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Survey: China and the US lead the way for new technology innovation, cloud and mobile see highest take-up, KPMG

China and the US are set to lead the way for new global technology innovations, with cloud and mobile technologies seeing the largest take-up amongst consumers, according to KPMG LLP’s latest Global Technology Innovation Survey.

The global report surveyed 668 business executives in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. These include technology industry stratups, mid-size to large enterprises, venture capital firms, and angel investors.

One of the key findings of the survey was that around 30 percent of respondents said China is likely to produce the most disruptive breakthroughs with a global impact; 29 percent of respondents highlighted the US, while 13 percent cited India.

The findings are in line with current objectives outlined by the Chinese government, which is promoting numerous technology and innovation-led projects across the seven Strategic Emerging Industries, as part of aims to move up the value chain. These include clean energy technology, next-generation IT, biotechnology, high-end equipment manufacturing, alternative energy, new materials and clean energy vehicles.

Egidio Zarrella, Partner, Clients and Innovation Consulting, KPMG China, said: "The broader high tech environment in China is emerging at speed and scale, and is seen as one of the game changing enablers for the country’s economic transformation. The survey findings demonstrate that China’s innovation investment has fostered an environment for the development of disruptive technologies that is growing by leaps and bounds."

"The Chinese Government is encouraging significant investment in three key areas – shared services and outsourcing, as well as payments and cloud computing. The 12th Five-Year Plan is also driving innovation in these critical areas, in order to create a nationwide virtual environment."

China currently has five designated Cloud Computing Service Innovation Pilot Cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuxi and Hangzhou. And most respondents expect Cloud to drive business transformation and become an indispensable consumer technology over the next three years.

When asked to consider what technology will have a major impact by 2015, 31 percent globally said Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) will enable the next indispensable consumer technology. In terms of driving enterprise business transformation, 22 percent said Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), followed closely by SaaS (21 percent), will have the greatest impact.

Mobile technologies followed as the next technology breakthrough, as almost 30 percent of global respondents said they expect the greatest business transformation to come from smartphones, tablets and other mobile technologies.

Survey respondents also indentified Apple as the top company driving new technology innovation, while internet companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon are cited as leading the mobile payments market share over the next two to four years. In China, executives surveyed said that in their view, Microsoft founder Bill Gates was the top visionary and Jack Ma, Chairman and CEO of Alibaba, the innovation leader.

Meanwhile, 44 percent of respondents said they expect the world’s main technology innovation centre to move from Silicon Value to another country in the next four years. Of those globally who believe the centre will shift, most 44 percent said it would move to China.

Egidio added: "We see that China is shifting from a low-cost manufacturing base to a land of micro-innovation centre to micro-innovations, breakthroughs and a centre for R&D operations. The cloud is already ubiquitous in China, many consumers don’t realise how often they access if for services like emails, mobile applications and social networking."

"In fact, the Chinese government plans to invest USD154 billion to boost the cloud industry over the next few years. This is likely to further encourage involvement from domestic players, as well as an increase in foreign direct investment (FDI)."