TaaS, Roomba robots, brain-machine interfaces, and voice assistants will be key.
Domestic IT companies are expected to grow in tandem with the global economic recovery.

CES, where new trends and innovative technologies could be explored, has come to an end. What were the trends showcased at CES 2018?

Park Seo-ki, Director of the IT Innovation Research Institute, selected ecosystems, traffic changes, voice recognition systems, AI, and MR as the key elements of last year's CES, viewing the maintenance and evolution of these elements as the landscape of ICT in 2018. In fact, the ecosystem-based Family Hub ranked first in the U.S. home appliance market for two consecutive years, and voice recognition systems were used in most areas of the products exhibited at this year's CES.


Evolution is expected to manifest as the application and expansion of core elements into business models, taking the form of Transportation as a Service (TaaS) based on autonomous driving, Roomba, Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMI), and the proliferation of facial recognition applications. The key lies in the digitalization of daily life, such as automobiles, conversation, and cleaning. Gartner stated, "The 2018 ICT market will grow by 5.3% year-over-year, driven by increased corporate spending on Digital Transformation."

The key IT trend of 2018 is, first, TaaS, which is spreading across all industries. Toyota's 'e-Palette' enables not only autonomous driving but also services such as cooking, sales, and delivery inside the vehicle. Robomart has announced an autonomous unmanned store. The key is to lead the transformation of the commercial market using autonomous vehicles.

In addition, robots garnered significant attention at CES. Interest is growing in robots designed for specific tasks, such as the world's first cleaning robot, the Roomba. Robots like Omron Robotics' table tennis robot and Xeno's tennis bot detect people and objects to perform actions automatically. The potential for the widespread adoption of these Roomba-type robots is the reason behind predictions that AI will replace simple jobs provided by non-regular workers. There are also instances where robotic technology has been applied to delivery and collection tasks in hospitals.

Brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) that read the brain via wearables to improve work productivity and provide a comfortable sleeping environment are becoming widespread. Representative companies include Muse and BrainCo. BrainCo has released a product that operates an electronic prosthetic hand controlled by brainwaves. As a non-surgical prosthetic hand based on AI technology, it is expected to be used for both medical and occupational purposes.

Google launched a massive advertising campaign for its voice assistant at this year's CES. It appears to have felt threatened by Amazon's Alexa and Echo, which dominate the voice assistant market. As Google gradually gains market share, there are hardly any devices that do not support both companies' IoT services.

While concerns remain regarding negative outlooks, such as shrinking demand for traditional IT, uncertain cloud revenue models, and investment polarization, government support is expected to expand as digital transformation accelerates. Furthermore, the market appears poised for a positive turn, driven by increased corporate IT investment and the recovery of the global economy.

Director Park introduced companies expected to exhibit at CES 2019 and emphasized the expansion of perspectives on application fields. Representative examples include China's Royole Marley keyboard, haptic-activated Ultra Haptic, and Lumus; it was predicted that Ultra Haptic has a very high probability of being applied to commercially available autonomous vehicles. Furthermore, it was emphasized that developers interested in trends and key companies of interest should pay attention to Alibaba's Ant Financial, an O2O business in which the Chinese government has invested 1 trillion won. It was stated that their moves are so vast that they will fully realize the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In fact, they are currently acquiring and venturing into various fields.

He also said, “The size of the domestic IT market will increase in line with global growth in software and IT services. However, compared to the 150 companies from China, Europe, and others that participated in the exhibition, our growth is relatively slow.” He added, “We need to consider various factors, analyze the products and characteristics of small and medium-sized enterprises that received attention at CES, and benchmark them to proactively prepare for the future.”

Healthcare and Smart Cities: Markets to Watch in 2018

The Korea Rural Community Corporation (KRC) identified healthcare and smart cities as IT markets to watch in 2018. The healthcare sector is projected to grow by $6.7 billion by 2021, driven by the overseas expansion of major domestic hospitals and anticipated market growth by global corporations. Hospitals such as Gachon University College of Medicine and Gangnam Severance are improving their medical systems through the introduction of AI services. The smart city market is expected to grow to $1.2017 trillion by 2022, fueled by market entry by major companies and government support policies. In the case of U.S. cities, 66% are investing in smart cities.

Based on the expansion of these technologies and application fields, the IT market, which has shifted to a recovery trend since 2017, is expected to become more robust. KRG Vice President Kim Chang-hoon stated, “Assuming a recovery in the manufacturing sector, we forecast that the domestic IT market in 2018 will grow by 4.0% year-on-year to 22.3 trillion won.” He also emphasized, “Among IT services, hardware, and software, software is expected to grow the most significantly in line with the global IT market situation. Domestic software is projected to rise by 7.4%.”