Digital Lifescapes

Mainstream Wi-Fi adoption and usage has changed over the last few years on mobile devices. In fact, almost every new smartphone will offer some form of Wi-Fi capabilities -- with the encouragement and approval of the mobile network service providers. However, a new Wi-Fi protocol will begin to dominate mobile devices soon. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the IEEE 802.11ac Wi-Fi protocol will begin to conquer the existing protocols (802.11b, g, and n) in the next two to three years. "The Wi-Fi 802.11ac protocol offers several advantages over the current and most commonly used 802.11n protocol," said Josh Flood, senior analyst at ABI Research . The wireless connection speed will be quicker -- the new protocol also offers better range and improved reliability, and superior power consumption. It's also capable of multiple 2X2 streams and should be particularly good for gaming experiences and HD video streaming on mobile devices. A similar scenari...

Security software demand will typically develop anywhere there is accelerating online device growth. Therefore, the need to avoid infection by an mobile app virus or trojan will becoming increasingly important as smartphones and media tablets become even more pervasive. Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest market study of security client software market share and an associated forecast, which tracks the enterprise and consumer software category for mobile devices, desktops and laptops. "Coming off the spike in 2011, the perennially strong desktop security client segment is slowing as companies turn their attention to mobile and cloud-based security solutions," said Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics Research . Infonetics believes that more people are already using smartphones and media tablets in place of their traditional desktop and laptop computers, which is fueling a corresponding increase in mobile malware -- creating the nee...

The iPad Retina display -- combined with Apple's more liberal app submission policy -- have caused the file sizes of leading iOS applications to grow substantially, especially in the video games category. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the global average app size across all categories was 23 megabytes in September 2012, that's 16 percent more than in March. For the most popular app category, games, the average size was 60 megabytes, meaning a six-month increase of 42 percent. Meanwhile, the size of leading android apps for a similar sample was around six mega bytes in September -- that's representing an increase of 10 percent against March. The games, however, nearly quadrupled to over 40 MBs in reported size, as Google also revamped its own submission policies. The data confirms two important points. "First, Apple's decision in March to increase the maximum size of 3G/4G-downloadable apps from 20MBs to 50MBs has clearly had an unleas...

According to the latest market study by eMarketer, time spent using mobile devices for activities such as internet (web) and application (app) use, gaming, music and others has more than doubled in the past two years. This year, the amount of time people in the U.S. market spent using mobile devices -- excluding talk time -- will grow 51.9 percent to an average 82 minutes per day, that's up from just 34 minutes in 2010. Mobile growth comes as time spent online, which includes desktop and laptop computers and other non-mobile connected devices such as internet-connected TVs, will continue rising but at a slowed pace from previous years. eMarketer estimates time spent online in 2012 will grow just 3.6 percent to an average 173 minutes per day -- that's compared to 7.7 percent growth in 2011 to 167 minutes per day. Since online already accounts for an average of nearly 3 hours of time spent with digital media each day, double-digit growth rates are unlikely -- even as ...

As predicted, the worldwide PC market has contracted sharply in the third quarter of 2012 (3Q12), with shipments declining 8.6 percent from the third quarter of 2011, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). That being said, the results are significantly below IDC's earlier forecast of a 3.8 percent year-on-year market contraction. Continued pressure from other products such as media tablets and smartphones, as well as uncertainty over the impact of Microsoft Windows 8 and the economic outlook, contributed to depressed shipments. Nevertheless, despite an already conservative outlook, the results show the vulnerability of PCs and the loss of mind-share among buyers who until recent years have flocked to promotions in the third quarter for PCs. "PCs are going through a severe slump," said Jay Chou, senior research analyst at IDC . The industry had already weathered a rough second quarter, and now the third quarter was even wors...

Now on a path to reaching billions of connections for the Internet of Things (IoT), M2M software platforms are facilitating the next wave of mobile network growth. ABI Research projects that revenues from two platforms currently dominating this market -- Application Enablement Platforms (AEPs) and Connected Device Platforms (CDPs) -- will grow to $3.85 billion by 2017. AEPs try to do what mobile application development platforms do for smartphone applications -- decrease M2M application development time and extend application reach. AEP application development functionality seeks to abstract away from the developer those aspects of the application that are common across many M2M applications such as data normalization and a data rules engine. CDPs automate the provisioning and management of M2M module connectivity, which is critical in this low ARPU market. CDPs also provide connectivity monitoring, real-time charging and policy control, and can integrate with existing BSS an...

After struggling in 2011 with a challenging market environment, due to sliding demand and price erosion, 2012 marks a year of recovery for the flat panel display (FPD) industry. According to the latest market study by NPD DisplaySearch, worldwide FPD revenues will reach $120 billion in 2012 -- that's up 8 percent from $111 billion in 2011, and exceeding 2010 revenues. Among the various FPD technologies, TFT LCD accounts for the majority of revenues at $107.7 billion in 2012, up from $99.4 billion in 2011. However, AMOLED displays once again showed the strongest Y/Y growth, as manufacturing capacity and market players continue to expand. However, with the exception of LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon, a form of microdisplay) all other display technologies, including plasma and passive matrix forms of LCD and OLED, are declining in 2012. In a sharp reversal, AMEPD (active matrix electrophoretic display), which is used in monochrome e-readers, swung from strong growth in 2011 to ...

European pay-TV added 10 million new subscriber homes last year and will reach 152 million by 2017, according to the latest market study by Rethink Research . Telecom service providers took IPTV from 20 million to 25 million in the past year and will reach 43.3 million customers across Europe -- doubling in just 6 years. The largest pay-TV players in Europe will still be News Corp with Sky, Liberty Global in cable and Vivendi with DTH and IPTV plays. Right behind them will be Deutsche Telekom,France Telecom and Iliad's Free. These providers will grow both within IPTV and through the addition of DTH services to run alongside them. European telcos are growing there TV subscribers faster than any other segment of European pay-TV and are set to become serious contenders -- holding their own in broadband and the quad play against cable companies. There's many studies that highlight the higher broadband speeds of cable companies, but there's now new evidence that telcos...

Smartphone and media tablet use in the workplace is now growing at an accelerated pace, but it isn't always clear how mobile network service providers will directly benefit from this trend. Recent global market research offers some new insights. Mobile phone network related service revenues from business users worldwide will grow to $340 billion by 2017, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Their market assessment includes voice, messaging, handset data plans, mobile broadband, enterprise apps, and management services revenues. "Mobility suppliers need to pay attention to the enterprise market as revenues represent over 30 percent of the mobile services market and will grow twice as fast as the consumer market," said Dan Shey, enterprise practice director at ABI Research . The underlying driver of this growth is the "bring your own device" (BYOD) phenomenon -- and more specifically, the ongoing adoption of smartphones and tablets in the ...

As large multinational advertisers ponder the 2013 outlook, decisions about how to align their marketing budgets has become increasingly complex. The shift to online platforms and mobile media has accelerated faster than many had previously imagined. eMarketer , in collaboration with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), released its annual Global Media Intelligence report -- a comprehensive assessment of media trends in major markets worldwide. According to one of the key findings, China will become the world's second-largest advertising market in 2013, and the second-largest digital advertising market the following year -- directly behind the U.S. market. As a result, Asia-Pacific is expected to surpass North America in total advertiser spending in 2014 -- primarily due to the growth in mobile internet usage, as well as rapid growth in digital advertising spending patterns. Other 2012 Global Media Intelligence report findings include: Globally, spending on advertising will ...

The time has come to think seriously about enterprise social networking and consider its role within the commercial online collaboration strategy development process, according to the latest market study by Ovum. In a new report, they say that the enterprise social networking market is starting to mature and is now moving from the introduction phase into the growth phase. Strategic acquisitions have already been made by start-ups and establish vendors alike. That being said, I'm still left wondering -- are there examples of substantive applications that make the resource investment worthwhile? "Ovum's current assessment of the enterprise social networking market indicates that Jive and Yammer are the two vendors that organizations are most eager to compare and contrast, but other vendors are generating significant business and revenues from their offerings," said Richard Edwards, analyst at Ovum . A recent vendor recap suggests that IBM Connections produced $1...

Due to mobile data growth and the associated proliferation of apps, mobile network operators around the world are considering new broadband network deployment models using small cells -- a market segment expected to grow from 3.2 million cells in 2012 to 62.4 million cells in 2016. 4G Americas, a wireless industry trade association representing the 3GPP family of technologies, announced that it has released a report to help with the integration and deployment of high performance heterogeneous networks. A heterogeneous network consists of different wireless technologies working together to provide a seamless wireless experience to the end user. It is comprised of traditional large macrocells and smaller cells -- including microcells, picocells and femtocells -- as well as Wi-Fi, which can also be used as a mechanism for broadband traffic offloading. Additionally, some of the deployment models supporting heterogeneous networks include distributed antenna systems and relays. ...

As more mobile network service providers continue the ongoing decommissioning of 2G networks and start on the 3G networks, their subscribers are still considering the impact of new 4G monthly service fees. Compared to 3G data pricing, 4G is around 20 percent higher than legacy 3G for the equivalent data plan. But there are already signs 4G tariffs will succumb to the downward pull of competition sooner rather than later, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. "In South Korea, SK Telecom has cut its 4G pricing to remain competitive. Their LTE 62 Plan for smartphones used to be priced $55.04 for 3 GB of data, but the monthly download quota has now been increased to 5 GB. ABI Research has seen similar 4G mobile data quota and/or pricing revisions in Norway, Hong Kong, and the U.S.," said Jake Saunders, VP for forecasting at ABI Research . According to the ABI Research cross-country comparison of mobile data pricing, the world’s cheapest 4G data plan is curre...

Although mobile network operators have relied mostly on connection fees to generate machine to machine (M2M) revenues; network connectivity and connection management revenues represent only 10 to 30 percent of the M2M value chain that's dependent upon communications carrier and geographic location. Value-Added Services (VAS) for application development, enablement, provisioning, management, and system integration are the bulk of the M2M services opportunity in this growing market that's set to reach $31 billion by 2016, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. "No one size fits all. Operator choices to capture the burgeoning M2M services market will be dependent not only on the value of their assets and VAS platforms, but also their partnerships and target market verticals," said Dan Shey, M2M practice director at ABI Research . For instance, connecting coffee vending machines to the internet may be a near term opportunity, but can it grow to a glob...

comScore reported the key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending August 2012. Their latest market study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and once again found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer. Google Android led among smartphone platforms, accounting for 52.6 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Apple iOS accounted for 34.3 percent. For the three-month average period ending in August, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.7 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers, followed by LG with 18.2 percent share. Apple continued to inch closer to the #2 ranking with 17.1 percent of mobile subscribers (up 2.1 percentage points), followed by Motorola with 11.2 percent and HTC with 6.3 percent. 116.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in August, up 6 percent versus May. Google Android ranked as t...

Regarding computer and consumer electronics (CE) sales, are people that purchase new devices showing a significant preference for online retailers over traditional stores? What roles do product application videos and detailed reviews have during the research phase of the buying process? And, has the new purchase model changed the way that people are using online search? These are the key questions that eMarketer asked as they conducted their latest market assessment of the typical CE product purchase path. Many traditional computer and consumer electronics retailers are already struggling to adapt to the latest market trends -- and the apparent ongoing shifts in new product demand. eMarketer found that some legacy products face significant disruption from the ascent of smartphones and tablets, both of which provide a number of the functions that several different older devices once did. However, while the market is in transition, sales of consumer electronics on the web are...

The proliferation of smart devices and mobile apps will give rise to a more sophisticated and interactive customer service experience over the next four years, according to the latest market study by Ovum. With more than half of inbound customer service calls in key countries expected to be made from a mobile device by 2016, and 30 percent of these from smartphones, Ovum analysts warn business leaders to rethink their customer services strategies. "The rise of smart devices and the incessant focus on customer loyalty has created the proverbial perfect storm for enterprises that want to reinvent the customer experience around smartphones and tablets," says Daniel Hong, lead analyst at Ovum . Ovum expects a dramatic shift in customer engagement as more consumers use mobile apps as their primary gateway to customer service. When you take into account the multiple pathways supported via the smart device and combine those with context relay then you have a game changer in th...

According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ), the worldwide market for smart connected devices -- that's a combination of PCs, smartphones, and tablets -- reached 267.3 million units shipped in the second quarter of 2012 (2Q12), a 27.4 percent increase year over year and a 2.8 percent quarter-over-quarter improvement. Both consumers and business buyers around the world continue to show an appetite for these client devices, adding to the already large collection of devices that are still in active use. On a revenue basis, the total was $131.5 billion worldwide, a 16.3 percent year-over-year increase, but a 2.7 percent quarter-over-quarter decline. In the U.S. market, it's clear that not only PCs but smart connected devices as a whole are facing a difficult time as both unit shipments and revenues declined on both a year-over-year and a quarter-over-quarter basis. Unit shipments for 2Q12 fell 7.8 percent sequentially and 5 percent annually ...

Telecom service providers can't hold back progress any longer, the days of the simplistic and restrictive triple or quad-play bundles are numbered, according to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media . Going forward, network operators will have to offer a whole range of new content and applications within their bundled products -- including eclectic over-the-top (OTT) content and even independent VoIP services -- in order to retain their savvy customers. Informa's related report takes a global snapshot of the fast-changing bundling market and shows how some network operators across the global market are already offering new services and applications to bring more value to their bundled products. However, Tony Brown, senior analyst at Informa, cautions operators that the next-generation bundling market will be a challenging one in which they will not necessarily reap direct financial rewards from all the new products and services that they include in their...

​In the process of monitoring the initial adoption of 4G LTE technology, many industry insiders closely watch the few countries where mobile operators are aggressively deploying new networks, offering commercial LTE-enabled devices and enhanced broadband services. In South Korea, the United States, and Japan, the number of LTE subscribers surpassed that of WiMAX subscribers in 4Q11, 1Q12, and 2Q12, respectively. These findings are part of the latest market study by ABI Research, detailing the mobile broadband transition from 3G to 4G technologies. "Japan, South Korea, and the United States used to have strong mobile WiMAX proponents, so while the momentum and future of WiMAX and LTE are clear, it is somewhat surprising to see how long the subscriber crossover has actually taken,” said Phil Solis, research director at ABI Research . In mid-2014, even subscribers to LTE in TDD mode will have surpassed WiMAX subscribers at which point WiMAX subscribers will begin their permanen...

Since the financial crisis, venture capital (VC) firms have been actively investing in mobile, social, and over-the-top (OTT) app start-ups, while showing little interest in the core telecom networking sector. In fact, VC support for telecom infrastructure start-ups has dropped from $796 million in 2009 to just $270 million in the 3Q 2011 to 2Q 2012 period. According to the latest market study by Ovum, they have found reason for new optimism -- but not from where you would expect it. While VC support for network infrastructure has declined, overall VC investments have recovered -- growing from $20.1 billion in 2009 to $27.8 billion in the four quarters ended 2Q12. Matt Walker, principal analyst at Ovum , said "A funding disconnect has thereby emerged between network builders and network users. Lots of innovation and venture capital is targeting the network users, such as mobile apps and OTT platforms. However, little of it is directly helping the network builders." Wi...

According to the findings from a recent market study, when generating new content from scratch, establishing prospective customer engagement is a common objective for business-to-business (B2B) marketers. But what constitutes meaningful engagement? Apparently, it's all about the inherent power of a good story. eMarketer reports that eighty-one percent of B2B technology marketers worldwide cited "engaging and compelling storytelling" as the most important elements of effective content marketing. Regardless, few actually practice what they profess -- given the content they routinely produce and distribute as marketing communications professionals. Within the highly technical or complex industry sectors, engagement and originality trumped professional writing when generating content marketing assets. Once again, indicating marketer recognition that customers and prospects will rely on substantive content to make their decisions, we know that people are initially draw...

Mobile smartphones and media tablets are constantly being enhanced by new apps and associated application updates. Games, social networking, productivity apps, financial tools are flocking to the mobile platform. Unfortunately, embedded along with that application software can be hidden malware. Loss, theft, spam, Trojans, spyware, data breach, and aggressive advertising are some of the potential threats facing unprotected mobile devices. Between the first quarter of 2011 and the second quarter of 2012 ABI Research found that unique malware variants grew by 2180 percent -- reaching 17,439. The Upside Opportunity for Security Apps According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the global market for mobile application security will be worth $398 million by the end of 2012. This includes revenues for paid apps, partnerships with manufacturers and operators, white label deals, and dataset sales. To date, they calculate that there have been over 130 billion downloads...

Continued demand and strong growth expectations for the fourth quarter has led International Data Corporation (IDC) to increase its forecast for the worldwide media tablet market to 117.1 million units -- that's up from its previous forecast of 107.4 million units for the year. In their latest tablet forecast update they also revised upward the 2013 forecast number from 142.8 million units to 165.9 million units. And by 2016 they estimate that worldwide shipments should reach 261.4 million units. Clearly, media tablet adoption will be the trend to watch, as it continues to influence the way that people consume new forms of digital media. "Despite ongoing economic concerns in most regions of the world, consumers continue to buy tablets in record numbers and we expect particularly strong demand in the fourth quarter," said Tom Mainelli, research director at IDC . Apple leads the market with its iPad, and IDC expects its dominance to continue in the second half of th...

The ever growing popularity of mobile devices -- such as media tablets and smartphones -- combined with the growing usage of interactive apps will drive continued sales of integrated micro electromechanical system (MEMS) sensors. New market intelligence from ABI Research projects the MEMS sensor market in mobile devices will be valued at $1.2 billion by the end of 2012 and reach $2.8 billion in 2017. "Although mobile device unit shipments are the primary driver for the bulging MEMS sensors market; there are numerous other factors in play propelling MEMS sensor growth in the mobile device sector,” says Josh Flood, senior analyst at ABI Research . Smartphone users expect their device to be intuitive and capable of interacting without pressing a button. Embedded sensors make this interaction possible — from changing the device orientation view to turning or tilting the device while playing a game. The most commonly used sensor is the accelerometer, enabling devices to switch ...

The freemium online games phenomenon has truly been a welcome distraction for some, but not the manufacturers of traditional game consoles and associated software titles. Hardcore gamers still prefer the superior game console experience, however other people may never graduate to that level of engagement. Overall game console shipments declined by over 30 percent year-over-year through the first half of 2012. Although these results do not signal the end of console gaming, they are surely an indication of a trend that will change the long-term market upside potential. The current seventh generation of consoles is in the twilight years of the usual life-cycle and penetration rates are mature, leaving less room for new growth. Hope for recovery of the market in late 2012 and early 2013 now rests largely on the next generation Nintendo Wii U -- with its tablet-like GamePad capabilities. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, Nintendo’s innovative TVii feature is also n...

According to The NPD Group, although viewing movies through new low-cost Internet video on demand (iVOD) subscription services is making significant inroads with a savvy group of informed Americans, legacy cable TV companies are still the first choice for on-demand per-use movie rentals. Led by Comcast in the first half of 2012, 48 percent of all paid video-on-demand (VOD) movie rentals were generated from traditional cable TV service providers. With a 24 percent rental-order growth rate year-over-year, telco VOD is the fastest growing segment of the VOD market, outpacing even the iVOD growth rate of 15 percent. Note, the NPD research refers only to movie rentals that are paid for upon rental -- subscription video rentals and video purchases were not included in this market study. "When it comes to paying for on-demand movies on an a-la-carte basis, cable companies are by far the primary conduit, due in large part to their widespread penetration and usage in Americans’ ...