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Why Apple’s 128 GB iPad Is A Mysterious Puzzle For Marketers ?

By
Abhishek Singh
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0

It’s true that the appetite for digital data consumption has now risen to a distinct level. People are now willing to have desktop like experiences on their tablet. They want to do all those stuffs on tablet what they are currently doing on their desktops. Last year, Microsoft started the trend with the launch of Surface RT tablet. Now, it’s Apple’s turn. The company has decided to double the maximum storage (64 GB) for its iPad. Yes, there’s a discussion about Apple’s 128 GB iPad. The company is apparently trying to draw the attention of business customers. More probably, it’s targeting businesses, those are willing to buy Microsoft’s Surface RT and Pro.

Pricing Strategy:

This time, Apple has different price strategy with its upcoming tablet. The company is expected to launch 128 GB iPad (with Wi-Fi only) at the price tag of $799 in early February this year, just a week before the advent of Windows 8 Pro Surface Tablet to the market. More importantly, Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablet would cost $999 for the same amount of storage. In other words, Apple wants to clinch businesses, those are interested to get their hands on Windows 8 Pro tablet, on the price ground.

It’s About Business Oriented Service

Yesterday, Microsoft released Office 2013 software Suite, which is integrated with SkyDrive Cloud storage service. As “Bring your own Device” (BYOD) trend is moving up, more number of companies are willing to offer the technology, which is quite popular among consumers as well as employees. Last year, Microsoft revealed that more than 1 billion people worldwide were using its Office suite. In addition, the company also wants to have touch-screen version of office to Windows 8 devices. Although, touch sensitive Office is currently available on its Surface RT tablet, but editing ‘Office documents’ on Surface tablet is still a challenge.

Microsoft has strategy to attract more number of users through its Office. But the company hasn’t yet provide its Office suite to iPads. Microsoft is expected to loss $1.3 billion in 2012 for not selling office to iPad. On the other side, Apple has also claimed to have 10 million users for its office software—iWork.

However, success or failure of any device can’t be determined on the basis of Office application. Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing told in a statement that 85% of fortune 500 companies are likely to test or deploy the iPad in near future. In addition, Apple could also leverage on its more than 250 million iCloud Sync storage system users.

128 GB iPad

With Office 2013, Microsoft is trying to turn its software business into subscription based business. In the contrary, with the 128 GB iPad, Apple is endeavoring to offset its tablets’ profit margin, which has been affected due to less profitable iPad Mini and low-priced siblings.

Apple’s Strategy Is Little Bit Confusing

Just a few weeks before, Apple reportedly sliced its display orders for the full size iPad by 50% for the current quarter, as demand demand shifts to the iPad Mini. Yesterday, citing to anonymous source, DigiTimes reported that Apple lowered display orders for 9.7-inch iPads from ‘LG Display’ for Q1 2013 to 6 million units.

Apparently, the competition is expected to beef up among 64 GB tablet categories. At present, Google is offering two variants–16 GB and 32 GB–of  Nexus 10, while Samsung Galaxy Note is ranging 16 GB to 64 GB. Besides, BlackBerry Playbook is also being offered with memory capacities ranging 16 GB to 64 GB . Even Amazon is offering 7-inch Kindle Fire HD with two variants–16 GB and 32 GB–and also, 8.9-inch version of the tablet is available with 64 GB capacity. Here, Apple wants to top them all with 128 GB tablet specification. However, Apple’s decision might be little bit awkward for other Android tablet manufacturers.

Of course, increasing of memory will push up the bills of the upcoming iPad. But it wouldn’t put much impact on the company like Apple, which has been selling devices at higher price tags. But Android tablet manufacturers are basically focusing to offer the products at affordable price tags. In simple words, Apple’s 128 GB iPad won’t be a threat for Android tablets, but it would be for Microsoft’s Surface RT and Pro tablets.

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Record 81% Social Media Users In India Check Brands’ Pages Regularly [Report]

By
Dazeinfo
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0

A new study reveals that Social Media users in India are most committed towards Brands’ Pages on social networking sites, like Facebook. Nearly 81% of social media users in India, which were surveyed, said that they regularly check Brands’ Pages for various promotional offers, contents, giveaway, coupons and for many other purposes. However, around 19% users responded stating that don’t check Brands’ Pages on social networking sites so frequently.

The study – conducted by Ipsos OTX and Ipsos Global jointly – covered total 12,000 respondents having access to internet from 24 countries including India, USA, Australia, China, Canada, Indonesia, Great Britain etc. At global level around 45% users accepted the fact that they check Brands’ page son social networking sites regularly.

Social Media Users In India: 81% Active On Brands’ Pages

While classifying 81% positive responses it is discovered that nearly 40% of social media users in India confidently agree with the fact of checking Brands’ pages regularly against 41% who somewhat stand by the very fact. Interestingly, this also depicts the fact that by holding the highest level of confidence, compare to other countries, indian users are much more active and responsive towards brands’ pages on various social networking websites. Indonesia is the only country in the list stands close to India as 78% Indonesian users claimed to check Brands’ page regularly.

According to the report, social media users in India under 35 years age are the most active on Brands’ pages compare to people aged 36 to 49 years. Around 85% of people, under 35 years of age, claimed they regularly check brands’ pages – classified into 40% and 45% categories of “Strongly Agree” and “Somewhat Agree” respectively.

Female internet users in India are apparently more liberal towards Brands’ pages as 82% claimed they check Brands’ pages regularly against 79% Male respondents.

While classifying the respondents based upon House Hold income, its ‘Low Income Group’ which is the most active on Brands’ Pages with 83% active respondents. Surprisingly, it’s ‘Low Education Group’ which is most active on Brands’ page with 100% active respondents.

However, 81% of of ‘Chief Income Earner’ are the active on Brands’ page while 82% and business owners 83% of Sr. executives also fall under the same category.

The report clearly portrays the fact that brands over social media should design their marketing campaigns based upon target audience to ensure the highest level of engagement and the highest ROI. Every brand has got its own niche and it’s important to have targeted approach before they burn their marketing budget over social media.

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Kindle Fire HD Is A Profitless Product For Amazon: But Why The Company Is Still Relying On It?

By
Abhishek Singh
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0

Yesterday, Amazon Q4 2012 earnings report came out from the tunnel. Really, the company’s financial earning report wasn’t as much impressive as it was expected earlier. Net income of the company dropped 45% to $97 million (or $0.21 per dilute share) in Q4 2012, compared to Q4 2011’s $177 million (or $0.38 per dilute share) net income. However, net sales surged 22% to $21.27 billion in the last quarter, from $17.43 billion in Q4 2011.

Amazon Q4 2012 Earnings

Amazon has reported an operating income of $405 million in Q4 2012, up 56% compared with $260 million in the same quarter of the last year. Besides, the company currently has $8 billion reserve cash. For the entire 2012, the company’s revenue mounted up 27% to $61.09 billion, compared with $862 million revenues in 2011.

Undoubtedly, everyone had high expectation from the company especially due to strong sales of Kindle Fire HD tablet during the last holiday season. More importantly, the company’s physical book sales experienced lowest growth over the past 17 years, representing just 5% Y/Y growth.

amazon revenue in Q4 2012Amazon succeeded to generate benchmark revenue in Q4 2012 due to outstanding performance of its e-commerce and cloud fronts. Amazon’s CEO–Jeff Bezos–has admitted that Kindle Fire HD and Paperwhite are non-profitable products for the company. In other words, Kindle Fire tablets are worthless for the company in terms of profit generation. Then the question here is why Amazon is so much worried about the sales of Kindle Fire tablets ? It’s true that selling of hardware isn’t the primary business of the retail giant. Despite, it’s selling these products to bring more number of people to its physical retail store. This is the reason why the strong sales of the Kindle Fire HD in the holiday season couldn’t rescue the company’s net income decline. Last year, the company improvised its cloud drive and also, expended contents for its streaming service.

The company hasn’t told anything about the actual sales of Android-based tablets so far. But Kindle Fire tablets’ market share is gradually ramping up month-over-month. In the last month, Kindle Fire tablets accounted for 33% of all Android tablet sales in the U.S.. In addition, the company has also reported increases in amount of digital content available; Prime Instant Video now has 36,000 titles for subscribers and 23 million movies, TV shows, books, apps and more.

Amazon Q4 2012 profits

Amazon said in a statement that Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire, Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite were among the top four demanded-commodities on Amazon Worldwide best seller charts in Q4 2012. During the last holiday season, Kindle Fire was one of the best–selling Amazon’s products.

Amazon managed to generate a dignified revenue due to increasing earnings from ebooks. On the contrary, sales of physical book dropped to 17 years lowest figure. Interestingly, according to the company, 23 Kindle Direct Publishing author sold at least 250,000 digital copies in 2012. Furthermore, Amazon has also predicted its net sales for the first quarter of 2013; which are expected to be between $15 billion and $16.6 billion.

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Adoption Of iOS 6: 60% Of iOS Devices Are Having The Latest Version

By
Abhishek Singh
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0

Apple’s latest mobile OS version–iOS 6–is now globally available. Prior to the launch of the OS version, the company dumped Google Map and YouTube from it. Really, Apple’s decision embarrassed a significant number of iOS enthusiasts. Everyone was eager to know what Apple was really trying to do with the OS. However, the company’s some decisions, including deep-integration of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, with iOS 6 pleased many of its fans.

Apple’s fifth-generation iPhone (iPhone 5) came to the market with iOS 6 upgrade on September 21 last year. The OS  (iOS 6) in the device was initially lashed out for poor mapping and navigation app. Despite, the adoption of iOS 6 has reached to a distinct level. On Monday, Apple released iOS upgrade (6.1 version) for its iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users. The important points here is that the software update is capable to support LTE networks to 36 additional iPhone carriers, and 23 new iPad carriers around the world.

Adoption Of iOS 6

More importantly, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing–Philip Schiller– told that nearly 300 million iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices were powered by iOS 6; the OS reached such milestone in just five months since its release. However, during earnings report last week, the company’s CEO—Tim Cook—said that 500 million iOS devices had been sold across the world till date. In other words, 60% of all iOS devices are now having iOS 6 updates.

iOS 6 adoption

Apple To Launch 128 GB Tablet Soon

Before going further, in the last quarter, Apple made a record with iPads’ selling; sold 22.9 million iPads during the quarter. Besides, 64 million tablets were shipped by variant vendors in Q4 2012. According to a recent report from ABI Research, more than 200 million tablets have been shipped out across the world between 2009 and 2012. Interestingly, 1 billion tablets are expected to be shipped over the next 5 years.

Of course, the competition in the tablet segment is going to intensify in upcoming years. This is the reason why Apple has changed its strategy of launching tablets. Last year, the company brought three major tablets–new iPad, iPad 4 and iPad Mini–to the market. Rumors are saying that the company is currently working on its new iPad model, having 128 GB of Flash memory storage. Of course, we could expect that the upcoming tablet would be a separate version of the fourth-generation iPad with Retina display.

In terms of design, the device would not have any innovation related to the design. In addition, it would be available in both Wi-Fi (alone) and Wi-Fi-plus-cellular options. Developers have already found code of iOS 6.1 beta version, which is depicting a 128 GB version device. Besides, Apple’s iTunes 11 also provides a hint about 128 GB storage device. It’s little bit clear from these two intimations that something is cooking inside Apple related to 128 GB iPad. But today, 9to5Mac has revealed the pricing of these two tablets; Wi-Fi (only) version will be available at the price tag of $799, while Wi-Fi+ Cellular Version will cost $929.

Furthermore, it’s also said that the tablet has been manufactured solely for education and government customers. Of course, the new 128 GB tablet would provide another option to its consumers to get their hand on the full-sized iPad over iPad Mini. Apple already lunched its iPad Mini in October last year, and more probably, it would update its next tablet version in early Q1 2013.

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E-commerce in India: Consumers Interest Went Up By 128% In 2012 [Report]

By
Dazeinfo
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2

Days are gone when e-commerce industry in india used to be treated like a ‘man-with-a-plastic-bag’ who wants to touch and feel each and everything personally before reaching to his pocket. A latest report from Google India reveals that Indian consumers’ confidence in online shopping recorded 128% growth in 2012 compared to mere 40% in 2011. The report is based upon a study combined conducted by TNS Australia in November and collected data from Google Trends.

TNS study is based upon sample data collected from 800 respondents having monthly avg household income of Rs 55,051 spread across Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune and few other cities.

 Mobile Devices Played A Vital Role

In the year 2012, search queries generated through mobile devices doubled compared to 2011. Almost 30% of total search queries originated by mobile devices. This clearly showcases users’ constant increasing interest in Smartphones and Mobile internet despite of the fact that only 2.7% mobile users hold Smartphone in india and only 22% of mobile internet users pay Rs 500 or more per month.

E-Commerce in India

Apparel: Online Indian Consumers Loved The Most

According to the report, Apparel and electronics were the top categories which fascinated online shoppers the most. As 84% users purchased from these categories online, 71% users preferred consumer electronics, while 64% users bought beauty products online.

The fascination towards apparel among online users comes as no surprise, as the category was marked as one of the fastest growing e-commerce industry in India back in August 2012. The emergence of Zovi, Myntra, Jabaong and many more local players compliment the commendable growth. While eBay India is also stocking majority of its inventory for the same, Flipkart is also rumored to jump into the business with focused approach by late March of this year.

In fact, the frequency of purchase was also the highest in Apparel category with 33%, followed by electronics with 28%.

Payment Gateways Still Disappoint

Despite of such enormous e-commerce growth in India in 2012, the absence of effective and impressive presence of online payment gateways is still lagging behind compare to other countries. Consequently, COD is still the most preferred most of payment as 74% users preferred the same. And, that’s the reason e-Store are bound to offer COD in India despite of fact that realization of payment against goods is delayed due to the involvement of many offline collection agencies.

Debit card and credit card were the other mode of payment with 18% and 5% opted ratio among online shoppers.

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Global Tablet Shipments In Q4 2012: Android Showed Off A Whopping 218% Y/Y Growth !!!

By
Abhishek Singh
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2

Undoubtedly, the last holiday season was outstanding for mobile device vendors, as the global Tablet shipments reached all time highest for any single quarter in Q4 2012. According to a recent report from Futuresource Consulting, 64 million tablets were shipped in Q4 2012. More importantly, Q4 2012 accounted for almost half of all tablets sales in the last year. In 2012, 136 million tablets were shipped by hardware vendors.

Breaking the facts, sales of tablet surged by 127% in Q4 2012, compared to the same quarter of the last year. In 2012, lots of innovations were seen, including the launch of Microsoft Surface Tablet. It’s expected that Microsoft sold 1 million Surface RT tablets in the last quarter. As per Apple’s quarterly report, the company sold 22.9 million iPads in the last quarter.

Global Tablet Shipments in Q4 2012

There’s are numbers of reports (based on tablet web traffic) available worldwide revealing that the sales of tablets were primarily driven by Android and iOS devices. By separating the sales of Android, iOS and Windows RT tablets, the shipments of other OS-powered tablets were meager in Q4 2012, almost flat compared to the previous quarter.

Global Tablet OS shipments in Q4 2012

In Q4 2012, Android powered Google Nexus, Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 played significant role in terms of shipments. Android has seen 218% Y/Y growth in the last year, compared to Q4 2011. The main reason for the prevalence of Android tablets across the world is its affordable price tags. However, with the launch of iPad Mini, Apple succeeded to achieve its all time highest tablet shipments for any single quarter in Q4 2012.

global tablet OS shipments in Q4 2012Although Apple made a record with the sales of 22.9 million iPads in Q4 2012, but its overall tablet market declined to 35.70% during the quarter, from 54.70% in Q4 2011. On the other hand, Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD emerged as one of the most popular smaller screen tablets in the last year. In the U.S., 33% of Android tablets shipped in the last quarter were Amazon’s Kindle Fire.

In Q4 2012, Microsoft succeeded to grab a big chunk of Tablet market shares. With the launch of Surface RT, the software giant managed to hold 1.56% of overall tablet market share.

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Global Facebook Advertisement: Mobile Platform More Responsive (But Expensive) For Advertisers [Report]

By
Shilpa Shree
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0
facebook ad revenue

Global Facebook advertisement spending is slowing increase. And the effects are clearly visible in 2013 after social media titan made its firm mobile presence in 2012. At the beginning it showed a sluggish entry to the mobile market section and now soon after the completion of a year, the reports mark vibrant change in its mobile market space. The report has come up with some facts and figures about Facebook ad revenues from 2012 – 2018 according to desktop and mobile.

Facebook Advertisement 2013: Mobile Is The Key

Kenshoo Social, a digital software marketing firm noted that about one in five Facebook advertising amount in 2013 was spent on a mobile advertising section.

Facebook advertisement spendings on Tablet 2013

Facebook advertisement spendings on Smartphone 2013

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The statistics were further bifurcated by specific mobile devices. The study also marks that major part of the Facebook advertising amount was spent on Smartphones. Android accounted for most of the advertisement spending on Smartphones by 71% while, iOS accounted for the majority of ad spending on Tablets by 97%.

However, Facebook advertisement on mobile has proven its worth with high user engagement. It’s also important to note at this point that 66 million Android users and 91 million iPhone users were recorded as Facebook’s mobile active users as of September 2011. In December 2011 Android surpassed the iOS. Later in November 2012 Facebook’s Android user base reached to 192.8 million while iPhone had 147.2 million users. This proves that Android has a major contribution in Facebook’s  reach to overall 604 million mobile users by the end of Q3 2012.

Global facebook advertisement spending 2013 - 2018

The analysis by a research firm Cowen and company predicts that worldwide Facebook advertisement revenue from mobile would reach $4.60 billion by 2018. It’s also been predicted that the Facebook advertisement revenue for this year sees 240% growth compared to last year, which was about just $0.50 billion. The company also estimates that by 2016 the Facebook’s desktop advertisement revenue would surpass mobile ad revenue by $1.1 billion. And, by 2018 Facebook’s desktop ad revenue would reach $5.30 billion.

Most interestingly, by the end of this year Facebook ad revenue by desktop is assumed to reach $4.0 billion which would easily overtake mobile ad revenue by $2.3 billion.

Also, Facebook’s ad cost-per-click (CPC) on mobile is $1.38 compared to $0.81 for its desktop ads. A Cowen and company also estimated that Facebook’s worldwide advertisement revenue would reach $6 billion by the end of 2013, of which $1.7 billion would be credited from mobile advertisement spending alone. But, eMarketer’s estimate is slightly lower than the other Company’s prediction, at roughly $5.54 billion.

facebook ad revenue

According to another analysis conducted during November and December 2012, from clients across various verticals, including games, retail, financial services, travel, and software, advertisers are spending over 20% of their Facebook budgets on mobile ads. Well, 14% of Facebook ad revenue came from mobile in October 2012, which is over 6% of boom. Mobile ads are 70% more expensive than desktop ads. The reason is due to a relatively smaller amount of available paid inventory on mobile than on the desktop.

It’s important to note that  advertisers are pretty selective in mobile users, they’re not leveraging on all mobile users. Not to wonder, advertisers spent more to reach iPad users than Android Tablet users, with 97% of Tablet spend going to Apple’s device. On the other side, Android won out in attracting a larger share of Smartphone dollars, 71% versus the iPhone’s 29%. Will  Facebook let advertisers target their mobile ads by device ??

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Worldwide Smartphones OS Shipments In 2012: Android Registered 100% Growth While iPhone Disappointed !

By
Abhishek Singh
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0
Global Smartphone OS shipments in 2012

A robust demand of high-end mobile devices changed the entire trend of  global smartphone OS shipments in 2012. The shipments of smartphones created a new record last year. More importantly, the demand of smartphone reached to all time highest in Q4 last year, especially in the holiday season. According to Strategic Analytics, Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS accounted for 92% of global smartphone shipments in Q4 2012. The firm has reported 152.1 million Android smartphones were shipped in the quarter, up from 80.6 million units in Q4 2011.

Last year, Android dominated in terms of mobile OS market share based on shipments. However, 700.1 million smartphones were shipped in 2012, up from 490.5 million units in 2011.

Global Smartphone OS Shipments In 2012:

global smartphone OS shipments in 2012Indeed, the last quarter (Q4 2012) was the best duration for Apple; The company shipped 47.8 million iPhones and also, generated $54.5 billion in revenue. The iPhone shipments in Q4 2012, grew 29% from 37 million units in the same quarter of the prior year. Breaking out to iOS overall market share, the iOS’ market share declined to 22% in Q4 2012, from 23.6% in the previous year.

However, the global smartphone shipments grew 38% Y/Y in Q4 2012, taking the figure to a whopping 217 million units. Despite, the Y/Y growth rate of smartphone shipments dropped to 43% in 2012, compared to 64% in 2011. As the penetration of smartphones has reached almost to the saturation level in developed regions like North America and Western Europe, the growth rate of smartphone shipments has shown a sharp decline.

Global Smartphone OS shipments in 2012

In terms of manufacturing, Apple and Samsung together shipped more than 51% of smartphones in the last quarter.

In 2012, Apple shipped 135.8 million phones, while Samsung and Nokia shipped 396.5 million and 335.6 million mobile handsets respectively. Interestingly, last year, the mobile handset shipments reached to 1.6 billion units figure; out of those, over 700 million were smartphones. In other words, 44% mobile handsets which were sold last year were smartphones.

It’s pretty much clear from the stats  (global smartphone OS shipments in 2012) that Android has crushed the market share of other smartphone OSes, including Symbian, Bada and BlackBerry. However, Microsoft’s Windows Phone has somehow succeeded to draw the attention of a significant number of people around the world last year. The dynamics of Smartphone OS Shipments are expected to see major shifts as industry will see number of Windows Phone 8 OS Smartphones from various vendors.

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List Of Top Ten Failed Social Media Sites: Includes Google+, Myspace and Digg !!

By
Shilpa Shree
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0

This infographic speaks about the elapsed, disappearing or fading social media sites which once showed off its best and now considered as out-dated and few which died after couple of days after birth and few lacked immunity to rivals.

Orkut the social media site which once bloomed is considered as out-dated now, along with some sites like MySpace, Friendster, and Digg which were once all ready to fight in this social war are now dead and resting in peace.

Why Users Failed These Social Sites:

Though, there would be many who may not stand by the list below, but there are enough reasons and justifications that tagged below networks a failed initiatives:

iTunes Ping:

  • Poor environment led to poor user experience.
  • It showed a preview of songs for only 30 seconds and tedious steps to “share” music killed user experience.

Google+:

  • Poor online social experience and the online search queries over time decreased dramatically since Jan 2011.
  • It entirely leveraged on the users of Google mail and did not make enough effort to draw attention of other internet users.

Orkut:

  • It was too slow to use, said Americans.
  • It failed to show up user’s profiles on Google search.

Digg:

  • It could not sustain in the war of competition was its major cause to fail.
  • It was known to be the fastest news aggregator at time but later rivals like Facebook and Twitter ended up showing faster and quality info to users.

MySpace:

  • Even this poor thing did not have enough dosage of antibiotics to fight its rivals (Facebook and Twitter).
  • Users could not invite friends using email id’s.

Google+ secured the second best position with 25% market share against Facebook impressed 51% of global internet users on monthly basis. Will this change the fate of Google+?

Take a sneak peak at the infographic for more idea on this,

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Growth of Google+ And Twitter Stuns Facebook: YouTube Holds Vital Position !

By
Dazeinfo
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1

The recent growth of Google+ and Twitter might be a trigger shocking fact for Facebook; especially when YouTube is also among the top networks and with combination of Google+, it could stand by the side of Facebook at flat space. But before you move further to read, “people who are ready with all their logical ammunition to kill the post instantly, we are talking about ‘Active Users’, not the overall users”. Google+ has narrowed the gap with Facebook in social media space by leapfrogging many other networks only to become the second best social network with highest number of ‘active’ users. According to the recent report from GlobalwebIndex — Twitter, Google+ and Facebook remained the fastest growing social networks, in terms of active users, in Q4 2012. Between Q2 2012 and Q4 2012, Twitter registered the highest positive change of 40% in active users against Facebook and Google+ with 31% and 28% respectively.

However, while comparing the number of total active users against global internet users, Google+ secured the second best position with 25% market share against Facebook – impressed 51% of global internet users on monthly basis. Interestingly, YouTube and Twitter remained at the third and fourth position with 21% market share in active monthly internet users.

Growth of social networks Q2 - Q4

Google+ Is Catching Up

Though there is no doubt that the growth of Google+ has been astounding till now with fastest growth ratio, Google+ is still being considered as ‘Ghost Town’ by online social media users. Yes, one must admit that compare to Facebook, Google+ has been failed to recreate the magic till now but an intelligent integration with other popular Google services could make it the most lovable social media network in 2013.

Market Share of Social Networks

Facebook Must Watch Out

One interesting fact which came out from the report is Google’s ‘accumulative’ position. Though, Google+ is only holding 25% of global active internet users against Facebook 51%, YouTube is the 3rd largest online service influencing 21% of global active internet users. It shouldn’t be tough for Google to look out for a responsive structure that could help each of both the networks in which they leverage upon each other. If ever Google makes that possible, the overall market share of active internet users would easily reach to nearly 46% – much closer to Facebook’s 51% market share.

Local Social Players Shrink

The biggest fall came to local regional players who tried to dominate in their on region or country by leveraging over domestic aspects like language, reachability etc. The emergence of Facebook, Google and Twitter in countries like China – one of the most socially active countries with highest level of local influence – is also responding to global growth now. In last quarters, China’s local social networks like MeinVz and Hyves failed to replicate its own earlier growth; All thanks for proxy access and VPNs that allow access to Facebook and Google services.

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Global Smartphone Market Share In Q4 2012: Samsung And Apple Combined Controlled 51% Of Market

By
Abhishek Singh
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0
smartphone market share in Q4 2012

As demand of smart devices mounted up in the last holiday season, global smartphone market share in Q4 2012 saw a major shift in terms of shipments. It’s really interesting not to see global brands such as Nokia, HTC, LG and RIM among top five smartphones vendors. According to IDC’s latest report, Huawei succeeded to grab third position in terms of smartphone shipments in Q4 2012. As per Nokia Q4 2012 earnings report, the company shipped 15.9 million smartphones in the last quarter. It’s clear from the IDC’s report that the firm hasn’t considered Nokia’s Asha “lineups” as smartphone, otherwise Nokia was listed among top three smartphone vendors.

The worldwide mobile handsets market realized 1.9% Y/Y growth in Q4 2012; 482.5 million mobile handsets were shipped in Q4 2012, up from 473.4 million units a year ago. The global mobile phone shipments reached to 1.7 billion units in 2012, up 1.2% Y/Y. Last quarter, 219.4 million smartphones were shipped, representing 45.5% of overall mobile handset shipments for the quarter. More importantly, 712.6 million Smartphones were shipped globally in 2012, up 44.1% compared to the last year.

At present, smartphone market is primarily being dominated by Samsung and Apple, accounting for more than half of the smartphone market share. Despite of Samsung and Apple’s dominance in smartphone segment, there’s still a huge opportunity for the new entrants. This is the reason why Huawei and ZTE succeeded to make their position among top five smartphone vendors in Q4 2012 with their low-priced devices.

Global Smartphone Market Share In Q4 2012

Now, Huawei and ZTE have distinct strategies for emerging as well as matured markets. With low-priced smartphones, both the companies have succeeded to make stronghold in emerging markets in Q4 2012. Besides, they also managed to draw the attention of users in matured market with their high-end devices.

smartphone market share in Q4 2012

Samsung made a record of selling all time highest number of smartphones in a single quarter. Galaxy Note II and Galaxy SIII played most significant role to set this record; both the devices accounted for over 60% of smartphone sales in Q4 2012. The company is still focusing on mid-and-low range smartphones to entice significant number of users across the world. Of course, we can’t deny with the fact that Android has always been a corner-stone for Samsung’s mobile business expansion. But now, the company has started looking for another platform; this is the reason why it has announced to launch Tizen—powered smartphones later this year.

sales of smartphone in Q4 2012

On the other side, Apple also shipped its all time highest number of smartphones (47.8 million) for any single quarter in Q4 2013. The sales of smartphones were primarily driven by increasing demand of the devices in Greater China; Apple sold 2 million iPhone 5 in first week of its availability in the country. In addition, strong sales of older iPhone models, especially the iPhone 4, also played a key role for Apple’s success in the last quarter.

However, seeing Huawei among the top three smartphone vendors sounds little weird, but it’s true that the company hasn’t reached at the position in just one night. But, it succeeded to fix its position among top 10 smartphone vendors in the world till the end of Q3 2012. The Chinese handset maker has just announced a 6.1-inch Ascend Mate Phablet in order to compete with Galaxy Note II. Besides, the company has also brought some software innovations, including Magic Touch, guiding Wizard, Floating windows and smart reading, with its smartphones.

smartphone market share in Q4 2012

On the other side, Sony is still stuck with its high-end smartphone manufacturing strategy. Last quarter, the company introduced Xperia TL, and recently announced Xperia Z and Xperia ZL models, which are expected to be launched in Q1 2013.

Astoundingly, ZTE shipped more smartphones compared to feature phones for the first time in Q4 2012. However, the company is primarily focused on manufacturing low-cost smartphones especially for emerging markets, but the same time, it also wants to leverage on its high-end smartphones in matured markets.

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Twitter’s “Vine” Shows Up Inappropriate Videos: Would Facebook Turn Instagram To Vine ??

By
Shilpa Shree
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“Vine” is the Twitter’s new video-sharing mobile app and VinePeek is a website that pulls in the latest vines one after the other regardless of who you follow or if you’re even on Vine or Twitter. A similar site, VineRoulette serves up random vines around the world and lets you view tagged vines in a fairly unique interface.

Both services offer real-time streams of all the latest vines from all over the world. The app uses Ruby, Redis and the Twitter API to find new tweets containing vines. These are shown to viewers using HTML5 video. Astoundingly, since its launch a couple days ago, the site has served over 2 million views. The web app is “best viewed in a browser,” but it seemed to do just fine on my iPhone 5, especially with a 4G LTE connection. For those who are much concerned about privacy, Vine posts lack privacy right now, but definitely, Twitter plans to add privacy controls.

vine-twitter

Vinepeek is a simple, one-page site showing newly-posted vines in real time. Twitter inculcates its concept of “short is sweet” in videos too as it gives only six seconds in length for each video post like its 140 characters of tweets. It’s a very short length of time to tell a story for users but that doesn’t matter to users until now. The clips are addictive, and are easy to flip through quickly on mobile devices. The Vine clips in Twitter are embedded in tweets and make it more approachable to tweet.

However, on privacy control – Vine is only comprised of the Vine users you follow and vines will only appear to you on Twitter if they’re posted by someone you follow, or RTed by someone you follow.

As of now, Vine already has a number of users posting graphic sexual content. The Vine app allows users to flag videos as inappropriate and if a post is flagged, you get a warning before you tap the video to view it. But many graphic videos are still glide through. According to Vine’s terms of service, users are responsible for the content they post.

Twitter did not launch vine in it as videos inside the Twitter app just because because Vine invented a new medium. Twitter will likely keep its apps focused on posting text and photos, the staples of the service. Adding and removing features every time would be a mess. Clearly it shows that video wasn’t a sure bet that the company committed to it until now. Vine is an opportunity for Twitter to own the profound version Instagram it never had.

There are few similar things to Vine which exist in the market – Google’s YouTube Capture, which launched just two weeks ago and it’s simple video sharing or hosting app. Cinemagram, produces short videos and is simple to use but users wanted much simpler app and embraced Instagram though it didn’t have audio or video.

Coming to Facebook, it has imitated Beluga as Messenger, replicated Snapchat as Poke. Facebook bought Instagram and will it did many copycat things in the past, will it update its Instagram with some video capturing and sharing abilities? Facebook would definitely lose its reputation for originality if it repeats.

But we should not outlook Mark Zuckerberg’s contribution to social media the “Facebook” and some powerful innovations. But now Facebook seems it’s more interested in giving back answers to its competitors, may it be acquisitions, back-end technology, and patents. But since 2011 as mobile is out-beating desktop and has taken the prime position in accessing web and whatever Facebook has released (apps and products) to entice mobile users give the impression as the already existing products by its competitors.

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Samsung Shipped Equal Number Of Smartphones That Apple And Nokia Shipped Together In Q4 2012

By
Abhishek Singh
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After Nokia, Apple and Microsoft its time for Samsung Q4 2012 earnings report which was released last week. However, the company already unleashed some highlights of its Q4 2012 earnings at the beginning of this month. Samsung has reported a whopping $8.27 billion operating profit on $52.4 billion revenue for the quarter. Interestingly, the company showed off 18.52% Y/Y growth in revenue of Q4 2012.

Samsung Q4 2012 Earnings

Operating profit surged to 89.3% Y/Y 

One of the most eye-catching points in Samsung Q4 2012 earnings was its operating profit, which depicted an impressive 89.3% Y/Y growth in the quarter. Besides, the company also reported a net profit of 23.8 trillion won ($22.25 billion) on revenue of 201 trillion won ($187.9 billion) for the entire fiscal year 2012.

Apparently, mobile has always been in Samsung’s main strategy; the company’s mobile division grew 4% from the prior quarter.  Thanks to the flagship models, Galaxy SIII and Galaxy Note II, those fueled the company’s smartphone shipments in the last quarter. Over 60% of its total revenue ($52.6 billion) for  Q4 2012 came from sales of Galaxy SIII and Galaxy Note 2.

Furthermore, Samsung’s IT and Mobile Communications unit accounted for 5.44 trillion won ($5.09 billion) to the company’s entire revenue for Q4 2012, doubled from 2.56 trillion won ($2.39 billion) in the same quarter of the prior year. In Q4 2012, Samsung Consumer Electronics and Semiconductor divisions accounted for 740 billion won ($691.6 million) and 1.42 trillion won ($1.33 billion) respectively.

Also, Samsung’s chips and TV businesses played significant role in its revenue bump in Q4 2012. This time, the company is likely to saddle its efforts on mid-and-low phones in order to sustain its stronghold in mobile handset market. But the main hurdle here is that decline in profit margin; the margin on cheaper phones are quite lower compare to those on more expensive devices.

Samsung Shipped Nearly Same Number of Smartphones As Apple and Nokia Sold Combined

According to a latest report from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments showed off 43% Y/Y growth in 2012; a record 700 million smartphones sold in 2012. In Q4 2012, Samsung sold 63 million smartphones, while Apple and Nokia collectively sold 63.7 million units of smartphones.

Samsung Q4 2012 earnings

In terms of smartphone shipments, Samsung succeeded to grab 28% of overall smartphone market share in Q4 2012, up from 23.20% a year ago. Anyway, Samsung’s smartphone share (in terms of shipments) was even greater than the market share of Apple and Nokia combined for the quarter.

Samsung Q4 2012 earnings

It’s pretty much clear that sales of smartphone surged by 44.14%  in Q4 2012, compared to same quarter of the last year. The South Korean Company’s Galaxy Note II and Galaxy SIII are still selling well. And more importantly, the company has also planned to ship 390 million smartphones this year. In other words, Samsung is going to be a big challenge for all smartphone vendors this year.

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Microsoft Q2 2013 Earnings: Minted $1.31 Billion From Google Android [Exclusive]

By
Dazeinfo
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Microsoft minting billions from Android

The much-awaited Microsoft Q2 2013 (fiscal) Earnings report is already out and analysts across the globe are already bumping up with their mixed views on the tech giant financial performance of the last quarter ended 31 December 2012. The company posted record revenue but lower than expected profit figures, and we are already done with the quarter-by-quarter assessment. Surprisingly, Microsoft stayed tied lipped about Surface Sales Figures and – rather more interesting – earnings from Android.

One must not be surprised with the fact that Microsoft is minting millions of dollars from the product of its arch-rival Google – An earning source helping Microsoft to earn much higher than its own home-grown Windows Phone OS. The company has been enjoying royalties from the majority of Android-based handset makers for last few quarters; All thanks to patents Microsoft once bought from Novell.

Microsoft Q2 2013 Earnings: $1.31 Billion From Android

In the fiscal Q2, 2013 (or Q4 0212), Microsoft has earned anything close to $1.31 billion from Android royalties came from Samsung and HTC largely. According to the latest report from ABIResearch, nearly 451 million handsets were shipped in Q4 2012. Out of which 196 million devices were Smartphones and Samsung contributed around 32% of this alone.  In Q3 2012, three out of every four Smartphones shipped were Android-powered handsets and the trend was reported to continue in Q4 2012 also. Therefore, by a simple calculation, nearly 149 million smartphones, shipped in Q4 2012, are powered by Google Android OS.

Microsoft Q2 2013 Earnings - $1.31 Billion from Android

Earnings from Android Smartphones

More and More android handset makers are surrendering to Microsoft – having an upper hand in Android patent infringement lawsuit – and agreeing to pay anything between $5 to $13 on each Android handset sold. Microsoft has claimed around 70% of Android handset makers are already paying royalties on Android-based devices now. This clearly depicts that Microsoft has earned royalties on 105 million Smartphones sold in Q4 2012 – 70% of 149 million Android smartphones sold.

On average, Microsoft is collecting $10 on each Android device sold; Therefore the company has earned close to $1.05 Billion in Q4 2012 (Q2, 2013 fiscal) only from Android Smartphones. The figure could be little on a higher side as Microsoft is claiming $12 -$13 from Samsung controlling more than 50% of the Android smartphone market. But keeping the facts in mind that HTC pays only $5, an avg of $10 is quite justified.

Earnings from Android Tablets

According to FutureSource Consulting, 64 Million Tablets were sold globally in Q4 2012. Just a day back, in its quarterly financial report, Apple claimed that it managed to sell 23 million iPads during the whole fiscal Q1 2013 (Q4, 2012 calendar). While Microsoft reportedly sold just 1 million Surface Tablets in Q4 2012, rest of mobile OSes control negligible market share in the Tablet segment. This clearly portraits that nearly 38 million Android Tablets were sold during Q4 2012.

Now, as Microsoft is enjoying royalties from 70% Android devices, the tech giant earned minimum $266 million from Tablet as royalty – 70% of 38 million Android Tablets, multiplied with $10.

So, total royalties from Tablets and Smartphones, powered by Android, earned by Microsoft stood $1.31 Billion in fiscal Q2 2012 (Q4, 2012 calendar). The amount could be marginally higher than projected due to the fact that royalties earned from Android tablet is largely coming from Samsung – paying more than $10 on each Android device.

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Nokia Q4 2012 Earnings: The Company’s $5.4 Billion Net Cash Won’t Be A Good News For Investors !!

By
Abhishek Singh
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0

Yesterday, Nokia Q4 2012 earnings report came to spotlight, and the company performed outstandingly in the last quarter. The quarter was quite impressive in terms of smartphone shipments, but overall mobile handset shipments declined in the quarter, compared to the same quarter of the prior year. Despite, the company reported $10.7 billion revenue for the quarter (or earnings per share of $0.08). In addition, an operating profit of the company reached to $585 million for Q4, 2012.

Nokia Q4 2012 Earnings In Nutshell

As per Nokia Q4 2012 earnings report, the company has now net cash of $5.9 billion. However, last year, the company’s net cash had become a subject of scrutiny, as its profit and sales remained lackluster. Although the company’s health seems quite well this time, but it’s not going to pay out dividend to investors for the last year.

At present, Nokia has two high-end smartphones lines—Windows Phone-based Lumia and Symbian-based handsets. The high-end smartphone lines have contributed $1.6 billion in sales in Q4 for the fiscal 2012. The company sold 86.3 million mobile handsets in Q4 2012, down from 113.5 millions in the same quarter of the prior year. Interestingly, lower-end mobile phones accounted for whopping 92% in terms of volume.

Nokia Lumia

Nokia’s devices and services generated net sales of €200 million for the last quarter. On the other side, its location and commerce division (which includes mapping division) reported an operating loss of $75 million; however, it showed off a significant improvement compared to the last year’s $1.6 billion loss.

Why Did Nokia Perform Well In Q4 2012 ? 

Of course, due to better operational performance and sales of smartphones, Nokia outstandingly performed in Q4 2012. In June last year, the company announced to lay off 10,000 jobs. Apparently, since Stephan Elop being CEO, Nokia has already laid off nearly 16,000 peoples from its device and local business divisions. At present, the company has approximately 46,000 employees. In simple words, the improvement in device sales and cuts in ongoing sales and cost played pivotal role in the company’s earnings for the quarter.

Nokia is still struggling with Windows Platform in the smartphone segment. It has announced that “808 PureView” would be its last Symbian smartphone. The company has decided to focus on two platforms–Windows Phone and its own S40.

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