Business News Holding

Tag: market-data

  • Smartphone demand undented by economic woes

    Global demand for mobile devices still expected to reach 1.3 billion units in 2008 despite financial uncertainties, according to ABI Research

    The fact many global economies are teetering on the brink of recession doesn’t appear to have diminished consumer demand for top-end mobile phones.

    As the recent launch of the 3G iPhone demonstrated, the public appetite for the latest, most sophisticated smartphones is strong.

    Now a report by ABI Research suggests that while handset sales in developed markets were flat, those that did purchase were willing to pay more for the newest smartphones.

    As a result of this, it estimates that the mobile device market will deliver 13 per cent growth to take 2008 annual shipments to 1.3 billion units.

    It shows that in the second quarter of 2008, Tier One handset vendors enjoyed year-over-year unit shipment growth of between 15 and 22 per cent.

    An estimated 301 million units were shipped during the quarter, according to the analysts.

    Jake Saunders, vice president of ABI Research, said: “If there is an economic slowdown, no one bothered to tell the mobile device buying public.

    “In particular, consumers in emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America shrugged off inflation fears to sign up as mobile phone users.

    “These healthy gains in net subscriber additions are stimulating replacement and upgrade sales.
    “In developed markets handset purchases tended to be flat, but those consumers who did purchase dug deeper and paid out more for coveted higher-end handsets and smartphones.”

    In terms of market share, the report Mobile Devices Market Sizing and Share, shows that Nokia has passed the 40 per cent threshold for the first time (40.3%).

    Samsung secured second place with 15.2 per cent, while Motorola barely managed to keep ahead of LG with its 9.3 per cent versus LG’s 9.2 per cent, and both edged out Sony Ericsson (8.3 per cent).

    There is a distinct possibility that LG might overtake Motorola by the end of 3Q 2008, putting Motorola into fourth place.

    “There is admittedly turmoil in the global economy, but the mass market’s fascination with getting the latest and greatest handset shows no sign of abating,” said ABI’s research director Kevin Burden.

    However, even with the expected 1H 2008 success of Tier One handset vendors – with Apple’s latest iPhone leading the charge – Nokia’s overall market share is likely to hold.

    This is in large part down to it refreshing its portfolio in the mid-tier and high end categories and pretty much cornering the ultra-low cost handset market.

  • Set Top Box unit shipments spike as digital TV services proliferate


    Strong demand for digital STBs led to record shipments totalling 143 million units in 2007, according to market analysts In-Stat.

    The results ensure that the digital STB market remains one of the fastest growing segments of the consumer electronics industry.

    UK set-top box specialist Pace just announced a rise in STB shipments of 55 per cent in the first half of this year, helping push revenues forward 22 per cent to £231m.

    Heavy consumer interest in Free-to-Air satellite services, coupled with the expanding availability of digital cable TV and IPTV services, have helped fuel the industry’s best ever results.

    Among the other results included in The Global Digital Set Top Box Market are:

    *  Worldwide digital set top box unit shipments reached 143 million in 2007, up sharply from 121 million in 2006.

    *  Satellite set top box unit shipments accounted for just over 50 per cent of all global digital set top box unit shipments last year, while digital cable set top boxes made up 29 per cent of total unit shipments.

    *  Worldwide digital set top box product revenues hit US$14 billion in 2007, an increase of US$3 billion over 2006 revenues.

    * The market for semiconductor components inside digital set top boxes also grew significantly last year. The total value of semiconductors embedded in digital set top boxes increased to US$7.7 billion in 2007.

  • HDTV-enabled receivers boost Pace's STB shipments

    “HD is the flavour for just about everyone…there is a big trend upwards towards HDTV”

    Pace CEO Neil Gaydon


    UK set-top box specialist Pace saw box shipments rise 55 per cent in the first half of this year with HDTV-enabled receivers with built-in hard drives fuelling the growth.

    Volumes rose from 1.8 million in the half-year to December 1 2007 to 2.8 million units to June 30. The additional shipments helped push revenues forward 22 per cent to £231m (£190m to Dec 1 2007).

    They also signalled a reversal of fortune at its French operation, which in the half-year moved from an anticipated loss, to profit of £2.1m.

    Despite the inevitable squeezes on factory-gate prices Pace’s operating margins were up marginally from 20.7 to 21 per cent.

    The performance helped profits (before tax and exceptionals) rise from £10.6m (half-year to Dec 1 2007) to £11.2m this year.

    The company says it is now working with 17 of the world’s top 25 pay-TV operators, and reported a CAGR of its HD-PVR shipments up 49%.

    Pace CEO Neil Gaydon said the company had made strong progress in the first half, building on the performance momentum it has created over the last three years.

    “We launched ten new high definition products with customers around the world and improved the overall performance across the group,” he said.

    “The business is in good shape to capitalise on growth in our core set-top box business, new markets and new technologies as the world embraces the wide range of digital TV solutions.”

  • Sales of Full HD TVs rising in UK

    Price cuts for LCD TVs ensure drop in value of UK consumer electronics market – but continued growth of full HD TVs help bolster figures

    Demand for Full HD TVs is helping to offset the declining market value for UK consumer electronics products, according to a report from market research specialists GfK.

    The total market for electrical goods fell in value for the first time for years in May, with A/V turnover down 7 per cent compared to the same period last year.

    The study by GfK shows that with “vision” products contributing most of the market value, a key factor in the downturn was the performance of the LCD market.

    For the first time ever in the UK, this declined in May – dropping 4 per cent despite a 12 per cent increase in LCD unit sales over that period.

    Central to the decrease was a fall in the 32” segment and, coupled with an overall average price fall of 20 per cent, a sizeable decline in value was registered.

    However growth remains strong in the 37", 40" and 42" LCD sectors which now represent one fifth of LCD units (Q/E May 08).

    “There are signs that the overall price erosion for these larger screen sizes are slowing too: 40-42" average prices fell by 31 per cent in the latest year ending, 27 per cent in the year to date, but a less pronounced 21 per cent in the latest month,” says the report.

    It goes on to point out that one of the factors contributing to this is the continued emergence of Full HD sets, which in May saw a significant increase in share of the overall LCD market, increasing from 10 per cent to 14 per cent of sales from April to May.

    The report adds: “Plasma sales remain strong at 50" with Full HD also continuing to penetrate the market. A fifth of Plasma sets sold in May were Full HD.”

    The second most important section of the vision market is the DVD market.

    Although total DVD value has fallen on a year on year basis, the GFK report say it is “encouraging” that there are still two key growth sectors.

    One is the standalone player, which it notes is boosted by High Definition.
    “And with the High Definition format war now resolved we should expect to see increased activity within this area,” says the report.

    “The other growth sector is DVD Recorder with Hard Disc Drive (HDD) and the HDD sector is now worth more than the no HDD sector (51 per cent of total Recorder value in May).

    Although camcorders are a much less high profile market, GfK says High Definition models also offer a source of value to the market.

    The report concludes that despite the downward trend seen for vision products as a whole in May there remains plenty of opportunity with High Definition/Full HD and the new service of Freesat.

  • Verizon gets a bite of Apple's success

    iPhone credited with spurring Verizon’s smartphone sales as Q2 earnings exceed predictions

    Verizon Wireless has exceeded analysts’s predictions and posted impressive second quarter earnings of US$1.88 billion.
    A key factor in the results was increased smartphone sales, which now account for 30 per cent of the US carrier’s device sales.

    Denny Strigl, Verizon’s president and COO, even went as far as to give the build up of interest for the 3G iPhone’s launch earlier this month some of the credit for his company’s results.

    Verizon, currently the number two phone service provider, is fighting the Apple handset’s exclusive carrier, AT&T, for the market leadership slot.
    “As we saw with the initial introduction, the iPhone has actually stimulated smartphone sales,” he said.

    Verizon Wireless’s revenue for the second quarter was US$24.12 billion, up from US$23.27 billion in the first quarter and a 3.7 per cent increase compared with second quarter 2007.

    Shrugging of a sluggish economy, the company attributed strong growth in wireless services and demand for data services as the primary stimulators in the results.

    Businesses or individual smartphone users don’t appear to be switching off services, pulling back on data services or putting off handset upgrades.

    Verizon Wireless added 1.5 million subscribers in the second quarter bringing its total subscriber base to 68.7 million.
    Last week AT&T reported adding more than a million subscribers.

  • US iPhone 3G launch sales double first version

    Stocks of iPhone 3G still scarce as more than 500,000 sold in first week by AT&T

    A fortnight after the iPhone 3G was launched many Apple retail stores have no handsets in stock and lengthy queues form outside those that do.

    Now AT&T has provided frustrated buyers with further evidence that Apple’s latest handset is popular – the carrier has sold twice as many Apple iPhone 3G units upon launch as they did a year ago with the first generation iPhone.

    The company also noted that it had more than doubled its smartphone users year-on-year since June 2007, from 8 per cent to 18 per cent.

    Although official numbers have never been published by AT&T, it is generally estimated that 270,000 first generation iPhones were sold in the opening weekend after launch.

    Based on AT&T’s latest comments suggest at least 500,000 iPhone 3G units have been sold in the US by AT&T.
    That will be little consolation to many potential purchasers who have so far not been able to buy a 3G iPhone.

    AT&T also reported that they added 1.3 million new subscribers, pushing its user base to 72.9 million, making it the largest carrier in the US over Verizon.

    Apple will continue its iPhone 3G roll-out next month by releasing the touchscreen smartphone in 20 more countries.

    The second-generation iPhone has so far been launched in 22, with an estimated 1 million iPhone 3Gs sold globally in the first weekend after its release.

    With another 20 markets opening next month, Apple to take its tally up to 70 countries by the end of the year – with the goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.

  • Sales advice steers consumers towards LCD HDTVs

    Survey shows retail electronics salespersons are recommending LCD HDTVs over plasma TVs at a rate of more than three to one

    A lack of knowledge among US retail salespersons regarding recent improvements in plasma technology is blamed for the high proportion of recommendations given for LCD sets.

    More than three times out of four, sales staff steer customers to a liquid-crystal display set rather than a plasma screen, according to a study by JD Power and Associates.

    Based on the results of a mystery-shopper survey it carried out, analysts suggest that shop assistants don’t really know much about the differences between LCD and plasma.

    Yet the report says that doesn’t stop them exhibiting a strong preference for LCD – a bias it suggests due to a lack of knowledge regarding recent improvements in plasma technology.

    It cites examples such as more than one-third (38%) of salespersons telling their customers that LCD sets last longer.
    Or the 37 per cent of salespersons who warned their customers that images may be permanently burned onto the screens of plasma TVs.

    Larry Wu, senior director of the technology practice at JD Power, said the longevity of plasma displays was now on par with LCDs.
    He added: “Although burn-in was once a problem with the first plasmas to hit the market, this has not been a serious issue for several years.”

    Salespeople often mentioned a plasma drawback that’s still relevant: their glossy front surface can create distracting reflections of lights and windows in the room.

    However, even with their preference for LCDs, the salespeople rarely mentioned those TVs’ advantages.
    Fewer than a quarter told customers that LCD sets are lighter and consume less power than plasma.

    The report was based on the experiences of more than 2,000 mystery shoppers during the last six months. It focused on sets 40 inches or larger, where plasmas are contenders.

    The recommendation rate for plasmas increased over the period, from 17 per cent in the first quarter to 23 per cent in the second quarter.

    “At most retail stores, large-screen television shoppers face an array of flat panel sets that all look essentially the same to the untrained eye, which is why recommendations from salespersons carry so much importance,” said Wu.

  • Good hotel? Then today's guests expect HDTV

    Demand for best quality TVs will spur global hotel sales to 9.7 million sets by 2012, with growth in Asia a major stimulus

    Hotels upgrading old CRT-TVs in guest rooms to flat-panel HDTV sets will cause global hotel TV sales to reach 9.7 million by 2012, according to research.

    A report by analysts iSuppli says that worldwide macroeconomic fundamentals suggest that the hotel market will continue growing for the next few years despite the economic woes affecting many western nations.

    It said that a greater appetite for luxury accommodation was leading to rising occupancy and increased travel rates among both business people and consumers.

    Hoteliers are noting that their guests desire more than just the standard hospitality elements that satisfied them in the past, like CRT-TVs.

    Instead they are switching to Flat Panel Display (FPD) TVs, paralleling the shift that is occurring among consumers.
    Sanju Khatri, principal analyst for projection and large-screen displays at iSuppli, said this was mostly due to increasing disposable income in the Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) region,

    She said the Asian market also is becoming a hotbed of hospitality growth because of an unprecedented upsurge in business travel to the region.
    “This is mostly due to strong demand from hotels in metropolitan areas such as Shanghai, Beijing, Macau, Bangalore and Mumbai,” she said.

    Khatri said that most luxury and mid-scale hotels now are offering guests a variety of in-room entertainment options, such as high definition television (HDTV), Video on Demand (VOD) and video games.

    By offering these types of quality in-room entertainment services they are hoping to capture more in-room entertainment revenue, differentiate their brands and ensure greater guest satisfaction.

    Business guests increasingly are bringing their partners or families along with them as they travel, creating mini-vacations by extending their business stays by a few days.

    Because of this, hoteliers are adjusting their approach to suit entertainment and leisure interests rather than simply catering to a business mindset.
    “Which has prompted hoteliers to turn to larger-sized displays with higher resolutions to provide a theatre-like experience inside their hotel rooms,” said Khatri.

    iSuppli’s forecast of global hotel TV shipments will grow to 9.7 million units by 2012, managing a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 61.5 per cent from 894,527 units in 2007.

    The revenue growth also is expected to reach US$2.3 billion by 2012, up from US$1.1 billion in 2007.
    The Asia/Pacific region will generate the highest percentage growth for hotel TV shipments over the next few years.
    Shipments are expected to rise to 1.3 million units in 2012, increasing at a CAGR of 90 per cent from 52,031 units in 2007.

    In the EMEA region, a much larger hotel TV market than the Asia Pacific, shipments will rise to 3.0 million units in 2012, increasing at a CAGR of 72 per cent from 199,470 units in 2007.

    By 2012, EMEA will surpass North America as the world’s largest region for hotel TV shipments.
    When the US switches to a digital TV service February 2009, iSuppli expects to see more hoteliers-including lower-end lodging-to adopt HD service and flat-panel displays.

  • Sony Ericsson cuts jobs as demand falls for its smartphones

    Plummeting demand for its high-end smartphones and inflation eroding margins for inexpensive mobile phones leads to job cuts

    The world’s fifth-placed handset maker is to shed 2,000 jobs as the company reports a Q2 operating loss of US$3.17 million.
    Sony Ericsson a drop in net income from US$347.6 million a year ago to US$9.48 million, while sales slumped 9.4 per cent to US$4.4 billion.

    Unit sales in the quarter reached 24.4 million, down from 24.9 million units a year ago.
    The closely watched average selling price per unit was US$183. A year ago, Sony Ericsson’s average price per unit was US$197.50.

    The joint venture between Sony and Ericsson AB also forecast further bad news in the third quarter.
    “Challenging market conditions are expected to prevail this quarter,” the company said in a statement.

    Sony Ericsson said the 2,000 job cuts among the company’s 11,900 employees will save US$474 million annually.
    The July 18 results marked the second consecutive quarter that Sony Ericsson has issued a profit warning before issuing quarterly results.

    A little more than a year ago, Sony Ericsson was the number four handset maker, pushing Motorola for the number 3 spot.
    Since then, however, the company has fallen to fifth while LG Electronics has taken over the fourth spot.

    Dick Komiyama, CEO of Sony Ericsson, said: “We are aligning our operations and resources worldwide to meet an increasingly competitive business environment and to help restore our capability for profitable growth.”

    Sony Ericsson is the second of the world’s handset makers to announce its quarterly results since research firm Gartner slashed its forecast for the mobile phone market to between 10 per cent and 11 per cent growth from a May estimate of 10 per cent and 15 per cent.
    In 2007, mobile phone growth margins were 16 per cent.

    Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia issued second quarter results earlier this week that were in line with analyst predictions.
    LG Electronics will announce its second quarter results on July 21, followed by Samsung on July 25 and Motorola on July 31.

  • "Iconic" new smartphone models will entice buyers

    Launch of latest smartphones by Apple, RIM, Nokia and Samsung will ensure handset markets enjoy strong end to 2008

    Some impressive mobile phone product launches between now and the year-end will help the world’s mobile handset markets finish 2008 with strong sales, according to ABI Research.

    Spurred on by the launch of Apple’s second-generation iPhone, rival handset vendors such as RIM, Nokia and Samsung are also expected to debut new models in the second half of 2008.

    Kevin Burden, director of ABI Research, said such “iconic” models generate a lot of interest around the handset industry and get consumers thinking about replacement.
    “2008 should still be a very good year for the global mobile phone market,” he said.
    “While Q2 performance figures are still preliminary until finalised at the end of July, early indications do not point to an aggressively weak quarter.

    “Historically, the second half of the year has always outperformed the first, and despite nearly global economic problems, a second half lift is still expected, although likely lower than the near 20 per cent increase the worldwide market has seen in recent years.”

    Burden said that greater simplicity in handset design had been a powerful driver in new adoption over the last two years.
    He said a lot of advanced technologies and applications hade been built into phones but there had often been technical or ease-of-use barriers that prevented wide adoption.

    “The trend now is about making better use of what we have rather than introducing a flood of new services and network features,” he said.
    “That’s going to go a long way towards ensuring users’ acceptance of new phones and new applications.”

    Burden was speaking after the release of the latest update to ABI Research’s Mobile Device Market Share Analysis and Forecasts.
    It reports that many usability issues will also be progressively worked out as the industry increasingly moves towards standardised operating systems.

    Proprietary real-time operating systems can be painful to manage for operators as well as for users.
    Open operating systems will continue to migrate down phone vendors’ product lines, increasing the penetration of devices using standardised and predictable platforms and boosting overall ease of use.