Digital Lifescapes

The number of smartphone shipments reached 230 million in Q2 2013, representing a year-over-year growth of almost 50 percent from Q2 2012 and quarter-over-quarter growth of nearly 13 percent, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research . Samsung increased its smartphone market share by shipping an estimated 72 million smartphones and accounting for approximately 31 percent of all smartphone shipments in the quarter. Even though Samsung posted another record quarter in terms of device shipments, they admitted slowing sales of their high-end smartphones including the Galaxy S4, with quarterly growth driven by mid-low end smartphones. Samsung is estimated to have shipped 20 million Galaxy S4 in the first two months after its April 2013 launch, but subsequent sales are believed to have tailed off. iPhone Sales are Up, But Profits are Down Likewise, Apple boasted iPhone sales showing strong y-o-y growth – up by 20 percent to more than 31 million – but saw y-o-y profit...

Global demand for smartphones remains strong. For the second calendar quarter in a row, smartphone shipments represented more than half (52 percent) of the world's mobile phone shipments. Led by Samsung, an estimated 408 million handsets and 214 million smartphones shipped during the second quarter of 2013, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. In contrast, feature phone shipments declined 20 percent year-over-year to 195 million units, as low-cost manufacturers continue to claw their way up-market with increased features. Due to typical seasonality gains at mid-year, overall handset shipments grew 0.5 percent sequentially and more than 7 percent year-over-year. Smartphone shipments maintained a healthy growth rate of 5.5 percent sequentially and nearly 44 percent year-over-year. "Despite concerns of premium tier smartphone saturation, both Samsung and Apple were able to deliver better than expected results in the second quarter," said Michael Morg...

As consumer adoption of smartphones increases, usage of mobile devices to purchase real world goods and services has soared. The mobile user base, once cautious of transacting on the mobile phone, now increasingly expects to be able to easily make these purchases. More than 16 billion transport and events tickets will be delivered annually to mobile handsets by 2018, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. That forecast is three times the volume expected this year. While electronic ticketing adoption on mobile devices will be strong across a range of markets, volume growth will be driven by metro and bus deployments, most notably in the relatively untapped U.S. market. 2D Barcode Solutions to Prevail The resulting Juniper report -- Mobile Ticketing Strategies: Air, Rail, Metro, Sports & Entertainment 2013-2018 -- noted that SMS-based solutions had achieved particularly strong adoption across markets such as Sweden, where mobile now accounts for 65 percent ...

With the first service providers, such as SK Telecom, now upgrading their networks to LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) and China Mobile deploying a TD-LTE network and issuing a huge tender for over 200,000 base stations, 4G wireless technology is maturing. According to the findings from the latest market study by ABI Research, TD-LTE and LTE-Advanced are set to dominate the LTE installed base of macro base stations as early as 2015. While FD-LTE will continue to represent a majority of LTE installations, it is the rapid growth in LTE-A and TD-LTE subscriptions which will drive this change. By 2018, ABI forecasts that there will be 1.467 billion LTE subscriptions worldwide; of those, 34 percent will be on LTE-Advanced (Release 10+) networks, while 42 percent and 24 percent will be on the older Release 8/9 LTE-FDD and LTE-TDD networks, respectively.   "The rapid uptake in LTE-A comes as a result of the evolutionary nature of the LTE standards and the relative ease with which installed L...

As you may recall, according the the latest Cisco VNI forecast, global mobile data traffic will grow 13-fold from 2012 to 2017, with a compound annual growth rate of 66 percent. Moreover, mobile traffic per user will reach 2,037 megabytes per month in 2017 -- that's up from 201 megabytes per month in 2012, with a CAGR of 56 percent. Mobile network service providers around the globe have been investing in infrastructure, in anticipation of the growing demand for mobile internet access via the increased adoption of smartphones. ABI Research found that while the overall 2012 wireless network equipment market was quite challenging for infrastructure vendors, the incessant demand for 3G and 4G mobile broadband will continue to drive significant new investment in mobile packet core equipment. As a result, the mobile packet data core network infrastructure market will reach $1.8 billion in 2013. "Continued growth in 3G and 4G traffic will propel the mobile packet core infra...

Mobilizing the Healthcare and Fitness industries is about to gain market momentum, particularly in developed nations. The converged mHealth and mFitness sectors are defined as the point where the mobile communications sector meets the healthcare sector and the fitness sector, respectively. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, the mHealth market forecast for cumulative cost savings from remote patient monitoring will reach up to $36 billion globally, over the next five years. This is a significant opportunity, as healthcare in the developed world moves towards the concept of offering "accountable care" services -- where funding is linked directly to the health of the patient or individual rather than being based upon the cost of treatment. Even though remote patient monitoring -- particularly for chronic diseases -- is still at a very early stage in the development cycle, it fits well with new healthcare practices and the goal of keeping patients out...

The video game sector is about to get interesting, once again, with the introduction of better technology. New game consoles from Microsoft and Sony will both ship in selected markets during the 2013 holiday season. The XBOX One and Sony PS4 appear evenly matched with content remaining as the primary means of differentiation. A number of new entrants to the fixed console market, such as Ouya, are ratcheting up the competitive field with pricing and gaming experiences intended to capture the non-core gamer segment of the marketplace. ABI Research expects cumulative shipments of 8th generation consoles from the big three to pass 133 million during the first 5 years on market -- that's compared to nearly 140 million 7th generation consoles over the same length of time. "With many of the casual gaming segment embracing mobile devices for gaming, without a shift in strategy and pricing the Wii U will likely fail to match the success of the Wii which will impact future console...

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 75.6 million units in the second quarter of 2013 (2Q13) -- that's down -11.4% compared to the same quarter in 2012, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Total global shipments were effectively right on forecast, although Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)(APeJ) were a few points below expectations with the difference made up in the United States. The recent performance reflect a market that is still struggling with the transition to touch-based systems running the Windows 8 OS -- as well as justifying Ultrabook very high prices in the face of economic pressures and competition from low-price media tablets. PC vendors seemed to be focused on inventory reduction during the second quarter, which could reflect planned launches of new models -- as well as plans to reduce any remaining unsold inventory going into the second half of the year. However, it also suggests som...

4G LTE has been the focus of yet another comprehensive global market study. ABI Research has been actively tracking the LTE market, assessing operator commitments -- both current and future. Out of 470 LTE commitments tracked, 193 have gone commercial. Over the next 2 years, ABI anticipates another 123 network commitments to go commercial. Additionally, ABI is currently tracking 69 LTE-TDD commitments. “By 2018, LTE deployments should deliver population coverage of 57 percent (4.2 billion) and 31 percent (2.3 billion) in legacy WCDMA and CDMA2000 markets respectively" said Jake Saunders, vice president at ABI Research . Significantly, LTE-TDD coverage should achieve 49 percent population coverage by the end of the five year period. These coverage targets will be driven by macro-cells and small cells. By 2018, the number of LTE macro-cell base stations will reach 2.43 million -- to achieve the population coverage targets. Small cells are an integral part of the LTE operat...

Infonetics Research released the findings from its latest market study, for which leading operators were interviewed to determine the timing and priority of the many use cases for their software-defined network (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) projects. The market study was a valid sample of network operators from around the world  -- representing 53 percent of the global telecommunications service provider capital expenditure. The promise of SDN and NFV technology adoption is already perceived to be significant and beneficial to broadband network service providers. Therefore, we should anticipate that more market studies will uncover additional details that provide early-adopter best practices and associated lessons learned. "For the most part, carriers are starting small with their SDN and NFV deployments, focusing on only parts of their network -- what we call 'contained domains' -- to ensure they can get the technology to work as intended," ex...

The mobile internet is like a pathway to progress in the emerging markets. But only three regions of the world -- Latin America, Middle East, and Africa -- will experience mobile internet service revenue with double-digit growth between 2013 and 2018. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, this significant new growth is underpinned by the strong per subscription data consumption increasing at CAGRs of 45-49 percent. In other words, data traffic doubles in less than every two years on average, thanks to the increased availability of affordable smart devices in the near future. In 2018, Latin America and Middle East are expected to see an average user contributing more than 2.5 Gigabytes of traffic per month. Low literacy rate has resulted in the low messaging volume in Africa. However, with the fastest mobile subscription growth and over-the-top applications being less prevalent, it will be the only region to enjoy consistent positive messaging service revenue gro...

The Mobile TV and Video industry is fast beginning to realize its potential -- an application for smartphones and tablets, which consumers once shied away from due to poor graphics quality or extended loading times, is finally reaching the mainstream of users. Revenues from streaming and download services on mobile phone and tablet devices will reach $9.5 billion by 2017, that's up from $4.5 billion in 2013. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, this will be as a result of the maturation of the market for streaming subscription services and pay-per-title content, which will see new business models develop for smartphone and tablet users. Benefits of a Multi-Screen Ecosystem The new Juniper study uncovered details on how successful mobile TV subscription providers have been able to realize large revenues to date, and how their strategies will generate additional revenues over the next five years. "In order to be truly successful in the future, I...

The downward trend for personal computer demand now seems perpetual. The global PC market continued to suffer slow shipment growth in leading countries across key regions in May, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). April shipment growth had improved slightly from March in Latin America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), but May growth has come in slower than April for each of these markets -- except India and UK. IDC's quarterly PC forecast from May projected worldwide PC shipment declines of -11.7 percent in the second quarter of 2013 (2Q13), -4.7 percent in the third quarter, and -1.6 percent in the fourth quarter -- resulting in total annual growth of -7.8 percent for 2013. This follows a decline of -13.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013 and -4.0 percent for all of 2012. The results for May are behind pace for achieving the projected 2Q13 growth rates, although stronger June results could still make up most if not all o...

There's an emerging application that could be a significant driver of new and exciting cloud services. According to the latest global market study by ABI Research, developer investment in Augmented Reality (AR) applications will be a key component -- and it will total $670 million in 2013. The annual amount is expected to exceed $2.5 billion by 2018, as AR becomes a more everyday part of mobile experiences -- especially in the domain of the retail industry and commercial marketing. This application segment accounts for 68 percent of the developer spend in 2013, with product enhancement and standalone apps contributing 22 percent and 10 percent of the total, respectively. The most imminent growth driver for AR is cloud computing. "The cloud is a natural fit for AR developers, considering how big benefits cloud-based content libraries present for image recognition technologies," said Aapo Markkanen, Senior analyst at ABI Research . The leading SDKs, Qualcomm’s Vuf...

​The apparent significance of emerging markets to the evolution of the Mobile Internet is really nothing short of a transformation. Demand for lower cost technology has helped to advance all wireless broadband deployments and it's shifting the balance of power in the process. Case in point: China will displace the U.S. as the largest smartphone market in 2013. Brazil and India are also forecast to be in the top four countries for smartphone shipments by 2018. Smartphone vendor interest and the strategies of the smartphone value chain are shifting accordingly. ABI Research forecasts that Russia will come in as the eleventh largest smartphone market in 2013 and will climb to 7th in 2018. "With room to grow, the emerging BRIC nations are displacing established markets such as the U.S. and Japan as market leaders in terms of smartphone shipments," said , Michael Morgan senior analyst at ABI Research . ABI Research forecasts that the top five countries in 2018 will a...

There's a growing market for business use of mobile application storage and download servers or alternative cloud-based offerings. ABI Research predicts the number of large companies to adopt enterprise app stores will grow at double-digit rates through 2018. Globally, large enterprise app store adoption will grow at 30.4 percent YoY with the manufacturing and trade industries commanding the largest share of app deployments. North American and Western European enterprise app store adoption will grow at 20.7 percent and 21.5 percent, respectively. However, Asia-Pacific will have the most enterprises with enterprise app stores by 2018 -- growing at 59 percent YoY. "Mobile Application Management is growing in popularity among enterprises looking to deploy flexible mobile solutions to support Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) initiatives," said Jason McNicol, senior analyst at ABI Research . ABI believes that the problem is finding a scalable solution to deploy enterpris...

Between them, Google Play and Apple’s App Store accounted for nearly 40 billion downloads in 2012. To put this accomplishment into perspective, consider that in 2009 the entire mobile app market accounted for less than 5 billion downloads. According to the findings from their latest market study, Juniper Research has forecast that in 2017 over 160 billion software apps will be downloaded globally onto consumer handsets and tablets. This sharp increase in volume -- from 80 billion in 2013 -- is a result of many consumers in developing markets upgrading from feature phones to smartphones, and a growing number of apps downloaded at no upfront cost. Games Top the List of Mobile Apps The Juniper study also found that the majority of annual application downloads will be in the games category, with at least 40 percent of downloads arising from this area. Furthermore, app stores will seek to improve stickiness by developing social features that enable game-play between application us...

Infonetics Research released findings from its latest mobile communications sector market study, which provides market size, analysis, and forecasts for mobile machine-to-machine (M2M) modules by technology, vertical industry, and geographic region. Mobile network operators are deploying more M2M solutions and enterprises and consumers are increasingly adopting them across the globe -- creating a robust outlook for the overall M2M services market, as well as the mobile M2M module market. “To put things in perspective, the mobile M2M module is just one of many technology solutions available for M2M services, one that represents less than 15 percent of active M2M connections today," said Godfrey Chua, directing analyst for M2M at Infonetics Research . Mobile M2M modules compete against a myriad other technology solutions that enable M2M services -- including DSL and T1 lines as well as wireless technologies like WiFi, Zigbee and Bluetooth. Many mobile network services are...

Fourth-generation (4G) mobile networks have already reached the tipping point in some key markets and the wireless technology is already advancing rapidly towards it in other markets across the globe. The LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) subscriptions will take an important role in the mobile subscriber market, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 295 percent between 2013 and 2018 to reach 500 million -- which will represent 34 percent of the overall 1.47 billion LTE-related subscriptions. Meanwhile, total LTE subscriptions for 1Q-2013 increased by 37.5 percent quarter-on-quarter, reaching 108 million, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. North America will be the most aggressive LTE-A market, followed by Asia-Pacific and Western Europe. North America will commercially launch LTE-A by the end of 2013 and mobile subscriptions will approach 220 million by 2018, contributing 44 percent of the global LTE-A market. "All the major mobile operators in the Uni...

What if mobile applications like Google Maps could provide insight about the inside of large public buildings and other big structures? Would independent software developers find new and interesting ways to tap this data in their smartphone apps?  While there won't be an immediate surge in indoor location-enabled handsets and applications, it's now anticipated that the ecosystem necessary to drive mass adoption of indoor location applications will be in place by 2016. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the future adoption of a variety of indoor location and proximity related technologies or hybrids are being considered across a range of different application categories -- such as retail, navigation, enterprise, personal tracking and social. Meanwhile, these apps are also expected to enhance mobile enhanced services such as advertising, ambient intelligence, augmented reality, photography, and local search. Even at this early stage, it is already clear...

A new global market study by ABI Research finds that integration with social networks will add significant value to enterprise machine-to-machine (M2M) strategies in the coming years, as more savvy company leaders discover the innovation enabling potential of the Internet of Everything. Initially, this trend will concern internal social channels -- such as Salesforce.com’s Chatter -- which is forecast to be actively used by 60,000 enterprises at end-2013. Going forward, the emphasis will shift towards Facebook and other consumer-facing networks, which ABI Research forecasts to cover 2.9 billion users by end-2018. "There’s an intriguing intersection developing around social networks and M2M services. At this stage the activity is nascent, but over the next five years we expect the relationship between the two to become increasingly synergistic," said Aapo Markkanen, senior analyst at ABI Research . The innovations it results in will add a strong social ingredient to th...

The value of mobile commerce transactions conducted via mobile handsets and tablets will exceed $3.2 trillion by 2017, that's up from $1.5 trillion this year -- according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. The increasing popularity of mobile devices for bill payment is reflected in the fact that the mobile banking sector accounts for the lion’s share of transaction values over the next five years. However, to put global mCommerce into context, total financial transactions in the U.S. market alone exceeded $4,400 trillion in 2012. Key Industry Sectors Embrace Mobile The study findings observed that a number of key industries -- retail, airline, financial institutions -- were emphasizing the importance of the mobile channel as an engagement, delivery and payment mechanism. Juniper cited the activities of Visa and MasterCard with regards to NFC certification and the airline industry’s wider eTicketing initiative as key developments in this regard. Furthermo...

​Cyber security for critical infrastructures has become an issue of primary importance to nation states. Policy is playing an increasingly important role alongside the deployment of technical measures. The cornerstone of implementing a viable digital society relies heavily on the concept of ensuring trust in the underlying infrastructure, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Energy, telecoms, healthcare, and transport systems and other critical sectors are making use of Internet connectivity and next generation technologies to boost productivity and improve efficiency. Protecting these networks from cyber threats requires a national approach. Governments have a duty to ensure the digital security of critical infrastructures. This requires accompanying technical efforts with policies in order to implement a coherent cyber security strategy across all sectors. From national defense through to water management, all connected networks require strategic planning and...