Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (KRX:005930) – the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturer – is apparently going through a bit of a rough patch. According to analysts this week, Samsung’s operating profits for the third quarter are projected to plummet 47%, while sales are projected to fall 15%. Samsung Q3 2014 revenue is also anticipated to fall short of expectations.
Samsung Facing Stiff Competition from Apple, Xiaomi
With cheaper competitors biting at their heels at the lower end of the market (namely Xiaomi) and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) supersizing the iPhone and making iOS 8 more customizable to bring it up to par with the premium Galaxy range, they have a battle on their hands from both sides.
The fact that Samsung was first to the market with a 5.5-inch screen won’t make much of a difference now that the playing fields are level and, with Appleselling 10 million iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus on the opening weekend last month, that’s 10 million people that presumably won’t be buying the Galaxy S5 or S6. They had their head start and now things are getting real.
Samsung revenue from mobile handsets peaked at the end of last year and seems to have been on a downward spiral since then. In fact, Samsung Q3 2014 revenue from mobile devices is expected to be lower than what the company had generated in December 2012 quarter.
With the smartphone wars usually framed in either an iOS vs. Android context on an operating system level, or an Apple vs. Samsung context on a handset level, Samsung and Android are pretty synonymous with each other in the smartphone space. Maybe not for long though with more and more viable competitors coming onto the scene like the aforementioned Xiaomi, and newer brands like the OnePlus One.
They have made more of an effort over the last few months to lessen their reliance on Android by pushing their Galaxy apps platform, trying to insulate themselves from becoming a commodity like Apple does with iOS, but with declining sales, they are in less of a position to do that.
While Apple iPhones are entirely in the high-end bracket, Samsung are in danger of getting stuck in a no-man’s land of being too expensive for the low-end of the market, and now being in a straight shoot out with Apple in the high-end.
So, what to do for Samsung? Focus on cheaper models to fight for market share in emerging markets like China and India? Innovate in areas that competitors can’t, like with the flexible screens that they have been testing? They certainly have the resources as well as a strong R&D department, but the market is being commoditized and a change of tact may be needed to stop the rot.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced the next version of the Windows OS will be named Windows 10 and will be available to consumers from April 2015. The new OS is expected to be a single unified OS available for all Windows powered devices, including Windows Phones, tablets and Desktop PCs. This is especially crucial to Microsoft’s hopes of gaining a stronger foothold in the smartphone market. According to AdDuplex statistics for Windows Phone for September 2014, the latest Windows Phone 8.1 OS is now present in 40% of WP devices and is expected to overtake the market share of Windows Phone 8 OS by the end of October 2014.
Nokia’s Popularity is Still Growing Strongly
Nokia still controls the monopoly of Windows phone devices with a massive market share of 95.14% worldwide. New devices powered by WP 8.1 released over the last few months has cemented Nokia’s position further, and several more Lumia models such as the Lumia 730, Lumia 735, Lumia 830 are all set to be released over the next few months. The new Nokia Lumia 630 has proven widely popular in several markets worldwide and has moved to the fourth place with a market share of 5.4%. The older Lumia 520 continues to be the most popular device with a market share of 30.6%.
Despite offering the Windows Phone 8.1 OS free of licensing fee to all OEM’s, only smaller firms such as Prestigo and Micromax have shown real interest. All the other firms, including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX:005930), Huawei Technology Co Ltd (SHE:002502) and HTC Corp (TPE:2498) have lost a bit of market share since August 2014.
Windows Phone OS In The United States
The market share of WP in the US is hovering close to 5%, but the large-scale adoption of Windows phone has been slow due to the lack of attention from the various telecom carriers. Over the past few months, the global rollout of Windows phone 8.1 OS has taken place at blistering pace globally, yet several carriers in the US are yet to release the update for Windows phone devices. New users are often discouraged from purchasing high-end Windows phone devices. This is the reason several low margin devices such as Lumia 520, Lumia 521, and Lumia 630 are still leading in the US Windows Phone market. AT&T remained the largest operator for Windows phone with a market share of 30.4%, followed by other large carriers including Verizon.
The Top Five European Countries
The European market is important for Windows Phone since countries such as Italy, Germany have done impressively well and have even exceeded the market share of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS. At present the market share of WP OS stands at 9.2% in the top five European countries. Windows phone has grown steadily at the expense of Apple in several European countries, and the emergence of a third viable ecosystem has also shifted perceptions towards Windows Phone in Europe. When taking Europe as a whole, the Lumia 520 had a market share of 31.8%, while the Lumia 625 has the second most popular device with a market share of 9.8%.
India And Brazil
Emerging economies such as India and Brazil represent two of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world. India is one such market where Microsoft hopes to challenge Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Android over the coming years. The launch of several low-cost smartphones through Android One has triggered the race in the low-budget smartphone market. To meet the challenge the low-cost Lumia 530 was introduced with a price tag less than US$100. Several other low cost devices such as the 520, 525 and the Lumia 630 are popular among users in India. The Lumia 520 is unsurprisingly the most popular device by market share at 34.2%. Other models include mid-range devices such as the Lumia 720, Lumia 625 and Lumia 620.
The situation is no different in Brazil. Here again low-cost devices are more popular with the Lumia 520 owning a market share of 44%. The older 710 model is surprisingly the second most popular device with a market share of 13.9%, while the third most popular device is the 720, with a market share of 9.7%. The Lumia 630 has again done well by reaching 4th position with a market share of 5.2%.
Is Starting Over Really Feasible?
It is clear from the outset that Windows Phone has failed to gain the much needed explosive growth required in several key markets. The market share of WP OS globally is a dismal 2.5%, and there are genuine concerns that Microsoft may not be able to stay relevant in the market with such low rates of adoption. The arrival of Windows 10 may once again restart the entire process, as a single unified OS would bring transformative changes to the User interface. This may end up creating frustration for users and developers alike. However, if Windows 10 can successfully provide a unified interface across all devices, it will truly be a great accomplishment.
More than 243 million Internet users in India, staring at the US to leapfrog it by the end of this year, hold massive opportunity for the bunch of E-commerce players. As the Asia becomes the power center of eCommerce Industry, players like Alibaba, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon India have started betting big on the market. But with so much of happenings in the space of online shopping there is also something else, which is going through a transition phase to drive the complete ecosystem of e-Business: Digital Content.
To discuss more about the changing equations of Internet penetration with mobile phone, we recently managed to get hold of Mr. Vikram Chandra, CEO – NDTV. In his brief discussion with Dazeinfo, he emphasized on the two driving forces that are completely transforming the digital content industry in India and change the way Internet users consume content. The unparalleled knowledge, expertise, experience and understanding – he garnered by interviewing many top executives including Bill Gates, Sundar Pichai, Eric Schmidt – of the industry makes Mr. Chandra’s remark invaluable.
He feels that the growth of the Internet Industry is one of the most powerful trends in our time. In the last 10 to 15 years the evolution of the Internet has been more than convincing and it has proved that the future belongs to the Internet. During the brief discussion, he insisted on two factors that are shaping the Internet for greater adaptability and would change the free-flow and consumption of information.
Here is the complete video after this break;
The growth of the Internet in India was phenomenal in the last few years. India has emerged as the most favorite country for many global online players, including the eCommerce giant Amazon, eBay and PayPal, who have kicked off their operations in India. Though, unlike US, India is not known for people with regular e-reading habits, the trend is changing now, especially after the massive adoption of Facebook. Mainstream Media print media houses have started focusing on Internet actively and are indulged in producing more content for their online publication than offline.
NDTV started exploring the potential of e-content nearly 10 – 15 years back, said Mr. Chandra. Being the third largest country by the number of Internet users, second largest country by the number of Facebook users and second largest country by the number of mobile subscriptions, the future of digital content industry in India is promising.
Just two years after the release of Windows 8, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has announced its successor; Windows 10; Yes, they’ve skipped a version number for Windows operating system. Microsoft has set out to correct a lot of mistakes which were a part of their previous major release, Windows 8.
Agree with it or not, Microsoft has been a very conservative, mostly because it didn’t want to shoo away its corporate clients. But when PC sales were declining sharply, Microsoft had to make sure that they don’t miss out. After the tremendous success of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad, and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) Kindle Fire, Microsoft came out with Windows 8 with a completely new look and feel, which was optimised for new generation products such as touch screen tablets and laptop/tablet hybrids but it still turned out to be a dud.
Microsoft’s problems started with Windows 8
Microsoft has had a history of launching unfinished products and use treat the developer community as their testing department, but Windows 8 was, by far, the most unfinished product that it has ever put in the hands of its customers. With two completely different interfaces and almost no unity among the modules and sections, Windows 8 looked like it was built with two different teams with no knowledge of the existence of each other. In anyways, satisfying two different classes of users having different priorities, usages was not easy for anyone. Probably, Microsoft didn’t learn anything from the failure of Apple and Google, who also tried to kill tow birds with a single stone.
The Metro UI, err.. Modern UI, in the Windows 8 operating system was far too complicated to be operated with keyboard and mouse. Even though Microsoft was supposed to bring a completely new UI with Windows 8, the end release had only some parts of the operating system with a new look, while most parts remained untouched. The biggest mistake by Microsoft was to force touch optimized UI to the traditional keyboard and mouse users. They assumed that desktop users would pick up and comply to the new UI, but they were wrong.
In Windows 8, Microsoft completely removed the Start button and replaced it with an all new Start Screen. Every Windows user was so accustomed to the Start Button that they couldn’t cope up with its absence. Desktop users found the Modern UI hard to use with keyboard and mouse.
Modern UI consisted of new elements such as a completely new Start Screen, Live Tiles, Charms Bar, etc., which were great for touchscreen devices but not for non-touchscreen ones. While using Modern UI apps, some basic UI elements such as the status bar, title bar etc. were hidden which marred navigation in and out of the apps when using keyboard and mouse. Due to these issues, multitasking became a struggle for non-touchscreen users.
On the other hand, touchscreen device users with Windows 8 found it hard to use conventional features such as file manager, settings, etc. In fact, there were two different sections of settings, one which could be accessed from the Charms Bar and the one which could be accessed through desktop.
What did Microsoft learn from its mistakes to improve Windows 10?
After a huge backlash from traditional desktop/laptop users, Microsoft released a minor update (Windows 8.1) which brought some necessary improvements in the usability, such as the Start Button (not the Start Menu though). There were new keyboard and mouse controls when using modern apps, but there was still a lot to be done. Windows 10 accomplishes a lot of those things. First of all, Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 will run on every device, including smartphones, tablets, hybrid devices, desktops, laptops, and even the IoTs (Internet of Things). Looks like Windows 10 is the true “one OS to rule them all” operating system we all were waiting for.
The Start Menu makes a comeback with Windows 10, but with a slight twist. It now consists live tiles of modern apps installed through Windows Store. Also, the Start Menu would be able to convert it to and from the Continuum view. This view expands the Start Menu into a full screen app when touchscreen is used.
The Windows Store will list both modern apps as well as traditional apps and games. During BUILD 2014, Microsoft announced Universal Apps which are based on new Windows runtime. They can run on smartphones, tablets, hybrids, desktops and Xbox One. These apps are faster than traditional desktop apps and are resolution independent. These apps leverages common code, but developers will now have an ability to target specific device type and show the app UI accordingly. Also, all Windows Store apps can now run in a window, so users can use desktop and Modern apps at the same time.
Snap, a feature introduced in Windows 8, allowed two Windows apps to be run at the same time with one app covering 70 percent of desktop area while the other app covering 30 percent desktop area. With Windows 10, up to four apps can be snapped and used at once, thus greatly improving the multitasking ability of the user. Microsoft has also announced a long needing feature; Multiple Desktops. Just like Linux and Mac OS X, Windows 10 will allow users to add multiple desktops and segregate their apps or tasks accordingly. These features which power users would like a lot.
Windows 10 brings multiple security features such as multi-factor authentication based on smart-cards/tokens, full device data encryption, app level data encryption as well as file level data encryption. Mobile Device Management tools are supported by Windows 10. This means that small and medium level business owners don’t need to buy specialized solutions. Business can now select whether to install all available updates, or only the critical security patches. Windows Store will now allow volume license purchasing. These licenses can be reclaimed from older systems and reallocated to newer machines.
Microsoft will also be encouraging business communities and enterprise employees in easing the BYOD trend with Windows 10. They have announced that Windows 10 will be compatible with “all traditional management systems in use today.”
This is a make or break situation for Microsoft
Last week, HP announced that it would split itself in two parts, which raises some questions about the future of the PC industry. But according to the latest report, the PC market remained stable in Q2 2014 – flat is the new high. Last week, Apple was reported as the fifth largest PC maker in the world, defeating Asus (TPE:2357).
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is trying hard to sell inexpensive Chromebooks as an alternative to Windows based laptops. Chromebooks were thrown off the cliff by saying that it lacks native apps and would not get the real work done. But Sundar Pichai introduced an update to Chrome OS, which would allow full-fledged Android apps to run on Chromebooks. Right now, Google is working closely with select Android developers, that would result in a lot of Android apps and games available on Chromebooks in the future. Consequently, the sales of Chromebook is expected to reach 5.2 million in 2014 and would enjoy 5% of PC market share by 2017.
If you have a look at the numbers, a large part of Microsoft’s revenue gets generated by licensing (commercial and consumer). The adoption rate of Windows 8 was lower than that of Windows Vista, which clearly speaks that there is a large percentage of users who are still using Windows 7, waiting for a proper upgrade. So right now, the best thing for Microsoft to do would be to make Windows 10 a great package for desktop and enterprise users so that they can upgrade from Windows 7. PC is still a critical part of people’s lives, if not central.
While Microsoft had lost two crucial years with Windows 8, there’s still time correct those mistakes. Microsoft has announced that Windows 10 would be a free upgrade to Windows 9 users. This would make all the users happy who felt cheated by making an investment in Windows 8. Besides, it would greatly enhance the adoption rate of Windows 10.
Coming on to mobile products like smartphones and tablets, Microsoft hasn’t seen any improvement in its smartphone market share. In spite of Nokia’s (NYSE:NOK) acquisition by Microsoft, Windows Phone is still hovering around 3-4 percent of market share. According to a report, Microsoft earned significantly large revenue from Android when compared to Windows Phone OS. In total, Microsoft might have collected around $3.4 billion from Android patent agreements across the industry in 2013.
Satya Nadella’s “Mobile First, Cloud First” seems to be working as Microsoft’s recent earnings report showed 147 percent growth in revenues from its cloud services such as Azure. Also, Office 365 has taken off impressively since they rolled out Microsoft Office for a wide variety of devices, including Android, iPhone, iPad, and the web. Microsoft is showing signs of growing to a platform-based company from a software-based one. Windows 10, if done right, could be an ecosystem for consumers, enterprises, and developers by hitting a right note in all the growth areas, including smartphones, tablets, wearables, and IoT.
After the recent visits of few tech honchos, including Sheryl Sandberg from Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB), Jeff Bezos from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Satya Nadela from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), it’s time for Mark Zuckerberg to explore opportunities in India. The Founder and CEO of the online social networking giant is on an official visit to India to address the first Internet.org Summit and would also meet Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi along with few other members of key ministries. Mark Zuckerberg is expected to have a discussion more on the lines of making the internet available to villages and rural areas of India with the help of other key partners of Internet.Org project, which includes Samsung, Nokia, MediaTek, Opera, Qualcomm, Ericsson and, of course, Facebook.
Zuckerberg’s Internet.Org initiative has got an aim to make the Internet more affordable for people who are completely disconnected from the evolution of technology. In the next five years, the project is aiming to bring 5 billion people across the globe on the Internet who don’t have internet connectivity. Definitely, the task is not going to be easy; therefore Mark Zuckerberg has brought the elite forces together to make the initiative more actionable and deliverable.
On the first day of his visit, Mark Zuckerberg took the stage talking how exactly the Internet could transform millions of life by providing the free access to knowledge. Here is the complete video of Mark Zuckerberg’s talk at Internet.org Summit:
1 Billion Facebook Users: India A Key Player
But that’s not all Mark Zuckerberg is targeting in his visit to India. Eventually, it’s much more than what is seems and published on media. Remember, how Sheryl Sandberg met Modi with a bag of suggestions of using Facebook for betterment of governance, effective interaction between government and people, and to attract more tourists to India. Barely, after two months, Mark Zuckerberg’s visit to India for Internet.Org Summit can’t be considered as a sole motive to promote the project. Mark Zuckerberg is on a mission to have 1 billion active monthly Facebook users from Asia region and India being the second largest country on Facebook with the biggest opportunity window, will play a key role in accomplishing his mission. The region is going to have a significant impact on the company’s performance in the future and investor are highly concerned about no-dollar-only-number growth in the region. Mark Zuckerberg is left with no other option but to be involved in number game in Asia to insure the speedy growth of Facebook in the future and India will play a key role in this. Let me explain you;
Asia is the fastest developing continent in the world. Two majors China and India, containing the one-third of the global population, primarily drive this growth. For any business major, which is indulged in the B2C business model, a sizable population of a growing economy is an opportunity to leverage and Mark Zuckerberg understands this very well. Both, China and India are the two largest countries by the number of Internet and mobile numbers. Though, India is trailing the US closely by the number of Internet users, but soon the country is expected to leapfrog the US, probably in the next few months. China has 632 million Internet users, with a penetration rate of 46.9%. Internet scenario in India slightly different from China, but the country holds an enormous growth opportunity in the future. The country has nearly 243 million internet users, resulting in 19% penetration. In 2018, the Internet user base in the country is projected to touch 500 million.
In mobile and smartphone section, China poses the biggest land of opportunity with nearly 1.2 billion mobile subscriptions. More than 700 million smartphone users in China have already upgraded their feature phone with Smartphone. In India, the penetration of smartphone is still just 9% though; total number of mobile subscriptions has already crossed 918 million by July 2014. The statistics clearly portrays a lucrative picture for company, likes of Facebook, deeply indulged in the business related to Internet or Mobile.
But that’s not all; both China and India are also one of the fastest growing economies in the world. China recently overtook US to become the largest economy in the world.
Facebook’s Failed Attempt To China
In 2010 and 2011 Mark Zuckerberg paid two visits to China to tap the market and open gates for Facebook. Unfortunately, China’s closed and confined ecosystem didn’t respond well to Mark and Facebook failed to present any challenge to the dominating homegrown social networking sites Renren, Kaixin001.com and 51.com. By the beginning of 2012 Mark Zuckerberg apparently understood, and accepted, the fact that breaking into the Chinese market may not pay off well to the investment and efforts. Instead, the open culture of neighboring India will welcome Facebook with both hands and would be a far better strategic move for Facebook to grab the largest pie of the growing economy. In the following three years, Facebook increased its employee base in India by multi-folds and the total user base crossed 100 million mark. Now, India is the second largest country for Facebook by the number of users and the only country after US, having user base more than 100 million.
India Driving The Growth For Facebook in Asia
But in the last two years, while Facebook recorded an unprecedented growth in India, Mark was busy in monitoring the revenue contribution from India and Asia region. The tally of the total number of users kept showing an impressive surge, but ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) failed to create much impact on the total balance sheet of Facebook. Between Q2, 2012 and Q2, 2014, Facebook nearly doubled the number of users in Asia region. The total number of Facebook users in Asia increased from 255 million to 410 million in just two years, and a large chunk of this growth came from India. The growth of 60% in just two years from Asia region eclipsed the performance of the US & Canada and Europe during the same period. While US & Canada region recorded mere 10% growth – from 186 million users to 204 million users – between 2012 and 2014, Europe performed better with 20% growth during the same period.
However, the scenario changed upside down when these figures were exchanged with the revenue contributed by each region. US & Canada region emerged as the top revenue puller for Facebook contributing nearly 45% of company’s total revenue in Q2, 2104. In the last 2 years, quarterly revenue from the region more than doubled. With nearly 28% contribution to the company’s total revenue in Q2,2104, Europe emerged as the second largest country. Interestingly, Asia region failed to present an impressive show despite of recording a three-fold increase in its quarterly revenue. The region contributed mere 15% of the company’s total revenue in Q2, 2014.
The main reason behind this disappointing performance of the Asia region – despite of having the maximum number of users – is due to the fact that users in Asia don’t spend much on online advertising. In Q2, 214 Facebook’s Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) from the region remained $1.08 against worldwide ARPU of $2.24 and $6.44 from the US & Canada region.
The market in the US & Canada and Europe is saturating now. Both the regions are failing to add a sizable number of users to the total tally of Facebook and most of the new users coming to Facebook belong to the Asia region. However, these new users are failing to bring sizable revenue to Facebook, which has become a cause of concern for the Mark Zuckerberg.
The growth of mobile phone, especially smartphone, in the Asia region has attracted mark Zuckerberg. India – the second largest country by the number of mobile phone subscriptions and the fastest growing smartphone market – would have a significant impact on overall Facebook revenue in the future. In Q2, 2014, 62% of Facebook’s total advertising revenue came from mobile and with each passing quarter the share of mobile ad revenue is surging up. The growing share of mobile in the company’s total quarter revenue has convinced Mark Zuckerberg to tab India now, especially after the focused strategy adopted by Google to penetrate the country with low-price smartphones. Google has planned to spend INR 100 Crs (US$16.5 million) on advertising to promote low-price Android One smartphones in India.
By now, it’s evident that Facebook will have to have focused approach on the Asia region. With no positive signs from China, India will be the best bet for Facebook to keep its growth intact in the future. However, lower penetration of the Internet and Smartphone, and low ARPU in Asia region is a big challenge. Therefore, by adding more people in India with Internet and Smartphone through Internet.org project, Mark Zuckerberg could quickly take the total tally of Facebook users in Asia region to 1 billion in just 3 to 4 years from now. This will not only help Facebook to bring in more revenue dollars from the region, but will also increase ARPU from the Asia region.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has proved once again that competitors will have to sweat a lot to leapfrog iPhone/iPad maker to become the best global brand. In 2014 Interbrand list of Best Global Brands, technology companies Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL), International Business Machine Corp (NYSE:IBM) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) failed to dethrone Apple from its top position despite of registering a sizable surge in their brand valuation. Apple’s brand valuation surged by 21% to 118.86 billion, followed by Google and Coca-Cola with brand valuation $107.43 billion and $81.5 billion respectively. Compared to the last year, the list of top 5 best global brands remained unchanged this year. Facebook emerged as the top riser with the greatest percentage of growth, resulted in brand valuation of $14.34 billion. The online social media giant makes a big leap from 52ndposition to 29thposition this year. Overall Amazon, Volkswagen, Audi and Nissan were the other top risers by recording more than 20% rise in their brand valuation.
American companies primarily dominate the list of Best Global Brands 2014. 59 companies in the list belong to America, out of which 54 belong to the US. Companies belong to Automotive and Technology sector made the most in the list. While 14 companies belong to the Automotive industry, 13 companies from Technology sector challenged its dominance. It’s important to note that the Interbrand didn’t consider Amazon and eBay as Technology company and put them in the category of Retail along with IKEA.
Interbrand is the world’s leading brand consultancy with a net-work of 31offices in 27 countries. The company’s list of Best Global Brands 2014 is based upon three key valuation of each company: Financial Analysis, Role of brand and Brand strength. There could be some subjectivity at play in deciding the valuation of each brand, but Interbrand claims its methodology is the first of its kind to be certified by the International Organization for Standardization.
As history speaks, in a month before every new iPhone launch Apple sees a drop in its sales as the current users hold out any new purchase in the wake of new product. However, as per the new data released by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech for the US, steady sales were observed for three months ending August. Apple’s smartphone share dropped to 30.5% in the US, a dip of 0.9 percentage points with respect to the same time period in 2013. This has not come out as a big surprise seeing the market drift towards low cost smartphones. The pattern can be observed even among the existing phones of Apple with iPhone 5 being the most in demand. It’s worth questioning: Why will one spends $999 bucks to be an iPhone user if it can be managed in $ 499 with just slightly different technicalities?
iPhone 5s topping sales, price rose post launch of iPhone 6
iPhone 5c and 5s have been the most in demand post new launch. This is a bit shocking since with the weekend sales record of iPhone 6/6 Plus out, it was expected otherwise. This has led to the overall steadiness of Apple’s share in the market. Kantaraanalyzed company’s smartphone share in the UK and came out with the following graph:
What even more interesting to note is the fluctuation in the price of iPhone 5 versions. Price of iPhone 5 actually rose, following the announcement of iPhone 6/6 Plus! Though we do not expect current versions of any existing smartphone to go obsolete overnight, however, increase in their price is obviously not the trend. Moreover, with problems like bending, loss of cellular service being revealed in new iPhones, iPhone 5s’c will continue to retain their markets. Data provided by Terapeak after having a look at EBay sales for iPhone 5s shows some fascinating ups and downs.
The sales of iPhone 5s though definitely went down since the announcement of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus with consumers with-holding new purchases. Even here noteworthy is the fact that after a few weeks, a rise in its sale was observed and the growth has been steady since.
It won’t be wrong to conclude that among all iPhone versions, iPhone 5s has definitely been the reason for Apple’s steady success. Though the sales of iPhone 6/6 plus did plunge, they can’t do much to account for Apple’s declining smartphone market share.
Apple’s market share fell across all smartphone markets worldwide
As ComTech puts it “Apple has managed to limit the drop this year with its share of sales dipping just 1.6 percentage points versus July this year – almost half the equivalent drop seen in 2013 ahead of the iPhone 5 launch.”
This stillness in the sale is being attributed to the success of iPhone 5c, which was reportedly best-selling phone in Britain in August with 8.9% share surpassing iPhone 5s with 7.6% and Samsung Galaxy with 6.0%. This will also affect the upgrade cycle as prior to launch, 85% of British iPhone users intended to upgrade given the possibility. However, with iPhone 6 and 6 Plus out, some one-third people of 13.3 million iPhone population are ready to upgrade. The figure could have been on a higher end had iPhone 5s lost its popularity at a go.
In the US too, iPhone 5s (12.9%) can anytime outnumber the current leader Samsung Galaxy S5 (13.8%). iPhone 5c is not far behind with share of 8.8%. This again backs iPhone 5s/ iPhone 5c popularity in the market.
Android continues to be a headache for Apple
How much we continue to predict the future of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, they being newly launched, there is a bigger problem lurking behind. The popularity of Android is continuously increasing. With names like Xiaomi’s Mi3/ Mi4, Redmi 1s churning out dirt-cheap smartphones, Android smartphones are available at cost as low as $50. Android low-cost phones are already a rage in economies like India where price and design have long been prime factors. Android One is another project, which threatens Apple’s market hold. In the US the sales of smartphones with screen size between 5″ and 5.4″(majority of such phones are Android) sailed around 24.45% of overall sales. This is in contrast to 3.9% for screens with size 5.5″ and above.
The future of Apple is definitely not that can be predicted. Fiksu shows that 14 days since its launch adoption rate of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus is 4.62% as compared to 3.69% of iPhone 5 versions. This marginal lag, despite of the bigger display of iPhone 6 series, is of high significance since it shows the current popularity of previous versions. Apple has to work upon its existing strategies if it targets to retain its loyal user base!
With the worldwide smartphone shipment crossing a staggering figure of 300 million mark in Q2 2014, as per the latest figures by IDC, people are looking for avenues for engaging themselves in the mobile applications. Of all the revenue generated by these smartphones a significant portion comes from apps devoted to the gaming sector. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) App Store and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) PlayStore deserves special mention owing to their dominance in the smartphone market. For Apple, games contribute a major chunk of the total revenue generated from App store while the same stands for Google from its PlayStore. However, the share of Apple’s App store in revenue generation leads that of Google’s PlayStore by a good margin. The difference is no surprise, thanks to the boom of Android powered devices.
As the gaming companies continue to develop applications, addictive games and new consoles, gamers will always have a good amount of options to hold on to. A new report on Global Mobile Gaming App Industry 2014 and distribution of Android gaming apps, by Flurry, sheds light on this global pastime by investigating various scenarios in all gaming categories. This is, however, restricted to Android games in view of their huge market share. The report claims that on an average a person spends 37 minutes a day on these games.U.S.A. tops the chart with nearly 51.8 minutes in a day. Past three years have seen a significant growth in the US. Due to increased adoption of smartphones and tablets, bigger screen size saw nearly 50% console gamers using these devices in 2013. It is an increase of 15% with respect to that in 2011 on similar standards. Following the US, is Germany, where average daily time in Android games in 47.1 minutes.
Russia and Italy manage to keep their bars above the global average with the average time being respectively 40.8 and 36.2 minutes in a day. What makes the data interesting is the marginal difference between South Korea and India since the latter saw the industrial revolution at quite a later stage comparatively. However, its reason can be based on grounds that low-end smartphones have become widely popular in the sub-continent. Surprising is the fact that the UK lags still behind with 32.4 minutes, thanks to the popularity of Apple there. China wraps up the top 10 list with 28.6 minutes. An overview of the top ten countries in this section reveals that mobile gaming is not limited to a certain geographical region. Covering a major area globally, it is the lingua Franca of the new generation indeed.
Arcade & Action and Casual games are the most preferred of all gaming sessions
When Flurry analyzed the distribution of gaming app sessions by category and country, it found that Arcade and Action lead the pack, followed by casual games. The former was most popular among South Koreans with the share as high as 74%, followed by China at 53%. Brain & Puzzle games were found to be more addictive amongst natives of Italy and Germany . Casual games found to be largely popular among all countries. It was the proportion of Casino and Sport Games that was quiet less than expected seeing their popularity on the real ground scenario. Brazil, known as the mecca of Soccer, as expected, was ahead in the line in sports games, with 8% share. This however does not give a clear picture of which country engaged in which game significantly more than the other.
Flavors for the favorites vary from one country to another
When the comparison was done on the basis of monthly session frequency by category and country, quiet expected results were found. Monthly session frequency in simple words, is the average number of times an app is opened by a user in a month. This gives a comparative study of the popularity of one game category over the other from region to region. In addition, it helps in analyzing how much the worldwide average stands when compared to country’s monthly frequency. It turns out that Germans love playing Brain and Puzzle games with 66 monthly sessions. This can be attributed to the high literacy rate in Germany. This is marginally followed by Italy with 61 monthly sessions. It is no less popular among Americans where the puzzle is played by almost every second gamer.
Indian on the other seem addicted to Cards and Casino, generating the monthly frequency of 68, 119% more than the global worldwide average of 26. This wasn’t surprising since India is a young country with an average population of 25. The young blood will definitely not be expected to reach out for brainy games! Brazil, crazy over Soccer, saw a monthly frequency of 27. South Korea has its popular social messaging platform Kakao, which is popularly used for mobile games. They prefer arcade type games unlike Russians, who with 39 monthly sessions, prefer casual games, the report analyzed.
Game developers will lookout for games with the broadest appeal!
With highest penetration rate, Arcade & Action and Casuals undoubtedly have the highest appeal. Talking factually, as high as 82% of South Koreans were seen playing Arcade & Actions despite the fact that it contributes 74 % in countries gaming sessions. On similar comparisons, Italy and Germany take the lead in Brain & Puzzle whereas it is Casuals for the Russians with 69% of all devices engaging in at least one session of a Casual game. These variations can be based on various factors like internet penetration rate, literacy rate, an average age of the population, higher bandwidth availability etc.
It turns out that gaming with its own dialect and sentiments has varied distribution across the borders. As this explosion of adoption continues and online gaming continues to proliferate on smartphones and tablets, its worth is estimated around $37.91 billion by 2015, globally. It will be imperative for application developers understand the choices of gamers from region to region to increase the profit.
A big part of realizing your potential is pushing yourself to the limits. Luckily, that’s really easy to do when it comes to social gaming. The industry has evolved into a US$2 billion-plus sector and it is estimated to be double over the next four years, said analyst Robert Shore in a recently held Global Gaming Expo 2014.
While most of the social gaming app developers are trying to create its own niche in the sector, the UKs most popular social game, online bingo is rapidly asserting itself. It’s no wonder that more people are turning to bingo than any other social game. And there is a whole lot of interest from men and women, across all age groups. Online bingo has turned convention on its head and is now available for everyone to enjoy. Leading from the front is Tasty Bingo – the UKs most delicious online bingo room.
Bingo to Go?
Who would have thought it – bingo to go? We’re now in an age where even your favourite bingo rooms, bonuses and promotions can be enjoyed on your iOS smartphone or tablet. And players are voting with their feet – tapping into their bingo brains in the process. Of course the good thing about playing on the Tasty Bingo app is that it’s really easy to get up and running. There are no complicated rules and procedures to follow – it’s a cinch. This is how easy it is to download and install the TastyBingo app:
Search for the Tasty Bingo app on the web
Scan the QR code for the Tasty Bingo app
Text the word Tasty to 88811 and follow the instructions
Features of the Tasty Bingo App
As a new player, you get to tap into a generous welcome bonus package. Newbies will enjoy a 200% bonus plus an extra £10. There are plenty of games for players to enjoy, including the favourites – 75 ball bingo and 90 ball bingo. In addition to the US and UK variants, there are also progressive jackpot bingo games and guaranteed bingo prizes. Players will get to pit their bingo prowess against fellow players as they race against the clock to devour the tasty bingo treats on offer. Some of the most flavorful gaming options include Filthy Rich, Disco Dollars, The Slots and Poseidon. There are many other delicious attractions at this online bingo room, and players have the option to prebuy tickets to these games too.
Technical Aspects of the App
The TastyBingo app was developed by Cassava Enterprises of Gibraltar and it’s available for iPhone and iPad players. Unlike many other gaming apps, this one is 100% free to download and install. It was recently updated and the current version is 1.0.1. It is 6MB to download and install and is available in English. Players are required to be at least 17 years old to download and install the app. However, real-money players must be at least 18 years old. The app is compatible with iOS 6.0 and later versions. The new iPhone 6 works great with the high-tech app for a superb online bingo experience. Players call it addictive, exciting and engaging – and the bingo games aren’t too shabby either!
Feeling the onslaught of dirt-cheap Android handsets in the market, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is busy revising its strategy to win back the lost hardware makers who have shifted their focus on cheap licensable Android OS for smartphones and Chrome OS for Chromebooks. The companies could have partnered with Microsoft for manufacturing PC and a good quantity of smartphones but opted for Google. The crux of the situation lies in the “Cost”. No wonder in today’s device market with razor-thin margins, price have a real importance.
Low Cost of Android and Chrome OS License give reason to device makers to look beyond Windows
Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) has long made Android readily available for anyone to use this platform for free. This has helped out emerging smartphone manufacturers like Xiaomi and Micromax to flourish with their cheap headsets. Also, companies have found low-cost Chrome OS – again a Google product – more profitable to use in Chromebook laptop against Windows. The makers knew that licensing Android and Chrome OS are way cheaper than licensing Windows/Phone and this would have a significant impact on their overall pricing strategy in the market driven by cut-throat competition.
Demand of low-cost devices on rise
The demand of cheap smartphones pegged with mid-range specifications is on the rise. Though 2014 Q2 saw Android having the largest share in the smartphone shipments, the observation was that users are increasingly looking past the high-end Android powered devices, e.g. Samsung Galaxy towards the inexpensive phones. This has led to the squeezed earnings and shipments of giants like Samsung and rise of the homegrown and low-price device manufacturers like Xiaomi and Micromax in world’s two largest and fastest growing smartphone markets. Xiaomi alone with a total of 15.1 million smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2014 captured a market share of 5.1% and became the fifth largest smartphone vendor in the quarter beating many giants like LG, Nokia and few more; for a startup with just four years of existence it’s a kind of a big deal. In China, the company’s market shared soared to 14% in Q2, 2014 and became the top smartphone vendor by beating smartphone giants Samsung and Apple. Riding on Android OS, this Chinese smartphone vendor has taken the world stage by storm with its two products Xiaomi Mi3 and Redmi 1S. We can gauge the popularity with the fact that in India itself, within first 6 weeks since the launch, this chinese startup sold 135,000 units of both the smartphones, while hundreds of thousand prospective buyers are still waiting in the queue.
Windows has existed in the market since 2010 but its contribution to market share has always been minimal, barely touching 5% mark. According to the released figures by IDC, depicting worldwide smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2014, share of Microsoft’s Windows phone mobile OS fell by almost 10% in last one year. Its market share shrunk 9.45% in the second quarter from 3.4%, to 2.5%. With Windows loosing grounds, it’s a matter of question if it can ever come close to compete with big-guns like Apple and Samsung!
The situation is no much different in PC markettoo whereMicrosoft is facing heat because of Chromebook. At Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner conference, Kevin Turner, COO – Microsoft, said that he did not rule out a possible scenario of sacrificing licensing margins to hit low-end PC market. As per a forecast by Gartner, low-price laptop Chromebook will have a 2% share in sales of all personal computers in 2014, which will soar to 5% by 2017. Microsoft definitely cannot ignore the growing influence of low-price laptops on the market. With Acer’s aggressive approach to push the sales of Chromebook and HP’s expected announcement of its own Chromebook, Microsoft needs to seriously fare well on this ground since it is already struggling to match up the competition in the mobile arena.
Efforts in line; Microsoft needs to convince with something really new
In an effort to re-establish its reign in the market, Microsoft has made certain changes. Firstly, it made Windows Phone OS free on smaller devices. Seeing the rage of smaller screen preference among users, Microsoft did this for the devices sporting 9 inches or under, diagonally. Though Android could be licensed easily, but Google does ask for a licensing fee for manufacturers if one wants to access Google Play Store and Google Apps. Hence, Microsoft’s revised strategy did give manufacturers a reason to see it as an alternative.
It also went ahead by removing the restrictions and requirements; now the Android device makers can use their low-hardware handsets with Windows Phone too.
Besides, The company has also reworked on the specifications for Windows OS in a way that now it can work on low-hardware handsets too. But, with the failure of Windows 8 when compared to the expectations, Microsoft needs to bring out something really convincing.
Windows 10: Will it give Microsoft the much-needed launch pad?
Despite all the rumours about Windows 9, it was actually Windows 10 that took over the stage. With all leaked photos being viral on the internet, it was a surprise for one and all. Jumping over “Windows-9”, Microsoft has reveled its latest Windows 10 OS, with a formal release in mid-2015. In the company blog post, Terry Myerson, the Microsoft executive vice president in charge of the Windows division said,”The name represents the first step of a whole new generation of Windows.”
It has come back with “Start” option keeping track of its popular demand and is capable of working on a wide range of devices. The success of this new Windows OS will be closely monitored by one and all. The pressure on Microsoft to retain its computing market without sacrificing it for the sake of making strong hold in smartphone market is also mounting up.
With so many transitions in between and growing competition, Microsoft’s new strategy to grab a sizable chunk of the pie, especially in the mobile market, looks convincing. Though, smartphone and tablet vendors have started showing interest in the Windows Phone OS, it will be too early to expect that with few number of Windows powered devices and yet-to-be-launched new OS, Microsoft could grab a sizable chunk of the pie. However, these new changes and initiatives will have a meaningful impact on the sales of Windows Phones in 2015.
Fan penetration is one of the most important factors on Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) which provides a complete overview to focus on one’s social media activities as it provides the insight how well a person is able to reach the community he or she is building on Facebook. Hence, it’s a crucial success determinant for an influential social media presence which ultimately results in yielding positive ROI. But in recent times a gradual decline is being observed in the Fan penetration of Facebook because, in spite of employing numerous tactics to lure in customers, the reach of brand pages has been just limited to 11.3% of fans. Furthermore, the approximated 100 million duplicate Facebook accounts have negatively impacted the authenticity of real admirers of the page. Hence all these factors have led to the dropping of fan penetration on Facebook but on the contrary, have increased the Engagement rates on this giant social network.
According to a recent study conducted by Komfo,it was revealed that the Facebook pages’ posts reach a smaller amount of their fanbase, but the viewers who do take a glimpse of posts actually engage more and click on posts. The study took into consideration 8,000 brand pages internationally from August 2013 to August 2014 and deduced that overall click-through has gone up 48 percent year-over-year, but fan penetration has come down 55 percent on year-over-year basis.
The transition of fans to engagers
The social media marketers are transitioning from using the Facebook platform as an open medium for attracting the customers by pushing them for more likes, into focusing on the value of true dialogue and engagement. This is really a positive sign for the business ethics as these values are directly proportional to the true dialogs with the fans.
As the reach of organic posts is condensing and for many people paid reach is getting harder to come by too, Facebook notes that the trade-off involved with this phenomenon is higher CTR and higher engagement. Facebook’s rationale with the reach reduction is that now messages are getting to those people who would be most likely to take an action, but this decreased reach metric has led to the development of unwillingness among the page admins to become serious advertisers.
Increasing engagement rates good news for business values
Quality counts more than quantity in the case of Facebook posts, hence instead of trying to increase on number of hollow followers, the brands should focus on having a smaller fanbase, create some local pages and really ensure that the users who like their page really love the brand and get lured to it. The Fan engagement is an important factor in popularity on Facebook, but as long the content of the pages is lucrative to which the fans are really willing to engage to, then no matter what the size of one’s fanbase is, the Facebook algorithms would automatically ensure that the brand would shine through the newsfeed.
In addition to this, marketers should concentrate on lowering the amount of their call to action posts and focus on interactive posts more. This would support their content efforts with Facebook advertising which in turn would maintain a high level of penetration whilst improving their pages’ reach and engagement. The recent launch of new cross-platform ad network Atlas by Facebook is an effective step towards this consolidation of its advertising base and with loads of impending dynamic changes yet to dazzle the social world, we can expect that the diffusion of blue ink on the world map by this social media is not going to subside so soon.
The rapid shift towards smart devices and bigger screens will bring a significant change in the way users consume online video content. By the beginning of 2016, more than half of online video viewing is estimated to be on mobile devices, therefore, it’s a high time when online video publishers must adopt mobile-first strategy to ensure a sizable number of views and viewers.By the end of Q2, 2014, share of mobile video plays has reached to nearly 27%, according to Ooyala, which measures the anonymized viewing habits in 239 countries and territories around the world. Ooyala has come out with its Global Video Index Q2 2014 report suggesting that albeit the growth in mobile video isn’t new but the rate of increase is something that is catching attention. Service providers are adopting new technologies and looking out for new solutions to cater to the ever-increasing demands of high quality video among the mobile video viewers. Its report found out that desktop, mobile and tablet users spent more time watching 10–30 minute videos than any other form, followed by 30–60 minute videos. However the large screen devices, such as connected TV, were seen to be preferred for video content of longer time, making both screen size and video content vital factors.
In mobile devices, tablet has emerged as the most favorite among mobile video viewers. Even for the longer video content, which more than 60 minutes in duration, tablet users spent 20% of their time, while for the content less than 60 minutes, they spent more than 20% of their time. However, in case of mobile devices, users pent 23% of their time with content less than 30 minutes but less than 17% time for content more than 30 minutes in duration. These findings clearly depict that short duration videos are able to bring more mobile views.
Video content is being seen as more than a medium of revenue generation
With the ability to reach users throughout the day with more engaging content, videos had always had an edge over other mediums in E-commerce industry. Due to increased usage of smartphones and tablets, mobile service providers have been compelled to revise their profit strategies. Video content is now being seen from the viewpoint of more than a mere revenue generation source. It is being incorporated as a core part of company strategies. As per the Ooyala reports, share of mobile video viewing has more than doubled in last 12 months, becoming 25% of all online viewing. The popularity of mobile video content can be seen from the fact that mobile’s share of online video has increased from 5% in Q2, 2012 to 27% in June 2014, implying more than 400% increase in over 8 quarters
With the lines blurring among various devices in today’s multi-device landscape, factors for this reported increase in mobile video user vary. One of the prime reasons is the convergence of one to many broadcast to one to one web delivery of content. For past many years mobile video growth has been continuously analyzed with reports unanimously pointing out to its growing usage.
Video storm was perfectly expected
Sprint Corporation (NYSE:S) with its GoTV service was an early pioneer in this field. Branded video services like Verizon Wireless, Inc. (NYSE:VZ), Sprint TV, AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) Mobile Video continued to cater to the taste of mobile users for a long time, but technology is something which cannot afford to be stagnant. With an increase in the rate of innovation there has been an advancement in mobile broadband networks. High quality video content is proliferating across the mobile web. Companies are realizing the potential of video to reach out to their users. Video content has provided us seamless canvas with businesses using the medium to gain more idea of people’s interest. This database has given businesses very strong reasons to work upon faster network, more bandwidth and number of smarter devices. It has been this effort which has paved out a way for this tremendous growth. Even the statistics are strongly in the consumers’ favour. As a result, the mobile video share has increased 127% year-over-year and 400% in past two years.
Screen size and content length will remain prime reasons for this continued growth
Carriers have realized the potential of visual content to tap the consumer market. Digging into their arsenal of tool and solution, it will be challenging for service providers to sustain the delivery of high quality video offerings to keep pace with the increased demand. In addition, it is the proportion of time devoted to tablets and smartphones for video viewing that is being analyzed for better services. Mobile viewers spent45% of their time by watching videos of 6 minute or less in duration. However, for longer content, of more than 10 minutes, Connected TV takes 81% of the time and tablet takes 70% of total time spent on online video viewing.
The report also showcases another interesting factor about mobile video views; Mobile users are more fascinated towards videos less than 3 minutes in duration. Nearly 70% of videos played on mobile phones in Q2 2014 are less than 3 minutes in duration, on tablets the figure is abated slightly to 62%. That means though mobile and tablet users play more videos less than 3 minutes in duration, but when it comes to engagement and time, videos with 10 minutes or more in duration are more effective.
Competition will tend to become stiffer with an increase in the number of smartphone devices and internet users
With internet user growth of 7.9% the number of mobile video views is expected to increase at a staggering rate. Globally, IP video traffic will be 79 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2018, up from 66 percent in 2013, as per the latest forecast of the Cisco® Visual Networking Index (VNI). It is this rate that has made mobile service providers to offer better services with their profit margins depending highly on these videos. The advertisements have over time become a vital factor in increase of business profits. If the users continue to increase at this rate, market researchers expect a tough competition with more and more brands turning towards this field to reach out to their users.
With increase in number of smartphones, the consumers tend to increase the statistics on the higher side. Optimization of revenue has always been on the minds of global giants and with like of Apple and Android devices bring in new and innovative technology, including the varied screen sizes, enhanced security measures, consumers will undoubtedly rely on the smart devices for enhanced mobile video experiences.
The impact of the Internet on the world platform has been sensational. In the present scenario about 3 billion people are connected to the Internet that is approximately one third of the total population of the world and by 2020, the number of devices connected to Internet is expected to rise to 26 billion. Amidst this rising internet population and so many users coming online each day, it’s no less than a surprise that there is still a huge gap between the global audience knowledge and understanding of the Internet.
According to the latest report published by Tata Communications, titled Connected World II, only half of all the global respondents precisely know that where the Internet resides, while 82% don’t know that the fastest mode of internet delivery to their devices is through sub-sea cables. 64% of respondents incorrectly believe that the Internet is infinite and 70% incorrectly state that ‘everyone’ owns the Internet. Consumers globally have strong emotional ties to the Internet and spend a significant amount of time using it in their daily lives, although expectations for the future of the Internet vary by country to country.
Tata Communications is a leading provider of A New World of Communication, and is responsible to provide connectivity to the world’s 24% of internet routes. The report is based upon 9,417 responses captured from across the globe.
One in four surveyed Americans say they can’t survive more than five hours without access to the Internet
One in ten of US respondents between the ages of 15-45 spend more than 12 hours a day on the Internet but the majority of them were unable to identify how the Internet works, where it comes from, and who owns it. Almost 54% of them acknowledged feelings of fear, anger and anxiety when disconnected from the Internet. Also, the US respondents were the least inspired by wearable technology, with interest hovering around 12% and 29% of U.S. respondents consider light speed connectivity the most inspirational opportunity that the Internet will facilitate in the next three to five years, followed by real-life video communications (22%), smart cities (20%) and automated products (17%). Interestingly, almost 30% of surveyed 15-35 year old Americans admitted to give up traditional television for their online time and older respondents accepted to put down their beer and wine to stay connected, with a resounding 31% leaving alcohol behind for the Internet.
Eight out of ten Indian internet users admit to ‘Fear of Missing Out’ (FOMO) when not connected
The Indians prove to have an edge over their global counterparts when it comes to understanding of the Internet with around 30% stating that sub-sea cables are the fastest way to deliver the Internet, compared to 18% globally. Moreover, 60% of surveyed Indians identify network connected data centers as the correct source of the Internet, compared to 51% globally.The report also revealed that 82%of surveyed Indians admit to a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) when not connected to the Internet, the highest percentage globally and despite the nation’s dependence on all things digital, 60% of Indians surveyed equate the Internet with the World Wide Web; showcasing a gap in the actual understanding of the Internet. The Internet’s ability to ‘connect people globally with incredible speed’ is cited by more than three quarters of the Indian respondents as its principal benefit to society, as opposed to ‘providing a democratic platform for expression’ (10%), ‘enabling e-commerce’ (4%), ‘making shopping easier (3%)’ or a ‘social equalizer’ (5%).
Respondents from Asia and those from the USA and Europe are distinctly different in their vision of the most inspirational opportunity that the Internet will deliver in the future: 32% of surveyed Singaporeans and 27% of surveyed Indians pick smart cities as their preferred choice for what the Internet will enable in the future. Respondents from the UK, France, Germany and the USA, meanwhile, feel that light speed connectivity will be more important.
15% of French national respondents use the Internet for six or more hours every day
About 21% of the 15-35 year old sample group spends six or more hours online in France. The average daily use in France for respondents is 4.2 hours against a daily global figure of 5.1 hours for other respondents. Only the German respondents spend less time online with 4.1 as the average daily figure of internet interaction. 67% of those surveyed in France do not know that the Internet resides in data centers and this is the highest percentage of respondents from all the nations surveyed. Despite this, French respondents are quick to acknowledge the benefits delivered by the Internet with 76% of those participating citing the ability for instant global connection as the key benefit, delivered today and one-quarter believing that the most inspirational benefit the Internet will give us in the future will be light speed connectivity.
Germans recognize the Internet as a driver for innovation, but its workings remain a mystery
43% of the German respondents said that they do not care when they couldn’t connect to the Internet and almost 13% of German respondents are even relieved when they’re without internet access, preferring the downtime over constant connectivity. However, 12% of surveyed Germans did admit to feeling angry when not able to connect. The survey also investigated what people would give up to get internet access, with 38% of surveyed Germans willing to quit alcohol, 24% chocolate, and 16% TV for internet access. Only 54% of the German respondents could accurately identify that the Internet resides innetwork connected data centers, 22% had other alternatives in mind, including ‘super computers’ and ‘inside mobile phones’ and 24% couldn’t make a guess as to where the Internet comes from. Many of the Internet foundations remain unknown, with almost 79% of surveyed Germans incorrectly thinking that the Internet and the World Wide Web are the same thing.
Half of the people in the UK surveyed don’t fully understand how the Internet works
The report revealed that majority surveyed Britons have an emotional connection to the Internet, with 62% suffering from FOMO, anger or anxiety when unable to connect and as a result, surveyed Britons are using the Internet more than ever before, with 37% of 15-35 year olds using the Internet for six or more hours each day. When it comes to millennial, 5% of the surveyed among 15-25 year old said they couldn’t survive even fifteen minutes without an internet connection. Also, over two third of UK respondents (70%) incorrectly think the World Wide Web (invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee) and the Internet are one and the same but on a positive note, the cloud, once considered a business-to-business technology, is well and truly mainstream with 74% of UK respondents able to correctly state that information in the cloud is actually held in data centers.
“The Internet has truly changed the way we function. As technologies evolve and adapt, there is a huge potential for the Internet to affect different aspects of life, economy and society. The use of these technologies will continue to expand in unexpected ways, and organisations will need to continuously explore, adapt and embrace new digital realities to thrive in”
says Julie Woods-Moss, Chief Marketing Officer and CEO of Tata Communications Nextgen Business.
Educating people about where the Internet resides, how the Internet is delivered and what cloud computing really means may increase feelings of global community and shared experience that are at the core of our strong emotional ties to the Internet today. Consumers with a better understanding of the Internet are likely to have a greater appreciation for its capabilities and may find new ways to incorporate digital resources into daily activities – resulting in usage levels even higher than we see today!
In the present scenario, the social media platforms have become the most lucrative mode to enhance their success levels. These increasing roots of the social business in 2013 landed on the radar of the corporate communications department and The Securities and Exchange Commission in the US approved the regulation that listed companies must disclose which social media channels are being used for official company and financial communications. Hence the global brands started to integrate the social mechanism and Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) emerged as the leader from the front with 83% of business elites in Fortune 500 preferring this micro blogging portal as the most preferred network. But on the contrary the companies not on Twitter have been literally let off the map.
90 of the companies in the UK’s FTSE 100 share index – a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalization – have a presence on Twitter, sending out more than 1.4 million tweets collectively over the past year. Gleaning to this Twitter trend in the corporate, the communication agency Battenhall published their second annual report which deduced that among the FTSE 100 companies, just 10 companies did not have a Twitter account which was down from 12 the last year. This reveals that the FTSE companies have become quite active on Twitter, majorly due to 2013’s US legislation from the SEC, but there is still a stagnant factor involved with most brands doing a bad job or nothing at all to make use of this social dais.
The main highlights of the report were:
• 6 of the 90 companies on Twitter have never tweeted, down from 8 last year.
• 10 of those that are on Twitter have not tweeted in the last month, down from 19 last year.
• Only 39 companies have more than 10,000 followers, up from 28 last year.
• 20 companies have fewer than 1,000 followers, down from 21 last year.
• The FTSE 100 companies tweeted 1,459,223 times in just the last year.
• The top performers on Twitter are Burberry, Coca-Cola HBC, ITV, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s.
• The worst performers are GlencoreXstrata, Prudential, BHPBilliton and CRH.
Tweets towering tremendously in past one year
During this time last year, the FTSE had created a total of 582,227 tweets in total but a year later, the story has completely changed. The total tweets for the FTSE 100 now stands at over 2 million – 2,041,450 which is the exact number i.e. 1,459,223 new tweets in just the last year wherein Tesco alone has tweeted 644,000 times in total, which is more than all of the FTSE 100 this time last year.
10% of the FTSE 100’s have not yet adopted the new digital world and continue to follow the old trends. Although, for the last year two companies have adopted this new techno world- BHP Billiton and Weir Group which is a positive sign.
Also, only 37 out of the 90 companies on Twitter are verified whereas 53 are not. So this is something the companies need to request as showing the company is acknowledged by Twitter add to its business credentials.
The growth leaders and lagers
Most of the FTSE 100 companies have grown in size in the past year with Burberry Group accumulating the largest set of new followers in the last 12 months followed by the ITV Group. The majority of the companies finds it easy to grow their following, as long they are producing good content. However, the 10 accounts on the FTSE 100 index grew by almost nil margins and failed to reach even one new follower per day.
The most influential brand was deduced to be Marks and Spencer which gained an influential score of 83.4 using the Moz scoring system which measures the influence of engagement and follower size and where 100 is the highest score possible. On the other hand, the least influential score was jointly shared together by six brands-Shire, Arm Holdings, CRH,Prudential, GKN, Travis Perkins and St. James Place all scoring unity on this index.
Some swindling phenomenon which occurred last year
16 companies gained verified status from last year
1 company actually lost its verified company status – that was AstraZeneca
10 companies dropped out of the FTSE 100 altogether from last year, meaning there are 10 new names.
One company turned its account private – Glencore Xstrata.
Two accounts that exist are private – Glencore Xstrata and BHPBilliton.
The last year has proved to be a revolution as most of the UK PLC have gone social. There have been significant changes, but without regulation similar to that seen in the US, there is still a very polarized outlook when it comes to how brands are using social media for communications.
With regard to the different ad formats used in the mobile sector, mobile display ad format is turning out to be the single biggest category of ads, and is expected to remain so throughout the next five years. According to the latest projection report from eMarketer, mobile internet ad spending will account for 20.2% of all digital ad spending in Asia-Pacific and 5.5% of total media ad investments in the region this year. The total mobile internet ad spending in Asia-Pacific region will surpass $8.36 billion in 2014, and would reach to $25.38 billion by 2017. With a total mobile internet ad spending growth of 210% in 2013 and 2014, China has proved its ever growing dominance in the industry. Specifically in Asia-Pacific region, China will see a share of more than one third of all mobile internet ad dollars, surpassing Japan for the first time. Japan, with its ever growing industry and technology craving population had uptil now ensured that it had half of mobile internet ad spending in the entire region.
China to enjoy triple digit growth in ad spending: Display and Search ads’ contribution on rise
According to the latest estimates of eMarketer, in China spending on mobile internet ad will more than triple this year. The country’s increasing population and its mobile internet user base has helped it to claim the top spot in mobile internet advertising. It is predicted that contribution of Search and Display ads in the total mobile internet ad spending will reach more than $2.83 billion this year, an increase of $1.83 billion from the previous year. If the current rate of growth is sustained, this figure will surpass $12 billion by 2017.
Behind China, leading the chart are Australia and South Korea with the ad spending growth of 150% and 120% respectively. Spending levels is expected to double in India and Indonesia too. However, it is Japan which needs to work upon its market strategies as the estimates show its growth rate to be significantly lower, at 23% this year.
The growth rate and share of mobile internet as spending in India between 2014 and 2018 portrays an interesting scenario. The country is known to be the third largest and fastest growing smartphone device market, after the China and the US. Many other countries in Asia-Pacific region, such as Japan, Australia and South Korea, lags behind India when it comes to the number of mobile phone users. India has more than 157 million mobile internet users, and the number is estimated to rise up to 519 million by 2018 fiscal. In spite of all these India’s contribution to the region mobile internet ad spending does not see a boost in coming years. By 2018, country’s contribution is projected to stay less than 1% and the year-over-year growth rate is projected to decline to 60% in 2018 from 88.2% in 2014. The figures depict the fact that mobile internet users in India may not be the active adopters of mobile advertisements, and mobile internet advertising companies can’t really rely on the domestic market to scale up their business.
The growth in the rate will slow down as mobile website and application number soars
Due to ad space inventory supply growing faster than the demand, growth in mobile advertising spending is expected to slow down. According to analyst firm Gartner, it is due to the fact that mobile websites and applications are increasing faster than brands request ad space on mobile device screens. However, a shift to mobile web display can be seen after certain years of higher growth in app industry. Moreover, with people preferring to opt to mobile for smallest of reasons, as minimal as to look out for nearest destinations, small industries are targeting mobile ads to advertise about their products/services. This number will grow each year owing to the growth in the market and innovations in technology that China has been long known for.
Mobile population and Internet users back China’s claim to the top!
By the end of 2013, the number of smartphone users in the country touched 700 million and it’s expected to grow phenomenally in 2014 due to staggering growth of homegrown low-price smartphone manufacturers Xiaomi and ZTE. People of China are looking out for new technologies as they are seeking out smartphones with features that cater to their desire to pace up with changing times. It is the demand among the general population that saw the growth of low-cost smartphones. Today there are smartphones worth $50 and Android tablets with prices around $200 in the country.
According to the reports of semi-official China Internet Network Information Center, China had 632 million Internet users as of the end of June. What makes the number eye popping is that it is just slightly more than double the entire estimated population of the US. The number is somewhat near to the estimates from internetlivestatswhich puts the number around 641 million.
“The Internet continues to play an increasingly important role in China and the biggest revolution currently underway on the Internet is the shift to mobile. Traffic to social networks, online video sites, and search are all beginning to cross the 50% mark. In 2014, brands will attempt to keep pace by funneling more advertising spend into cross-screen mobile search and mobile video campaigns. Mobile display will also continue to ramp up as brands spend more on hero app ad buys and in-app ad networks.” said Andrew Carter, President of Trading and Knowledge, GroupM China.
China will continue to provide most promising market for mobile landscape
With smarter technology in place, mobile sector is already counted as one of the most promising sectors in China. There is a continued demand of makers like Xioami and companies like Intel are setting up their centers in the country to proliferate their market. No wonder the existing figures have already taken the analysts by awe, it is the future which holds the reality if China can really be show-stopper in years to come.
