Digital Lifescapes

Mobile channels are increasingly important for enterprises to connect with employees, business partners, and customers, with telecom service providers emerging that offer a comprehensive platform that enables the management of this essential tool. Plus, they're now frequently cloud-based solutions. These solutions are collectively known as Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) offerings. There are a number of services that can be considered part of CPaaS platforms, including messaging technologies such as SMS, Rich Communication Services (RCS), and Over-the-Top (OTT) messaging applications. Also offered are push notifications, digital voice services, and email. CPaaS Market Development According to the latest market study by Juniper Research, CPaaS revenue generated within the North American marketplace will reach $15 billion by 2026 -- that's rising from $3.7 billion in 2021. The study found that significant demand for mobile channels -- such as SMS and mobile voice -- ...

Mobile communication channels are important for many enterprises that connect with customers, and new service providers have emerged that offer a comprehensive platform to enable the management of this ongoing interaction. These are the Communication Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) providers. Industry analysts define a CPaaS platform as a solution that enables an organization to communicate with clients via multiple outbound online and mobile channels via a singular platform. There are a number of services that can be considered part of CPaaS platforms, including messaging technologies such as Short Message Service (SMS), Rich Communication Service (RCS) and Over the Top (OTT) messaging applications. Also offered are push notifications, voice services, and email. CPaaS Platform Market Development According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the global value of the CPaaS market will exceed $10 billion for the first time in 2022 -- that's rising from $8.6 billion...

Software as a Service (SaaS) applications continue to lead the ongoing enterprise migration to cloud-based service offerings. Given the recent trends, corporate email is a SaaS application that's likely to experience significant new growth during 2016. The cloud email market is still in the early stages of adoption with 13 percent of identified publicly listed companies globally using one of the two main cloud email vendors, according to the latest worldwide market study by Gartner. Gartner found that 8.5 percent of public companies use cloud email from Microsoft's Office 365 service, while 4.7 percent use Google Apps for Work. The remaining 87 percent of companies surveyed have on-premises, hybrid, hosted or private cloud email managed by smaller vendors. These findings are based on an automated examination of a large number of publicly available email routing records. Gartner used the email server addresses in the domain records of nearly 40,000 public companies globall...

If you remember back when Centrex service was available from your local phone company, then the latest trend of enterprise voice communication moving to the cloud is like Deja Vu. It seems that we've been here before. Infonetics Research conducted in-depth surveys with 162 medium and large organizations in North America and discovered that by 2016 over 50 percent of respondents will be running some of their Unified Communications (UC) applications over either a private or public cloud service. UC integrates fragmented communication modes -- such as voice, e-mail and instant messaging -- into a single integrated communication experience. The latest Infonetics worldwide market study explored CIO and IT manager plans for UC and their perceptions of UC vendors and cloud unified-communications‑as-a-service (UCaaS) providers. "Businesses continue to migrate their unified communications applications to the cloud, citing flexibility as the key reason. Cloud solutions are in...

Prepackaged mobile applications reached a plateau during 2013, but with more exciting advancements expected in 2014, North American companies are once again deploying a wide array of mobile worker software. According to the latest market study by Frost & Sullivan, 48 percent of business decision makers report that their companies already deploy one to ten apps for employees on mobile devices. They also found that the mobile app viewed as "most necessary" by businesses is wireless email, followed by mobile sales force automation. The Frost analysis measures the current use of and future decision-making behaviors toward mobile enterprise apps -- specifically mobile asset tracking, mobile sales force automation, mobile workforce management, and wireless email solutions. Convincing companies of the fundamental business necessity of mobile worker app solutions is critical to a provider's success. Specifically, among the four mobile apps featured in this research,...

Mobile network operator text messaging revenue is being impacted by the adoption of alternative smartphone messaging apps -- such as WhatsApp, iMessage and others. But it's not a major concern. According to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media, they now forecast that mobile operators will still generate a total of $722.7 billion in revenues from SMS between 2011 and 2016. "There will not be a uniform decline in mobile operator SMS traffic and revenues as a result of the adoption and use of over-the-top messaging services," says Pamela Clark-Dickson, senior analyst, Mobile Content & Applications, at Informa Telecoms & Media . "Factors such as the operators’ pricing strategies, and the penetration of smartphones and mobile broadband in a market will determine how quickly and to what extent substitution occurs." For example, operators offering integrated tariffs that include a balanced proportion of voice, SMS and mobile data, are ...

Truly, a media tablet has been one of the most eagerly adopted new devices in the consumer electronics market since the Apple iPad launch in 2010. Moreover, during the past year, tablet use has begun to crossover from the consumer world into the workplace. Business use of tablets is expected to rise in 2012, as more people learn about the introduction of new BYOD workplace policies by their employer. According to the latest U.S. market study by NPD In-Stat, the most common business uses of tablets are email or calendar management, note taking, and presentations -- with 77 percent of survey respondents reporting that email as a common workplace use. "Email is by far the most dominant tablet application for business users," says Frank Dickson, VP Mobile Research at NPD In-Stat . However, when you dig into the data, you find a plethora of strong niche uses arising. When business tablet users are asked to list ALL the applications they use, note taking, for example, is li...

The worldwide mobile messaging market was worth $179.2 billion in 2010, it's forecast to rise to $209.8 billion in 2011, and on to $334.7 billion by the end of 2015 -- at a CAGR of 13.3 percent between 2010 and 2015, according to the latest market study by Portio Research . The Asia Pacific region generated the highest mobile messaging revenue in 2010 and Latin America produced the least. Among the four mobile messaging service types, SMS yielded the highest revenue for operators in 2010, followed by MMS, then mobile e-mail and mobile instant messaging (IM). SMS made the highest contribution to worldwide mobile messaging revenue in 2010 with a 63.9 percent share, followed by MMS with 18.1 percent. Mobile e-mail revenue made up 14.2 percent, and mobile IM’s 2010 share was 3.8 percent. Clearly, basic text messaging (SMS) is still the core revenue generating messaging service. In 2010, worldwide SMS revenue stood at $114.6 billion and is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 6.8 p...

Almost three quarters (73 percent) of mobile phone service subscribers -- using both smartphones and other types of devices -- in the United States use them to visit social networking sites daily, sometimes more than once each day. This latest finding comes from a recent online survey of 2,000 people, conducted in March 2011 by ABI Research . The survey respondents were asked a wide range of questions about how they use their mobile devices and associated applications. All respondents owned at least one mobile phone, smartphone or media tablet. ABI practice director Neil Strother says, "Operators and brands, take note: your customers are here in droves. Users like multiple modes of social interaction." Survey respondents say the mobile phone (or smartphone) provides sufficient access to the activities they like doing with social networks: viewing content, sending media, and updating profiles. In fact, the phone is a preferred device for doing a number of activities ...

Legacy marketers in the U.S. rarely invest the time and effort to understand the interests and needs of their customers, which would enable them to segment the addressable marketplace -- and thereby personalize their offerings. Why is target marketing uncommon? It's hard for someone schooled in traditional mass-marketing methods to make the transition. eMarketer reports that it requires having the market data that can be applied in relevant ways to personalize the marketing creative for each of the target groups. But for those that do the market assessment work and make the transition -- the pay-back can be significant, with personalized offers consistently outperforming the mass-market ones. March 2011 research from web content management provider EPiServer found that a third of U.S. marketers considered personalized campaigns to be highly effective and measurable, with another 14 percent reporting a better response rate than traditional campaigns. But the vast majority ...

While smartphone demand continues to grow, many mobile phone users are still purchasing the less-expensive feature phones. According to the latest market study by ABI Research, during 2010 feature phones comprised over 75 percent of the handset market. Consumers purchase feature phones for a variety of reasons including the need for a device that is optimized for a specific application, such as text messaging. "A messaging phone is a feature phone that has been enhanced for messaging services including SMS, MMS, mobile email, and mobile IM. These devices have a QWERTY keyboard and other capabilities at a price that is usually more affordable than a smartphone," says ABI Research senior analyst Victoria Fodale. Mobile phones for messaging will encompass an increasing percentage of feature phone shipments -- growing to almost a third of the category by 2015. Mobile phones optimized for messaging are targeted to specific markets including consumers in developing regions...

eMarketer reports that the vast majority of marketers are shifting more spending to digital marketing, and a combination of proven tactics with newer online options will benefit from increasing budgets. That said, apparently there's a significant disconnect between advertisers and their agencies, when it comes to the details of many of those changes. According to a report on 2011 marketing budgets from Econsultancy and SAS, agencies worldwide are more eager than their clients to increase spending on newer digital marketing tactics, while advertisers show a greater interest in upping budgets for the more common methods. For example, agencies were 13 percentage points more likely than advertisers to say their clients would be increasing mobile marketing spending. Advertisers were out in front of their agencies with reports of spending increases for email marketing, corporate websites, paid search and display advertising. US-based research from the Direct Marketing Associ...

Multimedia tablet launches have received significant attention, but the excitement may be justified, and a recent eMarketer report explores the current user segmentation and usage satisfaction with these new consumer electronics devices. According to a December 2010 market study by The NPD Group, current tablet owners are highly satisfied with their devices. More than two-thirds expressed satisfaction with Internet browsing and email experiences on their tablet. Moreover, 60 percent of respondents said the same of social networking. An interesting note about usage; about three in 10 were doing these activities less often on their PCs as a result. These satisfaction levels were higher than those of smartphone owners conducting the same activities. Media Tablet Owner Segmentation According to a September 2010 survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, tablet ownership was most common among Millennials and members of Generation X, 5 percent of whom had an Apple iP...

According to the latest market study by Informa Telecoms & Media , mobile phone short message service (SMS) will remain a significant source of revenues and traffic for mobile operators on a global basis until at least 2015. Global SMS text messaging revenues are forecast to rise to $136.9 billion in 2015 -- from $105.5 billion in 2010. While global SMS traffic is expected to increase to 8.7 trillion messages in 2015 -- from 5 trillion messages in 2010. "Mobile operators are spending heavily on rollouts of LTE and other high-speed mobile data networks, leaving relatively little in the budget for messaging services, however SMS remains a core service for mobile users and continues to account for the vast majority, 80 percent in 2010, of their data-and-messaging revenues," says Pamela Clark-Dickson, senior analyst at Informa. SMS will continue to be the most popular form of messaging for a number of reasons: universal access and interoperability across devices and mob...

Mobile SMS has proven to be a significant success ever since it started to show its first signs of adoption in the early 1990s. So much so that next year, according to ABI Research estimates, more than seven trillion SMS messages will be sent worldwide, from nearly 4.2 billion mobile subscriptions. Messaging is also more prevalent among younger mobile phone service subscribers, and as they replace older subscribers, messaging will get a further boost. Messaging includes four types of communication: SMS, MMS, mobile email and Instant Messaging. SMS is being increasingly regarded as something of a commodity by users, due to falling delivery costs and high competition. According to ABI industry analyst Aapo Markkanen, "When these trends towards commoditization are combined with the wider adoption of mobile email and IM services, the revenue proportion of SMS and MMS against the market total is expected to decline." Email has the advantage of familiarity for many consume...

In-Stat forecasts that American businesses will spend close to $27 billion on wireless data applications in 2010. To fuel data spending, In-Stat expects U.S. mobile service operators to pay $1.4 billion on subsidizing smartphones for those same businesses in 2010. Overall, U.S. mobile phone service providers will spend close to $1.7 billion on handset subsidies for American businesses. "Wireless data revenue has been the engine that is driving ARPU growth for U.S. operators," according to Greg Potter, Research Analyst at In-Stat. Smartphones are the key for data plan usage. As a result, the wireless operators are willing to invest in smartphone subsidies. Those device subsidies, though, will decline through the forecast period as competitive pressures reduces smartphone average sales prices. In-Stat latest market study found the following: - Small business (5—99 employees) spending on smartphones will decline 28 percent over the next 5 years. - Wireless handset s...

eMarketer reports that results of a BtoB magazine survey indicate that social media marketing will be of more importance to business-to-business (B2B) marketers in 2010. However, it's not clear how many B2B marketers are fully utilizing digital marketing tools. Website, e-mail and search spending are online tactics likely to increase, and social media is close behind. Six in ten B2B marketers planned to increase their spending on social media marketing in 2010. Fifty-four percent of respondents currently use social media for marketing. That was up 9 percentage points from November 2008 and about 4 points from June 2009. "Thought leadership" was the main intended purpose, though about one-half hoped to "generate leads" through social media activities. That said, what about all the other stages of the B2B buying-cycle? As an example, most enterprise IT leaders seek out information and guidance to procure complex technology products and services, and yet few vendo...

With personal video sharing and photo sharing gaining interest, Futuresource Consulting has carried out a UK market study to gain greater insight into the media that are being used, the decision-making process and the level of reliance on the available platforms. "An astounding 92 percent of survey respondents told us they are sharing their images with friends and family, either electronically or as hard copies," says Simon Bryant, Principal Consultant at Futuresource Consulting. The survey found that on-camera and via email are the most popular methods of sharing pictures. However, nearly half of all respondents are still sharing physical prints with friends and family -- though this behavior varies widely depending on the age of the respondent. Females are also more likely to share physical prints than males. The vast majority of people surveyed -- 85 percent in all -- also upload personal photos and/or videos to websites, with 16-34 year-olds leading the way. However, the...

Worldwide, mobile messaging is a $130 billion industry in 2008, and Portio Research forecasts show that value rising to reach $224 billion by the end of 2013. SMS still totally dominates the messaging mix. Their research forecasts that even in 2013, messaging will still account for approximately 60 percent of all non-voice service revenues worldwide, and within that SMS will account for some 55 percent of all messaging revenues. With mobile data revenues expected to account for between 25 and 30 percent of total operator service revenues worldwide by 2013, that means that messaging will account for approximately 17 percent of total operator service revenues by 2013. SMS will be responsible for approximately 9 percent of total operator service revenues in 2013. Across the planet, everywhere from The Philippines to Croatia, SMS is booming, with forecasts predicting aggressive growth ahead for the next 6 years. The Portio report looks in detail at the massive opportunities that lie ahead ...

In a recent market study, ABI Research examined the mobile messaging adoption and usage patterns of mobile business customers from four U.S. mobile service operators. One of the key findings is that mobile instant messaging (IM) adoption is negatively correlated to mobility. According to principal analyst Dan Shey, "The greatest adopters of mobile IM are T-Mobile subscribers whose demographic profile shows a high percentage who only work in an office." As office work typically requires PC access, mobile IM adoption appears more related to familiarity with IM through the PC rather than mobility itself. Other data from the survey analysis shows that Verizon customers are the greatest adopters of picture messaging services and use them the most frequently. AT&T customers are the highest adopters of mobile e-mail services. More Sprint customers use mobile e-mail on a daily basis than other carriers. All the usage and adoption data is combined with pricing analysis to provide ...