After much of ado Twitter finally filed the initial paper works to move closer to its much-awaited I.P.O. launch. The initiative, however, is still filled with much of possible speculations, as potential investors and public will not get a look at the company’s finance. The micro-blogging site filed its initial prospectus, also known as S-1, with securities regulators on Thursday. Surprisingly, the company has opted a provision of the Jumpstart Our Business Startup, or JOBS Act, under which a company having less than $1 billion in annual revenue could keep financial information secret.
Like many other Internet company’s IPO, Goldman Sachs is the leading underwriter for the offerings. These efforts could result into Twitter go public by end of this year but the actual public offerings would only take place in early next year, according to NYTimes’ ources.
Twitter is having 200 million registered users and the company first became profitable in December last year by generating a record $100 million in revenue in the fiscal quarter of 2012. The company is targeting to reach $650 million in revenues and according to papers, filed by Twitter for IPO, it already has nearly 300 million registered users now.
Unlike Facebook, Twitter is yet to record higher penetration in developing countries likes of India and China, While China is still confined into local influence and networks, being the third largest country by internet subscribers India is a potential market for Twitter.
In yearly this year, twitter introduced Promoted Tweets service to boost its revenue growth. However, the ‘paid service’ is still limited to users from few developed countries likes of US and UK. Besides, Facebook’s few latest inducted features, influenced from Twitter, are also a matter of concern for micro-blogging site.
Since the evolution of social media, email marketing has taken the back seat while driving marketing campaigns for a company. Undoubtedly, people are spend much more time on social media than email in comparison, but emails are still the most effective online marketing channels; according to below infographic, designed from the findings of multiple sources, consumers who receive regular marketing emails are tend to spend 83% more when shopping. But that’s not all from email marketing; orders from such consumers are usually 44% larger and their buying frequency is 28% higher than those who doesn’t receive promotional emails regularly.
Email marketing is 20x more effective though, it’s equally cost-effective and traceable and could be designed to link directly with ROI.
However, setting up email marketing campaigns could be a tricky business affair as poorly designed and unplanned emails could not only damage your brand positioning among receiver but also carriers higher chances to lose potential future customers. So what are the best tactics to ensure the success of your email marketing? The below infographic, from sikich, has got 10 simple but effective ways to improve your email open rates. Besides, as a bonus, here are few more very crucial deployment techniques that ensure email receivers click on an embedded link to your promoted services/product:
55% of marketing executives in US have found that by embedding video content click-through rate surges up.
Monday and Friday are the best days to execute your email marketing campaigns; highest 17% email open rate is found on stated days compare to other weekdays.
Second session of the day is considered as the best time to send marketing emails as highest 18.20% open rate is recorded during these hours.
Content relevancy is the most crucial aspect of any email campaign. The highest 77% receivers voted for relevant and compelling content as the mantra of e-marketing campaigns.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has maintained its unparalleled lead in the US online search market. In August, out of 19.1 billion explicit search queries, Google Sites ranked first with 12.7 billion, according to ComScore August report. Microsoft Sites maintained the second position with 3.4 billion, that’s just 30% of all Google Sites. This clearly depicts how Google Sites are dominating the US search market in absence of any immediate competition.
The glossy picture, however, also portrays the gloomy side of Google Sites. With almost no improvement in its market share, Google Sites are apparently losing the US search market. Google Sites’ market share dived down to 66.9% in August 2013, with a negligible loss of 0.1%, from 67% in previous month. On the other hand, competitors Yahoo! Sites and AOL, Inc. showed a marginal sign of improvement in their market share by scaling up to 11.4% and 1.3% respectively. These changes don’t show a sizable number of search queries though, Google failed to show much of improvements in numbers too.
Google’s domination over online search market is due to the extensive reach of its next-generation content type properties likes of YouTube. In June this year, Google reportedly served 12.8 billion search queries, while YouTube – Google acquired for $1.65 billion in 2006 – emerged as the second largest search engine on the planet. By processing more than 3 billion queries monthly.
Various third-party tools also prefer to power their search feature by Google. According to ComScore, Google-powered 68.4% third party searches queries in August, while Microsoft’s Bing powered 27.3% of searches.
UHNW – Ultra High Net Wealth means possession of wealth by individuals more than $10 million in excess according to Wikipedia. This is important because the density of the wealth generated in the world is concentrated around these individuals. According to the report by Wealth-X there are 199,235 such people who control most of the business in the world. And the UNHW population reached all time high this year with a total combined wealth of US$27.8 trillion .Going further 2,170 billionaires globally have been identified by the report who account to 23% of the UHNW wealth which equals to US$6.5 trillion. Surprisingly, this elite billionaire club only accounts to only 1% of the UHNW population.
Some interesting facts before analyzing the UNHW population geographically.
The total wealth of UHNW population is equivalent to 40% of the world GDP and they constitute only 0.002% of the world population.
The wealth of UNHW is greater than the GDP of India.
The average wealth of UHNW individual is US$ 139.4million and has risen by US$1.8 million from last year.
Out of these people 88% are men with 87% of the wealth with an average age of 58. Interestingly, 70% out of these men are self-made and 14% have inherited wealth and rest being a combination of both. Banking and Investment is the most significant industry with 20% of the men population share belonging to the above industry . Among all, 95% are married and 87% at least have a bachelor’s degree.
The average age of women in UHNW population is 54 with 53% having inherited wealth and 33% independent self-made women.89% are married and 82% have a degree in bachelors. They tend to give costlier gifts than men with an average value being US$ 24.7 million.And the most significant industry being Non-Profits and social organizations.
We can see the wealth distribution in the graph, Billionaires have the slowest growth and % change in wealth because logically new entrants are microscopically low and huge wealth accumulation takes time. UHNW population in the $100-199 million category have the fastest growth and have become wealthier comparatively.
Now looking at the geographical distribution of UHNW population and wealth
North American Capitalists collectively have the majority share and USA is spear heading this continent .32% of US UHNW individuals hold most of their wealth in liquid assets and the strong recovery of the American market is pulling back the economic wind towards its shores. The other important focus country Canada total UHNW wealth is only US$ 595 billion and is in a weaker position.
The European crisis affected its growth to remain still but a positive growth is expected due to strong performance by German and Swiss economies and recovery phase of Greece and other struggling nations.
Asian economies have remained modest this year to due slowdown in china and India. But according to the report Asian wealth is expected to overtake Europe and US by 2017 and 2024 respectively and UHNW population by 2021 and 2032.
African economy is reported to growing faster than any other continent with Nigeria and South Africa becoming to be the Focus countries.
The ever-growing smart devices’ market is undergoing yet another change lately. Earlier this year, we saw a plethora of devices, notably, the 5+ inch smartphones, also known as phablets launched by various manufacturers that have been instrumental in bringing about this change. International Data Corporation (IDC) has recently forecasted that the worldwide smart-devices market, comprised of PCs, tablets, and smartphones, will grow by 27.8% year-over-year (YoY) in 2013, slightly lower than the 30.3% growth in 2012. The PC segment witnessed a tragic decline in sales earlier this year (second quarter, 2013), selling only 76.3 million units worldwide while the tablet segment showed an impressive 42.9% growth and is expected to surpass total PC shipments (desktop as well as laptop PCs) in the fourth quarter of 2013 (4Q13). Although the total PC shipments for the full year are still likely to be greater than the total tablet shipments, but by the year 2015, tablet shipments will surpass total PC shipments on an annual basis, forecasts IDC.
Worldwide shipment value is expected to grow by 10.6% in 2013 owing to the recent introduction of smartphones and tablets in the low-cost segment that has greatly influenced the smart devices market lately. The worldwide smart device value is expected to be $662.4 billion in 2013, of which $423.1 billion will come from sub-$350 smartphone and tablets segments collectively. These lower-cost devices are expected to drive interest worldwide, especially in developing nations and among first-time buyers, and also in commercial sectors like education. This recent trend suggests that the smart connected device space will continue to surge, with overall shipments surpassing 2 billion units by the end of 2015 with a market value of $735.1 billion. In 2012, total PC shipments accounted for 28.7% of the overall smart device market, while tablets and smartphones accounted for 11.8% and 59.5%, respectively. The total PC segment is expected to drop to 13% by 2017, while tablets and smartphones will contribute to 16.5% and 70.5% respectively to the overall market. The average selling price for the collective market is expected to fall from $462 in 2012 to $323 in 2017, owing to the gradual shift in demand from more expensive PC category to more reasonably priced smartphones and tablets.
“At a time when the smartphone and tablet markets are showing early signs of saturation, the emergence of lower-priced devices will be a game-changer. Introducing new handsets and tablet devices at cheaper price points along with special initiatives like trade-in programs from Apple and BestBuy will accelerate the upgrade cycle and expand the total addressable market overnight.”: Megha Saini, Research Analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Smart Connected Device Tracker
It was also noteworthy from IDC’s forecast that a new round of device cannibalizing is expected to kick in. The line between smartphones and tablets is increasingly getting blurred with the introduction of 5+ inch large-screen smartphones, also known as phablets which are already beginning to impact the smaller (7-8 inch) tablet market. The growing popularity of phablets world-wide and the introduction of low-cost phablets in developing economies by local and Chinese vendors is likely eat into the tablet market share.
“The device world has seen several iterations of cannibalization impacting different categories, with the last few years focused on tablets cannibalizing PC sales. Over the next 12-18 months, however, we believe the larger smartphones, commonly called ‘phablets’, will start to eat into the smaller-size tablet market, contributing to a slower growth rate for tablets.” : Bob O’Donnell, Program Vice President, Clients and Displays.
Domain.com owners Endurance International Group is all set to buy Directi Web Technology Pvt Ltd. Endurance will pay somewhere between $100-110 million for this acquisition. The deal will reportedly be either in cash or in a combination of cash and shares (based on the seller).
Endurance is also the owner of HostGator, Bluehost, iPage and multiple other online business entities. There are two sides to this story – the Endurance side of the acquisition and the Directi side. I will give you a low down on both as we progress, but first let’s run through some numbers.
Endurance has also filed for a $400 million IPO.
Radix Registry, a Directi subsidiary has 29 active gTLD applications, of which 26 are contested.
Endurance has agreed to pay up to a maximum of $62 million to help Radix win these contention sets.
Since 2011, Endurance is controlled and majority owned by Warburg Pincus and Goldman Sachs who according to the Wall Street Journal had paid about $975 million for the US based company.
Directi was founded in 1998 by Divyank and Bhavin Turakhia. The company being acquired is an arm of the Directi group of businesses, which claims to be worth $350+ million. I have reached out to Directi, to understand their position with regards to their valuation after the acquisition closes in the fourth quarter of 2013. We will update this page about the same, as soon we get an official response from Directi.
Endurance International Group Acquires Directi Web.
Reports have confirmed that other Directi divisions including Media.net are not part of the acquisition. This is being touted as a great exit for Turakhia brothers and accolades are being showered upon them from all quarters. But the fact remains that another thriving Indian internet business has given up the opportunity to grow beyond expectations. For the uninitiated, Directi is India’s largest domain registrar.
The buyers in the deal – Endurance are direct competitors to GoDaddy Group Inc. and acquiring Directi has given them more weight than GoDaddy would appreciate. Acquisitions can not and should not be based on national sentiment but mine is not a patriotic argument. Indian internet business owners would agree with me when I say that Directi has been one of India’s success stories in this niche, in the last decade and a half. So, wasn’t there a possibility for Directi to scale and acquire other smaller companies in its area of expertise and expand its wings to maybe one day become direct competitors to GoDaddy themselves?
Perhaps, Directi top bosses didn’t believe in scaling further. Can’t blame them, very few, if any, Indian companies in this niche do so. Here’s the other side of the story – Endurance International which is based in Massachusetts is currently not a profitable company. As a matter of fact, judging by its S-1 filing, they are neck deep in debt. They owe over a billion dollars in debt. They recorded a net loss of $139.2 million in 2012 and are currently going for a $400 million IPO.
Acquiring HostGator was among Endurance’s biggest wins.
Some might ask, what are they on? Well, from where I see it, they are on something which rhymes with – supreme confidence in their policies of scalability and strategic acquisitions like this one. They know they will pay off their debts in the long run, the IPO will help them do that to a small extent. Their annual revenue for the last three years has been $87.8 million, $190.3 million and $292.2 million respectively. They might not be profitable yet, but they are growing every year.
Surely, the Directi executive bench must have exercised their much acclaimed business acumen to understand that in their niche growth is the only constant. The internet is never going to shrink, it will keep infiltrating new markets. Therefore, a graph showing the number of customers they could cater to is likely to be an upward trending graph until eternity or at least until internity (if that’s a word).
GoDaddy is what Endurance wants to be. (Credit : Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
The two companies show a striking dissimilarity in their approach towards their business goals. The Mumbai based Directi believes a timely exit is a profitable venture, while the Massachusetts based Endurance believes in scaling beyond boundaries even if it means billions of dollars in debt are to be paid.
To drive the point home, in case you didn’t know, the founder, president and CEO of Endurance also happens to be of Indian origin. His name isHari Ravichandran and unlike his counterparts, his strategic acquisition of Directi clearly brings out the proverbial big match player in him and his company.
Talk of dreaming big – Endurance has applied to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol EIGI.
In what could be easily called as one of the most highly anticipated media events in recent times, California based consumer electronics giant and one of the world’s most easily recognizable brands – Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) launched its latest offerings in the smartphone market at a highly publicized event held on the 10th of this month at the company’s HQ. Apple broke off from usual tradition and launched not one but two, yes two iPhones. The Cupertino, California based company unveiled its latest flagship phone – the iPhone 5s and a cheaper version of it – the iPhone 5c with a view to penetrate into the mid-range smartphone market as well. Apple had pinned a lot of hope on both the iPhone 5s and 5c (yes, the letters are in lower case now) and these phones had immediately transformed into talking points all over the ‘Tech World’ thereby generating a set of mixed feelings.
The iPhone 5s which will be the successor to the iPhone 5 is a highly improvised and upgraded version of its predecessor. It does retain the same physical design language and philosophy (dimensions are pretty much the same) of the previous generation iPhone but it comes across as a far better and more improved iteration of the 5. To put it in Apple’s own words, “The iPhone 5s is purposefully imagined. Meticulously considered. Precision crafted. It’s not just a product of what’s technologically possible. But what’s technologically useful. It’s not just what’s next. But what should be next.” The iPhone 5s is being marketed as the most ‘forward-thinking’ phone of all time. According to Apple, this new phone is five times faster than the iPhone 5 and fifty-six times faster than the original iPhone.
Let’s take a look at its key features:
A7 processor and iOS7 with 64-bit architecture:
This all new processor by Apple along with 64-bit architecture (first for any smartphone) is set to create waves in the industry as Apple calls it ‘ahead of its time’. What this essentially means is that performance wise the iPhone 5s sees a marked improvement in overall speed and multi-tasking duties. All the native apps have been re-worked so as to take full benefit of the A7 processor. The A7 packs in more than one billion transistors into a 102 mm chip. It also supports OpenGL 3.0/ES Version 3.0 for gaming console-level graphics. Upcoming games like Infinity Blade III will be the first of many such games to take advantage of this upgrade to deliver improved graphics and detailed effects.
The new operating system, iOS 7 takes advantage of the 64-bit architecture and packs in a whole new interface system, refreshed multi-tasking view, new version of Siri, Control Center, AirDrop and a whole new set of native apps.
Apple is also bundling along its premium apps such as iWork, iLife, iMoney, etc. free of cost with the iPhone 5.
iSight Camera:
The 8 Megapixel camera on the iPhone 5s comes with a 15% larger sensor and an aperture of f/2.2 allowing for better low light photography and lesser noise in the images. The Burst Mode allows users to shoot up to 10 frames per second and also intuitively suggests the best shot from those clicked. The camera also has an on-board image stabilizer to prevent shaky images from being clicked. There is a Slo-Mo mode to shoot slow motion videos at 120 frames per second on a 720p resolution. The phone also has a dual LED flash (white and amber) to help bring out images with natural colour. The camera can shoot panorama images up to a resolution a 28 Megapixels.
As far as the front facing camera is concerned, it bears a resolution of 1.2 Megapixels and is a Face Time camera. It comes with a Backside Illumination Sensor and can record HD videos at 720p.
M7 Co-processor:
The M7 Co-processor’s duty is to take up motion data from various sensors of the phone such as the accelerometer, compass and gyroscope and to feed this data into various fitness apps without using the A7 processor. This helps conserve the battery life.
Touch ID:
This is one of the most talked about features of the new iPhone and has also led Apple calling the iPhone 5s as ‘one of the most secure smartphones’. The phone’s Home button integrates a finger-print scanner that can be used to unlock the phone and also approve purchases from the App Store, iTunes Store and iBooks Store. It can support multiple fingerprints and is capable of 360 degree reading of fingerprints. This feature will definitely allow users to personalise their respective iPhones. The sapphire made Home button is scratch-resistant.
Better Battery Life:
Apple claims that the iPhone 5s’ battery has enough juice in it to last for 8 hours 3G browsing, 10 hours on 3G talk-time, 10 hours LTE or Wi-Fi browsing, 10 hours video playback, 40 hours music playback and 250 hours standby.
New Color Options:
The iPhone 5s will be available in colors of Space Gray, Champagne Gold and White of course.
The iPhone 5s will go on sale on the 20th of this month and will be available in nine countries i.e. the United States, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore and the UK. It will be available on a 2 year contract basis with carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc. The phone will come with 16, 32 or 64GB of storage capacity costing $199, $299 and $399 respectively. Countries like India and China will probably get their date with the iPhone 5s whenever the second wave of launching occurs. As far as its stable-mates are concerned, it is most likely that the iPhone 5 will be phased out thanks to the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s. The iPhone 4S will continue to soldier along but with only one storage option i.e. 8GB.
Now that we are familiarized with the key differences or the key improvements that the iPhone 5s brings to the table when placed alongside the iPhone 5, something that bothers me and a lot of other people is that for an existing iPhone 5 user, how practical and feasible will it be to upgrade to the all new iPhone 5s? The answer to that question depends upon a few factors. If you’re a die-hard Apple loyalist and are willing to rake out that extra moolah that the iPhone 5s commands over its predecessor, you might as well go ahead and sign on that dotted line on your cheque. If you feel that the iPhone 5 which you currently own is not radically inferior or that the iPhone 5s is not much of a quantum leap in comparison to the former, you can continue to use your iPhone 5 for a little while longer as it can easily put up with the day to day rigors of smartphone usage (iOS 7 will be made available for iPhone 5 seen). iPhone 4 and 4S users can also look towards the iPhone 5c if they’re considering an upgrade and an iPhone 5s seems to be out of reach.
All said and done, the iPhone 5s does offer better features in the form of a better camera, processor etc. (all mentioned above) than its predecessors and has also been marketed very well but whether or not these new and improved features will translate into more sales for the company and will this phone live beyond its initial hype are questions that only time will be able to answer.
Here is the most detailed iPhone 5S hands-on video till now:
The smartphone market in US still is in absorption mode and the number of users is projected to rise by 20 million this year to 140 million from 121.4 million last year and might rise to 159.9 million by the end of 2014. Many analysts all over the globe believe the smartphone growth in US market has reached to a stability but according emarketer it’s a way different story. An annual increase of 20 million by a year is a huge potential. Americans are the first to respond and adopt to any new technology. They are always in mood for something new and keep upgrading.
US Smartphone market, also known as safe heaven for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), is dominated by Android OS of Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). Though the gap between iOS and Android is not huge, the latter one is growing faster in 2013 and the trend is bound to continue till the end of 2014.
Although Android owns the majority of market share in the world, the difference between iOS and Android is not so huge in the US market. The share of Android was 43.5% in 2012 and iOS owned 36.5% of market in 2013. Where the numbers slightly increased for both Android and iOS in 2013 to 45.9% and 38.3% respectively by grabbing up users from Blackberry majorly and other OS users. According to the projections the numbers are set to go even higher in 2014 which can be seen in the graph. From 2011 Blackberry has significantly lost its market share each year gradually and set to lose even more in next year. Lack of innovation and inability to compete with fast evolving models of iOS and Android Black Berry is losing the race. We can see that iOS and Android are strengthening their positions year by year and the other players and less competent ones are simply vanishing. Windows Mobile is also on a growth track but limited takers of this particular software are limiting its potential. The new acquisition of Nokia mobiles by Microsoft might prove to a good deal to Windows Mobile.
In the above graph we could the % of population using each kind of software. emarketer predicts that the growth rates of both the systems will be same, iOS varying slightly less than Android by a Point percentage. Now if we look at the (CAGR) compound annual growth rate for both the systems between 2011 and 2014 , It is going to be on a higher side for iOS than Android. In 2012 16.8% of the US population used Android and 14.1% iOS , the numbers are tend to increase for both the systems but Android still holds a larger percentage. We should not forget the fact that Android is used by many mobile manufacturers and iOS is compatible only with apple manufactures products. If we compare on the basis of individual companies selling smart phones Apple will be the clear leader in the US smart phone market. As a technology enthusiast , it would be really great if the world had more options for their mobile OS to choose and moreover competition ensures innovation.
Finally, the covers are off and all speculations, rumors and projections are either dead or transformed into reality; Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has announced two new variants of revolutionary iPhone – iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. We have already addressed the tech specifications of both the new entrants that have left us in lurch only to scratch our heads.
So, the first things first; Most of the users were eagerly waiting for Apple’s debut in low-price smartphone market with quite competitive iPhone 5C price. Indeed, the iPhone 5C is a reality now but with an absolute different focus and market strategy. Eventually, “C” didn’t stand for Cheap, and Apple knew it since the beginning. The much hyped ‘low-price’ iPhone 5C, purported for developing markets likes of India, China and Indonesia, is no way going to meet (forget beating) the expectations of users who were riding high with the rumors of $349 iPhone 5C. Apparently, Apple failed to check the pulse of market by factoring many crucial aspects including local vendors’ penetration, taxation laws, duties and Samsung strategy, off course.
iPhone 5C Price For Developing Countries: Are You Kidding
Early rumors of iPhone 5C claimed that Apple was quite sensitive with its strategy for smartphone market in developing nations. Speculations went on claiming that iPhone 5C was being developed to crack the jinx of Samsung in price sensitive markets like India and, so called, ‘low-price iPhone’ will not debut in price rich countries likes of US and UK.
Yesterday, Apple officially announced iPhone 5C price for unlocked version and made one thing clear “iPhone is not meant for everyone, at least not for people who don’t have deep pockets”. Without contract iPhone 5C 16 GB variant is available for $549 in the U.S.. However, when you talk about developing countries the prices take a steep jump resulting in a great disappointment; iPhone 5C price in India remains nearly $700 (1 USD = Rs. 4,000) for 16 GB variant and in China – the largest market by subscribers – one can’t expect iPhone 5c price to settle down anything lesser than $730 (Rs. 48,000). The price of iPhone 5C in other regions is slightly better; In Germany iPhone 5C is tagged with euro 550 (Rs. 50k), UK its 469 pounds (Rs.47k).
With such bizarre price strategy for developing nations Apple has lost the apparent advantage it could get over arch rival Samsung. Instead, iPhone 5C price strategy is making people more confused in accordance to iPhone 5S – available with only $100 difference.
iPhone 5C Price: Nothing Personal ?
Many market pundits believe that Apple has adopted the right price strategy with iPhone 5C and kept itself aside from the ‘rat race’. Apple has ‘earned’ its brand value, position and market by keeping iPhone out of reach from every Tom, Dick and Harry. Unlike Samsung, Apple doesn’t enjoy and believe in flooding the market with tens of variants and no way it could be compared with other vendors.
iPhone is a brand and Apple is a true Smartphone maker not a mere OEM like Samsung, Sony or HTC. Apple needs to make sure that users’ overall experience, starting from hardware till the UI and apps, must be smooth, flourish and rich; there should be no claims for malware, security or illegitimate injections into the ecosystem like Android has been dealing with for last few years. This makes iPhone probably the best Smartphone one could admire the most and, definitely, it all comes at a price.
Having said that all, Apple must work out some ‘subsidized strategy’ to ensure the unanimity in price of iPhone 5C. If the company could make iPhone 5C available in every country with unified price tag of $549, the presence of iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S could be well justified. Otherwise, I wont be surprised to see iPhone 5C meeting the faith of iPhone 5 soon.
Smartphone in the US have penetrated 60% of the total mobile market during the three months ending in July. 143.3 million people in the US now own smartphones, reported comScore. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) gained the top spot among smartphone manufacturers with 40% OEM market share. Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android stood out as the numero uno smartphone platform with 52% market share.
Top Smartphone OEMs
Apple was leading the race as the top smartphone OEM and saw an increase in the number of its subscribers by 1.2%, following closely was Samsung (KRX:005930), whose subscribers increased by 2.1%, most probably with the launch of its Galaxy S4 smartphone. HTC’s (TPE:2498) subscribers dropped by 0.9%, as HTC One faced fierce competition from devices like Sony Zperia Z, eating away its shares. Interestingly, LG (NYSE:LPL) registered a growth of 0.1 percent although it stood at the bottom of the top 5 list, owing to the success of Nexus 4.
Top Smartphone Platform
Android bagged the crown in with 51.8% market share in July, which is although 0.2% less than it was in April, but still enough to keep it on the top spot. Apple’s market share increased from 39.2% in April to 40.4% in July, indicating that users aren’t too keen to wait for the yet-to-be-launched iPhone 5S as they have the option to upgrade. BlackBerry’s (NASDAQ:BBRY) market share dropped to 4.3% in July from 5.1% in April, as the new OS failed to create any ripples in the global market. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) maintained a steady share of 3% throughout, which isn’t as bad given the company’s delay in responding to the smartphone growth in recent years. The decrease in Symbian’s share came as no surprise to us and only indicated the shift towards smartphones.
Top 15 Smartphone Properties and Apps
Facebook ranked as the top smartphone app with 76.1% reach, followed by Google-owned apps: YouTube (53.6%), Google Play (53.6%), Google Search (53.5%), Google Maps (46.2%) and Gmail (45%). Apple App Suite (iTunes, App Store, Game Center) registered 43.9% reach to app audience.
On the properties side, Google sites registered as the top property on smartphones, reaching 92.6% of the mobile media audience, followed by Facebook, Yahoo! and Amazon sites, with 86.3%, 81.7% and 66.8% reach, respectively.
Price: 16GB at $199; 32GB at $299; 64GB at $399 (with 2-year contract)
Price (without contract): 16GB at $649, 32GB at $749, 64GB at $849
Sadly, no giant screen on any of these. Doesn’t look like a requirement either, with these feature updates.
The iOS 7 will be available for download on 18th Sept for iPhone 4, 4S and iPad. Pre-order is open from 13th Sept for the iPhone 5C. Both the phones will be available for purchase by 20th Sept.
Looks like Apple disappointed developing markets like India with its over-hyped pricing of the iPhone 5C variant.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has always been known for surprising the consumers with their products when they least expect it. This year has been no different. Although we have been hearing reports from all over the internet that the company is going to launch two variants of the iPhone – the iPhone 5S and the low cost iPhone 5C – we aren’t sure about anything else. Curiousity and expectations are at a peak.
While we wait for the launch event, worry crosses our minds amidst all the expectations. The question that is probably on everyone’s mind right now- How low will the cost of the ‘low-cost’ iPhone 5C be?
One of the cost cutting measures that will be most visible is most probably going to be the build material. The phone will likely lack the premium glass finish and may feature a plastic casing – that’ll lower the manufacturing cost a little. But will that be the only cost-cutting measure? We don’t think so. Sadly, the retina display too will most likely be absent from the 5C. Rumour has it that Apple will not fit the 5C with its latest dual-core 64-bit A7 processor which is 31% faster than the one on iPhone 5. We know that the 5S variant will run on iOS 7, but can’t say the same for 5C, unfortunately. Looks like consumers are going to miss out on a lot, or are they?
It is still unclear whether or not the iPhone 5C will be launched in developed markets and who is Apple’s target market. As Android powered phones flood emerging smartphone markets, the 5C may be able to pull customers towards Apple, provided they price it right. However, Apple wouldn’t want the 5C cannibalizing the sales of higher-end iPhones in those markets either as a low price tag would surely bring in a lot of customers and expand Apple’s market share in developing countries like China and India, but would be costly to Apple’s historically high profit margins. A higher price would lessen the cannibalizing factor, but will limit the appeal of the device in markets where Apple has some of the best growth potential.
Some analysts believe Apple will price the unsubsidized 5C around $400 (Rs. 24000), which would be considered high for its targeted markets, but would pose less cannibalization. Customers in these markets are more price-sensitive and some analysts believe that in order to do well in such markets, Apple needs to have an attractive, unsubsidized price under the $400 mark – despite the effect that might have on the company’s profit margins.
It is yet unclear whether Apple is planning to take lower gross margins over the long- term but CEO Tim Cook doesn’t seem to fear cannibalization, and is known to be vocal in his belief, much like the late Steve Jobs.
“In terms of cannibalization and how we think about this, I see cannibalization as a huge opportunity for us. One, our base philosophy is to never fear cannibalization. If we do, somebody else will just cannibalize it, and so we never fear it. We know that iPhone has cannibalized some iPod business. It doesn’t worry us that it’s done that. We know that iPad will cannibalize some Macs. That doesn’t worry us.”: Tim Cook, CEO, Apple Inc.
We have his words to put us at ease and to be hopeful.
Update: Apple has just revealed the pricing for iPhone 5C. Under Contract, 16 GB would cost $99 and 32 GB $199…..Got one word to say Delicious !!!
The e-commerce in retail industry of U.S. has off late given the majority sales and the Mcommerce is fast picking up in pace. The contribution of Mcommerce is increasing steadily and the sales of the e-commerce are expected to rise by 15% this year in the US. The retail e-commerce sales in US expected to reach $61.8 billion(during holiday season) by the year end as compared to $53.7 (during holiday season) billion last year. The Mcommerce in retail industry has become so prevalent that it is indeed promoting sales of smartphones and tablets.
The rise YoY has remained flat and revolved around 15% in the past 2 years and the current year. This numbers are set up to even higher in the coming years because more and more companies are spending lavishly to develop mobile and tablets apps for their products and services. And more over the cheaper costs online, wide choice available and swift ways to compare prices always gives it an edge over other shopping experiences.
If we look at the projections of sales in retail industry through Mcommerce by eMarketer , it expected to reach a $113.57 billion by the end of 2017 which is more than twice the sales expected to happen in 2013. From 2011 to 2017 the percentage of sales contributed to the e-commerce by Mcommerce is set increase from 7% to 26%. Year over year the percentage change sales is huge in the initial three years but tend to become stable by the last years according to the graph. There might be many factors which might influence and effect the projections hence these numbers are only for a tentative understanding of the market.
As mentioned earlier the e-commerce industry is driving the sales of smartphones and tablets, we will also have a look at how different devices are driving US e-commerce retail sales year over year in the following graph.
Even though the data is projected for the Next four years , considering the initial statistics customers are more comfortable in using tablets over smartphones to purchase online .This year the Mcommerce sales though tablets is expected to reach 26.05 billion which accounts to 62.5% of the retail Mcommerce sales in US. Whereas the sales through smartphones might hit $14.59 billion is comparatively less than tablets. If we look at the expected sales through tablets during the year 2017 it will reach $81.20 billion. The tablets are more preferred over smartphones because of the faster processing speed, fluidity, and bigger screens. The physiological comfort and safety created by tablets might be another reason. Well the new Phablets might be a new entrant which might give some tough competition because it carriers both the advantages of a phone and tablet. So this might lead the market in my opinion.
If we compare quarter by quarter analysis, the fourth quarter of the year might give a sales of $83.2 billion adding up to a total of $262.3 billion of total e-commerce sales in the year 2013.
iPhone users all around the world must be impatiently waiting for the new redesigned OS from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), the iOS 7. It is evident from the numerous comment section and blogs from all around the World Wide Web that expectations are sky-high. The ongoing war between Android users and Apple devotees has stiffened lately as Android scored high on market penetration and number of app downloads, leading to heated discussions on websites.
The various beta releases hint that the recent update for iOS will be a big change over the previous versions. The UI change is the most noticeable aspect of the recent update. From the various screenshots all over the Internet we can see that the icons look sleek and fonts are clearer. It’s reportedly smoother to use and has a bunch of new features. On the other hand, Android has an array of device makers to support it. Most of them have added new and unique features to their respective smartphones, in addition to built-in features, which are also impressive nonetheless. What is left to be seen now is what features the iOS 7 will bring forth this time. All will be revealed at the official release of the OS, few hours from now.
Will iOS7 live up to the expectations?
Following the official release, all previous apps on Apple App Store will have to be upgraded for compatibility with the new version, as reportedly there’s a huge difference in the way old apps look and behave alongside new iOS 7-ready apps, and not in a good way. When iOS 6 was announced at WWDC last year, there was a continuous increase in the number of apps in the App Store but after Apple announced the arrival of iOS 7 at WWDC this year, there have been some major changes in app counts in the App Store – iOS 6 development activity seemed to cease steadily.
The growth rate of apps, which was steady at an average of 4% per month, has now slowed to less than 1% in August 2013. Moreover, the average number of app submissions for the 12-month period starting in June 2012 and ending in May 2013 was 28,404. That number fell significantly to just 7,322 submissions in August this year, since June 2013. This was again not the case prior to the release of iOS 6.
Developers may be targeting iOS 7 rather than releasing an app for iOS 6 and then having to update to iOS 7 shortly after the release, which may be a reason for the current decline in app counts and growth rate. The decline in app submissions after iOS 7 was announced may indicate that developers may have been spending a lot of time updating their apps in preparations for the launch and with such a decline in both app count and submission rate, there are obviously a lot of developers working on iOS 7 updates.
Whenever a new version of iOS is released, the adoption rate is generally very high. For instance, 61% of iOS users had already updated within a month of iOS 6’s official release last year, and by June of this year, the number reached 90% of all iPhone users. Assuming the trend continues with the iOS 7, this year, the app submission rates are likely to return to normal the moment iOS 7 is released, but the total app count may still take a hit as more than 370,000 apps have so far been removed from the App Store since the first app was downloaded, for various reasons like change in direction for the developer, Apple pulling the apps for reasons of its own and complaints from customers about poor performance of an app. A sizable population of app owners is yet to find out which of their apps are able to run on iOS 7 and depending on how many outdated apps start having serious issues, the number of apps that get pulled down from the App Store could be significant, maybe large enough to slow down the overall growth rate of the number of apps for a few months.
However, the large number of developers working on updating their respective apps for iOS 7 that has stirred things up so much indicate that much more is likely going on under the hood than in previous releases.
The stage is set for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to end a year old wait for iPhone 5S and, much awaited, low-price iPhone 5C. Today, along with iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C, the company will also release the new version of iOS 7 – a first revamped mobile OS by Apple in last 5 year. We have spoken in length about iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C and its time to shed some light on the platform these ‘gadgets’ are going to run. The new iOS 7, with revamped interface, is expected to record explosive adoption post-event and the distribution of iOS versions would witness a great deal of variation.
According to a latest report, based upon tens of millions of views in August on online advertisement platform Chitika, iOS 6 accumulated 92% of total iPhone traffic in North America during the 3rd week of August. This was followed by iOS 5 and earlier versions of iOS with 5% and 2% total traffic respectively. However, iOS 7 also marked its presence with 1% of total traffic, in spite of the fact that the iOS 7 is only available in limited roll out beta edition.
Apple is about to launch two variants of iPhones in the event scheduled for September 10. Reportedly, both the variants would be powered by latest iOS 7. While the roll out of new iPhones could take some time, it would be interesting to see how existing users are going to react to iOS 7 public launch. The Internet is flooded with the rumors that Apple could drop earlier version of iPhone 4S to push iPhone 5C, the market share of iPhone iOS 6 is doomed to shrink significantly.
Apple has no plans to introduce any new version of iPad or iPad Mini – atleast on September 10. But the launch of iOS 7 would also reset the market distributions of iOS running on iPad. Nearly 82% of iPad users in North America is powered by iOS 6, followed by 13% and 5% with iOS 5 and earlier version of iOS; iOS 7 is yet to get adopted by iPad users.
All above distribution scenario is bound to change significantly after the public launch of iOS 7. Though the beta versions of iOS 7 have already claimed its market presence in limited roll out, it’s all set to explode in iPhone and iPad segments both. However, due to different usage habits and nature of users’ market share of iOS on iPhone and iPhone could portray a different picture.
