5G, smartphones, developers, open source, and more: ZDNet's research roundup

Let's start with ZDNet's Special Feature on 5G technologies. TechRepublic Premium conducted an online survey to learn more about how organizations will make 5G part of their edge computing plans. Edge computing adoption will increase through 2026, but organizations are taking a wait-and-see approach before introducing 5G into the mix.

For more see: Research: What 5G means for edge computing

Gartner research shows that smartphone sales dropped significantly last year with sales down 12.5% over the full year. Just over 1.3 billion smartphones shipped during 2020, a major dip compared to 2019, which saw a total 1.5 billion devices sold. Worried by the economic impact of the global health crisis, consumers pulled back on spending.

For more see: Smartphones: After stagnation, then decline, here's what comes next

Google has explained how it is trying to improve Android security, and the steps it is taking to tackle common threats. The vast majority of bugs Google has fixed in the past year have been in the media, Bluetooth and NFC components. The media library was the key component affected by the critical and remotely exploitable Stagefright bugs in Android.

For more see: Google: Here's how we're toughening up Android security

New research from IBM and O'Reilly Media shows that developers with skills in open-source cloud technologies are likely to have higher wages and more opportunities. Instead of focusing on capabilities that are related to a specific vendor's cloud, IBM recommends that developers start building skills around the open-source software that runs those clouds. 

For more see: Developers: This is the one skill most likely to get you hired, according to IBM

Facebook's open-source platform has been growing steadily since it launched and is showing no sign of its popularity waning anytime soon: the past year has seen the project expand again, reaching close to 1.3 million followers on Github. That's another 127,000 new developers starring Facebook's projects on the open-source platform in the past year.

For more see: Open source at Facebook: 700 repositories and 1.3 million followers

Research by the OpenForum Europe shows the economy is significantly benefitting from open source. In 2018, there were at least 260,000 contributors in the EU, representing 8% of employees in the IT sector. They made a total of 30 million contributions, and produced a volume of code equivalent to the full-time work of 16,000 developers. 

For more see: How much are open-source developers really worth? Hundreds of billions of dollars, say economists

It's been over four months since the NHS COVID-19 contact-tracing app launched across the UK. Now, some statistics have been revealed to the public - and despite the technology's initial shortcomings, the results are encouraging. Researchers calculate that use of the app has potentially prevented up to 600,000 positive cases.  

For more see: Contact-tracing app averted around 600,000 COVID infections, says study

Spending on cloud infrastructure from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and others reached $39.9 billion in the fourth quarter of last year – up $10bn year on year. Collectively, AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud earned 58% of the industry's revenues. For the full year, cloud spending was up 33% to $142 billion from $107 billion in 2019. 

For more see: Cloud computing: AWS is still the biggest player, but Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are growing fast

Google Cloud is now approaching a $16 billion annual revenue run rate, but Google's ad business is likely to subsidize it for the foreseeable future. The mirror image is AWS, which delivers operating income that dwarfs Amazon's core retail business. In the fourth quarter, Google Cloud delivered an operating loss of $1.24 billion on revenue of $3.83 billion, up from $2.61 billion a year ago.

For more see: Google Cloud vs. AWS: Two vastly different profit pictures

The new Gartner Magic Quadrant on analytics and business intelligence is out, and Microsoft is once again in the "Leaders" quadrant. In fact, according to Microsoft, this is its 14th year in a row as a leader in BI. While Microsoft is in virtually the identical spot as it was last year, its closest competitors have actually lost ground. 

For more see: As Power BI aces Gartner's new Magic Quadrant, what's the story behind Microsoft's success?