Digital Lifescapes

The introduction of progressive smartphone designs have truly been a game changer in consumer electronics -- essentially re-imagining the user interface (UI) on a hand-held device. Meanwhile, user expectations have been elevated, as these devices are applied in a broader range of use-cases. The result is that mobile handset manufacturers have had to innovate and explore new modes of interactive device control that enable users to operate a handset without having to touch it directly. It's anticipated that by 2019 the global market for services based on gesture and biometric interface technologies will be worth an estimated $1.2 billion, that's up from less than $2 million this year, according to the latest market study by Juniper Research . Juniper found that innovation in mobile phone hardware and software has paved the way for a new paradigm of handset interaction, including touch-less command and biometric identification. They believe that although advanced Human Int...

Remote controls for a variety of consumer electronics in the home will start to get smarter as they're being redesigned for much greater utility. The new features and capabilities will help to redefine the inherent usability and value that these devices provide. In 2013 10 percent of the remote controls shipped with major home consumer equipment will be RF-enabled. This is just the beginning of a new trend -- the quest for the ultimate remote control. Over the next five years there will be a major surge in RF technology adoption for remote controls as vendors look to differentiate their products -- driving growth in smart home services, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. While at the same time RF solutions continue to fall in price, implementations become more simplified and lower powers are achieved. "RF technology has been considered for use in remote controls for many years but its adoption has been limited by a lack of perceived need among device...

The latest smartphones and media tablets have already helped to evolve the user requirements for the human interface with computer-based devices -- people like to touch the screen. Now, notebook and all-in-one PCs will help drive total touch screen module revenue to nearly $16 billion in 2012, and almost double to $31.9 billion by 2018, according to the latest market study by NPD DisplaySearch. Touch screens used in smaller consumer electronics devices -- such as smartphones and tablets -- will continue to grow as well. Tablets are the fastest growing application for touch technology, with 2011 shipments tripling to 79.6 million units. NPD forecasts that more than 130 million touch screens will be shipped for tablets in 2012, and over 190 million in 2013. Revenues for touch screens in tablet PCs are expected to grow by more than $3 billion in 2013. "Over the next few years, demand for thin, lightweight, and lower-cost touch devices will drive strong touch screen growth in di...

The primary London 2012 Olympic games are over, but they're clearly not forgotten. Several market studies highlighted the multi-platform or multi-device media consumption trends. There were some interesting regional variations within the market study findings. As an example, according to a pre-Olympics market study by Ipsos , while 65 percent of survey respondents say they would be watching the competition on TV, 23 percent were rooting for their countries via the Internet -- a number that swells to 34 percent in APAC countries and 43 percent in BRIC countries. Six percent of people said they would watch at least part of the Olympics on mobile devices and 4 percent intended to watch on their media tablets. Ipsos said that they expected these results to rise as people become more comfortable viewing smaller screens and choose to watch in real-time, rather than coming home to hours and hours of recorded video. In fact, 20 percent -- 31 percent in APAC countries and 37 perc...

Television broadcasters around the world are apparently deeply divided over their strategy for Social TV applications. Regardless, most seem to agree on one significant point -- they desperately need a meaningful game plan now, while the window of opportunity is still open. According to the findings from the latest market study by Futurescape , a key trend in the first half of 2012 is that some broadcasters are moving quickly to counteract the perceived influence and power that Facebook and Twitter are having over their TV audiences. The savvy broadcasters are now investing in Social TV companies and launching their own Social TV platforms. Meanwhile, others are following a diametrically opposed strategy of partnering with the dominant social networks -- in an attempt to facilitate viewer interaction. This is most evident for the kinds of major news and sports programming that viewers discuss on second screen devices -- such as smartphones and tablets -- during the live TV broadc...

In the near future, gesture recognition technology will routinely add yet another dimension to human interactions with consumer electronic devices -- such as PCs, media tablets and smartphones. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , they now forecast that 600 million smartphones will be shipped with vision-based gesture recognition features in 2017. "Gesture recognition is a very exciting prospect, particularly for smartphones and tablets," says ABI Research senior analyst Josh Flood. Camera-based tracking for gesture recognition has actually been in use for some time. Leading video game consoles -- Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation -- both have gesture recognition built-in; known as Kinect and PlayStation Eye respectively. These devices are in their seventh and eighth generation. However, several challenges remain for gesture recognition technology for mobile devices, including effectiveness of the technology in adverse light conditions, vari...

The upcoming summer Olympic Games in London, England will set a precedent for the use and application of advanced digital technology -- that's from the perspective of both multimedia content producers and consumers. The BBC says that London 2012 will be the first truly digital Games. They will ensure audiences never miss a moment, delivering unprecedented coverage across multiple digital platforms -- so that sports fans can stay up to date wherever they are, whenever they want to view the action. The BBC will give audiences more choice, with access to: Every Olympic event, sport and venue live, on-demand and interactive on bbc.co.uk/sport , with up to 24 live HD streams and 2,500 hours of coverage. Pages for every athlete, sport, venue and country, enabling detailed access to real-time updated Olympics data, statistics and news. High quality coverage that’s personal and social, enabling audiences to follow and favorite every athlete, sport, event and country and get tailore...

This is the first in a series of reports that I will share about SXSWi 2012 related events. Once again, I'll be attending the Interactive conference and trade show in Austin, Texas. Forty British digital companies were selected to participate in the UK Trade and Investment ( UKTI ) Mission to South by Southwest 2012. Each of the companies joining the mission are listed below, in alphabetical order: Acknowledgement Ltd Acunu AMEE Analytics SEO Anywhere.me Codegent CultureLabel Ltd DAD Technology Ltd DeadSoci.al Eventless Ltd Foodsplore Fortune Cookie Gravity Thinking Hailo Happiest Ltd Harvest Digital Milky Tea MOFILM Ltd Musicmetric Net Communities Ltd Numiko Oil Productions Palringo PlayMob Portal Entertainment Psonar Ltd Realeyes Recite ShareMyPlaylists Shopcade Sign-Up.to Sohnar SoJoLife StickyWorld Ltd The Unit Thrive Software TWAds (Addiply) Ltd ustwo Yazino I look forward to the opportunity to connect with the UK Digital Mission del...

Increasing consumer adoption of new video entertainment formats -- including video-on-demand (VOD) and viewing on media tablets and smartphones -- will cause up to $22 billion (30 percent) of the U.S. pay-TV advertising market to shift to new formats by 2016. Western Europe will see similar shifts in advertising revenue, while the rest of world will lag in its transition of advertising to these new formats. Regardless, the eventual realignment of all marketer's advertising budgets will have a dramatic impact on the legacy ecosystem. "A shift is already underway in the television advertising marketplace from linear ads inserted by a 24-hour schedule to advanced technologies that will increase the effectiveness of advertisers' spending," says Sam Rosen, senior analyst, digital home, at ABI Research . New technologies are achieving scale within broadcasters' advertising systems, notably audience measurement and tracking, targeted advertising, interactive advert...

Companies in various industries seek to reduce their operational costs, increase revenue opportunities and improve customer service by deploying interactive kiosks to assist their customers. They typically use this market development strategy as an additional communications channel -- to enable their customers with convenient self-service options that don't require employee involvement. Demand for new kiosks will increase at a steady pace. The number of interactive kiosks in operation will rise from approximately 1.6 million deployed in 2011 to nearly three million deployed globally by 2016. "The self-service technology trend has been occurring for several years, with consumers increasingly seeking greater convenience in the channels that they choose to utilize," says Sam Lucero, practice director, M2M connectivity at ABI Research . At the center of this self-service trend are interactive devices that are located in public places. Kiosks are not a new channel. In ...

Regardless of the particularly weak overall video game spending in North America this summer, the latest International Data Corporation ( IDC ) forecast of the worldwide video game and interactive entertainment console market points to a rebound -- beginning in 2012. The growth will be driven by new or updated platform releases, rising game console market penetration and spending in select developing economies. "Total console hardware and disc-based software revenues are on track to slide a few percent in 2011 compared to 2010," says Lewis Ward, research manager, Consumer Markets: Gaming, at IDC. But fears that consoles have peaked as a product category are premature. IDC expects that the launch of the Wii U, a revamped interactive entertainment console from Microsoft in the 2014 timeframe, and the arrival of Sony's PS4 circa 2015 -- along with more than a few exclusive, innovative games -- will help bring a new wave of console-centric spending in the next se...

The mobile gaming phenomenon is already established in the online marketplace as a form of interactive entertainment, appealing to a diverse group of consumers across the world. The growth in this application software is driven on one hand by the emergence of modern touchscreen smartphones as a suitable gaming platform, and on the other hand by innovation in casual games that attract users from both genders and from all age groups. According to the latest market study by ABI Research , this is also reflected in the gaming industry's revenue base -- which will grow from less than $5 billion revenue in 2011 to more than a $16 billion upside opportunity by 2016. "An ever-larger share of mobile gaming revenue is coming from virtual goods and other purchases that take place within the game," said Aapo Markkanen, senior analyst at ABI. These in-app payments will account for about one-third of the 2011 revenue base, but by the end of 2016 their share will increase to alm...

Mobile Interactive Group (MIG)  released the results of a recent market study about the trends and opportunities in participation TV (P-TV) services -- in particular, interactive social channels across global broadcast television markets. Their research uncovered key technological and behavioural insights into the entire P-TV value chain -- from the types of devices that consumers use to interact with TV shows -- such as media tablet, internet, mobile, apps, SMS and fixedline broadband -- how they multi-task with them while watching TV and over which payment channels they prefer to purchase participation services such as voting and competitions. The study considered the role of mash-ups between established social media channels, in particular Twitter and Facebook, with broadcast TV interactivity -- concluding that there's a potential new business model. MIG calls that model "Social Participation TV." Key findings from the recent MIG market study include: Mobile ...

In the U.S. market, eMarketer estimates that 158 million internet users will likely watch video online at least monthly in 2011 -- up from 145.6 million in 2010. One in five consumers in the U.S., UK, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy and Spain told Accenture in March 2011 that they were watching significantly more online video. Increased convenience is the key to online video demand around the globe. Two in five internet users surveyed said the ability to catch up with episodes -- by pausing and watching at their leisure -- was the most important feature of online video. Another 24 percent said being able to use online video like a personal video recorder was the most important feature. That said, interactivity and social features were the least popular choice globally -- cited by only 11 percent of all internet users polled. Online video viewers reported that their leading frustrations include delays due to buffering and poor video quality. Moreover, advertising interruptio...

I’m attending SXSW Interactive once again in March. As in prior years, over the course of five days, I’ll assess the overall themes that garner my attention and then write a summary of the most compelling storyline that emerges. Based on the buzz leading up to the event, and having reviewed the current schedule of SXSWi Sessions, I can somewhat predict three key theme possibilities: The previously independent Music, Film and Interactive festivals will continue to converge around common-ground -- as an example, with Transmedia or cross-communication projects becoming more mainstream activities this year.   The term “User-Generated Content” will likely disappear as a description applied to all low-budget content creators -- it’s inappropriate for the multitude of talented writers, musicians and videographers that produce quality digital media.   Bloggers that contribute to Content Factories (aka content farms), and the companies that host their material, will be targeted as...

With close to 25 million cable digital set-top boxes (STBs) now enabled to deploy interactive features -- using enhanced binary interchange format (EBIF) technology -- U.S. cable operators will likely introduce more interactive advertising services in 2011, according to the latest market study by Heavy Reading . "After years of empty talk and dashed promises, cable appears closer than ever to establishing a viable, widely deployed platform for ITV advertising and t-commerce," notes Craig Leddy, research analyst with Heavy Reading. In 2011, consumers increasingly will see ads that enable them to use their TV remote to click for more information, get a coupon, request a sample, answer poll questions, or purchase products directly through their TV. Deployment of ITV-capable set-tops is fast reaching the level that can support interactive ad initiatives, Leddy says. Based upon the MSOs' tallies of EBIF-ready STBs, the industry is well on its way to reaching its 25 mil...

eMarketer reports that U.S. local mobile phone advertising revenue is likely to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57 percent from 2009 through 2014, according to the latest market study by BIA/Kelsey. Local spending on the mobile ad channel is set to rise from $404 million this year to $692 million in 2011 and over $2 billion by 2014, according to their current forecast. "We expect to see more bundling of mobile advertising by digital and local media companies, in an effort to lower the barriers for adoption by small and medium-sized businesses," said Michael Boland, program director at BIA/Kelsey. As a result, mobile advertising will move down market to SMB and mid-market segments, increasing the overall revenue opportunity and share of geo-targeted ads. This down-market shift will be coupled with large advertiser evolution and adoption of mobile local ad distribution. BIA/Kelsey forecasts mobile ad revenues to increase from $790 million this ye...

The sensor-driven user interface (UI) will be an emergent theme in the next wave of mobile device innovation -- turning objects, locations, and people into networked, interactive elements. By 2013, according to the latest market study by ABI Research , 85 percent of smartphones will ship with GPS, over 50 percent will ship with accelerometers, and almost 50 percent will have gyroscopes. "The growth of sensors in smartphones will be driven by applications such as gaming, location awareness, and augmented reality, as well as the expansion of motion-based commands," says senior analyst Victoria Fodale at ABI. The high-level operating system of a smartphone, which provides open application programming interfaces (APIs), has facilitated the use of data from cameras, sensors, and GPS receivers. When an accelerometer is combined with a gyroscope, developers are able to create applications that can sense motion on six axes: up and down, left and right, forward and backwards, ...

Most consumer electronics (CE) device manufacturers are apparently in the process of introducing software platforms that support widgets -- also called Connected TV applications. According to the latest market study by In-Stat , this sets the stage for a burgeoning new market and alters how people will access Internet content -- from news, web-surfing and purchasing to watching Netflix movies and YouTube. "By 2013, TV applications have the potential to generate over $1.7 billion in annual revenue," says Keith Nissen, In-Stat analyst. "Our primary research shows consumers already have a moderate interest in TV Widgets. An innovative web-enabled CE device and service from a company like Google or Apple could truly galvanize the market, much as the iPhone transformed the mobile telephony market." Connected TV applications are small, self-contained software programs that can be plugged into a web application to access a wide range of content. Due to their broad ...

The following is a short list of exhibiting vendors, service providers and others that captured my attention at the SXSW Interactive event earlier this week in Austin, Texas. I encourage you to check out their Web sites to learn more. The two basic themes I noticed were new tools that aggregate your online presence on various social media sites -- most are attempts at creating a dashboard-like solution. The other noteworthy theme was a variety of easy to use do-it-yourself content management and microsite publishing tools, with a resurgence of basic HTML page designs (SEO-friendly CSS rather than Adobe Flash). Awareness has created what they call "social marketing software" -- it's an integrated good-enough solution to building online communities for those who prefer not to apply the free best-of-breed tools that essentially do the same thing. Sobees created what they call "my social client" -- the latest release adds Digg to the list of supported ser...