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Nielsen: Smartphones account for nearly 50 percent of US mobile phones as of February
Nielsen Mobile Insights' latest statistics are in -- and would you look at that. It's the rise of smartphone owners crossing paths with the decline of those still clinging to their feature-focused devices. According to its latest Smartphone Penetration report, as of February 2012, 49.7 percent of US mobile phone owners now sport the "smarter" types (up from only 36 percent a year ago). On a unsurprising note, Nielsen also found that two-thirds of mobile phone buyers in the last three months purchased smartphones over dumbphones. According to its latest report on Smartphone OS shares, of those smartphone purchases, 48 percent of buyers went with Android, 43 percent landed iOS a close second and five percent helped RIM scrape the bottom of the barrel with the remaining four percent listed as "other." That said, it's a only slight deviation from January's numbers, when 51.7 percent of folks went with Android, while 37 percent went for the route leading to Apple. Don't take our word for it, though, there's another graph past the break and full details at the source link below.
Neutrinos can transmit messages through walls, mountains, planets
Neutrinos may not travel as fast as we first hoped, but then they have other special abilities to make up for it. Being almost massless, they can penetrate the thickest barriers, which ought to make them ideal message carriers. To illustrate the point, scientists sent the word "Neutrino" on a beam of particles through 240 meters (800 feet) of solid stone and received it loud and clear on the other side. The same approach could potentially be used to send a message right through the center of a planet, making it possible, according to one of the researchers, to "communicate between any two points on Earth without using satellites or cables." The experiment required the latest particle accelerators at Chicago's Fermilab, which flung the neutrinos over a 2.5 mile track before firing them off at an underground receiver, but it proved the principle: Shrink the accelerator down to the size of a smartphone and neutrino messaging could be huge. Or it could die in a format war with quantum teleportation.
Nielsen: Soon-to-be seniors adopting smartphones faster than any other age group
If your granny recently purchased her very first smartphone, she's not alone. According to the latest Q3 figures from Nielsen, Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 are adopting smartphones at a faster rate than any other age group. Just about 30 percent of all mobile-equipped, soon-to-be seniors now own a smartphone, marking a five percent jump over Q2 of this year. But they still have a long way to go before catching up with the 25-34-year-old population, 62 percent of which wield an intelligent handset -- higher than any other age demographic. Overall smartphone penetration stands at 43 percent across US cellphone owners, with Android (still) leading the way with 43 percent of the OS market, and Apple leading all manufacturers, with a 28 percent share. Check out the full report at the source link below, or head past the break for a more graphic demographic breakdown.
Smartphones and tablets still have a long way to grow
Anyone who believes we're nearing some sort of saturation point with the two hottest device classes of the moment -- smartphones and tablets -- ought to check out this latest data from investment bank RBC Capital Markets. It shows an estimated 394 million people already possess one of these newfangled gadgets, and -- while we don't consider the world's population a relevant metric here -- sets that number up against some other illustrative stats.The most important one for smartphone growth is the tally of mobile subscribers, which stands at just over five billion presently and dwarfs any inroads that smart mobile devices have made to this point. The total of nearly 1.3 billion PCs should also be encouraging for companies seeking a market for their tablets, as it quantifies the sheer volume of computers we use and need. So, next time anyone asks you if it's "too late" for Nokia to right its smartphone strategy or HP to deliver its tablets, you can juice up your negatory response by dropping this statistical knowledge bomb.
ABI Research predicts Blu-ray players in 18% of TV owning households next year
After successfully predicting shocking trends like Blu-ray player prices heading downwards and the PS3's continued install base lead on other players, analysts at ABI Research see 62.5 million Blu-ray players shipping next year. Analyst Mike Inouye sees this as a part of the growth potential of TV-centric devices related to price declines, plus new technology arriving like larger displays, internet access and 3D. With market penetration (in TV owning households) expected to rise from 7% in 2009 to 18% next year, we're wondering what's holding the format back from even more growth. Prices are relatively low now, full featured players are easy to find, and HDTVs are rapidly taking over. Is that other 82% happy with upscaled DVDs, movies on cable or on demand, internet downloading/streaming, or are we just being impatient?
Nielsen finds 53% of homes have HDTVs, but only 46% can receive an HD signal
So close, and yet so far away. The good news from Nielsen's latest Television Audience Report is that it reaffirms a CTAM survey indicating HDTV ownership has finally crossed into the majority (up from just a third a year ago) however there's still a significant number of people out there who can't actually watch HDTV on their new set. Even accounting for the cable cutters who simply choose not to watch pay-TV on their display, that's still a significant number of people not getting everything they can out of their television set. We'd point out that these numbers should mean considerably more focus paid towards the high definition capable viewers but judging by recent events -- it would appear broadcasters and content producers have gotten the message. As the ruling majority, the only question left is what exactly should we do with this power?
The revolution has been televised: Survey reports 53% of U.S. homes with HDTV
Congratulations HDTV owners, you are now in the majority, at least according to the results of the latest Pulse report from Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing. That's a sharp rise over previous stats (33% in February / 23% in November '08 from Nielsen, 34% last fall from Leichtman Research Group) but not totally out of line, given the post DTV switch era we find ourselves in. While that number may still seem a bit high just based on our own anecdotal evidence, a quick look at the purpose of the group and its members bodes well for high definition fans, hopefully the cable companies and channels that make up much of its base take heed to these numbers and ramp up the HD expansion -- we'll keep dreaming the impossible dream of dialed back QAM compression and HD only channel packages.
Nielsen stats find 33% of U.S. households with at least one HDTV
A good six months after the Leichtman Research group published figures pushing HDTV penetration over one third of the U.S., Nielsen's February survey has produced similar numbers, indicating a rise from the 23% it found prior to the holiday season. Whatever the cause for the jump and the discrepancy, there's plenty of numbers to digest, for those into that. Want to know how many televisions (including SD) the average HDTV owner has? 3. There's still a gap between those who have an HDTV, and the 28% actually able watch HDTV broadcasts, assumed to exist not only because of a lack of consumer education, but also that people are unwilling to add to their cable/satellite bill on a monthly basis to tune in to HD. Punch the read link for the full breakdown, we're sure there's an interesting factoid or trend buried in there somewhere.
iPhone and iPod touch continue to dominate smartphone web traffic
Admob has released another monthly survey of smartphone metrics, and Apple continues to look very healthy both in the U.S. and around the world. In website requests, Apple iPhones and iPod touch devices are up 4.2% from the previous month, while Nokia, still the top dog in handsets world wide, is down 3.6%.One other interesting piece of data is that half of the requests for internet data on the iPhone are coming from 3rd party apps, telling us the impact those apps are having. Apps like sports scores, news and weather apps, streaming music players etc. are really getting heavy use, not only from the iPhone but similar numbers apply to other smartphones as well. The research paper also sees the Android phone coming on, with 2% of mobile requests in the U.S., and is the number four smartphone behind the iPhone, Blackberry Curve and Blackberry Pearl. With the iPhone combined with the iPod touch, Apple has the top devices in the world generating mobile traffic. Admob measures the impact of various mobile phones by looking at requests for mobile ads from a network of 6,000 websites and 1,000 applications. While the numbers may not exactly reflect the universe of mobile phone use, it does show trends that are important to keep an eye on.When you consider that the iPhone is only about 2 years old, the numbers are even more impressive.If you'd like to read the complete report, click here.
Ghostcrawler on the mechanics behind Armor Penetration
There is a great thread over on the Damage Dealing Forums started by a Rogue about the mechanics of the Armor Penetration cap/observed effectiveness. Armor Pen is a statistic that will allow an attack to ignore a given amount of armor.The thread and the contents inside it are notable in that it is, by my recollection, the first time a Blizzard employee has given out the complete rundown of an in-game formula. While there have been hints and comments about how certain statistics impact the game from patch notes and game designer posts in the past, there has never been a "step a, step b, step c" like algorithmic definition to all those stats contained within the black box of theorycrafting.In giving out the computations behind Armor Penetration, Ghostcrawler makes note to point out that Blizzard is not, and will not, get in a habit of delivering theorycrafting to players. They like the idea that players have to test out game mechanics, and that while the starting and end results are known, what happens in the middle of combat isn't written in stone. In the case of the Armor Penetration rating, they released it due to quite a bit of (somewhat) inaccurate information out there.The armor penetration formula, and an example, after the break.
Nielsen reports: 23% of US households have an HDTV
Ruh roh, we've got some conflicting evidence to deal with. Just last month, the Leichtman Research Group reported that some 34% of American households were HDTV-equipped, and now the highly respected Nielsen has stepped forward with a figure much, much lower. In fact, its latest numbers show that just 23.3% of all US homes have an HDTV, noting that it has more than doubled since a 10% penetration rating was found in July 2007. As for specific regions, the nation's capital was found to be most aware, with 31.1% of homes having a high-def set. Following DC were Boston and New York at 30.5% and 30.2%, respectively, while Detroit had the lowest percentage for a major market at 20.9%. Hmm... who to believe?[Via AdWeek]
HDTV penetration rises to 40 million, 34% of U.S. households
The Leichtman Research Group is back again, with its sixth annual study on all things HDTV, extrapolating from a 1,302 household survey that the number of homes with an HDTV has reached 40 million. Overall, HDTV penetration has crossed a third of households, up to 34% from 20% last year, while those with an HDTV set who thought they were watching HD, but actually weren't, dropped slightly to 18%. Also less than pleasing to our eye is the finding that just a 1% increase from last year in the number of customer reporting they were told how to get high definition programming, but the percentage of homes watching HD jumped 5 points to 58%. The read link has a few more numbers for those seeking their yearly update, but we're already wondering how things will read next year.
DVD player sales sinking, no one surprised
Earlier this year, we saw reports that hinted at "flat" DVD sales for the remainder of 2007, so it follows logic to hear that standalone DVD players are seeing a similar fate. Reportedly, around 80-percent of US consumers have a DVD player somewhere in their domicile, which reinforces the fact that the market is pretty well saturated. Furthermore, sales of the aforementioned units have "declined 15-percent for the 12 months ending September 2007," and that's coming off of a 24-percent slide the year before. As for DVD recorders, things aren't look too much brighter; sales of these gizmos were also down 15-percent during the year ending September 2007, which is quite a change from the 50-percent uptick it saw during the same window last year. Still, none of this should come as a surprise to anyone remotely paying attention, as the age of HD films has officially arrived -- even though we've yet to choose a single format to lead us down glory road. Nevertheless, we still foresee quite a few people picking up incredibly inexpensive DVD players as gifts this holiday season, but we highly doubt you'll need to throw down on anyone in aisle five this year to get your hands on one.[Image courtesy of NY Times]
HD DVD nearing the half million mark in standalone player sales?
Just days after the HD DVD camp trumpeted the fact that 90,000 standalone players were sold in a single weekend after price cuts enabled the units to suddenly fit into quite a few budgets, the same team is now boasting that nearly 500,000 players have been moved to date. Granted, we're taking these numbers with a throw of salt, but according to Home Media Magazine, the recent price slashing has created around 100,000 new HD DVD owners, which, combined with the 320,000 or so units already in homes adds up to around 420,000. Apparently, backers of the format are surmising that the half million mark could be broken by the time Black Friday has made its mark. 'Course, these numbers mean little in the grand scheme of things, but you can bet it'll get people talking.
Study suggests 100% mobile phone penetration in the US by 2013
We know, that "100-percent" figure may be a bit tough to wrap your mind around, but let's give it a try, shall we? Current estimates reportedly suggest that "nearly 84-percent of the US population will have mobile phones by the end of 2007," and according to SNL Kagen, that figure should shoot to 100-percent in just six years. Notably, 100-percent penetration does not mean that every single American will own a phone, as it's estimated that some 18 to 20-percent of us will be using multiple mobiles. Additionally, it was noted that data usage / revenue could become increasingly important as newcomers to the wireless world grow fewer, but that tidbit certainly isn't taking anyone by surprise, now is it?[Via mocoNews, image courtesy of JevaTech]
DS Daily: Common usage
It'd be cool to live in Japan, we've always said. The food, the culture, the fact that by 2011, 89% of the Japanese will own a DS ... wait, what?That's insane. Ridiculous. Incomprehensible. We're quite sure that not even close to 89% of Americans have a web-connected computer (2003 U.S. census figures showed 55%), and it's almost assumed in today's society that you've got access to the internet at home.With such a ubiquitous, portable, and interactive device, it's amazing that the Japanese haven't truly capitalized on its potential. They've got English dictionaries and day planners and all that, but everyone's got one! Why not introduce eBooks, or DS-enabled fast food drive-thrus, or ...! Well, we're maybe not so good at this. What would you guys do with that ridiculous penetration rate?
