Digital Lifescapes

American online retail sales -- including digital downloads and event tickets but excluding travel -- will rise 15.4 percent to $224.2 billion this year, according to the latest market assessment by eMarketer . Fast-growing categories like apparel and accessories will help boost online retail sales figures, but underlying the trend is a deeper shift in the mindset of many consumers -- which has apparently transformed them into what eMarketer calls omni-channel shoppers. “In the past, cross-channel shopping amounted to using a retailer’s different channels one at a time for separate transactions,” said Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer principal analyst. “But today, consumers are moving between a retailer’s channels -- websites, stores, mobile devices, social media -- in a fluid way.” A February 2012 survey by price comparison service PriceGrabber found most U.S. online consumer shoppers plan to combine their online, brick-and-mortar and mobile retail channel purchase experiences this y

The evolving media tablet product segment has become a dynamic landscape since its inception about three years ago. In fact, there are currently more than 220 models in the marketplace from a variety of vendors. While the Apple iPad remains the brand leader in the media tablet segment, the market awareness has paved the way for more and more device manufacturers to enter the marketplace -- especially in the lower price product category. The market for sub-$400 media tablets is expected to see significant growth over the next five years, occupying more than 60 percent of the market share by 2016, while the market for the over $400 segment is expected to shrink. According to Jeff Orr, group director, consumer research at ABI Research , "The majority of new entrant media tablet models have been in the sub-$400 segment that focuses on growth markets like India and China. The strong wave of growth in this segment over the next few years is expected to be driven by the adoption in

According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide personal computer (PC) shipment growth for 2011 ended on a slightly positive note -- growing to 1.8 percent on the year. While the first half of 2012 is expected to see only modest shipment growth, the launch of Windows 8 and the upside potential from new ultrabooks and other ultra-thin notebooks should drive second half sales in a much stronger way. Meaning, that's the hopeful outlook, at this time. For much of 2011, vendors struggled to maintain consumer interest in a market beset by a tenuous economic recovery and disrupted by emerging consumer electronics devices. The lack of interest was evidenced by a lackluster Christmas holiday season. Just how bad did was the global market downturn? Mature markets such as the United States and Western Europe, in particular, had a rough year -- with PC shipments in 2011 shrinking by 9 percent compared to 2010. Looking ahead, the PC market will st

Content originally produced for broadcast television has come to the Internet, and the Internet has transitioned to mobile devices. Now the Internet is coming back to TV, and savvy software engineers and smart TV producers are finding ways to create new hybrid services that bring it all together. This is the trend that has many analysts already wondering what will happen next -- how will pay-TV services evolve and which key players in the ecosystem already have a competitive edge? According to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat , they now forecast that 100 million households will actively use a hybrid video entertainment services -- delivered to their TV set -- by 2016. “The next step in the viewing experience will be for TV sets and set-top boxes to permit all of the traditional TV-related services, which is then expanded and enhanced by bringing in content from the Internet, or from Internet-like web services that provide a walled garden of authorized content and on-scree

The media tablet market growth phenomenon followed the Apple iPad launch in April 2010. Since then, competitors try to keep up with Apple's innovations. Many have launched their own tablet products in a range of screen sizes and designs -- in contrast to Apple's approach, with its consistent 9.7" iPad design. For example, Amazon successfully launched the 7.0” Kindle Fire -- with integrated Amazon content and services -- and Samsung rounded out its tablet lineup with the 7.0", 8.9" and 10.1" Galaxy Tabs. "As the tablet market continues to heat up, manufacturers are striving to differentiate next-generation products to compete with the iPad," said Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst at NPD In-Stat . Media tablet screen size has emerged not only as a key differentiator, but also the leading indicator of different tablet usages. According to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat, their research highlights top tablet usage scenarios based on devi

comScore released data showing once again, Google Sites -- driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com -- ranked as the top online video content property in February with 147.4 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 60.9 million, VEVO with 52 million, Facebook.com with 43.6 million and Viacom Digital with 43.2 million. Nearly 38 billion video views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 16.7 billion, followed by Hulu with 951 million and Yahoo! Sites with 721 million. The average viewer watched 21.8 hours of online video content, with Google Sites (7 hours) and Hulu (3.8 hours) demonstrating the highest average engagement among the top ten properties. Americans viewed 7.5 billion video ads in February, with Hulu delivering a record-high number of video ad impressions at more than 1.5 billion. Google Sites ranked second with 1.1 billion video ads during the month, followed by Adap.tv with 706 million, BrightRoll Video Net

In America, we live in an age of abundant media -- where new content options add to the spectrum of traditional content from which people can choose. Online video, social networking and other digital media options are occupying increasing amounts of time. Mobile network broadband connectivity further extends our access to digital content throughout the day. Meanwhile, legacy broadcast TV is still popular, but there's a constant distraction (especially during commercials) -- and it's called multitasking. "For marketers, the age of multitasking means consumers are available to receive multiple streams of messages at the same time," said Mark Dolliver, media analyst at eMarketer . "But multitasking also yields an audience whose attention is divided." eMarketer estimates that U.S. adults fit more than 11 hours of media content consumption into an average day in 2011, that's double-counting for simultaneous media usage. For marketers, the downside of

Smartphone shipments to emerging markets will drive new growth in the years ahead -- the implications are significant; it's a major shift in focus. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ), China will become the leading global market for smartphone shipments in 2012, moving ahead of the current leader, the United States. Looking ahead to 2016, two additional emerging markets, India and Brazil, will enter the top 5 country markets for smartphone user adoption. "Due to their sheer size, strong demand, and healthy replacement rates, emerging markets are quickly becoming the engines of the worldwide smartphone market," said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst at IDC. Users in emerging markets seek more than simple voice telephony, and smartphones offer the ideal platform for mobile entertainment, social networking, and business usage. Meanwhile, mature markets, such as Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, will experi

As the appetite for online communication and collaboration continues to grow across the globe, Internet-generated broadband traffic will increase by approximately 50 percent year-over-year on fixed networks and it will double on mobile networks. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ), both fixed and mobile broadband traffic volumes are primarily driven by "power users" that are utilizing a disproportionate amount of bandwidth. Observing and following their usage characteristics has become a leading market indicator that analysts monitor and assess. IDC forecasts that end-user demand for worldwide wireline and mobile broadband traffic will increase from 9,665 petabytes per month in 2010 to an amazing 116,539 petabytes per month in 2015. Web browsing, peer-to-peer file sharing, audio/video streaming, and a host of other advanced applications are all driving broadband bandwidth consumption. Truly, if you build it they (power users)

Consumer electronics product sales often move in seasonal cycles, with TV unit sales seen as a leading market indicator. In 2011 worldwide television set shipments fell for the first time since NPD DisplaySearch began tracking global TV shipments in 2004 -- slipping 0.3 percent to 247.7 million units. According to their latest market study, LCD TV shipments increased by 7 percent to just over 205 million units in 2011 -- that's a substantial slowdown from the double digit growth in previous years. With plasma TV shipments declining almost 7 percent in 2011 to 17.2 million units, the largest decline yet, and CRT shipments falling 34 percent, LCD growth was not enough to offset these declines. “The causes of slow demand in 2011 were complex, and although LCD TV showed growth, results were well below industry expectations.” said Paul Gagnon, NPD DisplaySearch Director of North America TV Research. The low level of shipments were partially caused by excessive inventory levels

According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide media tablet shipments into sales channels grew by 56.1 percent on a sequential basis in the fourth calendar quarter of 2011 (4Q11) to 28.2 million units. That represents an increase of 155 percent from the fourth quarter of 2010. The market experienced stronger-than-expected growth across many regions and at many price points, leading to a full-year 2011 total of 68.7 million units. Based upon the strong 2011 results, and the clear demand expected in 2012, IDC has increased its 2012 forecast to 106.1 million units -- that's up from its previous forecast of 87.7 million units. Despite an impressive debut by Amazon, which shipped 4.7 million Kindle Fires into the market, Apple continued to see strong growth in the quarter, shipping 15.4 million units in 4Q11, up from 11.1 million units in 3Q11. That represents a 54.7 percent worldwide market share (down from 61.5 percent in 3Q11). Amazon&

Results from the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC) showed a strong fourth quarter of 2011 (4Q11), with videoconferencing revenue growing 19.0 percent quarter over quarter and 24.6 percent year over year to reach $807.9 million. Specifically, the single-codec telepresence segment of the market grew 38.7 percent year over year to $444.1 million and now accounts for 55.0 percent of the total market. For the full year 2011, total enterprise videoconferencing market revenue reached $2.7 billion -- that's an increase of 20.5 percent over the full year 2010. This compares favorably versus the 16.6 percent growth we saw in 2010 over 2009, further pointing to an accelerated adoption of video in the enterprise. "Growth has been spurred on by more well-defined video use cases among organizations across a range of vertical market segments, including healthcare, higher education, financial services, legal, law enforcement, manufacturing, and retail,"

The following is a list of exhibiting vendors or companies that presented at panel sessions and captured my attention at the SXSW Interactive event -- last week in Austin, Texas. I encourage you to check out their Web sites to learn more. Music Metric provides insight and understanding into consumer behavior online globally for the entertainment industry. They aggregate and analyze all music related information available on the web. From websites mentioning an artist or release, the social networks frequented by music fans, peer to peer networks used to trade music and anywhere music fans leave a comment, they aim to be there and to be tracking the activity. OverBlog is a blogging platform in constant evolution. They say it's the biggest blog platform in Europe (based in Paris, France) and right now is undergoing massive development for a new release in 2012. OverBlog already has many features: including communities, monetization agreements, lots of statistics and a user g

As online retailing matures and expands, the number of choices available to shoppers grows exponentially. Moreover, offering more product choice can result in a confusing clutter that slows down or inhibits the purchase process. Despite the online retailer quest to find the ultimate automated, personalized recommendation system, there has been a simultaneous rise in sites that provide hand-picked item selections and online retail models offering fewer products -- instead of more. "Curated ecommerce is becoming recognized by both retailers and shoppers for its simplicity and ability to help fill an online void," said Krista Garcia, eMarketer analyst. There will always be a place for comprehensive, multi-category retail sites, but fine-tuned collections enhanced by personal touches also perform a necessary function in the ecommerce ecosystem. Sites surveyed by the e-tailing group in Q4 2011 reported online curation was a growing merchandising tactic with savvy retaile

comScore reported on key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending January 2012. Their latest market study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile phone service subscribers. 234 million Americans age 13 and older now use mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.4 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 19.7 percent share and Motorola with 13.2 percent share. Apple continued to capture share in the OEM market with 12.8 percent of total mobile subscribers (up 2.0 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 6.6 percent. The number of U.S. smartphone subscribers surpassed the 100-million mark in January -- that's up 13 percent since October to 101.3 million subscribers. Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 48.6 percent market share (up 2.3 percentage points) followed by Apple with 29.5 percent market share (up 1.4 percentage points). RIM ranked third

Call centers must address their customer's changing channel preferences and improve first contact resolution on the web -- in both emerging and developed countries -- according to the latest market study by Ovum. To help understand how adoption of social media and smartphones is evolving, Ovum conducted a survey of over 4,000 consumers across four developed countries (the US, the UK, France, and Germany) and four emerging countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). In a new report the market research firm outlined the survey results, including the ways in which consumers are using social media for customer service across these regions. "Web savvy consumers in emerging markets, such as China and India, are more inclined to use social media for customer service as opposed to consumers in developed countries, said Aphrodite Brinsmead, Customer Interaction Analyst at Ovum . They are using social media to ask and respond to questions in communities, as well as to complain

What I didn't see at South by Southwest Interactive ( SXSWi ) this year is just as important as all the interesting things that I did experience. So, I'll start with some of the most notable topic departures from the prior years. The denial, by big media company executives, of the digital disruption phenomenon is much less pervasive than in the past . As an example, blaming others for the continued downward spiral of the newspaper industry now seems futile . The backlash from the industry's SOPA and PIPA lobbying effort may have already tempered the traditional media's trustworthiness mantra. Moreover, one particular never-ending scandal is a constant reminder of the apparent credibility gap that exists today. References to "User Generated Content" are gone from panel discussions, as everyone now recognizes that digital storytelling and self-publishing is open to anyone with a point of view -- via the internet, enabled by numerous free cloud-based t

The mobile payments market is apparently very diverse -- highly fragmented is perhaps the best description that comes to mind. There is no single model that's been adopted by the entire market, but rather a variety that depends upon the type of mobile payment and the ecosystem player involved. In the proximity-oriented mobile payment space -- those payments made at a retailer via NFC or barcode scanning -- prior trials are now transitioning to commercial launches, and support for these solutions continues to build in the eCommerce related industries. While infrastructure is weak, both on the retailer side and on the consumer device side, NPD In-Stat now forecasts that proximity mobile payment transactions will approach 9.9 billion in 2016 -- that's up from 1.1 billion in 2012, nearly a ten-fold increase. "The contactless or proximity mobile payments market is in its infancy and thus a variety of technologies are being explored and promoted," says Amy Cravens,

The Smart Grid initiative is an enormous effort -- intended to modernize aging electrical distribution and delivery infrastructure across the world. The global scale alone makes this a colossal task. Complicating this effort is the incredible variety of electrical systems throughout the world, and the vast maze of utilities that are currently managing them. Just in the U.S. market alone, there are more than 3,000 separate utilities, local governments, and private companies operating America's electrical grid. According to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat , they now forecast that by 2016, over 75 percent of all U.S. electric meters will be converted to smart meters. "Over the next five years, and for decades thereafter, the world will be deploying the smart grid," says Allen Nogee, Research Director at NPD In-Stat. Initially, most of this effort will be directed at smart meters, but once those are out, client devices, software, and home automation equipment

The internet user population in China is now massive, at 513 million people at the end of 2011, according to the latest market assessment by eMarketer . Though growth will taper to the single-digit range by 2013 -- the internet won’t reach a majority of the population until 2015 -- China still has the largest online user base in the world. This growing user population, as well as recent governmental restrictions on broadcast ads, are having an impact on online advertising. As of January 1, 2012, China’s government made it harder for advertisers to buy their favorite time blocks from broadcasters like CCTV. It also ended commercial breaks during dramas and limited the number of entertainment shows local TV stations can broadcast. These changes have frustrated TV broadcasters, advertisers and media planners, but digital media owners in China are apparently elated -- they're envisioning more money heading their way, especially from advertising related to growth areas such as

The conversion from analogue to digital media technology has driven the evolution of consumer electronics (CE) from specialized "dumb" devices to multipurpose, IP networked computing devices. This evolution has been highly disruptive to the traditional home video entertainment market -- creating a new over-the-top pay-TV opportunity. The advent of Smart CE devices is having a profound effect on the digital multimedia home environment and associated consumer entertainment preferences. According to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat, they now forecast that smart CE device unit shipments will surpass 92 million in 2016. "CE vendors fundamentally agree that, increasingly, consumers are becoming technically savvy, and as a result are fully capable of using devices that are far more advanced than say, the traditional pay-TV Set Top Box (STB),” says Norm Bogen, VP Research at NPD In-Stat . In fact, consumers are eager to own smart devices that will afford them more fr

The rapidly evolving global machine-to-machine (M2M) device market is largely characterized by cellular module shipments and connections. Moreover, some regions are clearly growing much faster than others. The cellular connection revenue in China -- which constitutes more than one-third of the Asia-Pacific (APAC) M2M market -- is expected to grow from $642 million in 2011 to $2.76 billion in 2016. "China’s latest economic five-year-plan has placed the Internet of Things as a key, strategic national industry initiative for the country," said Jake Saunders, vice president of forecasting at ABI Research . Mobile network service providers have made significant progress through 2011 in terms of developing technologies, unified platforms, applications, and strategic cooperation. China Mobile started M2M development early, positioning it as its third wave of its long-term business offerings. It has also moved into developing M2M standards and promoting economies of scale, po

Wireless high-definition (HD) video technologies are the next frontier in consumer electronic (CE) connectivity, streaming uncompressed 1080p high-definition video across the living room. The category is comprised of three technologies: wireless home digital interface (WHDI), Wireless HD, and Wireless Gigabit (WiGig). Earliest applications for wireless HD video technologies were centered around the CE cluster and were used primarily as HDMI cable replacement. Today it has evolved into the PC cluster connecting mobile PCs to DTVs. Significant future use will likely be for connecting mobile devices to digital televisions (DTVs). According to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat , they now forecast that nearly 23 million wireless HD video-enabled devices will ship in 2015. “While all three technologies will see some type of market adoption over the forecast period, WiGig is likely to be the most popular wireless HD video technology,” says Brian O’Rourke, Research Director at NPD

comScore released an annual report that examines the mobile and connected device landscape, through an exploration of key trends driving smartphone adoption growth, mobile media usage in categories such as social networking and retail, mobile ecosystem dynamics, and shifts in multi-device digital media consumption in 2011. The report highlights insights primarily from mobile markets in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, Japan, and Canada. "2011 proved to be a groundbreaking year for the mobile industry, with smartphones hitting the mainstream, tablets emerging as a formidable fourth screen, and consumers increasingly integrating mobile behaviors into their lifestyles. As the industry continues to innovate and more consumers look to multiple devices and platforms to consume digital media, we expect the mobile and connected device landscape to be shaken up even further in 2012," said Mark Donovan, comScore Senior Vice President of Mobile. A

Overall mobile PC shipments grew 12 percent Quarter over Quarter and 44 percent Year over Year -- reaching 88 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011. This was driven by continuing strong demand for media tablets, according to the latest market study by NPD DisplaySearch . Tablet PC shipment growth was 42 percent Q/Q and 210 percent Y/Y -- reaching 31.7 million units in Q4’11. Notebook PC shipments were flat Q/Q but up nearly 11 percent Y/Y -- reaching 56.3 million units. As expected, consumer mobile PC adoption was focused on tablets, holding up demand in notebooks. "Mobile PC brands read the writing on the wall in the fourth quarter," said Richard Shim, Senior Analyst at NPD DisplaySearch. Apple's 26.6 percent share in Q4’11 is largely due to its dominant position in tablet PCs, which propelled it to nearly three times the shipments of HP. The other brands in the top five market share rankings relied almost exclusively on notebook PC shipments to establish the

American online retailers have compelling reasons for selling to potential customers in other nations. According to the latest study by eMarketer, as ecommerce growth slows in the U.S. market, retailers are seeking new revenue opportunities in foreign markets. This is especially true in emerging internet economies such as China -- where B2C online sales are forecast to grow at a 94.2 percent compound annual rate from 2010 to 2015. "Some U.S. retailers have started to sell online internationally after seeing significant amounts of site traffic coming from abroad," said Jeffrey Grau, principal analyst at eMarketer . Retailers that hesitate now may face higher entry barriers later -- as competitors team up with the most desirable in-country business partners and earn the loyalty of local online consumers. The most popular foreign countries for American online retailers have been Canada, the UK and Australia -- highly developed markets that share linguistic and cultural

The next generation of consumer electronics (CE) devices has made mobile connectivity a key focal point. Mobile phones are something of a gateway device -- enabling consumers to select the most interesting mobile content. Between mobile applications, data, voice, and video, global wireless bandwidth usage has increased ten-fold since 2008, and there are no signs of it slowing. The process by which these consumer electronic devices communicate with the content source is called backhaul. According to the latest NPD In-Stat market study, they now forecast that the number of fiber-enabled mobile service backhaul macro base stations will approach 1.8 million in 2014. "For mobile operators the challenge is to match the best backhaul solutions with the needs of their networks. In tailoring the proper backhaul solution, operators have to balance considerations like cost and time of deployment," said Chris Kissel, Senior Analyst at NPD In-Stat . At the same time, operators m

The market for fixed broadband access equipment saw exceptional growth for the second consecutive year, according to the latest market study by Ovum. Preliminary results for 2011 show PON equipment shipments doubled from 2010, annual DSL port shipments surpassed 100 million and CMTS port shipments crossed the 1 million mark for the first time ever. A new market share analysis revealed changes of rank among top vendors. ZTE surpassed Huawei to take the lead in PON OLT port shipments. Alcatel-Lucent entered the top three and FiberHome the top six in PON ONT/ONUs. Nokia Siemens Networks and Adtran improved their DSL rankings to fourth and fifth respectively. Huawei, ZTE and Alcatel-Lucent were the top three in DSL in that order. "One of the key factors of growth in the year 2010 was a recovery from the downturn in 2009. However, as there was no such catching up needed in 2011, this year’s growth is all the more remarkable and exceeded our expectations," said Kamalini Gangu