Ziki - David H Deans's last published content

Online Video Viewers Continue to Ignore Ads

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 01:02:40 +0100

eMarketer reports that online video viewers became even "less likely" to click on pre-roll ads, or watch them to completion over the course of 2009, according to the analysis of video ad network YuMe.

Between 2009 Q1 and Q4, click-through rates trended steadily downward -- from 1.88 to 0.74 percent. Completion rates dropped as well, to 66.3 percent in Q4.

Broken down by length of pre-roll, there was a trade-off. While completion rates were higher for 15-second videos than for 30-second spots, the longer ads received more click-throughs.

Additionally, view-to-completion rates fell throughout 2009 for both types of video advertising, but rates for the shorter ads dropped more dramatically over the period. Average click-through rates for the year were almost doubled on longer videos, at 1.5 percent for 30-second ads -- versus 0.8 percent for 15-second pre-rolls.

YuMe found that video ads targeted to children and teens ages 6 to 14 had the highest video ad click-through rate, at 3.5 percent -- but the lowest rate of viewing to completion. It was the ads targeted at the oldest users (over 35) that were most likely to be watched to the end, at a rate of 77.4 percent.

Online video analytics and distribution company TubeMogul reported somewhat higher completion rates for 10- to 30-second pre-roll ads appearing before short-form video clips. Nearly 16 percent of viewers clicked away rather than watch the ad to completion.

Rates were worse at magazine and newspaper sites, with nearly one-quarter of viewers abandoning the video, while just 10.9 percent clicked away from pre-rolls in front of video from large broadcasters.

Earlier research has shown that in addition to location and industry, video ad size and creative have a significant effect on success metrics -- relatively speaking, that is.

Meaning, the most "significant effect" of online video advertising is the apparent confirmation that shifting a poorly performing approach to marketing from one medium (Television) to a new medium (Online) doesn't change the response rate -- the vast majority of people tend to ignore the interruptions.

TV & Film Industry Awaiting 3D and Ultra-HD

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 13:17:10 +0100

As High-Definition (HD) video reached its stride worldwide, the TV and film industry are now looking ahead to the next new digital video innovation. 3D TV and Ultra-HD (UHD) are on the horizon, according to the latest market study by In-Stat.

3D video is already out of the gate, with growing proliferation of 3D films in movie theaters. Pay-TV operators are in the early stages of deploying 3D TV capability. Early 3D TV sets and 3D Blu-Ray players will ship in 2010.

In-Stat projects worldwide 3D TV shipments will reach 41 million in 2014. 3D Blu-ray player shipments will track closely with 3D TV sets.

UHD will take considerably longer to roll out, but has started to garner interest and discussion among long-term planners in the TV, film and technology industries.

In-Stat believes the first UHD broadcasts will start around 2017. UHD TVs will reach about 5 percent household penetration in some regional markets in the early 2020s.

Technology companies, broadcast systems vendors and consumer electronics manufacturers will need to have solutions available ahead of time to support the long-term high-definition digital media market opportunity.

In-Stat's market study includes the following topics:

- Market and industry drivers for UHD service subscribers and viewers.

- Analysis of how the development of different technologies and business models is impacting the market for UHD services.

- An in-depth look at potential UHD service providers. Analysis of the emerging Digital Cinema and 3D technologies. Assessment of the UHD value chain, including UHD content creation, cinema distribution, broadcast and in-home technologies.

- Long-term (15-year) forecasts for worldwide UHDTV households by geographic region.

Digital Marketing Trends and the Implications

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:16:07 +0100

comScore released their 2009 U.S. Digital Year in Review report. It recaps key trends in the U.S. digital media landscape -- including e-commerce, search, online video, online advertising and mobile, with an emphasis on how digital marketers can capitalize on these trends in 2010.

2009 proved to be a critical year in digital marketing as the economic environment brought unprecedented challenges to the industry. After years of strong growth across the digital economy, the recession introduced softness to many digital business sectors.

But, despite these economic headwinds, consumer's use of digital media climbed to new heights in 2009 as the Internet continued to evolve as an integral component of American's personal and professional lives.

The report provides a comprehensive view across the fixed and mobile digital sectors to uncover this past year's important consumer trends.

Key highlights of the comScore report include:

- The U.S. core search market grew 16 percent in 2009, driven by a 6 percent gain in unique searchers and a 10 percent gain in search queries per searcher. Google and Bing led among the core search engines in terms of increases in market share.

- Social networking continued to gain momentum in 2009 with nearly 4 out of 5 Internet users visiting a social networking site on a monthly basis and Facebook and Twitter propelling much of the growth in the category.

- Display ad impressions grew 21 percent in 2009 as the online advertising sector increased its share of media spending. Growth was driven by an 8 percent increase in ad reach and a 12 percent increase in average frequency.

- Total (retail and travel) U.S. e-commerce spending reached $209.6 billion in 2009, down 2 percent versus the previous year and the first year on record with negative growth rates. Nonetheless, e-commerce retail spending continued to increase its share of consumer spending in a challenging economic environment.

- Six out of seven U.S. Internet users now view online video content in a month, with YouTube and Hulu continuing to experience rapid increase in viewership.

- In the past year, the mobile industry witnessed smartphone ownership increase from 11 percent to 17 percent of mobile users, while 3G phone ownership increased from 32 percent to 43 percent.

3GPP is Key to Mobile Broadband Innovation

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:02:56 +0100

3G Americas announced that it has published its resource report on 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards and their evolution to IMT-Advanced, or 4G services. The white paper provides in-depth examination of 3GPP technology standards from a technical, business and applications standpoint.

"The 3GPP technology standards deliver mobile connectivity to more than 4 billion users worldwide today and have been developed to continue evolving to higher levels of performance with mobile broadband innovation," said Chris Pearson, president of 3G Americas.

GSM operators can choose to evolve their networks in ways that best suit their assets and business environments with benefits that offer flexibility, scalability and economic advantages, whether they choose HSPA+ or LTE.

The global demand for wireless data services continues to drive the rapid growth of HSPA technology with 303 commercial HSPA networks and over 454 million UMTS-HSPA subscriptions reported at the end of 2009 by Informa Telecoms & Media.

Informa has further forecast that by year-end 2012, worldwide subscriptions to UMTS-HSPA will reach nearly 1.4 billion; by year-end 2013, global UMTS-HSPA subscriptions are expected to exceed 2 billion, rising to 2.8 billion by the end of 2014.

GSM-UMTS-HSPA subscriptions provide the foundation for future evolutions to 3GPP Release 9, Release 10 and beyond with HSPA+, LTE and LTE-Advanced.

"Wireless data consumption is increasing faster now than ever before," said Adrian Scrase, 3GPP Head of Mobile Competence Center. "Smartphone usage is experiencing higher volumes and the superior user experience offered by such devices is resulting in quickly rising demand and escalating use of wireless data applications."

This is consequently driving the need for continued innovations that are supported by the efficient and successful 3GPP technology path.

LTE will serve to unify the fixed and mobile broadband worlds. As an all IP-based mobile communication technology, LTE will allow expansion of the Internet experience on mobile devices and deliver multimedia content to the screen of choice.

The vast majority of leading operators, device and infrastructure manufacturers support LTE as the mobile broadband technology of the future and, according to Informa Telecoms & Media, 130 global operators have announced trials or intentions to evolve their networks to LTE.

U.S. Mobile Subscriber Usage Characteristics

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:29:55 +0100

comScore ranked the leading mobile phone manufacturers and smartphone operating system (OS) platforms in the U.S. -- according to their share of current mobile subscribers age 13 and older, as well as the most popular forms of content and activity accessed via mobile device.

The report found Motorola to be the top handset manufacturer with 23.5 percent market share, while RIM (BlackBerry) led among smartphone platforms with 41.6 percent market share.

A total of 234 million people age 13 and older in the U.S. used mobile devices in December 2009. Device manufacturer Motorola was the top ranked with 23.5 percent of U.S. mobile devices. LG ranked second with 21.9 percent share, followed by Samsung (21.2 percent share), Nokia (9.2 percent share) and RIM (7.0 percent share).

RIM was the leading mobile smartphone operating system in the U.S. in December 2009 with 41.6 percent share of U.S. smartphone devices. Apple (iPhone) ranked second with 25.3 percent share (up 1.2 percentage points), followed by Microsoft with 18.0 percent share, Palm with 6.1 percent share, and Google with 5.2 percent share (up 2.7 percentage points).

In December 2009, 63.1 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging (SMS) on their mobile device, up 2.1 percentage points from three months prior.

Browsers were used by 27.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 1.5 percentage points), while subscribers who played games made up 21.6 percent (up 0.2 percentage points).

Business Voice-over-IP Gains Traction in U.S.

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:12:15 +0100

Voice-over-IP (VoIP) penetration among U.S. businesses will increase rapidly over the next few years, reaching 79 percent by 2013, compared to 42 percent at the end of 2009, according to the latest market study by In-Stat.

This market penetration reflects companies having a VoIP solution deployed in at least one location.

"VoIP adopters have a good understanding of the cost savings associated with VoIP, and have oriented their limited budgets to optimizing efficiency and savings by replacing legacy TDM voice solutions," says David Lemelin, In-Stat analyst.

With businesses opening up fewer new locations than we have seen in recent years, much of this current investment is occurring at headquarters locations where efficiencies and savings can be maximized.

In-Stat's market study found the following:

- Hosted IP Centrex has now surpassed Broadband IP Telephony as the leading revenue-generating, carrier-based business VoIP solution.

- 33 percent of businesses that have already deployed VoIP solutions report that recent economic conditions have caused them to slow additional deployment plans, compared to 30 percent reporting no change in plans.

- Broadband IP Telephony revenues continue to grow and will more than double by 2013, compared to 2008. This growth will be fueled by single-user applications among increasingly distributed and mobile workforces.

GeoBrava Media | Featured Video

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 02:46:52 +0100

Kate Havnevik, "Unlike Me" - more music videos at GeoBrava Media

Digital Marketing Practitioners Walk the Walk

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 01:51:24 +0100

Marketers continue to shift their budgets from traditional to digital media, but simply including online ad campaigns and social media efforts is not enough for an effective marketing mix, reports eMarketer.

According to Alterian's assessment, the maturity of digital and social media requires integration of marketing strategies. Marketers must move from a focus on isolated campaigns to an emphasis on listening to and communicating across channels.

In this study, more than one-half of marketers worldwide reported directing their efforts toward integrating their communication strategies to emphasize multichannel engagement.

The majority of marketers surveyed recognized social media as increasingly important to the marketing mix, while only 14 percent said it's "critical" for their success.

Most marketers say they're "prepared enough" to take advantage of new techniques in digital and social media, but more than one-third felt "minimally prepared" at best.

The largest group of respondents said some of their marketing staff "had the skills" to implement new customer engagement strategies, but that knowledge was generally restricted to personnel in digital roles.

Only 17 percent said most, or all, of their staff was adequately prepared.

"Engaging with customers is becoming paramount and the yardstick by which we measure those brands that survive and those that don't," said David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian. "Marketers now need to appeal to the individual and engage with customers on a one-to-one basis."

So, who is qualified to lead digital marketing strategy? Those who have proven they participate in engagement will leave a substantive impression of their online activities. In contrast, those who are appointed as managers by their company, but have minimal experience, can do little more than merely talk the talk.

Mobile Internet Media Usage Analytics Tool

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:38:34 +0100

The GSMA and comScore announced the launch of Mobile Media Metrics (MMM), a solution to the challenges of mobile media usage measurement and reporting. Taking anonymous mobile Internet usage data from all five UK mobile operators, the service provides insights into market-specific mobile media consumption.

MMM was designed to deliver actionable reporting tools to the media industry, while respecting the privacy of individual mobile service subscribers. According to comScore, access to transparent measurement is essential in establishing Mobile as a legitimate marketing and advertising medium.

The service is based on anonymized census-level data for mobile Internet usage across all mobile networks, which is then augmented with demographic data that has been collected with the consent of a representative sample of mobile Internet users.

The service provides an aggregated view of mobile Internet usage behavior, enabling market-level analysis of site visitation and engagement metrics -- such as page views, time spent on specific sites, and mobile device types and features.

Based on pre-production data, 16 million people in the UK accessed the Internet from their mobile phones in December 2009, viewing a combined total of 6.7 billion pages and spending an aggregate of 4.8 billion minutes online during the month.

The top 10 sites accounted for 70 percent of both total pages viewed and total time spent online on mobiles during the month.

Mobile Internet usage is accelerating, driven largely by the adoption of smartphones, which are now used by one fifth of the total UK mobile phone service subscriber base, according to comScore.

While smartphone users represent just 29 percent of the UK total mobile Internet audience, they accounted for 47 percent of total page views, and 51 percent of the total time spent online in December 2009.

The service will also be expanded to include Wi-Fi traffic through site-centric measurement of publisher and ad network sites -- using comScore's Media Metrix 360 solution, for a de-duplicated view of the online and mobile Internet.

Europe is Primed for Mobile Social Networking

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:09:36 +0100

Mobile Internet apps are beginning to play a role in shaping the future of social network service usage. Both social networking site operators and mobile phone service providers are very aware of the mutual benefits, according to the latest market study by Pyramid Research.

The ability of members to access their social network from anywhere enhances the utility of the sites, while mobile social networking greatly increases mobile service provider's data network usage and creates the potential for new revenue streams from subscription fees or advertising.

Pyramid believes that Europe, with more than one billion mobile phone service subscribers and roughly 130 million mobile Internet users in 2009, is a fertile growth market for mobile social networking applications.

Accelerating adoption of mobile social networking in Europe will be critical to local wireless service providers, handset vendors, software developers and the most popular social networking web site operators.

Technical and business development issues, such as the deployment of 3G network infrastructure and the penetration of smartphones -- that are of paramount importance to many other markets -- are with few exceptions, non-issues in most European markets.

In fact, Pyramid reports that the total number of mobile social networking users in Europe already reached approximately 52 million in 2009 and is forecast to reach 112 million in 2010.

The continued uptake of mobile social networking in Europe will be driven by an enhanced user experience, mobile service provider efforts to promote mobile social networking and co-marketing by social network operators that's aimed at increasing mobile access among their existing members.

How the 4G Mobile Network Standards Coexist

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:08:11 +0100

Consumers now seem eager to adopt affordable Mobile Internet access services. Long Term Evolution (LTE), the next-generation 4G mobile broadband standard, is going to be the clear choice for the next leap in wireless technology, according to the latest market study by In-Stat.

While WiMax appeared to be a competitor for 4G network deployments early on, that battle is now largely resolved. LTE's deployment will primarily be impeded by the success of 3G networks and HSPA and HSPA+ networks as mobile operators seek to leverage the existing investment in their installed infrastructure.

"LTE still has several glaring issues," says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. "These include lack of spectrum, signal-to-noise ratio, and non-established patent and royalty pool. It's clear that the shift toward 4G LTE will be gradual and protracted."

No, that assessment doesn't sound like it's a foregone conclusion that LTE is on the path to 4G standard domination. In fact, given the history of mobile technology standards, a form of coexistence tends to be the ultimate scenario. Why should 4G be any different -- particularly when one standard hasn't been deployed on a commercial network?

In-Stat's market study found the following:

- LTE deployments will effectively begin in 2010. North America and Asia-Pacific will be the first regions to deploy. WiMAX is already deployed on several networks around the globe.

- While LTE will ultimately become the 4G standard of choice, Mobile Wi-Max is much more mature in deployment and has a distinct niche. Even by 2013, Mobile Wi-Max will have more than 5 times as many global subscribers as LTE.

- External connectivity clients, such as network cards and USB dongles, will be the first LTE subscriber devices sold. LTE mobile handsets will not start shipping in major volumes until 2H12.

- WiMAX deployments have given chipset manufacturers, device manufacturers, and infrastructure suppliers real-world experience.

Why Subscribers Downgrade Pay-TV Service

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:16:38 +0100

Pay-TV service providers have reached a crossroad -- either way, business as usual is not an option. Over two-thirds of American pay television subscribers would be willing to switch providers if offered a price discount of 20 percent, according to the latest market study by Strategy Analytics.

While Cable TV customers were the most likely to churn, only half as many (33 percent) of Telco IPTV subscribers are eager to change providers. Their report, "Digital TV Customer Satisfaction: U.S. Survey Results 2H'09," is the result of polling 856 digital pay television subscribers within the U.S. marketplace.

Overall, respondents reported satisfaction with their current digital television provider, with 71 percent claiming to be "somewhat" or "very" satisfied. There was a marked difference, however, among access platforms. Telco IPTV customers reported 95 percent overall satisfaction, compared to 78 percent for Satellite, and 67 percent for Cable.

Highly Volatile Market Dynamics
That said, fewer than 22 percent of subscribers -- irrespective of the pay-TV platform -- believe they were receiving "value for money". Meaning, the vast majority believe they're paying too much for what they receive -- with the price typically rising, as the experience continues to decline (due mostly to the frequency and irrelevance of TV advertising).

"The value-for-money result was perhaps the most important finding of this study," noted Ben Piper, Director of the Strategy Analytics Multiplay Market Dynamics service. "It underscores a trend we have been seeing for the past 18 months -- a growing number of customers are beginning to question the value of a traditional pay-TV subscription in light of expanded over-the-top offerings, such as Hulu and Netflix."

While Telco IPTV is expected to make strides in the upcoming years, the platform's success is certainly not a foregone conclusion, according to Piper's assessment. In a highly penetrated market such as the United States, growth will not be organic. In fact, the market is destined for a major shift, once consumers discover the low-cost alternatives .

Moving Beyond Myopic Market Segmentation
Meanwhile, I believe that industry analysts now must move beyond measuring the cord-cutting phenomenon -- where traditional pay-TV subscribers totally terminate services -- and instead start to acknowledge the growing market segment(s) of service down-graders.

A growing number of traditional pay-TV subscribers are dropping premium channels and downgrading to basic service tiers. They do this after subscribing to alternative sources of movies and premium TV series (Netflix in particular), then they discover the free over-the-top (OTT) "Instant Play" video streaming offerings, and the ease of creating a personalized video play-list (Netflix queue).

Granted, some Netflix subscribers will quickly evolve to unsubscribing from pay-TV basic service tiers, after they install an external or attic-mounted antenna to receive high-quality digital broadcast TV signals for local programming. But, this segment is currently at the extreme end of the spectrum.

We need a comprehensive segmentation study that will uncover why subscribers downgrade pay-TV service, and the various stages of their progression to abandon traditional pay-TV. Then, we'll have a full understanding of this disruptive transition to OTT service offerings.

MPEG Digital Video Compression Usage

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 03:43:50 +0100

As more people access digital video on consumer electronics (CE) devices, applications for MPEG digital video compression technology are expanding -- particularly in portable CE devices, according to the latest market study by In-Stat.

As a result, shipments of MPEG Integrated Circuits (ICs), which support hardware compression and decompression of digital video, will reach 2 billion units by 2013.

"Compression technology continues to improve, offering lower bit rates and higher quality, as well as lower cost and power," says Michelle Abraham, In-Stat analyst.

H.264 compression is finding a home in most new MPEG ICs targeting both line-powered and mobile devices.

In-Stat's latest study found the following:

- Qualcomm was the leader in the mobile MPEG codec IC market for mobile handsets, while Zoran leads among “Other Mobile Applications”, followed closely by Samsung.

- MPEG IC market share differs among the various types of line-powered consumer electronics, such as set top boxes, TVs, and DVD equipment. The leaders include Broadcom, MediaTek, NXP, Sigma Designs and STMicroelectronics.

The key technology trends include:

- H.264 compression has superseded MPEG-2 in many line-powered applications.

- The Scalable Video Codec (SVC) extension to the H.264 is a major enhancement coming to the MPEG digital video system.

- With the standardization of 3D Blu-ray, multiview video coding (MVC), another extension of H.264, gains in importance.

Digital Marketing Metrics and Reporting Shifts

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:55:04 +0100

eMarketer reports that digital marketing survived the downturn, and marketers worldwide are now bullish about the prospects for growth in 2010, according to the latest market study by the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA).

Their report found that 81 percent of the marketing executives surveyed expected an increase in digital projects in 2010, and one-half will be moving funds from traditional to digital budgets.

More than three-quarters also think the current economy will push more allocations to digital marketing projects. Senior marketers reported that social networks and applications were their biggest priority for 2010, followed closely by digital infrastructure.

While social media marketing looks set to stay top-of-mind, a majority of respondents considered a wide range of digital activities to be important, with only games failing to inspire widespread interest.

As paid traditional media investments stagnated or decreased, paid digital spending has held steady or gone up, usually by less than 30 percent. But unpaid media spending has seen the sharpest rise, with nearly one-fifth of respondents reporting increases of more than 30 percent.

Climbing unpaid-media spending is likely an effect of the increased emphasis on social networks, where the most effective efforts are earned, not bought. Marketers are looking closely at measures of engagement. Respondents considered time spent on a site to be the most important performance metric, followed by unique page views.

Despite a bright outlook for digital, the SoDA report warned marketers that they must keep pushing for advances in the channel.

"Digital agencies must avoid complacency at all costs and continue to focus on driving innovation as well as engaging consumers with relevant dialog in uncharted and fast-moving channels," said Steve Wages, interim executive director of SoDA, in a statement.

Australians: Most Active Social Media Users

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:53:52 +0100

Web users spent more than five and half hours on social networking sites in December 2009, an 82 percent increase from 2008 -- when users were spending just over three hours on social networking sites, according to the latest market study by The Nielsen Company.

Globally, social networks and blogs are the most popular online category when ranked by average time spent, followed by online games and instant messaging.

With 206.9 million unique visitors, Facebook was the top global social networking destination in December 2009 and 67 percent of global social media users. Time on site for Facebook has also been on the rise, with global users spending nearly six hours per month on the site.

People in the U.S. continue to spend more time on social networking and blog sites as well, with total minutes increasing 210 percent year-over-year and the average time per person increasing 143 percent.

Year-over-year growth in average time spent by U.S. users, for both Facebook and Twitter.com, outpaced the overall growth for the category, increasing 200 percent and 368 percent, respectively.

Among the top five U.S. social networking sites, Twitter.com was the fastest-growing in terms of unique visitors, increasing 579 percent year-over-year, from 2.7 million unique visitors in December 2008 to 18.1 million in December 2009.

When narrowed by individual country, with 142.1 million unique visitors the United States had the largest number of social media and blog users, followed by Japan, which had 46.6 million unique visitors.

Australia led in average time per person spent, with the average Australian spending nearly 7 hours on social media sites. The United States and the United Kingdom came in second and third, with 6 hours and 9 minutes and 6 hours and 8 minutes, respectively.

4.5 Billion Downloads from Mobile App Stores

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:45:37 +0100

Consumers will spend $6.2 billion in 2010 in mobile application stores while advertising revenue is expected to generate $0.6 billion worldwide, according to the latest market study by Gartner.

Mobile application stores will exceed 4.5 billion App downloads in 2010, eight out of ten of which will be (ad-supported or otherwise) free to end users of these Apps.

Gartner forecasts worldwide downloads in mobile application stores to surpass 21.6 billion by 2013. Free downloads will account for 82 percent of all downloads in 2010, and will account for 87 percent of downloads in 2013.

"As smartphones grow in popularity and application stores become the focus for several players in the value chain, more consumers will experiment with application downloads," said Stephanie Baghdassarian, research director at Gartner.

Games remain the top application, and mobile shopping, social networking, utilities and productivity tools continue to grow and attract increasing amounts of money.

An application can be free because the developer is offering it at no cost to the consumer while charging for other things within the application. There are also applications that are free to use but that charge for physical goods that you can have delivered through the application.

There are many applications that are free to users and derive their revenue from advertising. This can be done with banners as well as full page advertising between game levels for instance.

Worldwide mobile application store download revenue exceeded $4.2 billion in 2009 and will grow to $29.5 billion by the end of 2013. This revenue forecast includes end-user spending on paid-for applications and advertising-sponsored free applications.

Advertising-sponsored mobile applications will generate almost 25 per cent of mobile application stores revenue by 2013. They will likely also generate a groundswell of new broadband network traffic for mobile service providers.

High-end smartphone users today tend to be early adopters of new mobile applications and more trustful of billing mechanisms, so they will pay for applications that can meet their needs.

Average smartphone users will become less tech-savvy as smartphones come down in price to have a mass-market appeal. These users will likely be more reluctant to pay for applications.

"Application stores will be a core focus throughout 2010 for the mobile industry and applications themselves will help determine the winners among mobile device platforms," said Carolina Milanesi, research director at Gartner.

Consumers will have a wide choice of stores and will seek the ones that make it easy for them to discover applications they are interested in and make it easy to pay for them when they are required.

Blu-ray Players with IP Network Connectivity

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:28:32 +0100

High-volume shipments of Blu-ray disc players, most of which feature IP network connectivity, are finally making inroads into the broader disc player and recorder market, according to the latest market study by In-Stat.

By 2013, Blu-ray player shipments will still lag slightly behind the 90 million DVD player unit shipments. However, higher average selling prices will put Blu-ray player revenue at more than 4 times as large as DVD player revenue.

"In North America, significant price drops of Blu-ray players drove unit shipments to triple in 2009," says Michelle Abraham, In-Stat analyst. Regardless, other markets are still the leading adopters of this technology.

The cost differential between standard definition DVD and Blu-ray is becoming much smaller and new features such as IP network connectivity are becoming increasingly important. Blu-ray is finally starting to make significant advances in the marketplace.

Blu-ray players are predicted to become one of the key levers that will aid the growth and adoption of streamed over-the-top video distribution and consumption on legacy television sets -- eventually replacing the top position that is currently held by video gaming consoles.

In-Stat's market study found the following:

- Shipments of IP network-enabled Blu-ray players and recorders will approach 80 million units by 2013.

- 18 percent of U.S. survey respondents with at least some interest in purchasing a Blu-ray player cited cost as a barrier.

- Japan dominates the market for Blu-ray recorders. Europe is the largest revenue market for Blu-ray players.

- The key semiconductor providers supporting the Blu-ray and DVD player/recorder market include Broadcom, NEC, MediaTek, Sunplus and Zoran.

Continued Growth for the Mobile App Stores

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:04:52 +0100

Mobile application stores enabled 3.6 billion apps to be downloaded in 2009 -- which is expected to rise to 6.6 billion this year, and grow to 16.2 billion in 2013 -- according to the latest market study and assessment by Futuresource Consulting.

At the upcoming Mobile World Congress event, the App Planet showcase will be devoted to this phenomenon that's helping to fuel demand for Mobile Internet subscription and consumption.

"More than 85 percent of app store downloads are currently free to users, and we expect this percentage to remain stable for the next few years," says Patrik Pfandler, senior market analyst at Futuresource.

"The market will experience vigorous consumer spending, and the paid-for market has already developed beyond the established gaming segment. Our forecasts are showing global revenues of $4.6 billion this year, rising to nearly $15 billion in 2013, which includes payments for direct pay-per-download and indirect value-add services like in-app payments and subscriptions."

Futuresource says that these figures are directly attributable to app stores.

Factor in mobile content revenues which fall beyond the world of the apps store -- like direct downloads from gaming companies, handset manufacturers and operators, video downloads, music and ringtones -- and the whole package will be worth $38 billion worldwide by 2013.

By the end of 2009, approximately 70 million Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users downloaded over three billion applications from the Apple app store, resulting with Apple taking a 70 percent share of total app downloads that year.

Nokia is a key player and is currently driving its own Ovi-based apps program. Samsung is also pushing apps development as a core element of its strategy, with its own and third party operating systems. Meanwhile, RIM (Blackberry) is driving hard into the consumer market and is well-placed to play a pivotal role in helping to counter-balance the strength of Apple.

Google's foray into the mobile hardware market and the vast resources it can channel into its Android platform place it in a favorable position, but Google will need strong support from other handset vendors to reach critical mass.

As with mainstream Internet browsing, search discovery will be critical to the success or failure of any app, particularly as application numbers increase exponentially and developers look to gain competitive exposure.

"Word-of-mouth and viral marketing campaigns are the key methods of directing users towards particular apps and app stores," says Pfandler, "though smartphone users are also browsing apps charts, responding to mobile ads and ads embedded within their existing apps, as well as reacting favorably to more traditional online, television and even print advertising."

Last year, mobile phone ownership exceeded four billion users, which equates to nearly 60 percent of the world's population. Although the total handset market began to decline in 2009, smartphone sales are rising fast, with Futuresource predicting that more than one billion people will own a smartphone by 2013.

Moving forward, the success of the app store holds promise for other devices such as tablets and connected TVs. In particular, Futuresource expects applications to become a key feature of connected TVs and Blu-ray disc players.

Broadband Consumers Using Multiple Access

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:28:32 +0100

Consumer enthusiasm for broadband service continues unabated. In fact, some will subscribe to more than one type of broadband access, according to the latest market study by In-Stat. During 2009, an average of 8.8 million new broadband subscribers worldwide signed up for service each month.

By 2013, In-Stat forecasts that the number of global broadband subscribers will surpass 1 billion.

"The growing popularity of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as watching online video, using IP-based telephony services, and downloading music files, is spurring global demand for broadband Internet connections," says Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst.

Their reporting on the penetration of DSL relative to Mobile Internet subscribers was a surprise to me. I'm wondering if In-Stat has some of their data points transposed in their research report summary. Can it be true, that mobile wireless broadband has already surpassed cable broadband access, globally?

In-Stat's market study found the following:

- As of December 2009, there were 578 million worldwide broadband subscribers, an increase of 99 million over the year-end 2008 subscriber total.

- DSL, mobile wireless, and cable modem service are the leading access technologies, providing 89 percent of worldwide broadband connections.

- Mobile wireless broadband is the second largest access technology (behind DSL) with 18 percent of total subscribers.

- Over the next few years, the number of households with multiple broadband connections will increase significantly. These multiple connection households will commonly have a wired broadband access technology, like DSL or cable modem service, along with a mobile wireless broadband connection.

Marketers Plan to Develop New Mobile Apps

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:52:45 +0100

eMarketer reports that mobile application (app) investment should grow significantly in 2010, according to the latest market study by DM2PRO and Quattro Wireless.

In contrast, spending on social media apps will stagnate -- even though more marketers have already developed those applications. Among those marketers who already had an social media app in 2009, however, Facebook was the leading platform.

Fewer than one-half of marketers created either a mobile or social app in 2009, but most plan to invest in a mobile app this year. The Apple iPhone is the platform of choice, followed by Google Android.

"Engagement" was the top reason to choose either mobile or social as an app platform, but social sites were perceived as better for many top goals -- including engagement, audience targeting, sharing and branding potential, and reach.

Mobile, however, scored higher on creative control and persistence.

The top one-third of advertisers and agencies using mobile apps planned to up their investments by 75 percent or more. Marketers who used apps reported a growing market, client demand and increased standardization in the app world as reasons to spend more in the coming months.

Those same reasons would spur publishers and marketers to develop mobile applications. They were also interested in better tools, distribution and ways for users to discover their apps.

Those factors will only increase in importance as apps continue to proliferate and marketers and other developers attempt to stand out from the competition.

Approximately 15 percent of advertisers and agencies spent more than 60 percent of their app budgets on promotion in 2009, but more than one-third spent less than 5 percent. Therefore, promotional budgets will need to increase along with overall investment for apps to find their way to users.

Perhaps we'll start to see advertiser-supported mobile apps being featured in Google Adwords campaigns. It's a low-cost method of app promotion and it enables better targeting of mobile smartphone subscribers. Eventually, mobile app stores will become saturated with new content.