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Five Personal Technologies That Will Disrupt Your Business

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Spending on personal technologies is massive and expected to grow to $2.7 trillion a year by 2019.

Personal technologies such as wearables, immersive virtual and augmented reality, sensors such as those found in Internet of Things (IoT) applications and the next wave of mobile apps will soon have a major impact on every business.

Speaking at the Gartner Business Transformation & Process Management Summit in Sydney, Brian Blau, research vice president at Gartner, gave his top five picks for personal technologies that will break away from the hype and prove to be an integral component in business over the coming years.

Immersive Augmented and Virtual Reality
As was apparent at major technology shows like CES this year, device vendors and big platform owners such as Google and Microsoft are investigating how to exploit immersive technologies like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to expand the experiences associated with existing device categories (notably smartphones) and to find opportunities among new ones (like head-mounted displays).

While consumer adoption of VR outpaces enterprise adoption, AR is seeing business adoption first.

“The potential is huge in both consumer and enterprise environments,” Blau said. “An immersive user experience enables deeper workplace engagement and can open the door to behavior change,” Blau said.

For example, logistics giant DHL has been able to improve warehouse operations through the use of advanced wearable displays and augmented reality. Head mounted displays (HMDs) replace the use of handheld scanners and paper pick lists, improving efficiency, reducing errors and making the workplace more enjoyable.

Wearable Devices
From head-worn cameras and displays, sensors and activity trackers to smart shoes and socks, wearables are expanding the body’s potential in business.

The smartwatch will become mainstream and new solutions and platforms will drive enterprise adoption.

Gartner forecasts that annual sales of wearable devices will exceed 227 million by 2020, up from 88 million this year. Form factors will move from bulky to inconspicuous and usability will improve as devices begin to anticipate user needs and wants.

Personal IoT Sensors
By the year 2021, one million new IoT sensor devices will be purchased every hour of every day.

New devices will open up new opportunities for business, for example, predictive maintenance and support for autonomous “things”. Gartner predicts that by 2018, six billion connected “things” will be requesting support.

Virtual Personal Assistants and Bots
Mobile app usage is stabilizing. Downloads have plateaued as users stick with tried-and-tested apps.

Apps won’t vanish anytime soon. However, their interfaces will fade and new interaction techniques will take their place. Apps currently offer siloed interactions, but the next wave will offer an integrated experience, Blau said.

Future apps will report to us via our virtual personal assistant (VPA), or apps will simply be hidden in the background, and their interfaces will be more seamlessly integrated into an overall flow of content.

The VPA will become the vital link for consumers and, later, business users to simplify access to their apps, data and content. Businesses should evaluate VPAs for their potential to provide better customer experience.

Advanced Camera and Vision Technologies
In 2016 and 2017, Gartner expects cameras to remain a top differentiation priority for smartphone vendors. The incorporation of advanced autofocus, wide-angle lens and, above all, multilens capabilities to be a key trend this year, delivering new experiences.

There are many potential applications in the enterprise. For example, customer digital assistants in retail outlets will recognize individuals by face and voice across channels and partners, proving opportunities to enhance the in-store experience.

At the same time, consumer video consumption is at all-time high, especially on mobile devices. For the enterprise, the revolution in 360-degree and multilens cameras could improve collaboration through shared virtual surfaces and immersive remote meetings, while video and scene analytics will decode meaning and add more value to video content.

Instead of seeing consumerization of technology as a force happening to the organization, Gartner recommends taking a proactive approach. Set up a process for evaluating personal technologies and identify opportunities to improve workplace process and actions.

 


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E-Business

Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

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China’s Huawei Technologies unveiled an AI computing system on Saturday that an industry expert said rivals Nvidia’s most advanced product, as the company aims to expand its footprint in the country’s booming AI sector.

Huawei Unveils AI Computing System to Challenge Nvidia’s Flagship Product

The CloudMatrix 384 system made its public debut at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), a three-day event in Shanghai, attracting a large crowd to Huawei’s booth with its showcase of cutting-edge AI innovations.

The system has attracted significant interest from the global AI community since Huawei (HWT.UL) first introduced it in April. Industry analysts see it as a direct challenger to Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72, the most advanced system-level offering currently available from the U.S. chipmaker.

In an April article, Dylan Patel, founder of semiconductor research firm SemiAnalysis, stated that Huawei now possesses AI system capabilities that could surpass those of Nvidia.

Huawei staff at its WAIC booth declined to comment when asked to introduce the CloudMatrix 384 system.

A spokesperson for Huawei did not respond to questions.

Huawei has become widely regarded as China’s most promising domestic supplier of chips essential for AI development, even though the company faces U.S. export restrictions.

Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang told Bloomberg in May that Huawei had been “moving quite fast” and named the CloudMatrix as an example.

The CloudMatrix 384 system features 384 of Huawei’s latest 910C chips and, according to SemiAnalysis, surpasses Nvidia’s GB200 NVL72 in certain performance metrics, despite the latter using 72 B200 chips.

SemiAnalysis attributes this performance advantage to Huawei’s strong system design, which offsets the lower power of individual chips by leveraging a greater number of them and incorporating system-level innovations.

Huawei describes the system as utilizing a “supernode” architecture that enables ultra-high-speed interconnectivity between chips.

In June, Zhang Pingan, CEO, Huawei Cloud confirmed that the CloudMatrix 384 was already operational on Huawei’s cloud platform.


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Transcorp Hotels Delivers Stellar H1 Results, Declares Over ₦1Bn Dividend

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Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.

The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.

In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.

Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.


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Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

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Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

 

China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.

The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.

“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.

The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.

It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.

Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.

Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.

Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.

A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.

“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.

Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.

Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.

It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.

Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.

 

 

 


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