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  • Windows Phone Will Dictate the Smartphone World Soon?

    There is a huge race among smartphones as currently Apple and Android leading this market. The prevailing interest for smartphone is making much famous research firms to conduct various researches on this market on constant basis and coming up various predictions. The latest research and results from IDC lifted a new veil for these predictions.

    This IDC research revealed that Windows Phone will pretty soon lead the market almost all over shadowing the current popular contenders Apple and Android.

    This research also started soothsaying that by 2015 the Windows Phone occupies the throne successfully. The research result said the there will be one out of five smartphones sold will result from Microsoft. Is it really necessary for Apple and Android to react to this research?

    Coming to the facts, some people really find it tough to get along with Apple’s monopoly and Android’s beyond levels flexibility as a threat. Nokia was already in huge turmoil through its recent partnership with Microsoft. Nokia is no longer looking into the further developments for their Symbian as there is no such desired sales growth for it. Perhaps, all these conditions might fuel up the growth for Windows Phone besides the huge popularity for Microsoft. Practically speaking the IDC results are going to be true until and unless Apple and Android change their approach towards their customer base.

    The recent security threat at Android Market is still warning many smartphone users and asking them to take a wise decision. Apple is still trying to control its customer base through its strong iOS and iTunes. Market is always against to the controls and all of the sudden there is chances to cut lose and start to go against to the limitations through available choices. This is clearly indicating that the Apple and Android is the people to reconsider their approach keeping in mind the possible threat.

    Above details are released by the IDC basing on their research. Just look into those jaw dropping predictions.

    There is one more vital factor to be remembered by everyone. The 2015 predictions mentioned 23.7% as Android share and in fact this is a commanding figure when compared with other contenders. But, reality is Google will not be making any thing out of this success. The Android’s major success share will goes to Oracle for its java-related patent suit issues. This is according to the Google’s acquisition agreement of Sun Microsystems in January. Microsoft too got its share in Google’s success to bite, through Android original equipment manufacturer and gets a part of share on sold out every HTC device. It is clearly indicating how the Google is going to be squeezed and what it is going to make out of its own success. This kind of squeezing might make Google to neglect from concentrating much on Android’s developments and stays happy with whatever is coming through.

    All the mentioned situations are really supporting the IDC perditions and definitely a success path started to lay down on own for Windows Phone’s future.

  • Smartphone Sales Surge As Prices Plummet

    The smartphone market is on an upward surge, according to IDC, the market research firm. The market has witnessed an outbreak of cutthroat competition among the major smartphone companies, leading to a fall in phone prices. Low cost coupled with the innovative marketing strategies has led to the growth in the smartphone market.

    The first quarter of 2011 witnessed a sale of 99.6 million smartphones, which is almost double the quantity that was sold in the previous quarter. The sales figures registered a 79.6 percent growth in this period. Senior analyst of Mobile phone Technology and Trends team of IDC, Ramon L lamas, attributed this growth to the prevailing smartphone market conditions.

    Fall of smartphone prices is the major factor that has contributed to the rise in sales. The market is flooded with new models from different companies, which has forced a slash in the rates of even expensive models. The corporate rat race has benefited the consumer market as expensive models are now within the reach of more people.

    The upward trend in the purchase of mobile phones has given companies a fillip in taking their wireless expense management further. IT departments all over the country are concerned about their employees’ demands to provide high-end smartphones.

    The IDC report has forecasted a bright future for Android phones. Google’s Android technology reinstated itself on the top in the first quarter of 2011. The demand for Android based phones has encouraged several phone manufacturers to come with phones that work on Android technology. Samsung registered a profit of 350% and HTC recorded a 229.6% growth in its sales owing to their Android based phones.

    A report by Global Industry Analysts has named enterprise mobility as the force behind the surging smartphone market. By 2017, the smartphone sales are expected to go beyond 1.6 billion units.

  • IDC: Mobile Phone Market Grows 17.9% in Fourth Quarter

    The worldwide mobile phone market grew 17.9% in the fourth quarter of 2010, a new quarterly high driven by smartphones. According to the IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 401.4 million units in 4Q10 compared to 340.5 million units in the fourth quarter of 2009.

    Vendors shipped a total of 1.39 billion units on a cumulative worldwide basis in 2010, up 18.5% from the 1.17 billion units shipped in 2009.

    The strong quarterly and annual growth comes after a weak 2009, which saw the market decline by 1.6%. According to IDC, a stronger economy and a wider array of increasingly affordable smartphones helped lift the market to its highest annual growth rate since 2006 when it grew 22.6%.

    "The mobile phone market has the wind behind its sails," said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker. "Mobile phone users are eager to swap out older devices for ones that handle data as well as voice, which is driving growth and replacement cycles."

    He noted that it’s not just smartphone-focused suppliers that capitalized on the mobile phone market’s renewed growth last year. ZTE, a company that sells primarily lower-cost feature phones in emerging markets, moved into the number 4 position worldwide in 4Q10. It is the first quarter the Chinese handset maker finished among IDC’s Top 5 vendors.

    "Change-up among the number four and five vendors could be a regular occurrence this year," added Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team. "Motorola, Research In Motion, and Sony Ericsson, all vendors with a tight focus on the fast-growing smartphone market who had ranked among the top five worldwide vendors during 2010 are well within striking distance to move back into the top five list."

    Market Outlook

    IDC believes the worldwide mobile phone market will be driven largely by smartphone growth through the end of 2014. "Feature phone users looking to do more with their devices will flock to smartphones in the years to come," noted Restivo. "This trend will help drive smartphone sub-market to grow 43.7% year over year in 2011."

    Regional Analysis

    * The Asia/Pacific mobile phone landscape was driven by low-cost and high-end devices in 4Q10. Domestic brands in India like G-Five, Micromax, and Karbonn grew with aggressive advertising and branding activities for entry-level phones, while ZTE and Huawei worked closely with carriers to push low-cost Android smartphones in China. High-end smartphones, however, were equally well-received, resulting in higher shipments from Apple, Samsung, and HTC in 4Q10. Korea had the biggest smartphone appetite accounting for two-thirds of phones shipped in 4Q10, up from one-eighth a year ago.

    * In Western Europe, carrier smartphone promotions motivated more users to scrap their feature phones, resulting in strong smartphone sales. The iPhone 4, HTC Desire, Nokia N8, Samsung Galaxy S, and Blackberry 8520, which were among the region’s top sellers, contributed to the overall market’s growth. Consequently, the feature phones experienced their sharpest decline ever. In CEMA, quarterly volumes breached the 70 million unit threshold for the first time, marked by an influx of Chinese and unbranded handsets. Meanwhile, smartphones experienced brisk growth due to falling prices and more Android-powered devices.

    * The United States mobile phone market closed out the year with more vendors becoming more active in this space. Market leaders RIM and Apple maintained a healthy lead, while newcomers Dell, Huawei, Kyocera, and Sanyo launched their first smartphones to the U.S. market. In addition, 4G took another step forward with the commercial launch of Verizon Wireless’ LTE network. Similarly, in Canada, the focus was on smartphones. Android-powered devices from multiple players, along with incumbent vendors RIM and Apple, pushed shipment volumes to a new record level.

    * In Latin America, sustained user interest in smartphones drove the market, resulting in strong results for Nokia, RIM, and Samsung as well as relative newcomer Huawei. Smartphones, as well as QWERTY-enabled feature phones, helped boost social networking and messaging, two fast-growing trends in the market. Finally, Alcatel and ZTE once again thrived in the inexpensive entry-level device market.

    Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors

    Nokia overall unit volume slipped 2.4% in the fourth quarter, which the vendor attributed to the "intense competitive" environment and component shortages. The result was lower feature phone shipments. The company did, however, grow smartphone volume by 38% compared to the same prior-year quarter. Nokia launched the C7 and the C6-01 touchscreen smartphones as well as the C3 combination touchscreen & QWERTY device in the fourth quarter. Still, smartphone ASPs dropped 16% on a year-over-year basis.

    Samsung reached a new milestone in 4Q10, pushing through the 80 million unit threshold for the first time in the company’s history and improving its profit margins for the second straight quarter. Driving shipment volumes was the continued success of its Galaxy S smartphones, of which the company sold nearly ten million units worldwide for the year. Similarly, Samsung’s mass-market and touch-screen phones earned a strong following in emerging markets.

    LG crossed the 30 million unit mark for the quarter, due in part to the success of Optimus One smartphone sales across multiple regions. LG’s smartphone strategy is paying off; the company sold more than a million units in the first month of availability, and newer versions (Optimus 2X, Optimus Black) are expected later this year. Meanwhile, LG’s feature phones comprised the majority of shipments, but an aging portfolio and lower prices within emerging markets left the company vulnerable to the competition.

    ZTE finished the quarter in the number four position with shipments steadily spreading from its home country of China to developing regions such as Africa and Latin America. ZTE has also recently made inroads in developed markets such as Western Europe and the U.S. as well as Japan. While most of its shipments have historically concentrated on entry-level and mid-range devices, some of its recent success is directly attributable to its rapidly expanding smartphone line, such as the Android-based Blade and Racer devices. Meanwhile, its S- and C-series entry-level feature phones provided additional competition within emerging markets.

    Apple     The iPhone maker slipped to the number 5 position despite a record quarter for unit shipments and the departure soon thereafter of CEO Steve Jobs on medical leave. It was the company’s second straight quarter on IDC’s Top 5 list. The iPhone sold particularly well in developed regions of the world, such as North America and Western Europe. Apple, which said it could have sold more iPhones last quarter had it been able to make more, is set to introduce the touchscreen device on Verizon next month.

  • Mobile Commerce to Greatly Impact Holiday Shopping Season

    IDC today announced the results of a new survey revealing that mobile shopping "warriors" (hyper-connected individuals) and mobile shopping "warrior wannabies" (moderately connected individuals) will account for 28% or $127 billion of the $447 billion the National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts U.S. consumers will spend this holiday season.

    The survey was designed to explore how consumers’ growing comfort with mobile commerce (m-commerce) and social media commerce (sm-commerce) will play out in the 2010 holiday shopping season.

    According to results, m-commerce and sm-commerce are giving consumers greater advantage as they engage retailers on their own terms – even inside the store – within arm’s reach of merchandise at the moment of their buying decision.

    "MSM-commerce introduces a new consumer shopping model which changes how consumers shop, not simply when and where they shop, as e-commerce has already enabled," said Greg Girard, program director, Retail Merchandise Strategies at IDC Retail Insights.

    "It is clear that MSM-commerce already has an influence on consumers’ perception of brand value and their shopping intentions. We believe the retailers with superior mobile and social media commerce strategies in place will have a decided advantage," he added.

    As revealed in the survey, mobile shopping warriors and wannabies represent the vanguard for the new age of m-commerce and, of particular interest, results suggest that the early maturity adult audience is an important part of this vanguard. Adults aged 25 to 44 years comprised nearly two-thirds of the mobile shopping warrior group while they comprised slightly less than half of consumers surveyed. In addition, adults aged 45 to 54 years were the most inclined to use their mobile information advantage; for example, asking for a better price to match one they find on their mobile device while in the store.

    For retailers, the impact of mobile shopping warriors will be significant this holiday season as the survey reveals, across the board, retailers’ m-commerce competence greatly influences consumer perceptions about the brand. Further, an easy-to-use mobile website significantly influences consumers, across all age groups, on where to shop this holiday season.

    Results also suggest that while the influence of social media outlets on buying decisions is growing, retailers continue to serve as the most important source of information on which consumers make their final purchase decisions. As such, retailers who have met the critical need for consumer-generated Web site content and easy-to-use product information will have the advantage this holiday season.

    "Consumers’ increased comfort with using their smartphones to go online anywhere combined with their plans to use them more in the 2010 holiday season signals the beginning of a significant shift away from the capacity of the store channel to hold sway over consumers as they move to a purchase decision," concluded Girard.

  • Storage Software Market Delivers Continued Growth in Q2

    According to the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker, the worldwide storage software market experienced continued gains in the Q2 2010 with revenues of nearly $3.0 billion, representing 3.3% growth over the same quarter one year ago, but a 2.3% decrease from the previous quarter.

    "The gains in the storage software market in the second quarter were largely the result of overall growth from some of the large suppliers. The growth for the quarter came from EMC (up 13.3% year over year), IBM (up 10.6%), and NetApp (up 6.0%)," said Laura DuBois, program vice president, Storage Software at IDC.

    "From a segment perspective, growth is coming from spending in four segments of storage software: data protection and recovery (up 4.9% year over year), archiving (up 8.2%), storage management (up 5.8%), and storage infrastructure (up 12.7%)," she added. 

    The storage software revenue growth of 3.3% is in line with worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues, which posted year-over-year growth of 20.4%, totaling $5.0 billion in the second quarter of 2010.

    Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide Storage Software Revenue, Second Quarter of 2010

    (Revenues are in Millions)

  • IDC: Mobile Banking Usage Nearly Doubled Since Last Year

    IDC has released a new report, 2009 Consumer Mobile Banking Preferences Survey Results – Waiting for Takeoff, that reveals that mobile banking has seen an increase in usage and in institutions offering the service in the last year. In fact, reported mobile banking usage has almost doubled since last year’s survey.

    However, according to the survey, while mobile banking may have finally turned the corner with customer acceptance, it is not a mainstream channel and in order to be successful, financial institutions need to be strategic about their mobile offerings.

    In addition, realistic expectations, an understanding that there are few to no revenue opportunities around mobile currently, and the backing of senior management, are all key to mobile success.

    According to the report, the challenge with mobile banking continues to be that it introduces a new cost structure without providing opportunities for revenue. Consumers have become accustomed to having more for free, and the convenience of mobile banking so far does not appear to be something that people are willing to pay for.

    However, enhancements to mobile platforms – including the addition of adding deposit capture and payment solutions – will provide more opportunities for financial institutions to potentially gain some revenue opportunities.

    IDC recommends that financial institutions begin expanding what they offer, marketing these offerings as easier to use, and providing more opportunities around payments and fund movement. Financial institutions that can capitalize on this will be better positioned to both obtain and retain customers.

    Key findings include:
    • Usage was up across all channels, requiring bankers to manage more transactions across an ever-expanding portfolio of delivery options.
    • The financial services industry should leverage its branch network to compete against potential nontraditional entrants that lack the brick-and-mortar infrastructure.
    • SMS is the most popular form of mobile banking.
    • Customized alerts and payments outside of network are gaining in popularity, while check image view and getting rate information on the mobile device appear to be fading.
    • Demographics for mobile banking customers were skewed toward a younger male audience, but all demographics are showing usage.

    "Consumers are transaction and information happy, and the branch continues to be as popular as ever," said Marc DeCastro, Research Manager, Consumer Banking and Credit, IDC Financial Insights.

    "The financial services industry recognizes the importance and advantage it has with its brick-and-mortar branch networks, evidenced by continued branch investment. Our survey, however, shows that consumers are getting more and more comfortable opening accounts outside of the branch. While many financial institutions have jumped into the mobile banking space and are offering solutions, some are still pondering their entrance. Those that have already installed a solution may also be looking at modifications or enhancements to their first-generation rollouts."

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  • IDC: Mobile Payments Will Take Longer To Bear Fruit than Most Observers Hope

    IDC Financial Insights recently released a new report, which analyzes the mobile payment and mobile banking space in the Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region.

    The research group highlights that the mobile commerce payments market still has a long way to go before any serious impact will be felt by consumers or by the retail industry.

    “Steady moves by card issuers to increase the adoption of contactless cards and the increasing acceptance of mobile banking as a channel are prerequisites for the emergence of any meaningful, full-sized mobile payments market in Western Europe,” say analysts.

    IDC estimates that the share of contactless/mobile/remote payment transaction in 2015 will be no more than $125 billion with less than 13% of European mobile handset users registered to use a payment service.

    According to the report, the mobile payments industry must focus less on the use of advanced technology to partially replace existing payment methods, and more on the more practical (and sometimes mundane) application of the technology to specific processes.

    A close analysis of the industry shows that over the next three to five years the lack of a positive business case for all players will hamper many mobile payments projects. IDC also predicts that mobile banking (account info access and alerts) will blaze a trail over the next two to three years, laying the foundations for mobile payments.

    According to IDC analysts, key foundations for the success of retail mobile payments in Western Europe lie in the advancement of contactless debit/credit cards POS infrastructure.

    "Mobile payments are still an emerging technology capability that will take significantly longer to bear fruit than most industry observers hope," said Trevor LaFleche, senior research analyst, with IDC Financial Insights’ European banking practice for EMEA.

    "Shifting technological foundations of what constitutes a mobile device will confound industry purists, as has often happened when a technology does not take off as predicted. The varied nature of existing infrastructure and consumer need will continue to split the EMEA region into three distinct segments, which will need to be uniquely served to improve the penetration of the correct payment service to the correct market," he added.

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  • 300,000 Petabytes of Storage Capacity to Enterprise Datacenters and Clouds

    According to new research from IDC, HDD shipments for enterprise applications will increase from 40.5 million units in 2009 to 52.6 million units in 2014.

    Moreover, the HDD industry will ship more Petabytes for enterprise applications in the next two years than it did in the preceding 20 years.

    Several ongoing trends will continue to impact enterprise HDD market revenue over the forecast period, including a continued shift away from higher cost performance-optimized HDDs to lower cost capacity-optimized solutions and solid state drives (SSDs) to complement HDDs in storage systems.

    HDD revenue derived from enterprise markets will grow at only a 1.7% CAGR during this time. Additionally, there will be an increased effort among end users to better utilize existing storage system assets.

    "We’re definitely seeing intensive cost cutting measures among end users striving to bring more efficiency to current solutions," said John Rydning, research director for Storage Mechanisms: Disk.

    "The employment of technologies such as data deduplication, thin provisioning, storage multitiering, and storage virtualization are all contributing to reducing end-user costs."

    Other key findings from IDC’s research include the following:

    * The transition from 3.5in. to 2.5in. performance-optimized form factor HDDs will be complete by 2012

    * Growing interest in new storage delivery models such as storage as a service, or storage in the cloud is likely to put greater storage capacity growth demands on Internet datacenters

    * The price per gigabyte of performance-optimized HDD storage will continue to decline at a rate of approximately 25% to 30% per year

  • IDC: Mobile Phone Recovery Continues with Nearly 22% Growth in Q1

    The worldwide mobile phone market grew 21.7% in the first quarter of 2010, a strong rebound from the market contraction in Q1 2009. Growth was fuelled by increased demand for smartphones, and the global economic recovery.

    According to the IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 294.9 million units in the first quarter of 2010 compared to 242.4 million units in the first quarter of 2009.

    The report shows that growing demand for smartphones helped Research In Motion move into the top 5 vendor rankings for the first time. RIM, which replaced Motorola in the top 5, tied Sony Ericsson for the number 4 position in IDC’s 1Q10 vendor rankings.

    RIM shipped 10.6 million units in the first quarter while Motorola, which had been a top 5 vendor since the inception of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker in 2004, shipped 8.5 million units.

    Motorola, the number 2 overall vendor in 2004, registered a fifth place finish last year by virtue of its overall strength in the lower-growth traditional mobile phone category. Motorola has steadily lost share since 2004 when the market started its shift toward higher-end feature phones and smartphones.

    "The entrance of RIM into the top 5 underscores the sustained smartphone growth trend that is driving the global mobile phone market recovery," noted Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker.

    "This is also the first time a vendor has dropped out of the top 5 since the second quarter of 2005, when Sony Ericsson grabbed the number 5 spot from BenQ Siemens," he said.

    IDC believes the worldwide mobile phone market rebound will continue in 2010, though not at the same growth rate as the first quarter.

    "It should be noted that the market’s first-quarter growth, while impressive, is relative to one of the worst quarters in mobile phone industry history (1Q09)," noted Restivo.

    He said that the market’s growth should not be taken as a proxy for future quarters nor annual growth. “In fact, the results essentially match our first quarter projections. We are still expecting growth of 11% for 2010," he added.

    Top five mobile phone vendors according to IDC:
    1. Nokia
    2. Samsung
    3. LG Electronics
    4. RIM
    5. Sony Ericsson

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  • Mobile Phone Shipments Rebound To Double-Digit Growth in Q4 2009

    The worldwide mobile phone market grew 11.3% in the fourth quarter of 2009, ending five consecutive quarters of retrenchment. According to IDC‘s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, vendors shipped 325.3 million units in 4Q09 compared to 292.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2008.

    Vendors shipped a total of 1.13 billion units on a cumulative worldwide basis in 2009, down 5.2% from the 1.19 billion units shipped in 2008.

    "The mobile phone market has rebounded in dramatic fashion," said Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Tracker.

    "The Asia/Pacific region and the United States were primarily responsible for pushing the market back into growth territory. Overall, vendors offered a wide array of converged mobile devices and messaging devices in the seasonally strong fourth quarter, to take advantage of increased user demand."

    According to Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Devices Technology and Trends team, consumer tastes for mobile phones have increasingly shifted from simple voice telephony to greater data usage, and both handset vendors and carriers have been eager to meet demand despite ongoing economic challenges.

    IDC anticipates that the worldwide mobile phone market will rebound in 2010. "Economic recovery mixed with pent-up demand will create positive conditions for handset vendors in both developed and emerging markets in 2010,” said Llamas.

    The research shows that in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan), 2009 as a whole was relatively flat year on year, marked by a stronger preference for low-cost handsets in China and India as users substituted away from more expensive options under recessionary pressure.

    However, the Asia/Pacific market saw strong gains in 4Q09, reflecting a strong start to recovery.

    Touchscreen-enabled devices remained a hot segment of the market, helping to drive the demand for converged mobile devices across the region.

    The Western European handset market grew on both a year-over-year and sequential basis in 4Q09.

    LG Electronics and Samsung performed particularly well thanks to their collective strength in the traditional mobile phones segment while Apple, Nokia, and Research In Motion helped sustain growth in the converged mobile device market.

    On a full-year basis, however, shipments into the region still declined as the improved second-half performance was not enough to offset the declines in the first half.

    In CEMA vendors found pockets of improvement during 4Q09, but overall sales in the region were focused on entry-level handsets targeted at first-time users.

    According to IDC, the North American market finished 2009 relatively strong posting the second-highest regional growth after the Asia/Pacific region. Converged mobile devices remained in high demand in the fourth quarter due to a combination of lower priced devices and rate plans as well as greater user and carrier interest.

    However, feature phones accounted for the majority of shipments last year despite an overall volume decrease on a year-over-year basis. In Canada, mobile phone shipment volumes were buoyed by the introduction of a new wireless network, which increased the demand for smartphones, particularly the Apple iPhone.

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