Tag: survey

  • Survey: Website or App for e-Commerce? Depends on Your Nationality

    Survey: Website or App for e-Commerce? Depends on Your Nationality

    mobile-shopping1

    Different nationalities have different preferences in their method of online shopping – website/mobile site vs. mobile application, according to a survey conducted by OHT-Mobile.

    The survey, conducted in February 2015, was jointly carried out with Google Consumer Surveys based on a representative sample of 800 respondents – 100 each from the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan.

    58% of all respondents worldwide answered that they prefer shopping using a website. In Canada 67% still prefer to shop using a website or mobile site but in the UK, only 49% express the same preference.

    In Germany, more than half (51%) responded that they prefer either an app or have no preference – meaning that those who prefer to shop on websites (44%) are in the minority.

    The full results are as follows:

    • USA (65% prefer web or mobile site; 21% app; 10% no preference)
    • Canada (67%; 15%; 13%)
    • UK (49%; 23%; 23%)
    • Australia (58%, 11%, 29%)
    • Germany (44%; 22%; 29%)
    • Italy (61%; 16%; 21%)
    • Netherlands (62%; 14%; 22%)
    • Japan (56%; 16%; 23%)

    “The preference for shopping on websites is still strong, but there is a growing trend for app shopping. What’s more is that we are seeing variation between nationalities,” said Ofer Shoshan, CEO of One Hour Translation. “Online retailers should be aware of the different preferences of the audience in each region and be sure to localize their mobile sites and applications to suit accordingly.”

    The survey results follow similar results of a One Hour Translation survey completed in Q4 of 2014 with 2,000 participants from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and Canada. According to that survey, 83% of Italians prefer to buy goods and services online in their native language, compared with 80% of Germans, 65% of the Dutch, 74% of the Canadians, and no less than 90% of Japanese people.

    Image: Jason Howie

  • Survey Reveals Mobile Users Prefer Voice Over IP

    A study conducted by BroadSoft revealed greater than 2/3 of mobile device users showed a preference for voice over IP or UC services and regarded it the most worthwhile application. BroadSoft surveyed 700 people who work in assorted industries located in Sweden, Spain, and in the United States.

    The primary issue users had with communication was lack of speed at 78%. The next two issues were finding and contacting a person (68%) and email problems (58%). Other issues users experienced included travel interruptions, internal meetings, and telecom problems.

    The survey found that users of voice over IP preferred internet collaboration, instant messaging, and mobile incorporation. Leslie Ferry, vice president of marketing for BroadSoft concluded operators of mobile devices are in a better position to make their investments earn them the most profit quicker in LTE networks and they can furnish users with excellent service business users need regardless of location and device. This is because of the greater revenue produced by each user through UC services.

    A white paper issued by BroadSoft indicated there are still professional employees who communicate with smartphones and laptops more than desktop computers. Other professional employees still communicate with desktops and standard telephones perhaps because of limited finances. Desktop computers are among the most used deice for communication proceeding laptops and office telephones. Desk tops and office phones tied as a commonly used communication device for the health industry.

    Other studies and BroadSoft agreed with other studies that observed the developing enterprise adaptation of UC services. The study also concluded that a lack of UC applications may cause a 'production gap' amid employees onsite and mobile device users of nearly 2.5 hours weekly. The trend of voice over IP and other UC services will proceed to expand as employees continue to take their mobile devices to work and more services for mobile communications are provided by UC vendors. Vendors will need to stay ahead of trends.

  • Mobile Commerce to Greatly Impact Holiday Shopping Season

    IDC today announced the results of a new survey revealing that mobile shopping "warriors" (hyper-connected individuals) and mobile shopping "warrior wannabies" (moderately connected individuals) will account for 28% or $127 billion of the $447 billion the National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts U.S. consumers will spend this holiday season.

    The survey was designed to explore how consumers’ growing comfort with mobile commerce (m-commerce) and social media commerce (sm-commerce) will play out in the 2010 holiday shopping season.

    According to results, m-commerce and sm-commerce are giving consumers greater advantage as they engage retailers on their own terms – even inside the store – within arm’s reach of merchandise at the moment of their buying decision.

    "MSM-commerce introduces a new consumer shopping model which changes how consumers shop, not simply when and where they shop, as e-commerce has already enabled," said Greg Girard, program director, Retail Merchandise Strategies at IDC Retail Insights.

    "It is clear that MSM-commerce already has an influence on consumers’ perception of brand value and their shopping intentions. We believe the retailers with superior mobile and social media commerce strategies in place will have a decided advantage," he added.

    As revealed in the survey, mobile shopping warriors and wannabies represent the vanguard for the new age of m-commerce and, of particular interest, results suggest that the early maturity adult audience is an important part of this vanguard. Adults aged 25 to 44 years comprised nearly two-thirds of the mobile shopping warrior group while they comprised slightly less than half of consumers surveyed. In addition, adults aged 45 to 54 years were the most inclined to use their mobile information advantage; for example, asking for a better price to match one they find on their mobile device while in the store.

    For retailers, the impact of mobile shopping warriors will be significant this holiday season as the survey reveals, across the board, retailers’ m-commerce competence greatly influences consumer perceptions about the brand. Further, an easy-to-use mobile website significantly influences consumers, across all age groups, on where to shop this holiday season.

    Results also suggest that while the influence of social media outlets on buying decisions is growing, retailers continue to serve as the most important source of information on which consumers make their final purchase decisions. As such, retailers who have met the critical need for consumer-generated Web site content and easy-to-use product information will have the advantage this holiday season.

    "Consumers’ increased comfort with using their smartphones to go online anywhere combined with their plans to use them more in the 2010 holiday season signals the beginning of a significant shift away from the capacity of the store channel to hold sway over consumers as they move to a purchase decision," concluded Girard.

  • Survey: 79% of Consumers Have Experienced Poor Voice Quality

    According to a recent survey undertaken by the Customer Experience Foundation (CEF) on behalf of Empirix, 79 percent of consumers have experienced poor voice quality.

    The study asked 3,925 consumers about their experiences in dealing with contact centers and identified technology related trends and common problems that are affecting customer service and costing organizations around the world billions of dollars.

    The high percentage of global consumers that highlighted poor voice quality as a common problem points to a real issue in the industry. The study also revealed that poor voice quality drives down sales volumes, increases call lengths and the number of calls that are forced to be redialed. As a result, churn rates can increase for both customers and staff. The magnitude of the problem is indicative of how much businesses are struggling to come to terms with this issue, while consumers are quickly losing patience.

    "The word most associated in the study by consumers with poor voice quality was stress, which is not a word organizations want associated with their customers’ experiences," said Tim Moynihan, vice president of marketing, Enterprise business unit, Empirix.

    "Nearly half of the consumers who commented also felt that poor voice quality was a sign that companies really didn’t value their business-at a time when ensuring customer loyalty is more important than ever in any industry. When you analyze the problems with the core issue of poor voice quality, it equates to costing the industry billions of dollars, directly impacting the bottom line of organizations across the globe," he said.

    Other key survey findings include:
    ● Consumers say that 42 percent of all call center calls are impacted by poor voice quality.
    ● Thirty percent of consumers who experienced poor voice quality said it happened in more than half of their calls, with 68 percent of those saying they would usually hang up as a result, and if they were calling about a new product or service, they would call a competing company instead.
    ● Twenty-six percent of consumers say they need to redial to complete a transaction.
    ● Only one in six companies said they used specialist tools to manage voice quality, so it is no surprise that 72 percent of the businesses polled said they had frequent voice quality issues for which they could not identify the root causes.
    ● "Stress" is the most commonly used word when consumers were asked to explain how they felt after a poor voice quality call was completed.
    ● Case studies show that consumers are often forced to repeat themselves on calls as a result of poor voice quality.

    "Consumers are quickly losing patience with companies that suffer from poor voice quality-truth is, it’s a consumer’s market; they have choices in today’s market," said Professor Morris Pentel, chairman at Customer Experience Foundation.

    "Consumers are having major issues that they will not tolerate, which has obvious ramifications for businesses. Customer and agent churn will increase if they are unable to communicate with each other, not to mention the loss of new business opportunities, such as upsells or new products and offerings. Organizations with a reputation for poor customer service are simply pushing their customers toward their competitors, which impacts market share and the bottom line."

    The survey had more than 5,140 responses online and by telephone, which came from call center and IT Professionals in the U.S., UK, France and Germany, as well as 3,925 consumers.

  • Consumer Interest in Smartphones Catapulted to Unprecedented Levels

    ChangeWave‘s latest smart phone survey of 4,028 consumers shows an explosive transformation occurring in consumer demand – resulting in some major new winners and losers for second half 2010.

    The survey – completed June 24th – took a close-up look at consumer demand for the new Apple iPhone 4 and the HTC Droid Incredible, along with the impact these and other offerings are having on the rest of the smart phone industry.

    According to the report, consumer smart phone planned buying going forward is at an all-time high for a ChangeWave survey – with 16.4% of respondents in their latest survey saying they plan on buying a smart phone in the next 90 days.

    ChangeWave note that overall buying plans going forward are significantly higher than they were a year ago at the start of the iPhone 3GS release.

    Smart Phone Market Share

    At the individual manufacturers’ level, the survey findings show a major leap forward for Apple and HTC at the expense of RIM and Motorola.

    In terms of current share, Apple (34%) is up 1-pt since our March survey to an all-time high while RIM (34%) has taken another hit – dropping 4-pts in the past 90 days.

    According to ChangeWave, Android phones continue to have a major impact on the market, with HTC (8%; up 2-pts) and its new Droid Incredible and EVO models the biggest beneficiary. Motorola (6%), who in recent surveys had registered a wave of new demand for their Droid model, remains unchanged in the current survey.

    “But it’s when we look at future buying plans that the huge moves upward for Apple and HTC become most apparent. The new Apple iPhone 4 is driving much of the industry’s growth going forward, with more than one-in-two (52%) respondents who plan to buy a smart phone in the next 90 days saying they’ll get an Apple iPhone – an explosive 21-pt leap over our previous survey,” say the survey authors.

    HTC (19%) also shows a huge improvement going forward – registering a 7-pt jump in terms of future buying plans. On the other hand, Motorola (9%) has declined 7-pts since previously.

    The analysts say that the biggest loser of all in the current survey is RIM (6%), which has registered an 8-pt drop to its lowest level ever in a ChangeWave survey.

    Palm has also been buried in the wave of momentum for Apple and HTC. For the first time in a ChangeWave survey, Palm is registering less than 1% of planned smart phone purchases going forward.

    “The combined momentum of these latest Apple and HTC offerings has catapulted consumer interest in smart phones to unprecedented levels – with consumer planned buying now at an all-time high for a ChangeWave survey,” as the report says.

    “Importantly, the momentum for Apple and HTC is occurring at the expense of other smart phone manufacturers – Motorola and Research in Motion in particular,” the analysts conclude.

    Related articles
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    iPhone 4 is Here
    Gartner: Worldwide Smarpthone Sales Grew 49% in Q1 2010

  • AFCOM Survey: Most Data Centers Not Ready for Cyberattack

    Significant findings of AFCOM’s 2009/2010 Data Center Trends survey reveal that though threat of cyber terrorism is real, it is not being adequately addressed by the world’s keepers of the most confidential financial, military and personal data.

    Survey also reveals that despite hype around cloud computing, only 14.9 percent of data centers have deployed cloud solutions to date – and it shines a new light on the fate of mainframes.

    In addition, it reveals the government is behind its private industry counterparts in terms of greening initiatives.

    Meanwhile, it shows that the mainframe may be losing its place in worldwide data centers, as servers become more capable.

    And cloud computing, despite the hype, hasn’t pushed beyond 15 percent acceptance at this point. In comparison, 73 percent have implemented virtual processing.

    Data center greening

    The survey re-iterates that greening of the data center is no longer just a concept – it is actually taking place, and on a large scale, with 71.3 percent of all respondents indicating they are actively engaged in greening initiatives at this time.

    And while 71.3 percent are, in fact, engaged in greening, only 42.2 percent have a “formal” greening initiative.

    According to respondents, the most important results they have experienced as a result of implementing green measures are in power efficiency, 60.8 percent report they are using less power and 51.4 percent have implement cooling efficiency strategies. In addition to power and cooling efficiencies, 11.5 percent also report a significant savings in water usage.

    Data centers & cyber terrorism

    Data center professionals must be well-equipped to handle and respond to cyber terrorist attacks, but according to AFCOM’s survey, there’s considerable room for improvement.

    Respondents revealed that 60.9 percent of all data centers worldwide officially recognize cyber terrorism as a threat they need to deal with, but only a little over one-third (34.4 percent) have included it in their disaster/recovery plans, which would include their best defense plans if attacked.

    Only one in four, or 24.8 percent, has addressed cyber terrorism in their policies and procedures manuals and only 60.2 percent have a written policies and procedures manual.

    Meanwhile, less than one in five, or 19.7 percent provide any cyber terrorism employee training. On the positive side, however, 82.4 percent report that they do perform background security checks on all potential new employees, another solid defense against cyber terrorists.

    Data center consolidation

    As the economy suffers, more companies have traditionally looked to consolidation as a method of saving money. The economic downturn we are experiencing today is no exception, with 62.1 percent of all respondents either already in the process of consolidating one or more data centers, or seriously considering it.

    More than half of respondents (52.1 percent) plan to relocate their newly consolidated data center to another existing facility, or build an entirely new one to accommodate the additional requirements.

    Emerging technologies

    According to the survey, the technologies with the highest levels of adoption in today’s data centers are: virtual processing, implemented by 72.9 percent of all respondents, Web applications (70.4 percent), automation (54.8 percent) cluster computing (50. percent), and cloud computing (14.9 percent).

    Surprisingly, in addition to the slim 14.9 percent who utilize cloud computing, this technology has been considered by an additional 46.3 percent, but never implemented.

    “Our analysis shows that data center managers need to develop more comprehensive cyber terrorism policies, and get more aggressive in greening, particularly in government agencies where greening lags behind private industry. Finally, it’s time to decide where the mainframe is still viable and needed, and where high-end servers can do a more efficient job,” said Jill Eckhaus, CEO of AFCOM.

    AFCOM is the data center association that represents both the IT and facilities side of the data center. Respondents, part of AFCOM’s 4,500 member data center sites, represent 27 countries, 83 percent in the U.S. and 17 percent overseas; 60 percent are responsible for Information Technology, 31 percent Facilities and 9 percent represent other roles in the data center

    AFCOM 2010 Data Center World will take place March 7-10, 2010 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, TN.

  • Transformational Impact of Server Virtualization on IT Infrastructure

    A recent IDC survey investigating server virtualization deployments in various organizations reveals that the technology is transforming server, storage, and networking infrastructure and even more so the way their datacenters are and will be built and managed.

    "The accelerated adoption of virtualization is making the technology a crucial factor, changing buying behavior and deployments of customers throughout Europe," said Nathaniel Martinez, program director for IDC’s European Enterprise Servers group.

    According to him, customers are not only rapidly exploiting new and emerging virtualization functions such as high availability and VM mobility, they are also slowly adapting their infrastructure to virtualization requirements.

    “This in turn drives the acquisition of richer configured servers, expansion in fiber channel SANs, increased spending on iSCSI-based storage, and a boost in NAS adoption in large hosting environments," Martinez added.

    The survey also suggests that many users are pushing their virtual server environments to the limits, which is causing several problems, such as virtual server sprawl and storage I/O bottlenecks.

    22% of all survey respondents claim to have had I/O problems within the past six months and this number jumps to 40% of respondents that fit into the early adopter category.

    "Costs are obviously an important factor, but many storage administrators are looking for ways to ensure that storage supporting virtual server environments can meet current and future performance needs," said Eric Sheppard, program director for IDC’s European Storage service.

    The study, Status of x86 virtualization in European Organizations is based on a survey conducted among current server virtualization users in the U.K., Germany, and France.

  • Fixed-Line VoIP Service as a Mainstay of IMS Deployments

    Communications market research firm Infonetics Research released results from its IMS Plans: Global Service Provider Survey, published last week as part of its Service Provider VoIP and IMS Continuous Research Service.

    The survey provides a strategic overview of service provider IMS network plans, service offerings, core product features and capabilities, drivers and barriers to deploying IMS, and ratings of 10 IMS vendors: Acme Packet, Alcatel-Lucent, BroadSoft, Cisco, Ericsson, HP, Huawei, Nokia Siemens Networks, Sonus, and ZTE.

    The research shows that the IMS market is advancing from early-stage services to the next phase. According to Diane Mayers, Infonetics’ Directing Analyst for Service Provider VoIP and IMS, the two most important indicators are:
    • the higher number of service providers planning to offer services beyond fixed-line voice—such as video and mobile services—by 2011;
    • the shift in IMS deployment drivers, which include the opportunity to offer converged services, deploy new applications and services, and consolidate networks.

    80% of Infonetics’ service provider respondents run fixed voice over IMS today or will by 2011, making fixed-line VoIP service the current mainstay of IMS deployments.

    More than half of the service provider respondents plan to deploy video telephony and converged mobile/fixed-line services over the next 12–18 months.

    The report also unveils that the top three IMS applications operators expect to offer over the next two years are mobile-related: FMC, mobile presence, and mobile messaging.

    "On the vendor front, Ericsson continues to be the leading IMS vendor, but Huawei has made the most progress in terms of deployments and vendor perceptions. Huawei poses a credible and serious threat to Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nokia Siemens based on the number of providers with Huawei IMS products under evaluation, and overall perception of Huawei across a broad set of criteria," said Myers.

  • US HDTV Ownership Shoots Up


    A third (33.3%) of US households now have HDTVs, up from 19.3% a year ago, according to a Nielsen survey.

    However, only 28.8% of all US homes received HD programming as of February 2009.

    In January, In-Stat reported that more than 39 million US households have an HDTV set yet 43% – or 17 million – either don’t have or don’t watch HD content.

    The Nielsen findings also showed that the average household has 2.6 sets (2.0 SD sets; 0.5 HD).

    Among homes with HDTVs, the average is 3.0 sets (1.4 HD; 1.6 SD).

    Steve McGowan, Nielsen’s SVP of client research initiatives, said in a blog post the results showed that not since color TV was introduced more than 50 years ago has a new TV technology been so rapidly adopted.

    "And despite the recession, Americans seem willing to continue to spend their hard-earned money on this new technology," he said.

    Other Nielsen findings include:

    • HD penetration was greatest among Asian homes (41.8%) followed by white (34.3%), Hispanic (32.0%) and African-American homes (25.9%)
    • 62.7% of all HD sets in the U.S. were located in common areas
    • More than 75% of all tuning on HD sets happened in living rooms or other common areas
    • A higher percentage of HD sets (30.6%) were attached to video game consoles than were SD sets (19.9%)
  • Green Datacenter Regulations Concern For Corporate Strategies


    Senior datacentre professionals in Europe are increasingly concerned about the potential impact of green regulations on corporate datacenters, according to a survey.

    A similar study carried out in the US found that significant shifts have occurred over the past 12 months in datacenter strategies – but concern for regulation is a major driver in 2009.

    The findings in Europe and the US came from two studies carried out on behalf of datacentre provider Digital Realty Trust.

    In Europe, the independent survey of senior datacentre professionals revealed heightened concerns about government regulation in the datacentre industry.

    Nearly 70 per cent of companies surveyed reported that they are extremely concerned or very concerned with the potential impact of Green regulations on data centres.

    Jim Smith, CTO of Digital Realty Trust, said the survey clearly showed a high level of concern about the impact of Green regulations on datacentre facilities.

    "While the new Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) regulations in the EU address a number of questions about the new rules, new concerns about how companies will achieve compliance have arisen," he said.

    "That uncertainty is reflected in these results in terms of how the new rules will impact operations, finance and customer relations."

    Those taking part in the survey were restricted to a minimum of director level in IT, MIS, IS or finance and they needed to represent companies with either EURO 500M or GBP 500M annual revenues or 2,500 plus employees.

    They also had to be responsible for managing a datacentre, implementing a new datacentre, executing contracts for a new datacentre or expanding existing datacentres. The survey was concluded at the end of March by Campos Research.

    Other findings from the European study include:

    • 60 per cent of surveyed companies now have Green datacentre strategies in place
    • Over half (57 per cent) felt there was now a clear definition of what constitutes a Green datacentre
    • Energy efficiency is viewed as the key criteria for a Green datacentre
    • While many mention a Green strategy as a factor in choosing a datacentre provider, no company emerges as a Green leader in the survey
    • Among companies that have a Green datacentre strategy, the qualities they are looking for in datacentre providers include:                           –

                               – Knowledge of current regulations and emerging Green standards

                               – Experience building facilities with LEED or BREEAM certification
                               – The ability to meet ISO 14001 and Green Grid standards
    • More than half (55%) would reject a provider with no Green strategy

    While energy efficiency was seen as the dominant characteristic of a Green datacentre, recycled materials, carbon issues and transportation were nearly equally important to those surveyed, who also included targeted cooling, efficient UPS and metering equipment among their "wish list".

    ISO 14001 and Green Grid were thought to be the leading standards for certifying a Green datacentre.

    Companies who have already adopted a Green strategy said that the most important goal of their strategy was in reducing energy costs, but other benefits including climate change, customer image, cost of compliance and updating datacentres were also important.

    Despite the challenges facing the global economy, 58 per cent of respondents had increased their focus on Green initiatives and 69 percent revealed that carbon credits were part of their strategy.

    The US study showed that concern for regulation is a major driver for green datacenter efforts in 2009.

    The survey indicates that significant shifts have occurred over the past 12 months in corporate green datacenter strategies.

    It, too, was based on a detailed survey of senior decision makers at large US corporations who are responsible for their companies’ datacenter and green IT strategies.

    Smith said that what dominated last year’s study was the need for clearer standards and best practices for green datacenters.

    "There has been significant progress in that area over the past year, including the publication of green datacenter case studies by industry leaders, the development of green building standards specifically for datacenters, and widespread efforts to educate datacenter professionals on the practical application of that information," he said.

    "We’re not there yet, but progress has been made, which is reflected in this survey.

    "By contrast, what dominates this year’s study is companies’ concerns about potential government regulation and how that would impact datacenter operations."

    Key findings of the US study include:

    • 69 per cent of survey participants said they were extremely or very concerned about government regulation.
    • 81 per cent of survey participants said that carbon credits are now part of their green IT strategy – compared to only 18 per cent in 2008.
    • 53 per cent said that the industry now has a clear definition of what makes a datacenter green, compared to 82 percent in the 2008 survey who said that there was no clear definition.
    • 73 per cent of survey participants identified "energy efficiency" as the key aspect of a green datacenter.

    Smith said that concerns about potential regulations are driving companies to look closely at their datacenters and accelerate the process of implementing green initiatives to increase energy efficiency.

    "We applaud these green datacenter initiatives because they result in lower power usage and lower costs, even when companies take very basic steps toward designing and operating their datacenters in a greener fashion," he said.

    "However, it is important to note that some of the concerns about government regulation may not be warranted, given the good faith efforts that government agencies such as the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency are making to work with the industry and advocacy groups like The Green Grid to spur self-management of this issue.

    "We believe that collaboration between the government and datacenter professionals is the most effective approach to addressing datacenter energy efficiency."