Digital Lifescapes

Despite a seven percent year-over-year dip in global TV shipments, retail sales in North America have been steady and unit shipments were up by almost 3 percent in the third quarter of 2012 -- after posting small declines in the first half of 2012. The trend in the U.S. market has been toward bigger and less expensive TVs, which is expected to be the focus during the holiday season. "Inventory has been building overtime to a level that will satisfy the demand," said Paul Gagnon, director of global TV research at NPD DisplaySearch . The following is a summary of the findings from the latest NPD DisplaySearch market study. Worldwide TV shipments fell on a Y/Y basis for the fourth straight quarter, as demand in Japan and Western Europe fell sharply. TV shipments in Japan were down over 70 percent Y/Y for the second quarter in a row, while Western Europe shipments fell more than 15 percent. Flat panel TV growth in emerging regions were lower than expected, especially in...

Juniper Research forecasts that mobile data roaming revenues will grow by 21 percent per year between 2012 and 2017, reaching over $35 billion in 2017 -- driven by an increasing number of active roamers using data services while abroad. However, Juniper notes that the number of people not actively using any data services still fear the unknown cost of mobile network provider fees, as this continues to be markedly higher when compared to potential voice roamers. Silent roamers, as they are called, exercise caution or do not use voice and data services while roaming and represent a significant non-user segment. Powered by the proliferation in smartphones and a dramatic growth in data usage, data roaming is being seen as a key growth driver for mobile network operators -- albeit with cost-effective packages coupled with subscriber control over usage. The Juniper market study found that the majority of mobile customers were using voice services when roaming abroad, but this activit...

The global market for home automation services grew significantly during 2012, primarily driven by a wave of new entrants and offerings in the North American market. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the U.S. in particular leads in deployments and new shipments -- acting as a bellwether for markets around the world. Even within the low growth American economy and the lackluster new housing market, home automation systems installed in the U.S. this year almost doubled over 2011 shipments. In 2017, more than 8 million home automation systems will ship -- representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 45.2 percent between 2011 and 2017. Over the past 12 months, Verizon has rolled out its service offering, leading U.S. cable companies -- including Comcast and Time Warner -- have expanded their footprints and security vendors including ADT and Vivint continued to see strong demand for their solutions. "Home automation adoption is moving into the main...

comScore released data showing that 183 million U.S. Internet users watched more than 37 billion online content videos in October, while video advertising views reached nearly 11 billion. Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online American video content property in October with 153.2 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 55.3 million, NDN with 53.2 million, VEVO with 53.1 million and AOL, Inc. with 53.1 million. More than 37 billion video content views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 13 billion, followed by AOL, Inc. with 711 million. Google Sites had the highest average engagement among the top ten properties. Americans viewed nearly 11 billion video ads in October, with each of the top 5 video ad properties delivering more than 1-billion video ads. BrightRoll Video Network captured first place with more than 1.8 billion ads, followed by Google Sites with more than 1....

The number of consumers receiving coupons via mobile devices is expected to rise by 30 percent in 2013 to more than 500 million people, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. They believe that continued growth in mobile coupon usage will in part be fueled by the integration of couponing platforms into the the leading social network sites -- such as Facebook. The recent high-profile launch of Apple Passbook is also expected to act as a catalyst to both coupon deployments and user adoption. For example, the marketing services provider Valassis has recently launched a "Red Plum Social Savings" application in the U.S. market -- which was built with the Facebook platform. Meanwhile, third-party marketing and couponing providers -- such as Codebroker, Eagle Eye, Yowza! and Valpak -- have already created apps or microsites which deliver vouchers to Apple's Passbook. In the current mobile coupon marketplace, there is the potential for overlap -- an ec...

Some of the largest traditional PC manufacturers reported record revenue and profit declines in the last quarter, as desktop and notebook sales continue to slide downward. Clearly, the bright outlook for the media tablet upside will not benefit those vendors that failed to grasp the significance of this market transition. Moreover, some regions of the world will present greater challenges than others. Take Europe, as an example. According to the latest assessment by eMarketer , two countries in the EU-5 that are being impacted by the dramatic financial turmoil in the region are understandably posting the slowest adoption of tablets. Although tablet growth in each country was above 100 percent during 2011, and users will double again this year, that's considered minimal progress when compared to their peers in Western Europe -- according to the latest estimates by eMarketer. France grew their tablet user base by 173 percent in 2011. In 2012, Germany's base will grow 149...

The media tablet and digital camera markets are forecast to be the next high growth driver for location based services (LBS) and global positioning system (GPS) integrated circuits (ICs) -- despite the relatively slow growth to date. The latest market study by ABI Research resulted in an updated forecast for the evolving application of LBS and how it will affect the adoption of location-related technologies. So far, the tablet market has been somewhat led by Apple and its GPS/Modem strategy. GPS shipments are forecast to reach 37 million in 2012, yet that is still much less than had been previously anticipated. There has been mixed progress of late, with the launch of the Google Nexus 7 and the Apple iPad mini. Wi-Fi location technology is a standard feature across all media tablets. But while it is complementary, it does sometimes act as a barrier to GPS integration. "When we look at the adoption of applications on tablets, it is forecast to largely mirror that of smartph...

Small cells and Wi-Fi off-load are proven to be the most powerful tools that mobile network operators have to increase data communication capacity for their subscribers. These technologies enable them to meet the demand from a growing number of customers who use smartphones and tablets that are generating rapidly increasing mobile network traffic loads -- due largely to video content consumption. According to the latest market study by Senza Fili, mobile network operators that deploy small cells and Wi-Fi concurrently can reduce their wireless data per-bit costs up to two-thirds -- when compared with legacy macro-cell costs. Most mobile service providers don't get to choose whether to use small cells or Wi-Fi. To meet their capacity density targets in the high-traffic locations where subscribers gather, they need to deploy both small cells and Wi-Fi, side by side. And subscribers demand both: Wi-Fi for fast and inexpensive wireless access, and cellular for mobility and cove...

Worldwide media tablet shipments totaled 27.8 million units in the third quarter of 2012 (3Q12), according to the latest updated market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ). The tablet market grew 49.5 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2012 and 6.7 percent over the second quarter of 2012. Once again, Google Android-based tablet shipments -- led by Samsung and Amazon -- surged during the quarter. In contrast, the Apple market share retreated significantly. "After a very strong second quarter, Apple saw growth slow as both consumer and commercial (including education) shipments declined, and rumors of a forthcoming iPad mini began to heat up," said Tom Mainelli, research director, Tablets at IDC. IDC says that they believe a sizeable percentage of consumers interested in buying an Apple tablet sat out the third quarter in anticipation of an announcement about the new iPad mini. Now that the new mini, and a fourth-generation full-sized iPad, are b...

According to the latest market study by Juniper Research , as marketers and retailers are increasingly keen to deploy Augmented Reality (AR) capabilities within their mobile apps and marketing materials, AR applications will generate close to $300 million in revenues globally by 2013. Juniper assessed how the mobile augmented reality industry has evolved over the past 18 months, as the key players look to specialize and strengthen their business models. Their market study highlights that while the traditional pay-per-download payment model would continue to account for the largest share of revenues in the near term, the scale of retailer engagement with AR suggested that advertiser spend had up-scaled dramatically in 2012 -- and was poised for further growth next year. Moreover, Juniper also found that many retailers now perceived AR as a key means of increasing engagement with their customers, both as a means of providing additional product information or in the form of branded ...

Despite the high expectations for the entry of OLED (organic light emitting diode) displays into the television market during 2012, these TV sets will likely now only be available in very small quantities by the end of this year. With 55" OLED TV demonstrations featured at CES in January 2012, commercial products were expected in time for the Olympics in August. But as the year progressed, the possibility of commercialization in 2012 was being questioned -- due to mass production challenges and expected high retail prices. In September, OLED TVs were once again demonstrated at IFA in Berlin, and even at some local retailers, but were still not commercially available. According to the latest market study by NPD DisplaySearch, OLED TV panel makers and set manufacturers are still forecasting that at least 500 OLED TVs will ship in 2012. While this is a very small quantity in comparison to the total TV market, the start of shipments will be an important breakthrough. OLED T...

What is advertiser Real-Time Bidding (RTB) and why does it matter to online marketers? Who benefits from real-time advertising buying? What factors and industry trends will affect future RTB growth? These are the key questions that eMarketer considered during their latest market study. Real-time bidding will account for 13 percent of all U.S. display advertising spend in 2012 -- that's more than triple the market share in 2010, according to the eMarketer assessment. Over the next few years, RTB will continue to gain momentum and share of online advertiser spend -- accounting for a quarter of the display market in 2015 -- as more media buyers and publishers benefit from its efficiencies. This year, the overall American display advertising market will grow by 21.5 percent to $14.98 billion -- that's compared with $12.33 billion in 2011, according to eMarketer estimates. In the same year, growth in RTB spending, at 98 percent, will easily outpace display advertising. Ma...

comScore released data about key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending September 2012. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 26 percent market share. Smartphone penetration exceeded the 50 percent threshold for the first time, establishing a significant new milestone for developers who participate in the primary mobile app ecosystem. Google Android led that segment of the market with 52.5 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Apple accounted for 34.3 percent. For the three-month average period ending in September, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 26 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 0.4 percentage points), followed by LG with 17.7 percent share. Apple continued to close in on the second OEM ranking -- with 17.5 percent of mobile subscribers (up 2.1 percenta...

By 2017, according to the latest market study by ABI Research, over-the-top (OTT) video entertainment service revenue will quadruple to $32 billion -- that's up from the expected $8.2 billion in 2012. Monthly subscription services, such as Netflix, have led the OTT adoption trend the past couple of years, which has helped push the market towards healthy growth and sustained profit margins. By 2014, however, ABI Research expects OTT on-demand rentals to surpass subscription revenues. The resulting impact on Cinema revenues is unknown at this time -- but we can anticipate a significant change, when more new releases are combined with the growing catalog of prior movies and documentaries. "Connected consumer electronics (CE) and mobile devices continue to push consumer behavior towards newer forms of media distribution like OTT and multi-screen services, said Sam Rosen, practice director at ABI Research . Pay-TV services will continue to thrive, by implementing multi-scre...

As more mobile service providers plan to increase their 4G mobile network coverage, the small-cell phenomenon is gaining momentum. According to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media, an important new milestone has been reached -- the global number of small cells now exceeds the total number of traditional mobile base stations. Their latest market study shows that between October and November 2012, the number of small cells has surpassed 6 million (6,069,224) with macrocells worldwide totaling 5,925,974. Although the bulk of these numbers (over 80 percent) are made up of residential femtocells, which will alone overtake the total number of macrocells early next year, they also include enterprise and public-access small cells. There are now 45 small-cell network deployments -- including nine of the top 10 mobile network operators (ranked by revenue) globally. This milestone was made possible as mature femtocell deployments start to scale and was best illustrated...

According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, the next generation wearable devices market will be worth more than $1.5 billion by 2014 -- that's up from just $800 million this year. Juniper says that these wearable device revenues will be largely driven by consumer spending on fitness, multi-functional devices, and healthcare applications. Classified as a future form-factor for computing devices, next generation wearables -- including smart glasses and other head-mounted displays -- will provide a multitude of functions either independently or in conjunction with a third party platform. Juniper identifies 2014 to be the watershed year for wearable devices -- in terms of roll outs and market traction. Large influential players such as Google and Apple have already made key strategic moves in this sector. The use of wearable devices connected to a smartphone in the fitness and sports environment has grown rapidly in the last two years with applications such as Nik...

comScore released data showing that 181 million U.S. Internet users watched more than 39 billion online content videos in September, while video ad views totaled 9.4 billion. Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in September with 150.3 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 57.4 million, AOL, Inc. with 53.8 million, VEVO with 50.3 million and Facebook.com with 46.4 million. More than 39 billion video content views occurred during the month, with Google Sites generating the highest number at 13.1 billion, followed by AOL, Inc. with 741 million. Google Sites had the highest average engagement among the top ten properties. Americans viewed 9.4 billion video ads in September, with each of the top 5 video ad properties delivering more than 1-billion video ads. Google Sites ranked first with 1.8 billion ads, followed by BrightRoll Video Network with more than 1.3 billion, Hulu with 1.2 billion, L...

What are the main drivers of growing eCommerce applications in China? What role will m-retail play in the Chinese marketplace? These were a couple of the key questions that eMarketer considered during their latest market assessment of the online retailer landscape in China. According to their latest study, online sales in China are flourishing. The Chinese people are embracing the internet for comparison shopping and product research, and marketers are eager to expand operations beyond the established markets of Shanghai and Beijing. As people in China become more comfortable with shopping on the internet, the number of online buyers on the mainland will rise to nearly 220 million this year -- clearly outpacing the U.S. total of approximately 150 million buyers. No other nation offers this online audience of shoppers. By 2016, eMarketer forecasts that 423.4 million people in China ages 14 and older will make an online purchase at least annually. In 2011, B2C ecommerce sales...

The mobile smartphone business has been a key revenue-generating growth story that we've profiled over the last few years. The overall market outlook continues to be bright -- regardless of the continuation of regional economic uncertainties. Mobile network subscriber growth has slowed dramatically in the saturated markets, voice and text have reached commodity pricing and margins are shrinking -- yet around the world the appetite for new smartphones continues to gain momentum. Smartphones are fast becoming the device of choice for hundreds of millions of people, and during 2012 the worldwide smartphone shipments will have reached half a billion units in one year. According to the finding from the latest market study by Portio Research , the mobile handset industry is a $241 Billion business. The Key Ongoing Growth Drivers The worldwide mobile subscriber base is expected to reach 6.5 billion by end-2012, taking global mobile penetration to approximately 91 percent. The su...

While over-the-top (OTT) voice-over-IP (VoIP) services are not about to totally replace traditional telephony, they will have a significant impact on telecom service provider revenues over the next eight years, according to the latest market study by Ovum. Forecasts reveal that OTT VoIP will cost the global telecoms industry $479 billion in lost cumulative revenues by 2020 -- which represents 6.9 percent of cumulative total voice revenues. New research provides some reassurance to network operators that are fearful of the demise of legacy telephony. It suggests that although revenues continue to fall, voice traffic is shifting -- rather than collapsing. Carefully targeted price increases are expected to be commonplace as operators try to maintain their revenues. Yet, Ovum believes that a focus on creating cloud-oriented telephony apps, and efforts to maintain the relevance of telephone numbers will ensure that operators have a place in the future communications landscape. ...

Substantive and meaningful innovation is the key to survival and ongoing prosperity for global telecoms and media players in 2013, according to the latest market study by Informa. Over 500 senior executives from across both these sectors were asked how their businesses and markets would perform in 2013 and the role innovation would play in driving future revenue growth. Respondents were generally positive about the state of the market and revenue prospects for 2013 -- with almost 40 percent saying there were strong opportunities for both vendors and operators in their home markets. Looking at sources of innovation generally in today's telecoms and media markets, there's a divergence of views as to which are the most important sources of innovation. Service innovation was ranked as the most important focus for telecoms and TV operators followed by partnerships and business models, customer service innovation and network innovation. However, the market researchers at In...

The American pay-TV sector continues to underestimate the lasting impact of alternative video entertainment options that are priced significantly lower than the primary service providers. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, nearly 20 percent of online consumers consider the growing availability of streaming video -- via the public internet -- as a viable replacement for legacy pay-TV services. ABI believes that their latest findings represent a significant risk to the traditional TV operator business of as much as $16.8 billion in the U.S. market. With the U.S. pay-TV household penetration set to decline by approximately 0.5 percent per year through 2017, ABI Research says that this slow migration will continue -- even with an economic recovery as people have additional entertainment choices, such as low-cost over-the-top (OTT) video experiences. To offset this, pay-TV service providers should proactively build a business that leverages OTT components. This wi...

The lower-cost smartphone market segment -- defined as a unit price of less than $150 -- is a strong growth opportunity for the mobile phone industry, according to the latest market study by NPD DisplaySearch. Low-cost smartphone shipments are forecast to double every year from 2010 to 2016, increasing from 4.5 to 311.0 million. "Most mobile phone subscribers around the world can't afford to spend more than $200 for a smartphone, on top of their service plans," said Shawn Lee, Research Director at NPD DisplaySearch . Low-cost smartphone manufacturers create these new products quickly without much investment, which has allowed them to extend their telecom subscriber base to emerging regions. Most of the demand (60 percent) is from the Asia Pacific region, where a large majority of component suppliers and manufacturing factories are located -- providing both time and cost savings. These solutions have a shorter lifetime than high-end smartphones and are manufactur...

To what degree are business travelers using mobile device technology? What types of mobile offerings disrupt legacy corporate travel policies, and in what ways? How frequently are guidelines for mobile usage communicated? These were the key questions that eMarketer considered during their latest assessment. Granted, mobile devices have enabled more productive business travel, allowing people to stay in touch and adapt to changing schedule needs -- among the many other apparent benefits. The same devices can also create challenges for typical corporate travel managers trying to contain their organization's expenses. According to a new eMarketer study, many travel managers are therefore evolving their travel policies to address the current environment. Moreover, according to an AirPlus International study during 2012, 95 percent of travel managers worldwide said they were either making policies more stringent or keeping them the same going forward. Managed corporate trave...

Multimedia Research Group, Inc. (MRG) released its comprehensive study of the Multi-platform TV Middleware and Applications ecosystem. According to the findings of their latest market study, pay-TV has been on a collision course with the Internet for more than a decade, but not only has online delivery not yet cannibalized pay TV revenues to any great extent, it also has created a variety of new revenue opportunities for facilities-based service providers. "Generally speaking, consumers are growing to expect the same experience on the TV that they receive from the Internet, and vice versa," said Norm Bogen, MRG VP of Global Research. From the content provider’s perspective, this must be done securely, in ways that respect existing content acquisition and distribution agreements. Enter TV software and the technological advances required to enable new platforms. Key findings from this market study included: The 2010-2014 time-frame is a time of radical change, in w...

Infonetics Research released excerpts from two of their latest video entertainment related market studies. Video-on-Demand (VOD) and Encoder Equipment and Video Subscribers -- which tracks equipment sold to telco IPTV, cable video, and satellite video providers. Set-Top Boxes and Subscribers -- which tracks IP, cable, satellite, and hybrid set top boxes (STBs) and over-the-top (OTT) media servers. "Thanks to a 7 percent increase in encoder spending by North American cable and satellite operators, the global video infrastructure market saw a return to growth in the second quarter," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and pay TV at Infonetics Research . The pay-TV market continues to be driven by cable and satellite operators upgrading their encoding infrastructure to support more high-definition (HD) channels and unicast video-on-demand content. Meanwhile, satellite set-top boxes surged in Q2, with global shipments up 20 percent and revenue up 19 per...