Digital Lifescapes

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, ...

Apparently, the consumer network storage (CNS) market appears to be migrating beyond its innovator roots, which could be a key factor contributing to its continued growth. According to the latest market study by In-Stat, major vendors are now focusing on customer education, awareness and ease-of-use to influence consumer demand and increase wider adoption. This is meaningful progress, in my opinion. I've been evaluating the mobile hard drive storage options, and there is very little purchase guidance information from vendors -- about how to select the best-fit drive for your particular needs (in my case, video editing and storage). "Despite intense market competition, the six largest players increased market share in 2009. But with narrowing product differentiation, competition will shift to ease-of-use, functionality and brand awareness," says Norm Bogen, In-Stat analyst. This combination of maturing market dynamics and a renaissance in the consumer home technolo...

Thousands of TV programs currently compete for "passive consumer" audiences. With such a huge range of traditional linear TV content, the electronic program guide (EPG) is being promoted as a viable solution -- according to the latest market study by Screen Digest and consulting firm Goldmedia. It's estimated that 59 million households in Western Europe were equipped with EPGs at the end of 2008 -- a penetration of 36 percent of all TV households. This number will grow 19 percent yearly between 2008 and 2014 so that nearly three quarters of all TV households will have access to EPGs in 2014. The analysts report has identified about 300 EPGs on the different platforms in Western Europe. These include EPGs in set-top boxes from pay-TV and infrastructure providers, online EPGs from TV guide magazines, TV platform providers, online providers and mobile EPGs. The research results indicate that market volumes from direct revenues in Western Europe will triple by 2014. Direct E...

Are your home network device connections easy and seamless? Not to worry, neither are mine. That said, a growing number of digital media devices for home entertainment are receiving DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) certification. According to a new study from ABI Research, nearly 200 million such products shipped in 2008 -- that number will rise to more than 300 million in 2012, and the growth curve accelerates even faster in the years that follow. "Consumers increasingly desire ways to connect their various home entertainment devices and distribute digital media content around their homes," says digital home practice director Jason Blackwell. Without standardization, that is a nightmare. Specifications developed by the DLNA, which are based on the UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) standard, supposedly enable easy, seamless connections in a wide and growing range of consumer electronics devices. As of today, more than 5,500 devices have received the DLNA "seal of appr...

A consumer survey conducted by ABI Research has found that while most owners of home networks find their equipment works reasonably well, they would be willing to upgrade -- if that resulted in easier troubleshooting. The conclusion: there is an opportunity for home network equipment vendors if they can automate some of the commonest diagnostic and configuration tasks. Meaning, just in case you have any doubt, the digital home device usability issue is still a barrier to exploring new applications adoption. According to industry analyst Michael Inouye, "Although nearly 30 percent of the 1007 respondents to the U.S. consumer survey reported some initial difficulties in setting up their equipment, only 11 percent actually returned products as being too complex." Most of the problems occurred with wireless setup, suggesting that vendors have an opportunity to make wireless network setup and security a much easier process through software and hardware solutions. More than half of...

The bleak market outlook in the last quarter of 2008 did not seem to deter the global growth of pay-TV services. Service operators, especially those in mature high-speed Internet economies -- many of which are in the Asia-Pacific region -- continue to strive towards providing interactive bi-directional television. According to new pay-TV market data from ABI Research, APAC will continue leading subscription growth, delivering a 37 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over the next three years. Telco TV in general will grow at an estimated CAGR of 29 percent over the next three years to 47 million subscribers globally by the end of 2011. ABI Research industry analyst Serene Fong notes that, "By the end of 2008, telco TV usage continued to be concentrated in countries such as France, South Korea and Hong Kong. Massive countries such as China and India are still very much inhibited by the lack of sufficiently broad bandwidth but they are expected to be high growth markets in th...

In the next five years, the nature of mobile phones will change radically, according to the latest market study from In-Stat. Increasing availability of mobile broadband, operator support for data-intensive devices, and improvements in usability for mobile devices brought about by the influence of the Apple iPhone will evolve the designs of handheld devices. "Consumers are nearing their limits adjusting to the added complexity of converged mobile phone devices," says David Chamberlain, In-Stat analyst. Feature proliferation is impinging on usability. Handset vendors and mobile operators must carefully evaluate the drive toward increasingly converged devices with features and functions that add direct value to consumers. The In-Stat research covers the worldwide market for cellular devices. It includes in-depth consumer research based on the results of ongoing consumer surveys, conducted primarily in North America reflecting changes in attitudes toward a number of handset feat...

TV browsers and applications such as rich media widgets were hot themes at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, but according to a recent Strategy Analytics market study consumers see open and flexible Video on Demand (VoD) services as the most valuable features of Internet TV. The research, carried out for Oregan Networks by the Strategy Analytics Digital Home Obervatory, also found that downloading widgets and customizing TV screens with skins were seen as the least valuable features. The study concluded that users expect TV browsers to be video-centric and offer quality equivalent to regular television. Despite concerns about privacy, 91 percent of respondents wanted to be able to access any multimedia website via their TV browser. Seventy four percent of respondents indicated a preference for these sites to be specially adapted as TV web channels. According to David Mercer, VP Digital Consumer Practice, "It's perhaps not surprising that TV viewers want to be able to ...

The 2009 International CES opened with the world's largest debut of consumer technology products, and keynote addresses from industry leaders. The world's largest tradeshow for consumer technology, runs through Sunday, January 11 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sony's president and CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, kicked off his opening keynote address at the 2009 International CES by unveiling the "CES Seven" -- key imperatives for creating the critical user experience. These included the concepts that products should interact seamlessly across industries, be service-based, multi-functional, support open technologies, advance the new shared experience, create new value chains and be green. Stringer said that Sony intends to create the total Sony experience so that by 2011, 90 percent of Sony's product categories will connect wirelessly to the Internet and to each other. To help illustrate Sony's cross-platform entertainment strategy, offering content and services at home ...

The keynote address from Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, his first at this event, no doubt set the mood on the eve of the 2009 International CES. Produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), it's still the world's largest tradeshow for consumer technology. "The pre-CES events created an incredible buzz throughout Las Vegas and around the globe as the world waits in anticipation for the innovative products that will launch this week from the International CES," said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO, CEA. With 2,700 exhibitors, including 300 new technology companies, spanning 1.7 million net square feet of exhibit space, the products introduced at this year's CES are likely to further change the shape of the CE industry. During a market research presentation on Tuesday afternoon, CEA released the Global CE Sales and Forecast. According to new data from CEA and the Gfk Group, CEA projected worldwide revenue for consumer electronics will grow more than four p...

Households in the U.S. are increasingly looking to the remote control as their link to easing the complexity of control and search among the growing number of disparate consumer electronic systems in their homes, according to a new market study. A new report from Parks Associates confirms and expands upon the trends identified in the 2006 first edition. These include the increasing desire and willingness of U.S. households to replace current remote controls with one that is more capable and can enhance their experiences with new entertainment systems. "The market size in revenues for aftermarket remotes promises a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of about 10 percent between now and 2013," said Tricia Parks, CEO, Parks Associates. "That rate increases to 14 percent for mid-level remotes, which cost between $30 and $250." The report provides purchase process details for aftermarket remotes, brand shares among U.S. Internet households, unit numbers and revenues for...

As consumers increasingly surf the Web on their mobile phones, handset vendors are looking toward open-source browsers such as WebKit -- the browser engine at the heart of the iPhone's Safari browser. However, despite growing interest in WebKit and Gecko (the engine for the Mozilla Corporation Firefox browser), commercial browser vendors such as Opera and ACCESS continue to see growth in their businesses. According to ABI Research, overall growth in the mobile Web browser category will lead to a total pre-installed revenue of $492 million by 2013, driven by the trends of more complex HTML-based browser integration. "Device manufacturers are interested in open-source solutions where there is a desire for increased control of their software footprint, and where they can bring internal programming resources to bear," says research director Michael Wolf. "At the same time, vendors such as Opera are seeing strong growth in their mobile browser offerings, which provide the...

Worldwide PC shipments continued to grow at a healthy pace in the second quarter of 2008 (2Q08), according to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. Shipments were up 15.3 percent from a year ago -- slightly more than second quarter projections and first quarter growth of 14.9 percent. Solid growth in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) region helped offset slower growth in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ). "Despite the economic headwinds, the PC market continued to show its resilience," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker. Product refreshes, vendor competition for channels, and aggressive pricing add to the ongoing trend toward Portable computing in attracting buyers. The steady growth, despite the pressure on consumer finances, reflects the increasingly important role of PCs within personal technology, and steady improvements in price and design. Nevertheless, economic pressures are mounting and PC market growth is expected to d...

Accessing social networks while mobile are quite popular with the Millennial generation, just as social networking at the desktop is, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. Blogging, photo and video sharing, location-based socialization services, games, SMS, and IM will eventually be combined to afford the mobile user the entire social networking experience from a handset application, the high-tech market research firm says. The mobile handset will simply become an extension of the user in most aspects of life. That is, if it hasn't already. Certainly, in the Asia-Pacific region, it seems that it has. "The critical issue most mobile social networking site and application developers struggle with is how to make money with their services," says Jill Meyers, In-Stat analyst. "There are three primary methods of revenue generation for mobile social networking applications -- advertising, subscription services, and premium upgrades." Last year's introduc...

Consumers are moving beyond basic PC-to-PC digital home networks as they look to connect new devices to their network -- to access and share the growing array of digital content from the Internet, as well as from their own digital media devices. While just a few years ago most consumer networks had only PCs on them, the growth in non-PC devices on the network has been significant. In a survey of online households in the United States, ABI Research has found that over 26 percent had a game console connected to their home network, 10 percent had a network storage device, and another 8 percent had some form of set-top box connected to their home network. "The growth in non-PC devices on the home network continues as consumers look to access digital entertainment and community services being deployed over the Internet," says research director Mike Wolf. "The growth in streaming music services such as Rhapsody, the positioning of popular video services such as YouTube for non...

Growing complexity in consumer technology creates both challenges and opportunities. The expansion of technology within the home has been accompanied by device installation and troubleshooting problems that often require specialized knowledge. To help consumers overcome these challenges, IDC believes a new generation of tech support services is rising up that leverages the Internet to provide assistance remotely and directly. "Technology has become more deeply entwined in consumers' lives while consumer support options have remained limited and often unsatisfying," said Matt Healey, research manager, Software and Hardware Support Services at IDC. "However, we are quickly reaching the point where certain devices and applications are considered mission-critical in the home. This means more consumers will require, and be willing to pay for, a higher level of support to ensure smooth operations at home." To better understand the technology problems that consumers ar...

As personal computer (PC) manufacturers adjust to the macro-economic effects of tightened credit, 2008 looks to be a year where Ultra Mobile Devices (UMD) continue to grow their ecosystems, and notebooks and emerging markets assert themselves on the PC side, according to In-Stat. Sales growth for UMDs is expected to be 72.6 percent in 2008, the high-tech market research firm says. UMDs are ultra mobile PCs, mobile Internet devices, a percentage of high-end smartphones, and a percentage of high-end personal media players. "For UMDs, concerns remain in the areas of infrastructure and the availability of connectivity beyond Wi-Fi" says Ian Lao, In-Stat analyst. Also of concern are: 1. The development of sustainable business models -- whereby all levels of the ecosystem may make money without crushing the consumer with high prices. 2. Form factors that are conducive to, and align tightly with, specific usages. 3. Interfaces that are intuitive and provide pleasant, repeatable user...

Online storage and backup services will spur revenue generation and customer retention over the next five years for U.S. broadband service providers (BSP), bringing in more than 1.5 million subscribers, according to the latest market study by Parks Associates. These customers will pay a monthly storage and backup fee, in addition to their standard service subscriptions, generating an additional $188 million in service revenue by 2012. "Online storage and backup services are great customer retention tools and upgrade incentives," said Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, Director, Broadband and Gaming, Parks Associates. "They fit with broadband service providers' strategic advantages, complementing existing trust and billing relationships, network ownership, and guaranteed quality of service." The report recommends that as broadband service providers reposition themselves as experience providers , they should introduce a variety of value-added services to strengthen customer...

Open-source software and widgets are going to improve the Web experience on mobile phones. While a large number of phones today still use browsers with very limited web browsing capabilities, many smartphones are incorporating browsers that support the latest capabilities such as AJAX and RSS, as well as websites optimized for viewing on a mobile device. ABI Research sees this segment of the mobile browser market accounting for the vast majority of growth over the next five years, as the open-Internet browser (OIB) segment for mobile grows from 76 million in 2007 to nearly 700 million browsers delivered in 2013. "The focus today for mobile browser developers is to take advantage of the latest web standards while also developing solutions tailored towards the unique experience of using a browser on a mobile phone," says research director Michael Wolf. "The most recent commercial solutions from Opera, Openwave and ACCESS, as well as those using open source solutions such a...

The total number of households worldwide using telco IPTV services grew from 4.7 million in 2006 to exceed 14 million in 2007, according to a new white paper by Parks Associates. The white paper analyzes key television services and offers growth strategies and recommendations for service providers worldwide -- and for Europe in particular. Europe experienced a growth rate of 250 percent between 2006 and 2007 for telco IPTV services, defined as landline-based multichannel and on-demand video services provided by a telephone operator or broadband service provider. "Telco IPTV services provide European operators with a critical toehold in attracting and retaining customers," said Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst, Parks Associates. "However, IPTV is a small part of a crowded market of terrestrial, satellite, and cable offerings, and the competition will be intense." A key recommendation from the paper is that operators should examine network and cust...