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Tag: research

  • Plasma and LCD TV Sales Increase in Q2 2009

    Quixel Research’s newly launched USA Large Area Display Report revealed that in Q2 2009 the Plasma TV category was the only large screen TV category to show significant growth quarter-to-quarter.

    Plasma TV (40”+) sales were up 31% in volume and 35% in value when compared to Q1 2009 sales, almost topping the $1B mark.

    “Unit sales of 42” 720p Plasma TVs were up 40% quarter-to-quarter as consumers were looking for value in uncertain economic times,” stated Tamaryn Pratt, Quixel Research’s principal.

    “It also helped that all the models offered were from top brands so consumers felt comfortable making a competitively priced purchase backed up by a well know brand.”

    The surge in 42” 720p Plasma models lifted the segment’s unit share of the LAD category four percent quarter-to-quarter. Plasma TV value topped $910M in the second quarter.

    Revenue results for the overall Large Area Display market were flat or $3.1B in Q2 2009 and when compared to Q2 2008 revenues, were down nine percent. Overall volume for the LAD market was still strong with the market up five percent quarter-to-quarter and up 10 percent year-to-year.

    The research shows that the harsh economic climate didn’t also slow LCDTV sales in the second quarter with sales up significantly quarter-to-quarter. However it did push consumers to purchase entry models as well as smaller screen sized models.

    The overall LCDTV market grew nine percent quarter-to-quarter and 22 percent year-to-year.

    “Unit sales for 22”, 32” and 40/42” models supported the LCDTV category increase in the second quarter,” commented Pratt.

    When assessing large screen size sales results in Q2 2009, the report showed that LCDTV sales 40”+ were flat in units and declined nine percent in value when compared to Q1 2009.

    Connected LCDTVs, or TVs with built-in internet capabilities enabling content such as YouTube, Netflix, Tivo, Facebook etc., saw sales increase significantly in both units and value compared to the prior quarter. Unit sales of connected LCDTVs were up 39 percent quarter-to-quarter and 20 percent year-to-year.

  • Low-Cost Handsets to Account for over Half of all Mobile Phones by 2014

    According to Juniper Research, low-cost handsets and Smartphones will together account for almost 79% of all new mobile phones by 2014, or just over 1 billion units in all.

    New research, which results have been contained in the latest Jupiter’s report ‘Low Cost Handsets: Markets, Opportunities & Forecasts 2009-2014’, has shown how the mobile handset market is becoming increasingly polarised between low cost handsets for emerging markets and high-end smartphones for developed regions – with the mid-range handset market being squeezed.

    Operators and vendors are preparing to deal with a massive influx of new users from low-income socio-economic groups in developing markets and a rising demand for complex ‘smart’ devices from affluent users in developed markets.

    Vendors such as Nokia, Apple and RIM (makers of Blackberry) are well positioned to benefit from these trends whilst players operating more in the mid range market such as Sony Ericsson and Motorola are having to rethink their strategy.

    According to the report author Andrew Kitson: “Low-cost handset shipments will number more than 700 million in 2014, up by 31% from levels seen in 2008, albeit down slightly from a peak of 716 million in 2012 as some users begin to upgrade to costlier devices. At the same time, smartphone shipment volumes will grow continuously across the forecast period, reaching almost 360 million by the end of the period. We therefore expect that mid-range device sales volumes will fall by more than 41% over the period”.

    In 2008, the Indian Sub Continent region accounted for the majority (23%) of low-cost handset sales, due to efforts by operators such as Vodafone to meet low-income users’ needs in markets such as India. By 2014, the region will account for 22% of sales.

    The report says also that take-up in emerging markets will be boosted by the availability of low-cost, highly targeted localised information services, such as Nokia’s Life Tools offering.

  • Mobile Broadband Could Reach 418m in 2017


    There could be 94 million people using VoIP hardware over mobile broadband connections across Europe by 2017, according to new research.

    Figures from the Coda Research Consultancy suggest the uptake of mobile broadband will continue to expand significantly.

    This could potentially change business practices as more people have the option of working from home rather than heading into the office.

    Global mobile broadband connectivity is forecast to reach 418 million over the same timeframe as the flexibility of the technology appeals to more people.

    The researchers predict that portable laptop and netbook users accessing the internet via mobile broadband will produce USD $48bn in operator revenues in 2017 and will generate and consume an immense 1.8 exabytes of traffic per month – a forty fold increase over 2009.

    Steve Smith, founder of Coda Research, said: "With enormous growth in traffic and considerable decline in average revenue per user, operators will need to be ruthlessly efficient."

    The most significant growth will occur in the Asia-Pacific region, where users will amount to 162m by 2017. Europe will account for 94m users, and North America for 58m users.

    The Coda report says the impact of Long Term Evolution (LTE) will be dramatic, with half of all mobile broadband via netbook and laptop users employing LTE worldwide in 2017.

    Three quarters of users in Europe and nearly two thirds of users in North America will employ LTE in 2017.

    This contrasts with just over half of users in Asia Pacific, and 12 per cent in Central and South America.

    Smith said LTE take up will be greatly skewed toward European and North American markets in the short to medium term, where ARPU will be highest.

    "However, we will also see significant take up in China, and we may also see countries like India bypass 3G altogether, and move straight to LTE," he said.

  • IT Execs Doubt Virtualization is Data Recovery Remedy


    Separate backup data center locations are not being used by many companies to provide the complete data-recovery system, according to research.

    Instead they are relying on failover to separate storage arrays and servers within the same physical building.

    Market researcher Harris Interactive said this is the Achilles heel of many virtualized IT environments.

    Three-quarters of IT executives surveyed believe virtualization by itself can play a major role in an enterprise disaster recovery plan.

    But they said it in no way represents a complete answer to a DR strategy, according to a "State of Disaster Recovery" survey released by Harris.

    While many IT decision-makers say they have deployed virtualization in a production setting, survey data indicated that most have not yet utilized it in a disaster-recovery situation.

    A full-fledged disaster-recovery system using virtualization replicates the system and all its data to an off-site location away from the main enterprise data center.

    In the event of the main data center going offline and out of action, virtual machines replicated at the backup location continue to keep the workloads running smoothly, with little or no latency in daily production.

    However, many companies are not able to deploy separate backup data center locations to provide the complete data-recovery system, relying instead on failover to separate storage arrays and servers within the same physical building.

    Seventy-four per cent of survey respondents indicated that virtualization can play a major role but is not a total solution for disaster recovery plans.

    One-quarter of IT respondents said they would never include virtualization technologies in their disaster recovery plans.

    Sixty per cent of respondents said they have virtualization in place now as a recovery tool from unplanned outages; only 29 per cent said they have used it successfully.

    Eight per cent said they used virtualization but that it didn’t work to their satisfaction.

    Another 29 per cent of IT decision-makers say they have deployed virtualization but not yet used it as a tool for disaster recovery.

    The survey said that over the next two years, half of IT decision-makers say they will be looking into virtualization as an option for managing unplanned outages and disaster recovery.

    About a quarter of IT executives say they will be looking into cloud computing and grid networking as potential options.

    The survey was commissioned by SunGard Availability Services, which provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software to more than 10,000 customers in North America and Europe.

  • Smartphone Ownership Now "Mandatory", Not Techie Toy


    Not owning a smartphone today is the social equivalent to not having email a few years ago – at least in the US.

    That’s the conclusion of a report in the New York Times, which says that having an iPhone, Pre or BlackBerry is pretty much mandatory these days unless you want to ostracise yourself from "society".

    It says the devices are no longer a status symbol or techie toy but have become mandatory equipment for belonging to society.

    David E. Meyer, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, told the paper: "The social norm is that you should respond (to an email) within a couple of hours, if not immediately.

    "If you don’t, it is assumed you are out to lunch mentally, out of it socially, or don’t like the person who sent the e-mail."

    The report comes, conveniently, as research shows that 41 per cent of consumers will make a smartphones their next mobile device.

    As a result, smartphone volumes will grow to 38 per cent of all handsets by 2013, representing the largest growth opportunity within mobile devices.

    This makes the smartphone category the most important competitive battleground in wireless today, according to the Yankee Group study.

    It also shows that trends within the smartphone ecosystem are profoundly impacting the power dynamics between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and operators.

    Traditionally, operators have had the upper hand when working with device manufacturers to bring a new device to market, but the power dynamics are shifting.

    With more competitive entrants, tighter budgets and increased consumer expectations, OEMs and operators need to work together, on equal ground, to thrive.

    Chris Collins, Yankee Group senior analyst, said the release of the Palm Pre spotlights the changes in the OEM-operator dynamic.

    "Sprint and Palm are two companies desperate for a blockbuster hit," he said. "And as such, they are either the perfect – or worst possible – partners for one another.

    "The fate of both companies relies on the success of their alliance around the Pre."

  • Disk Storage System Sales Badly Impacted By Economy


    Worldwide external disk storage systems factory revenues fell 13.6 per cent year-on-year to USD $4.2 billion in the first quarter of 2009 (1Q09), according to IDC.

    For the quarter, the total disk storage systems market declined to USD $5.6 billion in revenues, an 18.2 per cent decline from the prior year’s first quarter.

    Steve Scully, research manager, Enterprise Storage at IDC, said the results were driven by continued weakness in server systems sales.

    He said total disk storage systems capacity shipped reached 2,146 petabytes, growing 14.8 per cent year over year.

    "The disk storage system vendors are really seeing the impact of the global economic downturn in the first quarter revenues," he said.

    "However, while total revenues declined year over year, the overall storage capacity shipped continued to grow.

    "These contrasting results are due to a combination of currency implications, lower overall sales, shifts in product mix, and aggressive pricing actions."

    Liz Conner, research analyst, Storage Systems, said that although the economic crisis was fully realized by the enterprise storage systems market in the first quarter of 2009, the quarter wasn’t without its bright spots.

    "Entry-level price bands ($0K – $14.99K) showed 9.9 per cent year-over-year growth and the midrange price band ($15K – $49.99K) was flat year over year," she said.

    This supported IDC’s belief that storage products are still in demand, according to Conner, adding that customer spending was trending towards more modular, price point options.

    "In addition, the high-end price band ($300K-499.99K) saw a 14.5 per cent year-over-year growth as vendors discounted their very high-end products, shifting the ASV’s into lower price bands in order to meet the demand for high-end storage while accounting for reduced IT budgets," she said.

    EMC maintained its lead in the external disk storage systems market with 20.7 per cent revenue share in the first quarter, followed by HP and IBM in a statistical tie for the second position with 11.5 per cent and 11.3 per cent revenue share, respectively.

    Dell and Hitachi finished the quarter in a statistical tie for fourth place with 9.8 per cent and 9.4 per cent revenue share respectively.

    The total network disk storage market (NAS Combined with Open SAN) had year-over-year growth of minus 12.5 per cent in the first quarter with more than USD $3.1 billion in revenues.

    EMC continues to maintain its leadership in the total network storage market with 26.0 per cent revenue share, followed by NetApp with 12.0 per cent revenue share.

    In the Open SAN market, which declined 14.3 per cent year over year, EMC lead with 21.9 per cent revenue share.

    The NAS market declined 6.7 per cent year over year, led by EMC with 39.0 per cent revenue share and followed by NetApp with 28.7 per cent share.

    The iSCSI SAN market continued to show strong momentum, posting 40.5 per cent revenue growth compared to the prior year’s quarter.

    Dell led the market with 36.4 per cent revenue share, followed by EMC with 15.8 per cent.

    Natalya Yezhkova, research manager, IDC Storage Systems, said price sensitivity was a big factor in the healthy growth of iSCSI SAN.

    He said that was the only installation environment segment that ended the quarter in positive territory.

    "While still a relatively small segment of the market, iSCSI SAN is the bright spot for end users and for vendors, as it helps end users to deploy network storage, often with enterprise-class functionality, at a lower price point than traditional FC SAN, and, thus, creates more selling opportunities for vendors," he said.

  • Growth in HDTVs Driving Demand for HD STBs


    Shipments of set-top boxes are expected to peak this year, at least in mature markets, and then commence a gradual decline.

    However the rolling series of analog TV shutoffs in countries around the world, combined with the strong uptake of HDTV sets, mean that HD STBs will form a growing fraction of the total market, according to ABI Research.

    HD STBs are expected to account for about 30 per cent of all STB shipments as soon as 2010.

    Michael Inouye, ABI Research industry analyst, said this will be accompanied by a progressive movement from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 for content delivery.

    He said a growing affinity for HD boxes over SD is closely related to MPEG-4.

    "As more HDTVs find their way into homes, the demand for HD content grows in kind," he said.

    "Anticipating this demand, some countries and operators have elected to support the more efficient standard up front or to begin deployments of upgraded CPE."

    Inouye said the price points of boxes are converging.

    So much so that he said MPEG-4 and in some cases HD are getting sufficiently inexpensive that some operators will be providing them to their customers by default.

    While some STB vendors feel that demand for standard models will be around for a long time, reports from infrastructure vendors suggest a push towards MPEG-4 encoders, according to Inouye.

    So he said vendors will have to support MPEG-4.

    In markets primarily served by digital terrestrial broadcasts where most sales of STBs are retail, especially those with a large MPEG-2 installed base, this means that vendors will have to encourage consumers to switch by reducing the prices of upgraded boxes.

  • Online Video Viewing Rates "Grossly Overstated"


    The amount of time US viewers spend watching online video and mobile video is growing rapidly – but still accounts for a small fraction of total video content viewing.

    That’s the conclusion of a study into how people spend their time consuming media, including live TV programming, time-shifted television, DVDs, video games.

    Another key finding was that households buying a new HDTV viewed more live TV – up to double – initially, but that over time, this increased usage began to subside.

    Jim Spaeth, of Sequent Partners, which collaborated with Ball State University’s Center for Media Design on the Video Consumer Mapping Study on behalf of the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence, said the results showed that the amount of time Americans spend watching online video is vastly overstated.

    He told MediaPost that the new findings indicate that even the relatively small amount of time Americans spend watching online video has been, on average, grossly overstated by conventional forms of media research and audience measurement.

    "This may be the first study to document the dramatic overstatement of online video and mobile video," he said.

    The project, which cost USD $3.5 million to field, directly observed how people spent their day using media.

    Conversely, Spaeth said traditional TV viewing has been "pretty drastically under-reported" by research that asks people how they consume video.

  • Optical Media With 1.6 Terabyte Capacity Created


    Researchers have announced they have created a "five-dimensional" optical media that can hold up to 1.6 terabytes of data.

    The team from the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia said the technology could easily be on the market within 10 years.

    In order to create the massive storage capacity the scientists used ‘nanoparticles and a "polarization" dimension’.

    The team has already signed a deal with Samsung, which says the disc could potentially hold up to 10 terabytes.

    Min Gu, a team member, said they were able to show how nanostructured material can be incorporated onto a disc in order to increase data capacity, without increasing the physical size of the disc.

    "These extra dimensions are the key to creating ultra-high capacity discs," he said.

  • Demand For Web-Enabled TVs Surging, CEA Finds


    TV makers have been quick to recognise consumer appetite for connected TVs – and their ability to act as a differentiator in a crowded market.

    Rightly so as new research shows that nearly half of prospective TV buyers in the US intend to purchase an Internet-ready TV in the next year.

    Now a study by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has confirmed the growing interest, with 14.5 million consumers likely to purchase an Internet-connected TV in the next year.

    Shawn DuBravac, CEA economist and director of research, said consumers want more from their TV experience and marrying traditional television with Internet access is providing the next frontier of the television experience.

    "Consumers are already using the Internet while they watch TV," he said.

    "The next frontier is to create a seamless experience bringing the two together."

    Uses consumers gave for connected TVs include:

    • 48 per cent would find out about upcoming shows and identify a song that played during the show
    • 44 per cent would find out more about the actors
    • The top benefits of connected TVs, according to the study, are anytime-access to content and accessing the Web and TV broadcasts simultaneously.
    • The activities most likely to be converted from the PC to a connected TV include: watching online video (62 per cent), checking the weather (59 per cent) and playing online games (57 per cent).