Untethered Access Rules, for U.S. Android Users

A new analysis by NPD illustates the widespread use of Wi-Fi access by users of Android smart phones. In fact, Android device users on Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS networks consume more data using Wi-Fi than they do on the mobile networks.

In some cases, as on the AT&T network, about 80 percent of all consumption is on a Wi-Fi network. Verizon Android users consume nearly two thirds of their data on a Wi-Fi network.

The point is that data consumed on a mobile data plan can represent far less than half, and in some cases as little as 20 percent,  of all data used on a smart phone. 

That usage pattern is the result of a likely combination of background drivers. For starters, much smart phone usage occurs at home or at work, where Wi-Fi access is readily available. Users also have learned they can save money by offloading access to a Wi-Fi network. 

Availability of public hotspot service also apparently encourages users to shift usage. In total, the usage pattern shows the growing importance of untethered access for today's end user devices and applications. 

Mobile is useful in many cases, to be sure. But much of the value a smart phone represents is supplied when users are in untethered modes, not full mobile scenarios.

Google Wallet Adds Online Purchases

A casual observer can be forgiven for finding mobile commerce and mobile payments a confusing development.

Is it about paying with a mobile phone or a credit card? it's both.

Is it about payments at retail stores or online purchases? Both.

Is it about marketing, advertising offers or transaction fees? All. 

Is it about "contact-less" payments, bar codes, facial recognition or fingerprint identification? All the above. 

In the latest twist, web sites that accept Google Wallet also enable use of a single sign-in process that relies on mapping physical accounts to the Google Wallet icon on a smart phone. That means users can avoid entering 17 to 20 fields of information on a small screen while having to click and scroll through multiple pages to provide shipping and billing information. 

Google Wallet now makes the "Buy with Google Wallet" a simple process on 1-800-Flowers.com, Rockport.com and FiveGuys.com (at select locations), for starters. 

As has been the trend in recent months, the direction in mobile payments has been to blur the line between offline and online shopping. 

Android Gets 75% Market Share

The Android smartphone operating system got 75 percent market share in the third quarter of 2012, according to International Data Corp.

Total Android smartphone shipments globally reached 136 million units, while total shipments were 181 million units shipped. Some observers will wonder whether we are not seeing another replay of the Apple-Windows scenario, where Windows took most of the share, using an "open" approach,  compared to Apple's "closed" approach.


             Top Six Smartphone Shipments,  Q3 2012 (Units in Millions) 

Operating System	3Q12 Shipment Volumes	3Q12 Market Share	3Q11 Shipment Volumes	3Q11 Market Share	Year-Over-Year Change
Android	136.0	75.0%	71.0	57.5%	91.5%
iOS	26.9	14.9%	17.1	13.8%	57.3%
BlackBerry	7.7	4.3%	11.8	9.5%	-34.7%
Symbian	4.1	2.3%	18.1	14.6%	-77.3%
Windows Phone 7/ Windows Mobile	3.6	2.0%	1.5	1.2%	140.0%
Linux	2.8	1.5%	4.1	3.3%	-31.7%
Others	0.0	0.0%	0.1	0.1%	-100.0%
Totals	181.1	100.0%	123.7	100.0%	46.4%

Source: IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, November 1, 2012

Microsoft to Launch own Branded Smart Phone?

Microsoft Corp. reportedly is working with component suppliers in Asia on its own smart phone design, WSJ.com reports. That doesn't absolutely mean Microsoft will break with its past business model and compete with its own original equipment manufacturers, but it is possible that will happen. As Google raised concern after it acquired Motorola, and released its "hero" Nexus device, so Microsoft got more scrutiny after it entered the tablet market with its own branded device.

A branded Microsoft smart phone would break radically with Microsoft's past practices and create channel conflict in a new way with its licensees. It is one more example of the perceived power of Apple's "closed" and integrated model of bundling software and hardware. 

Of course, Microsoft has been drifting in Apple's direction for some time, making its own game players (Xbox). 

Groupon, LivingSocial Already are “Mobile First”

The mobile web and mobile computing and applications experience is destined to be more driven by commerce than was the PC web, if only because mobile web and mobile apps really mean smart phones that are “always” carried with a person. That means mobile web queries have a higher likelihood of being used to plan commerce-related activities.

Also, a smart phone is an intentional “communications” device, not just a computer. And communications frequently are used to plan and coordinate activities with other people.

Beyond that, there already are signs that mobile devices are being used for both remote and local retail commerce. On the remote front, mobile retail and travel spending grew by 80 percent in 2011 and is expected to more than double by the end of 2012, Forrester Research says.



By 2017, mobile commerce is expected to quadruple, Forrester Research argues. Travel is currently, and will continue to be, a significant portion of this total spend.

Nonetheless, local retail (mobile payments, in particular) will be among the fastest-growing categories, reaping approximately $25 billion worth of transaction value in 2017.

Consumers will spend about half of that  on media products, which currently dominate the retail landscape. Over time, apparel and consumer electronics spending will see rapid growth, but media products will continue to lead mobile retail spend.



When Groupon announced its Q2 earnings, the growing importance of mobile transactions was notable. “With nearly a third of North American transactions in July originating from mobile devices, we are quickly becoming one of the largest mobile e-commerce companies out there,” said Groupon CEO Andrew Mason.

While mobile is still considered a rounding error for many digital businesses, there is broad acknowledgement that it is rapidly increasing in importance, comScore argues.

Groupon and LivingSocial, for example, are already attracting larger audiences on mobile devices than via the traditional desktop web.

Groupon’s July 2012 mobile web + app audience (age 18+ on iOS, Android and RIM platforms) was 17.8 million visitors, while its comparable desktop audience was 12.4 million.

LivingSocial had a total mobile audience of 8.8 million visitors compared to 7.3 million on desktops. The point is that mobile transactions for those two services already are mostly mobile.

Apple iPod Was First Device to Show Shift of Computing

It sometimes escapes attention, but the Apple iPod was the first device that showed how “computing” had changed. It wasn’t necessarily the swipe interface or the app store or downloading rather than sideloading that was so significant, though those were supporting elements of the change.

The biggest change was the notion that consumer and business use of computing had begun to shift in the direction of content consumption. Though originally focused on “listening to music,” the iPod relatively quickly added consumption of video and then multimedia content.

That trend now is nearly fully realized in tablets.

New tablets such as the Apple iPad Mini, the new Android tablets and Microsoft Surface tablet illustrate the changing computing device landscape, where the majority of human interaction with computing shifts away from PCs and to other devices. But one reason for the shift is an obvious shift in “things people do with computing appliances.”

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.

U.S. Ethernet Service Revenues $9.2 Billion by 2016

Adoption rates for U.S. retail Ethernet services will grow from $5.2 billion in 2012 to $9.2 billion in 2016, according to IDC.  

High bandwidth applications such as data center connectivity, disaster recovery/business continuity, and data storage replication are the three primary applications driving adoption of Ethernet, IDC says.

Increasing enterprise use of 100 Mbps, gigabit or 10 gigabit services makes Ethernet a virtual necessity.

In a broad sense, even consumer Internet connections now use Ethernet, as Cisco data suggests, so the growth is not surprising.