YouTube Video Influence 64% Of Consumers To Make Purchases !

August 11, 2014

More than ever social media platforms are changing the way we live and do things. Social media has a strong impact and influence on customers. More importantly, brands are using up social platform to engage users as their customers. Brand advertising in social media is now the ground zero to build a bond between the customers and the brands. In 2006 YouTube arrived at the spectacular video advertising platform for marketing brands. It not only honed creativity, but if the ad is good enough, it is shared, commented on and popularised it. In the Q2 2014 report of YouTube Insights, the bottom line was, brands that are hell-bent on identifying customer’s passion are the ones who influenced more purchases than others who didn’t.

The report states that 66% of beauty product buyers were influenced by YouTube advertising to make purchases as they felt they could relate it to their lifestyle. This comes naturally when beauty conscious people are on the look out for make-up and hairdo how-to’s, tips on accessorizing and beauty expert advice videos. Brand advertising of beauty products on such user base is definitely attractive. Also, 62% of Smartphone buyers were reported to have been influenced by the Smartphone review videos on YouTube. Well, we all love to watch the live comparison of Smartphones and exclusive Unboxing of Smartphones, based on which we decide which one to buy. You could look for channels called Unbox therapy, Marques brownlee, android authority. On a similar note, influenced by the teaser campaign, in-action videos of auto vehicles led to 72% vehicle purchases.

YouTube videos: People of age group between 18-34 most influenced

The global Smartphone shipment units reached 1.2 billion in 2014, which is a take away fact that 98% of Smartphone users between the age of 18-34 watch YouTube videos on their Smartphones. The young YouTube audience accounts for the fact that the most viewed or popular video channels are about gaming, music, make-up, fashion and life-style.

Just like that, TikTok has blown up as a huge hit, especially with the younger crowd who live on their phones. It’s all about quick, fun videos – think everything from dance challenges and funny clips to DIY projects and cooking tips. This shift shows how we’re all starting to crave short, catchy content. TikTok fits right in with the YouTube vibe, offering even more ways for the smartphone-loving generation to find stuff they love to watch

9% of this young audience participate actively by sharing and commenting on YouTube videos, which the report says is 10x the social engagement by all other video sites combines. Another astounding figure revealed that, YouTube reaches out to the young audience between 18 and 34, more than any other CABLE NETWORK!!

64% of consumers are influenced by videos to make purchases

YouTube prevails to be the most influential social media for consumers who make purchases. YouTube influences 64% of purchases made which is the highest when compared to other popular social media like Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. People influenced by media further influence others around them. Brands that are up to the mark create influence on consumers by catering to consumer’s passions and interests.

The overall impact of YouTube ads is massive to both the consumers and the brands. The brands are required to tap into the interests of customers and produce creative video ads. Consumers are always on the look out to build and hone their passion, especially on social platforms like Google and YouTube. Consumers tend to purchase with the same mindset they consume the media. So, it is up to the brands to penetrate this psychology of understanding its customer’s passion to urge them to make purchases that will match their purpose and passion.

Take Aways:

Brands indulge in creating more video content for their product/services.
Marketers and advertisers must focus on video advertising and promotion to make sure the greater sales return to their clients.

Publishers must focus on creating more video content to make sure the higher engagement and response.

For video content YouTube must be treated like one of the most important social networking platforms. Businesses, Marketers, Advertisers and Publishers must make sure to have their YouTube property active and updated.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) Is Working On Enhanced Version Of “Siri For Mac” !

Neeraj M

August 10, 2014

As the gap between iOS and OS X is narrowing, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has started visualizing the impact of common apps that could satisfy its mobile and desktop users. The latest patent finding details reveal that Apple has kicked-off the development process to bring the enhanced version of Siri experience to Mac users with improved functionalities and features. The image from the patent filed by Apple, highlight how Siri for Mac will look like. Few earlier reports had also claimed about the Mac version of Siri though, this is the very first time when the information holds substantial evidence about the Apple’s initiative.

The patent has been filed under the claim “Intelligent digital assistance in a desktop environment” and lays out a basic framework that pretty much similar to Siri for iOS. It would have voice-assistant that would act based upon your commands for few basic tasks, search and so on. Besides, it will also have a self-learning capability and use the context clues to understand what you mean.

However, Siri for Mac will still use the same server being used for mobile version. It will likely be available as a desktop app and could be activated by a single click or it would hum in the background, and could be invoked by a simple voice command like “Hello Siri”.

Among all the feature the most important one seems “Using Digital Assistant as Third Hand”, which is really helpful for those who are constantly involved in multi-tasking. For an example, a user is allowed to work on a single window at a time despite f having multiple apps open required to execute that one task. While drafting a document you may need to have an access to a web-image or may want to embed a video. At such particular moment, Siri for Mac becomes more handy as you can save mouse clicks and add images/video without moving away from the editor.

Siri for Mac would differ, rather advance, than its mobile version by performing tasks that could be executed only though keystrokes or mouse clicks. With the help of Siri for Mac, users would be able to copy-paste, arrange files by date and time, shut down and restart the Mac, command browser and more. But, all of these intelligent features may not be available in the near future with Siri for Mac considering Siri for Mobile is still far from performing tasks in desired way.

Meet JIBO: The World’s First Family Robot, And, It’s Amazing!

Neeraj M

August 9, 2014

With the evolution of technology, we are getting surrounded by a number of smart gadgets, which are eventually taking over many of our jobs. Though these developments are only making people more deliverable and acquaintance, the interference of these gadgets and devices have reached to our home and personal life. And, with the addition of this new family member you can not only add another device to the fleet of your gadgets, but will also add a new member to your family; Meet JIBO – the world’s very first robot specially designed and developed to make your busy life easier.

JIBO has got everything that could make you rethink about smart objects and how you would picture them in your home. This is probably the first ever masterpiece of Artificial Intelligence for home and personal lives. This 11 inches tall and 6 – 7 pound robot is ready to take all of your stress, starting from reminding about important tasks, helping with education, self-clicking images of special moments of your life and much more.

Powered with skills like intelligent hands-free assistance, emotionally connected photography, storytelling and messaging, JIBO could fit into every part of your life. It can see, hear, speak, learn and relate to things happening around it.

However, the product is still in the concept stage and the Cynthial Breazeal, Founder and CEO of the company, is looking forward to raise $2 million in total to get the JIBO into reality working to full capacity. Through the on-going crowd funding campaign on Indigogo, JIBO team has already raised close to $1.5 million and the product is now at the advanced stage of production and testing.

Here is the video that that Briefly demo JIBO and talks about the development progress, developer editions and personal edition of JIBO along with the future road of JIBO.

All said and done, the question still looms that, do we really need such an interference in our life, especially when a device doesn’t need your approval before executing tasks. Yes, you may be thinking about AI, but then it would be interesting to watch how advance AI could become. Many of us may be thinking that will this be a robot people would actually like to keep at home? We don’t know yet, but seeing people’s response to its crowd funding campaign at Indigogo, we could say it has got a great chance to live upto the expectations.

Currently, under the pre-order, you can buy a JIBO robot for your house starting from $499 as only 100 units are up for grab. Below is the concept video of JIBO that tries to emulates few of the scenarios with JIBO at home. Enjoy !!!

Ditch The Paper Punchcards: Mobile Retail Rewards That Rule

Aarzu Khan

August 9, 2014

Most businesses have jumped on the bandwagon of customer loyalty by issuing customer loyalty cards, ignoring the growing tradition of Loyalty app programs. You’ve probably seen these before. You walk into a business, they start asking you all of this irrelevant information about your personal life, and then they pitch it to you, “we can save you 10 percent off of today’s purchase.” It’s enough to get most people to hand over their name, number, and address.

Once that’s done, the customer receives an endless number of emails and advertisements in the mail. Guess what? Customers have become anesthetized to your advertising. But, it’s not just your advertising. It’s everyone’s. That’s sort of how marketing goes. When one company figures out what works, everyone jumps on the wagon and beats it into the ground until it no longer works.

And, that’s what’s happening with those punchcards, plastic swipe-able cards, and other loyalty-related cards. So, here’s how to ditch them and use loyalty schemes that actually work and that people want to use.

Belly

Belly has more than 4,000 merchants in their database, so it’s not exactly a small operation. Basically, with this app, when users come into your store they check in. They can also use an old-school Belly plastic card, but let’s ditch the card concept for a moment and go digital. Users check in and, when they do, you can then send them emails, mobile texts, and connect with them via social media.

Do you see the possibilities with this? You can offer them special deals on products and services periodically or if they happen to be in your area one day when they ordinarily wouldn’t be stopping in. So, for example, let’s say you run a coffee shop. You could run a special for regular customers, and then track the result of your ad campaign. Meanwhile, your promotion benefits customers, and they’re happy to keep checking in with your store because they actually want the emails you send out.

FourSquare

The popular check-in game, FourSquare, isn’t exactly a loyalty program, but it can help you engage with customers that check into your business. This company is brilliant. It’s been collecting data from users playing its check-in game for years. Its reach is almost 45 million people, and it contains 1.6 million businesses. You can advertise on the merchant platform, and you only pay when someone acts on it by tapping on it to see the details of your offer.

Front Flip

Front flip is one of the neatest rewards systems. When users download and use this one, they can “boast” the promotions they receive from you. They can also share them with friends via social media. Like many other rewards programs it offers merchants advanced analytics so you can track and interact with your customers.

GetOne Rewards

GetOne Rewards is simple, but don’t let that fool you. That’s its secret. One of the main features of the system is that it doesn’t use plastic cards and there’s a low barrier to entry. All users have to do is enter their phone number and they are part of the loyalty program. There’s no real way to cheat the system since there are no “check-ins” which means that people can’t check in, not do business with you, and rack up “points” for perks that they really shouldn’t be entitled to. While there are iPhone and iPad integrations, the system tends to work best when you have an iPad POS cash register software system set up and tied into GetOne Rewards.

That way, all customers have to do is enter in their phone number while they’re making their purchase. You don’t have to rely on them doing anything else, since you control the POS system in your business.

Perka

Perka is designed to reward people based entirely on the transactions they make, like GetOne, as opposed to check-ins, like Foursquare. There’s a $50 monthly fee to be in the program, but you also get really good analytics with the program. Plus, users don’t need to have a smartphone to participate. Perka works on older phones via the standard text messaging interface (SMS).

This is one of the few loyalty programs that mimic what larger corporations are switching to, so you can punch above your weight.

Jess Anderson is a retail entrepreneur with a passion for technology. When not putting devices and apps to the test for her small business, she enjoys blogging about the tips and tricks to a successful venture in the modern market.

Brands On Facebook Inc. (FB) Respond To 75% Of Customer Queries !

Raksha J

August 9, 2014

All of us are aware of the droning customer care service provided routinely by almost all enterprises. There is a huge gap between what customers want and the service they actually get. IMMEDIATE is what the customers want, no matter how bad the situation is, we want an immediate response to our queries from the concerned brands. The crystal clear solution to tackle customer’s problems at this stage is through social media as nearly 75% internet population are involved in social networks. But it is unfortunate that most of the brands have not taken into consideration, the idea of providing customer service by interaction through social platforms.

A recent report by SocialBakers, a social media analytics firm, mentioned that over 9 million questions were put up on Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter Inc. (NYSE:TWTR) combined, by customers so far in 2014. Facebook and Twitter prove to be the best choice for contacting customers and interact with them to resolve issues as 54% of brands prefer marketing through Facebook, followed by Twitter. Although few in number, there are brands that are actively providing service to their customers through social platforms, its effectiveness is yet to take its full swing. The SocialBaker report deduced that although Twitter leads with 7% of socially devoted brands (with telecom and airlines industry being the most devoted) as compared to Facebook with 5%, brands on Twitter responded to only 63% of total questions while Facebook leads with 75% to the total response to customer queries.

But, according to SocialBaker, a brand is socially devoted only if the brands’ responses to customers surpass 65%. It is evident that brands on Twitter stand back in being a complete ‘socially devoted brand’. The percentage of brands of a specific industry on Twitter was reported to be very low with highest of 27.75% in the Telecom industry.

It’s all about Time

For social media customers, time is a critical factor. Customers want speedy addressing of their issues, 65% of the customers on Twitter want their issues to be responded as soon as possible and expectations from Facebook is not much different. This has apparently noticed by brands on Facebook, consequently the response rate by Facebook brands has been growing quarter over quarter for last few years, reaching to 67% in the last quarter.

As the social media is a real-time platform, customers expect a very quick response rate with most of them expecting replies within half an hour. Undoubtedly, this is a hard task at hand, but the brands on social networks must ensure to work their way to respond as quickly as possible. There are industries that are heavily dependent on social media response rate and response time due to the nature of their business, Airlines Industries being one of them. While most of the Airline companies are taking no more than a day to respond to customers’ queries on Twitter, there are few, like American Airlines and Malaysian Airlines, that are actively and almost immediately responding to customers.

Here are few of the top companies worldwide that have achieve the fastest response time to customer queries on social channels.

Customer support would be beneficiary at both the ends as social networks are public and easy to connect to. The brands or enterprises can reduce the cost of its customer support by shifting towards the active social platform and avoiding or reducing the long procedural telephone calls. The customer queries can be used as a long-term tool to analyse the user requirement and the intensity of the problem in hand, then effectively deduce a solution. Also, it is very easy to interact online with the customers and discuss the issues. Social platforms can be made best use of, as one can monitor a page quite easily and still be able to respond to all the queries. This claim could be well justified by the fact that socially devoted brands receive 2.5 times more interactions on an average. The customers can be provided with regular updates via tweets and Newsfeed so that the customer is always up to date.

The customers on the other hand need not have to jump from one line to the other to go to the right technician to solve the issue. Instead social platforms tend to provide a one stop solution. Also the customers’ queries and comments can be used by others facing similar issues to work out a solution. A community of customers together at a single platform and continuous interaction with the brands will pavé way for a greater understanding of the needs of customers and will also provide a vital feedback for the concerned brands.

The Next Big Challenge For Apple Inc. (AAPL) And Google Inc. (GOOGL): Improve Smartphone Upgrade Cycle

Asif Iqbal Shaik

August 8, 2014

Smartphones have become some sort of FMCG these days. Thousands of smartphones are being dumped on the market each year in an effort to force consumers to buy new devices. New smartphone brands and platforms are emerging with each passing year. In the past, we’ve seen well established platforms like Windows Mobile from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Palm, Blackberry (NASDAQ:BBRY) and Symbian devices swept away from the market by completely new entrants like Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Android and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS.

As of now, there is a huge opportunity for these brands to grow in developing economies such as China, India, Russia and Brazil. But in developed countries like the US and Europe, smartphone industry has reached its saturation point. Soon, the exploded adoption of smartphone will make the developing nations meet the similar situation. If that happens, the biggest challenge for the smartphone industry would be to improve the smartphone upgrade cycle as they can’t bring in new consumers anymore.

Smartphone platform-enablers like Google, Apple and Microsoft will have a great role to play in this challenge. They need to be quite constant in providing unique features and services to the consumers to stop them from jumping onto other competing platforms.

Shorter life span of Android smartphones is affecting its brand name & loyalty

Since 2010, Google showcased staggering improvement in the number of daily Android activations. But in Google I/O 2014, they’ve moved on to a completely different metric; 30 days active Android users. For the first time, Android has been able to surpass iOS in terms of web traffic. As per the latest report from Strategy Analytics, Android captured around 85 percent smartphone market share. But all is not well in the Android camp. In a bid to lure consumers in upgrading their existing smartphones, OEMs are releasing more and more smartphone models.

Sony has already announced that they have moved to a 6 month upgrade cycle for their flagship smartphone release. Just six months after the Xperia Z2 was released, internet rumor mills started talking about Xperia Z3 getting announced during IFA. Brands like Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (KRX:005930) and LG Electronics Inc. (KRX:066570) use a different strategy where they maintain two different high-end smartphone lineup, releasing an upgrade to each of them once a year with a gap of 6 months between the launch, which effectively becomes a 6 month upgrade cycle.

In a hurry to plan, execute and release new devices every 6 months, OEMs are neglecting software support and upgrades for their existing smartphones. Quite a lot of times, they refuse to upgrade devices which are capable of running the software update. This disappoints existing users, resulting in decreased brand loyalty. Brand loyalty can only be increased by constant innovation in operating systems as well as consistent software upgrades to the existing devices without slowing down their performance.

Xiaomi, however, seems to be heading the right path with its value for money devices. They want to sell smartphones for at least 18 months and provide constant upgrades to its devices. All their smartphones, which are recently launched in India; Xiaomi Mi 3, Xiaomi Redmi Note and Xiaomi Redmi 1S, come with the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system. Company’s Vice President, Hugo Barra, says that his company is focused on providing a great UI experience with the latest OS to all the device users.

Apple is utilising its brand loyalty to retain existing users

As per the latest numbers, iOS owns less than 15 percent of smartphone market share. Still, in the past 12 months, Apple has paid out roughly around $10 billion to iOS developers, which is double than what Google is paying to its developers ($5 billion), even with the highest number of smartphone roughly double the number of devices.

The first batch of Apple iPhone 6 is supposed to be announced on September 10 and various analysts have estimated that Apple will likely ship around 68 million devices. According to another report, about 70% of existing iPhone users may upgrade to upcoming iPhone 6 under the trade-in program.

The brand loyalty among Apple’s consumers is really appreciable. The iPhone has the highest retention rate reaching to almost 76%, while 35% users are willing to ditch Android in favor of iPhone 6. Still, a large part of Apple’s active devices comprise of iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, which means that iPhones have an upgrade cycle of more than 24 months. The fact clearly states that Apple needs to cut the upgrade cycle for their smartphones in the favour of smartphone users.

Overall, Google and Apple are trying two different strategies to retain their existing users but none of these approaches seem perfect. They need to strike a fine balance between improving smartphone upgrade cycle without creating dissatisfaction among existing users.

Micromax Leapfrogs Nokia And Samsung To Become The Leading Mobile Phone Vendors In India!

Bhavya Srivastava

August 8, 2014

The Smartphone industry in India is booming rapidly. Over a period of three months ended June 2014, the demand for smartphone grew at 68%, while those for feature phones fell by 16%. With the launch of budget smartphones, the future of the feature phone market in India seems bleak. The population of India stands at 1.27 billion while the smartphone penetration, against mobile, is still less than 10%, leaving a huge room for growth. The native vendors for mobile devices are leaving no stone unturned in cashing on this opportunity and this has led Micromax to become the leading mobile brand in India leapfrogging Samsung and Nokia in Q2 2014. The Counterpoint Technology Market Research has found out some interesting results in the mobile market of India in the Q2 2014 based on shipments and vendor shares.

Micromax: The Leading Mobile Phone Brand In India

Micromax has leapfrogged Samsung to become the leading mobile phone brand, includes feature phone and smartphone, in India. Though the results seem skeptical to many since in Q1 2014, Samsung accounted for almost one-fifth of the mobile handset market, while in the last quarter, its share dropped to a mere 14.4% despite aggressive marketing campaigns. The Micromax’s feat can be attributed to its consistent sales in both the feature phones and smartphone segment. India being a price-sensitive smartphone market, native mobile vendors gain a strong foothold as they appeal to the local sensibilities of the people.

In the smartphone segment, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX:005930) continues to lead the pack in India, accounting for more than one-fourth of the smartphone market. This is a steep decline, though, as the company’s smartphone market share in India dived from one-third in the previous quarter to one-forth in Q2 2014. But that’s not all for Samsung; the narrowing lead on following Micromax in Smartphone segment within a span of three months is another major concern for the Korean smartphone giant, while the other smartphone vendors are left much behind.

Another marketing research firm Canalys has also released the latest sales number of smartphone shipments in India and claims that due to the increasing number of sales of the flagship devices of Motorola and Micromax, these companies have showcased an impressive performance in the second quarter of this year. Owing to exploded demand of Moto E and Moto G, Motorola has more than doubled its smartphone shipments in Q2 2014, resulting in joining the list of Top 5 smartphone vendors in India in Q2 2014.

The mobile market in India has gone the Chinese way; the native mobile vendors are making their presence felt locally as well as globally. Micromax became the tenth largest handset brand in terms of mobile phone shipment volumes. With the advent of OEMs like Xiaomi, Huawei, Asus and Motorola, all the leading smartphone vendors in India some serious cut-throat competition can be expected in the second half of this year. However, these brands will have to focus aggressively on their marketing, distribution and post-sales support if they wish to survive in the long-run against the likes of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Samsung and Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK).

Feature phones still hold the greatest share of the market in India. In Q1 2014, 72% of the total mobile sales were driven by feature phones, led by Nokia. However, in Q2 2014, homegrown Micromax overtook Nokia to become the largest feature phone vendor in India.

Key-Findings

Micromax and Motorola are two brands to watch out for in the mobile handset market of India.

Apple and Samsung need to rework on their strategies to survive in the big developing mobile markets – India and China.

The emergence of Xiaomi along with few other Chinese players in India market is also a big concern for dominant smartphone players.

The Great Facebook Inc. (FB) Debate: To Be Or Not To Be With !

Dazeinfo

August 7, 2014

Over the years, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has grown to be the largest and longest lasting social networking platform to grace our screens. Constantly adapting and providing new and relevant functionality, while remaining true to its core purpose and what we know and love – Facebook has earned its place in our hearts, homes, laptops and phones. With over 829 million daily active users, Facebook is a rather untapped resource in the area of gathering consumer research and information. That is until news was released recently about various groups of “emotional experiments” conducted unbeknownst to a number of the participating Facebook users.

The Wall Street Journal reports that in 2012, 700,000 users were a part of a psychological experiment measuring the effects of positive stories vs negative stories in Newsfeeds and how it affected the types of things the viewing user posted. While many people have voiced their concern about these types of tests having not been informed prior to, or even post testing, the point of contention seems a lie at the ethics of this type of testing.

On one hand, as a user who’s chosen to use Facebook services as they’re presented, a problem lies in not being informed that you’re a participant in any type of study, as that was not what was initially agreed upon. It’s one thing to be observed in your use of a particular product or service, especially one that’s provided for free, but it delves into new territory when that service begins to manipulate the things you interact with and that make your experience unique. In gauging the positive and negative psychological effects of different posts in a Newsfeed, little to no consideration was taken regarding the mental conditions those users may be dealing with in real life, aside from their time online. While it may seem unlikely that someone could have a drastic reaction to news in their feed, you can never be sure what triggers may set someone off consciously or subconsciously. It’s wholly irresponsible to operate with such little respect to the fragility of someone’s mental state. Even when the chances of adverse reactions are low, the presence of Murphy’s Law is inarguable.

On the other hand, however, how fruitful and effective would science be if it didn’t take the necessary risks in the name of understanding and solving problems? The type of information gathered about Newsfeed posts could prove invaluable to a numerous organizations ranging from political involvement, to evaluating the mental health of veterans and providing resources to people who suffer from loneliness and depression. Use the same argument, but in the inverse, these tests do appear to be low-risk assessments not with fabricated information, but just the rearranging of already existing topics and headlines.

There are strong arguments for the ethical implications on either side of the fence, but the fact remains that this is something people would have liked to have been informed of. By giving people the opportunity to opt in or out of a trial would definitely affect the data pool, but there are proven ways to deal in voluntary numbers and still receive quality information. Recently, to ensure and protect users’ private information, a fresh lawsuit has been filed in Europe demandig $670 per user from Facebook for using his personal data for research and test purposes. It’s also worth noting that some of Facebook’s contemporaries such as Twitter, Yahoo and Google, also test and observe their users, and with the growing influence of the internet in our lives, it’s inevitable to keep our personal information private and restricted to ourselves. This leads us to the discussion whether we should stay exposed to these online networks and web properties in favor of new development and research or just shut the door to them and stay confined to our own private life enjoying restrictive access and exposure. So, what are your thoughts on the existence of these trials?

Apple Inc. (AAPL) Led The Global PC Market With 14% Share In Q2 2014; Notebook Sales Surpass Those Of Tablets!

Vasanth R

August 7, 2014

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) continues to lead the global PC market, which includes tablets, notebooks and desktop computers, with a market share of 14%. Tablet sales, however, which constitute a majority of PC sales are on a steady decline since the last two quarters, giving the edge to traditional desktop and notebook PC manufacturers such as Lenovo Group Limited (ADR) (OTCMKTS:LNVGY) and Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL). According to independent analyst firm Canalsys, worldwide tablet shipments fell by 5% sequentially to 48.4 million units in Q2 2014, as Apple and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. (KRX:005935) suffered shipments declines. This, in turn, allowed the PC market to stabilize for the first time since tablets first shook the market almost four years ago.

The flip side to declining tablet sales is the resilience of the notebook market. Declining innovation in the tablet market and cheaper prices for notebooks has allowed the notebook market to grow strongly in Q2 2014, and shipments have also remained flat Y-O-Y. Further price cuts across all devices in the second half of 2014 are likely to stimulate demand, which is a good news for vendors.

Lenovo May Soon Overtake Apple In The PC Market

A total of 123.9 million PCs were shipped in Q2 2014, registering a Y-O-Y growth of 14%. Apple recorded a 10% increase in shipments in Q2 2014, but weak iPad sales caused the company’s overall shipments to decline by 5%. Korean rival Samsung fared no better with 8.9 million tablet shipments, although its sequential decline was less sharper than Apple’s. Together, both firms accounted for 46% of the global tablet market, and their success is vital for the tablet industry. Several regions including China, the Middle East and Western Europe reported declining sequential shipments as high as 10%, although shipments in the US increased by 4%. Canalsys Research Analyst Rusabh Doshi tried to shed light on the struggle of Apple and Samsung:

Pricing remains Apple’s biggest barrier to growth and essentially locks it out of a number of markets. By holding firm on its prices, Apple ensures that its tablet business is highly profitable. But as sales in its key markets slow, it is betting on the improving economic environment in high-growth markets, such as China, to drive future growth. Samsung faces a different challenge as it attempts to compete in a range of market segments. The release of the Galaxy Tab S line saw it add Super AMOLED screens to its tablet offerings as well as introduce a new 10.5″ screen to its portfolio. With Samsung playing in so many segments, it is able to find pockets of demand. But it also drives obsolescence in other areas of its portfolio, causing inventory build-up that necessitates rounds of promotional activity.

Apple’s loss is Lenovo’s gain. The Chinese firm secured just under 14% of the market in Q2 2014, with shipments grew by a rapid 20% Y-O-Y. It is now just 780,00 units behind Apple and could exceed Apple’s shipment figures in the third quarter considering Apple has no plans to roll out a new iPad in the said quarter. Lenovo has been largely successful due to a superior pricing strategy and an assortment of desktop, notebook and tablet PC devices. Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) and Dell also registered Y-O-Y increase in shipments at 14% and 11% respectively, and sequential market share increased as well.

Slowdown In Innovation Causing Low Tablet Sales

The main issues with tablets continues to be the lack of innovation. Unlike smartphones, which come equipped with new features and faster components every year, tablets have had very little overall hardware improvisation. The tablet is still viewed largely as an entertainment device for watching videos and playing games and hence consumers see little or no reason in upgrading their device frequently. Yet another reason for declining tablet sales is the cannibalization of sales through large screen phablet devices, which forces users to choose tablet devices with screen sizes larger than 7 or 8 inches. It will be interesting to see if Apple’s rumored 5.5 inch iPhone 6 device causes further sales-drop to its own range of iPad drastically.

The current situation in the tablet market is similar to the notebook market a few years earlier. Falling tablet prices are not a good news for vendors, as shipment decline forces them to squeeze their margins further. If vendors are serious about increasing sales in the second half of 2014, they will have to give users several reasons for upgrading their tablets. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has responded by dropping the licensing cost on small factor tablets and by providing Windows for free thorough low cost notebooks. Apple has meanwhile partnered with International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) to sell more iPad devices in the enterprise segment, and is also rumoured to be releasing an iPad Pro device in late 2014 .

Notebook Sales Enjoying Quiet Resurgence

A total of 49.1 million notebooks units were shipped in Q2 2014, and surpassing those of tablets for the first time since Q3 2013. Shipments were particularly good in North America and EMEA regions, rising by 13% and 8% Y-O-Y respectively. A number of factor have been attributed to this resurgence including improved economic conditions and the rapid shift away from Windows XP. The falling price of touch screens, increased demand for Google Chrome books and Intel’s Atom-based Bay Trail Platform are causing notebook prices to drop steadily. To make the most of the current PC market, vendors will need to differentiate their portfolio of PC devices over the next few quarters.

[D’Dialogue] Xiaomi Mi3, Mi4 And Mi UI Are Path Breaking Products, Says Manu Jain, Head – Xiaomi India ! [EXCLUSIVE]

Neeraj M

August 7, 2014

Xiaomi, widely called as Apple of China, needs no introduction now. The Chinese company which is growing leaps and bounds and giving sleepless nights to almost every smartphone manufacturer in Asian countries, is setting up new benchmarks by introducing high-end smartphones with a jaw-dropping price tags. With a just four years of the total market presence company is making few smartphone giants run for their money and has beaten many of smartphone vendors who are in the market for almost a decade or more now. And, if that is not enough to surprise you, Xiaomi has joined the global list of top smartphone vendors of Q2, 2014 and dethroned Korean electronics giant Samsung in China. The company has shipped nearly 26 million smartphones globally in the first half of this year alone, the number is higher than what is achieved by Nokia, LG, HTC or Sony.

So, how come a company with Chinese tag grown so big and what made global consumer to accept products from the company that comes out from a highly skeptical manufacturing hub, know as China? What worked for Xiaomi that didn’t work much for other Chinese smartphone brands like ZTE, Huawei and Oppo ?

In an exclusive interview with Manu Kumar Jain, Head – Xiaomi India, we asked few tough questions to understand Unique Selling Proposition, largely known as USP, and, unlike Huawei and local Chinese companies, why Xiaomi is considering India as their next big hub out of China.

“We are not a handset company. Our basic philosophy is that we are a mobile Internet company and our for us handset is a way to achieve our final goal, which is to take our amazing Mi UI to as many people as possible.” says Manu Jain.

Xiaomi has recently kicked-off its operations in India, the second largest mobile market by the number of subscriptions, with the introduction of the highly popular flagship Mi 3 smartphone. The company is overwhelmed with the response to Mi 3 as the first lot of the device sold out completely within 38 minutes and the second and third lot took mere five and two seconds to go out of stock. Within 15 days of launch company has already sold nearly 150,000 units of Mi 3 in India. The demand is showing no signs of slowing down in the near future as the internet is flooded with comments, inquiry and articles inquiring about the next sales cycle of Xiaomi Mi 3 in India.

On the question, how Xiaomi is able offer such power-packed devices at a surprisingly low price, Manu explained that it’s not because his company is using any sub-standard components or low-end processors. He said that despite the devices sport high-end processor, chipsets and other components as compared other devices in the class, we are able to cut down at every single point of the value chain. The in-house designing of the product, a different and bulk negotiation strategy with component manufacturers, direct-to-customer sales strategy, and almost negligible brand marketing allow us to save money, which we pass it to the consumers.

“The initial players from china tried to penetrate the market with low-price low-quality products. However, consumers in India are conscious about value-for-money. There could be an initial reluctance among consumers, but considering the great track record of most of Xiaomi smartphones, I don’t think it’s a big concern. There are hundreds of thousand people in India who have downloaded Mi UI on non-Mi phone.” says Manu.

Here is the complete interview of Manu Kumar Jain talking in length about Xiaomi’s future plans, devices, market scenario, competition and more.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) iPhone 6 Coming On September 9: 5.5-Inch Variant More Powerful Than 4.7-Inch Sibling!

Neeraj M

August 6, 2014

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is known for the most innovative products and the company has lived up to the expectations so far. The scenario is no different with a much-awaited iPhone 6 rumored to be launched announced on September 9, followed by the launch sometime in October This year. As the rumor mills are busy in producing information about the iPhone 6, each passing week is bringing new information about the product specification, price or launch date. There were many leaks pertaining to the screen size, the iPhone 6 will reportedly be introduced in two variants, sporting 4.7-inch screen and 5.5-inch screen size. Of course with the Retina Display as Apple likes to call it.

Since then many manufactures took a swing at this segment, all but Apple. They stuck to the under 4.5-inch mantra, so that people would be comfortable using the mobile in a single hand. It is not the same anymore as Apple is working to launch a new phone with a gigantic 5.5 inch screen iPhone 6, dubbed as the iPhone Air. This screen size is nowhere nearly close to the previous models; the iPhone 4s sports a screen of size 3.5 inches and the iPhone 5s with a 4 inch screen. While most of the rumors have talked about two variants of iPhone 6 only with the difference in screen size, a new rumor claims that Apple’s 5.5-inch iPhone 6 would also be equipped with a better, faster components than the 4.7 inch model.

The information is provided by Timothy Arcuri, an analyst from Cowen & Co., when making a prediction about iPhone 6 to the investors. Arcuri cited Asian supply chain checks, signaled that 5.5-inch iPhone 6 will feature a more powerful processor than its sibling 4.7-inch iPhone 6. However, the difference will not be restricted only to the screen and processor, as he claimed that Apple has adopted two different manufacturing processes with A-8 chipset, which clearly signals a wide-range architectural difference between both the variants of iPhone 6. This will also create a difference in touch model in both the variants of iPhone 6. Unfortunately, he didn’t reveal this information in detail.

Back in 2011 when Samsung introduced the Galaxy Note, many criticized the device for its enormous screen claiming a very uncomfortable size to use. These talks were put to rest when the sales of the device reached 10 million units worldwide as of August 2012. It was clear that a new class of devices was born, later dubbed as Phablet.

Nearly 20 million Phablet devices were shipped in 2013 and it is estimated to reach 120 million annually by 2018. This will be the very first attempt by Apple to compete in the phablet market and the hardware of 5.5-inch iPhone 6 remains a critical point to stand up in the market as well as in a world, especially where people are becoming more dependant on multiple apps and processes and are demanding faster devices.

This is not the first time Apple is doing so. The iPad and the iPad Mini have different processors even though they are similar devices. The iPhone 5.5 inch variant will mostly be equipped with an A8 chip, as two companies Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company will be handling the production responsibilities.

Apple To Challenge Competitors In Two Key Markets

With 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Apple will enter the phablet device market for the first time. There are relatively fewer smartphones in the 5.0 inch to 5.9 inch screen category. The bigger screen iPhone 6 will compete mainly against well set devices from manufacturers like Samsung and LG, such as the Galaxy Note 3, LG G3. Besides, if rumors are to be believed, iPhone 6 may face greater competition from upcoming Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Alpha – especially being designed by Samsung to challenge iPhone 6.

Apple is targeting to sell about 80 million units of iPhone 6 this year and with the information we already possess, this company is leaving no stone unturned to give its best shot at the phablet market.

Not only will Apple be competing in the Phablet market it will also be competing in the under 5-inch screen segment with its 4.7-inch iPhone 6 model. This is the most populated market where 66 percent of the smartphones are competing with each other. Provided the two iPhones are a success, we could see Apple gaining market share at the expense of Samsung which is facing tough time in the market with declining market share to 25.2% in Q2 2014 from 31% in the previous quarter. The constant declining average selling price of smartphones could be another challenge for Apple to face. Companies like Xiaomi and Huawei have broken the market by riding upon the success of low-price yet high-end smartphones. In the second quarter of this year, three out of top five smartphone vendors globally belong to China and are busy in producing more low-price high-end smartphones to challenge the supremacy of Samsung and Apple. However, we will have to wait and see as all information about iPhone 6 are just at rumour stage and nothing is certain until the device is officially announced.

Claim $670 From Facebook Inc. (FB) Against Your Personal Data !

Aarzu Khan

August 6, 2014

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) may well have had a good revenue over the last quarter of 2014. Even with over 1.3 billion users the online social networking giant is now more in the news for its annoyance to users. Facebook has been using its users’ data to do experiments and research without the users being aware of it. During early 2012 Facebook performed a mood-manipulation experiment on 700,000 of its users. In this experiment Facebook tweaked the Users’ News Feed to see the impact of mood swings that went through people. If ever you wondered how Facebook actually lets you to see posts that you always tend to like or share, this is how Facebook does it, did it or is doing it: Facebook keeps track of your likes and comments to show you what you want and this is how Facebook has been targeting ads at you. This has a wider impact on small screen Facebook users who are specific to the information they want to see, and expose themselves while they take their world with them everywhere. No wonder Facebook grabbed a 62% ad revenue only through mobiles in the last quarter.

For violating the EU laws on privacy, a law student Max Schremas has sued Facebook for using private data without the user’s knowledge. He has said that all Facebook users are urged to join this cause to respect the fundamental right of respecting one’s privacy and data protection. The lawsuit claims a compensation of 500 Euro ($670) for the alleged data violations. As of now more than 17,000 people have signed up to against Facebook for its privacy violations. The suit’s main purpose is not to raise money for participants, but to make sure that Facebook and all other companies, indulged in similar activities, must use users’ personal information seriously.

The ironic part is Facebook itself polled its users to know how much user’s trust Facebook. Though, the company kept the findings to itself, the other independent survey ran in last year produced a surprising result. Nearly 75% of respondent said that they trust Facebook either a little bit or not at all when it comes to protect privacy.

The lack of trust on Facebook is a result of Facebook’s efforts to make the users inevitably agree to its privacy policy. Agreeing to its policy has resulted in Facebook users being the prey to their manipulative experiments. Facebook in its privacy policy has mentioned about the usage of data that is shared or of pages that is opened, but what is not mentioned is that Facebook also retains the unused personal data – something you type as your status and change your mind mid-way and alter it or the deleted items, are also scanned and recorded. This could be well verified when you use the Facebook app to update something and lose your internet connection, the app still saves that information and post it at a later stage when you are reconnected with internet.

The $19 billion acquisition of Whatsapp by Facebook earlier this year makes us wonder what Facebook is planning to do with the 450 million user base of Whatsapp!! The EPIC of USA has filed a lawsuit against the acquisition by alleging Facebook never issued a safety or the privacy statement on acquiring Whatsapp and can take undue advantage of tracking its user base.

Facebook Now Targeting Mobile Users

With over 1 billion mobile users, Facebook has an easier access to users’ data. Facebook is rumoured to be attempting an e-payment service through mobiles for users. This is a mighty task for the company to gain users’ trust over years of complain on privacy issues and convince users to perform transactions.

But, that’s not all, Facebook wants to have greater interference in users’ personal life; Facebook has recently announced its microphone update that will enable the phone’s microphone to receive and record the sounds in the user’s environment. Opening up of one’s smartphone microphone to Facebook concerns the user about private discussions and how much privacy can be guaranteed on it.

Facebook also announced that there no longer will be a chat option in the Facebook mobile app. Instead, all users are required to download the stand-alone Facebook messenger app to use the chat service. The app’s terms and conditions indirectly lead to control of your device and also gains access to your personal data.

This is just an example of how social media tries to manipulate our thoughts and, in fact, are steering control over our life by breaching user’s privacy and track every move made online. Facebook claims all that it has been doing on the users’ data is only to provide users a more relevant and enjoyable online experience. But the disastrous aftermath that could result by misusing one’s data for illegal gains must be taken into strong consideration.

Multi-Varaint Apple Inc. (AAPL) iWatch Could Revolutionarise The Industry !

Vuppu Satya Praneeth

August 4, 2014

The smartwatch industry has blossomed like never before. Currently at the developmental stage, the industry recorded a 90% growth in 2013 with 3 million smartwatch unit sales as compared to mere 0.3 million units in the previous year. As consumers have started looking beyond smartphones, the industry is going to receive a massive boost in 2014. Almost all the smartphone manufacturers have either entered the smartwatch industry or arming themselves to blow the competitors away. The industry is estimated worth a staggering $3000 million by B2C revenue in 2014.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is the latest entrant who would join this industry by releasing the much anticipated iWatch into the market. The iWatch is expected to be officially launched this October. According to a report from China Economic News, Quanta Computer has bagged the rights to produce about 70 percent of the Apple iWatch. As the launch date is getting near the rumors have started working their wonders. The tech giant is reportedly said to be working on several smartwatches to suit everyone from the geeks to the simpletons.

According to this latest rumor, The Swatch Group, a Swiss firm, is said to be one of the companies working with Apple in producing the iWatch. This Swizz firm is the largest watchmaker in the world with a market capitalization of more than $33.5 billion. However the twist to this rumor is that recently a spokesperson of the Swatch group denied such reports and said that the only relation that they had with mobile phone makers was as a supplier of integrated circuits and other electronic components.

The pressure is mounting on Apple due to the recent commercialization of smartwatch by Samsung, Sony and LG. The Samsung Galaxy Gear being the best in the market will face stiff competition from the others. Samsung has led the smartwatch industry in 2013 with a share of 34 percent, while Fitness device specialists Garmin, Nike and Fitbit followed closely. Samsung managed to ship 800,000 units followed by Nike and Garmin who shipped 400,000 and 200,000 devices, respectively.

Fitness and Healthcare Powering the Industry

Smartwatch industry is estimated to be worth $12.12 billion by 2015. Fitness and Healthcare currently are the main drivers of this industry. This evolution will also create new opportunities for developers as new smartwatch Operating Systems are being designed.

Free Smartwatches for developers at the Google I/O

Major tech giants are spearheading the Smartwatch evolution. At the recent Google I/O 2014 all the developers were said to receive free brand new Smartwatches, the choice being the recently introduced Samsung Galaxy Live or the LG G3 android wear. This will open possibilities for a wide range of applications which can be developed. The number of developers dedicated to this industry is said to grow by 300% in 2014.

Microsoft has a sensor rich smartband up its sleeves

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is not going to be left behind in this race; leaks suggest that they are readying its own smart band. This smart band would sport 11 sensors, but that is not the best part yet; This smart band has the ability to work across any platform, meaning this would be compatible with most of the Android phones too.

With the recent announcement of the Android Wear program and the success of the Galaxy Gear series, Apple will be more than willing to take a swing at this industry. About 48 million smartwatch devices are expected to be shipped in 2014, while this number is estimated to reach a whopping 373 million units by 2020. Low cost Android based devices are likely to fuel this industry. As the fitness freaks have already experienced their share of smartwatch, which help them track their Heart Beat and other essentials in real time, the days are not far when the Health industry will start recommending the smartwatches to patients to track their vitals. Can the Apple iWatch be a game changer following the footsteps of the iPhone and the iPad?

Nokia Lumia 520 Helped US And India To Capture 20% Of Windows Phone Market !

Bhavya Srivastava

August 4, 2014

India, a country with smartphone penetration, of mobile, as low as 10%, emerged second in the global Windows Phone market in the month of July 2014, just trailing the US. This is unsurprising since the majority of smartphones shipped in India are below $200 and Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) Lumia series is amongst the forerunners in this respect. By monitoring 11 global apps and games serving AdDuplex ads to 200,000 users over the day of 8th July, 2014, the country-wise division of Windows Phone market was reached upon.

The ‘other’ countries accounted for almost one-third of the global Windows Phone market. The top 3 countries – US, India and Brazil – together accounted for one-fourth of the global Windows Phone market. Interestingly, China, which is among the booming markets for smartphones, grabbed the sixth spot with just 3.7% share.

The another report from AdDuplex has revealed that the efforts of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to regularly update its operating system and offer better features to the customers are not just magniloquent; some results skewing in the favour of Windows 8.1 are visible though. At Dazeinfo, we have been tracking the AdDuplex reports that deal in Windows Phone for quite some time and we have noticed that the OS share of Windows 8.1 has continually increased. This data is collected from 4,451 Windows Phone apps running AdDuplex SDK v.2 over the day of July 24th, 2014.

Windows Phone 8.1 Wins At The Cost of Windows Phone 8

The share of Widows Phone 8.1 OS went up to 11.9% in July 2014, a 4.2 percentage point increase from June 2014. The notification bar, updated Cortana and various built-in apps are attracting more and more customers who are migrating from Windows Phone 8 to Windows Phone 8.1 or buying smartphones that are available with pre-installed 8.1 version. Users are also inclined towards the Windows Phone 7 as its share also went up marginally in a period of one month from 17% to 17.7% in July, 2014.

Nokia Lumia 520 Continues to Witness a Decline

Though Nokia Lumia 520 continues to hold one-third share of the global Windows Phone device market, its share has declined since May 2014. The budget flagship phone is attracting fewer customers as it did before, or probably the other devices like the Nokia Lumia 710 and Nokia Lumia 521 are attracting more users. Lumia 720 witnessed an increase of 0.6 percentage point within a month from June 2014 to July 2014.

Inspite of marginal changes in the shares of the Windows Phone devices, Nokia continues to increase its Windows Phone device share globally. The market share of Nokia went up to 94.5% in July 2014 from 93.8%, a month before. Moreover, the top 10 global Windows Phone smartphone remain the same and all belong to the Nokia Lumia series.

Nokia Lumia 52x Yet Again Capture Half The Windows Phone Market in USA

Together, Nokia Lumia 520 and Nokia Lumia 521 held 49.2% of Windows Phone market share in July 2014. Any major shift in the Windows Phone device share is not visible except for few swaps and new entrants in some of the countries. In US, Nokia Lumia 900 dropped from the top 10 Windows Phone devices in July 2014 and paved way for Nokia Lumia 630. Interestingly, US is the only country tracked by AdDuplex where instead of Nokia Lumia 520, Lumia 521 continues to lead the pack.

Hungary is the new addition in the AdDuplex countries and the top ten Windows Phone devices in the nation are very much similar to the rest part of world. Here too, Lumia 520 captures more than one-fourth of the Windows Phone device market followed by Lumia 625 and Lumia 800. However, Nokia Lumia 800 has more market share in Hungary than the rest of the countries.

Nokia Lumia 520 and Lumia 720 continue to hold the top spots in India since May 2014, however their individual share has gone down marginally. Nokia Lumia 630 is the new entrant in the top ten Windows Phone devices in India.

In May 2014, Russia was among the few countries where a Windows Phone device by any other OEM apart from Nokia grabbed a spot in top ten devices. However, this has changed this month, when HTC 8S was flushed out by Nokia Lumia 630.

France was the only nation where HTC 8S occupied a spot in top-3 Windows Phone devices but it swapped position with Nokia Lumia 925 in July, 2014 and went down to fourth rank.

The market share of Windows Phone devices continues to grow progressively in all over the world. With the rumoured launch of high-end Windows Phone devices from LG and HTC, this share is expected to increase. Nokia is playing safely in the smartphone market and deploying the strategy that is very much similar to what Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX:005930) employed in case of mobile devices – flooding the market with handsets that are available at all screen-sizes and price ranging from budget smartphones to high-end devices. The strategy clicked for the Samsung to make it world’s largest smartphone vendors, it would be interesting to see how Nokia applies and leverage upon it !

Three Of The World’s Top Smartphone Brands Are Chinese: Apple And Samsung Struggling To Keep Up!

Vasanth R

August 4, 2014

The global smartphone race is now between Samsung Electronics Co Ltd. (KRX:005935), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and an assortment of Chinese firms. As smartphone shipment size continues to swell in Asian and African countries, the local brands are gaining market share at the expense of global vendors. According to new data from Strategy Analytics for both global smartphone vendors in Q2 2014 and global smartphone market share by operating systems in Q2 2014, three of the top five smartphone vendors in the world are now Chinese riding high on success with Android OS. The most interesting rise is that of four-year old Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi, which recently ventured into the India smartphone market with its highly successful Mi3.

The meteoric rise of Chinese firms is due to the country’s expertise in large-scale manufacturing and huge smartphone subscriber base of almost 800 million users. As the market matures, these brands will gain an even larger market share due to their low-cost smartphones powered by Android OS. This, in turn, has allowed Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) owned Android to reach a market share of 85%.

Apple and Samsung Struggle To Retain Market Share

A total of 295.2 million smartphones was shipped in Q2 2014, an increase of 27% from the 233 million units last year. A fourth of these shipments came from Samsung, whose market share has nose-dived from 32.6% in Q2 2013 to 25.6% in Q2 2014, largely due to the arrival of the Chinese brands. The Koran firm shipped a total of 74.5 million smartphones in Q2 2014, a slight decline from 76 million during the same period last year. The company is facing immense pressure at the higher end of the market from Apple, which sold more iPhones in the same month Samsung launched its flagship Galaxy S5 model globally. At the lower end a host of local firms in several countries has steadily gained market share at Samsung’s expense, resulting in one of the worst quarterly earnings results for the Korean smartphone giant in recent times.

Apple sold a total of 35.2 million iPhones in Q2 2014, a surprise increase from 31.2 million units last year. Its market share however, dipped from 13.4% in Q2 2013 to 11.9% in Q2 2014. As competition shifts to the lower end of the smartphone market, Apple has stood to lose out because of its near-complete absence in this category. Older and cheaper variants of the iPhone such as the iPhone 4S are Apple’s only options for users with less disposable income. However, the price war in smartphone industry has put iPhone 4S in a mid-range category, while the market is flooded with more powerful, bigger screen smartphones at half of its price. Besides, the availability of iPhone 4S in few selected countries is another factor behind Apple’s poor performance in low-end smartphone category.

Xiaomi’s Performance Causes Tremors in The Market

The remaining three companies in the top five are Huawei Technology Co Ltd (SHE:002502) , Lenovo Group Limited (ADR) (OTCMKTS:LNVGY) and Xiaomi. Huawei secured third position with a 6.8% market share while Lenovo reached fourth place with a market share of 5.4%. The biggest gainer among all brands was Xiaomi with a market share of 5.1% with a total of 15.1 million smartphone shipments. The firm has already outsold Apple in China and its rise has been astonishingly quick, with shipments growing three-fold in just one year. Its Android models are widely popular in China and other Asian markets, due to its low-cost-high-performance strategy and extensive shipments through online and operator channels.

Xiaomi is aiming to venture into several international markets later this year, but its main focus continues to remain in China and India, which are already the world’s fastest growing smartphone market. Apple is aiming to sell several million large screen iPhone 6 in China through China mobile network, and regain its market share. The next stage of the smartphone race will take place in Asia, with China as the centerpiece.

85% Of Devices Sold In Q2 2014 Powered By Android

Out of all the smartphones shipped in Q2 2014, 85% were powered by the Android OS. This comes as a direct result of increased smartphone shipments globally, mainly at the lower-end, and Android device shipments are expected to reach 1 billion in 2014. Strategy Analytics’ executive director Neil Mawston explained the reason for Android’s dominance.

“Like the PC market, Android is on the verge of turning smartphone platforms into a one-horse race. Its low-cost services and user-friendly software remain wildly attractive to hardware makers, operators and consumers worldwide.”

Apple’s iOS market share dipped to 11.9% and Microsoft Windows Phone share languishes at 2.7%. There is a likely chance of Android’s market share growing to 88%, unless Apple’s larger iPhone can win the market and stop Android’s push. Meanwhile, Samsung is also rumored to have chosen to promote its Tizen OS instead of Android for the long-term. For now, however, Android is leading the pack, thanks to improved devices and lower price points.

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Key-Findings

Lenovo May Soon Overtake Apple In The PC Market

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Apple To Challenge Competitors In Two Key Markets

Facebook Now Targeting Mobile Users

Fitness and Healthcare Powering the Industry

Free Smartwatches for developers at the Google I/O

Microsoft has a sensor rich smartband up its sleeves

Windows Phone 8.1 Wins At The Cost of Windows Phone 8

Nokia Lumia 520 Continues to Witness a Decline

Nokia Lumia 52x Yet Again Capture Half The Windows Phone Market in USA

Apple and Samsung Struggle To Retain Market Share

Xiaomi’s Performance Causes Tremors in The Market

85% Of Devices Sold In Q2 2014 Powered By Android

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