Digital Lifescapes

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...

Mobile Network operators -- including Vodafone, O2, Telefonica, Verizon, AT&T and Sprint -- are putting significant resources into developing Machine to Machine (M2M) related business units. There is an increasing sophistication in how the market is viewed by all stakeholders, with after-market installation being replaced by embedded mobile strategies and SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) systems. Juniper Research forecasts that M2M will support total industry revenues of over $35 billion in 2016. They also predict that revenues from products and services delivered over embedded consumer electronics (CE) devices will reach $6.4 billion in 2014, as a key anchor for the evolving M2M sector within the mobile industry. According to their latest market study, eBook sales and subscriptions will be by far the most important service offered over cellular connected consumer electronics devices. While others have emerged, such as digital photo frames and ...

According to the findings of several related market studies, the next big global disruption will occur in the traditional publishing sector. In the same way that the music recording industry lost control of their marketplace, the large legacy print media companies are equally vulnerable. As an example, according to the latest market study by eMarketer , they predict that sales of ebooks and the devices on which people read them -- i.e. ereaders, tablets and smartphones -- are on a steady upward trajectory. Much of the new digital publication revenue growth could come at the expense of print publications. The U.S. ereader user base is poised to grow at double-digit percentages this year and next, but by 2014 and 2015 the expansion will likely slow to about 5 percent. eMarketer believes that this reflects market cannibalization from media tablets, not necessarily a loss of interest in consuming ebooks. People are using these devices -- both ereaders and media tablets -- to read ...

According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation ( IDC ), the market for ereaders in the EMEA region more than doubled in 2011 compared to the previous year, reaching total shipments of nearly 4.8 million units. There's growing mainstream adoption of these devices, which is creating the potential for incremental digital multimedia revenue. Although EMEA still accounts for just over 17 percent of the worldwide market, IDC forecasts sales in this region to exceed 24 million units by 2016, generating a 37 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the forecast period. The fall in prices greatly contributed to the sales momentum in 2011. The average price for ereaders continued to slide as Amazon aggressively brought the price of its WiFi Kindle device down to €99 in eurozone countries. In 2011, the company experienced strong acceleration in sales thanks to the the rapid uptake of Amazon Kindle devices in Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. In these coun...

According to the latest market study by ABI Research, 80 percent of all media tablet application downloads will be from a short list of very popular categories by 2016. They anticipate that Apple ​iPad and Google Android media tablet owners will remain avid app users over the next five years, averaging more than 31 downloads per year per media tablet. Their market study of emerging tablet applications found that 11 of the 13.7 billion app downloads forecast for Apple iPad and Google Android media tablets in 2016 will be focused on four primary categories: games, digital publishing, social networking, and e-commerce. "Media tablet app consumption will mimic smartphone app use in some ways, but in many ways, it will be very different," says Mark Beccue, senior analyst at ABI Research . Digital publishing of books, magazines, and newspapers will flourish on media tablets in a way never seen on smartphones." Increasingly, consumers will opt for the more versatile medi...

The evolving media tablet product segment has become a dynamic landscape since its inception about three years ago. In fact, there are currently more than 220 models in the marketplace from a variety of vendors. While the Apple iPad remains the brand leader in the media tablet segment, the market awareness has paved the way for more and more device manufacturers to enter the marketplace -- especially in the lower price product category. The market for sub-$400 media tablets is expected to see significant growth over the next five years, occupying more than 60 percent of the market share by 2016, while the market for the over $400 segment is expected to shrink. According to Jeff Orr, group director, consumer research at ABI Research , "The majority of new entrant media tablet models have been in the sub-$400 segment that focuses on growth markets like India and China. The strong wave of growth in this segment over the next few years is expected to be driven by the adoption in...