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Tag: market-data

  • Sony outlines plans for Blu-ray, PS3 video downloads, games and BRIC nations


    The world’s second-largest maker of consumer electronics aims to double its revenue in Brazil, Russia, India and China within three years by bolstering sales in seven main businesses including Bravia televisions and Blu-ray disc players.
    Sony’s plans for sales of electronics to so-called BRIC nations will rise to 1.2 trillion yen (US$11.1 billion) by the 12 months ending March 31, 2011, from 600 billion yen last fiscal year.
    Speaking in Tokyo, Sony chairman and CEO, Howard Stringer, was presenting the company’s mid-term corporate strategy, which included the first concrete details on the plan for on-demand video content, including a launch window of later this summer.
    After touting an installed base of 50 million network-enabled PS3 and PSP units and a plan to achieve profitability this year, Stringer outlined a large-scale video service for Sony’s entire empire.
    The as-yet-unnamed video store is described as a “premium film and TV service”. Aside from Sony titles, no other content deals have been announced.
    Stringer also said Sony expects its Blu-ray Disc-related business to approach US$ 10 billion in annual revenue within three years, while returning its games and liquid-crystal display TV operations to profitability.
    The company’s goal is to add Blu-ray-related operations to its portfolio of “trillion yen businesses” (US$ 9.27 billion), which include LCD TVs, gaming and mobile phones, by the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011.
    “We are very pleased with the cross-divisional cooperation that led the success of the Blu-ray format,” said Howard Stringer. “Blu-ray Disc has positive implications for our hardware, software and game business.”
    He estimated that 15 million Blu-ray players and PlayStation 3 game consoles, which include the players, have been sold worldwide.
    Earlier this month, Sony said its electronics division’s operating income for the year ended March 31 more than doubled to 356 billion yen (US$ 3.3 billion) as electronics sales rose 8.9 per cent to 6.61 trillion yen (US$ 61.3 billion). The company didn’t specify Blu-ray-related sales or earnings.
    Additionally, Sony expects its liquid-crystal-display TV business to be the world’s largest within three years.
    For the first quarter, Sony’s 13 per cent market share trailed only Samsung’s 20 per cent among global LCD TV units, though in North America, the company was leap-frogged by closely held Vizio.
    “Three years ago, we had no significant presence in the LCD TV business,” said Stringer. “Today, we are competing well for first place for worldwide market share due to the strength of our Bravia lineup.”
    Finally, the company said 90 per cent of its electronics categories would be both network-connectable and wireless-enabled in an attempt to capitalize on its leadership position in LCD TVs, high-definition DVD players and game consoles.

  • Launch of iPhone fails to dent RIM's optimism for Blackberry as profit and revenue doubles in Q1


    Strong sales of Blackberry devices have helped Smartphone-maker Research in Motion Ltd (RIM) to more than double its first quarter profit and revenue.
    The Canadian company earned US$482.5 million for the three months that ended May 31, up from US$223.2 million in the same period last year.
    RIM’s revenue increased to US$2.24 billion from US$1.08 billion for the same period.
    There was a net gain of 2.3 million BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter, six per cent higher than in the fourth quarter, to bring the total number of subscribers to more than 16 million.
    Around 5.4 million new devices were shipped by the company in the first quarter of 2008.
    Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of RIM, said revenue had increased 107 per cent in the quarter, a rise he attributed to the continued popularity of the BlackBerry platform in business, government and consumer segments.
    “Our comprehensive technology and business strategies continue to reap strong results in the market, and RIM is well positioned to build on its momentum throughout the remainder of fiscal 2009,” he said.
    “As we prepare this summer to ship our 40 millionth BlackBerry smartphone, we continue to steadily scale our business and partnerships to support the opportunities ahead in this thriving sector.”
    But despite the buoyant results, financial markets took an unfavourable view of the the company missing analysts’ earnings per share estimates by a penny and giving disappointing guidance for next quarter.
    The news sent shares of RIM tumbling in after-hours trading, down 7.61 per cent, to US$ 10.84.
    RIM expects its revenue in the second quarter, which ends August 31, to be in the range of US$2.55 billion to US$2.65 billion.
    Balsillie said RIM’s strong product portfolio and the continued commitment by carrier partners to promote BlackBerry throughout the summer months, would ensure healthy growth in Q2
    The company’s Kickstart flip phone and the BlackBerry Bold, a touch-screen device, are both due for launch in the second quarter.

  • Report says HDTV will not become the new "normal" television until around 2015


    The uptake of HD technology in Europe is accelerating rapidly but there remains a “significant” content gap caused by the lack of HD programming on free-to-air platforms across the region.
    That’s the conclusion of the latest report from media analysts Screen Digest which says that by the end of 2007, 18 per cent of the 165 million European TV households were equipped with HD displays.
    But less than one per cent of these (approximately one million) were fully “HD enabled” – that is equipped with an HD set-top box and an HD subscription enabling them to watch HD broadcasts.
    The report forecasts that by 2012 the situation will have improved little – only 20 per cent of the 85 per cent of European households with HD displays will actually be watching in HD.
    It says that ultimately HD will become the default choice of TV viewers but in the most part they will have to wait at least until 2015 to enjoy the content for free.
    This will be driven by the availability of HD across all free platforms, channels upgrading to HD making other formats unwatchable and next-generation TV’s coming with MPEG4 capability.
    Vincent Létang , senior analyst with Screen Digest and author of the report, said that in the next five years, HDTV will remain little more than a pay TV product in Europe – primarily on satellite.
    He said analogue switch-off, which will happen between 2010 and 2012 will free-up bandwidth capacity on the digital terrestrial platform and will kick-start the next phase of growth in high definition TV.
    “HDTV will become the mainstream and ultimately the standard form of free television around the middle of the next decade,” he said.
    “In ten years time, nobody will ever refer to “high definition” because HD will be everywhere.”
    The report, entitled “HDTV 2008: Global Uptake, Strategies and Business Models”, identifies three critical success factors that will support the successful expansion of HDTV: penetration of HD displays; supply of HD content and the availability of HD broadcast platforms.
    It identifies the lack of access to free-to-air HD channels as a key reason behind the low take-up of HD.
    “In Europe there are currently approximately 100 HD channels, with the vast majority on satellite and only a handful available on cable,” the report states.
    “As of today, only Sweden has launched HD on free-to-air digital terrestrial TV and only France and the UK are likely to follow suit in the short term.”

  • DVD still dominates the movie market but Blu-ray set to overtake by 2012


    The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) expects sales of Blu-ray disks in the US to exceed those of standard DVDs by 2012.
    In its latest Annual Report on the Home Entertainment Industry, the EMA reports that home video continues to dominate the movie market.
    This segment of the market had sales of approximately US$24 billion, making it the largest segment of consumer movie spending by far, accounting for 49% of total consumer movie spending in 2007.
    In the video game market, game software sales increased 34% in 2007, to a total of US$8.6 billion.
    EMA is the not-for-profit international trade association that represent s the interests of the home entertainment industry.
    The report said that nearly 9 million high-definition discs were sold in 2007, for which consumers spent more than US$260 million.
    But it projected that in 2012, sales of Blu-ray Discs will have outstripped those of standard DVDs and will generate sales of US$9.5 billion.
    Bo Andersen, president and CEO of EMA, said the report provided comprehensive data on and analysis of sales and rentals of DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, video on demand, computer and console video games, and competing technologies.
    He said DVD still dominated the movie market but consumers were swiftly adopting new technologies.
    “Consumers remain enamored with DVD and video games even as they incorporate new forms of entertainment media into their consumption patterns,” he said.
    “New generations of hardware and software, and alternative delivery channels, will ensure that home video and video games remain phenomenally popular entertainment options for the American public for years to come.”
    Other statistics in the report included:
     Home video generated US US$15.9 billion in sales and US$8.2 billion in rentals in 2007.
     There were 12,177 DVDs released in 2007, down from a peak of 13,950 in 2005.
     Home video spending is projected to increase to US$25.6 billion in 2012.
     Traditional rental stores, dominated by Blockbuster, accounted for 73% of the rental business in 2007.
     Online subscription rental (such as Netflix and Blockbuster’s Total Access) were 25% of the market. Kiosk rental doubled its market share to 2%.

  • Number of LCD TVs being returned rises as viewers demand better quality for HDTV


    The refund rate on LCD TVs has increased to 25-30 per cent in North America despite a drop in prices by branded TV retailers.
    Many vendors reduced prices for 32-inch and 40-inch LCD TVs in May in an attempt to boost sales.
    However, the move has led to a rise in the number of products being returned as viewer expectations about the quality of high-definition images rises.
    The introduction of HD TV broadcasts in North America has made it much easier to compare the resolution of LCD TVs, according to a report in DigiTimes.
    It quotes industry sources who attribute the high refund rate for LCD to consumer dissatisfaction with low-priced products that did not meet their original expectations in terms of picture quality.

  • No mention of Olympic factor as US market for flat-panel HDTVs remains strong despite economic down-turn

    Sales of LCD and plasma TVs showed a 53 per cent year-on-year increase in the US for the first quarter of 2008, with more than 7.5 million units sold.
    This represents a 7 per cent increase over industry projections for the period.
    While analysts in Japan have attributed a 35 per cent increase in flat-panel TV sales during the first half of June to the upcoming Beijing Olympics, industry executives in the US are being more cagey.
    But what those attending the DisplaySearch TV Supply Chain Conference in San Diego did agree on was that despite the state of the US economy, the North America TV market remains robust – so far.
    Paul Gagnon director of North American TV research at DisplaySearch, said the data also highlighted consumer preference for smaller LCD and plasma TVs.
    “Smaller TV sizes are doing better than larger sizes, while the larger sizes seem to be under pressure from weakened consumer spending,” he said.
    “For example, global shipments of 32” TVs exceeded our forecasts by 10 per cent, while all screen size categories above 40” fell short of expectations by 3 per cent or more.”
    The summer holiday season is expected to present a major challenge for US retailers if the present economic trend continues, according to a majority of conference attendees.
    That could translate into better deals for consumers, and those deals could remain even if the economy recovers over the next few years because panel manufacturers are adding more TV assembly lines.

  • Analyst declares Nokia "undervalued" based on growth plans in the Smartphone market


    Nokia’s intention to compete in the Smartphone market by launching an array of devices will lead to a substantial and prolonged “upside” for the mobile giant.
    Gus Papageorgiou, an analyst at Scotia Bank, said he believes Nokia is undervalued after hearing its CEO outline future growth plans.
    Among the reasons for his optimism is the company’s aggressive plan to compete in the high-end Smartphone market, so far largely dominated by the rivalry between Research in Motion’s Blackberry and Apple’s iPhone.
    Nokia is launching a range of new Smartphones and repositioning its image away from the hardware/”mobile phone” tag, by integrating services with its handsets to deliver web-enabled customer solutions.
    “Although Nokia’s primary objective with this strategy is to differentiate its device portfolio, its secondary strategy is to derive a new revenue stream,” Mr Papageorgiou wrote after attending last week’s investor reception.
    Beyond web repositioning, the company also re-aligned recruitment recently, hiring many business and technology staff with specific Internet and e-commerce skillsets.
    The Scotia Bank analyst also pointed to strong fundamentals such as low production price-points, and very high volumes that play in favour of the Finnish manufacturer, especially on the middle-market segment.
    Nokia’s N-series multimedia devices shipped close to 10 million units in the first quarter of 2008 alone.

  • Popularity of RIM's Blackberry Curve points to strong Q1 results for handset maker


    The success of Research In Motion’s Blackberry Curve will ensure the company announces good first quarter 2008 results, according to analysts.
    Simona Jankowski, an analyst with Goldman Sachs, said results, driven by US sales of its Curve at Verizon Wireless, were likely to be at the high end of current guidance when revealed on June 25.
    “Our view is based on very strong retail checks suggesting that the Curve remains the most popular device among consumers and small and medium businesses alike, partially offset by a softer enterprise environment,” she said.
    However, Jankowski added that she expected RIM’s guidance for the next quarter to fall below Wall Street consensus.
    Maynard Um, an analyst at UBS, agreed with the prognosis on the current quarter and said that results for the first fiscal quarter should reach the high end of RIM’s prior guidance of USD$2.23 billion to USD$2.3 billion.
    In contrast to Goldman Sachs, however, Um said he sees various factors favouring RIM’s outlook for subsequent quarters.
    He pointed to RIM’s launch of its Bold handset appears on target for mid- to late-July, which should boost fiscal second-quarter results.
    Additional launches later this year — including a clamshell-style Pearl, a 3G world phone and an iDEN BlackBerry — should drive strong sales in the fiscal third quarter, according to Um.
    The UBS analyst also said that the 3G iPhone’s availability worldwide would drive network operators without the Apple Inc. device to subsidise other high-end handsets, including BlackBerrys.
    In the US market, Avian Securities LLC’s May handset survey found RIM’s BlackBerry Curve and Pearl to be the two top-selling handsets.
    “RIM’s strength in our survey continues to be broad based, as the company was No. 1 or No. 2 at all four (top-tier) carriers, driven by the continued momentum of the Curve and Pearl franchises,” according to analyst Matt Thornton.
    “RIM gained share at three of four carriers and the Curve and Pearl remained the top two devices, with the Curve moving to No. 1 with the recent launch of a CDMA Curve at Verizon Wireless.”

  • Price biggest factor in deterring purchase of iPhone


    Nearly a quarter of US consumers questioned in a survey highlighted price as the main reason why they were not considering buying an Apple iPhone 3G.
    Another impediment to purchase was people’s preference for a network carrier other than AT&T, Apple’s exclusive provider of the handsets in the US.
    Only 4 per cent of those surveyed by PriceGrabber.com, a part of Experian, currently own an iPhone, but 42 per cent said they are considering buying one.
    The study investigated purchasing trends and smartphone pricing history based on a survey of 3,066 online consumers conducted from May 20 to June 5, 2008.
    Of the remaining 54 per cent who do not intend to purchase the iPhone, 41 per cent – or 22 per cent of the total – said that the mobile device costs too much.
    The researchers pointed to the recent announcement of the lower-priced iPhone 3G, which they concluded could persuade more online consumers to buy one of the new smartphones.
    That could hinge on how potential buyers view the expensive data plans and contract agreements that come with the iPhone – some of which are required for at least two years.
    Apple has announced that it plans to sell at least 8 million new iPhones worldwide by the end of 2008.
    In the UK, where the first-generation iPhone was not exactly the success that Apple had hoped for, interest in the latest version is high.
    More than 130,000 people have expressed their desire to buy an iPhone 3G since O2, the UK’s largest mobile operator and exclusive iPhone carrier, has announced the upcoming availability of iPhone 3G.
    This represents a huge increase over the interest shown by the British consumers for the first handset.
    On the corporate side, Apple appears to be appealing to more US business users.
    Of the 4 per cent of respondents surveyed by PriceGrabber who currently own an iPhone, 40 per cent own two smartphone devices — one device for work and the iPhone for personal use.
    More than half of those respondents plan to get rid of their second device because of the Apple’s new synching capabilities.
    Survey respondents also indicated that the MP3 player within the iPhone is one of their least favorite features.
    The majority of online consumers say that the fingertip navigation feature is the best feature of the iPhone, while 17 per cent chose the Web browsing connection and 16 per cent enjoy the integrated applications.

  • Shift towards wireless HDTV expected to be gradual as technology evolves


    The race to perfect a wireless HDTV system is being contested by three competing technologies, each one with particular advantages without offering the complete package.
    But within three years one will have emerged as the dominant system, according to a study by ABI Research.
    This is expected to take global installations from an estimated 100,000 this year to the milestone one million by 2012.
    Steve Wilson, principal analyst on the report “Wireless Video Cable Replacement Market and Technologies”, said the wireless HDTV market was still in its “incubation” stage.
    He said a “battle of technologies” was being fought by the three contending systems, loosely characterised as 5 GHz, 60 GHz, and ultra wideband (UWB).
    “5 GHz technology is better understood and more proven but achieving the required data rates requires new approaches and more complex solutions,” he said.
    “UWB technology has bandwidth advantages at in-room distances but drops rapidly at greater ranges.
    “60 GHz allows high data rates, but so far only one company is even close to a viable solution.”
    Among the advantages of wireless HDTV are simplification of installation and the flexibility it offers in positioning TVs.
    There are both commercial applications – digital signage, for example – and domestic applications such as wall-mounting a flat-screen HDTV.
    “The initial sweet spot in the market is where wired installation would be difficult or complicated,” said Wilson.
    He said small numbers of 5 GHz and UWB devices are currently shipping, while demo products of 60 GHz systems are expected early next year.
    “Over the next two to three years, we’re going to see one or two of these wireless HDTV approaches emerge as the primary ones,” he added.
    All the wireless HDTV silicon vendors are venture-backed startups and most established wireless vendors are waiting to see how the market evolves.
    Product manufacturers are moving forward with different strategies.
    Some, like Westinghouse and Belkin, are initially targeting commercial and custom installers where there is clear value-add.
    In contrast, some TV manufacturers such as Sharp and Hitachi are targeting buyers of their latest technology, offering design-oriented, elegant products that come with a wireless connectivity option.