Digital Lifescapes

Consumer demand for cloud-based services drive investment in data centers. Across the globe, the largest consumer cloud service providers continue to add more and more capabilities to expand their offerings, thereby making it very difficult for the remaining me-too providers to compete with them. Moreover, the traditional information and communication technology (ICT) vendors often don't benefit from this ongoing infrastructure expansion, because the cloud providers prefer to invest in open technologies from low-cost 'white label' ODM commodity vendors. That's unlikely to change. Hyperscale Cloud Market Development The hyperscale or webscale cloud service providers -- including the seven largest (Super7) Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent -- believe they are best positioned to provide access to a variety of cloud services in a scalable and cost-effective way, and view their public cloud businesses as critical to their growth over the...

Industries that have always embraced the adoption of new technologies are not immune to being digitally disrupted by savvy new market entrants. The global telecom service provider market had a long history of relative stability. Now, however, business model disruption is pervasive. The market is in a state of rapid evolution, with telecommunications companies now competing against more progressive web-scale companies. They can deploy a new service in a matter of hours, thereby delivering real-time experiences to their online subscribers. As more customers demand instant access for digital services, ABI Research predicts many Tier One telcos will transform into digital service providers (DSPs), in order to compete more effectively with over-the-top (OTT) players -- such as Google and Facebook. Digital Services Market Development "Digital transformation is the ultimate goal for telecom network operators. For instance, T-Mobile Un-Carrier digital offerings likely played a hug...

Smartphones are in the hands of just about every American who wants one. The most important piece of software, from a consumer's perspective, is likely to be a web browser. Most of these devices have a small number of software apps installed, and few are actually used on a regular basis. comScore released data on key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for January 2016. Looking back on 2015, not much has changed. Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 43.6 percent OEM market share, while Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 52.8 percent platform market share. Facebook ranked as the top individual smartphone software application. Once again, Google and Facebook dominate the list of top smartphone apps in America. Smartphone OEM Market Share 198.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (79.1 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in January. Apple ranked as the top OEM with 43.6 percent of U.S. smar...

Mobile network service providers are concerned by the dominant position that Facebook and Google maintain on the majority of American smartphones. Why are they anxious? Instant messaging was the Trojan Horse software app that has enabled both companies to position their future expansion into traditional telecom service offerings, such as voice and video communication. During 2016, both Facebook and Google will expand their app-enabled capabilities, thereby further eroding the network operator's role in value-added mobile services. Meanwhile, comScore released data on key trends within the U.S. smartphone industry for September 2015. Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 43.6 percent OEM market share in America, while Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 52.3 percent platform market share. Facebook ranked as the top individual smartphone application. Google has six apps in the top 15 list this quarter. Software apps are likely to lead t...

Mobile network service providers are focused on defending their traditional voice services from new market disruption that threatens to further erode their legacy business model. Armed with new technology and bold plans for more rapid deployment, savvy operators are responding to the incursion. The number of VoLTE (Voice over LTE) connections is now anticipated to reach 2 billion by 2020, rising from an estimated 123 million in 2015, according to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research . The research uncovered that the marked improvement in voice quality, enabled by VoLTE, is likely to spur increased adoption of the technology by mobile network service providers across the globe. Besides, given the downward trajectory of voice service revenue trends, wireless network operators must act swiftly to slow the decline. Juniper found that direct revenues from VoLTE will likely be limited at first, with increased availability of compatible smartphones driving adoption o...

Every adult in America that wanted a smartphone already has one. That's why the research metric that matters most is mobile software applications adoption. comScore released data from their latest market study, reporting the key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for April 2015. Findings from this report is based on their MobiLens study, which combines data on smartphone and media tablet ownership -- it also features new insights on American consumer mobile device usage behaviors. In April 2015, Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 43.1 percent OEM market share. Meanwhile, Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 52.2 percent platform market share. Once again, Facebook ranked as the top individual smartphone software application on smartphones. However, Google leads with the most apps in the top fifteen list. Smartphone OEM Market Share 188.6 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (76.9 percent mobile market penetration) duri...

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...

Looking at the 2015 outlook, the focus in the American mobile service provider marketplace is slowly shifting from smartphone devices to software applications -- it's all part of the ongoing Mobile Cloud services trend. According to the latest market study by comScore , the key trends in the U.S. smartphone industry for September 2014 demonstrate how the market is now fully saturated, with minimal new growth. Apple ranked as the top smartphone manufacturer with 41.7 percent OEM market share, while Google Android led as the number one smartphone platform with 52.1 percent platform market share. Meanwhile, Facebook ranked as the top individual smartphone app. However, Google had the most apps, by far, within the top ranking app list for September 2014. Smartphone OEM Market Share 174 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones (72 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in September -- that's up by just 1 percent since June. Apple ranked as ...

Some large internet application providers increasingly source their own infrastructure from Asia-Pacific ODM/OEM vendors. Telecom network operators with tens of billions more revenue now look at the IT ecosystem and seek to benefit from what ABI Research calls the WebScale economies. In some ways, Telcos can emulate the in-house networking hardware design and development of WebScale firms -- such as Google, Facebook and Amazon -- and in other ways they cannot. It is no secret that much of the telecom infrastructure is based on the Intel x86 Xeon architecture and many of the Network Functions fit very well into a server architecture. In their latest global market study, ABI Research looked at the pros and cons of telecom operators seeking commercial "white box" IT hardware for their core network elements. The findings support inclusion of more commercial IT into the mobile broadband network and deployment with a top-tier IT vendor to minimize risk and uncertainty. ...

​According to the latest market study by ABI Research, Western Europe's mobile service subscribers used 3,077 Exabytes in data traffic by the end of 2012 -- that's up by 39 percent compared to 2011. 3G mobile data usage contributed 64 percent of the total -- while 4G services are still attempting to gain more user adoption. "Moreover, 50 percent of Western Europe has a 3G data plan and they are making full use of it," said Marina Lu, research associate at ABI Research . Clearly, some of that data traffic is due to growth from over-the-top (OTT) software applications that have been downloaded into smartphones. That being said, ABI believes that while mobile data usage is gathering pace, a number of other core metrics are very much in retreat. In most countries around Europe, voice minutes of use has contracted up to 4.5 percent quarter-on-quarter. Similarly, text messaging was down between -0.5 percent and -7.8 percent for those countries quarter-on-quarter. ...

Informa Telecoms & Media released its top ten trends for 2013. Five of their predictions relate directly to telecom service providers and the other five address the pay-TV, digital media and Over-the-Top (OTT) communications sector. 1. Wi-Fi Will Become a Victim of its Own Success There will be a shift in operator sentiment away from public Wi-Fi as it becomes evident that the growing availability of free-to-end-user Wi-Fi devalues the mobile-broadband business model. Mobile operators will respond by articulating the value of their cellular networks better, but others not affected by this trend will double down on their public Wi-Fi investments to continue to propel the deployment and monetization of Wi-Fi. 2. Facebook Goes all in On Mobile Facebook is having a tough time translating its popularity on mobile devices into revenues. Although its most recent financial results at last showed some improvement in mobile advertising revenues, Informa doesn't believe that this...

eMarketer estimates the number of social network users around the world will rise this year to 1.4 billion -- that's up from 1.18 billion in 2011. The reported 20 percent increase is a slight drop from the growth rate in 2011. In fact, the global upside potential will continue to shrink as the market matures. That being said, if you want to connect with the most engaged online consumers in Latin American, then consider reaching out to Argentinians -- apparently, they're the most active social media participants. According to the latest market study by eMarketer , their global assessment of growth in social network usage highlighted that it's now driven primarily by the emerging markets. However, in Latin America growth will be slightly below the worldwide average, but it will still represent a 18.5 percent increase in social networking users this year. With relatively low penetration among the total population, social networks still have room to grow in the regio...

Is the future of digital media open or closed? How is the ascent of smart devices redefining the environment? To what extent have platforms become a dominant force in mediating the digital media experience -- for both consumers and marketers? These are the key questions that researchers attempted to answer in a recent market study of the evolving digital landscape. eMarketer says that a significant portion of the online digital experience now rests in the hands of four dominant companies -- Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. "Other than content creation, it’s difficult to imagine any aspect of today’s digital landscape where at least one of the Big Four fails to play a prominent, if not defining, role," said eMarketer in their new report entitled The Changing Digital Landscape: Key Trends Marketers Need to Know. The apparent clashes between these four companies are already reshaping the digital landscape -- affecting hardware, software, services, the delivery and s...

It seems that senior executives at big media companies are still not quite sure if Facebook and Twitter are friend or foe -- relative to their legacy advertising-centric business models. Granted, the realm of online media used to be more predictable when there wasn't much innovation and all the big players could anticipate their collective lack of creativity. But it was just a matter of time before someone would come along and disrupt their quiescence. According to the latest market assessment by eMarketer, Facebook and Twitter have taken evolutionary steps to become publishing platforms for news -- not just text, also video, photos and entertainment content. "Users are learning that the more they share, the more they discover," said Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer . "And the more they discover, the more likely they are to turn first to Facebook for content they used to get elsewhere." Since late 2011, Facebook has been gradually rolling out i...

ComScore released the results of a recent global market study in a report entitled "Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where It’s Headed." The goal of this report is to frame the current state of social networks through the lens of how users around the world have grown to use them over time. This report addresses questions such as: How extensive is consumer usage of social networking and how does it vary by country? What is the current rate of social networking adoption in different parts of the world? Which sites are driving this adoption in different markets? How are these consumer usage dynamics changing over time? Where do these trends appear to be headed in the future? The report includes a summary of the current state of social networking activity -- as measured via passively observed digital consumer behavior -- providing background research and analysis on this topic. The top ten insights are: Social networking is the most popular online activ...

ABI Research has been studying how mobile device usage is influencing the ways in which consumers access and interact with social networking services. The results of their latest market study provide insights that will help marketers understand the implications of several closely related trends -- both near-term and long-term. Social networking may soon become a predominantly mobile activity -- that trend could directly impact the current business models and ultimately effect numerous key players within the leading platform ecosystems. The number of people accessing social networks from mobile phones will exceed 550 million in 2011, and that figure will more than triple to over 1.7 billion by the end of 2016. That means over two-thirds of the global user base of social networks will use smartphones and other mobile handsets to access these services. For Facebook, the growing importance of mobile is both an opportunity and a serious strategic challenge. On one hand, m...

comScore released data showing that 180 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content in July 2011 -- for an average of 18.5 hours per viewer. The total U.S. Internet audience engaged in a record 6.9 billion viewing sessions. Google Sites, driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, ranked as the top online video content property in July -- with 158.1 million unique viewers, while VEVO ranked second with 62.1 million. Facebook.com was ranked third with 51.4 million viewers, followed by Microsoft Sites with 49.5 million and Viacom Digital with 47.3 million. Total viewing sessions reached another all-time high in July at nearly 6.9 billion, with Google Sites crossing the 3 billion mark to account for more than 40 percent of all viewing sessions online. The average viewer watched 18.5 hours of online video content during the course of the month, with Google Sites (5.9 hours) and Hulu (3.4 hours) exhibiting the highest engagement. Americans viewed more than 5....

I was an early-adopter of the LinkedIn.com platform, having received an invitation from Reid Hoffman shortly after the beta site was launched. Back then, the user experience was very different, because the site was little more than a U.S.-centric online directory of member profiles. The site is now an invaluable worldwide business development tool, for those who apply its unique attributes that enable commercial-oriented interactivity. eMarketer reports that merely a month after its debut as a public company -- and now eight years after its launch -- LinkedIn has recently passed Myspace to become the number two global social networking site in terms of visitors, according to the latest market study by comScore. Marketers can learn how to most effectively reach LinkedIn members by observing how they typically use the site and where they interact on the platform. In July 2011, market research firm Lab42 surveyed LinkedIn users and found that the membership is somewhat engaged. ...

Many senior executives may want to believe that an investment in social media marketing is strategic to their business, but they're apparently still not convinced. They've read all the hype about the huge amount of people that registered on Facebook, but they question how many of their customers or prospects access the social network regularly. They wonder if people really are looking for product or service information on Facebook, when most users activity tends to revolve around sharing photos of friends, family members or their pets. The most doubtful executives hear all the talk about the power of user engagement, yet their marketing staff prefers to write checks to Facebook for consistently poor-performing ad placements. Can the launch of Google+ help to reverse some of the bad perceptions that these senior executives already have about today's social media marketing practices? Or, can Google simply avoid the debate altogether, and gain a significant market advanta...

The media-buyer mentality is still pervasive with most marketers. Given what we know about the typical ROI results from advertising, when compared to quality editorial content publication, why do marketers spend their budgets on under-performing ads? It's easier to buy advertising placements than create meaningful new content that appeals to your customers and prospects. Moreover, instead of adapting to the interactive engagement model of social networks, most legacy marketers would much rather purchase display advertising than invest the time to participate online. Their apathy has created a windfall for Facebook, and other social networks, as advertising budgets merely shift from traditional media to social media platforms. U.S. marketers will spend $3.08 billion to advertise on social networking sites this year, according to the latest market study by eMarketer . Spending will be up 55 percent over the $1.99 billion advertisers devoted to social networks in 2010 and will ...