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Tag: market-data

  • 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.

  • Shipments of GPS-enabled GSM/WCDMA Handsets Grew 97 Percent in 2010

    According to a new research report by Berg Insight, global shipments of GPS-enabled GSM/WCDMA handsets increased almost 97 percent in 2010 to 295 million units. Growing at a CAGR of 28.8 percent, shipments are forecasted to reach 940 million units in 2015.

    The attach rates for wireless connectivity technologies in handsets including GPS, Bluetooth and WLAN are increasing steadily as the adoption of smartphones accelerates. These connectivity technologies are already a standard feature on high-end smartphones. Adoption of GPS and WLAN will also increase rapidly in the medium- and low-end smartphone segments.

    The attach rate for WLAN connectivity in handsets reached 20 percent in 2010. Berg Insight forecasts shipments of WLAN-enabled handsets to reach 900 million in 2015. “There are numerous compelling use cases for WLAN in mobile phones, ranging from offloading data traffic from increasingly congested mobile networks to media synchronisation and hybrid navigation services”, said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight.

    “Hybrid navigation technologies are necessary to enable reliable positioning indoors. New multi-mode GPS receivers that also support the Russian GLONASS satellite system are already available in handsets. When using the two systems in combination, more visible satellites will increase the chance to receive sufficiently strong signals to get a fix in urban canyons,” he said.

    He added that further performance increases will come from hybrid location technologies that fuse signal measurements from multiple satellite systems, cellular networks and WLAN, together with data from various forms of sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes and altimeters.

    Starting in the second half of 2011, more handsets supporting the Near Field Communication (NFC) standard for short-range wireless point-to-point communication will also become available. When deployed in mobile phones, NFC can be used for countless applications such as information exchange, electronic ticketing and mobile payments. Shipments of NFC-enabled handsets are forecasted to increase from less than two million units in 2010 to 400 million units in 2015.

  • Android To Become the Most Popular OS by the End of 2011

    Worldwide smartphone sales will reach 468 million units in 2011, a 57.7 percent increase from 2010, according to Gartner. By the end of 2011, Android will move to become the most popular operating system worldwide and will build on its strength to account for 49 percent of the smartphone market by 2012.

    According to the report, sales of open OS devices will account for 26 percent of all mobile handset device sales in 2011, and are expected to surpass the 1 billion mark by 2015, when they will account for 47 percent of the total mobile device market.

    “By 2015, 67 percent of all open OS devices will have an average selling price of $300 or below, proving that smartphones have been finally truly democratized,” said Roberta Cozza, principal analyst at Gartner.

    “As vendors delivering Android-based devices continue to fight for market share, price will decrease to further benefit consumers”, Cozza said. “Android’s position at the high end of the market will remain strong, but its greatest volume opportunity in the longer term will be in the mid- to low-cost smartphones, above all in emerging markets.”

    Gartner predicts that Apple’s iOS will remain the second biggest platform worldwide through 2014 despite its share deceasing slightly after 2011. This reflects Gartner’s underlying assumption that Apple will be interested in maintaining margins rather than pursuing market share by changing its pricing strategy. This will continue to limit adoption in emerging regions. iOS share will peak in 2011, with volume growth well above the market average. This is driven by increased channel reach in key mature markets like the U.S. and Western Europe.

    Research In Motion’s share over the forecast period will decline, reflecting the stronger competitive environment in the consumer market, as well as increased competition in the business sector. Gartner has factored in RIM’s migration from BlackBerry OS to QNX which is expected in 2012. Analysts said this transition makes sense because RIM can create a consistent experience going from smartphones to tablets with a single developer community and — given that QNX as a platform brings more advanced features than the classic BlackBerry OS — it can enable more competitive smartphone products.

    Gartner predicts that Nokia will push Windows Phone well into the mid-tier of its portfolio by the end of 2012, driving the platform to be the third largest in the worldwide ranking by 2013. Gartner has revised its forecast of Windows Phone’s market share upward, solely by virtue of Microsoft’s alliance with Nokia. Although this is an honorable performance it is considerably less than what Symbian had achieve in the past underlying the upward battle that Nokia has to face.

    Gartner analysts said new device types will widen ecosystems. “The growth in sales of media tablets expected in 2011 and future years will widen the ecosystems that open OS communications devices have created. This will, by and large, function more as a driver than an inhibitor for sales of open OS devices,” said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner.

    “Consumers who already own an open OS communications device will be drawn to media tablets and more often than not, to media tablets that share the same OS as their smartphone,” Milanesi said. “This allows consumers to be able to share the same experience across devices as well as apps, settings or game scores. At the same time, tablet users who don’t own a smartphone could be prompted to adopt one to be able to share the experience they have on their tablets.”

  • iSuppli: Apple’s A5 Microprocessor Builds on Success of Predecessor

    Driven by the soaring sales of products including the iPad and the iPhone 4, Apple’s shipments of products based on its A4 microprocessor reached nearly 50 million units in 2010 from virtually zero sales in 2009, IHS iSuppli research indicates.

    Building on the success of its A4 microprocessor, Apple recently announced that its second-generation iPad line will be based on a new microprocessor, the A5, which the company said doubles the performance of the A4. Apple said the A5 will include dual microprocessor cores, compared to a single core for the A4. Along with the rise in computing power, Apple said the A5 will offer nine times faster graphics performance than the A4.

    In an indication of how successful the microprocessor has been, Apple in 2010 shipped nearly four times as many units of A4-based products as it did of X86-based .

    According to the analysts, the low-cost, highly integrated A4 and A5 designs represent an important element in Apple’s philosophy of offering products focused on delivering a compelling user interface (UI) and a greatly optimized computing platform for Apple’s iOS operating system.

    "In the new design paradigm of smart phones and tablets, computing efficiency trumps raw computing power. Designs like the iPad demand highly integrated microprocessors that emphasize graphics performance, lower power consumption and small space usage," Wayne Lam, Senior Analyst at iSuppli.

    Apple so far has introduced five products based on the A4: the first-generation iPad, the AT&T version of the iPhone 4, the Apple TV, the iPod Touch and the CDMA iPhone 4 carried by Verizon Wireless.

    The A4 combines an A4 microprocessor core and a graphics processing unit (GPU). The device was custom designed by P.A. Semi—a company acquired by Apple in 2008—and is manufactured by Samsung Electronics Co.

    Partly because of the popularity of Apple’s iPad, companies around the world are developing media tablets and other products that feature small and innovative form factors. These products require highly integrated semiconductor solutions that consume less power and space, similar to the A4 microprocessor.

    "In the PC market, this trend is driving rising sales of notebook microprocessors that integrate graphics processing capabilities, eliminating the need for separate GPUs," said Lam.

    In tablets and smart phones, companies are offering alternatives to the A4 that provide similar levels of integration. For instance, Intel and Nvidia have announced plans for tablet-oriented microprocessors with similar characteristics to the A4.

  • Sprint Opposes Proposed AT&T Acquisition of T-Mobile USA

    Sprint has announced its opposition to AT&T’s proposed $39 billion takeover of T-Mobile USA. According to Sprint, the transaction, which requires the approval of the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission, and will likely spark a host of hearings in the U.S. Congress, "would reverse nearly three decades of actions by the U.S. government and the courts that modernized and opened U.S. communications markets to competition."

    "The wireless industry has sparked unprecedented levels of competition, innovation, job creation and investment for the American economy, all of which could be undone by this transaction," as the company claims.

    AT&T and Verizon are already by far the largest wireless providers. If approved, the proposed acquisition would create a combined company that would be almost three times the size of Sprint in terms of wireless revenue and would entrench AT&T’s and Verizon’s duopoly control over the wireless market. According to Sprint, the wireless industry moving forward would be dominated overwhelmingly by two vertically integrated companies with unprecedented control over the U.S. wireless post-paid market, as well as the availability and price of key inputs, such as backhaul and access needed by other wireless companies to compete.

    “Sprint urges the United States government to block this anti-competitive acquisition,” said Vonya McCann, senior vice president, Government Affairs at Sprint.

    “This transaction will harm consumers and harm competition at a time when this country can least afford it. As the first national carrier to roll out 4G services and handsets and the carrier that brought simple unlimited pricing to the marketplace, Sprint stands ready to compete in a truly dynamic marketplace. So on behalf of our customers, our industry and our country, Sprint will fight this attempt by AT&T to undo the progress of the past 25 years and create a new Ma Bell duopoly.”

  • Telanetix Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2010 Financial Results

    Telanetix, a communications solutions provider offering voice services and solutions to the business market, reported financial results for its 2010 fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2010.

    The company’s fourth quarter core voice revenue increased 10 percent over the same quarter last year and full-year core revenue grew nearly 16 percent over 2009.

    Fourth Quarter 2010 Financial Highlights:

    • Core voice revenue increased 10 percent year-over-year to $6.0 million, compared to $5.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.
    • Total revenue was $6.7 million, a decrease of 6.9 percent compared to $7.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. The decline in total revenue was due to the expected decrease in legacy product revenues, which were $733,000, a 59 percent decrease compared to $1.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2009.
    • Adjusted EBITDA improved to $536,000, compared to $130,000 in the fourth quarter last year.
    • Net loss from continuing operations was $1.6 million, or $0.00 per share, compared to net income of $1.1 million, or $0.04 per share, in the fourth quarter last year.
    • Total cash and cash equivalents increased $58,000 to $2.3 million at December 31, 2010.

    Full Year 2010 Financial Highlights:

    • Core voice revenue increased 15.9 percent year-over-year to $23.7 million.
    • Total revenue increased $228,000 year-over-year to $28.5 million.
    • Adjusted EBITDA of $1.7 million, first full year positive EBITDA and a more than $2.1 million improvement compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $379,000 for 2009.
    • Net income from continuing operations was $10.3 million, or $0.06 per share, which included a $16.5 million gain on recapitalization and $800,000 credit from change in fair market value of derivative liabilities, compared to net loss in 2009 of $8.1 million, or a loss of $0.26 per share, which included a $4.1 million expense for interest and a $3.8 million credit for warrant and beneficial conversion feature liabilities.

    “In addition, we achieved our fifth consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA and first full year positive EBITDA. During the quarter, our legacy revenue flattened out from recent declines, and we expect it to stay flat or modestly improve in 2011," said Doug Johnson, Telanetix’s CEO.

    He added that during the year the company made progress building on its strategic partnerships and expanding its customer reach by adding new channel partners, including Mitel Networks and Vertical Communications, each of which offers Telanetix’s SIP trunking services to customers ranging from medium-sized businesses to Fortune 1000 enterprises. "We have seen strong initial interest in these services and expect this to be an important growth driver in 2011," Johnson said.

    ”2010 was a pivotal year for Telanetix and we are pleased with our progress and positive steps that have stabilized the company, including completing a comprehensive recapitalization of the Company. We believe we are well positioned now to build on this stable foundation and further expand our presence and share in the marketplace. We expect to achieve continued double digit growth in our core revenue for 2011,” he concluded.

  • Hosted Communications Services Present Excellent Growth Opportunities to European Service Providers

    Although the on-premise model with its control and security advantages will dominate the enterprise communications market in the immediate future, the revenue share of hosted services is poised to increase significantly, according to Frost & Sullivan. Hosted communications services present an ever more popular alternative for deploying IP telephony and unified communications applications.

    New analysis from Frost & Sullivan – European Hosted IP Telephony and Unified Communications Services Market – finds that the hosted IP telephony market in Europe earned revenues of €0.9 billion in 2010 and estimates this to reach €4.9 billion in 2016.

    "The hosted IP telephony and UC services market in Europe is witnessing rapid growth mainly due to the increasing awareness about hosted solutions and improved feature sets," notes Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Dorota Oviedo. "The economic slowdown and limited capital availability for investments urged many enterprises to consider alternative communications delivery methods."

    Once companies experience the actual functionality and service level offered, they become more comfortable with communications being delivered as a service. Services are becoming more mature, offering a complete PBX capability rather than the limited functionality of Centrex solutions previously witnessed in the market.

    "With the economy rebounding, companies will continue using hosted IP telephony services," adds Oviedo. "At the same time, they are also expected to complement them with new communications and collaboration applications."

    The European hosted IP telephony and UC services market is highly fragmented. All the major enterprise communications providers and vendors show interest in tapping this opportunity to leverage the strong customer demand for operational expenditure (OPEX)-based solutions.

    However, building a distribution channel is one of the key challenges faced by this growing industry.

    "Channel partners need to be educated on the benefits of predictable revenues based on recurring monthly revenues and commissions, which are less sensitive to the general economic fluctuations and will increase as hosted services gain traction," concludes Oviedo.

  • Polycom Announces Acquisition of Accordent Technologies

    Unified Communications provider Polycom has announced the acquisition of Accordent Technologies, a provider of video content management and delivery solutions, for approximately $50 million in cash. Polycom expects this acquisition to be neutral to earnings in 2011 and slightly accretive to earnings in 2012.

    Polycom will integrate its open standards UC Intelligent Core and UC endpoints with Accordent’s open standards video content management solution. The Accordent solution provides capture solutions for all major video use cases, whether delivering highly scalable live webcasts from the studio, providing automated rich media webcasting from the meeting or classroom, adding a streaming extension to videoconferences or enabling user-generated content from the desktop.

    According to data from market research firm Wainhouse Research, this acquisition immediately expands Polycom’s total available market by $500 million and, for this video management segment, this market is projected to generate a compounded annual growth rate of 32% through 2014 to $1.2 billion. As a strategic partner with Microsoft, Accordent strengthens and further differentiates Polycom’s deep native integration with Microsoft Lync and Sharepoint.

    "Polycom is committed to delivering an innovative, flexible and world-class video communications solution to customers over the entire content lifecycle – from real-time to capture, to management, to delivery," said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, Polycom Chief Development Officer.

    "We believe Accordent has the most elegant video content management solution on the market and by leveraging customer, channel, partner and product synergies with Polycom, this transaction positions Polycom at the forefront of end-to-end video and content management. We welcome Accordent’s customers and employees to the Polycom team," he added.

    "From our first meeting with Polycom, we shared a common vision about the future of unified collaboration and the paradigm shift in the way people communicate and work," said Mike Newman, previous Accordent Chief Executive Officer. "By integrating Accordent’s video content management solutions with Polycom’s unparalleled end-to-end video solution, we believe we can make this vision a reality as we harness the natural synergies between our two companies."

    Accordent grew to $9 million in revenues in 2010 and has over 1,200 customers in the enterprise and public sector, and through select service providers. The staff of 50 employees will remain in Southern California and will report into Polycom’s UC research and development organization. Accordent’s software-centric solution will become an integral element of the Polycom UC Intelligent Core and will be reported with Polycom’s Network Infrastructure revenues.

  • AT&T to Acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom

    AT&T and Deutsche Telekom announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which AT&T will acquire T-Mobile USA  in a cash-and-stock transaction currently valued at approximately $39 billion. The agreement has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies.

    According to the companies, the acquisition provides "an optimal combination of network assets to add capacity sooner than any alternative, and it provides an opportunity to improve network quality in the near term for both companies’ customers." The companies also said that the acquisition provides "a fast, efficient and certain" solution to the impending exhaustion of wireless spectrum in some markets, which limits both companies’ ability to "meet the ongoing explosive demand for mobile broadband."

    With this transaction, AT&T commits to a significant expansion of robust 4G LTE deployment to 95 percent of the U.S. population to reach an additional 46.5 million Americans beyond current plans – including rural communities and small towns. In terms of area covered, the transaction enables 4G LTE deployment to an additional 1.2 million square miles, equivalent to 4.5 times the size of the state of Texas. T-Mobile USA does not have a clear path to delivering LTE.

    According to AT&T and T-Mobile, their customers will see service improvements – including improved voice quality – as a result of additional spectrum, increased cell tower density and broader network infrastructure.

    The acquisition will increase AT&T’s infrastructure investment in the U.S. by more than $8 billion over seven years.

    "This transaction represents a major commitment to strengthen and expand critical infrastructure for our nation’s future," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO. "It will improve network quality, and it will bring advanced LTE capabilities to more than 294 million people. Mobile broadband networks drive economic opportunity everywhere, and they enable the expanding high-tech ecosystem that includes device makers, cloud and content providers, app developers, customers, and more. During the past few years, America’s high-tech industry has delivered innovation at unprecedented speed, and this combination will accelerate its continued growth."

    Stephenson continued, "This transaction delivers significant customer, shareowner and public benefits that are available at this level only from the combination of these two companies with complementary network technologies, spectrum positions and operations. We are confident in our ability to execute a seamless integration, and with additional spectrum and network capabilities, we can better meet our customers’ current demands, build for the future and help achieve the President’s goals for a high-speed, wirelessly connected America."

    Deutsche Telekom Chairman and CEO René Obermann said, "After evaluating strategic options for T-Mobile USA, I am confident that AT&T is the best partner for our customers, shareholders and the mobile broadband ecosystem. Our common network technology makes this a logical combination and provides an efficient path to gaining the spectrum and network assets needed to provide T-Mobile customers with 4G LTE and the best devices. Also, the transaction returns significant value to Deutsche Telekom shareholders and allows us to retain exposure to the U.S. market."

    As part of the transaction, Deutsche Telekom will receive an equity stake in AT&T that, based on the terms of the agreement, would give Deutsche Telekom an ownership interest in AT&T of approximately 8 percent. A Deutsche Telekom representative will join the AT&T Board of Directors.

    The combined company will continue to have a strong employee and operations base in the Seattle area.

    The $39 billion purchase price will include a cash payment of $25 billion with the balance to be paid using AT&T common stock, subject to adjustment. AT&T has the right to increase the cash portion of the purchase price by up to $4.2 billion with a corresponding reduction in the stock component, so long as Deutsche Telekom receives at least a 5 percent equity ownership interest in AT&T.

  • Berg Insight: Shipments of Smartphones Grew 74 Percent in 2010

    According to a new research report by Berg Insight, global shipments of smartphones increased 74 percent in 2010 to 295 million units. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.4 percent, shipments are forecasted to reach 1,200 million units in 2015.

    The global user base of smartphones increased at the same time by 38 percent year-on-year to an estimated 470 million active users in 2010. In the next five years, the global user base of smartphones is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.9 percent to reach 2.8 billion in 2015.

    According to the report’s authors, smartphones are receiving more attention from handset manufacturers, network operators and application developers. Most importantly, an increasing number of users are now discovering how smartphones can act as personal computing devices enabling access to the mobile web and applications, besides voice and text services. Although high-end devices tend to get most attention, the primary growth will come from medium- and low-end smartphones.

    “Chipset developers and handset vendors are working on technologies that will ensure a good user experience also for low cost smartphones”, said André Malm, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight. “The challenge is to develop a handset with enough memory, graphics performance and processing power to run the operating system with multiple applications while ensuring a responsive system with fluid user interface and still keep costs down”.

    He added that smartphones in general will also benefit from advancements in chipset design. In the next five years, further performance increases will come from dual- or quad-core application and graphics processors. These new processors will enable smartphones to rival the performance of dedicated gaming consoles and notebook computers.

    At the same time, new user interfaces will be developed that make better use of sensors such as accelerometers and gyroscopes as well as cameras to detect movement or gestures without the need to touch the display.