Verizon NFL Mobile, Sprint Navigator, and Vodafone’s MusicStation among popular mobile content services

Almost 50% of U.S. mobile phone users pay for mobile Internet access, and the popularity of mobile data services will continue to grow revenues for carriers. Percentages of paying consumers are even higher for smartphone owners: 95% pay for SMS, 92% pay for Internet access, 83% pay for mobile email, 63% pay for mobile navigation, and 43% pay for mobile video.

In Mobile Data: Analysis and Forecasts, Parks Associates analysts forecast mobile data services, including messaging, Internet, apps, entertainment services, and machine-to-machine (M2M), will generate $500 billion in global revenues for mobile carriers in 2015, up from $204 billion in 2010.

Popular mobile content services include Verizon NFL Mobile, Sprint Navigator, China Mobile’s mobile newspaper service, and Vodafone’s MusicStation service. Carriers will derive most data revenues from access services, and content services, including mobile music, videos, games, ringtones, apps, and navigation, will supplement mobile access data services.

Global mobile carriers are poised to take advantage of consumers’ strong appetite for communications, information, and entertainment content on their mobile devices, but they must adapt to maximize these revenues in this hypercompetitive market.

Carriers must compete with their traditional peers as well as content owners, developers, and distributors, who can circumvent a carrier's ecosystem to offer content or services through app stores or on the mobile Internet. The old walled garden is porous due to disruptive forces such as Apple’s integrated business model. To stay relevant and dominant, carriers must focus on making their networks the most attractive option for content delivery and distribution.

3 Reasons why Home Technology Integration is about to Ignite

We live in an “always on” world where we expect our Smartphones to provide us with media content, email, social media, and any other information on demand. It is time we realize that we can now expect the same functionality that we get on that 4.3” screen of our Smartphone from the 46” HDTV in our living room, the laptop or all-in-one PC in the kitchen, and even from the tablet we use sitting out on the patio enjoying nature.

The technology is here! What are you waiting for? The time is now everyone! Integrate that technology you love and surround yourself within your homes so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy a rich new Integrated World.

Today we are literally standing on the brink of significant changes in the way we interact with the technology that surrounds us in our homes.The general population is ready for Home System Integration, the manufacturers recognize this, and the solution now becomes to educate the consumer on what his or her options are.

1. Streaming Internet Media

While streaming media has been going on for years now, there is suddenly a huge upsurge in popularity with the general public. Further building up the excitement and the market are Netflix and Hulu with new deals coming out practically weekly between them and the movie companies. There is no question that the world is paying attention to streaming media; from the consumer, to the device manufacturers, to even the film studios.

2. Hardware Advances

The technology is here that enables you to record, store, share, and stream your media content from just about anywhere, to just about anywhere! Best of all…it is fairly inexpensive and getting cheaper! Plus, the networking technology to move that media content across your network via Gigabit speeds or over wireless is here also. Now, everything is in place for...

3. Public Awareness

Finally, we come to the key part of the equation, the fuel that will ignite the Home Technology Industry ablaze: Public Awareness! It’s easy to see that people are becoming more aware of some of the options they have when it comes to scenarios like having the freedom to watch what they want, when they want, and literally WHERE they want. As public awareness becomes more and more widespread, the momentum of Home Technology Integration will increase exponentially to keep up with the demand.

The technology is here! What are you waiting for? The time is now everyone! Integrate that technology you love and surround yourself within your homes so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy a rich new Integrated World.

--- Content submitted from Home Toys ---

Mobile carriers must focus on data services as smartphone sales exceed 215 million units in 2010

Mobile operators have to diversify their business plans, according to a new Parks Associates report, which finds voice ARPU declining by as much as 30% in some areas, while annual smartphone sales will exceed 215 million units in 2010, creating new opportunities for data services.

Mobile operators are looking to their data-based services for revenue generation and to offset losses in voice revenues. In North America, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and Rogers Wireless have started data-based initiatives including subsidization of smartphone handsets, branded mobile-app storefronts, wholesale connectivity to connected CE, and network upgrades. In Western Europe, Vodafone continues to push its mobile broadband offerings and recently launched a new suite of Internet services for mobile devices. These are all key monetization strategies as the market shifts away from voice services.

Mobile Services: Global Outlook (Second Edition), the new report finds voice ARPU in North America will decline by almost 30% from 2009 to 2014. Over the same timeframe, it will decline by 27% in Western Europe and 25% in Asia-Pacific.

Regulatory changes, increasing competition, and the struggle to attract and retain high-value subscribers conspired to drive down voice ARPU and revenues. In contrast, global smartphone shipments experienced a 32% year-over-year increase from 2008 to 2009, and they account for 16% of worldwide mobile phone shipments, compared with 11% in 2008.

For more information, visit http://www.parksassociates.com/mobile .

Smartphones + Tablets Most Popular Consumer Electronic Products as Holiday Season Approaches

Parks Associates reports consumer electronics buying in the U.S. rebounded in the first half of 2010, with 63% of broadband households making at least one purchase, a rate 6% higher than in the first half of 2009.

Smartphones promise to be the highest selling product through the end of the year, fueled by both repeat and first-time purchases. Twenty-one percent of broadband households intend to purchase a smartphone by year’s end, according to the report Consumer Decision Process: 1H 2010 and 2010 Summer Update. Of those intending to purchase a new smartphone in the next four months, 28% report an iPhone preference, 23% want a Blackberry, and 20% want an Android-based phone.

The study found that, on average, buying households purchased 4.3 CE products and spent $1,094 in the first half of 2010. Smartphones were a top purchase across most demographic segments, particularly among younger consumers, and 3-4% of broadband households bought at least one Apple iPad tablet. The study also reveals that standard iPad buyers are typical early adopters – they are younger than 35 with a graduate degree and household income greater than $100,000.

Parks Associates is currently launching 2010 Holiday Intentions, which will provide incidence of product ownership and data on 3Q 2010 purchases and purchase intentions for the 2010 holiday season.

Advertising Analyst speaking at Digital Hollywood Fall

Parks Associates is supporting the 2010 Digital Hollywood Fall in Santa Monica, California.

Heather Way, Research Analyst, Parks Associates will be moderating the session, "Advertising on Tablets and SmartPhones - the Immersive Commerce and Communication Experience" on Thursday, October 21 from 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM.

Digital Hollywood is the premier entertainment and technology conference in the country. For more information about this event, click here.

Is Google TV for real?

There is value in Google's solution (the ability to initiate searches across all kinds of content, including a pay-TV provider's channel lineup), but there are drawbacks. First, will users want to use a keyboard in their TV search experience? (Logitech says that the Harmony software can be downloaded as an app to Android smartphones, so that would be another option.)

Second, without the blessing of the pay-TV providers (DISH Network is the only service provider to work with Google TV), Google's search capabilities would be limited to the provider's program guide information and NOT assets like VoD titles. As the VoD libraries of the service providers grow, search and discovery is going to be more and more important - Joe Ambeault commented that Verizon constantly changes the title art and positioning of its VoD assets to encourage purchases.

Google touts its TV solution as an open platform, but one has to wonder if the pay-TV providers will care. Verizon's approach has been to develop advanced TV features themselves. Let's assume that we start to see more provider-device relationships emerge such as the LG Electronics/Orange deal or Philips Net TVs and TeliaSonera VoD. In this case, could Google TV be useful? Sure, but the question is who controls the user interface and search functionality. I would think the operator would still want that control.

To learn more about Google TV and other topics from the CONNECTIONS 2010 Conference, please subscribe to the Parks Points Newsletter.

HP Scooped Up Palm, Unveiling Ambition in Mobile Internet Device

HP this afternoon announced its purchase of Palm, the battered smartphone company finally finding itself in the hands of a stronger owner. We were never optimistic about Palm's viability in the smartphone business even as it rolled out WebOS in 2009. Today's results validated that the cutting-throat competition in the smartphone market just produced another victim.

It will be interesting to see if HP will continue to support Pre and Pixi, or HP will just make Palm technology as a core component in its portfolio. During the conference call this afternoon, HP executives confirmed that Palm's technology will be applied to platforms other than mobile handsets, but declined to give timeline/roadmap or specific structure of the Palm division within HP.

My immediate reaction to the deal is whether HP will reduce its reliance on Microsoft Windows Mobile and focus more on internal platform development. Of course, HP people declined to comment on that. Let's wait and find out.

After-hour trading has been brisk for Palm shares. Last time I checked, it was traded at $5.90, 20 cents higher than the offer price from HP--does the market believe another bidder will soon emerge?

What will consumers add next to their home networks and life?

A 3D TV? A smartphone? A smart meter?

Digital Lifestyles: Outlook 2010, a new industry report focuses on the consumer, with an emphasis on expanding and enhancing user experiences in communications, entertainment, support, and connectivity.

This report provides analysis, forecasts, and industry and consumer drivers for a variety of digital lifestyle categories including: Access Services, Television Services, Mobile Services and Devices, Digital Media and Gaming, Trends in Consumer Electronics, Digital Home Tech Support, and Home Systems.

Number of smartphones worldwide exceeded 180 million units in 2009

New research from Parks Associates, host of the upcoming executive summit CONNECTIONS™ Europe, indicates that the number of smartphones shipped in 2009 topped 180 million units worldwide, with Nokia, Research in Motion, and Apple sharing 60% of the market. Annual sales will reach almost 400 million by 2014, and as the number of users approaches one billion, consumer demand will grow for mobile broadband services that can share content, particularly high-quality video, across connected devices and the home network.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe, April 27 at the Mövenpick Hotel in Amsterdam, will feature consumer research and analysis on these new service opportunities in the mobile sector in the session “Mobile Video: The Cloud, The App Store & the Connected Home.”

Session speakers:

-- Klaus Milczewsky, Senior Mgr, Deutsche Telekom AG
-- Peter Percosan, CTO, Cable Europe Labs
-- Andy Tiller, Marketing Vice Chair, Femto Forum

In a recent Parks Associates survey on mobile convergence, over one-third of U.S. smartphone users expressed an interest in streaming multimedia content stored on home CE to their mobile device. Service providers will have to adapt their mobile and video strategies to meet the demands of multiple platforms, and the panelists will discuss these challenges, plus the impact of new devices such as the iPad and the HP Slate.

For information or to register for CONNECTIONS™ Europe, visit www.connectionseurope.com.

Number of smartphone users to quadruple, exceeding 1 billion worldwide by 2014

The demand for smartphones is creating a demographic shift among users, who will exceed 1 billion worldwide by 2014, stimulating demand for more entry-level models that offer mainstream solutions such as mobile email and social networking applications, according to Parks Associates’ Smartphone: King of Convergence.

This new report includes consumer data from Parks Associates’ primary study Mobile Convergence: Platforms, Applications, and Services. This consumer survey finds only 30% of current smartphone users are the stereotypical young and tech-savvy aficionados.

The other user segments exhibit more mainstream demographic attributes and more divergent usage patterns. One such segment, dubbed “pragmatists,” consists of budget-conscious, middle-aged users who prefer mobile email service over Internet access. Another group is keen on the smartphone’s communication features, ranging from mobile Internet to social network access.

Smartphone: King of Convergence tracks smartphone sales and market shares and analyzes carrier strategies, new mobile applications and services, and mobile technology trends. Mobile Convergence: Platforms, Applications, and Services is a survey of U.S. mobile consumers about ownership and attitudes regarding mobile devices and services.

For more information, visit http://www.parksassociates.com/mobile.

Parks Associates supports digital health event, Burrill Consumer Digital Health Meeting

Parks Associates is supporting The Burrill Consumer Digital Health Meeting to be held March 22-23rd in Burlingame, CA.

Burrill & Company, in association with the University of Illinois, Mayo Clinic, and Pfizer, is for the first time holding The Burrill Consumer Digital Health Meeting to help prepare the life sciences community for this new era. Learn how PDAs and smartphones will become personal healthcare assistants capable of receiving vital signs and even body fluid samples for analysis and transmittal of results. Wherever patients are in the world, they will be able to connect with their physicians. And their doctors, in turn, will be able to practice medicine virtually anywhere and at anytime, with instant access to the information and systems they need—right at their thumbs. More Info

Mobile technical support offerings - a trend to watch

While the Mobile World Congress was abuzz with smartphones, operating systems, and apps, I was following announcements related more to enhancing mobile support applications. Given the interest in this space expressed to me during some CES meetings, mobile support is an area that we are adding to our digital home tech support coverage.

I would classify the mobile support offerings into three categories:

• Mobile security: These features can include "safe browsing" and anti-theft features (such as remote lock or remote wipe capabilities) if a smartphone gets lost or stolen. Companies such as F-Secure and bsecure are active in this space.
• Mobile device management: This kind of feature is going to be utilized more in the enterprise sector, where IT support for Blackberry devices can be managed more efficiently by delivering services remotely. From personal experience, I know how difficult it can be to reconnect a Blackberry to the office Exchange server after a power outage. With remote device management, the IT professional can actually take control of the handset and facilitate updates and other needed maintenance. Companies such as Motive (Alcatel-Lucent), BOMGAR, LogMeIn, and AetherPal provide solutions in this space.
• Tech support as a value-added service offering: Just as certain landline providers are now rolling out premium tech support services, I would expect mobile operators to also deploy PC care services. This is already happening with companies such as RSUPPORT in Asia. As mobile operators deploy more netbooks, smartbooks, and mobile Internet devices, they will probably want to address remote support for these devices as well.
• Mobile backup: Uploading contacts from a mobile phone to a secure remote storage service is something offered by a number of carriers. As we see continued migration toward smartphones that can store a growing amount of media, I think you'll see mobile backup move to also secure photos, music, and video.

Parks Associates announces CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summit Series for 2010

International research firm Parks Associates will host two CONNECTIONS™ Europe Summits in 2010. The first CONNECTIONS™ Europe of 2010 will be April 27 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. This executive summit will focus on connected consumer electronics and digital media, including analysis of new monetization models and the impact of technologies such as 3D TV and smartphones.

The second CONNECTIONS™ Europe of 2010 will take place in November in Paris, France. Both events will feature Parks Associates’ expert consumer and industry research, with the company’s analysts presenting data from consumer research projects including All Eyes on Video, Consumer Decision Process, Residential Energy Management, and Digital Media Evolution.

Parks Associates projects that by year-end 2013, revenues in major Western European markets from video-on-demand (VOD) – including traditional pay-TV services and online video services – will approach 12 billion Euros.

Early sponsors for CONNECTIONS™ Europe, also members of Parks Associates’ Premier Program, include ActiveVideo Networks and PacketVideo. Visit www.parkspremier.com for more information on the Premier Program.

Parks Associates will start accepting speaker submissions for the April 2010 Summit on January 18, 2010.

Personalization and unique value of smartphones to push global sales to 310 million units in 2013

Consumer demand leads to almost 20% annual growth between 2008 and 2013--

The consumer appetite for smartphones is skyrocketing and will push annual sales worldwide from 131 million units in 2008 to over 300 million by 2013, according to international market research company Parks Associates.

The firm’s new report Mobile Services: Global Outlook finds consumers are attracted to these converged devices because they combine practical and entertainment applications into a mobile platform, which can then be expanded incrementally with new and unique add-ons and applications like Breadcrumbz from the Google Android Market.

Consumers have a personal connection to their phones. Apps like T-Mobile’s Sherpa will learn from its user’s preferences in order to make personalized, location-based recommendations on restaurants and shops. The latest iPhone release is making a strong case for mobile video, and with a little help from the Apple App Store, users can turn their phone into a lightsaber.

Smartphone users worldwide will top 1.1 billion in 2013, creating a lucrative market for mobile carriers and mobile application developers.

The success of the iPhone, Pre, and Blackberry shows the strength of consumer demand for an intelligent, multifunctional device. The appeal of the smartphone will create significant new revenue streams for carriers and developers, who should strive to create new service bundles that build off this mobile platform with converged video, voice, and data applications.

Parks Associates is launching a new consumer study Mobile Convergence: Platforms, Applications, and Services to explore smartphone users’ service and application usage patterns, handset feature and function requirements, and expectations for new mobile content and service experience.

This study will uncover hidden consumer needs and help carriers, handset manufacturers, and application developers identify and quantify business opportunities in this fast-growing market segment.

Mobile Services: Global Outlook is Parks Associates’ latest industry report on global mobile market intelligence. It provides market trends in global carrier subscriber growth and handset sales and analyzes carriers’ voice and data service strategies.


For the full press release, click here.


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Smartphones, Data Plans, New Apps to drive Mobile Advertising Revenues to $1.5 billion in 2013

Revenues for mobile advertising in the U.S. and Canada will grow from $208 million in 2009 to approximately $1.5 billion by 2013, according to the new Parks Associates report Mobile Advertising: Analysis and Forecasts. Adoption of smartphones, 3G network data plans (or newer wireless services), and downloadable applications will spur this growth in ad revenues, with significant increases beginning in 2010.

Parks Associates estimates there were 62 million smartphone users in North America in 2008, with user penetration to reach 239 million in 2013. Parks Associates projects U.S. 3G network data plans will reach 95% penetration by 2013, with Canada achieving 70% penetration.

Mobile advertising is poised to take advantage of opportunities presented by the diffusion of 3G networks and devices such as the smartphone. Advertisers will begin to incorporate mobile into their media campaigns as this medium matures into a viable marketing space.

Way cautions that advertisers could encounter early resistance from consumers. Parks Associates’ Mobile Entertainment (Second Edition) found 38% of respondents do not want to receive mobile ads, while 37% remain neutral to the idea of ads on their mobile phone.

However, teens and young adults are more receptive to ad-supported mobile content, particularly in entertainment genres. Advertisers need to develop innovative ways to reach these consumers.

Mobile Advertising: Analysis and Forecasts examines the current mobile advertising market. It includes a market overview and analyzes effective mobile ad formats and current pricing models. The report examines opportunities driving overall growth and inhibitors threatening continued expansion and includes mobile advertising revenue forecasts through 2013.

For the full press release, click here.

Asus and GARMIN Joined Hands on Smartphone Design

Two well-known Taiwan-based IT companies now collaborate to jump into a new market that already has too many power players. Asus Computer and GARMIN announced yesterday that they will co-develop, co-brand and co-market new smartphones under the name GARMIN-Asus. Their first smartphone is apparently the long-delayed Nuvifone that GARMIN has been trying to launch since 2Q08. Compared with GARMIN, Asus has a better track record. The company had its first PDA in 2001 and introduced its first handset in 2004. Even though its efforts on the handset market couldn’t be described as a success, it has channel relationships with more than 20 carriers, mainly in developing countries in Eastern Europe. This relationship does help the two-parties to share the cost and risk of developing and launching smartphones, as this market has become extremely competitive lately. Despite the combined expertise, GARMIN-Asus still has the formidable job to establish its credentials in the mobile market. I will be very interested in the alliance’s initial target market. Will it go after Asus’ handset channel markets first, or will it try to market the Nuvifone in NA and Western Europe? The alliance will announce the Nuvifone at the Mobile World Congress next week. Hopefully it will address my questions posted here.

Dell Rumored to Enter the Smartphone Race

When I posted my last blog about Android’s market traction, I left out a name: Dell Computer. According to today’s Wall Street Journal, Dell is close to completing the design of an Android-based smartphone. Dell’s spokesperson declined to comment on specifics, saying the company “hasn’t committed to anything.”

Should Dell count on smartphones to revive its sales and brand? The smartphone is a hot product category, but Dell is a newcomer to the mobile phone space. It would have to contend with sluggish consumer spending and fierce competition from category leaders Apple, RIM, and Samsung while at the same time building carrier relationships and retail presence. That series of tasks might be too complex an undertaking for a company in transition. Dell might be able to navigate through it, but there's also the risk that its smartphone will end up with the same mediocre sales figures as its Digital Jukebox (its MP3 player brand) or PDA products.

On the other hand, Dell’s entry into the netbook market is a sound move. This segment is an extension of the mainstream PC market. If Dell can make a netbook as thin as Apple’s latest Macbook, its product could be a resounding success. What could be another product segment with strong growth potential? Has Dell considered designing a digital book reader like Amazon.com’s Kindle? This product category is still evolving, meaning there is plenty of opportunity to improve form factor, function, and ease-of-use. Dell would be able to score better ROI in this product category than with the smartphone.

Smartphone Market Competition Ratcheted Up

There were several news headlines regarding the mobile phone industry in the past couple of days. First, Nokia launched its N97 touch-screen smartphone yesterday and touted as the most revolutionary mobile internet device. Indeed, the specs are quite impressive: 5-megapixel camera, 32GB internal memory, tri-band HSDPA 3G, flash in the browser, and a 3.5-inch touch screen, etc. The price tag is eye-popping too—around $700. Separately, news from the U.K said that T-Mobile UK started to slash the price of the first Android phone G1. It is now not only free to customers who sign up for an 18-month contract with the carrier, but also costing less to a user on a monthly basis: the contract term is reduced from £40 to £30 per month. Consider the fact that G1 was only launched a month ago, the price cutting speed is unprecedented for a hotly pursued model. Then late yesterday afternoon, Research In Motion issued an earning warning for the 3rd quarter ending in November. The company will fall short on both subscriber numbers and the revenue goal, even its CEO described the new Blackberry Storm sales as “exceptional.”

All signs indicate that mobile handset makers have significantly boosted their efforts in the smartphone market. As a result, consumers will see not only more capable/enticing models out this year and the next, but also strong motivation from handset makers and carriers to push inventory through the channels. The hope is on the smartphone category to raise overall mobile handset sales volume, and all the sweeteners might come at the expense of margins from carriers and handset makers. RIM’s miss is a strong indication of the intensity of competition. Not that the Blackberry is no longer cool, but consumers today and in the future will have a lot more choices with an attractive service plan than in the past. This new reality clearly benefits consumers and will help shorten the replacement cycle for those who are in the mood for an upgrade.

G1 is born, Stirring up the Smartphone Pot

Google showed off its new brainchild yesterday: a smartphone design in collaboration with its Android partners, Taiwan’s handset maker HTC, and the wireless carrier T-Mobile USA. The phone specs are all over the place on the Internet. It looks quite attractive but perhaps because of Apple iPhone’s lasting impression, many tech pundits gave only a “pass” grade on its appearance. The biggest design difference between the iPhone and Google’s G1 (BTW, an unimpressive name that sounds like a robot rather than a personal/lifestyle device) is the keyboard. Instead of the virtual touch-screen keyboard on the iPhone, G1 has a sliding, full-size Qwerty keyboard. (Read Stuart’s funny blog here to understand how important an easy-to-use keyboard is to a road-warrior doing quite a bit emailing everyday.)

In Google’s view, the biggest difference is G1’s openness. Andy Rubin, Senior Director of Mobile Platforms for Google, claimed that the phone was "future proof because it has openness built in." I am skeptical that “future-proof” will be the selling-point of G1 in the U.S. In this country, consumers’ replacement cycle for mobile phones is perhaps 18-24 months, similar to their mobile service contract length. Replacement purchases are a good business for handset makers. Making consumers believe their G1s are future-proof is at odds with handset makers’ interest in driving volume growth. “Future-proof” is one of the benefits for being open, but do not alienate yourself from your partners’ interest.

Perhaps Andy’s comment targeted more towards third-party application developers in its Android community than towards consumers, and served as an assurance that even Google and its handset partners move on with G2 or G3 in the future, the open software development environment will still allow G1 owners to benefit from new applications from the developer community. But backward compatibility is virtually the standard in this industry, and “future-proof” does not make Google’s G1 stand tall.

I might take Andy’s words out of context, but I think what he really meant is the promise that the openness of the Android operating system will bring a richer and far better user experience on G1 than any other non-Android smartphones on the market in the future. I will be keenly interested in how successful Google’s strategy will turn out to be in the next year or so. The mobile industry is clearly at the crossroads with the smartphone category sitting right in the eye of the innovation storm. This “future-proof” category (meaning its status as the crown of the digital convergence is well-established) will decide the mobile industry’s direction in the next 10-15 years. The Symbian sect is gradually moving in Android’s direction, but the Blackberry and Apple clans still cling to their proprietary approach. Third-party application developers now have a formidable spokesperson named Google, but will handset makers and carriers ever budge? If they will, who will blink first?

With Android, Google either crashed the party or took over as the new DJ. What a moment!