DEEP-DIVE INTO THIS BET
Market outlook
Total market 2024
Edge computing $ 13,9 bn with 32% CAGR, consumer electronics $ 1,3 trillion.
Look at these 2024
Biometrics systems & tech $ 51,1 bn with 15% CAGR, Smart homes $ 180 bn with 18% CAGR, consumer robotics $ 19,2 bn with 20% CAGR, smart agriculture $ 20,6 bn with 15% CAGR, electric vehicles $ 667bn and 19% CAGR.
Methodology: A high-level view gathered from various openly available data sources on market size & compound annual growth rates. To simplify comparison between analysts sources, we’ve removed differences in market details by calculating an estimated average for total market size 2024 and average CAGR for selected time period. This allows us to gain “correct enough estimates”. Unless linked directly to one source, each of our market estimate has included 2-8 sources e.g. WEF, CB Insights, Mordor Intelligence, Markets & Markets, Research & Markets, Grand View Research, PWC, Allied Market Research, McKinsey, Market Watch")
Top 18 unicorn sniffing smart money VCs, 1376 investments 2018-2020
(1376 investments 2018-2020): edge computing 2%, Cloud 6%, security 8%, links to decentralised computing and might become an appealing pivot from blockchain if supported by use cases 3%.
Source: Crunchbase Pro, accessed: 03/20, research of company description terms between 01/2018-02/2020, investment types: early stage investments by top 18 unicorn sniffing smart money VCs, n=1376 investments
Special focus
Edge computing is a lucrative approach to ensure security & privacy issues, as well as operating offline in areas like automotive, robotic, maritime, offshore, logistics, and healthcare. Occasional connection to cloud in architecture design allows effective scaling & running updates. To get the most out of edge computing, software development, machine learning, cloud architecture & artificial intelligence are the enablers to make your hardware succeed.
Things to consider
Development time
Creating an edge-based solution takes time. With several decision points on the way, the development process requires creating the analytics model, deploying it and also running the model at the edge. One should also look into the processing capacity.
The processing power
Compared to cloud computing, which advantage is the centralized processing power able to perform complex AI-algorithms, the processing power of the edge devices might not be sufficient.
The maintenance cost for the systems
When more and more de-centralized touchpoints are connected to the service systems, it adds complexity for the product and service ecosystem and the maintenance cost of the complete system might go high.
Start-ups to watch
A local AI platform to build beneficial and privacy preserving AI by Google Research
Enabling high performance compute solutions for computer vision applications at the embedded edge
Distributed Services Platform bringing the cloud and edge architecture together
Intelligent and connected hardware products and edge solutions.
Pioneering data company specialized in data engineering for business data.
Tech enabling the shift
Cheaper GPU and TPU hardware
Graphical processing units and tensor processing units, that enable systems to act using less power.
More powerful processors
Easy to use, productised versions of computing hardware such as embedded chips and cost effective small computers like raspberry pi.
AI/ML Artificial intelligence (AI)
Computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence by using a combination of Machine Learning (ML) toolbox of algorithms and learning rules from data.
Edge computing
A microcontroller unit (a small chip) is embedded with the ability to perform AI/ML computing offline based on sensor inputs without needing a cloud connection.
Deep learning
Neural Network (Deep Learning) is one of the most popular Machine Learning tools. Particularly effective with very large datasets.
5G
The 5th generation of wireless technology that operates on a broader set of frequencies than 4G. This enables faster speed and latency in data transfer, as well as uninterrupted connectivity
Blockchain
Blockchain technology is a permanent, public, transparent ledger system and can be used to ensure the authenticity of the digital assets and value ranging from data on sales, tracking digital use and payments to content creators, such as wireless users or musicians.
Cloud computing
Although cloud computing is nothing new its role will be redefined with the define its the advanced storage architecture that links cloud with edge.
Quantum Computing
Quantum computers perform calculations based on the probability of an object's state before it is measured, instead of just 1s or 0s. This enables them to process exponentially more data compared to classical computers. Quantum computers especially fit for complext problems where even supercomputers fall short such, designing new materials for carbon capture.
