Apple, Samsung Earn 98% of Smart Phone Profits

In the U.S. handset market, Apple and Samsung account for 63 percent of revenues and over 98 percent of the profits.




Vision Mobile

Telco "Apps" Aside, Most of the Money is in "Access"

Gross revenue and profit margin are the reasons virtually all telco executives globally worry about the business impact of over the top applications. In the past, telcos have sold "applications" tightly bundled with a network access, network transport and switching function. 

In a broad sense, that still is true. High speed access services actually is an application (Internet access) bundled with the network access and transport functions. Video entertainment likewise is a video app delivered using the network, while text messaging also involves a text-based communication app bundled with use of the network.

And no matter what telcos do in the future, it will always be true that most of the revenue will be earned from apps that integrate use of the network. 

“Revenues from those new streams will be small in the short term and the medium term, too,” Informa & Media principal telco analyst Thomas Wehmeier says. 

Wehmeier forecasts such services accounted for just 0.7 percent of global carrier revenue ($7.7 billion) in 2012. 

Before the Web, there was "Teletext"

"Ceefax," the BBC "Teletext" service, originally launched in 1974, before the emergence of the mass market Internet and the World Wide Web, has been shut down. 

First broadcast on 23 September 1974, Ceefax was built on pages of text and crude block graphics transmitted as codes embedded in unused, off-the-screen lines of the 625-line PAL TV signal. 

Some 30 pages were provided at first, each transmitted one after the other in a repeated cycle. The viewer entered the page number he or she wanted to view, and when the page came round again it was displayed on screen.

Of course, with the demise of analog broadcasting, Ceefax also became impossible, as the telextext service relied on the analog TV protocol. 

It is worth noting that interest in what we now call multimedia has achieved huge marketplace success. It's just that the platform turned out to be the World Wide Web, not the TV. 

Why Windows 8 Might be the "Make or Break" Microsoft OS

Microsoft says it eventually will merge its PC and mobile operating systems. And that explains why many observers think Windows 8 will be so important: it is a step towards that eventual fusion of mobile and PC operating systems. 

Forrester Research analysts believe three operating systems will be dominant in 2016: Google, Apple and Microsoft. 

The result is a market where Microsoft still dominates PCs, Apple’s iPad leads the tablet category, and Google’s Android leads in smart phone sales.

Google Study Confirms Tablet Venues, Lead Apps

A new study of how people use tablets reinforces what other studies have found, namely that tablets are personal content consumption devices, not “work” devices used in “non-work” settings such as couches, beds and kitchens.

The Google researchers tracked the way 33 U.S. tablet users interacted with their devices, and found that tablets primarily are used for personal purposes and to play games and check email.

Tablets also are “lean back“ devices used in bed, on couches and while cooking, for example.

A majority of tablet sessions involved multitasking. More than  60 percent of the participants watched TV while using their tablets. About 40 percent used their tablets while eating and drinking, while 27 percent used their tablets while cooking.

The Google study also found that many of the participants just used TV as background noise while checking their email and doing other things completely unrelated to watching TV.

Across all reports of tablet use, the most frequent activities were  checking emails (with light responding), playing games, social networking, looking up and searching information, listening to music, shopping (browsing and purchasing), lightweight content creation (notes, lists,
forms), reading a book, checking the weather, reading news, watching TV/movies/videos, and conducting a local search.

Tablets were used for more activities during a typical weekday as compared to a typical weekend day: 61 percent of usage (1.86 incidences) occurred on a typical weekday and 39 percent (1.21 incidences) occurred during a typical weekend day.

Weekdays showed more frequent email checking, managing of calendars, and checking the weather, but also included longer activities such as listening to music or social networking.  

Activities such as watching videos, playing games, reading and shopping were more frequently done on weekends.

Firms Using Social Media for Marketing Will Have to Use Social for Customer Replies

By 2014, organizations that refuse to communicate with customers by social media will face the same level of wrath from customers as those that ignore today's basic expectation that they will respond to emails and phone calls, Gartner argues. 

For organizations that use social media to promote their products, responding to inquiries by social media channels will be the new minimum level of response expected by consumers, Gartner predicts. 

“The dissatisfaction stemming from failure to respond via social channels can lead to up to a 15 percent increase in churn rate for existing customers,” says Carol Rozwell, Gartner VP and distinguished analyst. 

U.S. Consumer Mobile Share of "Online" Attention Doubles

According to new estimates by eMarketer, time spent using mobile devices for activities such as Internet and app use, gaming, music and others has more than doubled in the past two years among U.S. consumers. 

In 2012, the amount of time consumers spent using mobile devices—excluding talk time—will grow 51.9 percent to an average 82 minutes per day, up from just 34 minutes in 2010, eMarketer estimates. 

This year, eMarketer estimates time spent online will grow 3.6 percent to an average 173 minutes per day, compared to 7.7 percent growth in 2011 to 167 minutes per day.