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Ultrabook sales up in first half of 2012, Windows 8 waits patiently
We've seen so much Ultrabook news recently we're beginning to think they're catching on. Market research firm the NPD Group has stepped in to confirm our suspicions, reporting a 39 percent jump in sales of premium Windows laptops (900 bucks and up) during the first five months of this year, compared with the same period in 2011. Despite a three percent drop in sales of $700-plus Windows notebooks, the Ultrabook share of this bracket increased steadily to nearly 11 percent. The analysts predict sales of these lower-end models will pick up as back-to-school purchases sooth the post-summer blues, with a general boost to the whole Ultrabook market expected when Windows 8 arrives. One thing the figures don't tell us is what impact these sales are having on the revenue of Apple's skinny flagship, but we'd sure like to know. If numbers are your thing, the PR is past the break.
30 million NFC-equipped phones shipped in 2011, could reach 700 million by 2016
Those working on life-changing uses for NFC in phones will now find it even harder to explain why life still hasn't changed. According to Berg Insight, annual global sales of NFC-equipped handsets increased ten-fold to reach 30 million units in 2011 and are forecast to grow to 700 million units by 2016. The analysts attribute this rise to general smartphone adoption rather than to demand for NFC as such, which makes sense from where we're sitting. Aside from a few proximity-based apps, Google Wallet and some other handbag-spurning payment schemes, there's still no overwhelming reason to gear up. GPS and WLAN, on the other hand, remain must-haves, and the PR below looks at their prevalence too.
Digital gaming soars nine percent, still knows nothing of rarity value
It's already chewed up some big names on the retail scene, but the game-downloading trend shows no sign of being sated. Fresh figures from market research firm NPD show that American digital game sales (including rentals and DLC) amounted to $2.04 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, which represents a nine percent year-on-year hike at a time when physical game transactions fell three percent. Things are going the same way across the Atlantic, with the UK, France and Germany adding a further $1.29 billion to the burgeoning click-to-buy market. Industry types will surely welcome the news, since digital titles rake in higher margins (hello, PS Store) and reduce the trade in used discs, but what about those of us who'll one day want to swap our dusty copy of Fight Night Round Four for something more subtle?
Apple tops latest mobile shopping satisfaction survey
With more and more consumers using smartphones to visit retailer websites, it's important for those retailers to make sure that shoppers have the best possible mobile shopping experience. Research firm ForeSee announced today that Apple's mobile shopping satisfaction score was at the top of the pack, with 85 percent of 3,000 consumers putting the company on top of their list. While the ForeSee study doesn't specifically say it, the Apple Store app seen at right could be the reason that Apple's mobile shopping score was higher than overall satisfaction with Apple's web store (at 83 percent). Others in the top five were (in decreasing order of satisfaction) Amazon, Dell, Netflix, and eBay. According to the ForeSee results, mobile is playing a growing role in the retail experience. A full third of shoppers used their mobile phones to research products, while 15 percent actually made purchases. About one in five online shoppers used their phones to compare prices or products while in a physical retail location. Satisfaction with the mobile shopping experience is important for repeat business. ForeSee's research shows that mobile shoppers who are highly satisfied with their mobile experience are 54 percent more likely to consider that same company the next time they want to make a similar purchase, and they're twice as likely to make purchases from that retailer's mobile channel again.
iPad users download 3 billion apps
Technology market intelligence firm ABI Research provided some fascinating numbers today that show that Apple is still maintaining the lead in the tablet market despite the release of a plethora of Android tablets. According to the ABI Research numbers, iPad users have downloaded three billion apps since the launch of the iPad in April of 2010. The iPad made it to this milestone in just a year and a half, while it took the iPhone two years to reach this point. Owners of Android tablets have only downloaded about 440 millions apps to date. ABI Research associate Lim Shiyang notes that "Many Android tablets in the market are still using older versions of Android, which disadvantages users from enjoying the better effects of apps produced from more advanced software development kits." The ABI article notes that "Apple's iPad apps are generally considered to be of a better quality compared to Android tablet-specific apps." Dan Shey, practice director of mobile services for ABI, noted that "Android is currently being used on many low end tablets that do not offer experiences anywhere near the iPad and this dampens the download momentum for users." Shey believes, however, that things will change as more tablet manufacturers move to Android 4.0 and device specs become closer to those of the iPad. [via The Loop]
IDC: iPad maintains tablet dominance, HP's TouchPad fire sale burned brightly
While the Android tablets continue to roll in, Apple can still lay claim to the lion's share of the tablet market according to IDC's latest report. Its research suggests that the iPad holds onto 61.5 percent of the worldwide market share, down from 63.3 percent last quarter. Android devices in total also saw a slight contraction, down from 33.2 percent to 32.4 percent. This is partly explained by the HP TouchPad's final hurrah, which rocketed the ill-fated webOS tablet up to third place with a 5 percent of share of tablet sales and an estimated 903,354 devices sold. Samsung maintained its Honeycomb tablet crown, nabbing 5.6 percent of all tablet sales. The Korean manufacturer was closely tailed by Barnes and Noble's Nook Color with 4.5 percent and Asus, arriving at fifth place with a four percent share. Tablets in total sold less than the analysts had predicted, although growth has still exploded 264 percent compared to this time last year. Meanwhile, E-readers outperformed estimates, with 6.5 million E-readers sold in the third quarter, up 165.9 percent from last year. IDC expects some disruptive new tablets will spice up the fourth quarter results and you can take a look at its findings and predictions at the full press release below.
IDC: Samsung, ZTE see jump in mobile shipments, Apple slides to fifth place
Q3 earnings reports have been pouring in over the past few days, which means it's time to check in with IDC on the state of the mobile market. The research firm's latest report, released today, is something of a mixed bag. On the one hand, Q3 global shipments increased by 12.8 percent year-over-year -- higher than the 9.3 percent that IDC had predicted for the quarter and the 9.8 percent growth observed last quarter. At the same time, however, the market grew at the second slowest pace in two years and shipments to Western Europe and the US actually declined over the year, something the company attributes to more restrained consumer spending and more widespread economic uncertainty. On the company level, both Samsung and ZTE came away as the biggest winners this quarter; Sammy's shipments increased by 23 percent over the year, good for second place, while ZTE's shot up by a whopping 57.9 percent, launching the company into fourth place. Apple, meanwhile, saw 26.2 percent growth in its shipments and a slight bump in market share, but still couldn't avoid getting leapfrogged by ZTE and dropping down to fifth place. And then there's LG, which had by far the worst quarter, relative to Q3 2010. The manufacturer saw shipments decline by nearly 26 percent over the year, while its market share slipped to 5.4 percent. All these horses, however, are still chasing Nokia, which saw a small drop in shipments, but managed to hang on to the top spot, with over 106 million shipments during the quarter -- good for 27 percent of the market. For more numbers and insight, check out the full PR after the break.
Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., leader of TV ratings and market research firm, dies at 92
Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., the man who turned the A.C. Nielsen Company into a global leader in market research and television ratings, has died at the age of 92. Nielsen's father founded the company in 1923 and was known for spearheading much of the innovation behind it, but it was the younger Nielsen who led the firm to prominence, after joining in 1945 and taking over as president in 1957. In 1948, he convinced the firm to devote $150,000 to building the first general-purpose computer, the Univac. Building off of his father's revolutionary TV audience measurement system, he later expanded A.C. Nielsen's reach to new areas, including the development of a coupon clearinghouse and data-tracking services for magazines and even oil wells. Perhaps his most impressive achievement, however, was his ability to maintain A.C. Nielsen's position as the nation's pre-eminent TV and media ratings firm, even amidst the proliferation of cable networks. Arthur "Art" Nielsen stepped down from his role as chairman of the company in 1983, a year before orchestrating its sale to the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation for $1.3 billion in stock. Throughout the course of his illustrious career, he served on the board of more than 20 companies, including Motorola and Walgreen, and advised three US presidents. But his life's work and lasting legacy could just as well be summarized by a simple proverb he learned from his father: "If you can put a number on it, then you know something." Arthur C. Nielsen passed away on October 4th in Winnetka, Illinois. He is survived by three children and seven grandchildren.
Canalys: Android rules the smartphone world, Samsung could've done better
Thought Android was killing it in the US? Try the rest of planet Earth, bud. The latest from our friends at Canalys has Google's mobile OS on 48 percent of smartphones worldwide, or nearly one out of every two sold. Mountain View's stratospheric rise came at someone's expense, and it looks like Nokia's the loser here folks, which corroborates the data from last week's IDC report. Espoo's foibles are troublesome in a market that grew 73 percent year over year, especially when Samsung shipped 421 percent more handsets than it did a year ago. As a result, the Korean company has surpassed Nokia in smartphone marketshare, just like its rival in Cupertino. Despite the rampant growth, the research firm suspects Sammy could have done better, noting that it had failed to capitalize on Nokia's "weakened state around the world" with its "global scale and channel reach." We'll see if Samsung takes Canalys' constructive criticism to heart in Q3, but while you wait, you can read the full report after the jump.
iPad brand four times stronger than competing tablets
A new Bernstein Research survey suggests Apple will dominate the tablet market in the same way its iPods dominate the MP3 market. According to the survey, 50% of respondents in the US and the UK prefer the iPad over competing tablets. Surprisingly, even tablets from successful smartphone manufacturers can't compete with the iPad. The survey results show the iPad is more popular in the US than tablets from HTC, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and RIM combined. Apple also sets the standard for size with over 50% of respondents choosing the almost 10-inch display of the iPad over the 7-inch size used by Samsung and others. The preference is so strong that Bernstein Research predicts 7-inch tablets, like the BlackBerry PlayBook, are doomed to fail. Bernstein predicts two market scenarios for tablet devices, and in both situations, Apple is at the top and the other manufactures are vying for the leftover scraps.
iSuppli: Apple bucks decline in smartphone market, edges closer to Nokia
Apple is edging closer to Nokia and poised to assume the leadership position in the smartphone market, according to IHS iSuppli. In the first three months of 2011, Apple shipped 18.6 million iPhones globally, a 14.9 percent jump from the previous quarter. While Apple showed impressive gains, Nokia posted a significant decline. Q1 2011 shipments from the Finnish handset maker declined 14.5 percent from the 28.3 million handsets shipped in Q4 2010 to 24.2 million in Q1 of this year. At the end of last quarter, a mere 5.6 million handsets separated the two companies. This gap could be narrowed in the current quarter by continued strong sales of the black iPhone 4 and the launch of the white iPhone 4. The long-awaited white handset sold out quickly in Asia and is expected to give iPhone sales a moderate boost. Nokia, on the other hand, is in a holding pattern while it sunsets its Symbian OS and preps for the debut of Windows Phone later this year. [Via Digitimes]
iPad held 85% market share in 2010 according to ABI Research
ABI Research's 2010 analysis of the media tablet market reveals the iPad grabbed a respectable 85 percent market share. Trailing far behind the iPad was the Samsung Galaxy Tab with an eight percent market share and the Archos Internet tablets with a mere two percent market share. There three vendors accounted for 95 percent of all media tablets sold in 2010. These figures are not surprising considering Apple's jump on the competition. Launched in early 2010, the iPad kicked off this tablet revolution and other manufacturers have struggled to catch up. According to ABI, tablets will continue to hit retail shelves in large numbers. The market research company predicts manufacturers will ship 40 to 50 million tablets worldwide in 2011. With an increase in the number of Android tablets hitting the market and the debut of a dedicated tablet version of Android, the iPad 2 will finally have some serious competition. Though Android will make inroads into the tablet market, the iPad 2 is expected to keep the #1 spot for the next few years. Hopefully, we will get a glimpse of these industry leading sales figures later today during Apple's earnings conference call.
Apple takes 4 percent of US digital video market, Netflix reigns
The NPD Group crowned Netflix the heavyweight champion of digital, video-on-demand services in a statement released earlier today. Between January 2011 and February 2011, Netflix accounted for 61 percent of all movies downloaded or streamed over the internet or offered on-demand through a cable or satellite television service. Cable giant Comcast took second place with about 8 percent of the market. Apple, with a share of 4 percent, found itself in a three way tie for third place with DirecTV and Time Warner Cable. NPD used its new VideoWatch Digital tracking service to calculate its latest numbers, which also found digital video now makes up one quarter of all home video volume. "Sales of DVDs and Blu-ray Discs still drive most home-video revenue, but VOD and other digital options are now beginning to make inroads with consumers," said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD. VideoWatch Digital's results were based on 10,618 surveys completed by US consumers age 13 and older. In the survey, respondents recognized electronic sell-through (EST) services like iTunes had the most "current releases available," but Netflix won the titles for "overall shopping experience" and "value for price paid." [Via AppleInsider]
Forrester: e-book sales to hit nearly $1 billion this year, $3 billion by 2015
There's no denying that e-books are already big business, and market research firm Forrester is now offering some pretty impressive numbers that show just how big it already is, and how much bigger it will get in the next few years. The firm surveyed some 4,000 people and found that while just seven percent of those actually read e-books, they still bought enough of them to translate to $966 million in sales this year -- a number that's projected to grow to $3 billion by 2015. As for the reading habits of that seven percent, Forrester found that they "read the most books and spend the most money on books," and that they read 41 percent of their books in digital form. That doesn't necessarily mean that they use actual e-readers, though -- a full 35 percent apparently do most of their e-book reading on a laptop, followed by 32 percent on a Kindle, 15 percent on an iPhone, 12 percent on a Sony e-reader, and ten percent on a netbook. Interestingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, Kindle users seem to be the biggest boosters of e-books -- they do 66 percent of all their reading in digital form.
iPads complement primary computers, threaten secondary ones
Here's a bit of news that you might have already figured out for yourself. Your primary computer doesn't need to feel threatened by your iPad. Sure, your Mac (or PC) probably felt a little uneasy when you brought that slim, trim, shiny, and lets not forget - magical - little number into your home, but it knew, oh yes it did, that you would come crawling back sooner or later. And you did, didn't you? In fact, you came crawling back straight away because you needed your primary computer to get your iPad up and running, didn't you? As noted by Macsimum News, according to market research firm Technology Business Research (TBR), the iPad will displace many consumers' secondary computers, but not their primary ones, creating a third category for personal computing and connectivity (laptop, smartphone, and tablet). TBR's study points to Apple's success with the iPad, noting that consumers want quick, easy access to their email and the Web in a device that's more portable than a laptop while providing instant-on and more usability than a smartphone. In light of this, TBR believes the market will support all three device styles with only some ground lost by laptops to tablets. To illustrate this point, Macsimum News reports that analyst Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros. has informed clients that the iPad is "slightly cannibalizing" the entry level MacBook, but otherwise Mac sales for the September quarter could hit a record 3.8 million. So, there's no sign of Mac sales slowing down despite the introduction of the iPad. And, for now, your primary computer can hold onto its rightful place in your digital life / family. Photo by mapgoblin. Flickr : cc
NPD: Android is now top-selling OS in American smartphones
Step aside, BlackBerrys and iPhones, the American consumer has voted with his wallet and picked Android as his favorite flavor in the quarter just gone. NPD's number crunchers have just announced their findings for Q2 2010, concluding that 33 percent of phones sold during the period had Android on board. This marks the first time in eons (Q4 2007, to be more precise) that RIM has not held the crown of most purchased smartphone OS on US soil, with its BlackBerrys accounting for 28% of the market and Apple's iPhone occupying third spot with 22%. Motorola and HTC are the key suspects fingered for Android's continuing ascent, with the "large screen allure" of their handsets playing well with the buying public. Skip after the break for a more detailed breakdown. Disclaimer: NPD's Ross Rubin is a contributor to Engadget.
Apple's App Store said to have 99.4 percent of all mobile app sales, more like 97.5
The latest research from Gartner indicates that, for the year 2009, only 16 million app sales were executed on mobile devices not bearing the infamous bitten apple logo. In reporting this data, Ars Technica inadvertently conflates Apple's latest announcement of three billion apps downloaded with the notion of three billion apps sold and pegs the App Store's market share at a whopping 99.4 percent -- but more realistic calculations still show it to be somewhere in the vicinity of 97.5 percent. Going off estimates (obtained by GigaOM) that a quarter of App Store downloads are paid-for apps, and taking a rough figure of 2.5 billion downloads in 2009, leaves us with around 625 million app sales performed by Apple, which comfortably dwarfs all its competition. Considering the fact 18 months ago there wasn't even an App Store to speak of -- whereas today Cupertino is gobbling up the best part of $4.2 billion in annual mobile apps revenue -- maybe you can now understand why we're covering every tiny drip of info about that mythical tablet.
New study says Palm Pre second only to iPhone 3GS in mindshare
Market research firm Interpret recently made some discoveries about public perception of smartphones that should shock, surprise, and amaze you. The just released report, dubbed "Signature Smartphones: Gaining Mindshare in Order to Gain Market Share," reveals that despite being massively disadvantaged in the marketplace, Palm managed to nab a huge chunk of mindshare with the Pre -- in fact, the report suggests that the Pre is number two only to the iPhone 3GS in the metric. The study looks at the driving factors behind purchaser's decisions to buy a smartphone, narrowing down the list to three major components: belief that the phone is "smart," belief that the phone is "hip / cool," and belief that the phone will make them more productive. Rating a swath of phones (BlackBerry Curve and Storm, G1, iPhone), the report found that only the iPhone and Pre balanced the three factors in a way in which consumers felt the higher price tags were warranted. More to the point, only the Pre and the iPhone 3GS managed to strike that balance at all; offerings such as the two BlackBerrys were lopsided. There's not much more meat to the study, though it does shed some interesting light on just how Palm managed to squeeze its way back into the limelight (of course, it doesn't hurt to have a product that's actually kind of cool). Check out the whole PDF for yourself over at that read link. Disclosure: Engadget columnist Michael Gartenberg is an employee of Interpret, and worked on the study cited above.
Netbook study finds that netbook buyers don't know what netbooks are
Oh noes! According to some market research dudes, the average consumer cannot tell the difference between a netbook and a notebook. We're inclined to believe that this is simply because the average consumer hasn't perused this handy chart, but what do we know? Of course, the readers of Engadget are an intelligent and sophisticated bunch, one that understands all the intricacies of this -- one of the most important questions of our time. But what about the folks that need to sell netbooks (and notebooks) to 18-24 year olds, one of the main demographics that manufacturers hope to reach with their products? Hit the read link for what's sure to be a gripping (if wicked expensive) report titled Netbooks II: A Closer Look. Or, if you're only moderately curious, feel free to check out the PR after the break.
Numbers game: 75M Mac OS X users, 1M SDK downloads, 50,000 apps
As with most keynote presentations, Apple released a lot of numbers about just how many people are adopting the Mac and iPhone platforms. First, over the last three years, the active Mac OS X installed base has grown from 25 million users to 75 million users. This is great news for the platform and for the entire Mac ecosystem. Also, over 5,200 developers from 54 countries around the world are attending WWDC. Over a million people have downloaded the free iPhone SDK, and created 50,000 applications for Apple iPhones and iPod touch devices. Speaking of which, over 40 million iPhones and iPod touches have been sold to date. In April, Apple announced that those users had downloaded a cumulative total of one billion applications.
