Digital Lifescapes

Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems (OS) worldwide, combined for 92.3 percent of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13) -- as Windows Phone slowly crept past BlackBerry for third place. According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), Google Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, that's up by 59.1 percent from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12. "Underpinning the worldwide smartphone market is the constantly shifting operating system landscape," noted Ramon Llamas, research manager at IDC . Android and iOS accounted for more than the lion's share of smartphones in the first quarter, but a closer examination of the other platforms reveals turnaround and demand for alternatives. Windows Phone has benefited from Nokia's participation, and BlackBerry's new BB10 devices have already hit a ...

The two main silos in the telematics industry -- consumer automotive and commercial telematics -- remain the most active areas within the broader M2M (machine to machine) industry. New applications for telematics reach the market on an almost daily basis through apps, and industry research into areas such as V2x (where vehicles communicate with one another and road infrastructure on-route in real time) is beginning to give a picture of the role that the telematics industry will play in the future automotive market. The Smart Vehicle will become the new frontier for app developers over the next five years, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research , which now forecasts that the market for in-vehicle apps will be worth just short of $1.2 billion by 2017. Advancements in automotive connectivity standards such as MirrorLink and ever higher smartphone ownership will create foundations allowing the connected car ecosystem to flourish -- particularly in developed North Am...

LTE-capable mobile communication networks will continue to mushroom around the globe through 2018, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. In particular, frequency-division duplex (FDD) networks will see their population coverage expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 33 percent between 2012 and 2018 -- reaching 57 percent penetration. Time-division duplex (TDD) networks will gain ground at a more rapid rate of 43 percent during this period, but will only reach 52 percent population coverage due to the fewer licensed markets currently available. This overall picture is consistent with the network equipment contracts awarded to vendors thus far this year. Slightly more than half of the contracts concluded are related to LTE-FDD. "However, LTE-TDD will start to close the gap," said Ying Kang Tan, research associate at ABI Research . Dual-mode device chip-sets supporting both variants as well as converged FDD/TDD network solutions are alread...

The big greenfield global growth opportunities for internet access are in the emerging markets, where mobile broadband access will likely dominate new internet user adoption. Targeted pricing, adapted to the needs of user segments, is the proven way to maximize market development. ABI Research’s latest mobile Internet pricing tracker reinforces the notion that there are essentially five mobile Internet pricing models in operation: The Tiered Usage Pricing Plan The All You Can Eat Data Plan The Unlimited Plan with Speed Restriction The Data Surfing Time Plan And, the Multi-device Shared Plan Although much talked about, Multi-device Shared Plans are relatively novel with approximately only 5 percent of mobile subscribers having the option to subscribe to Multi-device Shared Plans. Of the addressable market, 15 percent can choose from All You Can Eat Data plans, but 66 percent only have recourse to the traditional Tiered Usage Pricing model. "Mobile operators should be...

By 2017, two billion mobile phone and media tablet users will watch TV and video on their devices, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. This phenomenon is attributed to the growing popularity of short and easily shared video clips, and the increased global uptake of connected mobile devices with faster processors and better displays. Juniper examined how mobile is increasingly being used as the primary screen for consuming TV and video content among younger demographics, and the seamless integration of streaming services with social networks. They observed that sharing content via smartphones or tablets has become an intuitive experience for many. Furthermore, the success that many streaming providers such as Netflix, have achieved online has led them to offer truly multi-screen experiences via smartphones and tablets. This move has begun to affect the pay-TV business, with the threat of consumers reducing or ending their pay-TV services in favor of interne...

ABI Research predicts that subscribers of enterprise-grade mobile content management (MCM) solutions will grow at double-digit rates -- to reach over 110 million subscriptions by 2018. Smartphone subscribers of MCM will grow at a modest 12 percent year-over-year, whereas corporate-liable media tablet subscribers will grow by 21 percent over the next 5 years. North America and Western Europe are the largest subscribing markets; Asia Pacific will stay in the number three position throughout the forecast period, but grow nearly twice as fast as the regional leaders. "As the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) phenomenon becomes more widely accepted within enterprises, more corporate content is being placed in the cloud using consumer-grade storage solutions. As such, more corporate content is susceptible to leakage and theft, placing a higher need on mobile content security and protection," said Jason McNicol, senior analyst for enterprise at ABI Research . ABI believes that th...

Perhaps you have seen the research that Cisco IBSG has shared about the Internet of Everything phenomenon. Others are now participating in the global market assessment, with the intent to gain a better understanding of the applications and associated upside potential. The latest data from ABI Research on the Internet of Everything (IoE) shows that there are more than 10 billion wireless connected devices in the market today -- with over 30 billion devices expected by 2020. "The emergence of standardized ultra-low power wireless technologies is one of the main enablers of the IoE, with semiconductor vendors and standards bodies at the forefront of the market push, helping to bring the IoE into reality," said Peter Cooney, practice director at ABI Research . The year 2013 is seen by many as the year of the Internet of Everything, but it will still be many years until it reaches its full potential. ABI believes that the next five years will be pivotal in its growth and ...

4G mobile broadband networks are launching fast and moving to a flat and distributed hierarchy. Dictated by performance needs, data management is moving closer to the network edge. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, this evolution of the mobile network -- from a centralized data center to a distributed architecture -- can be thought of as a data center without walls. The historical paradigm for mobile networks is the hierarchical and centralized core network. The advent of 3G and 4G mobile broadband greatly increases the data traffic to the IP Network and Internet point of presence. This gives rise to the specialist DPI and Optimization firms, such as Allot and Sandvine, who prosper with high performance, purpose built custom hardware that sits in the data stream for inspection and management. The major infrastructure vendors are stepping up their game by upgrading the performance of these functions in the Packet Data Network Gateway (PGW). The move to di...

The forward-looking outlook for the savvy leaders in the progressive digital media industry is very bright. The mobile owning public is now aware that mobile devices can be used to perform tasks beyond voice and text -- in North America nearly 65 percent of mobile handsets were used to access mobile entertainment services in 2012; 75 percent were used to browse the Internet. In Western Europe the comparable figures were 47 percent and 65 percent respectively. Annual revenue generated from digital content delivered to mobile phones and media tablets is expected to increase by nearly $25 billion over the next three years, reaching $65 billion by 2016, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research . According to the study findings, growth would primarily be fueled by an upsurge in game, video and eBook purchases via tablet devices, allied to increased opportunity for content monetization via DCB (Direct Carrier Billing) on smartphones. Juniper observed that eBooks curre...

This year, many broadband service providers in developed markets will have to make a strategic choice -- just cut costs and plan to report more pay-TV subscriber losses, or seek ways to offer greater value-added services and make the required investment in infrastructure. Infonetics Research released excerpts from its latest market study which delves into service provider strategies for deploying residential gateways, the applications driving their deployments, and their top picks for residential gateway vendors, services, technologies, and associated features. "Operators continue to morph their fixed broadband network strategies to focus not only on the size of the connection to the subscriber, but also on the services and revenue these broadband connections can deliver," said Jeff Heynen, directing analyst for broadband access and pay-TV at Infonetics Research . According to the Infonetics assessment, residential gateways are critical to ensuring the successful del...

The growth of smartphone adoption in the U.S. marketplace has me wondering, how much more upside is available and when will we likely see full market saturation? comScore released data that reported the key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry during the three month average period ending March 2013. Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 39 percent OEM market share, while Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 52 percent platform market share. 136.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones -- that's 58 percent mobile market penetration -- during the three months ending in March, up 9 percent since December. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 39 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 2.7 percentage points from December). Samsung ranked second with 21.7 percent market share (up 0.7 percentage points), followed by HTC with 9 percent, Motorola with 8.5 percent and LG with 6.8 percent. Google Android ranked as the top smartpho...

Driven by increasing demand worldwide, media tablet shipments continue to surge across the globe, growing 142.4 percent year over year in the first quarter of 2013 (1Q13), according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ). Tablet shipments totaled 49.2 million units in 1Q13 -- surpassing that of the entire first half of 2012. With growth fueled by increased market demand for smaller screen devices, tablets sales have shown no sign of slowing down. Apple outperformed IDC's most recent projections for the quarter, shipping 19.5 million units compared to a forecast of 18.7 million units. The company, which historically has experienced a steep drop off in first quarter shipments (following strong holiday sales in the fourth quarter), saw some smoothing of that seasonality this year. Number two vendor Samsung also performed above expectations and managed to grow its shipments over the fourth quarter 2012 as more of the company's smaller-sized table...

Worldwide mobile service provider revenue, year-on-year (YoY) for 4Q-2012 grew 2.8 percent reaching $240.5 billion. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the regional dynamic is varied. Western Europe and Africa’s mobile operator actually demonstrated a contraction in service revenue YoY of 8.2 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively. Middle East, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific are still showing reasonably robust rates of growth of 7 percent to 11 percent. Eastern Europe and North America, however, are only barely keeping their mobile service revenue growth in positive territory. "As the underlying lift from accumulating subscribers has matured, carriers are starting to cast around for additional revenue streams that don’t just boost revenues but also profitability,” said Jake Saunders, VP for core forecasting at ABI Research . There is still tremendous income to be generated from mobile network services. ABI estimates that the top ten mobile carriers alone ...

According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, the cumulative 4G LTE mobile broadband service revenues over the next five years will account for over $1 trillion. That growth represents 17 percent of the cumulative global operator billed service revenue from all mobile services. 4G LTE revenues are set to grow rapidly and will reach more than $340 billion globally in 2017, reflecting the continued success of LTE in serving higher value mobile network subscribers. The demand for high bandwidth wireless broadband services from end users and the availability of Wi-Fi on most mobile devices has compelled operators to address consumer expectations around quality and user experience while creating new opportunities for the industry. "Along with the 4G network roll-out, the 4G/Wi-Fi combination will continue to provide a scalable and cost effective solution. It offers long term benefits, with the present offload platforms supporting future network infrastructures, and ...

After years of steady but low growth, the commercial building automation systems (BAS) market is experiencing a rapid period of change and investment. Traditionally, growth and adoption has been closely tied to new building completion but new entrants and new connectivity are driving greater investment. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, over the next five years the building automation services market will grow to $43 billion -- that's up from $35 billion this year. Two key factors are driving a new round of growth. Greater environmental and financial demands have raised the appeal of reducing energy consumption in commercial buildings and the benefits for optimizing building automation systems. In addition, a new level of connectivity that stretches the reach of BAS apps from new sensors and actuators through to cloud application management and data analysis. "This is a market long dominated by a handful of major players who deploy and manage comm...

The essential components of the mobile Internet -- network, device and application -- are all undergoing changes, along with the ongoing evolution of mobile communication industry. Today, mobile devices increasingly meet various demands for communication, entertainment, learning, living, working, and access to innovative m-commerce applications. They also enhance people’s sense of hearing, sight and touch; expand the breadth and depth of communication; and speed up the transformation of people’s way of thinking, lifestyle and working style. These changes have directly contributed to the transformation of the mobile industry environment and ecosystem within China. Device manufacturers are gradually penetrating into the traditional business areas of content providers, virtual operators and integrated managed service providers. Internet companies are expanding their territory into operation and device manufacturing. Software enterprises are extending from traditional enterprise ap...

The mobile communications sector continues to advance -- with new handheld devices driving mobile internet usage. Juniper Research estimates that the number of smartphone shipments reached almost 200 million in Q1 2013, representing a growth of 30 percent from the same quarter in 2012. Samsung increased its smartphone market share by shipping an estimated 68 million smartphones and accounting for approximately 34 percent of all smartphone shipments in the quarter. Samsung announced a steady pace in sales of the Galaxy SIII, and improved sales of the Note II for the quarter. However, despite profits falling for the first time in a decade for Apple, they posted better than expected iPhone sales at around 37.4 million -- that's 7 percent growth compared to the same quarter in 2012. With another product due soon, Juniper has joined other industry analysts who believe that Apple needs to innovate. The next product release must help Apple maintain their market position. Moreover...

Across the globe an estimated 405 million mobile phone handsets -- including 197 million smartphones -- were shipped in the first quarter of 2013, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Smartphone shipments grew by 38 percent year-over-year (YoY), while feature phone shipments declined 5.2 percent YoY. Shipments of all handsets grew 12 percent YoY in the first quarter thanks to the continued strength of the smartphone market, which achieved an all-time high of 49 percent shipment penetration. "Worldwide handset and smartphone shipments exhibited classic Q1 softness," says Michael Morgan, senior analyst at ABI Research . Samsung accomplished strong smartphone growth while Apple dismissed a troubling mix of slowed growth and declining margins as a sign that the older iPhone 4S was in high demand. Nokia handset shipments plummeted to 62 million in Q1 with smartphone shipments at a 5-year low of 6.1 million. Considering market and OEM specific condition...

The mobile gaming market continues to be a high-growth opportunity. International Data Corporation (IDC) released the findings from its latest market study, a comprehensive assessment of the current state and future direction of smartphone, tablet, and gaming-optimized handheld (GOH) hardware and software. Their forecast details the outlook for Apple, Google Android, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and a wide range of game software developers and publishers from a mobile device and portable gaming perspective through 2017. The GOH market category -- typified by the Nintendo's 3DS and Sony's PlayStation Vita -- has recently been overshadowed by gaming-capable smartphones and media tablets and this trend is likely to continue. IDC research shows, for example, that the number of paying smartphone and tablet gamers will surpass the number of paying GOH gamers worldwide in 2013 and rise at a rapid rate through 2017. The number of GOH bundles shipped, meanwhile, should fall at an ...

By 2017 there will be 64.1 billion games downloaded onto smartphones and tablet devices -- that's over 3 times the rate in 2012, which stood at 21 billion -- according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. This high rate of growth for games is being driven by the increasing number of free-to-play releases, more sophisticated devices, and the global adoption of smartphones. Juniper's study investigated why this growth in the number of games downloaded would be so staggering. It found that an increase in the number of sophisticated games -- which allow for truly multi-platform gameplay through the use of cloud technology -- meant that mobile would become the primary screen for gamers. Greater memory on devices would also mean consumers were able to download more games onto their phones and tablets. Another key point highlighted by the report is that tablet users are downloading over twice the amount of games onto their devices than smartphone users. ...

By end 2012, North America and Western Europe had effectively made the transition from legacy analog broadcast technology to digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasts. The next milestone year (2015) was established by the ITU and a number of countries in Eastern Europe and Middle-East Africa are hoping to satisfy this goal. With a later start to digital services a number of countries in these regions are starting with DVB-T2, avoiding the conundrum facing established DVB-T markets looking to migrate to the newer technology. "If remaining analog shutoff timelines go largely as planned, we expect over 18 million DVB-T2 STBs will ship in 2015," said Michael Inouye, senior analyst at ABI Research . Other potential factors, like spectrum reallocation for mobile broadband in Western Europe, might increase the demand for DVB-T2 boxes, but this likely won't be a significant factor until the latter half -- if not past the 2018 forecasting window, according to the lat...

​In many parts of the world, smartphone shipments account for a significantly larger percentage of mobile handset volume than feature phones and other low-cost handsets. Yet within the smartphone class of devices, segmentation is increasing to three price tiers -- low, mid, and high. Shipments of sub-$250 lower-cost smartphones will grow from 259 million in 2013 to 788 million in 2018, according to the latest global market study by ABI Research. Mid (sub-$400) and high ($400+) cost smartphone shipments are expected to grow from 635 million to 925 million over the same period. "As the feature phone segment continues to lose its battle for relevance, the low-cost smartphone has become the tool for operators seeking to drive increased data revenues," said Michael Morgan, senior analyst at ABI Research . The growth of smartphones in pre-paid and emerging markets will be the primary driver of low-cost smartphone growth. Developed and subsidized markets are also finding...

The spending on Long-Term Evolution (LTE) mobile network base stations will reach $12.3 billion in 2013, as service providers around the world update their infrastructure to fourth-generation wireless technology. Membership is not exclusive to the developed economies as emerging markets close the digital divide by aggressive network roll-out. Some of these emerging market LTE deployments are government-sponsored initiatives, as in Rwanda, while others are private ventures, as in Sri Lanka. 4G LTE has helped to reverse the downward trend in RAN expenditure in Western Europe last year and will do the same in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Middle East in 2013 and Africa in 2014. "There are, however, differences in the type of capital expenditure (CapEx) incurred in different regions," said Ying Kang Tan, research associate at ABI Research . Operators in the developed markets are already taking steps to upgrade their networks to LTE-Advanced this year. Going forwa...