Digital Lifescapes

If there's an eventual downside to the rising smartphone phenomenon, it's not in sight. The worldwide smartphone market reached yet another key milestone, having shipped one billion units in a single year for the first time. According to the latest global market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), vendors shipped a total of 1,004.2 million smartphones worldwide -- that's up 38.4 percent from the 725.3 million units in 2012. This aligns with IDC's most recent forecast prediction of 1,010.4 million units, making for a difference of less than 1 percent. Smartphones accounted for 55.1 percent of all mobile phone shipments in 2013, up from the 41.7 percent of all mobile phone shipments in 2012. In the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13), vendors shipped a total of 284.4 million smartphones worldwide, up 24.2 percent from the 229.0 million units shipped in 4Q12. In the worldwide mobile phone market (inclusive of smartphones), vendors shipped 1,821.8 million un...

Adventurous technology marketers looking for new territory to explore should consider Tier 2 cities in China -- such as Chengdu and Sichuan, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Growing Tier 2 cities are exploding in terms of growth and this growth is coupled with a very high proportion of savvy consumers -- indicative of the exponential upside for digital tech companies. IDC's research program has identified six distinct consumer market segments: Tech Evangelists, Impulse Buyers, Experimental Adopters, Pragmatic Purchasers, Green Buyers, and Disengaged Functionalists. Tech Evangelists not only own the most devices and utilize the most advanced functions, features and apps, they are also the group that drives adoption of device ownership and usage by other market segments. Tech Evangelists hold enormous sway over the buying patterns and device usage trends mass-market segments exhibit. They are also the group that mainstream market ...

The latest global market study by Point Topic has revealed that the apparent differences in affordability of broadband services around the world highlights the stark contrast in prices -- and the resulting impact on local service adoption. Clearly, the challenge for broadband service providers and government policymakers will be to seek out ways to make broadband internet access more affordable -- as national leaders attempt to increase their market penetration and resulting economic impact. “Broadband prices can be over a thousand times higher in real terms in the poorer countries,” said Oliver Johnson, CEO at Point Topic . Analyzing tariff data from the middle of 2011, Point Topic has compared the cost of 12 months of subscription to the least-expensive, and usually slowest, fixed broadband service across various world markets. Converting prices to purchasing power parity (PPP) equivalents for over 2,000 tariffs from around the world and then combining the results with...

There's a transition taking place across the whole mobile phone subscriber market in Europe. This change includes both an upside and a downside for service providers and device manufacturers. Western European feature phone shipments continued to decline sharply in 2Q11, as consumers increasingly move to smartphones -- according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). Feature phone shipments were down 29 percent -- to 20.4 million units in 2Q11 -- while smartphone shipments were up 4 percent -- to 21.8 million units from a year ago. The total Western European mobile phone market, however, declined 3 percent year on year to 42.2 million units in the quarter. This is the first time that smartphone shipments have surpassed feature phone shipments in Western Europe, representing 52 percent of total mobile phone shipments. All European countries are seeing increasing smartphone adoption, as consumers go for Android-based devices and the iPhone from Ap...

Do you find yourself online more often? Well, you're not alone. Americans are spending more time online, on both a daily and weekly basis. Home Internet access far outstripped work access time in 2008, according to the latest market study by Harris Interactive. Both trends could continue in 2009, as America's growing pool of unemployed people use the Internet to search for new jobs, financial aid and 21st century skills training opportunities. However, Americans are not the trailblazers in usage. That distinction goes to Internet users in China, who invested 44 percent of their leisure time on the Internet in 2008, according to TNS Global. Americans now rank fifth worldwide, with 30 percent of their leisure time spent online -- virtually tied with Italy (31 percent), Spain and Australia (29 percent each). The U.S. could potentially move up in the world rankings in coming years, especially if the Obama administration is successful in reversing the declining status of American ne...