Digital Lifescapes

A variety of Ultra-Mobile Device (UMD) types are experiencing new demand in the marketplace. The shipment, price and revenue data for media tablets, eBook readers and netbook PCs were all part of a recent market study conducted in the third quarter of 2010. Published in a report by ABI Research , the market data shows that media tablets were indeed the most promising new device type -- with some 4.5 million of the tablets shipped during the quarter. Of those, about 93 percent were Apple iPads. ABI senior practice director, Jeff Orr, said "Over time, Apple's first-to-market iPad advantage will inevitably erode to some extent." ABI Research has been tracking media tablets since December 2009 -- future quarterly editions of their report will include market share tracking of all the major media tablet vendors. The eBook reader vendors continued to do well in their market, bringing new products to consumers in time for the 2010 holiday shopping season. "The U.S....

I’m attending SXSW Interactive once again in March. As in prior years, over the course of five days, I’ll assess the overall themes that garner my attention and then write a summary of the most compelling storyline that emerges. Based on the buzz leading up to the event, and having reviewed the current schedule of SXSWi Sessions, I can somewhat predict three key theme possibilities: The previously independent Music, Film and Interactive festivals will continue to converge around common-ground -- as an example, with Transmedia or cross-communication projects becoming more mainstream activities this year.   The term “User-Generated Content” will likely disappear as a description applied to all low-budget content creators -- it’s inappropriate for the multitude of talented writers, musicians and videographers that produce quality digital media.   Bloggers that contribute to Content Factories (aka content farms), and the companies that host their material, will be targeted as...

Marketers value engagement with their content marketing efforts, because it indicates that people actually care enough to interact. However, according to a recent eMarketer report, while engagement is compelling, 10 marketers might define it in 10 different ways. As the interactive ad format that most attracts brand marketers, much is riding on internet video advertising -- mainly their marketing budget ROI. But are consumers really paying attention to online video ads, when most say they avoid or ignore them on broadcast television channels? As spending for online video rises and takes a bigger slice of the display ad pie, marketers must be confident that they are spending wisely. Engagement may be difficult to quantify abstractly, but is key to the worth of video advertising. "All effective advertising today -- not just video -- requires some degree of audience engagement," said David Hallerman, eMarketer principal analyst. "However, unlike some metrics that pr...

According to the the latest market study by ABI Research , smartphone shipments grew from 177 million in 2009 to 302 million in 2010 -- a remarkable 71 percent growth rate. Meanwhile, handset OEM market share changed significantly. Nokia's share dropped from 39 to 33 percent, even as the collective share held by manufacturers of Android-based phones increased from 4 to 24 percent. ABI's vice president Kevin Burden said, "the market has been disrupted during a period of record growth." Today's smartphone includes a long and growing list of technologies, components and software. Some combinations are in demand, others are not. Smartphone OEM strategies determine how these components are used together into cohesive products. With the rise of Android, the number of handset OEMs with significant smartphone market share increased in 2010. This competitive landscape is forcing handset makers to consider their device and portfolio strategies carefully. Many are ...

During 2010, there was significant growth of new consumer electronics (CE) devices with networking and web content presentation capabilities. Network-enabled CE devices have the ability to connect directly to the Internet or to a home network. Web-enabled or Smart devices deliver IP-based video content for viewing either on the device itself or on a separate screen, such as a connected TV set. Both types of devices are expected to grow exponentially over the next five years. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , by 2015 there will be 1 billion web-enabled, stationary CE devices in operation worldwide. "Smart TVs and Blu-ray players (that support online apps) will constitute over 50 percent of all web-enabled CE device shipments worldwide in 2015," says Keith Nissen, Principal Analyst at In-Stat. North America and Europe will remain the primary regional markets for web-enabled, stationary CE devices. Over the next five years, both the North American and E...

comScore released new market study data showing that 171 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in January -- for an average of 14.5 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in nearly 4.9 billion viewing sessions during the course of the month. Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in January with 144.1 million unique viewers. VEVO captured the #2 ranking with 51.0 million viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 48.7 million viewers. Viacom Digital took the fourth position with 48.1 million viewers, while AOL, Inc. drew 44.5 million viewers. Google Sites had the highest number of viewing sessions with 1.9 billion, and average time spent per viewer at 283 minutes, or 4.7 hours. Americans viewed more than 4.3 billion video ads in January, with Hulu generating the highest number of video ad impressions at nearly 1.1 billion. Tremor Media Video Network ranked second overall (...

Broadband access service is a necessity for many people in America. In fact, within the growing majority of U.S. households, it is considered the one telecommunication service that they value the most. However, compared to other nations that lead in the adoption of broadband services, most Americans still use rudimentary applications by comparison. In many of those U.S. households, the user's most important concern is the download speed or available bandwidth of their broadband connection. But the few Americans that are savvy and informed are no longer satisfied with broadband downstream speeds and narrowband upstream speeds -- they want symmetrical service, real broadband in both directions. U.S. Internet service providers were successful in 2010 in increasing the amount of available bandwidth to their subscriber base. Results from an annual survey of U.S. broadband households show that downstream speeds increased an average of 34 percent in 2010, according to the latest marke...

According to the recent comScore report entitled "The 2010 Mobile Year in Review," smartphones aggressively penetrated the mobile market in 2010, driving an escalation in mobile media consumption by subscribers worldwide. Technological innovations enabled an extraordinary number of new capabilities for mobile devices, even expanding the definition of what it means to be mobile through the introduction of tablets, e-readers and other connected devices. As more subscribers access the mobile web in 2011, it will become essential for marketers to reach this rapidly-expanding segment of consumers. "2010 was a game-changing year for the mobile industry," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. "Smartphone adoption, 3G penetration and unlimited data plans drove a surge of mobile media consumption across geographies and deepened the integration of mobile devices into everyday life." Key findings highlighted in the 2010 report include:...

Viewing traditional television content is central to mainstream America's media day. But the internet is already having a profound effect on U.S. consumer viewing habits and the proliferation of devices is altering their video consumption behavior. eMarketer estimates that in 2011, 68.2 percent of U.S. internet users, or 158.1 million people, will be watching video content online each month. By 2015, that figure will increase to 76 percent of internet users -- or 195.5 million people. In the same period, online video advertising spending will surge from $1.97 billion to $5.71 billion. "Consumers are not ready to go over the top (OTT), but they are edging closer," said Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst. "They care most about convenience, cost and choice, and are interested in viewing options to the extent that they fit in with those demands." Broadcast live TV shows are still popular with mainstream U.S. viewers, but newer technologies make it ...

Augmented Reality (AR) is a term used to describe a live direct or a indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input -- such as sound or graphics. Mobile Augmented Reality -- the overlay of useful information on real-world views seen through a mobile phone's camera viewfinder -- has the potential to transform mobile marketing, online search, tourism, retail and social networking. To date, mobile AR is being used mostly as a novelty. However, according to the latest market study by ABI Research , the key to real AR market growth is to embed AR into a wide range of mobile apps running on a variety of devices. According to ABI senior analyst Mark Beccue, "The market for AR barely exists today -- 2010 revenue amounted to only $21 million. But if the market develops as we expect, it will generate more than $3 billion in 2016." But market development won't fully evolve if it's limited only to d...

Results from a new market study suggest that there are 3.5 billion digital cameras in use across the globe -- and in excess of one trillion personal digital photos stored on PC hard-drives, portable devices and online in the Cloud. However, during the time between a camera is purchased and the owner buys a photo-finished product or uploads a photo to a social networking website, that active camera usage can be difficult to define and quantify. Futuresource Consulting conducted a recent market study of photo-sharing habits in the UK, Germany and France. Their study focused on the images that ultimately have a high personal value to the consumer: those that are actively shared, as opposed to the billions that remain dormant on computer hard drives or memory cards. Survey questions were also included to pinpoint the features that consumers will look for in their next digital camera. The use case study revealed that people are embracing many new ways to share their personal photos...

comScore reported key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending December 2010. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. market. The December report found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 24.8 percent market share, while RIM led among smartphone platforms with 31.6 percent market share. For the three month average period ending in December, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 24.8 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, up 1.3 percentage points from the three month period ending in September. LG ranked second with 20.9 percent share, followed by Motorola (16.7 percent), RIM (8.5 percent) and Nokia (7.0 percent). 63.2 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in December 2010, up 60 percent versus year ago. RI...

Demand for e-books and e-readers is still strong, according to the latest market study by Futuresource Consulting . Both are supported by the increased global availability of e-book services and the recent launch of new multimedia tablet devices. "In 2010, the global e-book market grew by more than 200 percent to exceed 90 million paid-for units," says Fiona Hoy, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. This equates to a value of more $900 million and was largely attributable to growth in the U.S. region, which represented more than 80 percent of global revenues in 2010. Rapid U.S. e-book market growth and consumer adoption was predominantly driven by Amazon's loss-leading strategy on key e-book titles purchased through their Kindle store and related application. A similar strategy was temporarily adopted in the UK. "Moving forward, the global balance will begin to shift -- with the USA contributing just over half of global revenues by 2014," says Hoy...

Satellite pay-TV providers in North America haven't added many new subscribers. Competition for subscribers has been an issue, and the fundamental value of all pay-TV services is being questioned by prospective customers. In particular, the U.S. market for video entertainment has also evolved -- due to the rapidly growing adoption of low-cost on-demand over-the-top (OTT) video services. In Europe, the market has less need for set-top boxes, because more TV sets have integrated satellite tuners and CI+ slots. As a result, according to the latest market study by In-Stat , shipments of satellite set-top boxes declined in 2010 by 8 percent -- in both the North American and Western European. "The decline in North America shipments moving forward will be a result of a movement to residential media servers, first by DirecTV, and then by other providers," says Michelle Abraham, Principal Analyst at In-Stat. The move to IP video clients will impact Europe as well, though m...

As momentum in the mobile phone market swings clearly in favor of smartphones, more people are adopting mobile apps, while device performance increased and yet prices continue to drop. Meanwhile, the majority of U.S. mobile service subscribers still have a feature phone. But eMarketer predicts smartphone ownership will rise from 31 percent this year to 43 percent by 2015. Nearly 110 million Americans will have a smartphone by the end of 2015. "Smartphone owners already command the majority of marketer attention," said Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst. Why? Smartphone users do more than their counterparts with feature phones: more messaging, gaming, listening to music, watching videos, social networking, shopping, using apps and browsing the web. At the end of 2010, eMarketer estimates 30 percent of U.S. smartphone users had a BlackBerry and 28 percent had an iPhone, the top two operating systems. But Google Android's share of the market is rising quickl...

HDTVs are rapidly being enhanced with access to over-the-top (OTT) video services. Retailers, such as Best Buy, Walmart, and Sears-Kmart introduced online services and are actively promoting the new connected TV sets to compensate for the significant decline in DVD sales. To counter these initiatives, legacy U.S. pay-TV service providers -- no longer in denial of the market shift -- have begun deploying hybrid set-top boxes (STBs) that support both broadcast and online video viewing -- without the need for smart consumer electronics (CE) devices. Why Blocking and Tackling Isn't a Winning Strategy TV content producers are attempting to block access to popular content -- in the hope that they can stall the inevitable market transition to on-demand viewing. "The boundaries between market segments are blurring," says Keith Nissen, Principal Analyst at In-Stat . Today, manufacturers, retailers, service providers, and content producers are all reaching beyond their tradi...

According to the latest market study by Point Topic , rapid digital subscriber line (DSL) internet access growth is expected in developing markets, while fiber is set to increase its share in mature markets as demand for high bandwidth applications continues to rise in the leading markets. Point Topic's latest survey of broadband tariffs around the world reveals a continued decrease in the cost of a megabit. Broadband households today pay on average just half the amount they were paying in early 2008 for their bandwidth. The findings from the leading broadband analyst firm show that the ongoing reduction to the price of bandwidth tariffs is due to increased competition as operators look to move into new markets for DSL and fiber. "DSL prices in particular are being squeezed. Competition between operators and access technologies is driving the search for more markets and DSL is well placed to capture customers who don't need full speed 24/7 bandwidth," said Olive...

Consumption of entertainment content is expected to have reached close to $320 billion worldwide during 2010, with the online and mobile digital media segments experiencing the largest percentage growth. The latest market study by Futuresource Consulting indicates that consumer expenditure on online entertainment grew by around 23 percent, while expenditure on mobile media grew by more than 15 percent -- far outstripping gains made by packaged media, theatrical, cable, satellite and IPTV. Moving forward, the rise of digital content delivery through mobile and online will continue to drive revenues, with 2009-2014 CAGR forecast at 16 percent and 24 percent respectively. In recent years, much of the success in mobile has been driven by the growth in smartphones, with the market generating around 280 million unit sales in 2010 -- an increase of 56 percent -- translating to a total installed base of almost 580 million. Smartphone form factors are continuously being optimized for m...

Worldwide mobile broadband-enabled network service subscriptions are mounting up, and will reach the one billion mark in 2011. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , at the end of 2010 there were more than five billion mobile subscriptions globally, with one in five of those having access to mobile broadband services. Another 28 percent growth, or 6.6 billion wireless subscriptions, is expected by 2016, with 40 percent -- or twice the current percentage -- of users being mobile broadband-enabled. Despite many markets having reached penetration saturation levels in excess of 100 percent, some mobile network operators still have a lot more growth to come. "With the proliferation of mobile broadband, it has become increasingly common to have multiple mobile connections per user," said research associate Fei Feng Seet at ABI. The main service subscriber motivation is the desire to stay connected everywhere, with more high speed 4G wireless networks light...

Nearly five years since mobile Voice-over-IP (VoIP) services were first introduced in the marketplace, it's about to move beyond an inexpensive alternative for making international calls -- to become an integrated component of unified social networking services. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , the next several years are expected to be transformational as mobile network service providers figure out how to respond to a forecast of nearly 139 million mobile VoIP users by 2014. "Mobile VoIP is gaining real market presence with usage rates climbing rapidly," says Amy Cravens, Market Analyst at In-Stat. As it becomes further incorporated into other mobile apps, specifically social networking applications, the realm of potential use is expected to broaden. This has created a great deal of jockeying among mobile VoIP players trying to develop market share and mobile operators trying to determine the best response to this potentially disruptive service of...

  eMarketer reports that online monitoring of commentary about your brand or product is vitally important. Even if a company isn't involved in social media activities, customers almost definitely are and sometimes their conversations can end up in the news media. According to a survey of business technology professionals by InformationWeek Analytics, most companies are relying on the proven low-tech solutions to the social media monitoring challenge. Note: for those marketers who need some guidance, I maintain a list of free social media tools . Why the DIY Monitoring Approach is Preferred Most companies are using basic tools, such as Google Alerts, to monitor online discussions. Outsourcing the task or using a dedicated application for the purpose was relatively uncommon. This is not surprising, since the free tools are easy to use and they're also effective. That said, the typical survey respondent approach to dealing with online engagement suggested many were not ...

Home automation systems have typically been installed in one of two ways -- the economical, do-it-yourself model, and the expensive custom-designed installation. Both approaches have limited the potential size of the market. However, a third way is emerging and it promises to fuel tremendous market growth. Home automation as a managed service, provided by a broadband service provider. Homeowners will be able to monitor their homes remotely, and control basic features such as lighting or air conditioning. These new managed home automation services will both compete with and complement the traditional home security alarm market. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , there will be more than nine million security cellular wireless M2M connections active in the U.S. market before 2015. ABI Practice director Sam Lucero says, "Traditional security firms such as ADT will increasingly be joined in the mainstream by these new providers offering managed home automati...

Rising mobile phone penetration and the proliferation of mobile broadband continues to boost wireless service provider revenue. ABI Research estimates global wireless service revenue at more than $159 billion for 3Q 2010, of which data services account for nearly one third. Mobile Internet revenue is estimated at about $100 billion for all of 2010 -- that's a 20 percent increase from the previous year and almost three times more than revenue earned five years ago. "The rapid uptake of mobile broadband has increasingly revolutionized network operator strategies," says ABI research associate Fei Feng Seet. Consumers are now spending more time on social networking, blogging and online gaming among other activities, and they need to stay connected everywhere. This has contributed to the success of new brands such as Clearwire, Yota and UQ, and further pushed network operators around the world to build next-generation data networks rapidly, to gain market share. Mob...

According to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media , mobile phone short message service (SMS) will remain a significant source of revenues and traffic for mobile operators on a global basis until at least 2015. Global SMS text messaging revenues are forecast to rise to $136.9 billion in 2015 -- from $105.5 billion in 2010. While global SMS traffic is expected to increase to 8.7 trillion messages in 2015 -- from 5 trillion messages in 2010. "Mobile operators are spending heavily on rollouts of LTE and other high-speed mobile data networks, leaving relatively little in the budget for messaging services, however SMS remains a core service for mobile users and continues to account for the vast majority, 80 percent in 2010, of their data-and-messaging revenues," says Pamela Clark-Dickson, senior analyst at Informa. SMS will continue to be the most popular form of messaging for a number of reasons: universal access and interoperability across devices and mob...

The demand for advanced mobile phones that contain significant processing power, additional memory, large screens, and open operating systems has dominated the mobile handset market for the several years. Smartphones will continue to lead the market into the foreseeable future. According to the latest market study by In-Stat, unit shipments of smartphones will reach nearly 850 million by 2015 -- as they approach the 1 billion shipment mark. "There are several critical factors that drive smartphone success," says Allen Nogee, Principal Analyst. "These include a powerful browser, a wide variety of apps, an easy to navigate user interface, and a good keyboard or touch screen." Additionally, other intangible smartphone attributes, such as being fashionable, and perhaps that your friends have one of the latest design devices, are important market drivers. In-Stat's latest market study results include: - More than half of U.S. handset shipments will be smar...