Digital Lifescapes

Legacy search engine marketing best practices are vulnerable. Why now? Generative AI (GenAI) capabilities are being rapidly adopted for technology sector marketing efficiency gains. To prepare for more shifts beyond their direct control, tech product marketers must address disruptions in key marketing channels, engagement approaches, and required investments. The savvy business-to-business (B2B) CMOs are already piloting and deploying GenAI tools. GenAI Tools B2B Market Development By 2026, traditional search engine volume will drop by 25 percent, with search marketing losing market share to AI chatbots and other virtual agents, according to the latest market study by Gartner.  "Organic and Paid Search are vital channels for tech marketers seeking to reach awareness and demand generation goals," said Alan Antin, vice president at Gartner . Now GenAI solutions are becoming substitute answer engines, replacing user queries that previously may have been executed in traditional ...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a powerful tool to drive digital business growth, make better decisions, and personalize offerings to customers. As a result, forward-thinking CEOs are now actively pursuing AI investments to gain a competitive advantage. Generative AI apps originated with tools such as ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, Generative AI is forecast to add more than $450 billion to the enterprise market across twelve different vertical industries over the next seven years. Gen AI already has hundreds of compelling use cases across these enterprise verticals. But accuracy, performance, and enterprise readiness will mean that use cases will come in three distinct waves. Generative Artificial Intelligence Market Development "Content-heavy verticals like marketing and education are already seeing disruption across a range of job roles in the first wave of adoption," said Reece Hayden, senior analyst at ABI Res...

Virtual Reality (VR) market growth is now finally coming to fruition. Thanks to current actions and market momentum, VR is approaching what can be considered critical mass. And, not a moment too soon. This growth momentum comes from new hardware and content releases, accelerating enterprise value recognition, and a significant metaverse wild card that could potentially lift adoption and usage. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, over 85 million VR Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) will be shipped in 2027 across consumer and enterprise segments, creating a $100 billion VR market that includes hardware, software, and services. Virtual Reality Market Development "Expectations have been high in VR for years, and even decades, without notable growth to show. That growth is finally coming over the next five years," said Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research . The barrier to entry is lower than ever, all while content performance and user experien...

Let's get real, and update this market outlook. What's the overall size of the Augmented and Mixed Reality market, for both devices and the value chain? We have the answer. With investment and interest growing exponentially, the augmented reality market is set to grow at a significant rate over the next five years. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, nearly 40 million Augmented Reality (AR) smart glasses will ship in 2027, with the total augmented and mixed reality market surpassing $220 billion in the same year. According to the ABI assessment, much of this growth will stem from the consumer AR market on the back of new hardware and content, but the enterprise AR space will also continue to show strong growth. Augmented Reality Market Development "It is impossible to miss news surrounding the augmented reality market today, both from the fascinating metaverse side and the more grounded and short-term augmented reality opportunities and investme...

Among the key assets of a mobile telecommunications service provider are its network infrastructure and its billing relationship with their customers. While its role as a retailer of content has declined, Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) offers a new revenue stream. Even though it will not provide a wholescale solution to the underlying profitable revenue challenges of mobile network operators, it may eventually equal or exceed MNO content revenue pre-storefront. According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, DCB could benefit players across the value chain -- including content developers, content publishers, aggregators, and consumers. This includes increasing the incremental revenue opportunities for the providers of both digital and physical goods. Mobile Content Payment Market Development Juniper Research has found that total spend over direct carrier billing will reach $100 billion for the first time by 2025 -- that's rising from $37 billion in 2020. They anti...

Digital TV and online video has seen the battle between Over the Top (OTT) providers and traditional television networks pushed to the forefront. In order to differentiate themselves, and reduce the need to rely on expensive content partnerships, OTTs will produce more of their own entertainment content. According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) services -- from leading providers such as Netflix and Amazon -- will drive a surge in OTT revenues to reach $120 billion in 2022, and that's up from $64 billion in 2017. In this environment, the traditional expensive bundle of pay-TV services will surely continue their decline. Original Content Market Development The upside market opportunity for the innovative low-cost video entertainment providers is significant. The in-depth market research also uncovered that over a quarter of global households will eventually subscribe to SVOD services by 2022. The new research foun...

All this week, industry analysts and numerous other attendees will arrive in Las Vegas to participate in CES 2017. It's the annual event where people come from all over the world to learn about the latest tech gadgets. Truly, there's many parts of the industry that are still growing. Consumer spending on digital devices, services, and content will reach $3.4 trillion worldwide in 2020, rising 4.7 percent annually from 2015, according to the latest worldwide market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Their forecast is from a newly launched research program, "Consumer Spending Priorities: Tech and Services," which provides a holistic view of all related spending across the consumer electronics sector. Consumer Electronics Market Development That said, the share of consumer digital spending on devices will fall from 28 percent in 2015 to only 22 percent by 2020, while consumer spending on digital content will rise at a rate of 12.6 percent. However, ...

As more digital content migrates to online platforms, the trend moves away from content ownership and towards content access. It also means that the device on which you pay for the content may not be the device where you primarily access that same content. The value of digital content transactions paid for by telecom service provider billing is expected to reach $47 billion by 2020 -- that's more than four times 2015 results of just under $11.3 billion, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. Exploring Digital Content Payment Options According to the study findings, Apple’s decision to test telecom carrier billing in Germany and Russia is likely to drive a substantial number of new deployments in the medium term. The move will be essential if Apple is to monetize unbanked owners of refurbished mobile devices in emerging markets, who would otherwise be limited to paying for content via iTunes gift cards. Mobile network service provider billing s...

Across the digital content arena, there has been a gradual transition from the pay-per-download model to a month-to-month or annual subscription. This transition is very apparent in the mobile space, where the majority of applications are now free at the point of download. The overall value of the global digital content market will reach $154 billion annually by 2019 -- that's an increase of nearly 60 percent on 2014, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research. Their new research findings observed that mobile and online games would account for the largest share of content sales -- 38 percent of cumulative revenues -- with game formats continuing to transition from physical to digital. According to Juniper's assessment, the success of platforms such as Valve's Steam -- which now has over 125 million active accounts worldwide -- is a key driver in this evolution. Meanwhile, revenues from game consoles and handheld devices are diminishing as pla...

The competition for market share in the mobile cloud arena will escalate during 2015. The cloud content and services markets -- enabled by the ubiquity of smartphones and media tablets -- are now the battleground between major content providers, device manufacturers and internet service providers. ABI Research recently conducted a worldwide market study of several key growth segments of cloud content and services -- including gaming, music, social networking and search. Overall, revenues in these important digital content ecosystems are expected to grow 122 percent from 2014 to 2020 and approach $320 billion, according to the ABI Research assessment. Search and Social are each led by dominant international companies, with Google capturing 60 percent of 2013 search revenue while Facebook has 55 percent of 2013 social networking revenue. ABI believes that while some regional differences exist, these positions should remain relatively defensible for the foreseeable future. The g...

The Internet is a collection of interconnected networks. It was designed to enable a computer or device connected to one of these networks to access information and services from any computer or device connected to any of the other networks. While the Internet is often abstracted as a cloud -- and may seem somewhat virtual or intangible to its users -- it relies on networks, facilities, and equipment including billions of discrete devices connected by millions of miles of telecommunication cabling, plus a vast array of other equipment. Investment in these networks, facilities, and equipment is incurred by a wide range of market participants -- Internet Backbone Providers, Internet Access Providers, Content and Application Providers, and a range of specialized service providers all invest in the networks that have come together as the Public Internet. According to the latest market study by Analysys Mason, Internet content and application providers invest over $30 billion per annu...

There's a key segment of the global online population that has an insatiable appetite for digital media -- they influence others: whether it be text, audio, video or gaming consumption. They are the recognized digital content taste-makers at the center of their social circle. They're often the first to adopt new digital gadgets. Digital Omnivores -- those people who own media tablets, smartphones and notebook PCs -- continue to grow, driven by increased device adoption. According to the latest market study by Deloitte, 37 percent of U.S. consumers are now considered to fit the profile -- that's a 42 percent growth over the previous year. This growth is primarily driven by continued tablet adoption (33 percent increase) and, to a lesser extent, smartphone ownership (18 percent increase). Moreover, women, who made up 35 percent of digital omnivores two years ago, now account for 45 percent of this group. The Deloitte market study compares and contrasts generational pre...

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...

The video entertainment industry status-quo has been disrupted by emerging service providers -- such as Netflix and Amazon -- that don't play by the old rules. The new market realities are forcing a much needed transformation in the distribution chain dynamics. The self-inflicted constraints of a bygone era are being swept aside. Content owners -- including HBO, Disney, and Fox -- are rapidly growing in importance as customers for video encoder and transcoders, which are used in online service delivery. Previously, content owners have always purchased some video encoders for primary distribution -- which feed into existing pay-TV systems. However, now their investment is increasingly in multi-format transcoders -- that support direct-to-consumer distribution. HBO Go is just one example of this phenomenon in action. "Content owners will grow from 11 percent of the total encoder and transcoder market in 2012 to 17 percent in 2017, having already passed the importance o...

Revenues from mobile content -- monetized through direct billing by mobile network service providers -- is expected to rise from $2 billion last year to more than $13 billion by 2017, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research. The Juniper study uncovered that network operator storefronts and portals accounted for just 6 percent of content downloads worldwide, with Google Play and the Apple App Store now comprising nearly 70 percent combined market share. In fact, the increasing popularity of of these successful Over-the-Top (OTT) mobile device application distribution platforms had led to many operators closing their own storefronts. However, Juniper also found that by offering carrier billing to third-party storefronts, mobile network operators could more than offset the continued decline in portal revenues. Moreover, storefronts which have already integrated carrier billing solutions have seen a 5-6 times increase in conversion rates compared with credit car...

Use of media tablets -- such as the Apple iPad and the numerous variations of Google Android-based devices -- by consumers for viewing television or video content more than doubled in 14 regional markets that were surveyed recently, according to the latest market study by NPD DisplaySearch. This growth has occurred in conjunction with increased tablet adoption in these markets. The widespread tablet adoption was driven by improved broadband connectivity that has facilitated use of these devices as alternate content-viewing devices. The fastest growing region for media tablet usage is Turkey, with tablet use growing from 3.1 percent in 2011 to 16.5 percent in 2012. In addition, there was strong tablet usage growth in Germany (up nearly fourfold Year-over-Year), France and the U.S. (both up more than threefold Y/Y). Tablet Usage for TV/Video Content Viewing by Countries Surveyed Besides media tablets, consumers are also leveraging other alternate electronic devices such as not...

Mobile networking service providers are good at providing basic connectivity, but they typically fail to deliver value-added services (VAS) that their own subscribers need or want. According to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media, mobile network operators will see their share of mobile content and commerce-related revenue drop from 44 percent in 2011 to 31 percent in 2016 globally. The telecom service provider market share will shrink in areas such as mobile music, mobile games, mobile TV or video, mobile messaging, location-based services and chat or social networking over the next five years. These new services will increasingly be provided over the top (OTT) by third parties that specialize in these creative offerings. According to Informa's assessment, this fall in market share would be more precipitous if it wasn't for the growing role that operators will play in mobile app payments. The app stores have unseated the operators from their former ...

The pricing trend for new media tablets is downward, as more smaller and less-expensive models are introduced into the marketplace by a growing variety of different vendors. That being said, despite a series of low-cost media tablet launches in the second half of 2011, Apple's iPad tablet has managed to maintain its premier position in the Indian market with 51 percent market share in 2011. Samsung's achievement at extending its success in the handset segment to the tablet segment, with its Galaxy Tab, allowed Samsung to be ranked in second place -- with 24 percent market share. Indian consumers also showed a strong penchant for RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook -- after prices were slashed significantly, making it the third largest player with a 10.4 percent market share. The presence of ultra-low cost media tablets with non-optimal specifications might ruin the user experience and, in turn, prove to be a dampener for media tablet growth. "Although there is lot of b...

comScore announced the next generation of it's market study methodology, offering new insight into global digital device usage and content consumption. Their Device Essentials service includes reporting capabilities across all global geographies, plus detailed reporting for some local U.S. markets. Media Tablet Market Assessment The Amazon Kindle Fire, introduced to the market in November 2011, has seen rapid adoption among buyers of tablets. Within the Google Android media tablet market, Kindle Fire has almost doubled its share in the past two months from 29.4 percent share in December 2011 to 54.4 percent share in February 2012 -- already establishing itself as the leading Android tablet by a wide margin. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab family followed with a market share of 15.4 percent in February, followed by the Motorola Xoom with 7.0 percent share. The Asus Transformer and Toshiba AT100 rounded out the top five with 6.3 percent and 5.7 percent market share, respectively. Table...

While there's still a raging debate over the full upside potential of the Digital Signage market, particularly within the retail industry, pundits and insiders know that the most effective way to quantify the market is to follow the display technology outlook. NPD DisplaySearch will once again host a one-day Digital Signage Conference at InfoComm, providing in-depth insight into the projected growth and emerging trends of the digital signage industry. The fifth annual Digital Signage Conference is taking place on June 12, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Practitioners in the digital signage sector will address the key distribution channels, revenue opportunities, hot markets and new technologies throughout the entire supply chain. "Flat panel displays continue to be a major force in the digital signage industry, as new technologies come to market and existing technologies adapt to changing demands," said Chris Connery, Vice President of Large Format Commercial Displays for NP...