Samsung Sells 1/3 pf all Smart Phones Globally in 2Q 2013

The global mobile phone market grew six percent year over year in the second quarter of 2013, according to International Data Corporation.

And though Samsung and Apple have lead the smart phone market, sales of lower-cost devices represent much of the sales volume. In that area, Alcatel and Huawei had high double- and triple-digit growth rates in the second quarter for their Android-based offerings shipped to high-growth countries such as China and India.

In the second quarter of 2013, these vendors from outside the “top five suppliers” accounted for 44.8 percent of the overall shipment volume, up from 42.2 percent in the same quarter one year ago, IDC estimates.

"Though Samsung and Apple are the dominant players, the market is as fragmented as ever,” said Kevin Restivo, IDC senior research analyst.

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Another Way of Looking at Communications Industry Disruption

If you ponder a list of 25 consumer-facing experiences made marginalized or made obsolete over the last few decades, you will notice how many touch the communications and content consumption businesses directly. In other cases, the communications business is affected indirectly. And make no mistake, being made “obsolete” is a disruption.

Start with landline phones. It is true that landline phone use has not really been made obsolete; nor has it actually disappeared. Still, in most markets, mobile accounts outnumber fixed voice lines by a substantial margin, 3:1 or better. In virtually all developed communications markets, use of fixed voice lines is declining.

Even in markets traditionally higher “unserved” in terms of widespread voice communications, mobile has revolutionized communications.

One corollary, given that almost everybody has a mobile, is that demand for public pay phones has diminished as well.

Also, at least within domestic markets, long distance charges are not a relevant concept. In international calling markets, VoIP services have made global calling generally affordable, as this look at Canadian long distance price trends shows.

These days, people do not call 411 for information, they look it up on their smart phones. LIkewise, that has affected the ways use phone books, directories and encyclopedias. Use of paper maps likewise has diminished, because it increasingly is unnecessary to rely on anything other than a smart phone for such purposes.

For the same reason, sales and use of stand-alone GPS devices has declined. One might also point to alarm clocks as a device made often unnecessary because the phone provides the same function.

The finding and publishing of most forms of information also has shifted to Internet delivery, often enhanced by location information. Consider newspaper classified ads.

That change in “search” is part of a shift to computer-enabled information processes, including storage. And in the storage area, floppy disks and compact discs (and increasingly, hard disks) have been replaced by cloud storage or solid state memory. Likewise, videocassette recorders and facsimile machines no longer are widely used.

Add the process of manually “backing up your data,” which is something cloud storage automates.

Paid-for email accounts, film developing, dial-up Internet access, video rental stores and record stores are other examples of consumer retail behavior and revenue streams that have largely disappeared as well.

The point is how much the communications business, content consumption and now computing businesses have been disrupted, and are being disrupted by Internet technology, and how relatively rapidly those changes have happened.

3/4 of All U.S. Access Lines Now are Mobile

As recently as 2004, there were just about as many fixed network voice lines in service as mobile lines. By 2012, mobile lines had grown to represent about 75 percent of all lines in service.

Mobile lines about doubled between 2004 and 2012, while fixed lines dropped about 50 percent. 

 

Municipal Broadband Sometimes is Not a Good Idea

Digital Region Limited was set up in 2006 by "Yorkshire Forward" and four south Yorkshire local authorities--Sheffield city council and Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham--for the purpose of providing Internet access in the area.

The intent was to provide access to about 20 percent of households, or about 108,000 people. The project has cost almost £100 million. 

But Digital Region has managed to sign up just 3,000 customers, and spends about £10 million each year serving those 3,000 customers.

Some might say there was little demand for Digital Region's services.

The area already was served by Virgin Media, where adoption of Virgin Media access services was about 75 percent.

Those customers had access to 30 Mbps speeds at competitive prices. 

Digital Region was supposed to use fiber to the curb to provide faster speeds, but wound up delivering just 16 Mbps or so. 

Demand matters, even when intentions are good. 

Municipal Broadband Sometimes is Not a Good Idea

Digital Region Limited was set up in 2006 by "Yorkshire Forward" and four south Yorkshire local authorities--Sheffield city council and Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham--for the purpose of providing Internet access in the area.

The intent was to provide access to about 20 percent of households, or about 108,000 people. The project has cost almost £100 million. 

But Digital Region has managed to sign up just 3,000 customers, and spends about £10 million each year serving those 3,000 customers.

Some might say there was little demand for Digital Region's services.

The area already was served by Virgin Media, where adoption of Virgin Media access services was about 75 percent.

Those customers had access to 30 Mbps speeds at competitive prices. 

Digital Region was supposed to use fiber to the curb to provide faster speeds, but wound up delivering just 16 Mbps or so. 

Demand matters, even when intentions are good. 

NTT Docomo Preps 150 Mbps LTE Launch

NTT Docomo is readying an upgrade of downlink speeds for its Long Term Evolution network to a maximum downlink of 150 Mbps in Kawasaki and Kanagawa Prefecture starting July 30, 2013.

The verification tests come in advance of the planned launch of a 150 Mbps commercial “Xi” LTE service, the fastest in Japan, starting in parts of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya this October, 2013.

Docomo already offers LTE at speeds of 112.5 Mbps downlink service to more than 130 cities. The service initially launched at 75 Mbps downlink speeds in 2010.

DOCOMO's LTE Data Transmission Speeds
Launch	Max. Downlink	Max. Uplink
Dec. 2010	75 Mbps	25 Mbps
Nov. 2012	100 Mbps	37.5 Mbps
Mar. 2013	112.5 Mbps	37.5 Mbps
Oct. 2013 (scheduled)	150 Mbps	50 Mbps

"Radical Transformation" of Communications Regulation is Needed, Phoenix Center Says

The U.S. communications business is headed for a radical transformation that will require basic changes to the the policy of providing a copper access line to every home in the United States, regardless of location or cost, says Larry Spiwak,  Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies president.

“With the rise of inter-modal competition, we are no longer in a monopoly world where in exchange for serving 100 percent of the service territory, the local telephone company has 100 percent of the customers bearing 100 percent of the costs of the network”, says Spiwak.

In fact, no service provider, using any network, can expect to get much more than 30 percent to 35 percent of customers for any application or service.

That necessarily will require rethinking of how universal service obligations are imposed and fulfilled.

Regulatory symmetry, the notion that providers of the same services should play by the same rules, is another requirement.

In other words, it increasingly makes little sense to regulate large telcos one way, cable companies another way, mobile service providers and satellite providers yet other ways,  non-facilities-based providers differently than facilities-based providers or “non-dominant” firms distinctly from “dominant firms.”