Business News Holding

Tag: market-data

  • Smartphones Will Take Over GPS Market


    Cell phones will replace the personal navigation device (PND) as the primary GPS device by 2011, according to the research firm iSuppli.

    The firm predicts that by then, cell phones will account for 36 per cent of the GPS market, compared with 30 per cent for PNDs.

    PNDs today account for half of global navigational units sold.

    The report also forecasts price drops among PNDs that will lead to smaller manufacturers selling out to larger hardware companies over the next couple of years.

    The research comes as LG predicts smartphones will replace digital cameras.

  • Company Secrets Sold With Smartphones


    Salary details, financial data, bank account details, sensitive business plans, notes from board meetings and personal medical details are being discovered by buyers of second hand smartphones.

    Nearly a quarter of re-sold smartphones contain sensitive data, according to research carried out by the BT, the University of Glamorgan in Wales and Edith Cowan University in Australia.

    BlackBerry owners were the worst offenders for discarding their handsets with sensitive company and personal information.

    The survey of over 160 used gadgets found that in a number of cases BlackBerries were left unprotected, despite having security features like encryption built in.

    Buyer Got More Than Bargained For

    In one example, a Blackberry was examined that had been used by the sales director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) of a major Japanese corporation.

    It was possible to recover the call history, the address book, the diary and the messages from the device.

    The information that was contained in these provided the business plan of the organisation for the next period, the identification of the main customers and the state of the relationships with them, the relationship of the individual with their support staff and so on.

    Forty-three per cent of the smartphones examined contained information from which individuals, their organisation or specific personal data could be identified, creating a significant threat to both the individual and the organisation.

    The high-end handset are increasingly being adopted and used by organisations to support mobile workforces – yet only 35 per cent of companies have a mobile device security strategy in place.

    Even on less sophisticated devices, 23 per cent of the mobile phones examined still contained sufficient individual information to allow the researchers to identify the phone’s previous owner and employer.

    Businesses Unaware of Data Security

    The research highlights a lack of awareness amongst businesses about the amount of data that can be retrieved from mobile devices.

    The situation is made more complex as most of the devices are provided by a supplier as part of a mobile communications service.

    When they reach the end of their effective life, in most cases somewhere between one and two years, they have little or no residual value and they are not, in most cases, given any consideration with regard to the data that they may still contain.

    For a significant proportion of the devices that were examined, the information had not been effectively removed and as a result, both organisations and individuals were exposed to a range of potential crimes.

    These organisations had also failed to meet their statutory, regulatory and legal obligations.

  • Europe's VoIP Services Growing Rapidly


    VoIP services in Europe are growing at a blistering pace and reshaping the fixed-line market, according to a report from TeleGeography.

    Consumer IP telephony subscribers reached 25.3 million at year-end 2007, up from 15 million in 2006, and only 6.5 million in 2005.

    As a result, revenues were projected to top USD $5.7 billion in 2008, up from USD $4.2 billion in 2007.

    Prices for triple play service in the US are approximately 70 per cent higher than in Europe, which accounts for VoIP adoption in Europe growing far faster than in the US.

    While customers continue to flock to VoIP services, market penetration in the 13 countries surveyed varies greatly.

    France leads the way in adoption of VoIP, as TeleGeography estimates that 42 per cent of the population has a VoIP line, while Spain’s VoIP uptake is only 2 per cent.

    All adoption statistics are based on fixed-line replacement VoIP installation, excluding VoIP soft clients like Skype.

    Skype has more subscribers in Europe than any individual provider of handset-based VoIP services, but the revenues and traffic volumes generated by Skype’s subscribers are lower and have a much smaller impact on incumbent’s revenues.

    Expect continued strong growth in VoIP revenue in Europe, as there are several large markets with low penetration currently, including Austria and Spain.

    TeleGeography’s European VoIP & Triple-Play Research Service is the authoritative source of data on consumer VoIP services and service providers in western Europe.

  • Android Smartphone To Sell 400k By Year-end


    You might expect sales to be intitially sluggish for a new smartphone with an unproven mobile operating system.

    But that was never going to be the case with the hotly anticipated first Google Android handset from T-Mobile and HTC, which is expected to be officially announced Tuesday.

    Research from Strategy Analytics suggests that the Android operating system will sell 400,000 units by the year-end.

    If accurate, that represents 4 per cent of all smartphones sold in the US during the fourth quarter of 2008.

    Neil Mawston, director at Strategy Analytics, said Android was a relatively late entrant and it will join an increasingly crowded smartphone market alongside Blackberry, Microsoft, Apple, Palm, Symbian and LiMo.

    But he added: "We forecast 10.5 million smartphones to be sold in the United States during Q4 2008.

    “We estimate smartphones with Google’s Android operating system, led by HTC of Taiwan, will reach 0.4 million units in the quarter, for a 4 per cent marketshare.”

    Chris Ambrosio, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said Google had the brand power in the US to make a big impact at launch.
    He said the main issue would be operator subsidies. The HTC handset is expected to have a USD $199 price tag.

    “As seen with the iPhone and smart devices in general, retail prices need to be well below USD $200 to be competitive,” he said.

    “Longer-term success will, of course, rest on Android vendor ability to create designs with wow factor and an intuitive user-interface.”

    Ambrosio said Google would do its part to drive growth, and he expected Android to eventually offer a compelling range of mobile applications emphasizing Google’s online assets, such as advertising, mapping and search.

  • Smartphones Fuelling Mobile Search Growth


    The increasing numbers of smartphones on flat-rate data plans, coupled with ever-improving handsets, is leading to a surge in mobile search, according to comScore.

    It has published the results of a survey which show that searching the internet from a mobile phone is gaining in popularity in the United States and Western Europe.

    In June, 20.8 million US wireless customers and 4.5 million European subscribers searched from their mobile handset – an increase of 68 per cent and 38 per cent from the year before.

    comScore said Google was the dominant mobile search provider, with an estimated 60 per cent share in all countries measured.
    Recognising the potential yields from mobile searching, Google has attempted to build up its presence in cell phones.

    As a result, the search company is the default search provider for Sprint handsets, the iPhone, and is reportedly in talks to provide mobile search and advertising for Verizon Wireless.

    With the first smartphone using Android, the company’s mobile OS, due to be launched shortly, Google’s share of mobile search revenue is certain to increase.

    In the US, Yahoo has around 35 per cent of the market and is second to Google in most countries.

    The UK tops the penetration rate table for mobile subscribers using search, with 9.5 per cent, followed by the US at 9.2 per cent.
    Industry analysts expect penetration to grow in all markets, particularly with US subscribers.

    Alistair Hill, a comScore analyst, said that as the number of mobile search users increased so did the frequency of activity.

    “The number of people accessing mobile search at least once a week grew 50 per cent in Europe, with France and Spain leading at a rate of 69 and 63 per cent, respectively,” he said.

    “Meanwhile, the number of US users accessing mobile search has more than doubled as a result of expanded 3G penetration and smartphone adoption, as well as the proliferation of flat-rate data plans.”

    Hill said there had also been a substantial improvement to the mobile search offerings in the US market.

    "The number of US users accessing mobile search has more than doubled as a result of expanded 3G penetration and smartphone adoption, as well as the proliferation of flat-rate data plans," he said.

    "We have also seen a substantial improvement to the mobile search offerings in the U.S. market."

  • European VoIP Spending to Rise to USD $12bn in 2012


    Market intelligence expert IDC forecasts that VoIP spending in Europe will grow at a CAGR of 22 per cent, from USD $4.6 billion in 2007 to $12.4 billion in 2012.

    The projected increase represents about a third of the TDM-based voice services market.

    Angela Salmeron, research manager for IDC’s European Telecommunications service, said: "The deployment and uptake of consumer VoIP services is increasing rapidly in Western Europe as a whole but there are wide local variations in availability and penetration rates."

    The IPC study reviews and forecasts the evolution of the Western European market for consumer VoIP services from 2007 to 2012.

    A detailed country breakdown is provided for VoIP traffic, spending, and customer subscriptions.

    IDC has also produced a presentation providing the results of a examining vendor shares and trends in the worldwide voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) semiconductor market during the calendar year 2007.

    Segments covered include carrier VoIP media gateway semiconductors, VoIP IP phone semiconductors, and enterprise VoIP IP PBX/gateway semiconductors.

  • VOIP Driving Service Revenue Increases


    VOIP is a major contributor to rising broadband value added services, which generated USD $25.7 billion worldwide in 2007.

    According to the latest data from Point Topic this represented an increase of 62 per cent on 2006 and the expectation is that growth will continue to be robust.

    Of the service revenues generated worldwide, 56 per cent come from the combination of Voice over IP (VOIP) and security.

    They are followed, in order of global revenue generated by online gaming, home networks, music downloads and video over broadband.

    John Bosnell, senior analyst at Point Topic, said the success story of 2007 was VOIP. “Overall revenue has very nearly doubled, average revenue per user (ARPU) is up and take-up in major markets, particularly North America and Western Europe is growing quickly,” he said.

    Bosnell said value added services were growing strongly and were increasingly significant in overall revenue terms.

    “We estimate that value added services were 10 per cent of total broadband revenues, which includes subscriptions, in 2003, but by the end of 2007 that has increased to over 30 per cent,” he said.

    “As it gets harder to make a profit in the hyper competitive line rental market the operators and suppliers have to look to add value, and revenue, with their service offerings.”

    Point Topic splits VOIP into two segments, IP Telephony which means VOIP provided by ISPs and Internet Telephony, which includes services like Skype which route through the user’s PC.

    Bosnell said it was difficult to measure active users of the Skype and its cousins, like the applications embedded in the popular instant messaging services, but Point Topic estimates put the worldwide number of active users at around 20 million.

    Whilst the ARPU is relatively low on these services, IP Telephony on the other hand produces around 10 times as much revenue per user.

    VOIP is not a bottomless well.

    At the end of 2007 VOIP accounted for 27 per cent of fixed lines in France, many served via bundled deals. Market saturation is still some way off but not out of sight.

    “We expect VOIP to continue to grow strongly in the next few years and in combination with other value adds, particularly IPTV, global revenues should continue to grow,” concludes Bosnell.

  • Toshiba Strata CIX System Wins Best VoIP Product Award


    Toshiba’s Strata CIX family of IP business communication systems has been named winner of Network Products Guide’s Best Products and Services Award in the 2008 VoIP category.

    The annual award by the Silicon Valley publication on technologies and solutions, honors products and services that represent the rapidly changing needs and interests of the end-users of technology worldwide.

    As part of the technology industry’s global awards program, this year’s Best Products and Services were nominated from all over the world.

    Rake Narang, editor-in-chief of Network Products Guide, said: “Toshiba has been awarded Best in VoIP by our readers for its proven ability to deliver solid IP business communication systems that give users flexibility, reliability, durability and migratability across the Strata CIX product family.”

    Toshiba’s Strata CIX VoIP systems range from the newly announced Strata CIX1200, offering up to 1,152 ports, to the small Strata CIX40, which accommodates up to 40 ports.

    All Toshiba Strata CIX VoIP systems can be networked together for up to 128 sites and can be customized using Toshiba’s FeatureFlex adaptability tool.

    The systems work with both digital and IP endpoints, including desk telephones, softphones, third-party SIP phones, attendant consoles, wireless phones, and more.

    Strata CIX systems offer easy migration to larger systems in the Strata CIX family and work with the same applications, including voice mail, unified messaging, IVR, ACD and reporting, video conferencing and collaboration, Web-based personal and system administration and FeatureFlex, all of which reside on Toshiba’s Strata Media Application Server (Strata MAS), a single-server solution.

  • Orange Chooses ExaStore Storage Back-end For key French Football Matches

    Orange leverages ExaStore to support VOD and live streaming of French League 1 football

    Orange, a subsidiary of France Telecom, has deployed the ExaStore Clustered NAS System to serve as the storage back-end for its production and distribution of French football’s key Championship matches via its mobile network.

    Orange’s 5.9 million subscribers will be receiving the French League 1 football on their mobile phones via VOD and general broadcast.

    Speaking at the IBC in Amsterdam, Jeronimo Munoz, Exanet’s Regional Vice President, Southern Europe, said ExaStore would ensure that Orange could always match the demand required by the ever-increasing size and quality requirements of video broadcasting.

    “Most notably, ExaStore was deployed and integrated into Orange’s broadcast environment by system integrator Cognacq Jay within two weeks,” he said.

    Cognacq-Jay Image (CJI), Exanet’s media partner in France, said it chose ExaStore for Orange because it provided the highest performance within the most economical system by independently scaling online, in real time, ensuring customers get their football when they want it.

  • Smartphones Confuse a Fifth of New Users


    The US telecoms giant Sprint is to offer free, in-store smartphone training in an effort to reduce the number of phones returned to it by confused customers.

    This could be a reflection on the technical competence of the average purchaser of today’s function-packed smartphones.

    Or it could be that retailers and manufacturers aren’t doing enough to explain how new handsets operate.

    Whichever it is, the fact that 21 per cent of Sprint’s smartphone buyers come back to the store to return the phone or to seek help in setting it up and learning to use it, is a mite worrying.

    In response, employees at the US’s number three mobile carrier will be able to provide training.

    Initially the program is only in Sprint-owned stores but it is to be rolled out to selected independent stores as well.

    Sprint has hired extra employees for every store to handle the workload.