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If Siri were paired with a GPS app
We all love Siri. Whether it's the fascinating and sometimes unintentionally humorous comments that it makes, or the fact that it's surprisingly useful in a variety of situations, Siri has captured the imagination of many iPhone users. In a guest post for our sister site Engadget, NPD Group executive director and principal analyst Ross Rubin mused about how great it would be if Siri was paired with GPS navigation capabilities. Rubin's got a point -- right now Apple's intelligent assistant can give you directions, but won't verbalize the turn-by-turn instructions. And navigation apps (and standard GPS navigation units) are, in Rubin's words, "about as passive an experience as watching TV." Rubin imagines a mix of Siri's conversational interface with GPS navigation. As an example, he wonders if you could ask Siri "How's the Grand Central Parkway looking?", and have the app report back on how good or bad traffic currently is on that highway and suggest whether you should switch to another route. It would be even more useful to have Siri and GPS navigation capabilities to accept off-route, unplanned side trips. Rubin uses the example of heading to a party and getting a call from the host asking you to pick up a cake. You'd ask Siri to find a bakery along the way and add that side trip to the route to the party. As he notes, currently you'd need to pull over, search for the bakery, and then add that destination to your trip. The post by Rubin ends with the words "GPS technology has always shined when we are on an unfamiliar path. Pairing it with an intelligent network agent, though, could imbue even a familiar journey with an unfamiliar level of convenience." What do you think? Is Siri-powered navigation coming to future iPhones? Leave your comments below.
STHoldings withdraws more than 200 record labels from Spotify, does so with gusto
STHoldings stormed its way out of Spotify this week, leaving only a trail of choice words in its wake. On Wednesday, the distributor boldly withdrew more than 200 of its record labels from Spotify, Rdio, Simfy and Napster, following the release of a study that cast the music subscription industry in a rather unfavorable light. According to the research, carried out by NPD Group and NARM, cloud-based services like Spotify and Rdio deter consumers from purchasing music via other channels. Amid concerns that these companies may "cannibalise the revenues of more traditional digital services," STHoldings decided to withdraw its catalogue of more than 200 labels. In fact, of the 238 labels consulted on the decision, just four expressed a desire to remain with Spotify, et al. "As a distributor we have to do what is best for our labels," STHoldings explained, in a statement. "The majority of which do not want their music on such services because of the poor revenues and the detrimental affect on sales. Add to that the feeling that their music loses its specialness by its exploitation as a low value/free commodity." The distributor went on to quote one of its labels with a line that rhymes with "duck modify." In comparatively subdued response, Spotify said it respects STHoldings' decision, but still hopes that the labels "will change their minds." The Swedish company also contested STHoldings' study-backed arguments against it, claiming that it has "already convinced millions of consumers to pay for music again," and assuring that artists' revenue streams will "continue to grow." Read more about the study, the stats and the spat at the links below.
Digital video game distribution finds brick and mortar camping, moves in for win
Blame it on the economy, or simply chalk it up to a better way of earning revenue, but physical distributors of new video games are beginning to feel some major heat from the scrappy competition. While this mainstay segment still comprises the bulk of sales with $1.44 billion earned in the previous quarter, the combination of digital purchases, subscriptions, downloadable content, social network and mobile games -- along with help from rentals and used purchases -- now tops $1.74 billion dollars. This news comes from the NPD Group, and while we're still scratching our heads at the logic of combining second-hand purchases with electronic distribution, it provides a strong indicator of consumers' changing tastes and preferences (along with their willingness to spend). Does this industry titan simply need a new console or another Call of Duty to maintain supremacy? Perhaps a modest uptick in GDP? Or does this signal the changing of the guard for our favorite electronic pastime? There's a full PR after the break, where you're welcome to fire one off in the comments and let us know your take. [Image courtesy bradleyolin / flickr]
Android still king of the US smartphone hill, Motorola facing a market nosedive
In other obvious news, Android and iOS continue to sit pretty atop the US smartphone market, according to a recent NPD study. The current titans of the mobile industry both saw their pieces of the OS pie increase in Q2 of 2011, putting Andy Rubin's green robot in the lead with 52 percent and Apple at 29 percent. Newly adopted webOS, and Microsoft's WP7 and Windows Mobile all managed to cling to their respective 5 percent shares with no yearly change, leaving only BlackBerry OS to experience an 11 percent decline. But the real meat and potatoes of the report focuses on Google's soon-to-be in-house partner: Motorola. Despite the rosy picture painted by recent acquisition talks, the company appears to be facing tough competition from Android OEM rivals, and the wireless market as a whole. In regard to overall mobile phone share (read: dumbphones, et al.) and smartphone-only, Moto saw a 3 percent year-to-year decline, with its biggest loss coming from Android unit sales -- a 50 percent drop to 22 percent of the market. Will the rosy glow of Mountain View "help inspire new paths to differentiation" for Moto, or are we just looking at a repeat of the "RAZR era?" While you ponder these pressing questions, head past the break to read the full report.
Digital games distribution earned $3.8 billion in 2010, a quarter of entire video game market
Alright, so technically all video games are digital, but what we're talking about here is the stuff that you don't buy on physical media -- downloadable games, add-on content, mobile apps, subscriptions, and gaming on social networks. That market has grown to account for 24 percent of all video game revenues in 2010, or $3.8 billion, according to the Entertainment Software Association. The ESA is the body running the currently ongoing E3 shindig, and its data comes from the NPD Group, which likes to keep a cold robotic finger on the gaming industry's pulse. Other findings in the latest ESA study include the average age of gamers (37!), the best-selling genres (action with 21.7 percent, followed by sports at 16.3 percent), and the highest-grossing games of 2010 (no prizes for guessing the warmongering winner of that one). Give the source link a bash to immerse yourself in even more gaming trivia from yesteryear.
iOS and Android continue chipping away at mobile gaming market, consoles remain strong
Let's face it -- smartphones (namely, iOS and Android devices) are slowly chipping away at the portable gaming market. If you recall, Apple took a nice slice of the market-share pie -- and as you'll notice in the picture above, we're seeing the same trend this time around. According to data from Flurry and NPD Group, iOS and Android are earning a sizable chunk of the revenue in the portable gaming software sphere, with the Nintendo DS's dominant market share dropping from 70 percent in 2009 to just 57 percent in 2010 to accommodate the newcomers. We may be seeing the decrease in relative revenue because the PSP and DS are on the way out to make room for the NGP and 3DS -- however, this chart speaks only of the current-gen portables. But hey, it's easy for almost anyone to spend a single buck on a full-fledged game, right? Head past the break for some more videogame revenue stats, if you please.
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]
Apple owns 66% of online music market, Amazon a distant second place
As if Apple's share of the online music world wasn't big enough, financial research firm NPD Group is reporting that iTunes is now responsible for 66.2% of the market for online music purchases. That's up from 63.2% earlier in the year, despite intense competition from Amazon, which is way behind in second place at 13.3%. Remarkably enough, Amazon also saw growth this year, raising its share from around 11% earlier in 2010. The online retailer has been promoting "daily deal" albums that are priced much lower than the same music on the iTunes store, actually selling many of the albums below cost in order to attract new customers. Amazon has also been doing a monthly promotion of 100 albums for $5, which is done with the cooperation of record labels and artists. Despite such aggressive action, the company has yet to make a visible dent in Apple's dominance of the online music market. According to an article in today's Wall Street Journal, digital album sales have grown rapidly in an industry where CD sales are plummeting and sales of digital single-song downloads are stalling. Apple's album prices are generally higher than those on the Amazon music store, resulting in higher revenues. Amazon's promotion of their online music store has taken the back seat to advertising for the company's Kindle ebook reader, so it will be interesting to see if they decide to actively promote their music business in the future. [via ArsTechnica]
DisplaySearch: consumers playing a 'wait and see' game with 3DTVs
We've mixed feelings on 3D as a whole, and it seems that the vast majority of consumers do as well. We've seen quite a few lovely implementations, and there's hardly a better way to watch sports away from the field, but those dreaded 3D glasses are likely keeping most people an arm's length away. According to a new report from DisplaySearch, 3DTVs will make up just two percent of all flat panels shipped in 2010. Paul Gray, Director of TV Electronics Research, noted that "while TV manufacturers have bold plans and a lot of new products, consumers remain cautious," continuing by stating that "consumers have been told that 3D TV is the future, but there still remains a huge price jump and little 3D content to watch." In particular, "North American consumers appear to be playing a waiting game," and in Western Europe, the sales of 3D glasses to sets has failed to hit 1:1. That said, the report feels rather strongly about the future, noting that 90 million 3DTV sets are expected to ship in 2014. Of course, if we've only got two or three 2D options to choose from by then, the estimated skyrocketing makes a lot more sense...
Analyst: Sharp rise in iPad sales estimates
Yet again, more analyst news regarding the iPad impacting laptop and netbook sales. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that estimated sales of the iPad for 2010 have more than doubled to 11 or 12 million units sold this year, with 20 million iPads expected to be sold in 2011 -- which is still conservative according to some other analysts. In contrast, the NPD Group estimates that sales of laptop units in the US rose by only 12% in the first eight months of this year as apposed to a 30% percent increase in sales last year for the same period. On top of that, NDP Group reports that unit sales were down 1% over July and August -- the peak back-to-school season for such sales. Naturally, the WSJ points to the sluggish economy for such a shift. The paper does also note that some shoppers are preferring to buy the iPad, even at a premium price, over cheaper laptops and netbooks, though the iPad represents only a fraction of portable computer sales overall. The article suggests that the competition for consumers' dollars will become even more fierce with the emergence of competing tablet devices from other manufacturers later this year and next year. But for now, there is still no doubt that Apple is leading the way with the iPad. For the full WSJ article click here.
Blu-ray household penetration hits 17 percent
Seems like a long time ago many were wondering if Blu-ray would ever take off and now the latest report from the NPD Group shows that almost one in five households have a player. Sure, many of these are PS3s, but despite what some might be thinking right now, these Blu-ray households rent and buy more packaged media than the other 83 percent. And these young, wealthy families with kids aren't digital streaming haters either, in fact a fourth of them have rented a streaming video in the past 30 days, which is 10 percent higher than those laggards with standard def disc players. So while Blu-ray has failed to keep the home media market flat, it has enjoyed growth in this terrible economy and returned profits to its proponents.
Social gaming numbers on the rise, Farmville likely to go down in history
We've seen console gaming numbers as a whole dip somewhat over the past few months, but gaming numbers on the social networking side have been anything but down. A new report on the matter from the NPD Group asserts that a full 20 percent (that's 1 in 5, if you're counting) of Americans ages 6 and older have played a social networking game of some sort, and we're guessing that number would be far higher if people weren't embarrassed to admit the truth. Unfortunately, the report doesn't dig deep into what exactly they were playing (our Monopoly bucks are on Farmville), but we are told that "10 percent of social network gamers have spent real money playing these games and 11 percent indicate that they are likely to make a future purchase." Curiously enough, the gender split is just about even, with 47 percent of social networking gamers being female, 53 being male and 2.4 percent being unidentified beings from District 9. You heard it here first, folks: the console is dead.
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 brushes off NPD's smartphone report, says it sees 'no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon'
Fresh off NPD's latest Mobile Phone Track report claiming that Android has leapfrogged the iPhone in US sales, Apple is commenting on the numbers -- and as you might expect, they're not exactly taking a congratulatory tone with Google. Speaking to AllThingsD's John Paczkowski, Cupertino had this to say: "This is a very limited report on 150,000 US consumers responding to an online survey and does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide. IDC figures show that iPhone has 16.1 percent of the smartphone market and growing, far outselling Android on a worldwide basis. We had a record quarter with iPhone sales growing by 131 percent and with our new iPhone OS 4.0 software coming this summer, we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon." The factual accuracy of Apple's words here can't really be disputed, but as Paczkowski notes, the context can: lumping the iPod touch into this equation isn't really fair, since NPD's report is about smartphones, not mobile operating systems (which would've let devices like non-phone Android MIDs into the picture). Besides, this is about the US market in the first quarter of 2010, not global sales, nor is it about Apple's development pipeline. In other words, Apple's not disputing NPD's report here -- rather, they're simply trying to change the subject, as any properly-trained PR department would. There's no question Android still has an uphill battle to dominate market (and mind) share the world over, but the odds that it outsold the iPhone in the US in Q1 remain very real.
NPD: 75 percent of US iPhone, iPod touch users download content, other 25 percent think Opera Mini is a tiny concert
While we can't honestly imagine an iDevice user going about their life without connecting to the iTunes App Store at least once in a blue moon -- if not on a semi-permanent basis -- the statistically-significant NPD Group decided to look into the matter regardless. Sure enough, the org reports that a full three-quarters of iPhone and iPod touch users in the US do indeed download apps and entertainment content from the internet. In case you're wondering, that figure beats the pants off those connecting from their video game consoles (19 percent) or Blu-ray players (17 percent), but both of those are obviously biased towards physical, disc-based media. Before you dismiss these findings as obvious, however, let's read between the lines -- if 75 percent of Apple's touchscreen devices are pulling content from the web, that means the other one-quarter have gone without. If not apps, what the heck are those devices being used for?
E-reader statisfaction study shows 93 percent of users are happy, just not you
The wind sure changes very quickly, eh? Just a week ago the University of Georgia revealed that many of its study participants -- Athens residents who were given a Kindle to play with -- weren't happy with their e-reader experience, but yesterday a new study reported something fairly contrasting. Rather than doling out touchscreen-less e-readers to a group of people, the NPD Group surveyed more than 1,000 e-reader owners in late November last year, and found out that 93 percent of them were "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with their devices, while only 2 percent "expressed any level of dissatisfaction." The report also reveals that wireless access is the favorite feature for 60 percent of the users, while only 23 percent chose the touchscreen. Compared to last week's report, this probably shows that consumers who actually buy e-readers don't really care about the touch feature, whereas those on the outer circle are mainly waiting for more -- and no doubt cheaper -- touchscreen e-readers. Seriously though, only 34 percent wanted color screens? Those guys sure are easy to please.
Apple's "renaissance" is under way
A few months ago, I walked into a Paradise Bakery & Café in Phoenix -- a place known for its excellent food and free Wi-Fi. Like a lot of places with free Internet access, there were plenty of laptop users. What stood out to me was that all but one of the computers was either a MacBook or MacBook Pro. It's not just me looking through at the world with an Apple-tinged bias. The more places I go, the more I see people using Macs, or at least considering them. The Apple stores in Phoenix are still nearly elbow to elbow with people every time I visit, however the lone Microsoft store in Scottsdale was pretty empty the one time I visited. There's now data to back up these observations. Macsimum News reports that iMacs were the top-selling desktop for the month of October 2009 according to the NPD Group. After the proverbial jaw-dropping moment, there was quickly speculation as to why Macs finally outpaced PCs when it came to desktops. According to The Daily Gleaner, the NPD Group stated that PC sales were down as a result of the impending launch of Windows 7. Or, it could also be indicative that Windows users are finally getting fed up. "If Microsoft Windows is seen as a buggier, less-secure product that is slower, harder to use and ultimately raises costs for everybody, that opens up the market for Apple to gain that high-end segment. . . ," Harvard Business School's David Yoffie said in The Daily Gleaner. "If Windows 7 is not seen as more of an improvement (over Vista) then I think you'll see more erosion at the high end."
Magic Mouse doubles Apple's mouse market share
AppleInsider is reporting that in only eight weeks since its release, the Magic Mouse has helped Apple double its mouse market share. NPD Group sales data shows Apple garnered over 10% of the mouse market in November. I can personally attest to how popular the mouse is. I ordered one from Apple's online store two weeks before Christmas. The ship time showed 2-3 days. This never changed until just a few days before Christmas when Apple changed the shipping time to "On or after January 4th". Runs to three Apple Stores and four Best Buys didn't do me any better – all were sold out of the Magic Mouse. The NPD sales data included only standalone sales of the $69 Magic Mouse. "The figures did not include the bundled Magic Mouse that comes with each 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac. For those keeping track, here are the top five mouse vendors in the US for November 2009: I'm anxiously waiting for my Magic Mouse to arrive on January 4th. What about you guys and gals? Do you use one? Tell us in the comments!
Apple kicks butt, takes names in October desktop and laptop retail sales
Boo-ya! Apple took the top honors in terms of desktop and laptop retail sales in the U.S. in October, according to market research firm NPD Group. As reported on CNET, the iMac line (refreshed in October) and laptops occupied some of the top slots in the list. During the month of October, the new 21.5-inch iMac was the best-selling desktop computer, with the awe-inspiring 27-inch model in third place. Stephen Baker, who is NPD's vice president of industry analysys, told CNET that Apple was helped by a rather dismal month for Windows desktops, since retailers were pushing existing inventory prior to the launch of Microsoft's Windows 7. In the laptop list, the 13-inch MacBook Pro model was the number one seller, with three other MacBooks filling the number 8, 9, and 10 spots for October laptop sales. NPD's numbers are pulled from online and retail store sales figures, but don't account for direct sales from the manufacturer to consumers.
NPD: Windows 7 sales 234% higher than Vista's first few days
Looks like Windows 7 is off to a much stronger start than Windows Vista, with the NPD Group claiming the first few days of sales saw a 234% increase over Vista's start. Part of that can be attributed to special deals and low-cost pre-sales -- total revenue was only 82% higher -- but it's hard to deny people are stoked for Windows 7. Interestingly, the PC hardware growth was actually stronger for Vista than 7 (48% year over year compared to 68% year over year), but there are enough variables at play there to make sure Microsoft won't lose sleep over it. In fact, 7's biggest threat seems to be Microsoft's other products, since Windows 7 PC sales were up against 20% of PC sales being comprised of Vista and XP computers, compared to the 6% of non-Vista PCs sold during that launch.