Digital Lifescapes

Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest pay-TV market study -- which tracks the telco Internet protocol television (IPTV), cable video, and satellite video entertainment services market. "We're seeing continued growth in the pay-TV market, driven by providers' ability to offer voice/video/data service bundles, a broad range of linear and on-demand content, and advanced services, such as multi-room DVR and multi-screen video delivery," says Teresa Mastrangelo, directing analyst for video at Infonetics Research . Although cable MSOs continued to be challenged by competition from IPTV and satellite operators, the overall market remains robust, despite the attractiveness and affordability of over-the-top (OTT) online video entertainment services. Infonetics latest market study highlights include: - Worldwide revenue derived by providers of IPTV, cable video, and satellite video services grew to $240 billion in 2010, up 11 percent over 2009. - Video...

comScore released key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending March 2011. The market study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers. During the reporting period, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 24.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers. LG ranked second with 20.9 percent share, followed by Motorola (15.8 percent) and RIM (8.4 percent). Apple continued to gain share following the launch of the Verizon iPhone, up 1.1 percentage points to reach 7.9 percent of subscribers. 72.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the reporting period -- up 15 percent from the preceding three-month period. Google Android grew 6.0 percentage points to 34.7 percent market share, while RIM ranked second with 27.1 percent. Apple grew 0.5 points to 25.5 percent share, followed by Microsoft (7.5 percent) and Palm (2.8 percent). In March, 68.6 percent o...

Some people believe that multifaceted media tablets are a more desirable choice than single-purpose e-readers. That said, the U.S. installed base of e-reader devices has more than quadrupled since 2009 and demand remains strong. eMarketer now estimates more than 20 million e-readers will be in use by the end of 2011 -- reaching 8.7 percent of the U.S. adult population. By 2012, 12 percent of adults will have a Kindle , Sony Reader, NOOK or similar portable e-reader device. "Two recent developments illustrate the broad reach of e-readers," said eMarketer senior analyst Paul Verna. First, the Amazon announcement that its lowest-priced Kindle is its best-selling product supports the view that their customers are eager for affordable, no-frills mobile devices that easily enable e-book purchase and consumption. Second, Liberty Media's $1 billion offer for Barnes & Noble was predicated largely on the book retailer's success with the NOOK Color -- whose list pr...

Today's active user of mobile computing devices is in search of constant connectivity -- in order to access the Internet, engage in social networking, and share multimedia content with friends, family or business associates. The quest for a consistent high-quality on-the-go "connected life" experience is a source of new market development activity for consumer electronics (CE) product manufacturers and their internet service provider (ISP) channel partners. In-Stat 's latest market study suggests that this trend represents an opportunity for traditional mobile phone operators to move beyond the maturing handset market and into the emerging wireless device markets, such as e-readers and tablets. By 2015 for example, multimedia tablets will have the highest 3G or 4G attach rate among all cellular-enabled portable and computing devices -- with 78 percent of tablets shipping with a 3G/4G modem, according to In-Stat's assessment. "The emerging tablet mark...

The residential gateway opportunity continues to rise in the broadband customer premises equipment (CPE) market. The upside is primarily due to telco service providers favoring gateways over modems, since they fulfill consumer demand and promise greater future revenue possibilities. As a result of the latest market study by In-Stat , they now forecast that residential gateway revenues will surpass $10 billion in 2015. "We define residential gateways as essentially any type of broadband modem that also includes routing and/or wireless access point capabilities, says Vahid Dejwakh, Analyst at In-Stat. More and more different types of modems now also come with embedded Wi-Fi, which qualifies them as residential gateways, and many more telco service providers are supplying residential gateways instead of just DSL broadband modems. This is not only because customers request gateway features, but also to present possible future service add-ons and to increase the broadband servi...

Responses to surveys of mobile phone service provider business customers in the U.S., China, India, Indonesia, UK, Germany and France conducted by ABI Research indicate that mobile devices providing the best experiences with multimedia, applications, and productivity features are those most favored. The latest ABI Research global survey results include: - Multimedia was the top reason Western European respondents chose their current mobile phone; 50 percent of those who plan to upgrade to a smartphone chose applications and Internet access as the top reasons for their smartphone selections. - More than 50 percent of Indian and Indonesian respondents chose their smartphones based on multimedia capability. - The top reason stated by 54 percent of Chinese respondents who plan to upgrade to a smartphone is a better multimedia experience; for Indonesians 35 percent will upgrade based on improved multimedia experiences. - 47 percent of Indians who upgrade to a smartphone chose cor...

In 2011, the global annual telecom data traffic volume will total almost 8,000 petabytes. That volume will grow at a CAGR of 50 percent over the following years, exceeding 60,000 petabytes in 2016 -- over seven times more than in 2011. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , the year-on-year growth will be the fastest in 2012 (58 percent) and 2013 (56 percent), slightly slowing down thereafter. While as of 2011 the web and Internet traffic category is the largest source of traffic, one of the main reasons for the future robust growth is the increasing amount of video traffic. ABI Research practice director Neil Strother says, "There are basically two types of video use cases that drive heavy traffic: clips from YouTube (and similar sites) that are often shared via other social media, as well as lengthier content like series and even films (e.g. Netflix or LoveFilm video streaming services)." According to ABI's assessment, video and TV streaming shou...

comScore released the results from a study of mobile social networking check-in service users. The study found that 16.7 million U.S. mobile subscribers used location-based check-in services on their phones in March 2011 -- representing 7.1 percent of the entire mobile population. About 12.7 million check-in users did so on a smartphone -- representing 17.6 percent of the smartphone population. The study also found that they showed a high propensity for mobile media usage, including accessing retail sites and shopping guides, and displayed other characteristics of early adopters -- including a higher interest in tablet devices and accessing tech news, when compared to the average smartphone user. "Although still in their relative infancy, location-based mobile check-in services are seeing rather impressive adoption among smartphone users," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. "The ability to interact with consumers on this micro-local level t...

There are numerous proven alternatives for marketers to reach and engage their target stakeholders in the marketplace, yet many still choose to invest their marketing budget primarily in traditional media -- regardless of the underwhelming results. What's the forward-looking trend for U.S. advertising spending, and is that insight likely to influence the behavior of those schooled in legacy marketing methods? Will status-quo marketing practices prevail? eMarketer reports that after plunging by 18.5 percent in 2009, ad spending on traditional media is on a slow rebound. They estimate spending was up 2.1 percent in 2010, to $127.2 billion. But rather than making a true recovery, spending is forecast to fluctuate in coming years, hovering under $130 billion through 2015 -- far from the $165.94 billion recorded in 2007. "As advertiser spending continues to more closely reflect the amount of attention consumers give to individual media, each will fare differently," s...

Creating a superior product design is part art, part science. How do you design a product that meets the needs of the mass-market, but still incorporates some new features that appeal to the early adopters? The simple answer is that you follow the insights and pointers that surface from studying the emerging trends. But how does a product designer rank and select the sought-after features with the most user appeal when the realm of possibilities is virtually endless? In the case of mobile phone applications, reaching that objective can be a dynamic and moving target. Although applications remain, as a whole, relatively stable as far as desirability is concerned, the competition for the number one position tends to be constant. In 2009, GPS turn-by-turn directions was the most desired cellphone application. In 2010, it was still popular but fell to the number two position -- usurped by users desire to surf the Internet, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "Th...

The number of portable consumer electronics (CE) and computing devices in the home has grown over the last couple of years, with each new device creating more digital media content that ultimately must be stored and archived someplace. Given this backdrop, the need and use for centralized Network Attached Storage (NAS) will become more practical for one reason -- content access. In a digital home network with multiple computing devices, sharing common storage, content access and media sharing becomes a key component of driving consumer value. In-Stat says that, based upon the findings of their latest market study, they believe that this will push worldwide consumer NAS unit shipments past 11 million in 2015. "The concept of centralized storage was originally developed for businesses where access to corporate information through a network connected to multiple devices provided a number of competitive advantages," says Norm Bogen, VP Research at In-Stat. This context, ...

comScore reported key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending March 2011. Their latest market study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers. For the three month average period ending in March 2011, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 24.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers. LG ranked second with 20.9 percent share, followed by Motorola (15.8 percent) and RIM (8.4 percent). Apple continued to gain share following the launch of the Verizon iPhone -- up 1.1 percentage points to reach 7.9 percent of subscribers. 72.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in March 2011 -- up 15 percent from the preceding three-month period. Google Android grew 6.0 percentage points to 34.7 percent market share, while RIM ranked second with 27.1 percent. Apple grew 0.5 points to 25.5 percent share, followed by Microsoft (7.5 per...

Legacy marketers continue to merely shift their obsolete advertising approach online, rather than invest the time and effort to learn how to effectively utilize today's digital media self-publishing opportunities. These traditional marketers have created a revenue bonanza for online social networking sites -- who gladly sell them the display ad space. Clearly, for those marketers that still see all marketing opportunites through the lens of traditional media buyers, writing a check to Facebook is a comforting alternative to embracing the disruptive transformation that's turning their whole world upside down. comScore released an overview of the U.S. online display advertising market for Q1 2011, indicating that nearly 1.11 trillion display ads were delivered to U.S. Internet users during the quarter. Facebook accounted for 346 billion impressions, nearly double the number it delivered in Q1 2010 -- and accounting for nearly one third of all display ad impressions deliver...

The popularity and anticipated growth in the media tablet sector has upset the portable consumer device world marketplace. That said, the latest market study by In-Stat indicates that tablet demand isn't quite as global as you might think. The top three world regions -- North America, Asia-Pacific, and Western Europe -- will be responsible for 91 percent of all media tablet unit shipments in 2015. "There is obviously strong potential for tablets, as there has been with other mobile electronic devices. One key difference, however, is that the commercial market also represents a potential revenue opportunity for tablet OEMs," says Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst at In-Stat. Usage models and user requirements will differ in the commercial market, but as the overall tablet market becomes more defined, the opportunities for tablets within business markets will become more apparent. In-Stat's latest market research findings include: - At over 129 billion units, ...

eMarketer reports that affluent American's relationship with traditional media is in a state of transition, according to data released by The Affluence Collaborative. Moreover, among the younger members of the population, the current status is more negative than positive. On the one hand, affluent internet users are still using print media. More than 20 percent of those with incomes of at least $500,000 spent 11 or more hours per week reading newspapers. This compared with just 6 percent of the general population. Affluents with incomes between $200,000 to $500,000 landed in between, at 9.1 percent. Affluent's consumption of magazines also outstrips that of the general population. According to the same survey, 22 percent of affluent internet users earning $500,000 or more read magazines for 11 or more hours per week, contrasted with 4.5 percent of the general population. Only 11.5 percent of those affluents rarely or never read magazines, while more than 30 percent of th...

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 19.8 percent year-over-year in the first quarter of 2011 (1Q11), fueled by high smartphone growth -- especially in emerging markets -- and gains made by market challengers. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ), vendors shipped 371.8 million units in 1Q11 compared to 310.5 million units in the first quarter of 2010. Smartphone growth worldwide, particularly in Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America, helped lift the overall market to a new first-quarter high. Increasingly, mobile phone makers and carriers are making smartphones affordable to a wider variety of people, which has helped drive the market to new heights. Smartphone-specific vendors, such as HTC, continue to grow sales at a steady clip as a result of this trend. "Several notable vendors, including feature phone makers, outpaced the overall market, which contributed to share losses of some top ...

A new market study by ABI Research reveals that the worldwide mobile applications (apps) industry is well on its way to achieving 44 billion cumulative downloads by 2016. Google Android and Microsoft Windows Phone 7 are steadily catching up with Apple iOS as adoption picks up pace and expansion of their mobile Operating System (OS) installed bases continues to grow. The mobile app ecosystem and market model is also expected to evolve with the increasing pool of smartphone and tablet users. "Given the vast number of choices available, app developers and app stores need to innovate continually in order to maintain consumers’ interest," said ABI Research analyst Fei Feng Seet. An app called OfferedApp promises to provide a paid app each day in exchange for users completing a simple survey or signing up for an offer with advertisers. Some apps also offer virtual currency or other premiums to consumers who download a featured app from the developer. However these new ma...

An increase in digital media use and networked devices in the home -- such as media tablets, set top boxes (STB), HDTVs, smartphones, and web-enabled media players -- has generated a much higher interest in and need for capable home network delivery systems. Although Wi-Fi networks are still the most dominant form of home networks, the demand for more bandwidth-consuming applications is causing service providers to turn to wired networking solutions that can deliver higher speeds with more reliability than wireless 802.11x standards. That demand propelled non-Ethernet home networking node shipments past the 40 million units in 2010, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "Wiring a home with Ethernet is costly and often requires service providers to send out technicians to drill through walls and pull Cat5 cabling," says Vahid Dejwakh, Analyst at In-Stat. Instead, service providers are turning to existing home wiring, which can deliver their network -- such ...

If you're looking for signs that the U.S. economy is recovering and that business technology spending has returned, then you should look at the recent purchase activity on 3G and 4G non-handset devices -- such as media tablets, notebooks, and e-readers. This segment of U.S. business spending has become a larger portion of the overall business wireless spend. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , overall spending in this segment was up nearly 30 percent in 2010 -- when compared with 2009 results. "A key take away from the research is that the non-handset spending increase trend seems to be universal across all sizes of business," says Greg Potter, Research Analyst at In-Stat. Apparently, there are several variations in some of the vertical segments but, they too, share a robust 2010 and have a very healthy five-year forecast. Additional data points from the In-Stat study include: Enterprise spending makes up over 62 percent of business spending on non...

Over the last twenty-four months the growth of pay-TV subscriptions has been very unpredictable, with some significant subscriber uptake differences -- depending on the market in question, and the type of services being offered. Certainly, the reported worldwide economic challenges have negatively impacted much of the video entertainment sector, as consumers actively seek ways to reduce their monthly expenses. However, the overall global market seems to be improving, as the total number of pay-TV subscribers by year-end 2010 were somewhat greater than year-end 2009 -- by a little over 6 percent, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "Nearly every region showed gains or held their own in 2010," said Stephanie Pickering, Industry Analyst at In-Stat. "However, cable providers were impacted, to at least some degree, by a migration to satellite and/or IPTV in virtually every region." That said, it's very possible that the incumbent Cable pay-TV s...

According to a recent eMarketer report, the creative application of mobile barcodes -- such as QR codes -- are a promising new tool for retail marketers that need to activate and measure the impact of static media, in-store displays and product packaging. "Mobile barcodes hold promise for marketers as a mechanism for activating other media and providing a bridge between the physical and digital worlds," said Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst. But they also present challenges, including fragmentation between open and proprietary barcode formats and the requirement that consumers download a dedicated application to read the codes. In Japan, where QR codes originated, 2-D barcode usage is very common. In other parts of the world, usage is on the upswing. So, where is the market growth to date? According to 3GVision, an Israel-based provider of 1-D and 2-D barcode solutions, the top five countries in terms of barcode scanning growth in Q1 2011 were the U.S., UK, N...

According to the latest market study by IDC , more than 1.9 million eReader units were shipped in the EMEA region during 2010, with most of these distributed in Western European markets. Although EMEA accounts for just over 15 percent of the worldwide market, IDC forecasts sales to reach 9.6 million units by 2015 -- generating a 37.9 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Since their first appearance in 2007, eReaders have experienced much higher growth in North America than in EMEA, mainly as a result of the rapid uptake of Amazon Kindle devices by consumers in the U.S. market. However, as many European markets experience double-digit growth rates, the EMEA region is now set to expand, roughly matching the size of the North American market by 2015. Many factors are contributing to this growing trend. Firstly, e-ink technology and long-lasting battery charge have proven to offer an appealing reading experience for avid readers in EMEA -- which justifies the purchase of a sp...

The Apple iPad commanded 85 percent of the market for media tablets in 2010, according to the latest market study by ABI Research . The tablet market surged in the second half of the year, but it wasn't just tablets. According to senior practice director Jeff Orr at ABI, "Device categories including netbooks and mobile broadband-enabled eBook Readers showed gains in year-over-year shipment numbers in 2010. The hype that media tablets were displacing portable computers and dedicated CE device purchases simply didn't become a reality." Samsung's Galaxy Tab ranked a distant second to the iPad in market share, with about 8 percent share, while Archos's Internet Tablet range just barely moved the needle at 2 percent. These top three vendors accounted for 95 percent of the media tablet market between them. However that market share breakdown isn't carved in stone; Orr says, "Many new entrants are looking to differentiate themselves from the $600+ A...

When was the last time that you used a mobile phone to pay for a retail purchase? If you said never, well your answer to this question is likely to change in the foreseeable future. Here's the reasons why. The growing adoption of web-enabled smartphones is becoming a catalyst to develop the market for mobile payment transaction volume. In fact, transactions will actually increase at a pace greater than the number of users, as individuals adopt mobile payment solutions for an increasing portion of their payments. As consumers become more familiar with mobile payments, and as the number of retailers supporting these solutions increases, the rate of usage will increase exponentially. Therefore, it's expected that the number of annual mobile payment transactions will increase to 45 billion in 2015, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . "Despite mobile payment's perennial failure to launch globally, 2011 will be a significant year for market growth,...

Wireless LAN technology is evolving and it's about to enable a new series of applications that could present both new challenges and opportunities to broadband service providers. Already on the market in small numbers, Wi-Fi Direct is expected to reach a breakthrough in 2011. The number of Wi-Fi Direct-enabled devices shipped will reach 173 million, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . Devices shipping with embedded Wi-Fi Direct in 2011 will be led by desktop PCs, digital TVs, mobile phones, and notebook PCs. Wi-Fi Direct creates a much more powerful Wi-Fi solution, as it enables the premier wireless networking standard to add peer-to-peer capability, with no need for a Wi-Fi access point. This creates a much more compelling standard, a type of one-stop-shop for wireless connectivity, and brings Wi-Fi into competition with specifications such as Bluetooth. And because Wi-Fi Direct is software based, the marginal cost of Wi-Fi Direct-enabled silicon over basic Wi-...

Mobile penetration and rapid adoption of broadband access continue to boost total service revenue for wireless operators, but the dilution of Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) -- due to multi-SIMs -- is a cause for concern, according to the latest market study by ABI Research . Market data shows that 4Q-2010 has seen an increase of $1.4 billion quarter-on-quarter or 2.2 percent growth for Asia-Pacific total mobile service revenue. However, 4Q-2010 ARPU showed a decrease of 2.1 percent from 3Q. "The overall contraction of ARPU is largely caused by the continued expansion of the subscription base, where remarkably one in five is a newly-added subscription that was not around a year ago," said ABI Research practice director Neil Strother. More mobile network operators are looking for new ways to generate revenue, which include adding new interactive value-added service (VAS) applications such as mobile TV, mobile payments, mobile wallet, airtime transfer or even free music d...