Digital Lifescapes

Broadcast television content storage is undergoing a period of dramatic change, as TV stations move to file-based workflows and network play-out centers move to HD and 3D services. U.S. TV broadcasters are set to launch local mobile DTV services, and all content needs to be re-purposed for new devices like iPads, tablets, and smartphones. These evolutionary applications will help push the market for U.S. broadcast storage and news production systems to an annual value of $368 million during 2015, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "The nature of professionally produced television is undergoing fundamental changes. Multi-screen content delivery networks and services will eventually push a great deal of professional content into the cloud," says Gerry Kaufhold, Principal Analyst at In-Stat. Even for local TV stations that produce their own talk shows, news, sports, advertising, and specialty programming, the changes in consumer behavior require that cont

The numbers and types of 3G and 4G devices -- other than mobile phone handsets -- such as tablets, notebooks, and e-readers that are used by U.S. business is becoming a larger portion of the overall business wireless spend. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , that spending on non-handset 3G and 4G mobile services will exceed $5 billion by 2014. "As businesses become more mobile and as wireless connections become more ubiquitous, it is inevitable that new technology will be employed by business in an effort to raise productivity," says Greg Potter, Research Analyst at In-Stat. It should be no surprise to see upside forecasts that indicate this category of spending will grow -- in fact, it will become an even larger portion of wireless spending moving forward. Other findings from In-Stat's study include: - Enterprise spending makes up over 62 percent of business spending on non-handset data services, spending over $1.9 billion in 2010. - The admin

While smartphone demand continues to grow, many mobile phone users are still purchasing the less-expensive feature phones. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, during 2010 feature phones comprised over 75 percent of the handset market. Consumers purchase feature phones for a variety of reasons including the need for a device that is optimized for a specific application, such as text messaging. "A messaging phone is a feature phone that has been enhanced for messaging services including SMS, MMS, mobile email, and mobile IM. These devices have a QWERTY keyboard and other capabilities at a price that is usually more affordable than a smartphone," says ABI Research senior analyst Victoria Fodale. Mobile phones for messaging will encompass an increasing percentage of feature phone shipments -- growing to almost a third of the category by 2015. Mobile phones optimized for messaging are targeted to specific markets including consumers in developing regions

comScore released data showing that 170 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in February for an average of 13.6 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in more than 5.0 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 February with 141.1 million unique viewers. VEVO ranked second with 49.0 million viewers, followed by Microsoft Sites with 48.8 million, Yahoo! Sites with 46.7 million, and Facebook.com with nearly 46.7 million. Google Sites had the highest number of viewing sessions with 1.8 billion, and average time spent per viewer at 262 minutes, or 4.4 hours. Americans viewed 3.8 billion video ads in February, with Hulu generating the highest number of video ad impressions at more than 1.1 billion. Tremor Media Video Network ranked second overall (and highest among video ad networks) with 548.3 million ad views, follo

eMarketers reports that media tablets and ereaders have become the preferred platforms for consuming online digital media. Moreover, 2010 sales of both types of device were strong, according to the laterest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Worldwide, 10.1 million tablets were shipped in the forth quarter of 2010, up from 4.5 million in Q3 2010. Ereader shipments rose from 3 million in 2009 to 12.8 million in 2010. eMarketer estimates worldwide tablet sales will reach 24 million this year, about 80 percent of which will be Apple iPads. Research from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) confirms that tablet and ereader purchase intentions are high -- especially among those who are already familiar with the devices. Half of internet users in the U.S. market who knew about tablets and ereaders planned to buy one in the next year, and 70 percent were considering a purchase in the next three years. Furthermore, the overall interest was nearly as high worldwide. And,

Latin America will pass the milestone of 100 percent mobile phone penetration by the end of the first quarter 2011, according to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media . However, despite this accomplishment, there are still 178 million people in the region without mobile communication services -- which represents 30 percent of its population. Brazil, the largest and most important mobile market in South America, had already passed the milestones of 100 percent penetration and 200 million subscriptions by the end of 2010. With 105 percent penetration at the end of December, Brazil is now the sixth-largest market globally with 206 million subscriptions and the seventh-largest by revenues. "Passing 100 percent penetration is a huge milestone for the mobile industry, but it's important to note that it does not mean that everyone in Latin America has a mobile phone," says Daniele Tricarico, senior analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media. Informa'

The early expectations of 3D TV were clearly exaggerated, while current press coverage laments the fact that 3D television has not lived up to its promise. The reality is somewhere between the two extremes. 3D channels have been launched in North America, Europe, and Asia in 2010. More will come in 2011. In addition to linear TV channels, 3D content is being made widely available on pay-TV providers VOD systems. Those who are experimenting with 3D VOD now are expected to make linear 3D channels available as well. The result is an anticipated increase in the number of 3D TV channels to over 100 by 2015, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "Pay-TV providers around the globe who have HD systems in place have jumped on the 3D content being made available to them at a faster rate than many had expected," says Michelle Abraham, Principal Analyst at In-Stat. Many took advantage of the World Cup 3D coverage to test transmission of 3D over their networks, and som

The 3GPP family of technologies, which includes LTE, continue to lead the mobile broadband wireless industry in the Americas -- adding 50 million new subscriptions in 2010 and reaching a total of over 116 million UMTS-HSPA connections at the end of the year. According to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media, with the addition of more than 80 million new connections in 2010, GSM-HSPA has widened its leadership margin in market share securing its position as the umber one technology in the Americas region. The market share for GSM-HSPA mobile connections in Latin America and the Caribbean reached 94 percent, adding 66 million new connections in 2010. Of those new connections in the region, 22 million or one-third of all new connections were UMTS-HSPA mobile broadband. "The availability of wireless services in Latin America and the Caribbean has already reached 96 percent penetration and data has grown 14 times faster than basic voice services during 2010,

LTE will still become the mainstay 4G mobile network technology, although its universal use is still in the future. According to the latest market assessment by ABI Research , some service providers will benefit from a dual-platform or multi-platform strategy that's initially based on both LTE and WiMAX. According to ABI research director Philip Solis, "Intel and others are pushing the idea of heterogeneous networks. This is not to deny LTE's long-term position as the leading 4G platform, but to recognize that a small part of the ecosystem will still be characterized by diversity for some time." Who stands to benefit from that multi-platform scenario? Some operators, such as Sprint and Clearwire, KDDI and UQ Communications, and KT, will use both technologies for some time. When asked why network operators would prefer to support multiple technologies, Solis said, "By using both standards, they'll have access to more spectrum, which helps with capacity

Mobile payment transactions are an emerging opportunity to make purchases while using a mobile handset. While it's already a success in the leading countries and with advanced users, mobile payments have not yet achieved success on a global scale. However, according to the latest market study by In-Stat , it is anticipated that this situation will begin to change in 2011 as the number of mobile payment users starts a significant upswing -- from 116 million this year to over 375 million in 2015. "There appears to be consumer demand for mobile payments," says Amy Cravens, Market Analyst at In-Stat. People surveyed already recognize the pain points with some current payment systems and indicate support for a cleaner, easier alternative. Moreover, mobile devices with built-in near field communications (NFC) capabilities will create the potential for new applications. If mobile operators are able to push beyond the infrastructural challenges, and introduce these servic

The following is a list of exhibiting vendors or other companies that presented at panel sessions and captured my attention at the SXSW Interactive event -- earlier this week in Austin, Texas. I encourage you to check out their Web sites to learn more. LeNewz is based on data discovery technology that mines and analyzes news feeds to identify main topics and group them into a picture. The power of leNewz is twofold: it summarizes today's news on a single screen, and enables zooming in and out of news pages from multiple media sources. Storify is a way to tell stories using social media such as Tweets, photos and videos. You search multiple social networks from one place, and then drag individual elements into your story. You can re-order the elements and also add text to give context to your readers. Yapper allows anyone to simply build mobile applications without writing a single line of code. It goes beyond simple mobile apps to offer a mobile publishing platform for m

According to a recent eMarketer report, a study of the typical online buying process has uncovered the journey for most people, and the growing number of resources that buyers rely on -- as they make their informed purchase decisions. Research from GroupM Search and comScore highlights the increased use of another resource consumers are turning to in combination with their proven search engine usage -- that being, a variety social media content. Skeptical marketers that question the influence of independent product reviews on purchasing habits now have reason to rethink that skepticism. eMarketer says that buyers who will purchase are almost as likely to use a combination of search and social resources (48 percent) as they are to just use search alone (51 percent). Furthermore, when people were exposed to both brand-specific search results and social media, search click-through rates increased by 94 percent -- indicating how substantive product review content can help market

As people increasingly demand more flexible workplace environments, enterprise IT departments are being pressured to incorporate Wi-Fi wireless access and functionality into their set of network features. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , this trend will lead to an increase in demand for wireless access points (WAPs). "Out of this opportunity, comes stiff competition. Industry giants such as Cisco are facing increasing pressure from smaller companies that focus wholly on the WLAN," says Brad Shaffer, Research Analyst at In-Stat. Companies like Meru Networks are already taking small bites out of the traditional industry leader portion of the pie. Meru has seen notable growth in WAP shipments and installed customer base. According to a recent press release, in the fourth quarter of 2010 Meru's installed base increased nearly 50 percent year-over-year. In-Stat estimates Meru Networks experienced a 19 percent increase in their WAP market share in 2010.

According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ), 10.1 million media tablets were shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010 (4Q10) -- more than double the 4.5 million shipped in the third quarter. However, Apple's share came down from 93 percent in 3Q10 to 73 percent in 4Q10. Samsung's Galaxy Tab was the primary competitor in the holiday season, beating other players to market and capturing more than 17 percent share, while a number of smaller regional players also participated. IDC noted that the eReader market also picked up significantly in the fourth quarter. Strong sales of Amazon's Kindle , which was refreshed in August and priced more aggressively, as well as significant gains from competitors such as Pandigital, Barnes & Noble, Hanvon, and Sony among others, contributed to market growth. In 4Q10, the eReader market more than doubled volume from the previous quarter, with more than 6 million units shipped for the quarter, bringing

Brand marketers in a variety of different industries are beginning to accelerate their multimedia production and distribution efforts. They're acting more like non-fiction storytellers and commercial publishers, as they create new forms of digital content. This established trend was one of the significant themes at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) 2011. In addition, the early-adoption of Transmedia Storytelling techniques -- by a relative few forward-looking organizations -- was the noteworthy emerging theme. I attended several conference sessions on these topics. Here's my summary of the commentary shared at the event and the apparent implications to savvy marketers. Don't You Dare Call Them Journalists "Brave New World: Debating Brands' Role as Publishers" produced a lively discourse among panelists who believe that purchasing ad space in a trade publication is obsolete. Instead, now marketers just create their own site on the topic. Howev

There was considerable growth in the mobile applications market in 2010 -- and more competition is expected in 2011, according to the latest market study by ABI Research . Despite more proactive involvement in app store development from other platform providers, Apple iTunes is still the market leader after having such a successful head start. ABI estimates that the Apple iPhone interface had accumulated more than 5.6 billion downloads by the end of 2010 -- compared to nearly 7.9 billion total downloads from all stores during that year. However, Apple is set to face more intensive competition in 2011. "The iTunes App Store only targets iOS users; that leaves more room for other platform application stores to step up and focus on non-Apple clientele," said Fei Feng Seet, research associate at ABI. Google Android-based smartphone quarterly shipments now exceed Apple phones. There is still a long way to go, but accumulated downloads from both Google Android Market and

3D television continues to gain traction in key markets, with nearly 15 million U.S. homes forecast to own a 3DTV set by the end of next year, according to the latest market study by Futuresource Consulting . 3DTV emerged early in 2010 with manufacturers quickly engaging in a battle for market supremacy. The price premium for the 3D feature has already reduced quite sharply and the well known-brands are now incorporating 3D in more and more of their TV and BD model ranges. The year finished on a positive note for manufacturers, with strong sales during the final quarter. However, 3D content was unable to keep pace with consumer expectations, creating a lack of packaged 3D content at retail. "Limited retail content availability has placed greater importance on the role of the broadcast segment as a key 3D content source," says Fiona Hoy, Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting. Although early broadcast services struggled to provide the breadth and quality of viewing

eMarketer reports that the vast majority of marketers are shifting more spending to digital marketing, and a combination of proven tactics with newer online options will benefit from increasing budgets. That said, apparently there's a significant disconnect between advertisers and their agencies, when it comes to the details of many of those changes. According to a report on 2011 marketing budgets from Econsultancy and SAS, agencies worldwide are more eager than their clients to increase spending on newer digital marketing tactics, while advertisers show a greater interest in upping budgets for the more common methods. For example, agencies were 13 percentage points more likely than advertisers to say their clients would be increasing mobile marketing spending. Advertisers were out in front of their agencies with reports of spending increases for email marketing, corporate websites, paid search and display advertising. US-based research from the Direct Marketing Associ

Television services are evolving in Australia, according to the latest market study by BuddeComm . Under the name Freeview, the free-to-air television operators have delivered new digital channels in 2010/11 in both SD and HD formats. Viewer numbers are increasing and will continue to increase as the analogue transmission is switched off across Australia. Digital transmission first commenced back in 2001 and in 2011 celebrates ten years of operations with more Australians now enjoying the extra features and channels that are available. Their success is putting pressure on the traditional pay-TV industry. The analogue switch-off that commenced in 2010 is progressing throughout Australia with the final signals to be turned off by end-2013. The formation of Freeview along with the expansion of the network's online and cross platform offerings are providing enriched viewing experience. By early 2011 total digital TV penetration had reached 75 percent across Australia and the re

comScore reported key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending January 2011. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers. 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 24.9 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers -- up 0.7 percentage points from the three month period ending in October. LG ranked second with 20.8 percent share, followed by Motorola (16.5 percent), RIM (8.6 percent) and Apple (7.0 percent). 65.8 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in January 2011, up 8 percent from the preceding three-month period. Google Android captured the #1 ranking among smartphone platforms for the first time in January with 31.2 percent market share. RIM ranked second with 30.4 percent market share, followed by Apple with 24.7 percent. Microsoft (8.0 percent) and Palm (3.2 percent) rounded out the top five. In January, 68.

Mobile network service provider data plan revenues will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 9 percent and are expected to exceed $102 billion worldwide by 2016, according to the latest market study by ABI Research . Regionally, data plan revenue share among different device classes can vary significantly. As an example, currently in North America, data plans for smartphones deliver the majority of revenue. However in regions lacking fixed line access to the Internet, such as Eastern Europe and Latin America, connections to other computing devices constitute the majority share. But according to ABI practice director Dan Shey, "By 2016, smartphones will become the largest portion of each region's mobile data plan revenues with over 50 percent share." Increasing smartphone penetration rates among mobile enterprise customers are major drivers for data plan revenue growth. But connectivity for other devices such as tablets will become increasingly im

Are we heading towards an all out vendor battle for prospective new tablet buyers? According to the latest market assessment by In-Stat , they believe the tablet market will eventually support many sub-segments -- based upon usage. Therefore, demand will be driven by innovation in the technology, the usage models and ultimately vendor business models. "When you compare the iPad 2 to the most recent competitor, the Xoom from Motorola, you end up with two devices that are very similar all the way down to the basic specifications of the processors," says Jim McGregor, Chief Tehnology Strategist at In-Stat. In-Stat expects future generations to begin to offer more differentiation in form factor, features, and applications. They also believe that we should not forget that there are still many factors that will determine the growth and adoption rates of tablets, including: The carrier business models . A small percentage of the population is willing to pay for 3G/4G access w

Driven primarily by the needs of broadband service providers who seek ways to differentiate their Internet access offerings, the residential gateway market continues to gain in importance within the home networking infrastructure market. Telecom service providers have embraced the gateway concept, and gateway vendors have enjoyed success in shipping gateways. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , they forecast that residential gateway shipments will surpass 50 million units in 2011. "Many more telco service providers are supplying residential gateways instead of DSL broadband modems, not only for those customers requesting gateways, but also, at times, to create opportunities for future service add-ons and to better manage their customer networks," says Vahid Dejwakh, Industry Analyst at In-Stat. The residential gateway market continues its global dominance, due to telco provider's preference for multimedia gateways over basic modems -- because gateways

Multimedia tablet launches have received significant attention, but the excitement may be justified, and a recent eMarketer report explores the current user segmentation and usage satisfaction with these new consumer electronics devices. According to a December 2010 market study by The NPD Group, current tablet owners are highly satisfied with their devices. More than two-thirds expressed satisfaction with Internet browsing and email experiences on their tablet. Moreover, 60 percent of respondents said the same of social networking. An interesting note about usage; about three in 10 were doing these activities less often on their PCs as a result. These satisfaction levels were higher than those of smartphone owners conducting the same activities. Media Tablet Owner Segmentation According to a September 2010 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, tablet ownership was most common among Millennials and members of Generation X, 5 percent of whom had an Apple iP

Automakers are now starting to capitalize on demand for the same dynamic multimedia experience in the car that people are already accustomed to within their home. Automakers have begun to integrate in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems into a wider range of automobiles in order to re-energize new vehicle sales. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , over 35 million in-vehicle infotainment systems are expected to ship in 2015. "In order to compete, the automotive industry must now keep pace with the innovation and scalability found in the consumer electronics industry," says Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst at In-Stat. Along with a rich multimedia experience, today's car drivers and passengers are also starting to create demand for constant online connectivity. The majority of automakers are embracing this demand for connectivity and forming strategic partnerships with technology and software companies to offer solutions that will enable consumers to acc

The current market drivers for tablet shipments include a significant increase in the availability of new media, such as new magazines, newspapers and books. As well, there's a number of tablet applications available for mobile computing, such as web browsing, email, social networks, and video playback. Applications like complex games that are more immersive, compared to those designed for smartphones or other mobile devices, will be developed at a rapid pace this year. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , those developments are helping to drive content and therefore demand for tablets to where unit shipments will surpass 58 million in 2014. "Although the consumer market is the primary target for tablets right now, the commercial market also represents a potential revenue opportunity for tablet OEMs," says Jim McGregor, Chief Technology Strategist at In-Stat. Usage models and user requirements will differ in the commercial market, but as the overall

People want to access video content across the various video-capable devices they own, and service providers, content owners, online video distributors and device manufacturers are all keen to provide it on different platforms. However, new technologies are needed to secure multi-platform video content against piracy and unauthorized access, according to the latest market study by Heavy Reading . "Content owners will not allow their content to be distributed on a platform that is vulnerable to piracy," says Aditya Kishore, senior analyst at Heavy Reading. "However, consumers want to be able to access copies of their purchased content across devices." But content protection technology across different platforms is not always compatible, Kishore explains. Also, all content protection mechanisms may not support all usage rules, so users may not be able to access or transfer some content at some times. The networks and devices themselves have differing capabilit

While streaming video from the cloud is gaining momentum, when it comes to consumers managing and storing their own home video libraries, downloading and viewing digital video on their PC is still the preferred method. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , nearly 50 percent of U.S. broadband households report that they store their digital video home library on their desktop PC. A full 30 percent use their notebook PCs. Smaller percentages store digital video on their gaming devices, portable media players, Flash devices, and mobile handsets. "The digital entertainment industry is pushing U.S. consumers to shift to electronic sell-through (EST) and to build home video libraries." says Keith Nissen, Principal Analyst at In-Sat. However, digital video usage models are now a mix of physical discs, free content, video on demand, streaming and rental models, in addition to outright purchases. Nevertheless, downloading and storing video is a growing and import