The broadband connections in India is steadily increasing year-over-year, however, in December last year the growth was slim compare to a month before the same year. According to the Indian Telecom regulator TRAI, the total broadband connection reached to 13.30 million at the end of December 2011, up 1.30% from 13.13 million a month before the same year.
The Active base of Telecom operators—represents Peak Visitor location register (VLR) data for month excluding CDMA VLR data for BSNL (Telecom regulator has not yet provided)—were 646.78 million in the month of December last year. Idea ranked top, had 92.98% of active connections in December last year. Here, a chart (below) is demonstrating the distribution of active connections among different operators in month of November and December last year.
Airtel was succeeded to grab second notch with 90.02% active users, followed by Vodafone and Reliance Communication with 84.92% and 64.61% respectively. Etisalat, STel, MTNL, and Loop at the bottom, failed to manage number of active subscriber in the month of December last year. However, Airtel managed to grab highest number of active users, 158.12 million in December last year, followed by Vodafone had 125.46 million. Idea and RCOM was at the third and fourth position with 98.91 million and 96.96 million active subscribers in December last year.
J&K led with 83.11% active subscribers followed by Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Assam with 78.45%, 78.06% and 78.0% respectively. Mumbai was at bottom in terms active connection with just 60.79% among all circles.
Tamil Nadu was leading in total numbers of mobile connections, with 75.766 million connections followed by UP (East) with 71.751 million connections. J&K had least number of connections (6.01 million) in December last year.
It’s very interesting to hear that India reached to 13.30 million broadband connections in December last year. However, it’s expected that India will reach 175 million and 600 million broadband connections by 2017 and 2020 respectively, as per the draft of National Telecom Policy.
Smartphone shipments are growing in emerging market with dizzying pace worldwide. Now, emerging markets have become the driven sources for the development of Smartphone market worldwide. A recent report from a research analysis firm IDC has revealed that China is going to be the world largest Smartphone market this year followed by US. Despite of China, other emerging market such as India and Brazil is also expected to booming this year. The research analysis firm has also revealed that India and China will be among the top Smartphone market by 2016.
IDC’s senior research analyst of Mobile Phone Technology and Trend Team—Ramon Llama—said, “Due to their sheer size, strong demand, and healthy replacement rates, emerging markets are quickly becoming the engines of the worldwide Smartphone market. Users in emerging markets seek more than simple voice telephony, and smartphones offer the ideal platform for mobile entertainment, social networking, and business usage as seen in developed markets.”
Undoubtedly, smartphone market share in some of the matured market such as Japan, the UK, and US are still growing but the growth rate of these markets are somewhat smaller than emerging markets like India and Brazil. There’s still numbers of challenges in emerging market to adopt Smartphone. At MWC this year, number of industry’s CEO emphasized on low price Smartphone which should be as low as $50 in order to spur widespread adoption. Smartphone in emerging markets are seeking for huge investment, and contemporary, data plans provided by different carriers in this market are still high.
Considering to Indian market, Smartphone’s penetration in urban is quite high. In India, carriers are aggressively trying to reduce 3G tariffs in order to have greater 4G penetration. A number of local giants such as Micromax, Spice, Karbonn and Lava have already succeeded to grab a portion of Smartphone market last year, however, a majority of market are still dominated by global giants like Nokia, Samsung and HTC . These global giant are still seeking to invest a lot due to increasing demand of Smartphone in this market.
It’s expected that China will take a slim lead to US by this year, and it’s also speculated that the gap will increase in upcoming years. Low-price Android based Smartphones ( less than $200) have driven the growth of Smartphone in the country. Emerging domestic vendors such as Huawei and ZTE has played an important role to ramp up the penetration of Smartphone in the country.
The growing economy and low inflationary pressure has enforced Brazil to adopt Smartphone with galloping swift. Presently, mobile phone subscribers in the country are more than the country’s total populations.
By 2016, India will become third biggest Smartphone market, and UK will slip to fifth notch. China will dominate the Smartphone market worldwide with 20.2% by 2016, followed by US with 15.3%. India and Brazil will have 9.35% and 4.7% market share respectively by 2016.
Do you get excited when you see something new, something different? There is always a question in your mind how is it working or how it’s been created ? It remains in your mind until and unless you get the complete control over the information. Here it has been explained the importance of creative thinking in a technical world. Online advertisements are just like banners we see on the road having a smile or a image or any moving video that keeps on changing within a few interval of time.
Advertisements on net is much cheaper than on TV or in newspaper. To improve the quality of the digital add Google combine with 4 brands to make digital advertisement in a better way which they are calling “Project Re: Brief”. They are taking those people who have given iconic commercials few years’ ago like Coca-Cola “Hilltop”, Volvo “Drive it like you hate it” etc.
The below three ‘must-see’ videos re-creates the enormous atmosphere of such exorbitant ad creation and the art behind master pieces.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPDnZoJiwA4
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-w6cOoh_CJA
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUHEyPtSc1E
Google wants to prevent audience from the noise of TV ads as well as from space taken by the ads in the newspaper as the company wants to leverage more over digital, giving example of top 4 commercials of the world.
Last year, Google announced the launch of Tablet with maximum quality in the first half of 2012. The acquisition of Motorola cued the intention of the company to launch the device, but a recent rumor states that Google has chosen ASUS for the manufacturing of its “Nexus Tablet”. Citing to DigiTimes, an analysis portal “Android and Me” has reportedly revealed that the Tablet might come as early as May and expected price is to be $149. The portal has also said that the Tablet may not have speculated Tegra 3 processor.
Previously, I mentioned how Google “Nexus Tablet” will jeopardize Android based Tablet market. If Google will launch its own Tablet with maximal quality at the nominal price then who will purchase the Tablet which will have lesser feature, powered by the same Android OS, and at somewhat more price. It seems that Google is on the way to undercut low price Amazon’s Kindle Fire and Barns & Noble’s Nook. The company has endeavored to lower down the bill of materials by implementing the processor cheaper than Tegra 3. Last year, Amazon had decided to include Tegra 2 into its Kindle Fire Tablet, but at the last moment, they went with Texas instruments’ OMAP4.
Considering Google’s Tablet manufacturer ASUS, which has a strong relationship with Qualcomm, we might expect Snapdragon processor in upcoming “Nexus Tablet”. The device is expected to be announced at the CTIA Wireless show in between May 8-10 this year.
The Tablet is expected to run on Android latest Ice Cream Sandwich version. In addition to this, rumors also speculates that “Nexus Tablet” will be powered by OMAP 4 processor because Android platform is well written in order to support OMAP.
Google might officially announce its next version of Android OS, codenamed “Jelly Bean“, later this year at Google IO in June 27-29. Definitely, it will be a good hearsay for Google Nexus Tablet owner that they will have a better option to upgrade their OS. Anyway, to buy a Tablet with maximum quality at just $149 is indeed a great deal.
Last month, Apple promulgated at annual shareholders meeting that the company has hoarded $100 billion cash in the bank. There has always been a question what should the company to do with this cash pile. Shareholders and employees of the company continuously have been compelling the company to invest the money in some constructive works. Speculations reveals that with the hoard of cash, Apple could buy some of the companies such as Time Warner ($38 billion), Dreamwork ($1.6 billion), and Viacom ($29 billion). Speculations are finally going to be end by today’s evening. Today, the company is going to announce where it’s really going to invest the money at “Apple Conference call” at 18:30:00 GMT+0530 (Indian Standard Time). Apple’s CEO—Tim Cook—and Apple’s CFO—Peter Oppenheimer—will host the conference call and will announce the “outcome of the company’s discussion” concerning to the investment of the cash hoard.
Anyway, everyone is highly excited to know what the company is really to do with this money. We might expect that Apple’s board of directors took decisions in favor of all such as dividends of shareholders, acquisition of some other companies and also a dip into philanthropy.
I think many of us have been reading the books of encyclopedia from our childhood days. There are many who might be still using it in their daily life to upscale their IQ and Knowledge. But, now Encyclopedia print edition will be closed forever after long runway of 244 years. It’s mainly due to advancement of technology and constant lack of users’ interest towards its books. Users prefer to turn either towards Google or Wikipedia to grab information about any of the desired topics or sections.
Behind the exit of Encyclopedia Britannica print edition from the market is the rise of digital media – especially Wikipedia. One will be surprised to know that even children under age of 8 years prefer reading article on Wikipedia rather than referring Encyclopedia or any other traditional form of media.
A research shows that in 2012, 73% of teachers have prohibited the use of Wikipedia by the students which is comparatively low from 86% in 2005. This shows that in last half a decade Wikipedia has registered phenomenon growth and attraction
Though, teachers and many companies still take reserve approach while using Wikipedia information – especially due to editable form of information which could be done by any one – as the authenticity of such info, facts or figures is always been a dicey affair. Wikipedia has recorded 3.86 percent mistakes in each of its article compare to 2.92 percent in Britannica Encyclopedia.
Instead of all these issues, 8 out of 10 students prefer Wikipedia for their research purposes. This shows student’s dependency and confidence over digital media has increased at a steady rate.
Study highlights that around 27 million pages of contents are available on Wikipedia and near about 99 percent of Wikipedia pages ranks in top 10 search result – a bit surprising.
Apart from this, it has been found out that the traditional use of library among student is also declining with the rate of 11% annually. In accordance to this, the number of books is also decline by with 12% rate.
Currently, Wikipedia has 91 percent male employees compare 9 percent female employees. And, it is planning to increase its number of female editors by 25 percent till 2015. In addition, it has also planned to improve the accuracy of all the articles by 25 percent and want to increase the number of regular editors to 200,000.
Wikipedia is the best sources to grab the information about the product as it get updated at regular interval of time while books and encyclopedia going out of the shelf with each passing day.
In 2010, India’s telecom regulator had sparked out the discussion to roll out 4G mobile networks across the country. It was astounding me a lot that what the need of the country to introduce 4G technology even when the auction of 3G networks had delayed by a year. It’s quite obvious that 4G networks will allow users to stream mobile multimedia such as TV broadcasts and online games on their 4G supported handsets with a speeds up to 10 times greater than the speed of 3G. According to a source, RIL was only the company had Broadband wireless Access (BWA) with pan-India spectrum by September 2011. The company had started to work on the second phase of its long-terms of evolution Time Division Duplex (LTT TDD) by October last year. Until the end of last year, WiMax was favorite among all operators for BWA services roll out–had been implemented most part of the world. LTE TDD is relatively a new technology offers ability to lowering data cost services to large extent.
There might be a big question, why it is delaying of 4G roll out in India? For launching any new technology, there is a need of real world experiences, India is lacking this, and I think this is the main reason why the delay in 4G roll out across the country.
Operators, 3G handsets manufactures, and other interested parties have invested a massive amount of money in order to implement 3G services in India. Many of operators and the concerned parties who invested a lot in 3G spectrum bid might not have sufficient of funds available to invest on 4G projects or they wouldn’t like to take any other risks in future.
After subtle investigation of the 4G networks across the world, we might find that 4G is not so urgency to roll out in India. Anyway, some investors and operators are still waiting to recover the investment from 3G by next 2-3 years.
However, operators are trying to recover the money as soon as possible before the roll out of 4G networks and that’s why, 3G tariff has reached to a sky level. The advent of 4G technology might compel to 3G operators to lower down their tariff cost to a minimal level. Anyway, if operators have overpaid for acquiring the spectrum then they should have to abide the loss alone, why users will bear such unnecessarily burden. Users should not be penalized and operators need to identify another option rather to exploit subscribers.
3G services were implemented in India by early 2011. The users are presently beleaguered with the patchy 3G services. It seems that there is marginal difference between 3G and 2.5G services. The 3G networks speed across the country is very pathetic and it’s tough to view video on mobile TV. It was stated that 3G will revolutionized mobile experience through high-speed internet, video calls, mobile TV and interactive gaming, but users are feeling nostalgic with this network. Till November last year, 19% customers said they were planning to use 3G services . The actual 3G users were trivial compare to total connections, it was just 12 million among the total 860 million cellphone connections by November last year in the country.
Shabby networks’ speed and patchy connectivity are the major reasons why 3G has failed in India. A Vast number of 3G mobile handset users who uses 3G networks have complained that 3G experience being similar to EDGE and GPRS on 2G network. These issues are forcing consumers to give up 3G connections.
The opesrtors are currently trying to reduce the tariffs of 3G in order to have a stronger penetration in the market. It’s quite known that the penetration of internet in the rural areas of the country are still very low. It’s very difficult for rural folks to understand the technical termlogy and specification of either 3G or 4G technology. It’s pretty known that 3G or 4G technology is not compatible with 2G mobile phones, the users will have to buy another mobile phone for supporting 3G or 4G technology.
A recent report has stated that the users are more fascinated towards apps downloads and media contents like video, music, news etc rather than phone calls. An another report reveals that users are more interested (especially youths) in messaging or sharing the data on social media network rather than phone calls.
Last year, 11.2 million Smartphone were shipped in India. The demand of Smartphone is continuously increasing day-by-day in India. A report states that 18 million 3G enabled handset were sold in the country last year, which is 153% growth year-over-year.
Despite of this, the Smartphone penetration in India is still low compare to other developed countries. Users are still relying more on the cheap features phone. Presently, India is the world’s second largest country in the number mobile subscribers. In present scenario, the mobile handsets which support 3G cost more than a normal 2G compatible handsets. A significant number of folks can not afford this, and same is also liable for 4G supported handsets. In India, users are not frequently changed their mobile handsets unlike the folks of developed countries do. If 4G networks will launch, definitely these users will prevent themselves to invest numbers of bucks to own the 4G supported handsets which cost more.
Recently, by hearing the 2G spectrum issues, the Supreme Court of India cancelled all 122 licenses, which might affect to 53.51 million 2G subscribers in coming months. However, this situation benefit to some operators, expected some users might shift from 2G to 3G or 4G. Apart from this, 4G operators is currently declaring the cheaper networks tariff to subscribers. Some users might be lured by these operators to invest in 4G handsets.
Worldwide scenario has been changing, users are more relying on fast broadband connections. They are often use mobile devices for online shopping. At present, everything favors 4G to be launched in India, but reluctance of users to purchase expansive 4G compatible mobile handset, poor experience of previous 3G, lack of technical knowledge especially in rural areas and huge investment of operators in 3G spectrum (might upshot loss) have enforced to roll out 4G services in India.
It’s not astounding anyhow to listen that folks are often use their mobile device for online shopping. Mobile online shopping is increasing day-over-day with dizzying pace. Recently, a design shopping site–Fad–has reportedly said that mobile users played vital role in online shopping since October last year. The design shopping site also said that mobile users were more interested to interact and online purchase with it since October last year. Fab noticed that enthusiast among users augmented to use mobile device for the online shopping since beginning of this year. The company had launched its mobile apps for iOS and Android based devices in October last year, since it has been investigating the behavior mobile device users for online shopping. The company also found that 40% of its business dealt since Oct last year, came from mobile applications.
The stats reveals that the use of mobile device has become one of the easiest media for online shopping by the start of 2012. The company has estimated mobile online purchase rate has now increased by two times faster since its launch of mobile apps. Fab also noticed in a few weeks ago that the iPad customers’ behavior really distinct than other non-iPad users. For the deep analysis of the customers inclination on mobile online shopping, the company took the help of software-as-a-service firm–Custora. The company identified that iPad customers are more eager to making their first purchase, which is exponentially faster than non-iPad users. The stats depicts iPad users made 40% purchase in 3 months, while purchase reached to 70% by 7 months.
Why iPad users are more eager to do shopping through their device than others (non-iPad users)? Do you think, iPad users have more disposable income or they are more likely to be design lovers? It might be the possible.
However, Fab CEO–Jason Goldberg–said, “The tactile touch experience of the iPad more closely resembles being able to physically ‘touch’ a product like physical-world shopping versus the web which can feel more distant when browsing with a mouse or track-pad.”
The Fab ‘web experience’ allows users to browse across its sales and products, and now, the company is ready to launch an application for Apple’s third generation “Retina Display” Tablet. However, the app might take few months of time to be launched.
In terms of revenue, the company has reported that iPad users are going to account twice than non-iPad users in coming two-years revenue. Presently, only 15% of Fab users are iPad users and those customers are expected to contribute 25% of revenue to the company over the next two years.
The online shopping site is now endeavoring to take some of cues from the iPad in order to provide better experiences to users. The company is basically focusing to PC which do not have “touchscreen” unlike to iPad or non-iPad Tablets. The online site is somewhat going to mimic the Tablet experience through layout choices and navigational tools for traditional PC users.
Indeed, the report might be fruitful for other online website retailers too. It’s quite obvious that there is an awesome future ahead for these retailers.
Apple’s iPad is well known for the transcendent users’ experience and also considered as most suitable Tablet for use. Despite of this, citing to a Samsung official, a rumor from The Korea Times reveals that Apple is going to launch 7.85-inch screen iPad Mini later this year. It’s quite obvious that there has been a long legal between Apple and Samsung across the world. It does not mean that Samsung has prevailed the rumor for retaliating Apple. The South Korean electronics giant has allegedly said that Apple has bought $11 billion worth of parts. And one of the Samsung official states that the parts that is purchase by Apple is basically used in the smaller touch-screen displays, which is putting the hype of iPad Mini across online.
Samsung official said, “The contract is expected to rise to $11 billion by the end of this year as Apple is planning to release a smaller iPad, probably with a 7.85-inch screen, and to sell more of its MacBook Air PCs using Samsung’s faster solid state drive (SSD) storage.”
iPad Mini: Why Apple Need One ?
The same was previously reported by Taiwan based DigiTimes, published last December that Apple will release the smaller iPad Mini by the end of 2012. Now, the news from two different sources further authenticate the rumors. However, There might be two things: first, the rumor is correct and Apple is gearing up for iPad Mini. And second, Samsung is just guessing what DigiTimes told.
However, as the demand of 7-inch Kindle Fire Tablet is increasing, one could easily predict 8 –inch size Tablet is more preferred among users. Do you think, this is right presumption? I don’t think it so. Amazon Kindle Fire has caught the attention of users due to its low price, not because of smaller size. Indeed, according to a recent study, only 9% of consumers are interested to own a 7-inch Tablet, while two third still want to use a 10-inch device. 10-inch iPad provides more awesome experience than 7-inch Kindle Fire.
It’s not in the blood of Apple to create a product just to contend with its own existing products. The company has created the products which has been changing the market dynamics. These products include iPod, iPhone, MacBook Air; and undoubtedly, iPad is also among them. Company has never innovated the products to reinvigorate the existing ones.
However, Apple has created a vast number of apps for its iPhone and iPad. Adding 7-inch display iPad Mini means to create a problem for its own developers. Apple has always been precautious about screen fragmentation—offering just two size of screen. A third size, care of a 7-inch iPad Mini, will definitely force app creators to explore some other tracks of development.
Anyway, there are lots of points which contradict the introduction of new 7-inch iPad Mini by the company later this year. Apple is presently dominating in the tablet market segment—sold 15.4 million iPad just in Q4 last year. And if everything is going quite well then what’s the need to release 7-inch iPad? I think the decline of Apple’s Tablet market share (from 61.5% in Q3 11 to 54.7% in Q4 11) quarter-over-quarter has intensified the company to do so.
What do you think friends; Will we ever see 7 inch iPad Mini from Apple ? And, Do you think that there is a legitimate need for this ?
Micromax is one of the leading Indian Telecom companies and currently the company is operating its business through its 23 domestic offices across the country . The company has also international offices in USA, HongKong, Dubai, and now in Nepal. The company ventured into the Indian mobile handset market in 2008 and concentrating strategy on the rural segment first. It generally seems that any companies first try to lure intellectual tech-savvy folks in the urban sector, however, I think that it was the distinct vision of the company.
The company launched its first mobile handset phone with 30 days batter standby time in the rural areas. The handset was manufactured by keeping unavailability of electricity in rural village in the mind. Definitely, the handsets had proven a good endeavor of the company’s strategy and marked runaway success around the country. The price was also kept nominal just Rs 2150 so that users could easily afford.
I think it was the first attempt of any company in the market, and upshot, Micromax emerged as one of the desired companies among folks. Besides this, the company also launched some other innovative products in Indian market prior to launch of other existed players such as dual SIM/Dual Standby, handset switching Networks (GSM-CDMA), and aspirational Qwerty keypad handsets in India.
Micromax had adopted little different distribution strategy in the market that it managed to pay the dealer in advance with the greater margin so that it could insist users to purchase the company’s device. For increasing the penetration of the company’s handsets in the Indian market it tied up with the carrier operator Aircel. Micromax came into the 150 zones in order to have prominence and better accessibility in the market.
The company has tried to produce high quality product at the nominal price, had set-up its R&D in the country. The company spent RS 100 crore for creating its brand value in 2010 and tried to attract a vast numbers of new and existing users with multi-platform. For this, the company took help of social media networking site and multimedia platform. The company tied-up with facebook in order to make a better impression over social media users. The intent of the company was quite obvious to launch QWERTY keyboard, so that, users could efficiently send or write post on the social networking site using the keyboard. The company established a relationship with MTV and released numbers of handsets to provide innovative experiences of radio, MP3 player and camera to youths.
The company has also categorized its targeted customers into three part: rural, the urban youth and high profile users. However, the company has solely targeted to rural users and why not? The company has maximum numbers of users who belongs to rural area and these users have made the company to reach at such level. The company has targeted youths by introducing efficient memory card, better music technology and camera into its mobile handsets. The success of the company’s mobile handset Xii having 30 days standby capabilities inn the market motivated it to go aggressively into the other part of the country. And thereafter, the company has created a distribution network which is currently possessing 34 super distributors, 450 distributors ad 55,000 retailers.
How Microsoft has invested to make its brand value in the market, it seems from the participation of the company in IPL as one of the big fish. it’s quite known that the company was one of the prominent sponsors of the South Africa VS India ODI series in 2010.
Micromax has the tagline “Nothing like Anything”. What the company want to convey from its tagline. As I think the company wants to communicate that the products of the company is not just like other products which are being manufactured by other manufactures.
For improving its brand value and making more impression in the market, the company has included Bollywood superstar “Akshay Kumar” as the brand ambassador in its camapign this time. The company has presently a good penetration in rural as well as in urban areas. The company might be thinking advent of Akshay as brand ambassador will help to soar the demand of the product across the country. The ad campaign of the company seems ridiculous; I can’t imagine that Lowe Lintas could make such embarrassing ad. Micromax’s “Gamolution” handset might do super in the market but as per the perspective of ad campaign, it is not supporting the product anyway. The ads is just funny noise and demonstrating some glimpses of crap acrobatics. Definitely, the company is confused with how to project Akshay Kumar—a stereotype actor—in the ad . As I think this ad campaign could damage the image of Micromax in the market. I asked many of my friends about the ad, everyone responded in same way, “senseless ad”. The video (below) is demonstrating how the company is confused with ads strategy:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxVXRSh7Bws
I agree with the company’s strategy to produce good product at reasonable price. Undoubtedly, the company gabbed 5% of share in Indian mobile handset market last year. Despite of all these, I still little disagreed with the company performance that it’s not yet focusing on the quality of communication. The company is presently focusing on on Android OS and it has high expectation from CEO Deepak Mehrota and Ajay Sharma (ex-country head, HTC) to lead the Smartphopne division.
There’s no dichotomy that Micromax has outstandingly marked its successes in the India in dual SIM handset manufacturing. A recent report has revealed that 57% mobile handset sold in India last year was multi-SIM mobile handsets. There are several other players in India such as Karbon, Maxx, Lemon, Lava, Spice and more. They all have established itself in the market and some other big fishes like Nokia, Samsung, and HTC could provide stiff resistance to the company to grown in the market. Anyway, it’s time for the company to launch some world class innovative products in order to contend global mobile handsets manufactures. The company need to improve product, market and branding strategy to dominate in the market.
A vast amount of contents are currently being availed by different Tablets owners by free of cost. If you are interested to read e-books or any media contents on your Tablet, then you need not to be worried because these contents are being provided by different owners by free of cost. Nevertheless, some owners are providing media contents by charging some amount of money. These bucks are being taken by these players for maintaining and sustaining the proper media contents’ environment in order to provide better users’ experiences. There’s a big question, if a huge amount of contents are available at the free cost then why users should pay money to different owners in lieu of owing such media contents. But, a recent report of Nielsen reveals that Tablet owners are not opposed to paying for media what they really want. And the report also states that Tablets owners in the US, UK, Germany and Italy are more willing to pay money to purchase media contents. According to report, American Tablet owners are most interested to pay bucks on the purchase of all media contents except news.
The U.S. was at the top for media content ever paid on Tablet in Q4 of 2011. The stats depicts that 62% of US Tablet owners had paid for music contents on their device, while, in Italy, UK and Germany, the percentages were 20%, 19% and9% respectively.
Money expenditure on Movie contents, the U.S. was again at the top in Q4 last year with 51% Tablets owner, who paid to have movies contents on their device. However, 23% Tablet owners in Italy, 9% in UK and 6% in Germany spent money for movies contents on their Tablets.
The participation ratios of Tablet owners among these countries (US, UK, Italy and Germany) to purchase TV shows contents on their devices in Q4 last year followed the same trends as it was in the case of purchasing music and movies contents. The participation percentages of owners who spent money in order to have TV shows content on their Tablet in US, Italy, UK and Germany were 41%, 10%, 8%,and 4% respectively.
It’s quite clear from stats that Tablet owners in the U.S. were not willing to invest money to purchase news contents on their Tablet in Q4 last year, and that’s why, only 19% owners spent money to have news contents on their device. On the contrary of the US, the participation of Tablet owners for the news content in Italy were increased, 44% Tablet users paid for news contents on their Tablet. However, in the UK and Germany, 19% and 15% Tablet owners paid for news contents on their device respectively.
Anyway, the stats provided by Nielsen is highly fruitful for investors who is offering media contents in lieu of some bucks. The stats clearly demonstrates how Tablet users are interested to pay in order to fulfill its requirement.
Around 2.1 billion users are connected with internet globally and out of which more than 1 billion users visit social networking sites once in a month. Such stats depicts that users’ attraction towards social networking sites has been constant increasing at rapid pace with each passing year. Recently, a study was conducted which reveals that the number of users who will visit social networking sites – once in a month – by the end of this year will be 1.43 billion.
Interestingly, the number of users who will visit social networking sites in 2012 will increase by 19.2 percent compared to 2011. Apart from this, it’s been predicted that 20.4 percent of the overall population will visit social networking sites in 2012. Besides, 23.4 percent and 25.8 percent of the overall population will visit social networking sites by 2013 and 2014 respectively.
“The strength of social networking as a worldwide online activity cannot be understated”. “Worldwide Social Network Usage: Market Size and Growth Forecast”, as said by Debra Aho Willamson, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report.
If the growth rate of the users on social networking sites continues in similar fashion – as per above prediction – than by the end of this year one out of five people in the world will be engaged with atleast one social networking site, which could grow further with the ratio of one in four users by the end of 2014.
Among all social networking sites, Facebook plays an important role in nurturing the population of social networking users globally. As, in last one year Facebook users’ growth rate in countries like Brazil, India and Indonesia has been exponential. Also, users’ addiction as well as attraction towards social media titan is increasing steadily as it has better engagement model platform for independent as well as business brands.
In accordance to the graph, it has been found out that U.S. (141 million) will continue it’s legacy as the most populated country on Facebook , followed by India (68.1 million), Indonesia (49.1 million), Brazil (45.4 million) and Mexico (25.6 million) in 2012.
It has also been found that, in 2012, three out of top five global social networking markets are also leading the list of Facebook’s largest marketers; namely U.S., India and Brazil. However, countries like China and Russia – which are quite well placed in internet population – don’t contribute much in Facebook population. China has banned the use of other social networking sites than local but the recent changes in Facebook’s privacy policy may clear the growth path. Therefore, Facebook still has plenty of space to grow as it has many unexplored market to infuse.
Hash tag or “#” is one of the easiest ways to search for the keywords on Twitter. It categorizes the other entire tweets by just clicking on the hash tag. The keyword should be preceded by the symbol “#”. In other words, Twitter is like a search engine. In order to search a relevant keyword use of “#”symbol is required.
For tweeting on “son” just we use “#”symbol like #son, it will show the entire related search which has son word in it. The best thing in this search is that it isn’t case sensitive; if any other word is preceded by the word son then it will not show the related search.
Hash tag is used by different people, so we can’t use the symbol “#” before every word it will take much time to tweet. So we are using “#” before any particular keyword. In the past one month “#infographic” had been tweeted for record 57 thousands times. And in the last 24 hours it was at peak of 3,365 times. Twitter has been ranked as top ten most visited site around the world. Today 88% of the twitter account holders are older adults who have not used any other social networking site.
Last year, Google introduced custom-designed font “Roboto” for Android 4.0 OS like some other players such as Apple. It’s now available for developers, designer and font geeks for free downloads. The font has been released in 16 different typeface variations by the company. The font download is available in a .ttf (True Type Font) file format, which could easily be worked with Microsoft Office and other productivity software options. In addition to this, it can also work with graphic design tools such as Photoshop.
I am little bit confused with the openness of Google’s Android OS or Chrome OS or more. Recently, a burning topic has been sparked out around whether Google is breaching the decorum of openness of its Web Fonts or not. In present scenario, Google is projecting itself as ingenuous creator in the development era. It’s true that open source demonstrates the freedom of expression but now it has become a source of entrepreneurial competition.
It’s quite known that Google started its webfont project in May 2010. The company released the project in order to contend Typekit and Webtype in the market. Google’s project is definitely platform oriented—to create Android, chrome OS and Google Docs—rather than to make or promote applications. The company’s Droid and Roboto is the purport of its platform oriented strategy.
Do you think the availability of 1001 font on Google site (without any cost) is altruism of the company? If you are thinking it is, then it’s your big gaffe. Google always endeavored to grab our attention into revenue—either by selling ads or distributing open-source code—and it’s reality.
I have no issues with making money from open source as many companies are doing. But, the openness means that you can share with your friends and colleagues. If you design fonts, definitely, you would like to share among to whom you wish, but it is really not happening on the Google’s platform. Here, “Google is only caring to Google”. It does not matter what’s happening with your sentiments.
It’s no wonder that you are thinking that open-source developers work for free, but, the reality is somewhat different, they are being paid for their assistance.
The employees are paid by Google those who are working for the organization, and indeed, Google is making money from Google Web Fonts. If you think the matter with distinct way, then you will get the answer that Google escalate the enthusiasm of the designers who generously contribute the company at the nominal money or sometimes free.
The world is full of swindlers, most of the time especially stingy clients used to say that they have not sufficient money to afford the project. Apart from this, for surviving in the world you will have to sacrifices something, that’s why, most of designers are being implicated by open-sources clients. For getting exposure, sometimes these designers work for open-source client without taking a single buck.
I am little disappointed with this policy where the weaker is being exploited by the stronger day-by-day. Google is trying to persuade designers to spare their time and work below the market value, for the pleasure of being open-source contributor.
A recent report from IDC states that the Tablet shipment had reached to 28.2 million units in Q4 last year, up by 56.1% from Q3. The firm also reveals that the Tablet shipment had unprecedentedly grown by 155% in Q4 last year compare to the same quarter a year ago. The total shipment in the last year was 68.7 million and it’s expected to have stronger demand of the Tablets this year. The firm has also reportedly stated that 106.1 million units is going to be shipped this year, up from its previous prediction of 87.7 million units.
In Q4 last year, advent of Amazon changed the definition of the Tablet. Nevertheless, Amazon could ship just 4.8 million Kindle Fire Tablets and succeeded to grab second position. On the contrary, Apple sold 15.4 million iPad and dominated the Tablet segment. However, the market share of Apple declined from 61.5% in Q3 to 54.7% in Q4 last year. Samsung managed to acquire third notch with 5.8% market share, up from 5.5% in Q3 last year. Some other players like Barnes & Noble also launched its Tablet Nook in the market grabbed 3.5% market share, down from 4.5%.
Research Director of Mobile Connected Devices–Tom Mainelli– said, “Amazon’s widely-reported entry into the media tablet market with a $199, 7-inch product seemed to raise consumers’ awareness of the category worldwide despite the fact that the Fire shipped almost exclusively in the U.S. in the fourth quarter. As a result, products across the pricing spectrum sold well, including everything from Apple’s premium-priced iPads (which start at $499) to Pandigital’s line of Android-based, entry-level tablets (which start at $120). The success of market leader Apple was particularly noteworthy, as the company’s shipment total for the quarter represents an increase of 110.5% from 4Q10.”
Android saddled down its all afford to clinch the market share of iPad last year. And also, the intrusion of Kindle fire in Q4 and Nook in Q3 last year gave stranglehold to Android. The market share of Android grew from 32.3% in 3Q11 to 44.6% in 4Q11. However, some other players such as Blackberry and webOS dropped from 1.1% and 5% to 0.7% and zero respectively in Q4 last year.
If we are talking about the total shipment of Android tablets in upcoming years, we can’t ignored to the emerging markets such as India and China. Last year, a Canadian based company–Datawind–introduced Android-powered Tablet “Aakash” just at $47 exclusively for India and now the company is planning to launch upgrade version the Tablet this year. However, the company has failed to fulfill the surplus demand of the Tablets in the country till date. Similarly, India’s one the largest Telecom giant BSNL also launched an Android running Tablet “Penta IS701R” at just $71 on March 1 of this year. Likewise, last year, an Android 4.0 version based “Nova 7” was introduced in China. I think, the demand of Tablets is going to burst out in these emerging market and Android is definitely going to be biggest player here. Numbers of manufacturers are also eager to introduce Android running Tablets later this year.
It’s pretty known that users especially in emerging markets are price-sensitives. That’s why, Android cheap Tablets are penetrating the market day-by-day. This year, Google is also going to release its own Tablet “Nexus“, which will have maximum number of features but at the minimal price. Recently, Google has re-branded its services like Google Play Store, Google Play Music and more. At MWC, this year, Android founder and Google’s senior vice president–Andy Rubin–stated that 850,000 Android devices are being activated every day. Google has currently gathered all those things which is essential to lure a vast numbers of folks.
As the data reveals, the market share of iOS- based Tablets are monotonically decreasing year-over-year, while Android market share is strictly augmenting. Likewise, the demand of Tablets are also increasing year-over-over, and it’s expected that the demand of tablet will reach to 198.2 million by 2016. The day is not so far when Android Tablet will surpass iOS based iPad, and I think, definitely, by 2015.
