Digital Lifescapes

Wi-Fi enabled handset shipments have exploded over the past year, and will continue to show strong growth over the next several years. With the increasing availability, Wi-Fi hotspot usage by handheld devices has increased significantly. As a percentage of total network connects, handhelds (mobile smartphones, etc.) increased from 20 percent in 2008 to 35 percent in 2009. By 2011 handhelds will account for half of hotspot connects, according to the latest study by In-Stat . Other factors are affecting handheld Wi-Fi usage growth as well. There are now a predominance of mobile carriers offering services within the hotspot market, resulting in the promotion of Wi-Fi enabled handset devices. New dual-mode Wi-Fi phones are coming to the market. Growth in applications, such as content download, or even more so VoIP over Wi-Fi (VoFi), will drive usage of handheld devices over the coming years. Emerging high-growth markets, such as China, are now witnessing the launch of new hotspot services

The forecast growth for IP Video adoption and consumption has been a hot topic of our commentary during 2009. Of course, you can anticipate my continued coverage of this significant storyline in 2010. For all those people who have yet to discover the abundance of video content online -- and particularly those who still doubt that watching streamed IP Video on a television screen is an enjoyable experience -- this insight may help. We launched the IP Video Curator project to explore this evolving landscape. Slowly but surely, it's becoming progressively easier to find the online video content that you crave, based upon your own personal (and perhaps eclectic) interests. Once you've found what you're looking for, you may experiment watching long-form content on a larger screen, such as a standard television in your home. If you already own one of the newer PCs, then you may have access to the single cable HDMI PC-to-TV connection solution. Otherwise, many of the portable la

Forward-looking companies are turning their attention to social media sites, but are neglecting the Mobile Internet channel for deepening customer relationships, according to the latest market study by Econsultancy and digital agency, cScape. While presence on social networks has almost doubled from 23 to 44 percent of companies and use of micro-blogging has gone up five-fold (from 7 to 35 percent) year-on-year, only 11 percent of companies surveyed are planning a significant investment in the mobile channel. A large proportion (41 percent) of companies are not planning any investment at all in mobile in 2010, while a further 49 percent are planning only limited investment. Why is there this inaction, given the increased use of multimedia-enabled mobile smartphones and the groundswell adoption of Mobile Internet apps in 2009? Over half of marketers blame this inertia on a lack of experienced human resources -- which was also cited as an obstacle to improving online engagement in gener

Digitization, broadband, and mobile technologies are forcing drastic changes to existing business and service provider revenue models. How should your organization respond? To ensure you are making the right decisions, you need to understand how consumer preferences and habits are changing as well. According to the latest market study by Deloitte , their fourth edition of the "State of the Media Democracy" survey provides a generational reality check on how consumers are interacting with technology, purchasing products, and responding to advertising -- and what they want in the future. International in scope, the survey continues to focus on consumers between the ages of 14 and 75 from countries like Brazil, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, South Korea and India. Conducted by an independent research firm from September 11th through October 13th 2009, the latest Deloitte market study explores distinct differences among four generations. Highlights from th

eMarketer reports that as marketers become more experienced using social media, they naturally progress from the "trial phase" of their online marketing efforts toward a more strategic use. While most marketers are still in a state of flux, according to the MarketingSherpa assessment, about one-quarter of social media marketers have already made it to the strategic phase of their efforts. Frankly, I doubt that percentage is accurate, based upon what I've witnessed. eMarketer says that gaining maturity means improving the ability to tie objectives to specific metrics. Marketers in the strategic phase are significantly more likely than those in earlier phases of the process to measure their success across all objectives. That said, an increase in Website traffic was the number one objective targeted and measured by all marketers surveyed. In contrast, finding mentors and retraining your legacy marketing staff, to regularly interact and engage online, should be the highest

Multi-Service Business Gateway (MSBG) equipment manufacturers have shifted their focus from the U.S. enterprise branch-office market to small businesses and selected vertical markets around the world, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . Here in Austin Texas, CLEAR recently launched its 4G WiMAX wireless service -- continuing their Cisco 4G WiMAX solutions deployment -- including service offerings specifically targeted at local small businesses. According to In-Stat, worldwide MSBG revenue is expected to grow slowly from $729 million in 2009 to $951 million in 2013. MSBGs are defined as products purposely designed for small business and branch office applications that integrate multiple communication voice, data, and video functions into a single device. Since 2007, the number of enterprise branch offices in the U.S. has declined by nearly 6 percent to 1.48 million establishments. Small business start-ups and the expansion of enterprise branch offices are expected to cli

IP Video year-over-year, unique viewers, total streams, streams per viewer and time per viewer were up, led by 17 percent growth in total streams during November 2009, according to the latest market study by Nielsen . There were 138.4 million unique viewers of online video that month. They watched 11.2 billion video streams, or about 81 streams per viewer. Viewers spent 200 minutes per viewer, on average, watching online video streams. One notable example of this amazing growth -- retaining its number one rank, by far -- Youtube served up 6,753,100,000 total video streams in November 2009. Nielsen combines patented panel and census research methodologies to provide an accurate count of viewing activity and engagement along with in-depth demographic reporting. Online video viewing is tracked according to video player, which can be used on site or embedded elsewhere on the Web. For example, if a "Saturday Night Live" clip from NBC.com is embedded on a personal blog, that video

According to the latest market study by Futuresource Consulting , televisions and Blu-ray video disc players that are capable of accessing IP Video content directly from the Internet emerged in Europe during 2009. It's a growing category, with a forecast of more than 20 percent of flat panel TVs shipped in 2010 being able to connect to the Internet (via Ethernet and/or Wi-Fi). "In Europe, four of the major brands have already launched Internet connected TV products that go beyond basic home networking functionality and allow delivery of over-the-top (OTT) web services," says David Watkins, Research Consultant at Futuresource. This includes basic weather and news pages, social networking, video streaming and catch-up TV. Although initially limited to high-end and mid-range products, Watkins believes that we're going to see a web connectivity feature on an increasing number of products next year -- eventually, becoming a standard capability within two to three years. Fu

Demand for smartphones, regular mobile phones, and wireless broadband services continues to drive the carrier base station market, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . The number of newly deployed macro cellular base stations will grow over 10 percent in 2009. Of new macro cellular base station shipments, WCDMA base station shipments will make up the lion's share of all base station shipments worldwide, accounting for about 50 percent of the total base station revenue. By 2013, In-Stat forecasts that the percent that WCDMA contributes to total base station revenue will exceed 70 percent and LTE base stations will account for another 20 percent of the total. "WCDMA/HSPA base stations will be the work horses of wireless data networks," says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. "Many operators, worldwide, are in the process of rolling out, or enhancing, their current CDMA networks, including a very large rollout of CDMA by China Unicom. China Unicom was awarded th

In 2009, there are now more than 450 million Mobile Internet users worldwide, a number that will more than double by the end of 2013. Driven by the popularity and affordability of mobile phones, smartphones, and other wireless devices, IDC expects the number of mobile devices accessing the Internet to surpass the one billion mark over the next four years. "The number of mobile devices with Internet access has simply exploded over the last several years," said John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC. "With a wealth of information and services available from almost anywhere, Internet-connected mobile devices are reshaping the way we go about our personal and professional lives." With an explosion in applications for mobile devices underway, the next several years will witness another significant change in the way users interact with the Internet and further blur the lines between personal and professional applications. The most popular online activities of Mobile I

eMarketer reports that business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketers actively adopted social media in 2009. According to research from Business.com, however, the two types of marketers have very different social site usage patterns. The market study found that those B2B companies already using social media were much more active in the space than their B2C counterparts -- especially microblogging, discussions on third-party sites, blogging and monitoring company mentions. B2Cs were ahead in a few areas -- such as social media advertising, user ratings and reviews, and online communities for target customers. B2B firms were more likely overall to maintain a social network profile. They were also managing profiles across more social sites and were significantly more likely to be present on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. In contrast, B2C companies were more likely to use Facebook and MySpace. B2B was more active in measuring most social success metrics as well. B2C f

According to the latest market study by The Diffusion Group (TDG), the global market for digital media adapters (DMAs) will be virtually nonexistent by 2014 -- a result of manufacturers shifting to embedded solutions and growing demand for video platforms that feature native Internet connectivity. The DMA device will be rendered obsolete, based on TDG's assessment, before it gains a solid footing. This and other themes are discussed in TDG's latest digital media analysis, Broadband-Enabled TV: Evolution of OTT Hardware Platforms. First introduced in the early part of the decade, the DMA has been a non-starter, "a solution in search of a problem," notes Colin Dixon, managing partner at TDG and author of the new report. "The optimism of early supporters was premised upon the belief that consumers were eager to network their PC and Internet media with their TV and home entertainment system, in which case a DMA would appear to be a reasonable solution. In reality, m

The November 2009 edition of the IPTV Global Forecast was released by MRG . Their latest market study uses the most recent information from over 800 IPTV deployments around the world, and includes a forecast for IPTV subscribers, service revenue, and system revenue from 2009 to 2013. Additionally, this worldwide market assessment forecasts over 28 discrete market sectors in 4 geographic regions. Because the 2009 subscriber total exceeded the last forecast by 2 million, the new forecast indicates that global IPTV subscribers will grow from 28 million in 2009 to 83 million in 2013 -- a compound annual growth rate of 31 percent. Who is setting the pace for market development? There's no change. According to MRG's assessment, the European region will continue to lead in IPTV deployments in 2013 with 48 percent share, followed by Asia-Pacific, North America and Rest of World. "Now that the economy seems to be improving, and Service Providers are still reporting solid growth, th

According to the latest market study by Ipsos , recent survey data indicates that younger U.S. consumers (age 18-34) are particularly interested in enjoying 3D video content on consumer electronics (CE) devices -- such as a TV or PC. "Given the broad-based declines in consumer fortunes caused by the Great Recession, entertainment-focused firms have huge motivation to identify the next new thing to drive demand," explains Todd Board, Senior Vice President at Ipsos MediaCT. Because interest in 3D content skews young, and also male, there's a compelling connection between the appeal of 3D video content and the kinds of highly immersive videogames that this group also favors. This same 18-34 market segment also reported the highest intention to buy an HDTV in the next 3 months. "While we can't directly equate holiday season HDTV purchase intent with more broad-based 3D video market potential, we do see the confluence among 18-34 consumers as an important milestone,&q

Wi-Fi wireless connectivity has taken the entertainment device market by storm, with cameras, gaming devices (handheld and consoles), and various personal media players (PMPs) incorporating the technology to date. Wi-Fi-enabled entertainment device shipments will increase from 108.8 million in 2009 to 177.3 million in 2013, according the latest market study by In-Stat . "While a growing number of entertainment devices have Wi-Fi embedded, most product categories only have a few players -- often with a single company dominating the market," says Victoria Fodale, In-Stat analyst. For gaming consoles and gaming devices, Nintendo dominates the market, selling 79 percent of Wi-Fi-enabled consoles and 87 percent of Wi-Fi-enabled handheld devices in 2009. In-Stat's market study found the following: - Although the Apple iPod Touch clearly has the dominant Wi-Fi-enabled PMP market share, many vendors now have offerings in the space. - Nikon shipped 91 percent of Wi-Fi-enabled di

According to the latest Nielsen market study, Internet users that are 65+ years of age make up less than 10 percent of the active universe, but their numbers are on the rise. In the last five years, the number of seniors actively using the Internet has increased by more than 55 percent -- from 11.3 million users in November 2004 to 17.5 million in November 2009. Among people 65+, the growth of women in the last five years has outpaced the growth of men by 6 percentage points. More people 65+ are going online and they are also spending more time on the Web. Online time for seniors increased 11 percent in the last five years -- from approximately 52 hours per month in November 2004 to just over 58 hours in 2009. "The over 65 crowd represents about 13 percent of the total population and with this increase in online usage, they are beginning to catch up with their offline numbers," notes Chuck Schilling, research director, at Nielsen. Online visitors 65 and older partake in a va

More than 39 million UK residents use the Internet in 2009, according to the latest assessment by eMarketer . By 2013, nearly 44 million will be online -- more than 70 percent of the total British population. Usage has risen in all age groups, but especially among young people. The UK's Office of Communications (Ofcom) reported that two-thirds of children ages 5 to 7 were online in 2009 -- an increase of 16 percentage points since 2007. Among children ages 8 to 11, Web penetration rose from 65 percent in 2007 to 77 percent in 2009. "Marketers can be confident that virtually all segments of the UK population -- except some senior citizens and lower-income households -- are using the Web more than ever to research products and services and to keep tabs on brand offerings," said Karin von Abrams, eMarketer senior analyst. Most UK Web users are online more frequently, too. Ofcom noted that in 2009, 73 percent of adults who had been online in the previous three months were dai

More people in Europe are basing their broadband service subscriptions on price rather than on whether the service is delivered via fixed or mobile networks. This trend that will have a major impact on how telecom network operators position and promote their services, according to the latest market study by Pyramid Research . In Europe, the level of competition in each market -- and attractive competitive pricing -- have emerged as the determining factors affecting subscriber broadband purchase decisions. "The dynamics in the fixed broadband market are shaping those in the mobile broadband segment, and as mobile technologies improve and mature, they will have a stronger impact on the fixed segment," notes Jan ten Sythoff, Manager of mobile content at Pyramid Research. There is a stronger correlation between GDP per-capita and broadband adoption when cellular and fixed networks are measured together than if fixed and mobile broadband technologies are examined separately, which

Based on data provided by Informa Telecoms & Media , 3G Americas reported that the Latin America and Caribbean region had over 447 million total GSM-HSPA subscriptions as of third quarter of 2009. There were 119 GSM operators serving every country in the region, with 73 million new GSM-HSPA subscriptions added in the year ending September 2009. The uptake of UMTS-HSPA mobile broadband technology is evidenced by its growth -- from fewer than 28,000 subscriptions in September 2007, up to 2.5 million by September 2008, and totaling nearly 12 million in September 2009 in Latin America and the Caribbean. Erasmo Rojas, Director of Latin America and the Caribbean for 3G Americas, says "The number of UMTS-HSPA subscriptions in Latin America grew by 9.4 million in 12 months -- an amazing 380 percent annual growth rate. Clearly, a strong HSPA footprint exists in the region today with 50 commercial networks in 23 countries." Eva Benguigui, Senior Research Analyst at Informa, added &

Results from an IMS Research market study shows that by the end of 2010, nearly 55 percent of all TV Households in the Americas will have access to Internet video, with 25 percent of these capable of displaying Internet video onto their TV set. Rebecca Kurlak, an IMS Research consumer electronics (CE) analyst, says "Now that retailers are actively marketing Internet-enabled devices, we can expect to see mass market adoption. As Blu-ray players have begun to offer price points that fall below $199, this price reduction will create a domino effect on other CE device prices." This has already been observed by actions taken by the game console market in Q3 2009. IMS currently estimates that by the end of 2010, 35 percent of TV shipments in the Americas will have internet connectivity (Ethernet and/or Wi-Fi) built-in. It will take about five years for the gap to close between connected TVs and other devices. Consumers continue to select devices that offer ease of use, and it just

At the end of 2009, IDC expects mobile multimedia services to make up 11 percent of total mobile services revenue in Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) -- surpassing SMS revenue contribution for the first time. In 2008, almost at par, SMS contribution to revenue was 10.3 percent, while mobile multimedia services amounted to 10.1 percent. IDC predicts that SMS contribution will plateau at 10 percent for the next few years, while mobile multimedia services will continue to ride on growth trajectory. Early drivers of growth in mobile multimedia content have been ringtones and wallpaper downloads, particular with the younger demographics. "Today, the emergence of handsets featuring larger screens and even touch-screen interfaces has pushed the uptake of mobile multimedia services to a new level," said Alex Chau, Senior Research Manager at IDC. "This has spurred content and application developers to develop tens of thousands of applications to satisfy this new demand amongs

The weak economic environment is taking its toll across most consumer markets. Consumer electronics devices are no exception. Yet even economic pressure can't overcome a broader migration to mobile and portable devices, as indicated by the proliferation of portable electronics categories. Portable electronics device shipments will grow more than 10 percent in 2009 versus 2008 according to the latest market study by In-Stat . The category, which includes digital radio receivers, e-readers, edutainment toys, handheld game consoles, MP3 players, portable media players (PMPs), and personal navigation devices (PNDs), is expanding to over 400 million units in 2009. By 2013, it will approach 600 million units. While some segments, such as handheld game consoles and MP3 players, have hit maturity and peaked, other segments continue to emerge. "We're seeing significant growth in the e-reader segment, as it evolves from a nascent market," says Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst.

eMarketer reports that results of a BtoB magazine survey indicate that social media marketing will be of more importance to business-to-business (B2B) marketers in 2010. However, it's not clear how many B2B marketers are fully utilizing digital marketing tools. Website, e-mail and search spending are online tactics likely to increase, and social media is close behind. Six in ten B2B marketers planned to increase their spending on social media marketing in 2010. Fifty-four percent of respondents currently use social media for marketing. That was up 9 percentage points from November 2008 and about 4 points from June 2009. "Thought leadership" was the main intended purpose, though about one-half hoped to "generate leads" through social media activities. That said, what about all the other stages of the B2B buying-cycle? As an example, most enterprise IT leaders seek out information and guidance to procure complex technology products and services, and yet few vendo

The upside potential of Unified Communications (UC) -- merging IP telephony, conferencing and collaboration, and messaging -- are on a steeply rising curve of adoption within the enterprise. According to a the latest market study by ABI Research , the market's size was just $302 million in 2008, but will rise quickly to nearly $4.2 billion in 2014. "Companies have been buying only those component technologies that they think will deliver immediate value," says ABI Research practice director Stan Schatt. "It's only later that they start tying it all together as true Unified Communications." Once that happens, synergies multiply: for example, many companies have messaging by voice and email, but when they are integrated, a user can see voicemails and have emails read aloud. Such synergies can deliver increased productivity and efficiency, and greater customer satisfaction. Big corporations with multiple locations will benefit most immediately from Unified Comm

Device interface evolution helps multimedia usage to blossom in the digital home. High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) adoption continues to gain ground across several segments. Meanwhile, the now legacy Digital Visual Interface (DVI) is gradually declining, according to the latest study by In-Stat . Within the PC segment, HDMI made significant strides in 2008, doubling its penetration from 6.1 percent in 2007 to 12.3 percent in 2008. The number of mobile PCs (laptops, notebook, etc) with HDMI increased 76 percent over the same period. That's an important metric, because PC HDMI cable connections make it easier to watch over-the-top (OTT) video on an HDTV screen. "HDMI's success continues to be led by the consumer electronics (CE) segment," says Brian O’Rourke, In-Stat analyst. "HDMI has been adopted nearly universally in digital televisions (DTV), which account for the single largest HDMI application." The next big HDMI growth area is in portable CE

Social Network Site (SNS) users in the Asia-Pacific region indicate that mobile is now the best way to access their network, potentially overtaking PCs as the device of choice, according to the latest market study by IDC . In countries such as China, India, Korea, and Thailand, over 50 percent of the users interviewed have now made accessing SNSs via the mobile phone a weekly habit. This is particularly widespread in the China and Thailand markets, where 62 and 65 percent of respective users regularly obtain news alerts and notifications, receive and reply to messages, upload photos, or update personal status and profiles on popular SNSs via mobile phone browsers. By contrast, Australia and Singapore see the lowest percentage of users who access mobile versions of SNSs, where only 19 and 25 percent of respective users login weekly via their mobile browsers. "The prevalence of owning a cellular phone over a PC in China, India and Thailand has directly boosted the popularity of mobi

We knew that the day would eventually come when the mobile phone service growth engine would run out of fuel. Well, that day is coming soon. Mobile voice service revenues are on a trajectory to reach their peak in 2010, after which they are likely to start declining, according to the latest market study by ABI Research . Vice-president for forecasting Jake Saunders comments, "Mobile voice has had a meteoric rise since digital cellular networks such as GSM were deployed in 1992. We forecast annual mobile voice revenues to reach $580 billion in 2010. From 2011 on, rising subscriber saturation will increasingly erode mobile voice revenues, not just in developed markets but also in a number of emerging markets." By 2014, mobile voice revenues will have contracted by 9.6 percent. While mobile operators have received a substantial boost from value-added services such as messaging and Mobile Internet, competition is squeezing margins for a variety of services and carriers. Total mob