of concepts across various industries and there are some clients who are using it now,” Mortimer said.
The main industries, he said the company is focusing on are maritime and shipping, quarrying and mining, ports and docks, trucking and logistics.
“We have live deployments across these industries and we are working with big clients in the ports and docks in the UAE and with 13 supertankers. I am on my way to Scotland next week to see one of our biggest deployments in quarrying and mining where they are working on big Caterpillar trucks in the mines. We are powering power generators in Asia and Africa and we are going global now.”
Mortimer said the biggest industries to benefit will be shipping and maritime because they consume the most fuel in terms of volumes of metric tonnes per vessel.
When it comes to the consumer sector, he said that there is more of an education needed.
“They need to be comfortable that the product is doing what it is meant to and in a few years, we expect fuel companies to see the advantage in providing a higher-end product amid a slightly higher price.
In countries where fuel prices are regulated, it doesn’t make sense to pay more to sell less fuel.”
Need to educate consumers
People need to understand that only 75 per cent of the fuel in the fuel tank is turning into power while 25 per cent is exhausted as emissions, he said.
“We need to educate people that 93 per cent of the fuel is combusted with our product at the right time and only seven per cent is going through the exhaust. Only when people understand that they are saving about 25 per cent of the money they are using to fill the tank, only then acceptance will come.”
For consumers, he said the product will not be available on the shelves for a couple of years but for commercial, it is already available.
Even though there are similar products available in the market, he said that they are all chemical adhesives.
“Nothing is like ours in the market. Our product is made from vegetable esters and is purely natural. Our product is produced in an Asian country. We plan to set up a second factory in Asia and a third in Africa but if the right partner comes in and says to set up in the UAE of Saudi Arabia, we may do so,” Mortimer said.
Ambitions
The company expects to sell between 600,000 and 700,000 litres per month after two years.
“In my personal view, backed by some of the industry experts, the future will see a lot of hybrid technologies that are coming through. Electrification is one of those; methanol, hydrogen and ammonia are others,” Mortimer said.
Electrification hasn’t gained momentum as expected and it isn’t the end answer, he said and added that the end answer is the mix of all different types of technologies.
“It is difficult to electrify trucks and so, our answer today is to get more out of the fuel and cut carbon emissions. We believe that the amount of fossil fuel consumed is not going to change and it is here to stay until 2070. We want them to use fossil fuels more efficiently today. Because of the regulations, more demand is expected to come from Europe, the UAE and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, Africa and South America.” Mortimer said.
Moreover, he said that his clients are starting to realise that taking active steps to reduce their carbon footprint now not only saves them cash and makes them more competitive, but even that green tinge along the edges now pays dividends.
Cyber incidents are increasing in both frequency and severity year over year, and institutions must stay vigilant in their capabilities to defend themselves and protect their assets and finances against electronic crime.
Majority of financial-services companies indicated that they are prioritising adoption of and investment in four of them – cloud and edge computing, applied AI, next-gen software development, and digital identity and trust architecture.
Smaller companies with significantly less budget or ability to attract top security talent face even greater challenges.
As the technology landscape in the financial-services industry continues to evolve rapidly over the next three to five years and as the associated risks mount, now is the time to future-proof the environment, industry experts said.
“With an increasingly crowded and fast-moving technology landscape, companies are facing pressure to keep up. Financial institutions must not only grapple with how to best employ and protect their current technologies but also pay more and more attention to the growing field of emerging technologies that promise to strengthen their businesses—offering benefits such as increased automation, scalability, and cost savings,” Justin Greis, Partner at McKinsey & Company, said.
He said that financial-services companies around the world should consider not only what benefits new emerging technologies offer but also what risks they introduce.
Exacerbating existing risks
To better understand how institutions are approaching and prioritising new technologies, the consulting firm surveyed companies around the world, in partnership with Institute of International Finance (IIF), about the applicability of ten emerging technologies to their businesses.
Martin Boer, Senior Director for Regulatory Affairs for the Institute of International Finance (IIF), said that emerging technologies can not only offer significant benefits but also exacerbate existing risks and introduce new cyber risks.
“Cyber risk management is nothing new to financial-services companies, but the importance of a robust, comprehensive strategy has never been more critical and will only increase as institutions expand their technological footprint.
“Cyberattacks continue to increase, and financial-services companies face well-funded, highly organised, and well-trained cyber criminals. These criminals are also adopting emerging technologies to aid in their attacks, including recent attacks utilizing gen AI as part of sophisticated phishing campaigns,” Boer said.
Need to stay vigilant
Cyber incidents are increasing in both frequency and severity year over year, and institutions must stay vigilant in their capabilities to defend themselves and protect their assets and finances against electronic crime.
According to the 2024 CrowdStrike global threat report, Electronic Crime (eCrime) continues to rise and led as the most pervasive threat in 2023. Data-theft extortion also continues to rise, and 2023 saw a 76 per cent increase in victims named on eCrime dedicated leak sites compared with 2022.
“As companies increase their use of technology, they are also increasing the number of avenues for a potential cyberattack by mature threat actors,” Boer said.
Of the emerging technologies included in the survey, a majority of financial-services companies indicated that they are prioritising adoption of and investment in four of them – cloud and edge computing, applied AI, next-gen software development, and digital identity and trust architecture.
Cloud and edge computing lead the list, with 84 per cent of respondents recognising their relevance to their businesses. Among those respondents, six in ten reported that more than 25 per cent of their workload now resides in the cloud.
This share will undoubtedly rise as cloud capabilities continue to evolve and as companies continue to transform their IT infrastructure through cloud migration and investment into cloud-native infrastructure—enticed by benefits such as flexibility, scalability, and cost efficiencies that are otherwise not offered by traditional and on-premise data centres.
Four technologies to see quicker adoption
Over 70 per cent of companies see their cloud adoption in the post-pilot stage, and 42 per cent consider their capabilities fully adopted and in the maintenance stage.
Trust architecture and digital identity are also advanced across many companies. Almost 50 per cent of the survey respondents put themselves in the post-pilot or maintenance stage of digital identity, and 70 per cent call trust architecture applicable to their businesses, with use cases regarding digital banking, omnichannel customer experience, a 360-degree view of customers, and digital-wallet offerings.
Reis said that all four technologies are likely to see quicker adoption than advanced connectivity, future mobility, immersive reality, quantum, machine learning, and Web3, due to their widespread applicability and maturity, as well as their proven, value-based use cases for financial-services companies.
The survey results reveal that financial-services companies are not exploring all the emerging technologies equally.
Instead, they are concentrating on those they perceive as most applicable to their organisations and likely to bring the most value, all while factoring in their current technological capabilities, their long-term business and tech strategies, and the potential regulatory impacts.
Tech-centric approach
The research shows that current capabilities are falling short of addressing these risks. Most survey respondents also recognise the need to strengthen critical cybersecurity capabilities, including third-party or supply chain management and privileged access management (PAM).
As companies continue to increase their reliance on newer technologies, Soumya Banerjee, Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, said that they [organisations] must ensure they have thought through and implemented the necessary risk management capabilities.
Otherwise, he said that they [organisations] may find the risks outweigh the benefits.
“In recent years, financial-services companies have evolved into technology-driven companies. This tech-centric approach is visible in the ways they are prioritising their investments; in addition to embracing software technologies, they are prioritising investments in scaling technology development, such as DevOps (software development and IT operations), and industrialising machine learning and AI,” Banerjee said.
Institutions are also weighing the current level of maturity of each technology in their plans; he said and added that considering the proven (and unproven) use cases that could add value to their businesses.
“The most applicable technologies were further along in their maturity journeys than some of those that were deemed less relevant.”
Opportunity to gain competitive advantage
Unlike with cloud adoption, Lamont Atkins, Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company, said that the maturity level of applied AI is still evolving.
While many financial-services companies recognise the relevance of applied AI, he said that most of their use cases remain in the early stages of development.
“Seventy per cent of the survey respondents reported being in the pilot stage or earlier. Some use cases such as financial-crime, financial-risk, and asset modeling are quite mature. Those that are in the early stages include gen AI and large language models.”
“Many institutions are still exploring their use in customer interaction support, personalised marketing, and fraud. These efforts offer companies the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage in the applied AI space before the technology is ready to be deployed. They can implement, for instance, proper oversight and responsible guardrails and controls for AI technology, thereby hastening its adoption for when it has sufficiently matured.”
However,Melanie Idler,Associate Policy Adviser for IIF, said that the four technologies that received the greatest attention from survey respondents introduces its own risks.
As financial institutions move their workloads to the cloud and as network boundaries disappear, he said that there’s an increased risk of exposure to threat actors and of nation-states gaining access to networks.
“Without proper management anchored in a robust cloud security strategy and strong security capabilities, companies face a multitude of cyber risks, including misconfigurations, data privacy breaches, and data loss.”
Moreover, he said that financial-services companies must rely upon their foundational cybersecurity capabilities to secure their technologies and protect their environments.
“Cybersecurity capabilities should be prioritised within the business as institutions continue to undergo technology transformations and recognise the benefits they bring with them. Without strong foundational security capabilities and controls within their cybersecurity programs, organizations will be exposed to risks brought on by their technology investments.”
Foundation for action
Technologies that are popular today may change tomorrow,Lauren Craig,Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, said and added that as use cases develop and mature, companies are likely to continually reassess their applicability and investment priorities.
“The time for action to future-proof the environment is now. Our survey found that even leading institutions are falling short and that smaller companies with significantly less budget or ability to attract top security talent face even greater challenges,” she said.
Financial institutions should lay the “foundation for action” by asking themselves the following four questions about their pursuit of emerging technologies:
Do we have the right technology priorities, and are they aligned with our security capabilities?Expansion into newer technologies, such as the cloud and applied AI, usually means greater reliance on third-party services. Companies should reflect on their capabilities and the maturity of their security before introducing any technology. The third-party risk management capability warrants special attention.
Do we have the right metrics and reporting? Whether to satisfy regulators or to hold teams accountable, financial-services companies need transparent, value-based metrics for managing cyber risks. They can aid in monitoring performance, informing decisions, and identifying emerging issues for quick action. These metrics should measure cyber risk from an emerging-technology perspective and be reported appropriately to the right stakeholders, including board members and executives, lines of defense, and the risk management team.
Are we investing in the right things? Decisions on technology investments should take security capabilities, especially IAM capabilities, into account. The growing risk of security breaches and the looming need for regulatory compliance shine a spotlight on these capabilities.
Do we have the right talent and technology to close capability gaps? Every organisation needs to invest in talent, but hiring and retaining the right talent is a challenge and calls for exploring other ways to fill the talent gap, such as utilising emerging technologies themselves, including AI.
Emerging technologies are grabbing lots of attention in the financial-services industry. Each brings cyber opportunities and risks. Most companies will have to build their cybersecurity capabilities to handle the risks. Today is the time to future-proof the environment, ensuring success for tomorrow.
Responsible AI operationalises organisational responsibilities and practices that ensure positive and accountable AI development and utilisation.
More regulated industries, such as financial services, healthcare, technology and government, will remain the early adopters of responsible AI.
Development of and use of responsible AI will not only be crucial for AI products and service developers, but for organisations that use AI tools as well.
Failure to comply will expose organisations to ethical scrutiny by citizens in general, leading to significant financial, reputational and legal risks for the organisation.
By 2026, Gartner predicts 50 per cent of governments worldwide will enforce use of responsible AI through regulations, policies and the need for data privacy.
Responsible AI is just three years from reaching early majority adoption due to accelerated AI adoption, particularly GenAI, and growing attention to associated regulatory implications, an industry expert said.
Anushree Verma, Director Analyst at Gartner.
“Responsible AI will impact virtually all applications of AI across industries. In the near term, more regulated industries, such as financial services, healthcare, technology and government, will remain the early adopters of responsible AI,” Anushree Verma, Director Analyst at Gartner, said.
However, she said that responsible AI will also play an important role in “less-regulated industries” by helping build consumer trust and foster adoption, as well as mitigate financial and legal risks.
Erecting geographic borders
By 2026, Gartner predicts 50 per cent of governments worldwide will enforce use of responsible AI through regulations, policies and the need for data privacy.
Regarding what can organisations do to implement responsible AI in their organisations, Verma said that responsible AI regulations will erect geographic borders in the digital world and create a web of competing regulations from different governments to protect nations and their populations from unethical or otherwise undesirable applications of AI and GenAI.
“This will constrain IT leaders’ ability to maximise foreign AI and GenAI products throughout their organisations. These regulations will require AI developers to focus on more AI ethics, transparency and privacy through responsible AI usage across organisations.”
How to future-proof GenAI projects
Responsible AI, she said, is an umbrella term for aspects of making the appropriate business and ethical choices when adopting AI in the organisation’s context.
Examples include being transparent with the use of AI, mitigating bias in algorithms, securing models against subversion and abuse, and protecting the privacy of customer information and regulatory compliance.
“Responsible AI operationalises organisational responsibilities and practices that ensure positive and accountable AI development and utilisation.
“Development of and use of responsible AI will not only be crucial for AI products and service developers, but for organisations that use AI tools as well. Failure to comply will expose organisations to ethical scrutiny by citizens in general, leading to significant financial, reputational and legal risks for the organisation.”
Verma outlined several actions organisations can consider when it comes to future-proofing their GenAI projects.
Monitor and incorporate the evolving compliance requirements of responsible AI from different governments by developing a framework that maps the organisation’s GenAI portfolio of products and services to the different nations’ AI regulatory requirements.
Understand, implement and utilise responsible AI practices contextualised to the organisation. This can be done by determining a curriculum for responsible AI and then establishing a structured approach to educate and create visibility across the organization, engage stakeholders and identify the appropriate use cases and solutions for implementation.
Operationalise AI trust, risk and security management (AI TRiSM) in user-centric solutions by integrating responsible AI to accelerate adoption and improve user experience.
Ensure service provider accountability for responsible AI governance by enforcing contractual obligations and mitigate the impact of risks arising out of unethical and noncompliant behaviors or outcomes from uncontrolled and unexplainable biases from AI solutions.
Samsung aims to maintain its market share of around 60%, consistent with its 2023 target while Huawei is expected to attain about 20%.
Apple’s potential entry into the foldable phone market could significantly spur market growth.
Oppo and Vivo hint at shelving their plans for launching smaller, vertically folding devices this year.
Global shipments of foldable smartphones are expected to increase by 11 per cent to 17.7 million units in 2024 when compared to 15.9 million units in 2023.
According to research firm TrendForce, it accounts for about 1.5 per cent of the overall smartphone market in 2024. In 2023, the market share was about 1.4 per cent.
However, this growth rate remains below market expectations, with the segment’s share predicted to exceed two per cent only by 2025.
The slowdown in the growth of foldable phones is attributed to two main factors – firstly, consumer retention is low due to frequent maintenance issues faced by first-time foldable phone users, leading to a lack of confidence in the product.
As a result, users may opt for high-end flagship smartphones when considering replacements.
Secondly, the current price points of foldable phones have yet to reach the sweet spot for consumers, making it challenging to meet sales targets based solely on pricing.
UTG, hinges may see mass production
TrendForce notes that future developments in the foldable smartphone market are closely tied to the pace of cost optimisation.
Key components such as UTG and hinges could see mass production following standardisation, significantly reducing costs.
Additionally, an increase in foldable panel shipments by Chinese panel makers—who offer a price advantage over Korean suppliers—is expected to further lower the cost of foldable phones.
This would enable brands to reduce sale prices and accelerate market penetration rates.
Looking ahead to 2024, Samsung aims to maintain its foldable phone market share of around 60%, consistent with its 2023 target.
Huawei, in contrast, is aggressively boosting its foldable phone shipments, aiming for a market share that could surpass 20%.
Meanwhile, Oppo and Vivo have hinted at shelving their plans for launching smaller, vertically folding devices this year, opting instead to channel their efforts into larger, horizontally folding models due to concerns over high costs impacting profitability.
Honor to join the fraythis year
On the flip side, Huawei is on track to unveil a 5G-enabled small vertical folding device, and Honor, yet to make its debut in the compact foldable sector, is anticipated to enter the competition this year.
While numerous smartphone brands are diving into the foldable phone arena, one notable absentee is Apple, which has yet to formally announce its plans for foldable phones.
Despite sporadic rumours about Apple assessing essential components for foldable devices, including requesting samples and tests for panels and hinges, TrendForce notes it remains uncertain whether Apple will embark on developing a foldable phone product.
Nevertheless, it’s widely anticipated that Apple’s potential entry into the foldable phone market could significantly spur market growth.
