Digital Lifescapes

The U.S. pay-TV market had an adoption rate that service providers in other nations would envy. For the longest time it seemed that the only way to go was up. The incumbent's quest for more channels was coupled with the desire to add new features like optional pay-per-view offerings and DVR capabilities in set-top boxes. The result: upward trending subscriber growth -- with a corresponding increased revenue and profit. Meanwhile, all the status-quo players supported a perpetual increase in the ongoing cost of sporting event programming. The assumption was that these high-cost sports channels would be subsidized by the masses. Everyone had to pay the price -- including subscribers that rarely or never watched ESPN. The video entertainment ecosystem was tightly controlled by the business development needs of a few large media companies. Others in the ecosystem had to adapt to their demands -- therefore most complied. Nobody seemed to care that the fundamental business models were...

The global Technology, Media and Telecommunications ( TMT ) marketplace was very eventful during the past year. The vast majority of TMT sector product and service marketers have experienced both great challenges and unprecedented new opportunities in 2011. That being said, I've selected a few stories from the Digital Lifescapes archive that I believe are noteworthy, from a marketing practices point of view -- both in retrospect and a forward-looking perspective. Spending on Under-Performing Ads is Still Foolish The media-buyer mentality is still pervasive with most marketers. Given what we know about the typical ROI results from advertising, when compared to quality editorial content publication, why do marketers spend their budgets on under-performing ads? It's easier to buy advertising placements than create meaningful new content that appeals to your customers and prospects. More >> Legacy Marketers Provide a Windfall for Facebook Transmedia Storytelling Cr...

ABI Research believes that the emergence of the smartphone "Freemium" software application (app) market has been much more than a mere buzzword from this year. Moreover, the global market outlook for 2012 is likely to follow a similar pattern of high growth. Within the top-ranked 250 Apple iOS apps, across all categories, an average of 88 percent are already free to download -- monetized incrementally with advertising and in-app purchases. The trend will continue in 2012, and it is entirely possible that at this time next year, in selected categories, all relevant Apple iOS apps will be free. Apple enabled in-app purchasing for free apps in October 2009 and since then developers have been remarkably quick to evolve their business models. Aapo Markkanen, senior analyst for consumer mobility at ABI Research, said "What many observers misunderstand about Freemium is that it isn't only about monetizing, but also about marketing. The threshold for consumers to do...

Companies in various industries seek to reduce their operational costs, increase revenue opportunities and improve customer service by deploying interactive kiosks to assist their customers. They typically use this market development strategy as an additional communications channel -- to enable their customers with convenient self-service options that don't require employee involvement. Demand for new kiosks will increase at a steady pace. The number of interactive kiosks in operation will rise from approximately 1.6 million deployed in 2011 to nearly three million deployed globally by 2016. "The self-service technology trend has been occurring for several years, with consumers increasingly seeking greater convenience in the channels that they choose to utilize," says Sam Lucero, practice director, M2M connectivity at ABI Research . At the center of this self-service trend are interactive devices that are located in public places. Kiosks are not a new channel. In ...

While some video entertainment industry analysts and consumer electronics pundits are eager to predict a rapid decline of the traditional pay-TV set top box market, others are less sure about the near-term prospects. That being said, a few still see some upside market opportunity within the mainstream pay-TV category. The set top box market actually experienced pockets of growth in 2011, primarily due to robust demand for digital cable set top box products in Asia. In contrast, North American cable set top box unit shipments are decreasing, largely due to the declining number of cable TV subscriber households -- combined with cable TV operators tightening their capital expenditure budgets. According to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat, they report that global digital set top box unit shipments are on track to exceed 55 million, down just 1 percent from 2010 unit shipments. "In-Stat believes that the long-term outlook for the cable set top box market is positive,...

Worldwide shipments of media tablets rose by 23.9 percent on a sequential basis in the third quarter of 2011 (3Q11) to 18.1 million units, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ). That represents an increase of 264.5 percent from the same quarter last year, but 5.8 percent below the original forecast of 19.2 million units. Despite these slightly lower-than-expected shipments in 3Q11, IDC anticipates a strong demand in 4Q11 and has increased its worldwide shipment forecast for 2011 to 63.3 million units -- that's up from a previous projection of 62.5 million units. Apple shipped 11.1 million units in 3Q11, up from 9.3 million units in 2Q11. That represents a 61.5 percent worldwide market share (down from 63.3 percent in 2Q11). HP shipped 903,354 units to grab a 5 percent share of the worldwide market, number three behind Samsung's 5.6 percent market share. After IDC updated its taxonomy to move LCD-based devices -- such as Barnes ...

More forward thinking companies that market their business-to-business (B2B) offerings online are using social media as a key ingredient of their marketing mix. Marketers believe that the more focused B2B networking sites, such as LinkedIn, are an effective way to generate leads -- while more casual social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, are helping to reach customers in new ways. "Leveraging social media for branding and awareness-building can help humanize B2B companies, establish them as thought leaders, and offer new touch-points for connecting with customers and prospects,” said Kimberly Maul, analyst at eMarketer . Social Media Marketing as a Mainstream Practice As of May 2011, 89 percent of U.S. based B2B companies were using social media marketing , according to web survey company iTracks. Their survey was conducted among Business Marketing Association members, CMOs and other senior employees overseeing B2B marketing programs. The majority of sur...

comScore released data showing that 183 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in November for an average of 20.5 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience viewed 40.9 billion videos. Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in November with 151.6 million unique viewers, while VEVO ranked second with 55.4 million. Facebook.com ranked third with 50.8 million viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 50.4 million and Viacom Digital with 47.4 million. More than 40 billion videos views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 20.5 billion. The average viewer watched 20.5 hours of online video content, with Google Sites (7.4 hours) and Hulu (3.3 hours) demonstrating the highest engagement among the top ten properties. Americans viewed 7.2 billion video ads in November, with Hulu generating the highest number of video ad impressions at more than 1.3 billi...

According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, worldwide service revenues generated by 4G LTE mobile networks are forecast to grow rapidly -- once all the planned networks are launched, and when the early-adopters have subscribed -- eventually exceeding $265 billion by 2016. While the total number of LTE consumer subscribers will be higher than enterprise in 2016, it is a different picture from a service revenue perspective, with the consumer segment accounting for under half of the total. Premium service tariffs -- to provide high-end enterprise users with required guaranteed connections and/or service levels -- was identified as an important offering, to help derive the much needed incremental revenues to justify a carrier's investment in LTE infrastructure. The study found that early-adopters of LTE will be mobile service subscribers who are currently in the higher echelons of monthly spend. This will be the case in developing countries as much as in developed c...

comScore released new data revealing that the worldwide growth of online video consumption appears to have no limits. "As global broadband connectivity continues to rise, online video viewing has taken off in a big way and has become a fully integrated component of the digital content experience," said Dan Piech, comScore product manager for video. In October 2011, 201.4 billion videos were viewed online from a home or work location, with the global viewing audience reaching 1.2 billion unique viewers age 15 and older. Google Sites led as the top global video property with nearly 88.3 billion videos viewed on the property during the month, accounting for 43.8 percent of all videos viewed globally. YouTube.com was the key driver of video viewing on Google Sites, accounting for more than 99 percent of videos viewed on the property. China-based Youku, Inc. was the second largest video property globally with 4.6 billion videos viewed in October (2.3 percent global share), ...

Partly driven by the desire to be connected anywhere, anytime -- and to have access to every type of content -- the consumer electronics (CE) industry continues to develop new mobile communication and computing platforms. A key dynamic of this change is the consumer desire for a rich visual experience on any size screen. This experience continues to push the limits of current mobile System-on-a-Chip (SoC) capabilities and makes the graphics processing unit (GPU) one of the most critical components in the design and differentiation of the SoC and consumer devices. According to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat , they now forecast that these trends will push the mobile SoC TAM to over 3.1 billion devices in 2015 -- that's up from 2 billion in 2010. Devices that may require a mobile SoC include cellphones, smartphones, netbook PCs, media tablets, digital still cameras, mp3 players, personal navigation devices, e-readers, handheld game consoles, digital camcorders, and porta...

According to the latest market study by ABI Research , the global enterprise collaboration services market will reach $3.5 billion in revenue by 2016. In 2010, the market registered 51.7 percent year-on-year growth to reach $898.6 million. Cloud-based freemium services are currently driving adoption, and volumes are likely to experience an even higher CAGR between 2011 and 2016. Positive social media experiences in the mainstream user population have prompted people to demand similar services in the enterprise environment. Applications convergence, business process integration, and technology consolidation have been three key adoption drivers of these social interaction platforms in the enterprise. Cloud-based platforms are gaining increasing relevance as vendors believe a cloud strategy is indispensable with the market becoming truly multi-modal and the number of social interactions over mobile devices increasing exponentially. "Mobility is emerging as a key functionali...

Under normal circumstances, a change in business practices typically flounders in the realm of the legacy marketer. Standing on the sidelines -- with no intent to act -- is the norm for too many executives. Any excuse that could be used to rationalize further inaction merely fuels the status quo. Undaunted, the progressives among them will still advance the much needed transformation. According to the latest market study by eMarketer , regardless of the growth of digital marketing practices in leading markets, advertising across all media in Western Europe will grow more slowly than expected -- as a result of the region's economic troubles. eMarketer estimates total media advertising spending in Western Europe will have grown 1.8 percent -- to $114.4 billion by the end of 2011. They previously forecast, in June 2011, that ad spending in the region would grow 3 percent to $115.8 billion in 2011 -- before reaching $120.8 billion in 2012. Online advertising is growing slightly ...

As the year comes to a close, most industry analysts are upbeat about the prospects for continued adoption of new mobile devices. However, some are more cautionary in their guidance. Juniper Research has compiled a list of their predictions for the top trends in the mobile and wireless communications industry during 2012. A free report detailing their market research study findings is available on their website. According to the latest Juniper assessment, there is a strong possibility that recessionary conditions will have an adverse impact on smartphone and media tablet sales -- particularly in the case of unsubsidized devices. Juniper's view is that, given the extent to which smartphones have already become a near must-have device, the impact here will be less significant than for tablets, where it may well reduce the extent to which these devices penetrate the wider market, notably across Western Europe. The effect will be most acutely felt in the premium media tablet s...

4G Americas announced that LTE mobile network connections in North America reached 3.3 million -- representing 87 percent of all 3.8 million LTE connections worldwide, according to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media . This puts the U.S. and Canada in the number one position as global leaders in LTE subscriptions. "The early deployment of LTE in the United States and Canada has put the region in a leadership position worldwide," stated Chris Pearson, President of 4G Americas. "It is also one of the key reasons why securing additional spectrum is a requirement for continued mobile broadband progress in serving both consumer and business customers while increasing our much-needed economic development in North America." Without additional spectrum in the region, however, the leadership position will inevitably fall. It is already expected that by 2013 the Asia Pacific region will surpass North America in LTE subscriptions. In Latin America, ...

Service providers, retailers, banks, governments, and multinational enterprises are working hard to counter the growing threat of online hacking and identity fraud that has made headlines throughout 2011. As a result, vendors of hardware and software solutions aimed at boosting security for online transactions and network access we see increased demand for their offerings. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , cumulative shipments of hardware-based solutions, including one-time-password (OTP) generators, portable smart card readers, and secure USB tokens will reach 1.8 billion units by the end of 2016. However, greater development of more user-friendly software in browsers and on mobile devices will result in software solutions accounting for 60 percent of shipments in 2016. The market will see a boost in growth for USB tokens over the forecast period with OTP generators experiencing a decelerating growth pattern due to high profile hacks to companies such as R...

In a bygone era, live TV programming was the top television content source. Now, the availability of digital video recorders (DVRs), Pay-TV on-demand services, and online streaming video options has changed the viewer's preferences. According to the latest market study by TDG , a growing number of TV viewers fall into segments inclined to first select a source other than live broadcast TV. The impact on the traditional broadcast television ecosystem has been significant. To better understand this shifting behavior, TDG developed a quantitative framework based on consumer First Glance TV preferences among different television content sources, including live broadcast, DVR-recorded, on-demand, and online shows -- as well as physical discs such as DVD or Blu-ray. Based on this analysis, TDG identified five key segments -- non-overlapping groups that exhibit unique TV source preferences. The dominant characteristics of each segment are as follows: Black-Box Baulkers - strongl...

Internet-enabled consumer electronics (CE) in the home -- including Smart TVs, Blu-Ray disc players, game consoles, and streaming media players -- continue to grow their market share and now benefit from increased adoption by Americans. Already about 17 million U.S. households currently own a connected TV, and ownership of streaming media players has nearly doubled since the end of 2010. Yet only a fraction of consumers that own an Internet-capable TV device actually connects it to the Internet to become over-the-top (OTT) video consumers. Despite this hurdle, the growing base of OTT video-capable U.S. households is propelling the revenue for online video-on-demand (VoD) and electronic sell through (EST) to double by 2015, according to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat . "OTT video is continuing to grow, overcoming the barriers of low device connect rates and cumbersome user interfaces," says Keith Nissen, Research Director at NPD In-Stat. Even stronger growth ...

We've reached a significant tipping-point for over-the-top (OTT) video consumption in the U.S. market. Now that online video user penetration surpassed 50 percent of the general population in 2011, it's truly become a mainstream pursuit. Americans are watching more video on more devices than ever before. What are the implications for the future outlook? While the accelerated growth of the last year may slow, we can anticipate continued expansion of the OTT video user population. By 2015, U.S. online video viewers will represent 60 percent of the general population and 76 percent of internet users, according the the findings from the latest market study by eMarketer. "Audience growth over the next four years will come from all demographic segments, but it will be more pronounced among preteen children, older boomers and seniors," said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst. These groups have traditionally lagged teens and younger adults in their video viewing a...

International Data Corporation ( IDC ) had already predicted that the next wave of business technologies would begin its transition into the mainstream during 2011. Today, spending on these technologies is growing at about 18 percent per year and is expected to account for at least 80 percent of business technology spending growth between now and 2020. "The industry's shift to the 3rd Platform will accelerate in 2012, forcing the industry's leaders to make bold investments and fateful decisions," said Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC. Overall, IDC now forecasts that worldwide IT spending will grow by 6.9 percent year over year to $1.8 trillion in 2012. As much as 20 percent of this total spending will be driven by five technologies that are reshaping the business landscape -- smartphones, media tablets, mobile networks, social networking, and big data analytics. Meanwhile, emerging markets (defined as all markets except North America,...

comScore reported key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending October 2011. The market study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers. The significant take-away for me was that the Apple iPhone high-growth upside seems to have stalled in America. Where the platform ecosystem market share gains end in 2011 we likely be a key market indicator for the 2012 outlook. That being said, most industry analysts still predict a continuation of the Google Android upside, at this point in time. For the three-month average period ending in October, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 20.6 percent share and Motorola with 13.6 percent share. Apple strengthened its position at #4 with 10.8 percent share of mobile subscribers (up just 1.3 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 6.6 per...

comScore released data about key trends in the Canadian mobile phone industry for September 2011. The report ranked the leading mobile original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in Canada. In September, 20.1 million Canadians ages 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.2 percent of mobile subscribers in Canada, followed by LG with 20.0 percent share and RIM with 14.3 percent share. Apple ranked fourth with 12.0 percent share of subscribers, while Nokia rounded out the top five at 10.1 percent. 8 million people in Canada owned smartphones in September 2011, representing 40 percent of the mobile market in Canada -- a gain of 7 percentage points in the past six months. RIM ranked as the top platform with 35.8 percent of the smartphone market, followed by Apple at 30.1 percent. Google Android gained ground among the competition by doubling its market share to 25.0 over the past six mon...

According to the latest market study by ABI Research , beyond the typical bandwidth caps and network-based throttling efforts, a fundamental shift is about to begin in mobile data communications service delivery. Mobile network operators around the globe have been ridiculed by their customers, due to perpetually poor service performance and declining user experience, as millions of new devices look to connect to the Internet. It's true, many mobile operators have not scaled their broadband network capacity fast enough to meet the growing demand, and so they essentially crippled their service offering -- alienating their customers in the process. A solution is close at hand, however, in the form of a smartphone-sized device that connects several Wi-Fi-enabled devices to a single mobile broadband subscription: the mobile hotspot router. Shipments in 2011 are expected to reach 7.1 million units with an estimated end-user revenue value of $1 billion. Instead of tackling mobil...

According to the latest market study by Juniper Research , they found that continued strong growth in the eReader market, combined with an upsurge in usage across media tablets, will push annual revenues from eBooks delivered to portable devices to $9.7 billion by 2016 -- that's up from $3.2 billion this year. The study found that the increasing demand for media tablets means that these devices will account for nearly 30 percent of all eBook downloads by 2016. In addition to the higher rate of tablet penetration, eBook access on these devices has already been boosted by the launch of leading brand bookstore applications, such as Apple's iBookStore and Amazon's Kindle. While mobile handsets currently account for the largest share of eBook downloads, the majority of these are comprised by the Japanese manga market. Elsewhere, smartphones are not -- and are unlikely to become -- a primary reading device. However, bookstores are increasingly seeking to enable synchronis...

The ongoing increase in media tablet, smartphone and eReader device adoption has stimulated demand for high-quality multimedia content -- including video, audio, interactive games, news, books and periodicals. Digital media publishers have been busy re-purposing their archive content and are now ready to accelerate plans for new content development in 2012. The upside market opportunity is apparently unprecedented. eMarketer estimates that the number of U.S. tablet users will reach 89.5 million in 2014 -- that's up from 33.7 million in 2011. Tablet users will make up 35.6 percent of internet users in 2014 -- that's up from 14.5 percent this year. U.S. adult eReader users will reach 53.9 million by 2014 -- that's up from 33.3 million in 2011. eMarketer also expects robust growth in smartphone users, even though that product category is more mature than tablets and eReaders. By 2015, there will be 148.6 million smartphone users in the U.S. -- that's up from 90.1...

We're moving towards an online user experience where ubiquitous multiscreen connectivity will become the norm, and new portable digital devices enable the flexible personalization of all published multimedia content. The early-adopters are already viewing consumer-produced and professional video programs on combinations of their media tablets, smartphones, netbook PCs or chromebooks. This multiscreen adoption trend will soon become a mainstream user activity. As mobile devices continue to improve, every media consumer will expect high definition (HD) video on everything. The pay-TV services are ramping up TV Everywhere to compete with the leading direct-to-consumer OTT services -- such as Netflix, Amazon and Vudu. As a result, the momentum behind multiscreen content delivery platforms is accelerating, and according to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat , they now forecast that revenues from multiscreen content platforms will exceed $21 billion by 2015. "Consumers n...

Video chat via the Internet is an interactive communication service that has become increasingly common with PC users, but is now expanding to other consumer electronics screens -- including various mobile devices and connected TV sets. Driven by the ease of use and improved video image quality, the growing consumer and business applications for video communication now seem unlimited. While many of the video chat software apps can crossover between screen-types, the dynamics in each market are quite unique. Still, all industry players are expected to experience significant growth. According to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat , they forecast the total number of active video calling users will surpass 380 million in 2015 -- that's a significant increase from the 63 million users in 2010. "While the mobile arena is relatively nascent, it has fueled much of the growth in usage over the course of 2011," said Amy Cravens, Senior Analyst at In-Stat. T...