Frost & Sullivan: Six emerging technologies to watch for growth opportunities

Frost & Sullivan partner, senior vice president and chief solutions architect Richard Sear was online on Wednesday in a webinar that outlined a few of the company’s top 50 picks for emerging tech growth opportunities.

Some of the outlined tech was, perhaps, out of the scope of channel IT providers (green hydrogen and transformative vaccines) but others provided insight into what could be coming down the line in the near future.

“Rewind the tape back 10 years, most of the technologies that came out had immediate vertical application,” Sear said in response to how tech trends have changed over the year.

“They were technologies that were being developed and knew what the home was likely to be, or at least they knew the neighbourhood. In this day, technologies are being built not even knowing what industry, what neighbourhood, what country – they don't know, where they're gonna end up. They're just technologies that are being developed, and you see them with multiple applications.”

This, he explained, allows specialists in any vertical to look at emerging technologies and consider how they might fit into their industry.

4D (smart) materials

4D materials, also known as smart materials, are those that undergo structural changes at a molecular level in response to some kind of stimuli like heat or lack thereof, water, pressure or whatever else. 

Sear provided the example of an aeroplane nose cone that could change shape based on the kind of headwinds it encounters. He also pointed to a recent patent from Apple for self-healing displays for foldable smartphones. 

“4D materials are able to import new functionalities into existing material ecosystems,” he said.

“We do expect the high demand in healthcare, IoT, aerospace, and automotive industries to continue for both structural and non-structural applications … This technology is one where as I talk a little bit more about personalisation and N=1, we see very critical adopting into your technology awareness and your profiles of your onto your product development.”

Image credit: Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego

Open RAN 

The clue is in the name for open RAN (radio access networks). Traditional RAN relies on tight coupling between hardware and software as a closed system controlled by a single supplier.

“Open RAN is about literally opening that up and creating “a multi-vendor ecosystem where there is less dependency over proprietary hardware and interfaces, and it does introduce new vendors to the RAN market,” Sear explained.

“With multi-vendor ecosystem where these software-focused features of open RAN, allow new entrance, all of a sudden you have new types of people entering into the market and reinventing it. “Open RAN is a disruptive technology which is itself built on other disruptive technologies, cloud, edge computing, AI, and more.

“Within this ecosystem, you could have operators or projects utilising 5G solutions from different vendors into the same radio network and it would reduce the barrier of entry for new vendors in this domain. This allows for a lot more innovation in the space and expanding how companies think about networks, you have stronger and more secure ecosystems giving customers more choice.

“We see adoption doubling in 2021 and in three to five years, there will be more mature deployment cases across developed and emerging economies.”

Graphene sensors

While traditional sensors are based on silica, these sensors are based on the revolutionary graphene which Sear described as “a sort of superfood of materials.”

“It is only one atom thick and, at that thickness, over 200 times stronger than steel. It has incredible density, flexibility and is the most conductive material on Earth. It also happens to be transparent and lightweight.”

He described that this technologies potential across a significant number of areas, from inclusion into traditional devices to being embedded directly into humans. 

“Graphene sensors is already a space that has started to have some degree of impact. You're going to think about this in things like clothing. And yes, you are going to think about it in devices like an automotive vehicle. This requires this level of sensor, as will most everyday objects as we move over the next three to four years.

“The market potential for this, and one of the key reasons that we've put it into our top 50 this year, it is already approaching a $4 billion market by 2025, very rapid acceleration over the coming two to three years, and incredibly strong patent activity globally.”

Phygital packaging

This portmanteau refers to the convergence of the ‘physical’ and ‘digital’ worlds and is often used to describe omnichannel approaches to marketing.

Sear said that this concept is moving beyond the realm of customer engagement with the integration of sensors, often graphene-based, into any kind of packaging to enable intelligent communication with smart devices.

“As part of everyday connectivity, which I think certainly isn't news to anybody, we see common items needing to become increasingly more intelligent,” Sear explained.

“With the increased reliance on smart devices, there is now a need for different stakeholders to develop integrated and connected solutions to stay competitive in the market. Phygital packaging is an integrated packaging concept where sensors are integrated into the primary packaging to create a range of value-based outputs and experiences.”

He outlined the use cases for supply chain and consumer communication across any industry.

“The use of this is to allow consumers to access ingredients, expiration dates, health claims and other types of valuable information on whatever is being contained within the package.”

Sear also noted that that ‘packaging’ in this sense is beyond cardboard boxes, but could include casings on computers or smartphones creating value in as yet unexplored ways. 

“There's a variety of different ways to look at how this use case could be through packaging.”

Behavioural biometrics

This technology is already being used in cybersecurity and fraud prevention. It tracks the behaviour of a user and can assist traditional biometrics, like fingerprints scanners, in identifying unauthorised access to a device or network.

Sear said that this form of biometrics is going to see wider adoption across ICT.

“In the case of smartphone authentication, it could be based upon the pressure of my grip strength, the way that I usually grip a phone, perhaps the tone or inflexion of my voice, the way that I actually swipe the phone, even the apps that I most frequently go to first. 

“All of these combined with traditional iris or fingerprint recognition and more, are there to increase biometric authentication of the human form. Now, these aren't just for electronic devices, you can see applications for this into other areas, airport security, you could see this on automotive cars for entering, you can see it for control systems and authentication, you're going to see this in a significant number of spaces. 

“Patent filing is very aggressive, we see patents that are being filed by a range of companies from Visas and IBM, to companies like BioCatch, which is an Israeli specialist in fraud identity detection.

Circular polymers

This technology relates to the growing need for a more circular model of economies. Polymers and materials that are created from sustainable sources, especially those that would have otherwise become waste.

“It is a highly R&D intensive space. 2000 patents filed in the last two years on a range of material developments with different applications,” Sear said.

“We see more innovation in this space because of investment from federal agencies powered by recycling and sustainability strategies and the push for increased use of circular polymers into portfolios.”

Sear went on to outline some challenges for this technology including a false perception that these polymers are of lower quality that ‘virgin’ ones are and that more lifecycle analysis needs to be done to ratify some of the sustainability claims.

In a recent interview, PwC chief economist Jeremy Thorpe provided CRN with the example of railway sleepers that were strengthened and gained a longer life through the inclusion of recycled materials. (Note: this detail was not included in the final piece linked above.)

“We see continued development taking place. Large scale commercialisation of enzymatic recycling technologies will also increase the adoption of any derived polymer,” Sear said.

Themes of the Top 50

Within Frost & Sullivan’s top 50 technologies, the research team observed eight themes arise that Sear called the “building blocks of the future” and “guidance chips in a system.”

These are: continuous monitoring, circularity, data integrity/quality, scalability, personalised knowledge, wellness, transparency and agility.

“Continuous monitoring, for me, is one of the most interesting ones and I would say this is more than just condition monitoring, which is a term that is quite liberally used at the moment, where every element ranging from human form through to oil or gas will continue to rapidly pursue an always-on approach,” Sear said.

“With respect to data flow, we see a shift from volume of data to integrity and quality of data where volume becomes less critical. It is more important to filter said data to narrow fields and correctly align processing power to be more responsive. 

“We also see transparency as a critical issue to increase both to the consumer but really across the entire value chain, the different technologies participating. This is just very important for agility of new technologies to have as wide a range as possible, so as to not meet against political regulatory concerns that suddenly are arriving as a result of increased data and more and more compute power. Regulation, of course, is going to be a key driver. 

“Many of the technologies that I've discussed today have a strong degree of personalization to them. And it is a personalization focused at an N=1 level, meaning to a specific user, not to a generalised user, and that is a thematic issue throughout all of the top 50 technologies for this year.”