Every week, MEF Minute scours the web for the most eye-catching industry data so you don’t have to. In today’s section we look at sales and projections for mobile video, smartphones, India, wearables and more…
27 per cent of Android owners switched to iOS across Europe’s big five markets last quarter
Android is losing market share to iOS across Europe’s big five markets, says new smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
It reports that for the three months ending July 2015 the platform lost ground in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.
The firm reckons market maturity is the key. It says only 25 per cent of smartphones sold went to first-time buyers versus 29 per cent for the same period in 2014.
This increased the amount of churn from Google’s platform to Apple’s. In all, 27 per cent of smartphone buyers switched. But it didn’t happen in the US, with only nine per cent switching.
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China will have 420 million mobile gamers by the end of this year
China’s mobile gaming market is set to become the biggest in the world, says Niko Partners.
Its new study says gaming revenue in 2015 will be around $5.5 billion – up 66 per cent on 2014. That means the region accounts for just under 20 per cent of the $3o billion global mobile gaming market.
China is expected to have over 420 million mobile gamers by the end of 2015, with average revenue per player (ARPU) at $13.10. That compares with a US ARPU of $27.27.
Of course, the Chinese market is different from most others. Much activity happens on WeChat app and there’s loads of casino play (even thought it’s illegal).
The report concludes that that the Chinese market will generate around $11.1 billion by 2019.
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Cross-platform and mobile ad market to quadruple to $80.45 billion by 2020
The transition of marketing dollars from traditional media to mobile is nowhere near done yet.
A new study by MarketsandMarkets reckons the cross-platform and mobile ad market will grow from 25.19 billion in 2015 to 80.45 billion USD in five years’ time.
It defines the market as a subset of online advertising, and suggests that the emergence of 3G and 4G connectivity has has created huge opportunities for multiscreen advertisement.
Hence the rush of startups into the space in areas such as: advertisement campaign solutions, content delivery, integration solutions, reporting and analytics, mobile proximity and more.
And then there are the different media available such as search, SMS, MMS, P2P, video and so on.
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Apple leads the US OEM smartphone market with 44.2 per cent
New ComScore stats suggest Apple is still the top dog in its domestic market. The comScore MobiLens ranked Apple the top smartphone manufacturer with a 44.2 per cent market share.
The report says 191.4 million people in the US now own a smartphone (77.1 per cent). After Apple comes Samsung with 27.3 per cent, LG with 8.7 per cent, Motorola with 4.9 per cent and HTC with 3.5 percent.
However, in terms of platform, iOS lags Android, which has a 51.4 per cent market share. In third place comes WinPho with a measly 2.9 per cent, and BlackBerry with 1.3 per cent.
In terms of apps, Facebook ranks as the top smartphone product. 73.3 per cent of the app audience have installed it.
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Mobile video delivery market will hit $13.4 billion by 2020
Everyone’s watching video on smartphones these days, so it’s hardly surprising that the companies powering the habit are growing out of sight.
According to a new report from MarketsandMarkets, The mobile content delivery network (CDN) market is set to boom from $2.11 billion in 2015 to $13.40 billion in 2020.
Mobile CDN comprises all the tech wizardry needed to make rich media work on 3G or LTE networks: optimising the stream, encrypting, managing latency, reporting and so on.
The report says the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region will grow especially fast because of the rise of devices and networks and the few established players in countries such as China, India, and Australia.
Read more…
Fitbit beats Apple Watch to top spot in global wearables market
More people are buying Fitbits than Apple Watches – just. New stats from the IDC Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker says Fitbit sold 4.4m in 2Q against Apple’s 3.6m.
Total shipment volume for the quarter was 18.1 million units, up a huge 223.2 per cent from the 5.6 million units shipped in 2Q14.
Of course, that’s almost entirely due to the impact of the Apple Watch launch and its halo effect on the rest of the market. IDC says about two of every three smart wearables shipped in the quarter was an Apple Watch. It also expects ‘basic wearables’ like Fitbit to decline as a category over the next few years.
Third behind Apple and Fitbit is Xiaomi, which has had success with Mi Band. Along way behind these three are Garmin and Samsung.
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India’s mobile subscriber base is tantalisingly close to one billion
There are 980.81 million mobile subscribers in India, says the country’s telco regulator.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s latest report confirms that the user base rose 6.71 per cent YoY growth to 980.81 million users in Q2 2015.
It could take a while to hit one billion as growth is very slow now. The same stats show that quarterly growth in Q2 was just 1.11 per cent. Only 10.92 million new users bought their first mobile phone during the quarter.
Among carriers, Bharti Airtel is the leader with 23.52 per cent of the market. Vodafone and Idea are second and third, with a combined 35 per cent market share.
Read more…
One in three Brits expects to use mobile payments in five years
New stats from Lloyds say 34 per cent of British bank customers expect to make in-store mobile payments by 2020.
It’s a pretty significant jump, given the almost total lack of activity today (apart from some Apple Pay activity in the odd proprietary service like Starbucks).
Meanwhile, 27 per cent think they will make payments using wearable devices such as watches or wrist bands in ten years time.
These progressive consumers may well be the ones leading the charge against the use of cash. Indeed, Lloyds found a quarter of respondents expect to no longer use coins and notes at all in five years time.
That said, we won’t see the end of ‘traditional’ means to exchange. The research revealed 63 per cent will still be using credit and debit cards, and 52 per cent will use cash as day-to-day methods of payments by 2025.
