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Tag: market-data

  • How Is The Economy Affecting the US Storage Sector?


    Despite the global economic downturn it appears the US storage sector will continue to remain as busy as ever.

    The need to store increasing volumes of digital files – and to provide continuous access to them – seems to be keeping the industry buzzing with activity, writes Vanitha Vaidialingam for storage-biz.news.

    Most organizations are poor editors of digital information.

    The tendency is to retain everything and add to storage rather than spend the time and effort in weeding out and disposing of digital information that is irrelevant or redundant.

    Moreover, finding time and human resources for such second tier jobs is difficult.

    There is also the latent conviction that the new US federal court rules and other state and national regulations may require a business to produce the data at some future date.

    So, enterprises are more likely to retain the data for legal reasons than they were in the past.

    Benjamin Woo, of IDC Storage, takes an optimistic view of the outlook for the storage industry.

    "Despite the downturn in the macroeconomic conditions, our consensus is that in the short to medium-term, storage is the most resistant to macroeconomic changes," he said.

    "While there is no doubt that there will be some form of pull-back on storage investment, many of the large financial institutions, especially JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America – but also Wells Fargo and Barclays – will need to commit, or in the case of Chase, maintain, substantial IT and storage investment in the next six to 12 months, for integration of their acquired banks."

    Woo said that, while most companies will go into a capital conservation mode in the long term, they too must consider subscription storage models that are offered by online storage providers.

    The indications are that the slowing down of the economy will have its impact on the storage market initially but it will rally over time.

    The optimistic assessment in the industry is that IT organizations will move from building infrastructure to modifying infrastructure and efficiency improvement.

    This, in turn, will revitalize the storage market.

    Moreover, as companies struggle to survive, the cross currents of legal actions will tend to increase, and storage products that cater to legal discovery will drive the growth in the storage market.

    Greg Schulz, founder and Senior analyst of the StorageIO Group, said the focus will be on storage technologies "that can do more in a smaller footprint – that footprint being power, cooling, floor-space, and time in a given density.

    "This means servers [will be needed] that can do more work in a smaller space, storage for active data that can do more IOPS or bandwidth or files or e-mails or videos streamed per watt in a given footprint.

    "Or, for inactive and idle data, more capacity in a given footprint and cost point [will be desirable]."

    What will really happen, will be decided in the womb of time.

    However, there appears to be a general conviction that the storage industry’s optimism is not misplaced.

  • OnRelay's Ivar Plahte Wins Smartphone-biz.news' Person of the Year Award


    A true visionary, a trend spotter, truly innovative and the driving force behind OnRelay.

    Just some of the plaudits from those that voted OnRelay’s CEO and co-founder Ivar Plahte as smartphone-biz.news’ Person of the Year 2008.

    In second place was Ofer Tziperman, president and co-founder of LocatioNet, the mapping and location applications company.

    As CEO of OnRelay for the past seven years, Plahte has established himself as a key thought leader in the Fixed Mobile Convergence space.

    Prior to OnRelay, Plahte was director of IP telephony at Telenor, where he created and was the general manager of the Telecom over IP business unit.

    Ivar Plahte, CEO OnRelay

    His team produced several world-first launches and was among the first public operators worldwide to establish a voice over IP based revenue stream.

    Before Telenor, Plahte was Ericsson’s global product manager for IP Services.

    He has a BSc in Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

    Voters who recommended Plahte spoke of his vision and drive.

    "Ivar has been at the forefront of Mobile telephony for his entire career," said one reader.

    "He founded OnRelay to develop cellular FMC and only recently has the market managed to get over the WiFi hype and start to take the cellular option seriously.

    "Ivar has been there all along, and now has his company well positioned to capture the market as it looks for the right solution."

    Others described him as a "telecoms pioneer" whose vision predicted FMC shift back in 2000 and did something about it – "picking the right tech and staying at it".

    The last word must go to one supporter, who simply said "he rocks". Praise indeed.

    The runner-up, Ofer Tziperman, has over a decade of extensive experience in international business and in the marketing of high-tech products.

    LocatioNet provides mapping and location enabled applications to tier one telecom and defense customers around the world.

    Under Tziperman’s guidance the company has become one of the leading technology providers in the LBS and C4I markets, with an international presence in Europe, USA, Latin America and Asia.

    Prior to establishing LocatioNet, he served as VP Marketing for OTI, a public high-tech company listed in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and NASDAQ that specializes in contactless smart card technology.

    Tziperman played a major role in turning OTI from a young start-up company to an international organization with subsidiaries and front offices around the world.

    An attorney who practiced commercial and business law, he holds an LLB degree from the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University and is a graduate of the Israeli Naval Officers Academy.

  • AmAze Clear Winner of Smartphone-biz.news' Product of the Year Award


    AmAze’s free navigation and local search service is the winner of smartphone-biz.news’ Product of the Year 2008 award.

    With 41 per cent of the nominations, the turn-by-turn GPS program was the clear winner in a field that included Fring, mobile messaging service Nimbuzz and cellular fixed mobile convergence solution OnRelay MBX.

    AmAze has carved out a strong position for itself with its wide coverage of maps, including aerial photo in Europe, North America, Australia and parts of Asia and Africa.

    In collecting the most votes amAze also got some strong endorsements from readers who universally praised the service for its features and usability.

    One user described it as an "amazing free GPS tool – kicks dust into the expensive and cumbersome to update Garmin and other GPS services".

    Another said it was "just as good, if not better, than pricey GPS programs", while someone else said the GPS navigation "looks really great…and is FREE. It doesn’t get any better".

    Runner-up Nimbuzz took 20 per cent of the votes and also earned some enthusiastic admiration from readers who praised its services in the crowded mobile IM client space – "Nimbuzz stands out for it’s stability, well thought out interface and impressive network support," said one voter.

    "Smart connection options certainly don’t hurt the product either".

    Nimbuzz is targeting mobile users and online communities with free calls, chat and more.

    The "more" includes free mobile VoIP calling (excluding data charges), conference calling, instant messaging, chat and group chat, and photo and file sending across multiple IM communities, including Skype, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo, AIM, Jabber and ICQ, plus 23 social networks, including Facebook and Myspace.

    Nimbuzz’s ability to "go beyond Skype" is a major appeal. One reader said: "I have tried many mobile instant messaging solutions, and Nimbuzz does everything I expect it to, does it well, keeps improving, and is free."

    Coming in third in the competition with 12 per cent of the vote was Fring, the mobile internet community and communication service.

    As well as its social appeal, Fring also lets users make affordable local and international calls to landline and regular cellular numbers using a SkypeOut/SkypeIn account or almost any internet voice service (SIP) such as SIPNET, EuteliaVoIP, VoIPVoIP and VoIPTalk, including from non-SIP enabled handsets.

    Among the voters’ praise for Fring was the fact the "wonderful application…keeps me available to my boss, colleagues and friends always".

    Others congratulated Fring for "supporting different VoiP providers in a single tool which can be installed in several mobile platforms", and described it as "the best software enabling you to keep in touch with all IM buddies as well as enabling you to make Voip/Sip calls".

    "It’s simple and easy to use and works well," explained a user. "Unlike similar applications it truly offers choice and freedom and is totally free. There is also free web support, free and interesting add-ons and a thriving online community."

    The fourth placed product with 9 per cent of the vote was OnRelay with its pioneering mobile PBX – the first global private mobile branch exchange, OnRelay MBX.

    It offers enterprises and operators a seamless Cellular Fixed Mobile Convergence solution and has commercial deployments in Tier 1 operators and Fortune 500 companies.

    The groundbreaking architecture has enabled OnRelay to claim to be the only cellular based FMC solution on the market able to completely replace desk phones, creating a "mobile only PBX" to disrupt the hardware intensive VoIP and WiFi markets.

    Readers described it as "the coolest thing ever – one phone does all", "the most innovative and exciting product on the market" and said "the addition of MBX to your professional life is transformative".

    One voter said: "The beauty of the smartphone is that they can save companies money because they can be used for several things.

    "In OnRelay’s case – customers can also replace deskphones with smartphones – a huge opportunity in this bear market.

    "Also a big opportunity for smartphone vendors to sell more smartphones."

    The top four entries saw off competition from a wide-ranging field of companies, including JaJah, Octrotalk, Orblive, Handyshell, Beejive IM, DinnerSpinner, MobiExplore and the N-Gage platform.

    Smartphone-biz.news would like to thank everyone who took the effort to nominate a product and to cast a vote.

  • Does a Mobile's Embedded Content Influence Purchase Decisions?


    Many factors influence consumers’ decisions to buy one mobile phone over the other – but it seems that embedded content is an increasingly important one.

    A survey by independent app store GetJar has found that brand remains the key purchase decision factor (28% respondents), followed some way behind by user experience (17%).

    But coming up in third place is embedded content, which GetJar says is now more important in purchase decisions than price, design or even touchscreen capability.

    Ilja Laurs, founder and CEO of GetJar Networks, said that a phone’s user interface and brand are dominant factors for deciding which handset consumers choose.

    "The big change in consumer preference we see within this survey is the importance they are placing on content," he said.

    The survey asked respondents to rank a list of 10 phone features by order of importance including brand, screen size/resolution, user experience/phone software, phone memory, quality of camera, price, touchscreen, music player, embedded content and overall design/look and feel.

    Those taking part in the poll, conducted across the 130 countries in the GetJar network, were also asked to grade each of those features individually on a five-level scale of importance.

    The content that comes with the handset placed third with 12 per cent of respondents worldwide saying it is "extremely important" to their choice of new handset ahead of phone memory (8%), price (5%) and design (7%).

    While the poll showed increased demand for embedded content across all the major international regions, it is US consumers that appear to place it higher on their list of priorities than those in Europe.

    In the US 60 per cent of respondents said it was "extremely important" to their choice of handset compared to 47 per cent in Europe.

    The findings also indicate that the uptake of new handsets will be faster in Europe, with only 25 per cent of those surveyed saying they will not get a new phone this year compared to 40 per cent of US consumers polled.

  • Three Quarters Of Organisations To Increase Cloud Computing Security


    A survey by Infosecurity Europe of 470 organisations has found that 75 per cent intend to reallocate or increase budgets to secure cloud computing and software as a service within the next 12 months.

    However, interviews conducted with a panel of 20 chief information Security Officers (CISOs) of large enterprises also found concerns about availability and security aspects of software services in the cloud.

    They were especially concerned about the lack of standards for working in the cloud, SAAS and secure internet access, all of them said that they would welcome the development of guidelines in this area.

    Tamar Beck, group event director of Infosecurity Europe, said cloud computing and SAAS have a pivotal role to play in today’s evolving environment.

    CIOs are being challenged to add value to the business and CISOs required to ensure that new services are reliable and secure.

  • Survey Highlights Key Role Datacentres Play To Ensure Competitiveness


    More than four out of five companies surveyed are planning datacentre expansions within the next two years, according to Digital Realty Trust.

    The wholesale datacentre provider also found that more than a quarter of surveyed companies are actively planning immediate datacentre expansion projects that are commencing in 2009.

    Almost 70 per cent are planning projects that will commence in 12-24 months.

    The findings are part of an independent survey commissioned by Digital Realty Trust.

    The study is based on a detailed survey of senior decision makers who are either directly responsible for datacentres or influence significant decisions related to datacentre operations at large European organisations.

    Bernard Geoghegan, senior vice president at Digital Realty Trust, said that despite the dramatic changes in the economic climate, the results indicate that an even larger proportion of European companies are planning datacentre projects.

    He said these projects are bigger by every measure.

    "These trends corroborate what we are continuing to hear from so many of our customers – that datacentres have become critical corporate assets that ensure competitiveness in difficult times and that will drive growth when economic conditions improve," he said.

    Other key findings of the new study include:

    • Compared to last year’s survey results, there has been a 117 per cent increase in the number of firms that will seek more than 2,500 square metres for their datacentres, indicating that the scope of datacentre projects has grown significantly.
    • Compared to last year’s survey results, there has been a 22 per cent increase in projected average datacentre space requirements from 1,300 square metres to 1,600 square metres – a significant increase that will impact the balance of supply and demand for datacentre space in European markets.
    • A 21 per cent increase compared to last year’s survey in average power capacity per rack (4.7kW v. 5.7kW) that companies are projecting, which is a significant metric for datacentre power requirements.
    • More than 60 per cent of companies plan to use a partner to expand rather than taking a do-it-yourself approach to these large datacentre projects.
    • Companies identified London as the top location for the datacentre projects being planned. Paris was identified as the second most popular location for upcoming datacentre projects.

  • Economy To Slow VoIP Growth in US Business Markets


    The struggling economy will slow the growth of VoIP, but deployments remain wide-ranging at mitigated levels.

    So says In-Stat in a report that also found just over a third of US businesses that have deployed VoIP use it exclusively.

    Many more businesses use VoIP as a partial voice solution – and they are also beginning to embrace voice-enabled IM capabilities, particularly among younger workers.

    David Lemelin, In-Stat analyst, said IP continues to be a partial voice solution for most businesses with VoIP, particularly among larger businesses.

    "Therefore, there is significant room for growth even among businesses that have already adopted it," he said.

    Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

    • 32 per cent of Enterprise size businesses say the economic situation has slowed their VoIP deployment plans.
    • Broadband IP Telephony remains the most common carrier-based business VoIP solution with revenues exceeding USD $1.1 billion in 2008, compared to USD $857 million for hosted IP Centrex service within the US.
    • Adoption varies significantly by size of business, with Enterprise businesses preferring a partial deployment, while SOHO businesses are more likely to go IP-only.
    • 13 per cent of US businesses use both carrier-based and premises-based IP solutions.
    • Digital visual interface (DVI) and high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI), are related, high-bandwidth, unidirectional, uncompressed digital interface standards.

  • Indian Satellite TV Is Propelling Worldwide Market


    The worldwide market for pay-Direct-to-Home (DTH) satellite television rose significantly in 2008, with an estimated 18 per cent rise in subscriptions, reports In-Stat.

    It suggests the primary reason for this increase was strong growth in the Indian market, which more than doubled to about 9 million subscribers at the end of 2008.

    Mike Paxton, analyst with the high-tech market research firm, said India now has five pay DTH satellite providers with a sixth expected to enter the market early in 2009.

    "Additionally, in the Asia/Pacific region, China is likely to introduce a pay DTH satellite service in 2009 or 2010, which will help sustain strong growth in Asia," he said.

    Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

    • There will be nearly 200 million DTH pay-TV subscribers worldwide by 2012.
    • Worldwide revenues will eclipse USD $142.7 billion by 2011.
    • Eastern Europe had the strongest regional subscriber growth rate in 2008, with an increase of 63.5 per cent over 2007.
    • Subscribers in Russia more than doubled from year-end 2007 to Mid-2008 to nearly 3.8 million.
    • Digital visual interface (DVI) and high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI), are related, high-bandwidth, unidirectional, uncompressed digital interface standards.

  • Samsung Leading Global TV Brand, Full HDTV Sets Now Fifth of Market


    Samsung has maintained its place as the world’s biggest TV brand for the third year running.

    With a 21.9 per cent market share, the South Korean electronics manufacturer is some way ahead of second placed Sony, according to DisplaySearch.

    The findings are published in the researchers latest Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report.

    They also show that the 1080p share of global TV shipments exceeded 20 per cent of units for the first time in Q4 of 2008.

    China remained the largest market for TVs on a unit basis, accounting for just over 19 per cent, followed by Western Europe and North America at just less than 19 per cent.

    However, on a revenue basis, North America remains the world’s largest TV market despite strong quarter-on-quarter (Q/Q) revenue growth in Western Europe.

    LCD TV picked up market share in every region, with especially strong share gains in China and Eastern Europe.

    As the brand leader, Samsung remains clear at the top, holding its revenue share nearly unchanged at 21.9 per cent, more than 7 share points higher than second placed Sony.

    Sony, however, enjoyed the strongest share growth and Q/Q revenue growth among the top five.

    Samsung was also the overall unit shipment leader and was in the top three rankings in each technology category (except OLED) and led LCD TV shipments.

    Sony enjoyed strong Q/Q revenue growth, but its year-on-year (Y/Y) revenues declined by 7 per cent due to ASP erosion. LGE rounded out the top three TV brands worldwide at 11.5 per cent revenue share.

    It also maintained a very slight advantage over Samsung in the high growth emerging market segment.

    The report also showed that despite the difficult economy and concerns about consumer spending, demand for larger screen sizes grew during Q4 2008.

    The share of TVs shipped at 40"+ screen sizes reached an all-time high of 23 per cent, up from 19 per cent in Q3 2008 and 18 per cent in Q4 2007.

    This was largely the result of significant discounts by manufacturers and retailers, both hoping to avoid excessive inventory after the holidays.

    The volume weighted average price for 32"+ TVs fell 19 per cent Y/Y during Q4 2008, while under 32" was unchanged from a year ago.

    Global TV shipments fell more than 5 per cent Y/Y in the last quarter of 2008 to 57.7M units from more than 60M units a year earlier.

    This is the first Y/Y decline in total TV shipments for more than two years.

    Due to ASP declines, total TV revenues fell even more, declining by 7 per cent to just over USD $30 billion despite flat panel technologies picking up more than 10 per cent unit share.

    Combined flat panel TV revenues — which includes LCD, plasma and OLED technologies — posted the first annual decline in a given quarter, falling 3 per cent Y/Y despite 17 per cent growth in unit volume with falling prices affecting revenues.

    Globally, flat panel TV share surged from 57 per cent in Q3 200808 to 66 per cent in Q4 2008 as rapidly falling LCD prices stimulated a shift from CRT to LCD, especially at smaller screen sizes under 40".

    Annual LCD TV shipment results for 2008 as a whole were 105M units, up 33 per cent Y/Y.

    DisplaySearch said the positive results also pushed LCD TV past CRT TV worldwide for the first time on an annual basis and mark significant progress in the transition from tube to flat panel technologies.

  • 31 Million Business IP Phones Will Ship in 2012


    The IP phone market is actually a tale of two drastically different markets- business and consumer.

    The former is thriving and the latter is diverging in a drastically different direction, according to In-Stat.

    By 2012, the researchers estimate that 31 million voice-centric business IP phones will ship.

    However, In-Stat believes the consumer side of the market is radically different.

    Among voice-centric IP phones, businesses will outpace consumers more than 10 to 1.

    According to its report, the nascent consumer market for voice-centric IP phones is being subjugated by the introduction of IP media phones.

    These include the Verizon Hub and AT&T HomeManager that support both IP communications, as well as delivery of Internet information and multimedia content.

    Norm Bogen, In-Stat analyst, said IP-based communication is replacing TDM networks at a steady pace in the workplace – but adoption is slow among consumers.

    He said that even where VoIP is being used in the home, many consumers don’t realize it because IP-based cable voice services are marketed as traditional PSTN voice offerings, supported by traditional analog telephones.

    "Within the business market, corded IP phones remain the standard, and will continue to dominate the enterprise IP phone market through 2012," he said.

    "However, WLAN and IP DECT phones continue to grow, especially within some specific vertical and geographical markets."

    Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

    • Cisco, Avaya, and Nortel are leading the market for enterprise IP phones.
    • Wi-Fi integration in cellular phones is growing rapidly; however, the majority of Wi-Fi/cellular phones are not designed for VoIP.
    • Uniden holds top market share for consumer IP corded phones