Posts tagged Billion
Local Mobile Ad Revenues Forecast: $5 Billion by 2016
Mar 30th
Mobile local ad revenues will grow to $5.01 billion in 2016. Meanwhile, mobile local search volume will intersect desktop local searches in 2015. Further boosting search’s share of mobile local ad revenue: location-targeted mobile search ads.
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In 2011, a Billion Smart Devices and Counting
Mar 29th
There are nearly 7 billion people in the world. In 2011, a smart device – be it a tablet, smartphone or a PC – was sold for one out of every seven of those people, according to estimates from International Data Corp. The research firm reports that about 946 million smart devices were shipped last year at a market valuation of $489 billion. Mobile is booming, with nearly 500 million of those devices being of the smartphone variety. The world is becoming connected, and growth does not project to slow any time soon.
By 2016, IDC predicts that 1.84 billion units will be shipped, and about a billion of those will be smartphones. That is a compound annual growth rate of 15.4%. While we often say, “company X is late to the game,” the projected growth in smart devices means that there will be significant room for market share to be spread around among intelligent companies that know how to make a dent.
Does that mean there is hope for Windows Phone?
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Taking Stock of the Landscape
Android held 29.4% of the market for devices running ARM CPUs in 2011 and is expected to grow to 31.1% in 2016. Apple’s iOS devices held 14.6% of the market and is expected to grow to 17.3% in 2016.
Android’s worldwide channel strategy is what gives it a leg up over iOS and Windows Phone. Android competes directly with lower-end “smart” devices from the likes of Nokia (Symbian), Samsung (Bada), BREW-based feature phones with connection to the Internet, and lower-end BlackBerries. And Android is winning the race because, on a feature level, it is a better product than any of those alternatives. Samsung knows this well. As the leading Android purveyor, it has flooded the market across the world with a variety of Android devices at varying price points. Say what you want about the Samsung Galaxy II versus the iPhone 4S, Samsung is starting to own the lower-end of the smartphone market.
Chart: Worldwide Smart Connected Device Shipments, 2010-2016 (Unit Millions)Description: This data comes from IDC’s WW Quarterly PC Tracker, WW Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, and WW Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker.Tags: Tracker, mobile phones, tablets, forecast, PCs, devices, consumer, IDC …Author: IDCcharts powered by iCharts
Nokia will have something to say about that. As the leading cellphone-maker in the world for the last decade, the province of the lower-channel and emerging markets has belonged to the denizens of Espoo, Finland. It is targeting its Asha devices at young consumers in emerging markets and will spend a lot of money to ensure that those devices find their way into users’ pockets.
The question becomes, what drives the 15.4% growth over the next four years? The U.S. market is not far from saturation, and Europe is not far behind in smartphone adoption. Nearly two-thirds of all young consumers in the U.S. have a smartphone. Overall smartphone market penetration in the U.S. will likely eclipse 50% in Nielsen’s March Mobile Insights report. As of February, penetration is at 49.7%.
Windows Phone, Market Leaders and the World
In the last three months, Android accounted for 48% of smartphone purchases in the U.S. Apple’s iOS wa second at 43%. That leaves 9% to be split among the remaining competitors, and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry took 5% of that.
There is not much room left in the U.S. market for competitors to make a dent. That does not mean that Nokia and Microsoft will not try to break down the door. The Nokia Lumia 900 is set to hit the market through AT&T on April 8th and will feature a multi-tier promotional blitz from the carrier, Nokia and Microsoft. In terms of up- and down-channel marketing, expect to see a lot of ads for the Lumia 900 wherever you go.
But will it make a difference? Nokia is targeting the U.S. market where news of its products have fallen on deaf ears since the beginning of the smartphone revolution. Michael Woodward, VP Mobile Device Portfolio at AT&T, told us yesterday that the Lumia 900 will be prominently featured in the front window of AT&T stores upon launch, and the staff will be trained to use the device. He also said that the “Smoked By Windows Phone” campaign would not be coming to AT&T stores but that sales representatives would be made aware of it.
We will have much more on the Lumia 900 next week. Stay tuned.
The fact of the matter is that right now, there is not a lot of room for horizontal movement within the U.S. for new manufacturers. Samsung dominates Android with HTC and Motorola picking up the slack, Apple has the iPhone and BlackBerry is a decaying brand. Can that change between now and 2016? Perhaps, but the first movers (Apple and Google) are cementing the advantage and closing the sales loop. While many pundits will point to the fact that Android has come out of the blue and captured an astounding amount of U.S. and world market share since 2009, it was built on a ubiquitous sales channel strategy, price and the access to apps, and, to a certain extent, the “cool factor.”
Any manufacturers looking to repeat the success that Android has had and dethrone it from the top spot will have to beat the platform on several different layers. Android’s rise has come at the expense of BlackBerry because it was touchscreen, had more apps, and better marketing and the backing of a hip tech giant. With billions of dollars now swirling around Android from a variety of sources, it is a very difficult incumbent to break.
Image: Nokia Lumia 800
With Windows Phone, Nokia should play up to one of its key strengths: Down-channel shipments and price. Like Android did in the U.S., Nokia has a chance to disrupt a market. The only difference is that the market Nokia will disrupt is its own, by phasing out Symbian and providing cheap but elegant Windows Phones.
Nokia and Microsoft cannot beat Android in the U.S. using the same blueprint that Android did. That opportunity has passed. The best it can hope for is to usurp RIM’s remaining marketshare and take a small sliver from Android.
But, as the IDC numbers show, that does not mean that Windows Phone is doomed. There will be about 7.615 billion smart devices sold between 2012-2016 and most of those will be smartphones. The ingredients are there for the platform to spread and still rake in billions of dollars in sales across the world.
The pie is getting bigger. That will give rise to opportunities for everybody.
Top image: Way Too Many Gadgets by Dan Rowinski
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Lookout Predicts Americans Lose $30 Billion in Smartphones a Year
Mar 22nd
We’ve all done it. You step out on the street after paying for your coffee at Starbucks or handing the cab driver a tip. Your first natural inclination is to reach in to your pocket, dig out your cellphone and call somebody and say, “hey, I’m on my way.” But your phone is not there.
Damn it.
Mobile security firm Lookout estimates that $30 billion worth of smartphones are lost every year in the United States. Sometimes those phones are found, many times they are not. Losing your phone is one of the most stressful events a person in a consumers’ day-to-day life. Many people rely on their smartphones for everything, from directions to contacts to pictures of their puppies and babies. It is an intensely personal device. If you have lost your phone, in many ways, you have lost yourself.
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In a new website launched today, Lookout takes a look at the lost phone conundrum. While Lookout user base is mostly U.S focused and Android-based, it still tracks $7 million in lost devices daily. Over the course of the year, Lookout located 9 million in 2011, or about one device every 3.5 seconds.
It is important to note that Lookout located these phones. That does not mean they were actually found. The sad reality is that once a phone is lost, the longer it takes you to find it, the likelier it is gone forever. Kind of like a missing persons case. I once used “find my phone” software to try and locate my device after a heavy night of drinking and could not find it, only to realize about three days later that it was in my couch cushions.
In the U.S. the most likely city to lose your phone is Philadelphia. Having spent significant time in Philly over the years, I can understand this. Mostly, I would lose almost all of my possessions just to escape being in Philly. Philadelphians are three times more likely to lose their phones than New Yorkers or San Franciscans who, in turn, are three times more likely to lose their phones than Chicagoans.
Philadelphians also lose their phones in weird places. For instance, the No. 1 place to lose your phone in Philly is the automotive shop, according to Lookout. A pizza place, church and an apartment were the next most likely places. In New York, phones were lost most often at a fast food restaurant, followed by coffee shops and apartments. It will come as a surprise to no one that San Franciscans lose their phones most often at coffee shops or at the office.
Phones are lost most often at night, particularly between the hours of 9 p.m. and 2 a.m. There could be a variety of reasons for this. It has been a long day and you are tired, not keeping track of your device. Or, you lost it earlier in the day and are just figuring out that it is not on your person. You may be working late at the office or the coffee shop and are in a rush to get out and go home.
Or, to the pub.
Drunk people lose stuff. This is a basic tenet of modern society. The most common place to lose your phone in London is at the pub. To be honest, this is where I tend to lose my device most often. I have left it sitting on the bar or at the table when with a group of friends. I have even left my phone at my local pub on purpose, trusting my local bartender buddies to keep me from drunk dialing ex-girlfriends. You would be surprised how well this works.
Lookout located $2.5 billion worth of devices in 2011, mostly Android and mostly in the U.S. That number was reached by averaging about $250 per device, which is pretty close to the cost of buying a new Android (after taxes and accessories etc.)
One interesting note that may have a correlation is that some cities that have the FBI’s highest crime rates were also in Lookout’s top 10 for lost phones. That includes Cleveland, Detroit, Oakland and Newark. While Lookout just processes the data and does not make the statement that “your phone is more likely to be stolen in this city,” it is interesting to note.
Not included in Lookout’s numbers are the psychological or enterprise toll that losing your phone has on an individual. For enterprise workers that lose there phones, the cost can be enormous. Trade secrets, contacts lists, access to company infrastructure are all concerns that IT departments have with workers who lose their phones. There is also the human cost for enterprises that must have IT guys set up device and application management software through companies like Apperian, App47, 3LM, Research In Motion, Symantec, Good Technology and a variety of others.
Do yourself, you business and your smartphone a favor. Do not lose your device. Use device tracking software through iOS or a variety of third-party applications to keep track of where it might be. Next time you reach into your pocket and find it empty, you will be glad you did.
Correction: The original headline of this article said Lookout predicts Americans lose $30 million in devices a year. The correct number is $30 billion.
Top and bottom images courtesy of Shutterstock
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Why Can’t Apple BUY Anything With Its $100 Billion?
Mar 19th
Having an extra $100 billion lying around isn’t a bad problem to have. And I don’t have an issue with Apple’s decision today to use some of that cash stash to pay dividends to investors and to buy back some of its stock.
But doesn’t that decision also indicate a lack of attractive companies for Apple to buy? I mean, $100 billion is a lot of money and you would think there would be something out there worth owning in that price range. Apparently, Apple doesn’t think so. Or at least it doesn’t think there’s any companies out there worth the price. And what does that say about the state of the technology industry.
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In the days leading up to today’s announcement, I heard all sorts of speculation on what Apple might do with the money. Some of the suggestions were serious, like buying Sprint, or even Twitter. DropBox has been mentione, too. $100 billion would even enable Apple to cover Facebook’s IPO price, or almost half of Google’s current market cap.
One could also argue that Apple should actually own at least parts of its vaunted supply chain. (Foxconn, I’m guessing, isn’t really for sale.) And with $100 billion, you could actually build infrastructure where-ever you wanted it. In the U.S., for example.
And just today, I’m reading suggestions that Apple should buy Adobe or Corel.
Why?
Apart from some small-ish deals, like Isreali flash-memory maker Anobit late last year, Apple has recently shied away from sspending serious money on companies.
Mostly, I think, because it doesn’t have to. As the world’s largest publicly held company (by market cap), Apple has the market clout to get outside vendors to do pretty much anything it wants, at terms very advantageous to Apple. No matter how much money you have, there’s no reason to take a risk when you don’t have to. And none of the businesses mentioned above, none of them, enjoys margins that compare to Apple’s gaudy figures.
On the other hand, Apple’s situation reminds me of when I was a kid and wished I had all the money in the world… until someone pointed out that if I had all the money, I couldn’t use it to buy anything.
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Conductor Leads the Half a Billion Dollar SEO Technology Sector With 300 … – MarketWatch (press release)
Mar 6th
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Conductor Leads the Half a Billion Dollar SEO Technology Sector With 300 …
MarketWatch (press release) NEW YORK, NY, Mar 06, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — Conductor, the leader in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) technology, is ready to take the SEO technology market into the next phase of accelerated growth with its Searchlight(TM) platform … |
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Google: 1 Billion People Will Use Mobile As Primary Internet Access Point In 2012
Feb 27th
Former AdMob executive Jason Spero, who is now Google’s head of mobile sales, took the stage earlier today at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona to offer up some new, global smartphone user survey data and 2012 predictions. The Google-sponsored survey had a sample size of roughly 1,000…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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181 Million Americans Watched 40 Billion Online Videos in January
Feb 24th
The comScore Video Metrix service reported this week that 181 million U.S. Internet users watched nearly 40 billion videos of online video content in January 2012. Also, we take a closer look at video game entertainment network Machinima.
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181 Million Americans Watch Over 40 Billion Videos Online In January – ReelSEO Online Video News
Feb 20th
 ReelSEO Online Video News |
181 Million Americans Watch Over 40 Billion Videos Online In January
ReelSEO Online Video News The following is an index of our more popular video search engine optimization (Video SEO, VSEO,… Many of us here at ReelSEO are still settling back into our routines following the awesome SMX West… Google has been giving users "instant previews" … |
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Search Ad Spending Could Hit $19.51 Billion in 2012 [Report]
Feb 1st
Led by Google and aided by the Summer Olympics and national elections, search ad spending will grow 27 percent to $19.51 billion in 2012, according to a new eMarketer report. By 2016, U.S. search spending could approach $30 billion.
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U.S. Mobile Ad Spending Forecast to Exceed $2.6 Billion in 2012
Jan 31st
Due to the rapid growth of mobile phones in the world and the advancement of Google’s mobile search advertising business, mobile ad spending is expected to grow past $2.6 billion in 2012. Overall ad share for Google is around 51 percent.
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