Digital Lifescapes

comScore released data showing that 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in July 2011 -- for an average of 18.5 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in a record 6.9 billion viewing sessions. Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in July -- with 158.1 million unique viewers, while VEVO ranked second with 62.1 million. Facebook.com was ranked third with 51.4 million viewers, followed by Microsoft Sites with 49.5 million and Viacom Digital with 47.3 million. Total viewing sessions reached another all-time high in July at nearly 6.9 billion, with Google Sites crossing the 3 billion mark to account for more than 40 percent of all viewing sessions online. The average viewer watched 18.5 hours of online video content during the course of the month, with Google Sites (5.9 hours) and Hulu (3.4 hours) exhibiting the highest engagement. Americans viewed more than 5.

Several years after the first introduction of prototype concept devices known as Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), the tablet fulfilled the promise of this product category. The tablet market reached an inflection point through the combination of a new device (the Apple iPad), new business models supported by mobile phone service providers, and new usage models through cloud computing and mobile applications (apps). As we enter the last half of 2011, In-Stat forecasts upside growth opportunities as a result of price degradation, and new tablets from major consumer electronic (CE) companies -- such as Samsung, Motorola, BlackBerry, LG, and HTC. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , the growth trend will help push tablet shipments toward 250 million units in 2017. “The tablet market and its associated ecosystem are still evolving. Over the next few generations we will see more differentiation between devices that are targeting different market segments and usage models.

Regardless of the particularly weak overall video game spending in North America this summer, the latest International Data Corporation ( IDC ) forecast of the worldwide video game and interactive entertainment console market points to a rebound -- beginning in 2012. The growth will be driven by new or updated platform releases, rising game console market penetration and spending in select developing economies. "Total console hardware and disc-based software revenues are on track to slide a few percent in 2011 compared to 2010," says Lewis Ward, research manager, Consumer Markets: Gaming, at IDC. But fears that consoles have peaked as a product category are premature. IDC expects that the launch of the Wii U, a revamped interactive entertainment console from Microsoft in the 2014 timeframe, and the arrival of Sony's PS4 circa 2015 -- along with more than a few exclusive, innovative games -- will help bring a new wave of console-centric spending in the next se

The mobile web user population in the United States will increase by almost 25 percent this year -- as 97.3 million mobile device users access the internet from their device at least monthly, according to the latest market study by eMarketer . By 2015, more than three in five mobile device users -- and almost half the total U.S. population -- will be using the mobile internet, eMarketer forecasts. “The rapidly expanding smartphone and mobile internet user populations raise the stakes for marketers and make the mobile web more of an imperative than ever,” said Noah Elkin, eMarketer principal analyst for mobile. eMarketer’s estimates of mobile internet usage include people of any age who access the internet from a mobile browser or installed application at least once per month. Most of the growth in mobile internet usage will come from increased smartphone penetration, which will reach 38 percent of mobile users and 28.8 percent of the overall population by the end of this yea

It has always been predicted that small business expenditures on wireless communication services would someday exceed that of wireline voice communication. That day will happen in 2012 -- as wireless service offerings becomes the largest category of telecommunications spending for small businesses, according to the latest market study by In-Stat . Wireline data spending and cloud computing services round out the four high-growth spending categories. "Connectivity has become the life blood of business efforts, but it is particularly crucial to small businesses as many operate without a brick-and-mortar presence to customers," says Greg Potter at In-Stat. One can already see the strength of wireless in the 5-9 and 10-19 employee sub-segments. It is the 20-99 sub-segment, however, that will maintain the dominance of wireline voice through the end of this year. Additional insights from the latest market study include: Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is set to gr

Bluetooth wireless technology is a leading short-range wireless communication standard that enables a broad array of electronic devices to connect. The technology continues to evolve and expand, taking advantage of the desirable attributes it possesses: a small-form factor radio, low power, low cost, built-in security, robustness, ease-of-use, and ad-hoc networking abilities. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , they are forecasting continued success, with expected Bluetooth-enabled device shipments to exceed 2 billion in 2013. “Bluetooth continues to gain design wins over a wide range of applications, with Bluetooth device shipments increasing by 23 percent between 2009 and 2010,” says Brian O’Rourke, Research Director at In-Stat. Bluetooth has been bolstered in the past year by the emergence of two new standards. Bluetooth 3.0 + High Speed (HS) combines classic Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to transmit large data files and Bluetooth 4.0 -- which offers much lower power c

The transition from older-style can-type television channel tuners to silicon TV tuners finally began to occur in 2010. Today, the top TV set manufacturers are actually putting silicon tuners directly on their main TV chassis boards -- and many ODMs are using can-type modules that contain silicon tuners and demodulators. Moreover, new broadcast TV applications are helping to increase demand. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , mobile video services in China, Brazil, and the U.S. are creating new growth markets for all-digital mobile tuners that will drive the value of silicon TV tuner shipments to $750 million in 2015. “Silicon tuners have finally turned the corner in the battle with traditional can-type modules,” says Gerry Kaufhold, Research Director at In-Stat. The major name-brand TV set manufactures have been convinced of the performance, reliability and roadmaps presented by the silicon tuner vendors. An epochal shift away from old-style cans is now ful

Wireline telecommunications data services is a growing business communications category that includes expenditures on wide area network (WAN) data transport services. These enterprise communication services include dedicated cable, DSL, network-based IP VPN, T1, frame relay, ATM, and Ethernet services. MPLS (multiprotocol label switching) service is also part of this group. It's a high-performance telecom network offering that directs and carries data from one network node to the next with the help of labels -- making it easy to create virtual links between distant nodes. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , MPLS network services are becoming more popular and business spending will reach $2.4 billion in 2015. “MPLS is communication protocol agnostic and highly scalable,” says Greg Potter, Analyst at In-Stat. It was designed to provide a unified data-carrying service for both circuit-based clients and packet-switching clients. A number of different technolo

The implementation of 3D on mobile devices, such as smartphones and media tablets, is still in its infancy and requires a much more advanced technical solution for both viewing 3D and capturing 3D. However, the tremendous size of the mobile applications and entertainment market is driving the industry to overcome some of the current technical limitations. 3D displays are still evolving, while image sensors are benefiting from a TAM that is likely to triple by 2015, and the processing solutions are already on a roadmap that will support the increasing demands of 3D. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , the total number of 3D mobile devices will surpass 148 million units in 2015. "Despite the advances in the technology, adoption of 3D in mobile devices is still likely to be relatively slow due to limitations in content, the potential of eye strain and headaches from viewing 3D content by some, and the additional cost for 3D content and devices," says Jim Mc

Over-the-air (OTA) broadcast high definition television deployment is growing across the globe, as more nations retire the analog TV transmission infrastructure and convert over to digital. Here in the U.S. market, the video image quality of digital broadcast TV has to be seen to be believed – it’s a vast improvement over the old system. That being said, I’ve discovered that most indoor TV antennas don’t perform well. I live on high ground not too far from the communication towers where the broadcast TV signals are transmitted. So, theoretically, we should achieve outstanding broadcast digital TV reception. Quest for a Superior Broadcast TV Antenna Unfortunately, that has not been the case, until now. My prior attempts at finding a suitable indoor antenna for digital TV broadcasts proved to be very problematic. Some indoor antennas are very particular about placement – the proximity of the antenna relative to the TV set, and the other surroundings. Many require tuning – careful

According to the latest market study by eMarketer, the UK has long dominated the Western European ecommerce landscape, accounting for well over half of annual sales in the European Union top five (EU-5). But France, Germany, Italy and Spain are increasingly important markets. eMarketer estimates that in 2013, combined B2C online sales in these countries will reach $121.5 billion -- and overtake the UK total for the first time. By 2015, spending across the region will reach $343.5 billion, with 58.2 percent of the total -- or $199.9 billion, coming from France, Germany, Italy and Spain. “Europe’s ecommerce market is a resounding success by any standard,” said Karin von Abrams, senior analyst at eMarketer. “The number of online buyers in Europe’s four main continental markets is rising steadily as consumer confidence increases and online sellers provide an ever-wider range of goods and services.” However, the number of online buyers in these countries -- as a percentage of tota

comScore released the results of their latest market study on mobile phone user adoption of QR code scanning. Quick Response (QR) codes are a specific matrix bar code (or two-dimensional code) that is readable by a mobile smartphone. The study found that in June 2011, 14 million mobile users in the U.S. market -- representing 6.2 percent of the total mobile phone user population -- scanned a QR code on their mobile device. The study uncovered that a mobile user who scanned a QR code during the month was more likely to be male (60.5 percent of code scanning audience), skew toward ages 18-34 (53.4 percent) and have a household income of $100k or above (36.1 percent). "QR codes demonstrate just one of the ways in which mobile marketing can effectively be integrated into existing media and marketing campaigns to help reach desired consumer segments," said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile. For marketers, understanding which consumer segments scan QR

Annual media tablet shipments across the globe are forecast to top 120 million units by 2015. While not quite as strong as traditional PC or smartphone annual sales, media tablets are emerging from the shadow of non-handset mobile devices to become a significant product category. Google Android media tablets have collectively taken 20 percent market share away from the Apple iPad in the last 12 months. However, so far, no single vendor using Android (or any other OS) has been able to mount a significant challenge against the iPad dominant position. ABI Research mobile devices group director Jeff Orr says, "Many vendors have introduced media tablets, but none are separating themselves from the pack to pose a serious threat to Apple. In fact, most have introduced products at prices higher than similarly-configured iPads." Apple, never a company to be waiting for others, has introduced its second-generation iPad media tablet while keeping product pricing unchanged. Frag

Developments in contactless payment technology are generating renewed interest, and now suggest that the point-of-sale (POS) payment systems that adopt this capability may finally be ready for mainstream deployment. The introduction of Google Wallet, and the expectation that several new NFC-enabled smartphones will reach consumer markets soon, have created a sense of optimism. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , in 2010 only about 10 percent of total POS terminal shipments included some form of contactless technology. While ABI doesn't agree with some of the wilder predictions for contactless POS growth -- for example that within 12 months, one third of all terminals in the U.S. will accept contactless payments -- it does forecast that 85 percent of terminals shipped worldwide will be contactless-enabled in 2016. That growth will be driven by increased proliferation of contactless cards and especially, rapid adoption of NFC-enabled cell phones. Craig Fost

The transition to SuperSpeed USB (also known as USB 3.0) is occurring more rapidly than previously anticipated -- due primarily to quicker integration of the new interface standard into core logic chipsets. Yet, low-/full-speed (USB 1.0) and high-speed (USB 2.0) will remain relevant for the near future as well. Low-/full-speed will remain the communication interface of choice in mice and keyboards, and high-speed will remain in many PC peripheral and consumer electronics (CE) multimedia applications. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , USB will grow at 7.4 percent through 2015 with most of that growth being fueled from SuperSpeed devices which will have an impressive CAGR of 178 percent over that same time period. "Because the throughput of SuperSpeed USB -- 10 times that of high-speed USB -- is not required in some devices, adoption will not initially be as broad as for full- and high-speed USB," says Brian O'Rourke, Research Director at In-Stat.

The developments in office system and business communication technology have helped to foster what has been a significant rise in telecommuters. Recent economic conditions have also helped to create, in many cases out of necessity, a large self-employed and home-based labor force. The combination of the two has been instrumental in the growth of the SOHO (single office/home office) work environment. That expansion in turn has led In-Stat to forecast that SOHO business technology spending will surpass $17 billion in 2015. "The overall trend in SOHO spending will see a 20 percent increase over the next five years,” says Greg Potter, Analyst at In-Stat. According to In-Stat's latest market assessment, there will be pockets of spending in business technology products and segments that are more significant than others. For example, healthcare and social services, construction, and retail trade market segments will experience the largest overall gains over the forecast pe

The market potential for advertising in China -- while still developing,  compared to mature markets like the U.S. and Japan -- is beginning to catch up to the demand of consumer-facing companies looking to expand their reach among the world's largest population and its growing buying power. According to the latest market study by eMarketer , by the end of 2011, advertising spending in China will increase enough to make the country the second-largest advertising market in the world. In 2010, the number two spot was held by Japan, where total media ad spending last year reached $34 billion. But after slow, 0.4 percent growth in spending last year, the effect of the tsunami and continuing economic difficulties this year will cause ad spending in Japan to drop by 3.7 percent, to $32.7 billion. Meanwhile, spending in China is forecast to increase by 14 percent in 2011 -- rising to $38.3 billion. The U.S. will remain the leading country -- in terms of total medi

Appcelerator and International Data Corporation ( IDC ) announced results from a joint survey of 2,012 app software developers around the world. Analysis shows that Apple and Google lead in mobile by redefining app engagement, loyalty, and cloud connectivity through their new Google+ and iCloud offerings. Developers also indicate that they see Apple and Google gains in the consumer application space translating into significant traction in the enterprise space over time. "Google and Apple are pushing mobile competition beyond OS platforms into the cloud and into social integration," notes Scott Ellison, IDC vice president, Mobile & Consumer Connected Platforms. This likely translates into increased competition with Amazon and Facebook, creating new competitive complexities and opportunities going forward for everyone in the mobile ecosystem. In particular, the study results raise new questions about the diminished role of mobile phone service providers. As mobile

comScore reported key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending June 2011. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 25.3 percent market share. Google Android continued to gain ground in the smartphone market reaching 40.1 percent market share in June. During the same period, 234 million Americans ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.3 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 0.8 percentage points), followed by LG with 21.3 percent share (up 0.4 percentage points) and Motorola with 14.5 percent share. Apple strengthened its position at #4 with 8.9 percent share of mobile subscribers (up 1.0 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 7.9 percent share. 78.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in June 2011 -- up 8 percent from the precedin

Connectivity protocols in mobile devices and other consumer electronics (CE) are finding new growth through evolving wireless communication standards. Two key short-range protocols, Wi-Fi Direct and Bluetooth v4.0 -- or Bluetooth Low Energy, BLE -- are benefitting from the activities of the Bluetooth SIG and the Wi-Fi Alliance. The goal of these groups is to simplify and standardize device implementation for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), increasing the protocol's capabilities and pushing them into new devices and vertical applications. They provide a way for CE OEM priorities to be factored into these competing (yet complementary) protocols. "To remain competitive against their short-range competitors in mobile devices, connectivity protocols must advance their capabilities," says ABI Research senior analyst Michael Morgan. Space, power, and cost are serious concerns in mobile device design. That's why a connectivity protocol must perform its role

Digital video content is delivered to multiple device types over unmanaged networks with fluctuating bandwidth. As a result, video delivery must adapt to the variable bandwidth available on the IP network, the resolution and screen size of the receiving device, and the decoding capability (or limitations) of each device type. Given that multifaceted scenario, a rigid one-size-fits-all solution is really not an option. As more and more video content becomes available via the public Internet and accessible on mobile networks, the need for video transcoding products -- that can ingest content in one format and then output that content into the various video formats -- will grow significantly. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , worldwide revenue for multi-format digital video transcoders will surpass $460 million in 2015. "The industry is at the start of multiscreen delivery and TV Everywhere. Content providers expect in a few years that as much as 75 percent

The worldwide mobile phone market grew 11.3 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2011 (2Q11), despite a weaker feature phone market, which declined for the first time since 3Q09. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ), vendors shipped 365.4 million units in 2Q11 -- compared to 328.4 million units in the second quarter of 2010. The 11.3 percent growth was lower than IDC's forecast of 13.3 percent for the quarter and was also below the 16.8 percent growth in 1Q11. The feature phone market shrank 4 percent in 2Q11 when compared to 2Q10. The decline in feature phone shipments was most prominent in economically mature regions, such as the United States, Japan, and Western Europe, as users rapidly transition to smartphones. This was the first decline since Q3 2009 and reflected a combination of conservative spending and continued shift to smartphones. "The shrinking feature phone market is having the greatest impact on some

I was an early-adopter of the LinkedIn.com platform, having received an invitation from Reid Hoffman shortly after the beta site was launched. Back then, the user experience was very different, because the site was little more than a U.S.-centric online directory of member profiles. The site is now an invaluable worldwide business development tool, for those who apply its unique attributes that enable commercial-oriented interactivity. eMarketer reports that merely a month after its debut as a public company -- and now eight years after its launch -- LinkedIn has recently passed Myspace to become the number two global social networking site in terms of visitors, according to the latest market study by comScore. Marketers can learn how to most effectively reach LinkedIn members by observing how they typically use the site and where they interact on the platform. In July 2011, market research firm Lab42 surveyed LinkedIn users and found that the membership is somewhat engaged.

The mobile gaming phenomenon is already established in the online marketplace as a form of interactive entertainment, appealing to a diverse group of consumers across the world. The growth in this application software is driven on one hand by the emergence of modern touchscreen smartphones as a suitable gaming platform, and on the other hand by innovation in casual games that attract users from both genders and from all age groups. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , this is also reflected in the gaming industry's revenue base -- which will grow from less than $5 billion revenue in 2011 to more than a $16 billion upside opportunity by 2016. "An ever-larger share of mobile gaming revenue is coming from virtual goods and other purchases that take place within the game," said Aapo Markkanen, senior analyst at ABI. These in-app payments will account for about one-third of the 2011 revenue base, but by the end of 2016 their share will increase to alm

Smartphones and media tablets have created a bonanza for independent software developers. The mobile applications (apps) market is growing rapidly and will continue to evolve in the coming years, with the addition of new products, industry players, and creative business models. While this growth has created new opportunities it also presents some new challenges. The apps market is already flooded, and there's also significant pricing pressure -- as well as a shift toward free applications which will necessitate new revenue models. Despite these and other potential hurdles, In-Stat is forecasting that mobile application download revenue will surpass $29 billion in 2015. "Largely spurred by the launch of the Apple iPhone, mobile applications have been a strong growth market over the past several years. The number of applications available has exploded, which has sparked an increasing rate of downloads," says Amy Cravens, Senior Analyst at In-Stat . As the market mat

Software applications (apps) have been the primary focal point in the smartphone and media tablet worlds for some time. Now, with the advent of smart connected TVs, people everywhere are rapidly adopting online video applications that are changing their on-demand viewing experience. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , their forecast estimates that over 60 percent of these connected households will use a TV app at least once per week. However, these apps won't likely be provided by an incumbent pay-TV service provider. Clearly, other companies are driving this trend. "As expected, Netflix and YouTube currently dominate the TV application space," says Keith Nissen, Research Director at In-Stat. But as Netflix competitors become more numerous and as applications are optimized for the big screen, TV apps will become part of the mainstream TV viewing experience. They will transform video entertainment. Once again, the current dominant entertainment indust

Shipments of personal computers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) continued to decline in the second quarter of 2011 (2Q11) as sustained high levels of inventory inhibited stronger sell-in -- particularly in Western Europe -- and led to a decline of 8.9 percent in overall shipments across EMEA compared with the same quarter last year. A shift in interest toward other products continued to contribute to weak consumer demand and slow stock depletion across Western Europe, but other parts continued to expand and enjoy positive growth, performing even better than expected -- driven by robust demand for portable PCs. Western Europe shipment levels further decelerated, recording a decline of 20.9 percent, impacted by persisting high inventory levels and slow consumer demand across the region which prevented stronger sell-in from most vendors. The situation improved and stock depletion continued, but low retail traffic and a continued shift in budget and interest toward othe

According to the the latest market study by ABI Research , more than 2.1 billion mobile devices (such as smartphones and media tablets) will have HTML5 browsers by 2016 -- that's up up from just 109 million in 2010. While the official position from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is that the HTML5 mark-up language standard will not be complete until 2020, ABI believes that 25 HTML5 features currently in development will become widely used at varying intervals within the next three to five years. "We expect HTML5 features in categories such as graphics, multimedia, user interactions, data storage, and others to be widely adopted sooner rather than later. A significant number of HTML5 features will be adopted in the mass market in the next three to five years," says Mark Beccue, senior analyst at ABI. HTML5 adoption is going to accelerate because it will be a key differentiator in the smartphone operating system competitive race to world dominance. Moreover, Appl