Like it or loathe it, it seems like everyone has one. No, not “an opinion,” a smartphone.

How many people in the US have a smartphone? About 60% of the total population in 2015. No small feat, considering the devices really only gained consumer market traction when Apple introduced the first-generation iPhone in June 2007.

What’s driving smartphone adoption? It certainly isn’t the ability to share meaningful voice conversations with friends and family — you don’t need a smartphone for that. The real value lays in the ever-expanding range of capabilities smartphones possess and the services they can access.

One of the world’s oldest professions is matchmaking, and given the role of technology in today’s world, it’s no surprise that the industry is booming. With an explosion of new websites and apps, the dating services industry has performed very well in the past five years and is continuing to grow as today's singles turn to the Internet for help finding love.

Read on to discover insights into the market for dating services and what the future holds for this industry.

In this video, Jack W. Plunkett, CEO of Plunkett Research, Ltd, highlights several e-commerce trends that are transforming retail, travel, entertainment, and communication.

“The Internet is all about saving time, and therefore saving money, and about eliminating geographic and physical boundaries,” he explains. "The Internet will allow you to do business, gather information, and watch entertainment virtually anywhere, anytime, without any physical constraints whatsoever beyond the necessity of having access to the Internet."

To find out how e-commerce is affecting different industries, watch the video and read a summary of Mr. Plunkett's findings below.

Like all digital technology and consumer-driven markets, e-commerce has evolved over the years. With the global growth of B2C e-commerce, retailers face new challenges and opportunities. In order to meet customer demands, companies have adapted their strategies to fit current trends. This blog covers the top five trends that have carried e-commerce through 2015 and will continue into the new year.

Rivaling consumer electronics, clothing has become one of the most purchased physical products online in recent years. Clothing was also the leading category in global cross-border B2C E-Commerce in 2014, accounting for over a third of all cross-border online purchases. In China and Japan, online mass merchants and marketplaces have become the most popular platforms for consumers to purchase clothing. In Europe, clothing has been the leading category by share of online shoppers in countries such as the UK, Germany, Russia, Italy and Turkey. Clothing merchants stand to benefit from adoption of current market trends, including but not limited to: M-Commerce, Omnichannel and Cross-Border B2C E-Commerce. Those merchants currently operating purely online or predominantly store-based could seek to adopt these strategies in an effort to gain a share in the booming online clothing market.

Social games are one of the fastest growing segments of the online gaming industry. According to the industry body, Entertainment Software Association, social games increased in popularity by over 50% last year. Together with casual games, social games account for the largest share of online games played most often, with their share being even higher among the games frequently played on mobile. Social games are popular not only among the tech-savvy youth, but also adults. The International Social Games Association reports that the average age of a social game player is as much as 40 years. Overall, close to half of gamers engage in social games.

The South East Asia region has great potential for online retail growth, as several countries in the region rank at the top of a parameter for determining B2C E-Commerce potential, according to recent market research from yStats.com. Countries within this region, including, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philipines, Thailand, and Vietnam, are helping to boost E-commerce growth potential in the following ways.

The Information Technology (IT) industry encompasses many different sectors, all of which receive make-overs on a frequent basis because of the constantly evolving nature of the industry and resulting new discoveries. While many IT trends change quickly, there are some trends that are sticking and expanding into bigger ideas for future technologies. Some of the most notable trends include: mobile diversity, software-defined networking, smart machines, 3-D printing, the internet of everything, and cloud computing.

MarketResearch.com partners with over 700 publishers to offer customers the most comprehensive collection of diverse business intelligence. Each publisher has its own story and offers unique and insightful perspective into the industries they cover. This week, MarketResearch.com is spotlighting global, multi-industry information provider MarketsandMarkets. Read on to learn more about MarketsandMarkets and their products.

Several vendors have developed a portfolio of products and solutions that act as the building blocks of the Heterogeneous Network (HetNet) ecosystem. Although there are a multitude of companies in this arena, only a few offer the end-to-end solution or, at least, certain key products for the HetNet environment.

In the recent report, HetNet Deployment and Operational Strategies for 4G and Beyond, Mind Commerce has evaluated the key players that are emerging as market leaders, including Cisco, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, and NSN. For now, let's focus on Cisco.