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...

Internet-enabled consumer electronics (CE) in the home -- including Smart TVs, Blu-Ray disc players, game consoles, and streaming media players -- continue to grow their market share and now benefit from increased adoption by Americans. Already about 17 million U.S. households currently own a connected TV, and ownership of streaming media players has nearly doubled since the end of 2010. Yet only a fraction of consumers that own an Internet-capable TV device actually connects it to the Internet to become over-the-top (OTT) video consumers. Despite this hurdle, the growing base of OTT video-capable U.S. households is propelling the revenue for online video-on-demand (VoD) and electronic sell through (EST) to double by 2015, according to the latest market study by NPD In-Stat . "OTT video is continuing to grow, overcoming the barriers of low device connect rates and cumbersome user interfaces," says Keith Nissen, Research Director at NPD In-Stat. Even stronger growth ...

The weak economic environment is taking its toll across most consumer markets. Consumer electronics devices are no exception. Yet even economic pressure can't overcome a broader migration to mobile and portable devices, as indicated by the proliferation of portable electronics categories. Portable electronics device shipments will grow more than 10 percent in 2009 versus 2008 according to the latest market study by In-Stat . The category, which includes digital radio receivers, e-readers, edutainment toys, handheld game consoles, MP3 players, portable media players (PMPs), and personal navigation devices (PNDs), is expanding to over 400 million units in 2009. By 2013, it will approach 600 million units. While some segments, such as handheld game consoles and MP3 players, have hit maturity and peaked, other segments continue to emerge. "We're seeing significant growth in the e-reader segment, as it evolves from a nascent market," says Stephanie Ethier, In-Stat analyst....