Digital Lifescapes

In theory, France has many of the necessary ingredients for a vibrant and growing over-the-top (OTT) video entertainment market -- a high broadband penetration rate, pay-TV operators that are active in multi-screen video, and good prospects for available mobile data apps. But there are many obstacles that service providers must overcome. Regulatory hurdles, like France's relatively strict Chronology of Media, or content windowing legislation -- which impacts Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services -- limits the upside growth potential of many OTT movie services. "In relatively strong OTT markets like North America SVOD services like Netflix are significant revenue contributors to the overall market segment. France’s strict content windowing for SVOD, however, creates a challenging environment to replicate similar successes," said Michael Inouye, senior analyst at ABI Research . Despite these challenges, online video services like Dailymotion (owned by Orange) ...

Over the past five years contactless payments have emerged as a means by which both retailers and network operators can gain tangible benefits. This advantage comes from reduced operating costs and increased sales -- with greater consumer throughput at the point of sale (POS) terminal. Juniper Research has found that 249 million cards will be used for contactless payments in 2014, driven by the global migration to EMV (Europay, MasterCard, Visa) standards-based CHIP & PIN and rising contactless infrastructure at the point of sale. According to the latest global market study by Juniper, growth in usage will initially be driven by early adopter markets such as Australia, Canada, Poland and the UK. In the medium term, user numbers will be enhanced by substantial adoption in the U.S. market following the mandated transition from magnetic-stripe cards. Juniper observed that growth in the UK had been bolstered by ticketing as well as retail usage, with more than 3.5 million L...

Google Android smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are taking advantage of a solid presence among all mobile network service users to drive more smartphone purchases by businesses -- and thereby expand on the growing number of mobility applications within the enterprise. ABI Research predicts that shipment revenues from Android smartphones used by mobile business customers will grow from $54 billion in 2013 to over $92 billion globally by the end of 2018. They have analyzed Android OEM enterprise features and market presence to provide mobile business customer adoption forecasts for six OEMs -- including HTC, Huawei, LG, Motorola Mobility, Samsung, and ZTE. "Despite a significant presence among employees in the workplace, businesses have not allowed or have limited the access of Android devices to enterprise applications and systems," said Jason McNicol, senior analyst at ABI Research . Fearing the potential loss of this large, high-margin market segmen...

Some leading nations have already reached a major milestone in deploying next-generation wireless broadband capabilities. The mobile network operators in North America are nearing the end of the first wave of 4G LTE investment. Already Verizon’s LTE network boasts population coverage of more than 95 percent. Around 70 percent of the American people also have access to AT&T's LTE network. In Canada, the Telus LTE network covers 77 percent of the population while Bell and Rogers are hot on its heels. So, what's next for these mobile network service providers? How will each company choose to maximize the significant investment they've already made in wireless broadband infrastructure? "To be sure, there is still work to be done," says Ying Kang Tan, research associate at ABI Research . These operators are still tuning their networks, deploying small cells to improve capacity as well as indoor coverage, preparing their networks for Voice-over-LTE, and empl...

It's coming soon, to a moving vehicle near you. 4G LTE is about to have a significant impact on the adoption of telematics services -- due to network stability and coverage. It's estimated that 76 percent of automotive industry executives expect all new vehicles to be 'telematics connected' by 2022. 4G Americas announced that there are currently 225 commercial LTE networks in 85 countries worldwide. Based on mobile network service provider commitments, that number will increase to more than 464 LTE networks in the coming years. Particularly in the North American, LTE is becoming mainstream -- where coverage in the U.S. market is now nationwide. "The U.S. has emerged as the worldwide leader in LTE connections and innovations are being developed to keep future LTE networks efficient, effective, fast and reliable," said Vicki Livingston, head of communications at 4G Americas. But thus far, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have taken a piecemeal ap...

The Google Android mobile device operating system reached a new milestone during the third quarter of 2013 (3Q13), according to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). With a total base of 211.6 million smartphone units shipped during the quarter, Android accounted for 81.0 percent of all smartphone shipments -- marking the first time that Android topped 80 percent in its short history. Despite high saturation rates in a number of key mature markets, the overall smartphone space grew 39.9 percent year-over-year in the third quarter of 2013. Also reaching a milestone was Microsoft's Windows Phone, which grew by 156.0 percent year over year. Granted, volumes started from a small base of 3.7 million units a year ago and overall market share is still less than five percent. But Microsoft's efforts, with Nokia's support behind it, helped drive the platform into multiple tiers and price points. "Android and Windows Phone continued t...

The digital video entertainment industry has seen mixed results this year, as pay-TV service providers find little growth in saturated markets. Regardless, the worldwide pay-TV subscriber base surpassed 886.5 million at the end of 3Q 2013 -- that's a 6 percent YoY increase, generating $62.6 billion service revenue in the third quarter. "Emerging markets are key drivers of global growth in pay-TV subscribers as developed markets are experiencing flat growth rates,' said Jake Saunders, VP and practice director at ABI Research . The pay-TV subscriber base in Western Europe grew less than 2 percent in 3Q 2013 from 3Q 2012. Notably, the number of subscribers in Spain and Italy has been declining for a number of consecutive quarters. Respectively, pay-TV service providers in Spain and Italy lost over 7 percent and 2 percent of their total subscriber base compared to a year ago. Pay-TV operators blame the weak economic environment for declining subscriber counts, but it ...

Wearable devices have been in existence for a number of decades, but it is only recently that they have captured the imagination of the public. Findings from the latest global market study by Juniper Research has revealed that wearable Smart Glasses shipments will reach 10 million per year by 2018 -- that's compared to an estimated 87,000 units this year. Juniper notes that as the retail price for Smart Glasses declines toward the end of the forecast period, the adoption level of the devices among consumers will significantly increase. The Path to Achieve Critical Mass Juniper argues that in order for wearable devices -- such as smart glasses -- to reach their full potential in the marketplace, they need to be much more than complementary devices or secondary screens. "These devices would need to incorporate intuitive and user-friendly functionality and capture the imagination of the general public making the technology seamless within their daily routine," said N...

The mobile network service providers continue to benefit from strong consumer demand in the United States. comScore released the latest mobile communications sector market data, reporting on key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for September 2013. In summary, Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 40.6 percent OEM market share, while Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 51.8 percent platform market share. Google Sites ranked as the top mobile media property, while Facebook was the top individual application. Leading Smartphone Manufacturer Market Share 147.9 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (62 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in September, that's up 4.5 percent since June. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 40.6 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers (up 0.7 percentage points from June). Samsung ranked second with 24.9 percent market share (up 1.2 percentage points), followed by HTC ...

Mobile device technology is evolving rapidly. Enhancements such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, near field communication (NFC), and gesture recognition are predicted to be the big winners. These mobile technologies are projected to make the greatest penetration gains over the coming years, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. "Hands-free operation or gesture recognition is soon going to become a key differentiator in high-end flagship smartphones, media tablets, and smart glasses," says Joshua Flood, senior analyst at ABI Research . Samsung's latest Galaxy S4 has already incorporated the technology within its handset and has received significant recognition for its new innovative user experience. Furthermore, with a host of new smart wearable products soon to be released, it is easy to imagine the usefulness of the interface with this product. In 2013, almost 12 percent of smartphones shipped will have vision-based gesture recognition capabilities....

The emerging technology and application ecosystem around Augmented Reality (AR) has continued its evolution towards image recognition, as opposed to relying solely on Global Positioning Systems and Digital Compass apps. New findings from the latest market study by Juniper Research has shown that the mobile AR market is set to increase dramatically -- from 60 million unique users this year to nearly 200 million in 2018. The evolving market will expand from the early adopting gaming segment and navigation based utility to becoming an integral part of the mobile device user ecosystem. The market study uncovered that despite initial trepidation and single use applications of the technology, Juniper forecasts AR to become a key future platform for mobile communication and commerce. AR has a potential to engage a new generation of consumers in a unique manner, combining the personal nature of mobile devices with the Internet’s wealth of accessible information. Augmented Reality...

The adoption of media tablets by more new users continued across the globe, but some product vendors were unable to benefit from the growing uptake of this very popular device. Worldwide shipments of tablets grew to 47.6 million units in the third quarter of 2013 (3Q13) according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). While slightly below their prior forecast, the unit volume still represents 7.0 percent growth over the previous quarter and 36.7 percent growth compared to the third quarter of 2012. Google Android-based products once again drove much of the shipment growth in the global market as Apple iOS growth stalled and Microsoft Windows tablets continued to struggle to win over consumers. With no new Apple iPad product launches in the second or third quarter to drive volume, the company experienced a quarter-over-quarter decline in shipments from 14.6 million in 2Q13 to 14.1 million in 3Q13. Year over year, iPad shipments grew less than one per...

Smartphone demand is booming globally, as new users adopt the mobile internet. The worldwide smartphone market grew by 38.8 percent year over year in the third quarter of 2013 (3Q13), according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Vendors shipped a total of 258.4 million smartphones in 3Q13, establishing a new record for units shipped in a single quarter by more than 9.0 percent. The previous high was 237 million units shipped in the second quarter of 2013. In the worldwide mobile phone market (inclusive of smartphones), vendors shipped 467.9 million units in 3Q13 compared to the 442.7 million units shipped in 3Q12, representing 5.7 percent year-over-year growth. Third quarter shipments were up 7.0 percent when compared to the 437.4 million units shipped in 2Q13. "The third quarter was up substantially over the previous quarter, which was also a record quarter for shipments, showing the real momentum of the smartphone market," said Ryan Re...

The smart home appliance market -- defined by products with built-in connectivity -- will witness substantial growth over the next five years, reaching nearly $25 billion by 2018, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. Currently limited to the top-end luxury models, wireless connectivity for these smart home devices will slowly permeate to lower tier brands and models. "Smart home appliances have yet to incorporate features that add significant value for their premium price. Smart home appliance features are at present limited to remote access through mobile devices," said Adarsh Krishnan, senior analyst at ABI Research . The true value of these smart grid ready devices, such as those used in demand-response energy management programs, is several years away and initially will be primarily in the U.S. market. North America remains the most lucrative market which has seen the fastest growth in the uptake of the smart appliances and is expected to see reve...

In spite of global recession, certain areas of the global M2M industry are illustrating remarkable resilience -- even with the threat of new business models created from the ever-increasing sophistication of the global smartphone and software app ecosystem. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, the installed base of cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) devices will approach 500 million modules by 2018, driven by more open M2M ecosystems and improved cloud-based APIs. According to their assessment, the M2M space is seeing an increasing focus on the development of open platforms that simplify connectivity to a wide range of isolated devices through the cloud. This movement is already in motion. Juniper believes that the advent of Big Data emerging from M2M service provision will, in time, allow for improved interrogation of M2M data sets -- opening the door to new revenue streams for companies and M2M operators. How the Internet of Things will Evolve Juniper fo...

The global market for smartphones continues to evolve into distinct segments -- where the price is a key point of differentiation. The latest worldwide assessment categorizes the smartphone market into five price bands: Ultra-Premium, Premium, Standard, Economy and Ultra-Economy. Juniper Research estimates that the number of smartphone shipments exceeded a quarterly record of 250 million in the third quarter (Q3) of 2013, representing a y-o-y growth of almost 49 percent from Q3 2012, and q-o-q growth of 10 percent. Samsung now accounts for a third of all smartphones shipped with an estimated 85 million smartphones -- that's a new record for the company. They also reported a 26 percent growth in profit, driven by an increase of smartphone sales in both Premium and Economy segments. The Apple iPhone accounted for 1 in 7 smartphone shipments during Q3 2013, representing a quarterly growth of 8 percent from Q2 2013. Juniper’s latest research forecasts that Apple and Samsung wi...

Machine to machine (M2M) connectivity will be embedded in more than 2 billion devices across nine key industries by 2018. But it will be cellular wireless communication services that will bring the bulk of the value and the revenues, according to the latest global market study by ABI Research. A new generation of smart devices is set to have embedded connectivity and manufacturers already have a number of technologies to select to deliver network connectivity. ABI Research has examined the demand and appeal for M2M connectivity across cellular, satellite, fixed-line and short-range wireless technologies within nine key industry verticals. Each technology has specific advantages and appeal, but cellular is the best placed to deliver the most value, hence revenues, for the connection. "Looking at demand for connectivity, while cellular will not have the highest number of connections, or the highest average revenue per connection, it will provide the greatest opportunity to d...

The mobile communication channel has proven to enable the development of financial services in a way that is not dependent upon the existing traditional commercial infrastructure in a country. Key benefits are all associated with the ability to provide new services while avoiding the usual investment in establishing physical banking facilities -- particularly in emerging markets and developing nations. As a result, international remittances via mobile phones will exceed $10 billion for the first time this year, according to the latest global market study by Juniper Research. However, their comprehensive assessment found that the cost and complexity of regulating cash transfers had led many mobile network service providers to focus exclusively on airtime top-ups. According to Juniper, only a handful of players -- such as eServGlobal HomeSend, along with established money transfer organizations Western Union and Moneygram -- were seeing significant traction on mobile devices. I...

For the longest time, text messaging has been a huge cash cow for mobile network service providers. However, the eager acceptance of over-the-top (OTT) mobile device applications is greatly expanding the overall messaging market and comes partly at the expense of legacy text messaging. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, the deployment of competitive Voice over Long Term Evolution (VoLTE) and Rich Communication Services (RCS) will likely help network operators retain 65 percent of their former messaging market share. That being said, the many free or low-cost mobile messaging application (app) alternatives available to consumers are still a worrying concern for mobile network operators. Operators can use VoLTE and RCS services, ultimately to retain their subscribers, and also increase revenues that will come with the many innovations from third party developers. The quality of services that VoLTE and RCS can provide to their customers will be as table stakes i...

The European mobile retail audience grew by 43 percent over the past year, with 20 percent of smartphone users accessing online retail sites and apps using their device, according to the latest market study by comScore . The study included mobile phone usage characteristics across the five leading EU markets -- France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. Mobile online retail adoption is on the upswing -- 1 in 7 European smartphone users reported having completed a retail transaction on their mobile phone in a month. In the three month average ending August 2013, 20.4 percent of the EU5 smartphone audience accessed online retail sites, displaying an increase of 2.8 percentage points in the past year. Spain was the fastest growing market with a growth rate of 66.5 percent to almost 3.3 million smartphone users accessing retail sites on their mobile. Italy ranked second with a growth rate of 61.3 percent to almost 5.6 million smartphone users accessing those sites on th...

Software Defined Networking ( SDN ) and network virtualization benefits are known in the enterprise IT and data center world. Both technologies will also help to transform telecom service provider's infrastructure -- and the final transition will result in a bonanza of financial savings. When combined with the movement towards open hardware, these trends have the potential to significantly disrupt the legacy networking vendor status-quo. Industry analysts have already begun to uncover the facts. Not only can SDN and network virtualization help address the explosive capacity demand of mobile traffic, they can also reduce the CapEx and OpEx burden faced by service providers -- by diminishing their reliance on expensive proprietary hardware platforms. SDN and network virtualization solutions have been widely deployed in data center and enterprise environments, and several service provider deployments are already underway. Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) is a operator le...