Digital Lifescapes

Consumers now spend more than one-half of their day with media, according to the latest market study by Ipsos . Furthermore, consumer media consumption has increased by an hour per day over the last 2 years -- resulting from an additional 40 minutes of time spent online since 2009. This significant rise in media consumption is being driven by the adoption of next generation digital media devices and distribution services that enable mobility, multi-tasking, consumer-control and improved experiences. The Ipsos study focused on key trends. As an example, over the past two years, ownership of laptop computers has grown, while ownership of desktop computers has decreased. More consumers are trading in their single-utility mobile phones for web-enabled smartphones -- now owned by 24 percent of consumers. Cell phone ownership has fallen from 81 to 65 percent since 2009. In fact, smartphone owners spend 30 minutes more a day multi-tasking with media compared to non-smartphone owners. To...

With Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity becoming a standard feature in most consumer electronics (CE) devices with a screen, the television and associated media industries -- in particular,  the incumbent pay-TV service providers -- are attempting to fully understand the disruptive impact on their core business. Hybrid set-top boxes (STB), that utilize both broadcast and broadband connectivity, could be vital tools that enable network broadcasters and pay-TV service operators to compete with low-cost high-value over-the-top (OTT) video offerings, such as Netflix and LOVEFiLM, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "When Apple began supporting applications on their Apple iPhone, a whole new industry was created with about half a million apps now available worldwide," says Gerry Kaufhold, Principal Analyst. Now, with a multitude of connected TV devices moving into the market, Internet Video is becoming the new must-have service. TV programs may eventually bec...

The wireless hotspot market continues to experience strong growth in deployed venues and usage, driven by broadband service providers embracing Wi-Fi both as a competitive differentiator and an enhancement to their core access services. Despite the continued growth, the underlying hotspot business model has been in a continuous state of definition and development over the past decade, and remains a primary uncertainty in the future, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "We are a decade into the introduction of hotspot services and the market is still working out the revenue model," says Amy Cravens, Market Analyst at In-Stat. Initially the market was based on pay-as-you-go revenues, with providers hoping it would evolve into ongoing subscriptions and corporate accounts. However, there has always been a free access component -- as branded hotspot venues like McDonald's and Starbucks have made free access pervasive -- it's now uncertain if this acti...

Pay-TV service providers and other commercial users are expected to purchase multi-format transcoding equipment for their planned or evolving TV Everywhere video delivery services, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . Transcoder technology is vital to online video content delivery and mobile video distribution, contributing to the market that will grow to nearly $300 million by 2014. In-Stat believes the market growth is likely to drive acquisitions among the competitive vendors. "The transcoder market is mostly comprised of small vendors that were formed to serve a particular segment," says Michelle Abraham, Principal Analyst. In-Stat expects that some small vendors will be acquired by larger companies in the next few years in order to round out a company’s product portfolio. In-Stat's market study found the following: - While North America will be the largest region for live transcoders in the future, EMEA and Asia will experience growth as wel...

  There are three kinds of content marketing -- paid, owned and earned media. Paid media is advertising inserted next to another publisher's content; owned media is brand-created content; and earned media is when an independent publisher provides content about a product or service. "Each medium offers distinct advantages, and it is important that all work together," said David Hallerman, eMarketer senior analyst. "The best approach is holistic, where each channel supports the others, as when paid advertising produces earned word-of-mouth, which stimulates traffic to owned microsites." While online marketing is primarily direct-response focused, the trend toward more brand-focused spending is clear. By 2014 nearly 42 percent of online advertising budgets in the U.S. will be spent on branding. Within the display ad sector, the focus on branding also comes through. Spending on online video advertising will rise faster than display spending as a whole, while...

Wi-Fi has achieved consumer electronics device ubiquity, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . The number of applications and devices where Wi-Fi technology is integrated continues to expand. Not only is Wi-Fi now in nearly every smartphone sold, but the wireless connectivity technology is in almost every handheld game, tablet, netbook or notebook computer sold. Now, include new wireless network applications such as automotive, digital cameras, E-readers, Blu-ray and personal video recorders -- plus, new medical and industrial applications -- and with every type of device, there is likely a Wi-Fi chipset inside. As a result, it should come as no surprise that In-Stat's latest forecast for Wi-Fi chipsets will pass one billion units shipped annually by 2012. "Overall the Wi-Fi chip business has never looked stronger," says Allen Nogee, Principal Analyst at In-Stat. While traditional products like routers, wireless access points, and business gateways a...

According to the latest market study by Point Topic , in the third week of July 2010 the world passed a significant broadband milestone -- half a billion lines are now installed in households and businesses globally. It's only taken 11 years to get to half a billion fixed broadband lines. It has brought the world closer together. Improved health and education standards and ushered in a new era of research, data-sharing and cooperation. "Finland recently took a significant step, by making broadband a legal right for its citizens, towards an entirely interconnected world. The benefits the global population will reap from the continued spread of broadband and the services and opportunities presented to them are legion. The next 11 years are set to be as exciting as the last with at least another half billion broadband lines due to be added," says Oliver Johnson, CEO of Point Topic. At the end of June 2010 there were 498 million broadband lines and the internet service...

According to the latest market study by In-Stat , there are significant price and performance issues that need to be overcome before device manufacturers fully adopt wireless high-definition (HD) technology. In fact, these technologies are likely several years away from reaching the mainstream consumer electronics (CE) and PC markets. But that doesn't mean you can't experience it today, says In-Stat. Consumer electronics manufacturers like LG Electronics, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Sharp, and Sony are already offering devices that are including wireless HD. "Although slow progress best describes the fate of wireless HD chip vendors in 2010, the five-year outlook is for a robust triple-digit annual growth rate," says Brian O'Rourke, Principal Analyst at In-Stat. Most semiconductor players pursuing this space apparently plan to move out from HDTV to other CE devices -- such as TV set-top boxes, blu-ray players and recorders, or digital cameras. In-stat's...

In 2015, shipments of fixed wireless terminals (FWT) and cellular routers will total nearly 13 million, according to the latest market study by ABI Research . Their research included market analysis for industrial terminals, business gateways, telephony adaptors -- all relatively mature markets showing stable modest growth -- and the newest market segment, mobile broadband routers, which will contribute the greatest increase in shipments. "While they share underlying technologies, these devices or applications perform different roles and are used in diverse environments," says M2M practice director Sam Lucero. Industrial terminals, as machine-to-machine devices, benefit from the growing business and government interest in telemetry and telematics. Business gateways now offer viable alternatives to DSL-based services and are increasingly used in remote branch offices. Telephony adaptors connect local analog voice phone systems to the world via a cellular network -- the...

comScore released data on key trends in the U.S. mobile phone services industry -- during the three month average period ending July 2010, compared to the preceding three-month average. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S., according to their share of current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, and reviewed the most popular activities and content accessed via the subscriber's primary mobile phone. The July report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 23.1 percent market share -- while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 39.9 percent market share. 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 23.1 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up one percentage point from the preceding three month period. LG ranked second with 21.2 percent share, followed by Motorola (19.8 percent share), R...

Mobile phone penetration within the U.S. market is estimated by eMarketer at nearly 80 percent in 2010. Moreover, the American mobile service subscriber market potential has now reached a critical mass of active users that are increasingly receptive to marketing messages. As the mobile space becomes more important for U.S. marketer's efforts, they must keep pace with the changing scene, according to the latest eMarketer assessment. "As feature phones give way to smartphones and tablet devices, mobility is taking on new dimensions," said Noah Elkin, eMarketer senior analyst. The ability to create, share and consume more multimedia content translates into increased user engagement on mobile devices. It also means enhanced opportunities for marketers to reach out to potential customers via this additional mobile digital media exposure. These new mobile marketing opportunities are being driven by the rise of smartphone adoption. The percentage of U.S. consumers th...

Last year, purpose-built new e-readers were one of the most popular devices in the consumer electronics (CE) marketplace. Today, there is still plenty of consumer interest surrounding the e-reader market. However, the industry analysts are forecasting ongoing price erosion, targeted competition from the Apple iPad, and the continued overall sustainability of the standalone e-reader shipment growth. Therefore, despite the potential impact that the tablet PC market may have on the standalone e-reader market, e-reader shipments will grow from 12 million units by the end of this year, to 35 million in 2014, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "Tablet PC shipments are taking off, fueled in particular by the Apple iPad introduction. Yet, there will still be a revenue opportunity for e-reader suppliers and OEMs since tablet PCs and e-readers target different consumers," says Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst, In-Stat. Standalone e-readers will address the needs ...

Social media offers marketers a new channel to potentially engage their prospective customers, but does not replace the reach and trust found with more traditional media channels -- such as broadcast TV and radio -- according to the latest market study by Vision Critical . They have examined the growing use of online social networks, which they believe reveals several key implications for marketers. Their reported findings were based on three waves of research and more than 10,000 interviews with respondents in the United States, Britain and Canada. The key findings from the Vision Critical study include: Trust Remains an Issue on Social Networks Across the three countries, seven-in-ten respondents who use social networks on a daily basis are concerned about their privacy. Less than one-in-six expressed trust in online social networks, forums and blogs -- compared to one third for radio, television and online news. The implication: about two-thirds of those surveyed don't ...

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) and UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) are two industry standards that enable consumer electronic (CE) devices to easily connect for data sharing, communications, and video entertainment applications. However, most mainstream consumers are unaware of the apparent benefits. Despite the current low consumer awareness of these standards, shipments of DLNA-enabled devices will surpass a billion units by 2014, up from several hundred million in 2009, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . Over 85 million DLNA-enabled Blu-Ray players and recorders will ship in 2014. The fastest growth is expected in the photo-frames product category. While less than 1 million units shipped in 2009, In-Stat expects over 33 million DLNA-enabled digital photo frames to ship in 2014. "Including DLNA in Windows 7 is a key market driver," says Norm Bogen, In-Stat analyst. However, adoption of UPnP and DLNA is broader than just PCs. Handsets and d...

According to the latest market projections from ABI Research , the number of subscribers to mobile WiMAX services will approach 59 million in 2015. That represents a positive forecast, given recent economic conditions. Although, ABI analyst Xavier Ortiz says "WiMAX growth has not been as early or as strong as many would have hoped several years ago." The factors impeding WiMAX's upside opportunities haven't been technological, he says, but economic and psychological. "The recession certainly played a role, making investors wary and delaying some deployments. On top of that, delays in the formation of the new Clearwire have constrained the rest of the ecosystem to some degree, from subscribers to devices and chipsets." Subscriber growth and base station shipments go hand in hand, and despite uncertainty among many operators as to which mobile 4G platform -- WiMAX or TD-LTE -- to choose, ABI's forecasts see WiMAX base station shipments continuing t...

The last few years have been anticlimactic for subscription mobile TV services, as optimistic marketing plans never came to fruition and several early service provider deployments were shut down. However, In-Stat now anticipates a recovery in 2010, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region where cellular mobile TV subscriptions, which are frequently delivered over 3G networks, will reach nearly 95 million by 2014. "Getting mobile subscribers to pay for TV services on their mobile devices has been daunting as users have clearly gravitated to free broadcast or Internet-based content on their phones," according to Frank Dickson, VP Research for In-Stat. As a result, pay mobile TV results have been very disappointing, relegating cellular mobile TV to a niche service for early-adopters. However, niche services in cellular can still drive huge revenue. As 3G subscribers grow, the total potential market for mobile TV providers could result in impressive market gains. For exam...

eMarketer reports that traditional television broadcasters in the U.S. must respond to a growing trend. As TV program time-shifting and online over-the-top (OTT) video viewing have both increased in importance, there's been a corresponding decrease in interest with "live" broadcast TV. Furthermore, the TV set isn't the focal point that it used to be in America. According to a report from market researcher Morpace, nearly three in five U.S. consumers watch at least some video on a device other than a television. Morpace found that today only 52 percent of the total TV viewing time consisted of watching live TV. However, among younger adults ages 18 to 34, that proportion fell further to 41 percent. Adults 55 and older watched live TV almost two-thirds of the time. But, Gen Xers and younger American baby-boomers were evenly split between live TV and several time-shifting methods. Online OTT was the most popular alternative to live TV, with about half of consum...

Despite the current global economic conditions, mobile computing devices continue to see surging demand -- resulting from sleeker designs, new form factors, and pent-up business demand. Mobile computing devices -- including tablets, netbooks, smartbooks and notebook PCs -- will grow at a 19.1 percent CAGR through 2014 and account for over 400 million units, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "While there will be a battle for the lower-end Internet-centric devices like tablets and netbooks, notebooks will continue to be the overall demand driver as consumers focus on lighter and lower-cost PCs and businesses continue to transition to mainstream and high-performance mobile platforms," says Jim McGregor, Chief Technology Strategist at In-Stat. In addition, demand for mobile computing is coming from both developing and industrialized regions. In-Stat's market study found the following: - Tablets will record the highest CAGR of 123.6 percent through 20...

According to the latest market study by ABI Research , the global total of mobile broadband subscribers is projected to surpass 1.5 billion by 2015. "While the majority of subscribers connect to the mobile Internet via their smartphones, a number do so via their modem-enabled iPads, netbooks and laptops," says ABI Research principal analyst Jeff Orr. Mobile operators are starting to see burgeoning revenue growth in mobile broadband services. The cellular modems used to connect Internet services to mobile devices are, therefore, gaining in popularity. Cellular modems come in a variety of form-factors such as PC Cards, USB modems, internal Mini-Cards and mobile hotspot routers. USB modem dongles are the most common devices offered by the mobile network operators. Mobile broadband dongles provide several advantages. They are easy to carry and flexible to use, so it is very convenient for users to maintain Internet access when they are away from home or office. The late...

Louise Kavanagh, Managing Director of Apogee , has studied the competitive market environment as the UK approaches the final months of the digital television service switchover. "We now have a more complete picture of the intersection between the alternative delivery systems for linear, digital and interactive TV services and there are significant gaps -- particularly in broadband roll-out. Our estimates show that the consumers choice of what to watch and how will be restricted for up to seven and a half million households in Britain," says Kavanagh. Estimates from the analysis Apogee has done put the number of households without access to the primary DTT channels at over four million today. This number is coming down as the digital TV switchover continues. But, it is predicted that there will still be some households in Britain unable to receive both PSB1 and PSB2 at the end of 2012. There are other platforms that allow viewers to access interactive digital content. ...

3GPP mobile broadband technology (UMTS-HSPA) grew by 11.9 million new subscriptions, of the total (net) 16.3 million mobile subscriptions added in the second quarter 2010 throughout the Americas, according to the latest report from 3G Americas . 3GPP represented 73 percent of the total (net) new connections in the mobile industry in North, Central and South America in the second quarter. "The Americas was the world's fastest-growing region for UMTS-HSPA subscriptions in the year ending June 2010 and helped the technology break through the half-billion milestone to reach 535 million subscriptions worldwide during the second quarter, representing 11 percent of total global mobile subscriptions, up from 9 percent in the second quarter of 2009," said Mike Roberts, Principal Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. Only GSM and UMTS-HSPA realized new subscription gains in the Western Hemisphere during the second quarter. GSM added close to 7 million new connections, whil...

Strategy Analytics recently conducted in-depth interviews across five countries with early-adopters who already use over-the-top (OTT) video services with their television sets. This group accesses OTT video content via a variety of methods. Some own new connected TVs, BluRay players or gaming consoles. Others have purchased digital media center PCs or purpose-built low-cost digital video players. Despite this diversity, the market study found that people's needs an wants are often surprisingly similar. The study also uncovered that while saving money is a deciding factor for consumers (especially in Spain or China), the majority are also using OTT video services as a way of increasing the variety of content available to them -- providing greater convenience and flexibility. According to the Strategy Analytics assessment, OTT video typically supplements broadcast TV viewing. Broadcast TV and OTT content serve different purposes. Watching broadcast TV is likely to be consider...

An eMarketer report predicts U.S. mobile content revenues will rise from less than $1.15 billion in 2009 to more than $3.53 billion in 2014 -- at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 20 percent. "The continuing advance of smart devices and the growing ubiquity of mobile broadband networks mean that consumers have to make fewer compromises when it comes to the consumption of games, music and video," said Noah Elkin, eMarketer senior analyst. An improved user experience, and the ability to access an ever-expanding variety of multimedia content from cloud services, will attract many new mobile content consumers in the next five years. The fastest growth will come from mobile music, which starts from the smallest base and will move from a market focused on ringtones to one where mobile broadband enabled users pay to access full-length songs from the cloud. Games are the most popular mobile activity in number of users, and there is a growing emphasis on moneti...

Location-based retailer advertising is evolving. However, according to the latest market study by ABI Research , businesses are now being primed to spend $1.8 billion on this emerging category by 2015 -- as part of overall mobile marketing budgets. "It's still early days and there's no single right approach to location-based advertising," says ABI practice director, Neil Strother. "This remains a very fragmented market that is full of experimentation." Nonetheless, the options are becoming more clearly defined. Location-based ads are enabled by three sets of technologies -- GPS, Wi-Fi, and mobile phone network Cell-ID. According to ABI's assessment, the most successful campaigns use a mix of some or all of these technologies -- depending on the product or service, the region, the consumers, and the location accuracy required. New location-based services are catering to mobile shoppers. Some are check-in services, such as Loopt, Gowalla, Foursqua...

According to Informa Telecoms & Media , sales of smartbooks are expected to rapidly grow from 3.65 million in 2010 to nearly 50 million in 2014, representing over 50 percent of all embedded device sales. This growth will be driven by a shift away from dedicated devices like e-readers, towards multifunctional portable devices like the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab. These smartbooks merge the best features of both smartphones and netbooks -- plus they include always-on connectivity. "There has been a resurgence of smartbooks particularly in the tablet form, fueled by the launch of the iPad, and we are seeing the same kind of proliferation and interest in tablets now, that we saw two years ago for e-readers" said David McQueen, principal analyst at Informa. E-readers on the other hand are under threat. Electronic book (e-book) content is now available on most multifunctional devices -- such as mobile phones, tablet computers, netbooks and other portable consumer electron...

A recent Pew Research Center telephone survey was conducted among a nationally representative sample of 2,967 American adults. The latest "Social & Demographic Trends" survey findings were very insightful. Indeed, the shift in consumer behavior would help to explain why some leading companies are preparing to challenge the conventional wisdom that has guided their industry for decades. According to the Pew poll results, interest in two legacy consumer electronics (CE) devices are fading fast -- the television set and the landline telephone. They're both apparently suffering from a sharp decline in public perception that these devices are "necessities" of life. In fact, just 42 percent of Americans say they consider the television set to be a necessity, according to this latest nationwide survey. By comparison, last year this figure was 52 percent. And, in 2006 it was 64 percent. However, the decline has been less severe for the landline telephone. Som...