Entries tagged with “research” from WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

Bytemobile issued its first mobile data report for the industry. The Mobile Minute Metrics report anonymously sources the data traffic in a global cross-section of larger Bytemobile customers' wireless networks and provides insight into the current state of the mobile ecosystem.

What is most notable from the data gathered in this report is the impact that touchscreen smartphones - the Apple iPhone in particular - is having on operators' wireless networks. Accounting for 39% of the total volume on networks, video has already become the dominant form of mobile data traffic. Considering that only 1-2% of wireless users are currently using their devices to watch video, it will be critical to keep a close watch on mobile media consumption trends.

The Mobile Minute Metrics Report provides a view into the type of insight carriers will be able to leverage using the Bytemobile Analytics service, using a cross section of Bytemobile's global carrier client base to highlight current industry trends including:

• Mobile video consumption trends.
• How device type is driving data traffic.
• Data volume changes over the course of a day.

Other highlights from the Mobile Minute Metrics report include the following:

● Generally, there are 10-15 times more web users than video users. However, on average, video users generate an equal amount of network traffic - i.e., one video user produces the same amount of mobile data as approximately 10-15 web users.

On the heels of the Xiam study that showed search as the top sites on mobile today, it looks like money will be tops in 2012. The top 10 consumer mobile apps in 2012 will include mobile money transfer, LBS,  search,  browsing, health monitoring, payments, NFC, ads, IM, and music reprots Gartner Inc.'s latest study.

No. 1: Money Transfer
This service allows people to send money to others using Short Message Service (SMS). Its lower costs, faster speed and convenience compared with traditional transfer services have strong appeal to users in developing markets, and most services signed up several million users within their first year. However, challenges do exist in both regulatory and operational risks. Because of the fast growth of mobile money transfer, regulators in many markets are piling in to investigate the impact on consumer costs, security, fraud and money laundering. On the operational side, market conditions vary, as do the local resources of service providers, so providers need different market strategies when entering a new territory.

No. 2: Location-Based Services
Location-based services (LBS) form part of context-aware services, a service that Gartner expects will be one of the most disruptive in the next few years. Gartner predicts that the LBS user base will grow globally from 96 million in 2009 to more than 526 million in 2012. LBS is ranked No. 2 in Gartner's top 10 because of its perceived high user value and its influence on user loyalty. Its high user value is the result of its ability to meet a range of needs, ranging from productivity and goal fulfillment to social networking and entertainment.

No. 3: Mobile Search
The ultimate purpose of mobile search is to drive sales and marketing opportunities on the mobile phone. To achieve this, the industry first needs to improve the user experience of mobile search so that people will come back again. Mobile search is ranked No. 3 because of its high impact on technology innovation and industry revenue. Consumers will stay loyal to some search services, but instead of sticking to one or two search providers on the Internet, Gartner expects loyalty on the mobile phone to be shared between a few search providers that have unique technologies for mobile search.

No. 4: Mobile Browsing
Mobile browsing is a widely available technology present on more than 60 percent of handsets shipped in 2009, a percentage Gartner expects to rise to approximately 80 percent in 2013. Gartner has ranked mobile browsing No. 4 because of its broad appeal to all businesses. Mobile Web systems have the potential to offer a good return on investment. They involve much lower development costs than native code, reuse many existing skills and tools, and can be agile -- both delivered and updated quickly. Therefore, the mobile Web will be a key part of most corporate business-to-consumer (B2C) mobile strategies.

No. 5: Mobile Health Monitoring
Mobile health monitoring is the use of IT and mobile telecommunications to monitor patients remotely, and could help governments, care delivery organizations (CDOs) and healthcare payers reduce costs related to chronic diseases and improve the quality of life of their patients. In developing markets, the mobility aspect is key as mobile network coverage is superior to fixed network in the majority of developing countries. Currently, mobile health monitoring is at an early stage of market maturity and implementation, and project rollouts have so far been limited to pilot projects. In the future, the industry will be able to monetize the service by offering mobile healthcare monitoring products, services and solutions to CDOs.

Users rely on search engines to discover content but it often doesn't come up with the goods notes a new Mobile Content Discovery Report from Xiam Research by TNS Global. Users are  have having trouble accessing content, getting in quickly, search engines are preferred by mobile web browsers and they would buy more it was easier to get.

The study shows there are many indications that their mobile content usage is being limited by problems experienced. Here's the summary of problems experienced.

• 80% report some difficulty or problem when trying to access content.
  
• Most frustrated by time required to access the content they want - slow page loads, the need to click through too many pages, and having to navigate through irrelevant content.
  
• Overall, the provider's content store/portal is used less often than other methods to obtain content but is used more by downloader's and apps fans.
  

Carriers are becoming a significant channel for all Internet-connected mobile devices, including netbooks and mobile PCs, because of the revenue potential of the associated services.

In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com) anticipates that the number of devices sold through the carriers will continue to increase as services are bundled for multiple devices and service prices decrease due to increased bandwidth from new communications technologies and increased competition between carriers. By 2013, In-Stat anticipates that over 60% of all the Internet-connected mobile devices sold will be through carrier channels.

"In the US, carriers are charging up to $60 per month for a two year contract with the subsidized purchase of a netbook," says Jim McGregor In-Stat analyst. "While the subsidy costs the carrier $50-$100, it generates $1,440 or more in service fees over the life of the contract."

Carriers in the EU and Asia are also offering netbooks with a data contract, but typically at lower prices than in the US. As a result of the recent success of selling netbooks, carriers are now venturing into offering notebook PCs. Carriers in Asia have been offering MIDs and UMPCs for some time.

Recent research by In-Stat found:

• The total available market (TAM) for Internet-connected devices is projected to grow at a 22.3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2013.
• 78% of Internet-connected devices will be using processors with integrated multimedia acceleration, including 85% of mobile PCs, by 2013.
• In-Stat projects that nearly 31% of notebooks will be sold through carriers in 2013.
• The innovation of the mobile market is being driven by four key factors: richer content, network access for communications and content, increased bandwidth to enable this access, and new technologies.

Mobile analytics firm, Flurry, has tracked Droid sales to be 250,000 in its first week which they calll a  strong result for Motorola and Verizon. Although it was not as spectacular as the iPhone 3G, it showed the Droid is the fastest-selling Android phone to date.

Compared to the myTouch 3G on T-Mobile, Droid outsold it by more than four times. Verizon has nearly 90 million subscribers to T-Mobile's 34 million. Verizon has a $100 million campaign.  Motorola forecastsits own Droid sales at one million through the end of the year or an ad cost of $100 per handset sold.

Flurry notes that Verizon's aggressive campaign adn 3G network advantage in key, populous regions of the country like the Northeast, position the Droid as a legitimate challenger to the iPhone.

A study by Nokia into the musical tastes of nearly 4,000 twins reveals genetic influences on the music people like varies with genre. Yes, your music taste is genetic. Country music-love is less genetic and comes more from training in the trailer park or truck stop. Your love of Dolly Parton is more likely to come from your environment than your family. A love of classical music, however, is more likely to be inherited.

Pyramid Research just published its Q3 2009 Handset Forecasts that show a dramatic increase in demand for smartphones. RIM which has 50% of the current smartphone marekt especially at Verizon.

Pyramid estimate smartphones will represent 31% of new handsets sold in the US in 2009, up more than double from 15% two years prior. Indeed, market leader Verizon claimed that smartphones represented 40% of its device sales in Q2 2009. These smartphone sales will be  propelled by US consumers' love for messaging and mobile Internet-based services on devices with qwerty keyboards, touch screens, HTML browsers, larger screens and sophisticated operating systems.

Pyramid believes that Verizon is the world leader in the sale of BlackBerry devices. Second place AT&T, the world leader in iPhone sales, reported similar success. AT&T sold 4.3m integrated devices in Q3 2009, and 75% were iPhones. At the end of the third quarter, 41.7% of AT&T's postpaid base had an integrated device, up from 22% in the year-ago period.

According to Pyramid smartphones will grow to comprise roughly 60% of new handsets sold in 2014. By then, they expect Apple's exclusive relationship with AT&T to have ceased, which could potentially make the iPhone available to an additional 200m US wireless customers.

eMarketer has released their take on the future of the mobile content, the demand will grow,  mobile web access will skyrocket, and mobile content providers should have learned from the web to pursue paid content.

Over the next several years, three major trends will fuel increasing demand for mobile content in the US: A growing number of mobile Internet users, a dramatic increase in the amount of money they spend on data plans and continued growth in smartphone sales.

eMarketer estimates that 68.6 million users will log on to the mobile Web at least once per month in 2009. By 2013, that number will increase to 126.2 million people.

Apple is now the world's most profitable handset vendor in Q3 2009. Nokia dropped to second  as margins have been hit hard by both the economic downturn and a stagnant presence in the United States, according to the latest research from Strategy Analytics.

Global Handset Operating Profits in Q3 2009

Global Handset Operating Profits (US$ Billions)	Q3 '09
Apple	1.6
Nokia	1.1

Source: Strategy Analytics

Alex Spektor, Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, "We estimate Apple's operating profit for its iPhone handset division stood at $1.6 billion in the third quarter of 2009. Apple overtook Nokia for the first time, which recorded a lower $1.1 billion of operating profit. With strong volumes, high wholesale prices and tight cost controls, the PC vendor has successfully broken into the mobile phone market in just two years."

According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the worldwide converged mobile device (aka smartphone) market reached a new record for shipments during a single quarter. Vendors shipped a total of 43.3 million units during the third quarter of 2009 (3Q09), up 4.2% from the 41.5 million units shipped in 3Q08, and up 3.2% from shipments of 41.9 million units in 2Q09.

Top Five Converged Mobile Device Vendors

Nokia maintained its position as the overall leader in the converged mobile device market. Driving shipments forward were its popular flagship device, the N97, and an improving enterprise-focused portfolio led by the E71. Nokia also announced its first Maemo-powered device, the N900, targeting high-end users. While its worldwide leadership position is clear, Nokia still struggles in North America.

comScore, Inc released a study of touchscreen mobile phone adoption in the U.S.and touchscreen phone adoption is growing rapidly. iPhone, LG Dare, LG Voyager (which also has a keyboard) BlackBerry Storm and Palm Treo top the list. The LG Dare used to be one of the few Verizon feature phones with email access that did not require a data plan. The younger crowd seems to be more "touchy" with higher percentages of touchscreen users in the younger demographics.

The study showed a significant 159-percent growth rate during the past year to 23.8 million users in August 2009.

The growth in touchscreen device adoption substantially outpaced the already strong 63-percent growth in U.S. adoption of smartphones. iPhone leads

Touchscreen Smartphone Adoption 3 Months Ending August 2009 vs. August 2008 Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers, Age 13+ Source: comScore MobiLens
Device Type	Subscribers (000)
	Aug-08	Aug-09	Percent Change
Touchscreen	9,219	23,843	159%
Smartphone	20,735	33,779	63%

Mobile advertising network, Millennial Media and DM2PRO.com, collaborated to explore of attitudes and spending plans of leading agencies and brands. The responses resulted in the development of "State of the Industry: Mobile Advertising".

CPG, Retail, Entertainment, Travel and Restaurant categories are expected to lead mobile spending; which is somewhat consistent with who is spending the most in mobile advertising today. Engagement leads the number one sought return for an investment in mobile marketing, though "opt-in", or list building, was cited as the most likely goal for Q4 campaigns.

• The largest cohorts replied that they will spend less than $100K in mobile advertising in 2009; however, that number jumps significantly in 2010.  With 60% of non-mobile marketers planning to employ mobile advertising in 2010, the increase in mobile spend is among the leading highlights:
• Mobile spending is expected to increase next year, with 31% of agency respondents stating that they will invest between $100K and $249K.
• More than 15% plan to invest more than $1M and 2.6% projected spending of greater than $5M.

The fourth quarter releases of smartphones including Android and BlackBerry, along with the success of the HTC Touch Pro2  are helping fuel a positive outlook for the wireless market in Q4.  We talked with senior research analyst Ramon Llamas at IDC who just released the IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

"The HTC Touch Pro2 is the kind of Windows experience that people have been wanting to see," remarked Llamas about the sold-out Windows smartphone. The HTC Touch Pro2 went on sale in September at Verizon, sold-out, came back-in-stock for a day and then sold-out again.

Another factor, contributing to his positive outlook for smartphones, is Verizon's Droid, "Everyone is optimistic on many fronts. Motorola is hopeful and Verizon is very positive," Llamas said.

Llamas pointed out that Motorola and Verizon are positioning the Droid feature-set squarely against the iPhone which shows their confidence in Droid. 

Smartphones such as the Motorola Cliq, HTC Hero, BlackBerry Storm2 and BlackBerry Bold 9700 contribute to the optimism for the growing smartphone market.

"The mobile phone market is showing the first signs of improvement since the onset of the economic crisis," Llamas said "During the third quarter, we saw a number of channels promoting older devices at significantly lower prices. For many, this was enough to spur demand and push volumes higher. Now that we have moved into the fourth quarter, vendors are setting the stage for further gains by launching their flagship devices to meet pent-up demand."

Personal computer (PC) vendors are eyeing up the booming smartphone market to offset a slump in computer sales, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide smartphone sales will grow by 29 per cent year-over-year to reach 180 million units in 2009, overtaking notebooks in total unit terms.

Currently smartphones account for 14 per cent of overall mobile device sales, but Gartner expects by 2012 they will make up around 37 per cent of global handset sales. Smartphone revenue is forecast to reach US$191 billion by 2012, higher than end user spending on mobile PCs, which is forecast to reach US$152 billion in 2012. From 2009, user spending on smartphones will start to surpass the forecast for consumer notebooks.

According to Gartner, PC vendors' cumulative share (Apple excluded) of the smartphone market has been static at less than 1 per cent for years. By the end of 2009, Gartner expects that all major PC vendors will have announced their aim to have a presence in the smartphone market. However, Gartner does not expect the share of any single PC vendor to rise above 2 per cent in the smartphone market during the next three years.

The second annual HipCricket Mobile Marketing Survey shows that while 37 percent of consumers would be interested in participating in a mobile customer loyalty program from a brand they trust while 83 percent say their favorite brand has yet to market to them via their most personal device, their mobile phone.

Mobile marketing campaigns are becoming significantly more influential and effective, according to the study. HipCricket found that of those consumers who have received mobile marketing offers, 47 percent have brand recall and 94 percent of those remember the specific call to action.

The survey highlights the continued influence of text messaging/SMS as both a communications and marketing tool. Specific findings include:

• Aside from phone calls, 73 percent of people said they use their mobile device most for texting friends
• 34 percent have received a marketing offer on their cell phone via text message (up from 28 percent in 2008.)

AdMob's latest metrics show explosive  mobile web and application usage over the past two years.The report  highlights the rapid growth in usage of mobile websites and applications on new devices in the past year.

In September 2008, the Motorola RAZR was the top device in the US, and the iPhone was the only touchscreen device in the Top 10. In September 2009, the list of the top 10 devices includes five with touchscreens, six with Wi-Fi capabilities, and six with application stores.  These devices are responsible for a much higher percentage of mobile usage than their share of handsets sold.

The top phones in September were the the iPhone, iPod Touch, T-Mobile G1, Samsung Messager (Metro PCS), and Palm Pre.


However, feature phones like the Samsung R450 and Motorola RAZR V3 still represent 60 percent of ad requests in the US.  The strong mobile web usage on these feature phones is likely driven by unlimited data plans.

Highlights from the September 2009 AdMob Mobile Metrics Report include:

• Devices running on the Android Operating System (OS) accounted for 17 percent of smartphone traffic in AdMob's network in the US in September 2009, up from 13 percent in August 2009. The HTC Dream (G1) was the number three device and the HTC Magic was the number 10 device in September 2009 in the US. As with the iPhone OS, much of the Android traffic in AdMob's network came from applications.
  

DFC Intelligence predicts the worldwide market for portable and mobile games is expected to grow to $11.7 billion by 2014. The primary driver of this growth is expected to be the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch systems.

By 2014, sales for games on the iPhone/iPod Touch are expected to account for about 24% of total portable game software sales.

"The dedicated portable game systems from companies like Nintendo and Sony are still expected to lead the market, but it appears growth for these devices has peaked. The platforms from Apple are expected to be responsible for the bulk of market growth over the next few years," says DFC analyst David Cole.

DFC also released some results from a study on the mobile game habits of over 8,000 game players in North America and Europe. 54% of respondents in North America and 69% of respondents in Europe had played a game on their mobile phone in the past year.

Javelin Strategy & Research issued a new report that reveals that banks' marketing efforts are not keeping pace with their actual mobile-banking services, and the imbalance is causing limited adoption of mobile-banking by consumers. Javelin's observations come from a study produced by the company's blend of quantitative consumer data, industry research data, experienced industry staff and rigorous process, which included 26 criteria for this particular study.

The study, 2009 U.S. Mobile Banking Benchmark Scorecard, found that 50 percent of financial institutions do not adequately address consumers' two primary mobile banking concerns. The report also rates the mobile-banking offerings of 18 top financial institutions based on features, access to mobile-banking services and marketing. Gold-category winners identified by Javelin include Bank of America, Chase, Citi, USAA and Wells Fargo.

The first Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) products are already lining up, ahead of a specification ratified by the Bluetooth SIG. According to a recent study from ABI Research, the BLE market will develop in two very separate stages. How well the players in each stage understand the technology and its potential will determine its success.

BLE is supported by two different technology implementations: dual mode and single mode ICs. By and large the two modes of IC will also be produced by two different groups of vendors, with each dependant on the investment and commitment of the other. Next year, single mode ICs will account for less than 3% of BLE chipset shipments.

Just over 2.5 billion BLE chipsets will ship in 2014 in a market that will grow at 78% CAGR between 2009 and 2014; but less than a third of those shipments will be for the single mode ICs.

"BLE will enter the market in two stages," says principal analyst Jonathan Collins. "First with support for BLE embedded in mobile handsets, and then a second stage when BLE devices come to market. Key is that both dual mode and single mode suppliers are confident that each will deliver and support BLE.

BLE will enable sensors and monitors to communicate with mobile handsets and other BLE-enabled devices using very low power communications. While existing low power short range applications such as sports and fitness equipment will be the first devices to market, there is further potential for more serious BLE health monitoring applications.

Gomez examined consumers' mobile Web experiences and expectations, in a study conducted by Equation Research on behalf of Gomez. The survey of 1001 mobile Web users found that:

• Two out of three have encountered problems when accessing websites on their mobile phones in the last 12 months.
• Slow load times were their number one issue, experienced by almost 75 percent of them.
• More than half reported that the website content was either too large or small for the size of their mobile phone's screen.