Digital Trends
Market research firm ABI Research surveyed 235 smartphone users who installed applications on their phones during 2008, and the report packs some surprises in terms of how much money some of those users spend. Overall, ABI found that some 17 percent of smartphone owners spent nearly $100 on applications, and a whopping 16.5 percent spent between $100 and $499 on smartphone applications. At that point, the cost of the applications can easily meet (or exceed) the cost of the phone itself.
Market analysis firm ABI Research has publishd a new study, “Mobile Internet Devices and UMPCs,” which takes a look at the market potential of ultra-mobile PCs (UMPCs) which primarily target business and enterprise users, and so-called “mobile Internet devices” which primarily target consumers. Their forecast? The market is set to explode over the next five years, with ABI forecasting nearly 95 million of these “ultra-mobile devices”—UMDs— will have shipped by 2012.
“UMDs are a very exciting, potentially very lucrative area,” says ABI Research VP Stan Schatt. “What makes this market so intriguing is that products will assume so many different forms. That product differentiation will be an integral part of the ultra mobile device marketing plan.”
Is it getting easier to find wireless Internet hotspots worldwide? That seems to be the case, at least according to results of a new survey announced today by ABI Research.
This survey, according to ABI Research, revealed that this year worldwide Wi-Fi hotspots will grow by nearly 25%, to 179,500. Almost three-quarters of these hotspots are found in Europe and North America. In Asia, meanwhile, growth in China is slower than thought, though the rest of the region will come close to matching the number of North American hotspots by 2012. Europe, for its part, is the current leader with over 70,000 hotspots.
A new report from ABI Research predicts the worldwide market for over-the-air mobile music downloads will grow from over $250 million in 2005 to $9.3 billion in 2011.
Today, we see only a few handsets that support Wi-Fi. Barriers exist, but when they are overcome, both mobile operators and consumers will reap the rewards.
The high cost of the chipset is one inhibitor. But according to ABI Research, that cost will drop to around US$6.00 by the end of 2004.
Designers face challenges when building these chipsets into cellular phones, both in the shrinking physical form factor of the handset, and in light of signal interference.
Phil Solis, an ABI Research senior analyst, adds another difficulty: VoWi-Fi uses more power. But Wi-Fi IC vendors such as Texas Instruments are successfully working to decrease power consumption.
From ABI Research’s press release:
Portable entertainment changed forever in 1979 when the Sony Walkman hit the market. It spawned an industry, and made personal mobile listening possible.
Today’s equivalent is the MP3 player. But where’s the music, and how do you get it? It’s on the Internet, and you need a computer to buy it and transfer it to your player. That’s a step backwards, away from the joy of truly portable procurement and listening.
“Today’s so-called portables,” says Vamsi Sistla, director of residential entertainment at ABI Research, “are still tied by an umbilical cord to the computer and a broadband connection. The industry should address these shortcomings.”
From ABI Research’s press release:
The latest edition of ABI Research’s “Wi-Fi Quarterly Service” shows solid second quarter growth across the bundle of wireless networking technologies collectively known as Wi-Fi.
According to Phil Solis, senior analyst at ABI Research, this quarter-to-quarter market growth is being driven by different factors in the consumer/SOHO space and in the enterprise. In the former, he says, “broadband adoption, and its accompanying purchases of access points and adaptors, have been boosting consumer spending. And there’s still plenty of room for more.”
From ABI Research’s press release:
Wireless LAN switch vendors once promoted their solutions as ways to centralize management of wireless LAN, to manage security, spectrum, access points and users. More recently, they have reinvented themselves as purveyors of VoWi-Fi platforms, according to ABI Research Senior Analyst, Phil Solis. “Using these vendors’ technologies,” he says, “you can allow users to connect automatically to access points experiencing lower traffic.” Such solutions also help users achieve various kinds of Quality of Service. As users move from place to place, they can also better enable handoffs and roaming, by pre-authenticating them on the next access point. “In one sense it’s an opportunity for such switch vendors to differentiate themselves,” adds Solis, “but so many of them are now taking up this opportunity that the question really becomes, ‘who does it better?’”
From the ABI Research press release:
The shape of the “digital home” of the near future is becoming steadily clearer, according to the latest “The US Digital Home Enterprise: Connected Home Automation” report from ABI Research.
Traditionally the prerogative of the successful hip-hop producer or sports star, home automation
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