Red Viking journal

Mediemarknaden krymper en dryg miljard första kvartalet 2009

2009-04-28T10:23:00.000+02:00

Swedish language

Publ. by www.redviking.se

Den nedgång i medieinvesteringar som inleddes fjärde kvartalet 2008 når full styrka

under första kvartalet 2009. Mediemarknaden minskade med närmare 15 procent

jämfört med motsvarande kvartal 2008. De totala medieinvesteringarna uppgick till

drygt 6,6 miljarder kronor, vilket innebär att omsättningen under första kvartalet

minskade med drygt 1 miljard jämfört med första kvartalet under fjolåret.

De flesta medieslag tappar reklamintäkter. Inom morgonpressen, kvällspressen och

fackpressen, finner man den största minskningen. Även populärpress och utomhusreklam

visar kraftigt vikande annonsintäkter. TV, radio, gratistidningar och oadresserad

direktreklam och kataloger/-vägledande medier tappar reklamintäkter, men ökar sina

marknadsandelar något eftersom intäkterna minskar mindre än mediemarknaden som

helhet.

Internet, adresserad direktreklam, mobilmarknadsföring och butiksmedia klarar sig

relativt bra även om annonsintäkterna i dessa medier minskar något. Bioreklamen och

Event Marketing tillhör ”vinnarna” med ökningar på över 25 procent första kvartalet

2009.

- Att nedgången är så kraftfull och slår mot de allra flesta medier är ovanligt. Man får gå

tillbaka till 2001/2002 och svallvågorna efter IT-boomen för att finna motsvarande

minskning av reklamintäkter, enligt Magnus Anshelm, VD på IRM.

28 april 2009

http://www.irm-media.se/irm/(qooiugvei4hccs55muzfpr45)/pdf_public/pressmeddelande_q1-09.pdf

Cloud Computing and 3D as Key NABAlternativ för inlägg Takeaways

2009-04-28T10:22:00.000+02:00

Boston, MA - 28 April 2009 -

Strategy Analytics and DIS Consulting identified two key media technology trends emerging from the NAB Show as it wound down last week in Las Vegas, Nevada. 3D technology and Cloud Computing Services both featured strongly at a surprisingly upbeat annual convention where attendance was off by around 20% from last year’s show, yet still attracted the industry’s key senior decision makers.

The research partners, who have recently introduced a new advisory service aimed at the media creation and distribution industry, have determined that two overarching trends dominated the 2009 NAB Show:

The plethora of origination, post and distribution of 3D programming to homes and theaters - both hardware and software - and

The cloud computing services concepts being promoted by a number of companies including Microsoft, Chyron and others.

3DTV appears to be gathering steam this year as it has begun to rally device makers, programmers, distribution channels and direct to home service providers to its cause. However, David Mercer, Principal Analyst at Strategy Analytics, points out: “Many obstacles, such as lack of standards and creative challenges, lie ahead before 3D reaches large numbers of home users.”

Simultaneously, cloud computing offers an alternative to costly, in-house labor and storage of archives, which, along with the security of fingerprinting technology, allows many processes to be transferred off-site.

Douglas I. Sheer, CEO and Chief Analyst of DIS, said, “Despite some resistance to the idea of off-site storage and the desire to fully amortize existing equipment, cloud seems to be finding a receptive audience, especially as it offers some interesting cost savings advantages.”

http://www.strategyanalytics.com/default.aspx?mod=PressReleaseViewer&a0=4688

UK Web Users Keen on Social Networks

2009-04-28T10:15:00.000+02:00

NEW YORK (April 28, 2009)

It is not easy to set hard and fast rules for marketing in social media when the landscape is changing so rapidly. Social networks in particular still perplex many marketers hoping to connect with these highly engaged audiences.

People in the UK are embracing social media. eMarketer estimates that 39% of UK Internet users—more than 15.4 million people—will use social networks at least once per month in 2009. By 2013, that figure is expected to rise to 21.9 million, or 50% of UK Web users.

eMarketer’s estimate is lower than some other researchers’ because it reflects average monthly usage for a given year. Other estimates tally Web users who may have a social network profile but do not visit a site frequently.

Globally, only Canada and Brazil surpassed the UK in usage of social network sites, according to comScore World Metrix data from late 2008. And the UK had a sizable lead in Europe, with almost 80% of UK adult Web users—29.4 million people—visiting social network sites in December 2008.

In the UK, Facebook is well on the way to eclipsing its chief rivals, MySpace and Bebo. Its expansion in 2008 lifted Facebook to the No. 2 spot in terms of online traffic, behind google.co.uk, at the end of the year.

Facebook accounted for 3.6% of all Website visits by UK Internet users in December 2008, according to Hitwise, while Bebo took less than 1% and MySpace about one-half of that.

Facebook’s momentum does not seem to be slowing. Hitwise reported that Facebook accounted for one in every 24 UK Internet visits in February 2009, and that traffic to the site had increased by 18.6% during 2009 alone.

LinkedIn, a popular global business network, told eMarketer it had 2 million members in the UK in March 2009. Almost one-quarter of its European members are UK residents, though LinkedIn is also available in French, German and Spanish.

“In the short term, professional networks such as LinkedIn and Plaxo are attracting the newly unemployed, many of whom would probably not join a social network for purely personal reasons,” said Karin von Abrams, senior analyst and author of the report “UK Social Media: Joining the Conversation.”

“Also, developments in other social media, such as corporate blogs, microblogs and podcasts, increasingly present opportunities to communicate with customers and mobilize influencers on behalf of brands.”

UK Social Media: Joining the Conversation

Social Technologies Allow For More Accessible Innovation In Down Economy. In Social Media Spending To Outpace Other Interactive Marketing Channels Ove

2009-04-24T10:25:00.000+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

Cambridge, Mass., April 24, 2009 . . .

Social technologies are enabling marketing professionals to engage in low-cost, low-risk innovation during the current recession, according to best practices shared among more than 600 attendees at the Forrester Research Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) Marketing Forum this week in Orlando, Fla.

Marketing budgets are following the innovation trail — social media spending in the US will grow from $716 million this year to more than $3.1 billion in 2014, a 34 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR). That’s a significantly higher rate of growth than the future spending on other interactive marketing channels. Overall, interactive marketing spending in the US will grow from $25.5 billion in 2009 to nearly $55 billion in 2014, a 17 percent CAGR, according to a new Forrester forecast previewed at the Marketing Forum. The forecast is part of a larger Forrester report to be published later this spring.

“Marketers don’t need to start revolutions in order to innovate, they need to solve problems,” said Forrester Research Vice President and Research Director Christine Overby. “For consumer-facing companies, that means tapping into consumers’ increasing expectation that they will participate with your brand; for B2B firms, it means leveraging the power of innovative customers who are increasingly engaging with their peers to solve their problems. Social technologies allow for accessible innovation where the risks and costs are not as high, but the return is significant.” Social Technologies

ONLINE VIDEO FORECAST – APRIL 2009

2009-04-24T10:24:00.000+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

Despite the economic downturn and its inevitable strains on overall advertising expenditures, one category is clearly holding up as a beacon of change and growth: online video. Magna forecasts the US market for online video will grow by 32% this year, rising from $531 million in 2008 to $699 million in 2009. While these figures represent downward revisions from our forecast for the sector in the middle of last year (prior to the subsequent escalation of the recession), these gains will likely outpace growth rates for most other emerging media platforms.

The reasons for growth are simple: as marketing budgets are reduced across industries, advertisers look to reach their consumers in a more targeted and cost-effective manner. User-generated content accounted for a significant volume of potential advertising inventory in the past, although little was considered desirable for larger brands, given their collective preference for association with professionally produced content. But in recent periods, the expanding availability of premium network and cable TV programming combined with increasing broadband penetration – now covering 60% of US homes by our estimates– collectively led to a 24% increase in time with professionally produced online video during 2008, following a 50% rise during 2007, according to Accustream.

Still, this represents a limited volume of top-tier inventory. Few large advertisers can achieve broad reaching objectives solely by using an online video-only campaign if there are any content preferences involved. For point of

Source: MAGNA

reference, during 2008 490 billion person-hours of traditional television were consumed according to Nielsen. This equates to 244 times more consumption of professional content video than of online video. Even assuming last year’s growth rate continues through 2012, traditional TV would still account for 98 times more consumption

Over the next few years, we expect traditional TV content – and traditional TV suppliers – will continue to account for the bulk of online video budgets, but as user-generated content sites increasingly supply professional content to their mass audiences, these sites will produce faster rates of growth. Ad networks will continue to serve a valuable niche to the ecosystem, aggregating otherwise unsold (or undersold) inventory in an efficient manner, with cost-effective ways to reach large audiences. Traditional print publishers will continue to hold valuable inventory, but few will produce significant volumes of content to capture much market share. In total, by 2011, we expect online video to generate slightly more than $1 billion in net advertising revenues for video content. This represents a compounded annual growth rate of 36% for each year between 2006 and 2011.

Source: MAGNA. 2008 Growth Rate from Accustream

Source: MAGNA, US Census

Research finds females turned off by emails - Emailvision survey reveals just one in ten women actually read their email newsletters

2009-04-23T10:27:00.002+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

Women are only half as likely to read the email newsletters they receive and are more prone to cancel their subscriptions, according to research by Emailvision*.

A survey by the specialists in on-demand software for email marketing found that only one in ten women open and read their digital newsletters compared to one in five men The findings also showed that in the past 12-months more women (17%) than men (7%) had cancelled subscriptions to digital newsletters. Women cited cluttered inboxes as the main reason for opting out, while men found that content simply wasn’t relevant enough.

However, nine out of ten said they wanted to receive more personalised newsletters from their favourite brands incorporating individually tailored information. The more popular ones were tailored with at least a name and contained relevant discounts or offers.

“Consumers are spending much more cautiously in light of the recession and so brands must be smarter in the way they manage customer relations,” commented Nick Gold, UK managing director, Emailvision. “Personalised content is the key to more targeted interaction, and will not only help build trust between customer and brand, but also improve the opportunities to cross-sell products or services.”

As a result of the findings and drawing on experiences from within their UK client base, Emailvision has outlined five basic steps to getting it right with gender targeting in email marketing:

1. Know the gender of your database – working out the gender might not be too difficult on your database if you have the ‘title’ field filled in and can differentiate between Mr and Mrs. But what about Doctor? Or if the field is left blank?

2. Start from the beginning - do you have a mandatory gender field when customers sign up to your newsletters? This will save time and effort when you get to the stage of gender targeting.

3. Show your male recipients male product lines and female recipients female product lines – although it sounds simple enough, a more visually relevant email will have higher response rates. Product images can be pulled from website CRM systems as dynamic content.

4. Some e-tailers will often default to the female version of the email if the gender of the recipient isn’t known – however, having an action link at the top of the email with ‘Click here to view the male version’ to then swap to the male version of the email will raise response rates and show a much more personalised approach. Plus, this type of link will then automatically update the database for future campaigns.

5. To really get it right with a personalised gender specific email, you need to do your research – one client surveyed their entire database to get real feedback of how their customers would like to be addressed and targeted – open rates soared when they implemented the popular and more formal ‘Dear Mr/Mrs Last Name’ rather than the ‘To Firstname’ that had been historically used.

*Survey based on responses from 300 consumers in the UK, April 2009

Companies invest heavily in search marketing as they continue to reap good returns

2009-04-23T10:27:00.000+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

London, 23 April 2009:

Companies are continuing to invest in search marketing as both paid and natural search channels continue to deliver, according to a report published today by Econsultancy and Guava.

Search engine optimisation (SEO or natural search) is the digital channel where companies are most likely to be investing more budget, with 55% of respondents expecting an increase in their budgets this year. Just under a third of respondents (31%) say that SEO spending will stay the same and only 6% say there will be decreased investment.

The research also found that 45% of responding organisations are planning to increas their budgets for paid search. Only 11% of respondents say they are decreasing their spend on pay-per-click marketing, for reasons which include click cost inflation and lower conversion rates caused by the credit crunch.

The picture is less positive for online display advertising, although there are still more organisations (24%) who are increasing budgets than there are companies cutting back (16%).

The third annual UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, based on a survey of more than 800 company and agency digital marketers, gives a comprehensive overview of the search marketing landscape, and also includes research about the use of social media sites for marketing.

Twitter, in particular, has shown phenomenal growth since last year. Last year only 3% of responding organisations said that they were using Twitter in their marketing strategy, compared to an overwhelming 49% this year. Facebook is now being used by 65% of companies as part of their marketing efforts.

The study also found that just under half of company respondents (48%) report that SEO return on investment (ROI) has gone up in the last year, compared to only 6% who say that ROI from this channel has gone down. For paid search, 43% report that ROI has increased compared to 15% who say that it has decreased.

The proportion of company respondents who say that they are tracking paid search return on investment effectively has increased from 33% last year to 45% in 2009. For SEO, there has been an even bigger increase (in those tracking ROI effectively), from 20% to 35%.

Linus Gregoriadis, Econsultancy’s Research Director, said: “Search marketers are still getting strong return on investment from paid search marketing despite the recession, increased competition and click cost inflation. This research provides more proof that companies are turning to digital channels such as paid search and search engine optimisation where there is a measurable return on investment. Crucially, companies are also getting better at measuring their returns from search marketing which, in turn, is leading to more investment.”

He added: “The benefits of marketing on social media sites are not always as measurable but companies are increasingly experimenting with sites such as Facebook and Twitter as social media become more important.”

Lucy Cokes, Director at Guava, said: “We have been delighted by the response to the surveys and feel we have gone some way to achieving our aim of providing the most comprehensive and useful piece of year-on-year search engine marketing research in the UK. At Guava we predict that social media marketing will move from an integrated part of our SEO campaigns to being delivered as a standalone service. This will change will occur over the coming year as larger companies want to take more control of this element of their marketing.”

Other findings:

It is clear that Google remains king, with 85% of responding companies utilising the search engine for paid search. 94% of agencies say their clients typically pay to advertise on Google.

Approximately half as many responding organisations (44%) use Yahoo, whilst a third (30%) are using Live (Microsoft’s platform). Yahoo has taken the biggest hit since last year’s survey, with 5% fewer company marketers now using Yahoo for paid search. Similarly, 7% fewer agencies say their clients pay to advertise on Yahoo’s search results pages.

Only 5% of companies are paying to advertise on mobile search listings and, surprisingly, that percentage has not increased since last year although 23% are planning to do this. More than two thirds of respondents say this is either not on the radar yet (37%) or that they have no plans to use mobile search (32%).

Survey respondents were asked specifically about the factors which had negatively affected their return on investment from paid search in the last 12 months. The higher cost of clicks emerged as the most significant issue and CPC (cost-per-click) inflation is being driven both by increased competition and efforts by the search engines to extract as much profit as they can while still delivering return on investment.

Just over a third of respondents (37%) said that the credit crunch was explicitly an issue and a similar proportion (34%) said that lower conversion rates were negatively impacting ROI. These factors are very closely related.

Only 5% of respondents report that the end of best practice funding has negatively impacted their return on investment. The change in Google’s trademark bidding policy has had more of an impact, with 15% of company respondents citing this as a negative factor affecting ROI.

The full E-consultancy / Guava UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmarking Report 2009

ONLINE ENGAGEMENT DEEPENS AS SOCIAL MEDIA AND VIDEO SITES RESHAPE THE INTERNET, NIELSEN REPORTS . Social media, search and video will bolster online a

2009-04-22T10:37:00.000+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

SAN FRANCISCO, CA April 22, 2009 –Online engagement by Internet users is deepening, according to a new report on the online landscape released today by The Nielsen Company. This increased engagement is in part a result of a shift toward video content and social networking as popular online subcategories. The full report was distributed at the ad:tech conference in San Francisco, CA.

“The Internet remains a place of continuing innovation, with users finding new ways to integrate online usage into their daily lives,” said Charles Buchwalter, SVP, Research and Analytics, Nielsen Online. “In recent years the Internet has changed dramatically as people seek more personalized relationships online. In particular, time spent on social networks and video sites has increased astronomically. Advertisers are starting to positively re-assess the value of the online experience and create more meaningful relationships with consumers.”

Since 2003, interests of the average online user have shifted significantly. Categories that consisted of portal-oriented browsing sites, such as Shopping Directories and Guides and Internet Tools/Web Services, used to be the top categories for user engagement. However, today the active Internet user tends to prefer sites that contain more specialized content. This change in preferences is seen in the fact that video and social networking sites have moved to the forefront, becoming the two fastest growing categories in 2009.

Audience Utilities, Video and Social MediaPage 2Nielsen NetView, Combined Home and Work, Excluding ApplicationsSegment2/03 vs2/092/08 vs2/09Video339%8%Member Communities87%11%Search50%4%E-mail76%3%Percent Change by SegmentAudience by SubcategoryNovember 2007: First month that video audience exceed e-mail audience Page 2 of 3

Highlights of the report regarding the two fastest growing subcategories — online video and social networks – include:

• The number of American users frequenting online video destinations has climbed 339 percent since 2003.

• Time spent on video sites has shot up almost 2,000 percent over the same period.

• In the last year alone, unique viewers of online video grew 10 percent, the number of streams grew 41 percent, the streams per user grew 27 percent and the total minutes engaged with online video grew 71 percent.

• There are 87 percent more online social media users now than in 2003, with 883 percent more time devoted to those sites.

• In the last year alone, time spent on social networking sites has surged 73 percent.

• In February, social network usage exceeded Web-based e-mail usage for the first time.

Online Advertising Down–But Not Out

With the global recession in full swing, online display advertising has plateaued at 20 percent of total online ad spend in the U.S. In particular spending on online display advertising by financial services, automobile and retail companies has declined steeply. On the other hand, several key, heavy ad-spending industries such as healthcare, consumer products and telecommunications appear to be moving even more spending online.

Share of Online Image-Based Advertising Impressions by Industry

Source: Nielsen AdRelevance, U.S. Page 3 of 3

The longer-term prospects for global online advertising continue to be brighter, Nielsen reported:

• Led by social media, search and video, the Internet’s share of total ad spend will continue its steady upward trend as global economies emerge from the current recession.

• Given the increased focus on digital marketing by leading packaged goods companies, the Internet’s share of commerce will continue to rise as well.

• Marketers are being forced to adapt to social networking capabilities. In the age of Twitter, feedback barriers have all but disappeared, creating a near friction-free environment for playing back brand experience, campaign reactions or brand events. Recent public cases involving Motrin, Amazon, and Domino’s show that marketers must be quick and savvy to react to these unprecedented channels of instant feedback.

• 30 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers recalled seeing some form of advertising while using their mobile phones, up from 18 percent one year prior.

Social media, search and video will bolster online advertising spend in 2009

Eventbyråerna omsatte 7 miljarder kronor under 2008

2009-04-20T10:39:00.000+02:00

Swedish language

Publ. by www.redviking.se

IRM har tidigare enbart mätt event marketing i externt marknadsföringssyfte men har nu

tillsammans med Sponsrings & Eventföreningen även inkluderat en fråga om företagsinterna

event så kallade corporate events. Resultatet blir att branschen beräknades omsätta 7

miljarder kronor under 2008.

20 april 2009

http://www.irm-media.se/irm/(qooiugvei4hccs55muzfpr45)/pdf_public/pressmeddelande_eventbyraer_2008_.pdf

61% of marketers have not changed marketing strategies in a recession

2009-04-16T10:40:00.000+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

Marketing automation leader Eloqua has revealed that 61 percent of marketers have not changed marketing strategy in the recession. The research conducted at the recent Technology for Marketing & Advertising conference in London highlights key trends for the B2B marketing industry and challenges preventing its growth. Budget cuts (40 percent), a lack of industry understanding (19 percent) and lack of integration between teams (17 percent) are highlighted as key challenges that must be overcome if the industry is to succeed in the recession.

Interestingly, the majority of respondents surveyed believe that nurturing and converting sales inquiries into qualified leads is more important than generating new leads in B2B marketing campaigns. Notably, half of respondents currently have a marketing automation system in place, but only 6 percent of respondents named raw lead generation as the most important component of their sales and marketing campaign. The survey also discovered that a third of the marketers didn’t know how many of their marketing leads turn into buyers, while more than 75 percent said more effective measurement would make their business more competitive.

The results support the strategies outlined in Eloqua’s new whitepaper entitled “The Springboard Effect,” which details the importance of increasing conversion rates through the marketing and sales pipeline and how businesses can leverage marketing automation techniques to enhance ROI from sales and marketing campaigns and emerge stronger after a recession.

“During economic downturns, far too many organizations spend time agonizing over where to cut back in order to recession-proof their business. Historically, the budget axe would often strike hardest in marketing because of its perceived function as a pure cost center,” said Brian Kardon, chief marketing office, Eloqua. “The results from our survey reinforce what many of today’s business leaders understand – never before has it been more important for marketing organizations to invest in solutions that enable them to better understand and track their prospects’ ‘Digital Body Language.’ Programmes and processes that manage, nurture, automate and deliver a greater number of qualified leads to sales are invaluable in protecting and growing the bottom line.”

Eloqua’s survey also found that 41 percent of marketing executives reported that their sales and marketing organizations are not currently aligned. “In a tight economy, the need for a smooth hand-off of leads from marketing to sales becomes even more critical. Eloqua delivers seamless integration between sales and marketing databases as well as lead routing processes that facilitate the most efficient follow up and effective results,” continued Kardon.

The research also highlights that email marketing is set to be the biggest growth channel for B2B marketers in 2009, followed by direct mail and real time lead generation.

For more examples of how businesses can strategically optimize their marketing and sales activities to create a competitive advantage, download a free copy of “The Springboard Effect”

Increasing Prevalence of Virtual Workplaces Boosts Prospects for the World Unified Communications Markets

2009-04-14T10:41:00.000+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - April 14, 2009 -

With large, small, and medium enterprises expanding their field of operations, united communications (UC) will assume an increasingly significant role in the future. The technology enables deeper levels of interaction among vast and disparate groups of remote workers, partners, suppliers, and customers. The complete UC user installed base is likely to grow from about 520,000 users in 2008 to about 43 million users in 2014.That market earned revenues of over $71.0 million in 2008 and estimates this to reach $1.8 billion in 2014.

“UC streamlines business processes and helps reduce costs, grow revenues, and improve customer satisfaction by providing users with a unified access and presence across various communications applications,” says Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst Melanie Turek. “However, the investment in both the software and the services required to unify all the components may be substantial, posing a major challenge to vendors to provide strong return on investment (ROI) evidence to their customers in order to drive adoption in tough economic times.”

In the light of the economic circumstances, UC offers the ability to achieve cost cutting by providing an advanced conferencing platform integrated through presence with other communication methods. When businesses invest in various communication applications three to four years down the line, integration with business process applications will provide the key ROI incentive for the continued growth of the UC market. However, it is difficult to justify UC deployments by employing traditional ROI methods.

“Soft benefits are hard to sell in a tough economy and hard-dollar benefits are dependent on a number of factors such as installed infrastructure and ability to invest in additional applications,” explains Turek. “Also, vendors are not yet delivering products that are interoperable out of the box and universal presence federation is years away.” Extensive efforts are required for UC solutions upon deployment. The host of platforms, applications, and services that need to be integrated come from different vendors, and interoperability, even when officially guaranteed, is rarely seamless and plug-and-play. Trends indicate that companies will continue to follow a “stepped” approach to implementation, which will involve the deployment of elements of a complete UC suite one or two at a time over several years.

“Prominent participants in this arena are investing heavily on UC development and marketing, providing strong market momentum,” explains Frost & Sullivan Global Program Director Elka Popova. “Vendor’s success will depend heavily on their capacity to pursue open standards-based solutions that facilitate interoperability out of the box, paving the way for best-of-breed deployments and investment protection.”

It is imperative for vendors to be articulate when defining products in their portfolios and go all out to meet customer criteria for UC. Forging partnerships with competitors and ancillary participants will help to firmly establish and defend market foothold. Essentially, vendors must offer a complete range of reliable and scalable solutions to help customers deploy solutions ideally suited to their particular business needs and generate new high-margin services.

Worls Unified Communication Markets

20 Percent of Commercial E-Mail Market Will Be Using a SaaS Platform By the End of 2012

2009-04-07T10:43:00.000+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

STAMFORD, Conn., April 7, 2009 —

The Software as a Service (SaaS) model for e-mail solutions is proving attractive for many customers and will represent 20 percent of the commercial e-mail market by the end of 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2007, the SaaS e-mail market represented 1 percent of the commercial e-mail market.

Gartner analysts said that the impact of the SaaS model for e-mail will have direct and material consequences for traditional third-party product vendors, effectively cutting the addressable market for traditional third-party applications by one-fifth. However, by 2012, the move to the SaaS model for e-mail will create opportunities for new third-party applications.

“The lost opportunity to the traditional third-party market may be more than 20 percent because the earliest adopters of the e-mail SaaS model are small or midsize businesses (SMBs), which can represent up to 40 percent of the market when measured by the number of companies which are likely prospects,” said Matt Cain, research vice president at Gartner. “However, SMBs are less likely to buy third-party tools compared to larger organizations.”

According to Gartner, there are four general categories within the third-party community for e-mail services that will be affected to a greater or lesser extent by the move to the SaaS model for e-mail.

Applications Core to Running Premises-Based E-mail Examples include disaster recovery, reporting, backup, spam and virus filtering. In this case, the need for most third-party management applications goes away in a SaaS deployment as the vendor provides all core level two and three help desk duties, supplies all required services for redundancy and recovery, provides all reporting options, performs all version upgrade functions, and protects the perimeter with its own spam and virus filters.

Applications That Extend the Core Services of the E-mail Platform Examples include mobility, fax, archive and encryption. Most SaaS vendors offer archive and encryption services, although they may source them from a third party. Fax services can fare better; in some cases a native SaaS implementation exists, and in others, customer-side fax services will be integrated with a SaaS system.

Client-Side Applications Examples include PST management and e-mail efficiency add-ins. There will be no immediate impact on vendors that work on the client side of the e-mail SaaS equation because the present paradigm is for rich clients to access SaaS resources. The longer-term concern, however, is that the prevalent storage model will move from the client (PST) to a server side storage model — hence eliminating the need for PST management tools altogether — and the default access mechanism moves to the browser, away from “fat” client access. A continued market for e-mail efficiency add-ins is likely, but vendors would need to shift browser plug-ins.

Applications Needed for SaaS Implementations Examples include premises and SaaS management tools and premises-to-SaaS migration tools. This is where the move to the SaaS model will create some new demands for third-party tools as companies look for tools that help them perform single seat management and provisioning of premises-based and SaaS services, known as a hybrid model. There are also opportunities for vendors to facilitate migration from the premises to the SaaS platform — an area ripe for exploration by third parties.

Mr. Cain said that other opportunities for third parties will be via acquisition by SaaS vendors, which will fill in missing platform gaps as has already been the case with Google and Postini, Cisco and Ironport, and Microsoft and Frontbridge.

There will also be an impact on the hardware market; 20 percent fewer on-premises e-mail seats will mean fewer sales opportunities for server vendors, and SaaS providers are likely to build their own servers and/or move to a single source model.

“To a certain extent, this winnowing of opportunities for third parties in the e-mail market has been under way ever since Microsoft’s Exchange 2007 incorporated features such as virus and spam blocking, voice mail and disaster recovery, which had previously been addressed only by third parties,” said Mr. Cain. “In many ways, e-mail is the “litmus test” for the SaaS model, disrupting a pre-existing set on on-premises-related businesses. We can expect similar third-party dynamics to occur in adjacent collaboration spaces, such as instant messaging and virtual workspaces.”

“E-Mail SaaS Threatens Third-Party Vendors.”

IT Buyer Best Practices at Small Businesses

2009-04-06T10:44:00.000+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., April 6, 2008 – Under increasing economic pressure, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the U.S. are using more diverse information sources to first learn about IT products, technologies, and suppliers and, once aware, gather more information. Despite the growing use of the Internet as a source of information, a trend that will continue, word of mouth still receives high mentions by SMBs, according to a new IDC study.

“A major challenge for providers of advanced technology products and services is how best to reach the 7.9 million SMBs in the United States,” said Merle Sandler, research manager for SMB Programs at IDC. “SMBs use multiple information sources, so technology providers need to develop an effective promotional portfolio to ensure visibility in the places where SMBs turn for IT information, bearing in mind that their preferences vary by business size, vertical industry, and attitude cluster.”

Among key highlights of IDC’s research are the following:

Word of mouth is most often cited by small businesses (SBs) and medium-sized businesses (MBs) as how they initially become aware of IT products, technology, and suppliers. However, vendor Web sites and word of mouth tie for first place as a source of more detailed information for both SBs and MBs.
SMBs differ far more by vertical industry than they do by company size regarding places where they become aware of technology as well as sources for more detailed information. Communications firms cite the highest average number of sources, while banking/finance firms averaged the lowest.
SMBs differ a great deal by cluster regarding the information sources that they utilize.. A well above average share of SMB 2.0 firms mention online sources for both becoming aware of and gathering IT information.

IDC’s study, http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp;jsessionid=SDI2CX5S4IV2KCQJAFDCFFAKBEAVAIWD?containerId=prUS21778809

The Sky’s the Limit for Cloud Computing

2009-04-03T10:45:00.000+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

An estimated 1.6 billion people now use the Internet, according to Advanced Micro Devices Inc., every last one a potential subscriber to cloud computing services. But can cloud computing overcome concerns regarding security, functionality and availability to achieve its vast potential?

As the Internet moves into the era of dynamic, user-generated and alterable content, the acceptance of cloud computing will rise, according to iSuppli Corp.

‘The cloud,’ is a modern phrase for the online world, describing a system that allows content or services to be accessed from the Internet using devices located anywhere in the world. Such devices include PCs, mobile phones and video game consoles.

iSuppli defines cloud computing as the provision of a service to a user, beyond simple file storage, a feature known as cloud storage. Such cloud-computing services integrate a number of features and functions controlled by users, such that at the end of the activity, by employing the application or service, the user has solved a problem, or created, modified, enhanced and/or saved a file. iSuppli believes that as cloud computing evolves, the definition will evolve.

Cloud computing services had their genesis in the business world, allowing the use of information and data to be shared with employees regardless of physical location, and updated when needed. But in the consumer market, such services are new, and currently growing in number and popularity.

An example of a well-liked business-focused cloud computing application is Google Docs, an online program that allows users to create, save, and store word processing, spreadsheet and presentation files. A popular consumer-focused cloud storage application is Flickr, the online photo storage service.

“Social networking websites blur the line between cloud computing and cloud storage, because they offer a variety of services, including online storage, blogging, contact networking and instant- and non-instant messaging,” said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst, compute platforms, for iSuppli.

“However, when consumers and businesses consider the use of cloud computing, they harbor legitimate concerns in the areas of security, functionality and availability.”

Security issues take the form of controlling access to the application and its files. Functionality centers on exactly what tasks users are able to accomplish with an application. Availability issues concern the minimization of downtime, because an online service is non-existent when offline.

Where functionality is similar or the same, online applications compete with offline applications, whereby an offline application competes directly with a particular PC application. For example, Google Docs compares to Microsoft Office.

Ironically, the primary enabler for consumer cloud computing services—Internet bandwidth—is also the primary inhibitor, as it almost completely dictates the type of cloud application the user can run.

Despite concerns and inhibitors, cloud computing holds strong promise for global Internet users, iSuppli believes.

Clouds Over Cloud Storage

While cloud computing holds strong potential, the sky has become partly cloudy for the distinct but related area of cloud storage.

For small and medium businesses, cloud storage offers an attractive way to save valuable digital data, doubling as a storage server and a backup system. With cloud storage, there is no need to maintain a RAID based server, to rebuild and replace hard drives or to run maintenance and diagnostics when glitches occur.

For consumers, cloud storage represents a new way to back up data, especially family photos, music and other critical data. Among corporate road warriors, cloud storage is a major technique to share common files over the net and work on a collaborative basis with other employees in a company. Last, but not least, cloud storage enables users to buy value notebooks that come with limited storage.

However, the atmosphere for cloud storage has become somewhat chillier during the last 12 months.

“During the past year, the economic recession has led to a shrinkage of available amount of excess capacity in data centers that could be leased out for use as cloud storage,” noted Krishna Chander, senior analyst, storage devices, for iSuppli.

News has circulated that Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard are pulling out of the online storage market. On the other hand, amidst these pull outs, the previously rumored news that Google may enter this market with its G-Drive has reemerged.

Beyond the economic downturn, another factor is slowing demand for cloud computing: the abundance of external storage solutions that can be attached to their PCs using USB interfaces. External hard drives ranging in capacities of 250Gbyte to 2Tbyte are available from retail stores and e-tailers and are priced attractively around 10 cents per gigabyte. Given this alternate option, consumers are more hesitant to adopt an online storage scheme.

This raises a question: should Google continue to be developing its G-Drive strategy?

The potential revenue for Cloud Storage is estimated to rise to about $5.8 billion by 2013, climbing steadily at a pace of about 64 percent from $487 million in 2008. However, if consumers take the external storage alternative, cloud storage revenue will amount to only half that level by 2013.

The total number of worldwide users for online storage could rise to about 729 million in 2013. However, if there is a greater uptake of external storage, the user population will amount to only about 445 million in 2013, down about 40 percent from the more optimistic outlook.

“Service providers need to come up with creative ideas to entice new consumers to stay or to renew their cloud storage subscriptions,” Chander added. The Sky’s the Limit for Cloud Computing

Adoption of SaaS Applications Is Significantly Higher in Companies in France and the UK, Compared to Germany

2009-03-30T10:48:00.000+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

Egham, UK, March 30, 2009

CRM Is The Most Popular SaaS Application in All Three countries

Companies in France and the UK are significantly ahead of those in Germany in terms of adoption of software as a service (SaaS) applications, according to a recent survey* by Gartner, Inc. However, Gartner said that the responses from German organisations suggest that the difference in adoption levels will shrink if users follow through on their plans for SaaS adoption in 2009.

Seventy one per cent of French survey respondents said that their organisation currently uses SaaS for enterprise applications, compared to 68 per cent in the UK and 45 per cent in Germany. The survey also looked at actual levels of SaaS use compared with the number of employees an organisation could have using SaaS. The results showed higher levels of usage and adoption were indicated in France.

The survey findings on the length of time that SaaS applications have been in use across the three countries further indicated that France has a slight lead in terms of adoption. Only 4 per cent of French respondents said that they had used SaaS applications for less than a year, compared with 17 per cent in the UK and 21 per cent in Germany. This runs slightly counter to the traditional assumption that the UK is more advanced in terms of SaaS adoption.

“We believe that North American vendors have enjoyed greater success in the UK because less effort is required to localise products and sales and marketing strategies,” said Chris Pang, principal research analyst at Gartner. “However, other European countries are also willing adopters of SaaS applications and that international vendors not already active in the French and German markets should certainly investigate opportunities for growth here.”

Overall, customer relationship management (CRM) is the most popular SaaS application across the three countries, ahead of enterprise resource planning (ERP); content communications and collaboration (CCC); and supply chain management (SCM). Gartner said that CRM’s popularity is likely a result of the media exposure of high-profile vendors such as salesforce.com. In addition, CRM SaaS applications tend to cover a wider range of functions in common processes, such as sales automation, marketing automation and customer service support whereas SaaS applications such as ERP, CCC and SCM tend to focus on specific areas of business process support such as expense management, talent management, recruitment, web conferencing and procurement.

“While there are many more vendors offering SaaS for applications other than CRM, their media exposure has generally been less conspicuous,” said Mr Pang. “Nevertheless, the penetration and use of ERP, CCC and SCM applications should not be underestimated. Many businesses already use some of these applications within a part of their organisation, and vendors looking to sell SaaS applications should find that most businesses are now more open to using SaaS than they were five years ago.”

Regarding motivations for using or considering using SaaS in 2009, respondents were united in choosing SaaS primarily because they considered it more cost-effective than an on-premises application. Other reasons included ease of deployment and internal resource constraints. More than 50 per cent of the survey respondents saw SaaS as a viable alternative to an existing on-premises solution and 40 per cent saw SaaS as a complementary addition to their IT environments.

“The survey results clearly indicate that adoption of SaaS application software in three of the largest country markets in Europe continues to evolve and that opportunities for SaaS application software vendors are still present,” said Mr Pang. “End-user organisations will focus even harder on TCO (total cost of ownership), return on investment and rapidity of deployment issues in the current recessionary environment. The good news is that, to varying degrees, SaaS can confer advantages in each of these areas.”

Gartner press release

Worldwide Enterprise Software Market to Experience Flat Growth in 2009

2009-03-30T10:47:00.000+02:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

STAMFORD, Conn., March 30, 2009

Enterprise Software Revenue Forecast for 2009 is $222.6 Billion .

Worldwide enterprise software revenue is forecast to total $222.6 billion in 2009, reflecting a “flat” 0.3 percent growth rate from 2008 revenue of $221.9 billion, according to Gartner, Inc.

Analysts said that despite an unsettled outlook, the enterprise software market has the potential to weather the current economic downturn better than in 2001 and 2002 because market conditions are dramatically different in terms of maturity, penetration, confidence in IT, and the geographical and vertical mix.

“The fourth quarter of 2008 was the turning point in creating an uneasy selling environment that may usher in several difficult quarters for the enterprise software markets,” said Tom Eid, research vice president at Gartner. “Current expectations are for a slow economic recovery, mirrored by software spending upturn starting no earlier than the first half of 2010.”

Despite the economic gloom and uncertain future, Garner analysts said that software vendors that have a balanced mix of channel, new license and maintenance revenue streams, and flexibility on contractual terms (such as software as a service [SaaS], open source and outsourcing) have the strongest options for continued growth. Larger vendors may be less vulnerable as they have both a good geographic balance and a sizeable maintenance stream and can bundle and price aggressively to gain a greater share of software budgets.

“All geographies felt the impact to some degree of a slowdown in software spending in the fourth quarter of 2008 and will again through 2009,” said Fabrizio Biscotti, research director at Gartner. “Most mature countries will feel the greatest impact, while emerging regions will also have slower growth rates than previously forecast, in particular Eastern Europe whose prospects have been deteriorating remarkably.”

This year, the bulk of enterprise software segments are still anticipated to have mildly positive growth rates. However, some of the largest segments such as operating systems, office suites, middleware, storage and digital content creation are forecast to have negative growth rates. Appliances, an emerging way of combining hardware with essential software functionality, are set to be on the forefront of growth alongside software markets including hierarchical storage management and archive software, Web conferencing, and security information and event management.

“In general, we anticipate a wave of interest around technologies that can help cost optimization. This will benefit alternative software acquisition models as organizations will look for ways to shift spending from capital expenditures to operating expenditures,” Mr. Biscotti said. “As a consequence, vendors offering software as a service (SaaS), IT asset management, virtualization capabilities and an ability to leverage open-source software will benefit.”

Partnerships will also become extremely important as the need to be more geographically dispersed and more vertically integrated increases. Aligning with partners that can provide local knowledge or industry insight will be a considerable differentiator.

Mr. Eid said that vendors need to be mindful of the fact that although all regions will experience the economic slowdown, some will still bear more opportunities than others. He advised vendors to consider further diversifying their go-to-market strategy across geographies and vertical industries to mitigate the effects of the economic downturn.

Gartner press release

Free content is main lure for Western Europeans watching video online

2009-03-26T11:20:00.000+01:00

February 26, 2009

Adoption of online video has increased in Europe, but international research firm Parks Associates reports that the vast majority of usage is not generating any direct revenues. The firm, which recently released the white paper 31% of broadband households in Western Europe have downloaded a movie or TV show for free in the last six months while only 8% of households have paid for an Internet download.

See The Impact of Online Video in Europe,

“While you always expect free to outpace for-pay offerings, the real problem emerges for content and solution providers when analyzing consumers’ preferred means of watching video,” said John Barrett, director, research, Parks Associates. “Over 80% of broadband households prefer traditional options for viewing video, including going to the cinema or watching a DVD. Since so many users are watching online video only because it is free, they will likely step away from the computer if they have to start paying for it.”

The Impact of Online Video in Europe,

11 Cost Optimisation Options for German CIOs to Consider in 2009

2009-03-26T11:02:00.000+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

Egham, UK, March 26, 2009

As German buyers slow their decision-making processes and IT investments, Gartner, Inc. has identified 11 options for German CIOs to optimise their IT investments in 2009.

“We expect IT services spending in Germany to slow down to € 33.8 billion total spend in 2009, with growth reducing from 4.4 per cent in 2008 to 2.6 per cent in 2009. German CIOs need to deliver immediate economic value through cost optimisation initiatives in 2009,” said Michael von Uechtritz, research director at Gartner, based in Dusseldorf.

These initiatives include options for IT services, business process improvement and IT technologies.

Three Options for IT Services:

1- Renegotiate Outsourcing of IT Services – Renegotiations often result in cost savings of as much as 20 per cent, according to Gartner. However, CIOs must understand that renegotiations involve concessions, such as less stringent service-level-agreements (SLAs) and that premium service levels will not have a bottom line impact, although lowering service levels and/or pricing can help achieve cost optimisation.

2- Increased use of Offshore Resources – In a recent Gartner user survey, 29 per cent of German buyers stated that they would never consider using offshore services as an option, much higher than the European average of 17 per cent. However, Gartner said that the value of increased use of offshore resources can go beyond cost optimisation by offloading core competencies and allowing German-based experts to concentrate on innovation and customers.

3- Save on IT Consulting Contracts – German CIOs should be considering different alternatives to get more value from IT consulting contracts, which, in turn will boost performance and impact the bottom line. For example, organisations can immediately optimise costs if they procure consulting services differently. Gartner estimates that organisations can optimise costs by 10 per cent, if they bundle outsourcing agreements, ease project refinancing, reduce financial risk, increase economic returns and increase competitive pressures on suppliers through shorter-term, rather than longer-term, commitments made by the consulting service provider.

Two Options for Business Process Improvement:

1- Finance and Accounting Business Process Outsourcing – Business process outsourcing (BPO) of finance and accounting (F&A) services represents a significant cost saving opportunity for business and IT buyers. Gartner estimates that around half of Western European buyers of F&A BPO services saved up to 20 per cent in costs, illustrating the value that CIOs in Germany could achieve through outsourcing these business processes.

2- HR BPO – Seventy-eight per cent of global buyers of HR BPO achieved up to 10 per cent cost savings.

Six Options for IT technologies:

1- Cloud Computing – Through cloud computing, German CIOs can quickly leverage highly scalable IT-based competencies and capabilities as a service. Cloud computing also offers CIOs the opportunity to optimise costs in server procurement, licensing and data centre energy supply.

2- Multicore Server – The integration of several processors with generally the same clock speed in a single server unit offers additional value. As such, German CIOs can rapidly change their IT performance approach from capacity-based cost calculations to a per-thread basis and shrink the application lifecycle.

3- User Interface – Although it is difficult to evaluate the economic advantages of introducing innovative user interface technologies, businesses will benefit from improved Web presence, social values and the cost advantages associated with improved efficiencies and lower support costs.

4- Virtualisation – German CIOs will find value from virtualisation as it delivers innovative IT infrastructures with enhanced flexibility and additional cost-saving opportunities in energy and facilities. It can also boost corporate social responsibility efforts through reduced CO2 emissions.

5- Communications and Mobility – German CIOs could optimise costs by investing in technologies that improve the efficiency of fixed and mobile communications technologies. For example, the introduction of thin client mobile applications for various types of mobile devices helps to make the mobile Web cost-effective. This will be the key business-to-employee and business-to-consumer technology in the future.

6- Open-Source Business Intelligence - German CIOs are advised to always subscribe to the fee-based service agreements to guarantee product support. Larger vendors have reasonable support structures, while some open-source BI projects are solely supported by the open-source community. Open-source BI delivers German CIOs an immediate cost advantage through optimised software licensing costs.

“Cost optimisation options are not expense-free and usually require an upfront investment to realise the economic benefits,” said Mr von Uechtritz. “Overall German CIOs should think long term, even when they plan tactical moves to optimise costs during the current downturn. Any tactical changes should strengthen an overall plan for long-term strategic business growth and improve market competitiveness so that the organisation emerges from recession even stronger.”

German Perspective: 11 Options to Optimize IT Costs in 2009.

Worldwide Cloud Services Revenue Will Grow 21.3 Percent in 2009

2009-03-26T11:01:00.000+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

STAMFORD, Conn., March 26, 2009

Cloud Services to Be Discussed at Gartner Outsourcing Summits Being Held in Las Vegas, London and Tokyo. Worldwide cloud services revenue is on pace to surpass $56.3 billion in 2009, a 21.3 percent increase from 2008 revenue of $46.4 billion, according to Gartner, Inc. The market is expected to reach $150.1 billion in 2013.

“Cloud computing is a broad and diverse phenomenon. Much of the growth represents a transfer of traditional IT services to the new cloud model, but there is also scope for creation of substantial new businesses and revenue streams,” said Ben Pring, research vice president for Gartner. “Cloud computing enables a shift in IT provision from direct purchase and payment for services to provision of services which are free at point of use and where revenue is derived from advertising. Services supported by advertising are currently, and will remain, the largest component of the overall cloud services market through 2013.”

Cloud computing is a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are provided “as a service” to external customers using Internet technologies.

Business processes delivered as cloud services are the largest segment of the overall cloud services market, accounting for 83 percent of the overall market in 2008. The segment, consisting of cloud-based advertising, e-commerce, human resources and payments processing, is forecast to grow 19.8 percent in 2009 to $46.6 billion, up from $38.9 billion in 2008.

The largest component of the overall cloud services market is cloud-based advertising. This component represented 60 percent of the market in 2008 with revenue of $28 billion and is forecast to reach $33 billion, and make up 58 percent of the overall market in 2009. This reflects the success of Google in creating a new business and delivery model for IT-based services, which is being emulated by Yahoo, Microsoft and others.

“Advertising as a cloud service is the capability to deliver advertising where the content and the fee charged are determined at the time of end-user access, usually by an auction mechanism that matches bidders with spots as they become available,” said Mr. Pring. “We expect cloud-based advertising to continue to reshape and redefine the advertising and media markets over the next few years.”

While much of the publicity for cloud computing currently centers on systems infrastructure delivered as a service, this is still an early-stage market. In 2008, such services accounted for only 5.5 percent of the overall cloud services market and are expected to account for 6 percent of the market in 2009. Infrastructure services revenue was $2.5 billion in 2008 and is forecast to reach $3.2 billion in 2009.

“Cloud-based infrastructure services are expected to see significant adoption through 2013,” said Mr. Pring. “This segment probably has the largest range of possible outcomes, depending on how aggressively cloud computing is embraced by the major outsourcing vendors and their customers.”

Cloud application services, evolving from software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings, were almost twice as large as the market for systems infrastructure and will continue to show strong growth. Not all current SaaS offerings qualify as cloud services based on scaling constraints and lack of true multitenancy capability. Over the next five years an increasing array of application functionality will become available as cloud services to supplement those from current cloud application vendors.

“The IT market trends for the next couple of years remain highly uncertain. While short-term growth is expected to be inhibited, the potentially lower cost of cloud services is attractive to customers and will drive growth for these offerings,” said Mr. Pring. “While that growth for many of these cloud services will be relatively modest through the next two years, we expect it to accelerate as these approaches prove themselves and then benefit from increased spending levels as macroeconomic conditions improve.”

Forecast: Sizing the Cloud; Understanding the Opportunities in Cloud Services”

Four Ways in Which Enterprises Are Using Twitter. By 2011, Enterprise Microblogging Will Be a Standard Feature on 80 Percent of Social Software Platfo

2009-03-26T10:58:00.001+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

STAMFORD, Conn., March 26, 2009

As businesses struggle to consider the uses of microblogging platforms such as Twitter in the workplace, Gartner, Inc. has highlighted the four ways in which organizations are using Twitter.

“Despite the fact that Twitter is primarily aimed at individual users in the consumer market, many of those individuals work for companies and ‘tweet’ about business issues, leading businesses to explore how they could best use it,” said Jeffrey Mann, research vice president at Gartner.

“In general, Twitter usage by employees should be covered by existing Web participation guidelines,” Mr. Mann said. “As Twitter is a public forum, employees should understand the limits of what is acceptable and desirable. It is good practice to remind employees that the policies already in place apply to this new communication forum, as well. If organizations have not defined a public Web participation policy, they should do so as quickly as possible.”

Twitter allows users to post short, 140 character updates, on what they are doing right now. Users distribute quick thoughts, news and ideas, and this broadcast element of Twitter has led this type of service to be called microblogging, as each individual message (called a “tweet”) can be considered a very small blog post. Users select other “Twitterers” to follow or receive their messages in close to real time.

Gartner analysts predict that by 2011, enterprise microblogging will be a standard feature of 80 percent of social software platforms on the market. While other consumer microblogging platforms exist (such as Plurk, Jaiku, and Identi.ca), Twitter is the most popular.

Twitter is primarily aimed at individuals, so it is not imperative for every corporation to be actively participating at an official level. However, the popular impact of microblogging is leading many companies to explore how they could use it. In addition to the individual use of Twitter, Gartner has identified four different ways in which companies are making use of the Twitter application: direct, indirect, internal, and signaling.

Direct — The company uses Twitter as a marketing or public relations channel Many companies have established Twitter identities as part of their corporate communications strategies, much like corporate blogs. They Tweet about corporate accomplishments, distributing links to press releases or promotional Web sites, and respond to other Twitterers’ comments about the brand. Gartner maintains that this approach should be used with caution because uninteresting or self-serving Tweets could hinder the brand image as much as it could help. Responding to comments can be particularly risky, as the anonymous nature of Twitter can easily descend into a negative spiral. Gartner recommends that at a minimum, companies should register Twitter IDs for their major brand names to prevent others claiming them and using them inappropriately.

Indirect — The company’s employees use Twitter to enhance and extend their personal reputations, thereby enhancing the company’s reputation Good Twitterers enhance their personal reputation by saying clever, interesting things, attracting many followers who go on to read their blogs. As people enhance their personal brands, some of this inevitably rubs off on their employers. Twitter provides a way of raising the profile of both individuals and the organizations they work for, which elevates these companies that want to be seen to employ influential leaders.

Internal — Employees use the platform to communicate about what they are doing, projects they are working on and ideas that occur to them In most cases, Gartner does not recommend using Twitter or any other consumer microblogging service in this way, because there is no guarantee of security. It is crucial that employees understand the limitations of the platform and never discuss confidential matters, because as a seemingly innocuous Tweet about going to see a particular client can tip off a competitor. Other providers, such as Yammer and Present.ly, provide Twitter-like functions targeted at enterprise microblogging with more security and corporate control.

Inbound Signaling Twitter streams provide a rich source of information about what customers, competitors and others are saying about a company. Search tools like search.twitter.com or the twhirl application can scan for references to particular company or product names. Savvy companies use these signals to get early warnings of problems and collect feedback about product issues and new product ideas.

Four Ways in Which Enterprises are Using Twitter

Worldwide Hosted Virtual Desktop Market to Surpass $65 Billion in 2013

2009-03-26T10:57:00.000+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

STAMFORD, Conn., March 26, 2009

The worldwide hosted virtual desktop (HVD) market will accelerate through 2013 to reach 49 million units, up from more than 500,000 units in 2009, according to Gartner Inc. Worldwide HVD revenue will grow from about $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion in 2009, which is less than 1 percent of the worldwide professional PC market, to $65.7 billion in 2013, which will be equal to more than 40 percent of the worldwide professional PC market.

“PC vendors must prepare for the growth in demand for this client computing architecture by adjusting sales strategies and compensation models or they risk losing expenditure share with enterprise customers,” said Annette Jump, research director at Gartner. “Distributed computing has been the dominant client computing architecture for the past 15 to 20 years, but a number of changes in the way users can access applications and client computing capabilities are bringing a number of alternative architectures to the fore.

“Hosted virtual desktops are currently the most visible of these alternative architectures and HVD adoption is likely to be rapid during the next three to five years, particularly in mature markets where existing data center and network infrastructures will be used to offset the cost of entry,” said Brian Gammage, vice president and Gartner fellow.

This trend will have a major impact on the PC industry where enterprises that previously purchased high volumes of desktop PCs on a regular basis will now look to replace some desktop PCs with less-expensive devices and replace them less frequently. However, while PC hardware expenditure will fall in this scenario, these enterprises will require more servers, network bandwidth and software to support the new architectures.

Gartner estimates that approximately 15 percent of current worldwide traditional professional desktop PCs will migrate to HVDs by 2014, equal to about 66 million connected devices. The U.S. will reach double that of the worldwide average with over 18 million connected devices. After an initial slow start, the HVD market will rally in 2010 and 2011.

“Despite the further improvements in performance and manageability that are expected of HVDs in 2009, the current economic downturn is expected to inhibit the adoption of HVDs in the short term because HVD deployments require large upfront investments in server and network infrastructure,” Ms. Jump said. “Because of IT budget cuts, we expect many planned HVD implementations to be delayed from 2009 into 2010 and 2011.”

The current players in the HVD market come mainly from thin-client and virtualization IT areas. The largest PC vendors currently do not offer HVDs; however, some of them, such as HP and Dell, are looking to expand their presence in the segment beyond acting as hardware OEMs. Gartner expects that the HVD market will be heavily influenced by market leader VMware through 2012 and also predicts that Microsoft will become a HVD supplier in the next 18 to 24 months through its partnership with Citrix, which has the ability to offer a growing number of HVD components.

Ms Jump advised PC vendors looking to maintain their share in the professional desktop market to become solution providers and understand that the HVD solution goes beyond hardware sales. She said that to become a HVD supplier, PC vendors need to offer multiple components such as server virtualization software to host desktop software, session management software to connect users with their desktop environment and tools for managing the provision of virtual desktops.

“HVDs are part of a bigger shift in client computing from traditional thick-client distributed PCs toward more manageable, secure and centralized client computing environments among many large and midsize companies,” Mr. Gammage said. “To benefit from this shift, PC vendors don’t need to create or even own all the components themselves, but they do need to be able to sell solutions and not just a ‘bag of bits’.”

Gartner analysts said once PC vendors have the HVD solutions in place, they need to ensure that their direct sales force is fully briefed about HVD technology and the difference in value propositions versus traditional desktop PC sales as HVDs may not ultimately be appropriate for all business applications and/or users. At the same time, the channel will also need re-educating about components of HVD and selling HVD solutions. Alliances to promote and provide proper education about HVD solutions will help drive demand and growth for those solutions among business organizations.

Emerging Technology Analysis: Hosted Virtual Desktops

Newspaper Publishers Are Not Doing Enough to Take Advantage of the Social Power of Their Readers. Publishers Should Do More to Empower Brand Stewards

2009-03-25T11:03:00.000+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

STAMFORD, Conn., March 25, 2009

Newspapers are not doing enough to take advantage of the social power of their readers, according to a recent survey by Gartner Inc. Analysts said that newspapers are faced with declining circulations, falling offline and online revenue, and competition from digital sources, but are failing to capitalize on their biggest supporters, their readers.

“In the wake of the economic challenges facing the U.S. newspaper industry, publishers are losing focus on the crucial imperative of how to capitalize on those consumers who remain loyal, engaged online and print readers,” said Allen Weiner, research vice president at Gartner. “Brand-loyal news consumers need to be turned into brand stewards who can wield their influence to two parts of their social graph — those who know them personally, and those who regard the brand stewards as tastemakers with similar points of view.”

In November and December of 2008, Gartner surveyed 989 Internet users in the U.S., U.K., and Italy to understand how consumers discover and share different types of content. The survey looked at the main influences on media consumption, the main factors that prompt people to look for content, the main tools people use to search, what they do when they find interesting content and whether they share this content.

Findings from the Gartner survey suggest that newspapers are not providing brand stewards with the necessary tools they need to optimize their role as influencers. This starts with a failure to optimize the search experiences at their Web sites and then carries on to a lack of integration between content and social media functionality.

Key findings from the survey include:

- Approximately 49 percent of respondents use general search engines (such as Google and Yahoo) once a week or more to find content, but only 20 percent use search tools built into a newspaper or magazine site.

- Only 24 percent of those surveyed share good content “finds” with friends or others via personal communications — such as e-mail and instant messaging (IM), and a mere 7 percent said they usually or often share content via embedding into social network sites.

- Although many newspapers list their staffers who are on Twitter, an influential microblogging social network, few offer Twitter users the ability to “tweet” stories from their Web sites.

- When asked what they do when they find interesting content online, more than half of respondents (52 percent) said that they usually read it immediately. Only 9 percent said that they bookmark it to read later.

“Although it’s easy to criticize the newspaper companies for falling behind the digital curve and not thinking innovatively about their future, some of the industry’s current failures fall under the category of looking past the basics,” Mr. Weiner said. “One of those basics is turning those who are fans of your product or service into your best and lowest-cost marketing channel. Even simple social media tools not only allow sharing and recommendations, but also provide a level of identity and reputation management to give others a snapshot of a content curator’s credentials.”

Mr. Weiner said that while the newspapers have incorporated social media content, they just haven’t taken the step of integrating social media tools into their content management “ecosystem” to provide pervasive deployment of important social features. The task at hand is now to prioritize the integration of social media into a current or future content management system.

Newspaper Publishers Must Do More to Empower Brand Stewards

Too Many Enterprises Are in Denial About Carbon Management

2009-03-24T11:04:00.000+01:00

Egham, UK, March 24, 2009 —

. A high proportion of IT professionals responsible for “green IT” programs are unsure whether their enterprises are considering carbon pricing, according to Gartner, Inc. A recent Gartner survey found that 36 per cent of respondents that were responsible for green IT programs in enterprises said it was possible, or they didn’t know, if carbon pricing was influencing their organization’s planning for the next 24 months.

A total of 45.7 per cent of respondents said that carbon pricing was not influencing their organizations planning, while 18.3 per cent said it was influencing their organization’s planning for the next 24 months.

The survey results indicate that for most countries, the percentage of enterprises planning ahead for carbon pricing goes beyond those obliged to consider it under established regulations. However, Gartner advised IT management teams that haven’t already done so, to start building the processes and information systems to gather the necessary data as this can be time-consuming and organizations are likely to be subject to carbon reporting and pricing in the future.

In an international survey completed in December 2008, Gartner asked 626 enterprises about their plans for carbon reporting and pricing, and current and future implementation of carbon reporting, tracking or management systems. The respondents represented an even spread of sectors and company sizes from 1,000 to more than 10,000 employees.

“While the number of enterprises using or planning to use carbon tracking systems exceeds those legally required to do so, given the inevitable requirements to support carbon reporting in the future, the percentage of enterprises preparing is low,” said Simon Mingay, research vice president at Gartner. “Regardless of actual or anticipated regulations, midsize and large enterprises should at least be building carbon information systems, because, whether in a developed or developing economy, pressure will come down the supply chain to be transparent about carbon emissions.”

The Obama administration is now talking about a carbon cap and trade scheme, along the lines of the EU ETC and Australian CPRS in which enterprises are obliged to buy and/or sell tradable carbon certificates —– trading at €12/metric tones as of March 2009, but anticipated to rise as carbon allowances get squeezed. This kind of scheme and others such as the U.K.’s Carbon Reduction Commitment result in a price being placed on a metric tones of carbon.

The survey provided some noteworthy responses from individual countries when respondents asked if the possibility of carbon pricing is influencing their organization’s planning for the next 24 months. The U.K. and France recorded some of the lowest percentages at 7.9 per cent and 10.5 per cent, respectively, while in India and China, 21.1 per cent and 20 per cent of enterprises, respectively, indicated that carbon pricing was influencing planning. Gartner analyst said this is particularly surprising for the U.K. given that the country’s Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) goes into effect in 2010 and is estimated to affect 5,000 enterprises.

Gartner also asked the same respondents about their carbon reporting, tracking and management systems, as well as their intentions to implement or extend such systems. The results showed that, as a region, Western Europe is best prepared, with 32 per cent saying that they have some kind of system in place — twice as many as the Asia/Pacific region or the U.S. However, there were some stark contrasts with 2.6 per cent of French enterprises, compared with 74.4 per cent of German enterprises having such systems in place. Most of those enterprises with systems in place had in-house developments (mostly spreadsheets).

A further question asked of the respondents was whether they would be implementing or extending carbon reporting, tracking or management software during the next 18 months. The results showed that most enterprises are not yet thinking about how carbon pricing or reporting requirements will affect their business and have no plans to implement a carbon reporting, tracking or management system to give them visibility of their greenhouse gas emissions in this period.

“This apparent lack of preparation, and the inevitability that most enterprises will come under increased scrutiny from customers, investors, partners, key stakeholders and, eventually, regulators, should come as a wake-up call to policymakers, boards, senior leadership teams and CIOs,” said Mr. Mingay.

Australia has made the most rapid progress overall in this area in the last 15 months, and Gartner expects that to continue during the next 18 months. The proportion of enterprises anticipating implementing carbon management tools during the next 18 months in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region was low at 17 per cent and the U.S. was slightly more than 18 per cent.

“Enterprises all over the world need to get more serious about greenhouse gas reporting,” Mr. Mingay said. “Despite the lack of specific regulations, midsize and large enterprises in developed economies need to recognize that they will be paying for their emissions at some point — it’s just a matter of when, how much and through what kind of mechanism. Regardless of the recession, enterprises will find themselves under increasing pressure from stakeholders, including investors and customers, to be more transparent about emissions and reduction programs.”

Additional information is available in the Gartner report “Too Many Enterprises Are in Denial About Carbon Management.

CIOs Can Cut 50 to 80 Percent of Communications Costs by Moving to an Anywhere IT Environment. Immense Savings for a Small/Medium Model Business over

2009-03-23T11:05:00.000+01:00

Boston, MA, March 23, 2009 —

Yankee Group has demonstrated that CIOs and corporate IT departments of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can save more than 50 to 80 percent on costs related to corporate wireless, e-mail and messaging by moving to an Anywhere IT environment.

Move to the cloud: Moving from traditional Lotus or Microsoft premises-based e-mail application to a cloud-based messaging solution will save a staggering 83 percent (about $64,000) in the first year. During a three-year period, the savings amounts to 88 percent and can total more than $200,000.
Stop reimbursing individual-liable cell phone bills With corporate wireless phone plans, SMBs stand to save $96,000, or 47 percent in the first year by replacing unwieldy individual-liable plans with a single new corporate liable plan.

As defined in the January 2009 “Introducing Anywhere IT” report, Anywhere IT is information technology that allows any user to work from any location, over any device, with the best possible experience that the device and network allow. Anywhere IT moves complexity into the cloud and expands IT into non-traditional areas, driving dramatic growth of the information communications and technology marketplace from $2.2 trillion worldwide today to $4 trillion in just seven years.

Hilton reinforced that moving to an Anywhere IT environment means getting more, not less, for users. “Features and functionality only increased with the new cloud–based e–mail and messaging solution compared to the legacy premises–based solution.” Hilton said. “You can maintain BlackBerry access to e–mail and add support for other devices, including Apple’s iPhone and phones running Java, Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian and others.” Guide to Cost Cutting”

Cloud kommer frigöra över 18 miljarder ur de svenska IT-budgetarna inom tre år.

2009-03-20T11:07:00.000+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

Stockholm 2009-03-20. Swedish language.

Radar Group släpper nu sin stora rapport om hur Cloud tekniken kommer att påverka de svenska IT budgetarna och användarmöjligheterna samt hur IT marknaden och dess leverantörer kommer att påverkas. Rapporten visar att över 29 miljarder av de traditionella IT affärer kommer att ersättas av över 13 miljarder nya Cloud tjänster inom tre år.

-” Cloud är en mogen teknik, de stora aktörerna har intäktskrav på sig inom området redan nu och slutligen kunderna är mogna när nu över 15 % utvärderar Cloud affärer i någon form under 2009” säger rapportens författare Lars Backhans, konsult på Radar Group. Cloud tjänster tillväxer starkt de kommande tre åren och tar intäkter från traditionell affärsmodell inom hårdvara, mjukvara och tjänster. Även outsourcing området drabbas fr.o.m. 2011:

- Över 12 procent av kostnaderna ur en IT budget kan sparas genom Cloud teknik redan vid konservativt utnyttjande. Totalt handlar det om över 18 miljarder kronor som kommer att frigöras i Sverige om tre år” säger Hans Werner VD för Radar Group International AB

Radar Group press release

High-Speed Networking is Bright Spot in Declining Markets. Enterprises Adopting More 10 Gbps While Service Providers Drive 40 Gbps Growth

2009-03-19T11:10:00.000+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

March 19, 2009 –

The trusted source for market information about the networking and telecommunications industries, 10 Gbps and 40 Gbps technologies are forecasted to grow in 2009 despite broader market declines.

The reports indicate that while enterprise and service provider markets will both see annual declines of close to 10 percent in 2009, high-speed networking will continue to grow. Within enterprise markets, 10 Gbps is gaining hold not only on infrastructure equipment, but also more recently on the client side with server adoption. Within service provider markets, 40 Gbps technologies are gaining traction on routers and optical transport platforms.

The reports also show that many vendors have benefited from this trend toward higher-speed networking adoption. Cisco held top share positions in 10 Gbps Switching and 40 Gbps Routing shipments, while Nokia Siemens held the leadership position in 40 Gbps Optical DWDM long-haul terrestrial shipments during 2008. Over the same time period, Broadcom attained the number one share position for 10 Gbps silicon controllers deployed in servers.

The Dell’Oro Group Quarterly Reports

Seven Great Concerns for CEOs in 2009. Today’s CEO Priorities Will Become CIO Priorities in 6 to 18 Months

2009-03-19T11:07:00.001+01:00

STAMFORD, Conn., March 19, 2009

With CEOs facing unprecedented challenges ahead as businesses struggle with the realities of dealing with the economic downturn, Gartner, Inc. has identified the seven greatest concerns for CEOs in 2009.

“The tumultuous events of the past 12 months have shocked the world. CEOs are confronting reduced revenues and profits and need to restructure their businesses accordingly,” said Mark Raskino, vice president and Gartner fellow. “As a consequence, CIOs should plan for extraordinary requests in 2009 for work and changes.”

“Today’s CEO concerns provide an advanced look at what will become CIO priorities in six to 18 months,” said Jorge Lopez, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “We’ve identified these conclusions based on more than a dozen sources of CEO insights, our own analysis of business and economic trends, and changes in the IT landscape.”

CEO Issue One: Restructuring Restructuring is impacting companies in a number of ways from organizational restructuring in the form of layoffs, financial restructuring through deleveraging of financial structure, corporate restructuring via entity consolidation, and finally industry restructuring through the failure and survival of different players and business models.

As the restructuring plan unfolds, CIOs must be prepared to clear the table of current plans and start again, deliver significant cost reduction, deliver significant headcount reduction, cancel some major projects no longer aligned with survival and ensure that all outsourcing partners are viable. At the same time, they will need to deal with unexpected acquisitions and divestitures, manage higher risk taking on projects, work with lower procedural obstacles and stronger CIO powers, and build contingency plans for significant suppliers.

CEO Issue Two: Can’t Write Off Fast Enough The urgent issue of the CEO is to pare the corporate efforts down to those that are central to the company’s short-term survival while not killing off its future. CIOs should expect to support peaks of public-relations activity in response to press interest in the condition of the company, as well as travel at short notice to perform due diligence on potential acquisitions. Both talent raids and layoffs will place more pressure on the human resources department and its systems, as will sourcing based on financial reengineering, both of which will add to the IT workload. Above all, CIOs should be aware that restructuring may not be readily apparent, but when it is ready, it will proceed quickly, and a “SWAT team” should be identified to react and respond swiftly.

CEO Issue Three: Loss of Business and Governmental Trust The institutions that were once counted on to safeguard the economy seem to have failed, and the lack of transparency in the economic system has been exposed. There has been a subsequent loss of trust, as well, amid fears that other unknowns are awaiting. Trust is an intangible element in business but is crucial to transact business. IT can help improve transparency in the way business is done through reputation management, e-discovery and business intelligence. Gartner also expects a strengthening of “data driven” management culture as the risks of moving forward with insufficient data become far less acceptable.

CEO Issue Four: Globalization Instability Until recently, the onward advance of globalization has been unquestionable. However, the disparity of growth between developed and emerging nations is driving tensions as policy differences become more apparent. At the same time, rapid and large changes in strategies for growth, risk and currency are in need of reappraisal as long-term assumptions about fuel prices and supply logistics change. The keyword for the IT agenda in the face of this high level of uncertainty and risk is flexibility. CIOs need to ensure that their IT operations are ready for the challenges and shifts that are sure to emerge.

CEO Issue Five: New Major Regulation Coming With the current recession and the crisis of business confidence, CEOs should expect new governmental oversight of their business dealings. Although it is too early to tell where major regulation will be headed, there are some actions that CIOs need to take to ensure they are not caught behind the curve in their industry. These include staying deeply connected to the ebbs and flows of industry regulation and paying attention to tax policy as taxes are another form of regulatory control.

CEO Issue Six: Government as the New Emerging Market The recession has shifted the growth dynamics of the global economy away from private industry to government. For example, the U.S. Congress recently passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which commits $787 billion to the U.S. economy. This has implications for business and IT, not only in major shifts in key industries, but also in how IT is managed. CIOs should expect their organizations, which may never have sold products or services to a government agency, to retune processes for the sensitivities of government with detailed procedures to avoid fraud and unfairness in bidding for contracts.

CEO Issue Seven: Green Is Not Going Away While Gartner does not expect green to necessarily be “top of mind” in 2009, it will still have a place at the table as long as CEOs believe it is a useful part of reducing the break-even point of the business. IT vendors and CIOs need to review policies and practices to reflect changing views and to focus on improving environmental sustainability. IT operations probably represent the biggest environmental impact for enterprises that have low total environmental impact, so the CIO may well take the lead on this issue.

CEO Concerns 2009: Dealing with the Downturnner report

Citizen Social Networks Will Complement, and May Replace, Some Government Functions

2009-03-17T12:29:00.001+01:00

October 23, 2008 By 2011, 70 per cent of social computing deployments in government that achieve business benefits will do so in unplanned or unexpected ways, according to Gartner, Inc. Government organisations around the world are showing great interest in social computing, yet deployment so far is relatively limited."The current global financial turmoil bolsters the case for government adoption of social networks as technology-budget cuts make tapping into societal resources, such as voluntary groups, philanthropists, associations and social network groups essential to complement weaker government action in some critical areas," said Andrea Di Maio, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.According to Mr Di Maio, there are plenty of government-initiated networks and – like any such network – they succeed only when they have a clear and magnetic purpose such as Diplopedia, a wiki created by the US State Department that supports collaboration across intelligence and foreign affairs agencies. “However, the most promising, and yet, most disruptive, communities are those created outside government. Examples in the UK include Netmums, a community of parents dealing with child-care issues, and PledgeBank, which allows users to set up pledges and then encourages other people to sign up to them,” he said.Today, the primary role of social networks for governments is to facilitate the exchange of information and to establish novel collaboration patterns, often across organisational boundaries. “For example, a case manager in human services is responsible for identifying clients in need through outreach or referral, and conducting a comprehensive social and financial assessment. In the future, he or she will be part of a more complex socio-ecosystem, including a voluntary sector, online communities and individuals who play a fundamental role through all the different phases. Their role will shift from managing a case to ensuring that community resources are complemented where needed,” said Mr Di Maio.Boundaries in government are blurring at every level and driving the uptake of social computing. Horizontal business processes such as financial management, HR and procurement are subject to increased sharing across agencies and even jurisdictions. This means that government organisations no longer own or control them. Instead they are becoming clients to other organisations leading to increased adoption of social media. In addition, government IT infrastructure is subject to consolidation efforts and will be progressively commoditised and challenged by cloud-computing solutions.Gartner points out that the benefits of social computing — when accrued — will rarely occur in the context of government-driven initiatives. For example, governments’ desire to retain ownership and control of the network, through restrictive participation policies, will be detriment to magnetism.Gartner recommends that governments engage selected employees in finding external social networks relevant to the agency and its domain of government. They should also ensure that the use of social computing inside and between government organisations is based on a clear and compelling purpose – which is likely to be something that they cannot ‘engineer’. “Instead, they should recognise that spontaneity is needed for success,” said Mr Di Maio.Mr Di Maio added that social networks require little investment to start so, at a time when budgets are increasingly tight, such technology is welcome. Social networks have worked well to aggregate people and information to face natural disasters. People look both for peer support and for government when times are tough.Gartner predicts the execution of many government processes in human services, tax and revenue, health care and education will involve individuals who are neither employees nor contractors. Examples include replacement of some human services functions such as online collection of charitable donations to be directed to people in need combined with online ‘time banks’ through which citizens provide time to help others. “The future of government is a very different government and, in some cases, no government at all,” concluded Mr Di Maio.The Business Impact of Social Computing on Government

The Future Of Software-As-A-Service Technologies. As Market Grows, Forrester Projects Applications

2009-03-13T11:11:00.000+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

March 13, 2009

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) has evolved beyond its early roots in customer relationship management (CRM) and human capital management (HCM) applications — though both applications continue to demonstrate high potential for growth in the enterprise — and is now gaining traction in areas such as Web conferencing, collaboration, and IT service management (ITSM). These categories will experience significant SaaS success over the next decade, according to research published today by Forrester Research, Inc. .

“SaaS applications have advanced beyond early market applications in human resources and CRM to become a game changer in the enterprise software market,” said Liz Herbert, senior analyst, Forrester Research. “SaaS adoption continues to increase, and it is now relevant for a wide array of applications. This new research provides strategic direction to end users evaluating SaaS technologies and planning their next decade of investments.”

Forrester predicts that the following technologies are poised to experience significant success in the enterprise market:

Collaboration. Although its long-term future is unproven, Forrester’s market data has shown SaaS collaboration to be one of the hotter areas of SaaS adoption, with the potential to significantly impact the collaboration market.
Web conferencing. Already heavily SaaS-based, Web conferencing technologies continue to move in that direction. It is an ideal candidate for SaaS, and many companies are comfortable using this technology as SaaS.
CRM. One of the earliest categories where SaaS adoption took off, this category is already mature; however, some companies with established on-premise CRM strategies will be slow to — or in many cases will never — switch over.
HCM. SaaS deployment of HCM/HR solutions has been popular, however many of them have been niche solutions by small vendors. Consolidation in this space has started to create broader suite offerings, increasing the potential growth of these technologies.
ITSM. These solutions in the SaaS model are growing in popularity, but many of the larger vendors have yet to enter this space. As established vendors continue to enter the market, SaaS has the potential to transform the world of IT applications.
Online backup. Particularly for small and medium-size businesses (SMBs), PCs, and remote location, online backup has already attracted strong interest. One area of concern is recovering large quantities of data in a short time frame.

Forrester predicts the following technologies will have minimal success using the SaaS model:

Business intelligence (BI). The SaaS BI space is largely unproven. Though there are early adopters, many are still skeptical as to its potential, particularly where large volumes and real-time data transfer are concerned.
Integration. As SaaS solutions flourish in the enterprise, SaaS-specific integration solutions will naturally rise, too. However, firms should not expect any magic integration solutions, SaaS or otherwise.

“TechRadar™ For Sourcing & Vendor Management Professionals: Software-As-A-Service”

SOCIAL NETWORKS & BLOGS NOW 4TH MOST POPULAR ONLINE ACTIVITY, AHEAD OF PERSONAL EMAIL,

2009-03-09T11:12:00.000+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

March 9, 2009

”Time Spent” on These Sites Growing Three Times Faster than Overall Internet Rate, Now

Accounting for Almost 10 Percent of all Internet Time. Now visited by over two-thirds (67 percent) of the global* online population, “Member Communities,” which includes both social networks and blogs, has become the fourth most popular online category – ahead of personal email. It is growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors (search, portals, PC software and email),

Social networking has become a fundamental part of the global online experience.

While two-thirds of the global online population already accesses member community sites, their vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing.

Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer experience at large. This study explains why.”

Facebook - the world’s most popular social network - is visited monthly by three in every 10 people online across the nine markets in which Nielsen tracks social networking use. Orkut in Brazil has the largest domestic online reach (70 percent) of any social network in these markets.

Other key findings include:

- One in every 11 minutes online globally is accounted for by social network and blogging sites.

- The social network and blogging audience is becoming more diverse in terms of age: the biggest increase in visitors during 2008 to “Member Community” Web sites globally came from the 35-49 year old age group (+11.3 million).

- Mobile is playing an increasingly important role in social networking. Nielsen found UK mobile Web users have the greatest propensity to visit a social network through their handset, with 23 percent (2 million people) doing so, compared to 19 percent in the US (10.6 million people). These numbers are a big increase over last year – up 249 percent in the UK and 156 percent in the US.

Social networking isn’t just growing rapidly, it’s evolving - both in terms of a broader audience and compelling new functionality, We felt compelled to analyze the state of the social networkingmarket globally and consider what implications this has for our publisher and advertiser clients.”

Among the markets penetration of visits to social networks and blogs was highest in Brazil, where 80 percent of the online audience visits such sites (see Chart 1). The share of overall Internet time for which social networks and blogs account is also highest in Brazil, where nearly one in four (23 percent) of minutes spent online is spent on these sites (see Chart 2).

Germany saw the greatest increase in penetration of social networks and blogs across 2008, from 39

percent of the online audience in December 2007 to 51 percent in December 2008 – a relative growth of 39 percent. Global Faces and Networked Places

Posted by admin on March 9, 2009 at 12:52 pm under social networks. Tags: social networks Comment on this post.

Social networking users to exceed 95 million by 2013

Publ. by www.redviking.se

March 6, 2009 Expanding population creates new opportunities for advertising and connected TV

Social networking is moving to the television, driven by a young audience interested in video features such as multiplayer games, chat, and content discovery. This trend will help increase U.S. ad spending in social media to almost $3 billion by 2013, according to Parks Associates.

Over one-fourth of broadband users ages 18-24 are interested in social media features on the TV. Key applications include multiplayer gaming, in-program chat, and “most watched” lists. At the same time, 23% of U.S. broadband households want to view content from sites like YouTube and Flickr on their TVs.

See The Impact of Online Video in Europe,

For younger consumers in particular, their appetite for social experiences don’t end on the computer screen but are enhanced via their access on TVs and mobile phones,. “This expansion of social media has implications for service providers, advertisers, and CE manufacturers as well as the networking sites.”

Parks Associates forecasts 95 million social networking users by 2013. This diverse population will have a variety of different needs and wants. For example, threats like the Koobface worm, which targets Facebook users, underscore the need for integrated customer support solutions that can address social networking security issues. Service providers could combine these offerings with their network support services to sell a complete protection package.

Social media & user-generated content

Free content is main lure for Western Europeans watching video online

February 26, 2009

See The Impact of Online Video in Europe,

The Impact of Online Video in Europe,

Posted by admin on March 6, 2009 at 1:06 pm under social networks. Tags: social networking, television Comment on this post.

Cloud Computing Is More Than Just Hype; Worldwide IT Spending On Cloud Services Expected To Reach US$42 Billion By 2012

Publ. by www.redviking.se

March 6, 2009

Worldwide IT spending on cloud services will grow almost threefold, reaching US$42 billion, by 2012. As the cloud computing model offers a much cheaper way for businesses to acquire and use IT, its adoption to be amplified by the cost-cutting mantra of most organizations today.

In a recent IDC survey conducted with 696 IT executives and CIOs across Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) to gather their views, understanding, current usage and planned usage of cloud computing, it was found that 11% of the respondents are already using cloud-based solutions. A further 41% of the respondents indicated that they are either evaluating cloud solutions for use in their businesses, or already piloting cloud solutions. When asked about their opinion of the current state of cloud computing, 17% of the respondents stated that although cloud computing is very promising, there are currently not enough services available to make it compelling. (See Figure 1) See http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prMY21726709

Figure 1

Figure 1: What is your opinion of the current state of clouding computing? (N=696 IT executives and CIOs in APEJ, January 2009)

Future uptake of cloud computing looks strong. Over the next three years, as the use of cloud services expand from the domain of early adopters to that of the early majority, it becomes critical for IT vendors to develop strong cloud offerings, and play a leadership role in aligning their new cloud products and services with their organization, their traditional offerings, partner ecosystem, and customer and market requirements. IT vendors who fail to seriously contend for a leadership role will be left with a minority share of the lucrative pie.”

For IT vendors to be successful in the cloud market, they will have to address users’ cost concerns. The survey also revealed that more than 50% of the respondents indicated cost cutting as the key driver behind the adoption of cloud computing. (See Figure 2)

Figure 2 http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prMY21726709

Figure 2: What drove your organization towards using or considering cloud services? (N=696 IT executives and CIOs in APEJ, January 2009)

However, it is also important to note that supplying low-cost services alone will not guarantee success, as users are also indicating that any cloud solution they buy must offer competitive pricing, offer Service Level Agreement (SLAs) and offer complete solutions.

Some IT vendors are well positioned to do this but others who are focused on a single solution will need to build strong partner ecosystems to bring broad solutions to their customers. The time to do that is now, as our survey respondents have indicated that in three years time, their use of cloud-based services will be very different as compared to what we see today. (See Figure 3)

Figure 3: How important is it to your organization that a cloud services supplier or vendor have the following characteristics? (N=696 IT executives and CIOs in APEJ, January 2009)

cloud computing in Wikipedia

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prMY21726709′

2009-03-06T11:21:00.000+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

March 6, 2009

Figure 1

Figure 1: What is your opinion of the current state of clouding computing? (N=696 IT executives and CIOs in APEJ, January 2009)

Figure 2 http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prMY21726709

Figure 2: What drove your organization towards using or considering cloud services? (N=696 IT executives and CIOs in APEJ, January 2009)

Figure 3: How important is it to your organization that a cloud services supplier or vendor have the following characteristics? (N=696 IT executives and CIOs in APEJ, January 2009)

cloud computing in Wikipedia

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prMY21726709′

Social networking users to exceed 95 million by 2013

2009-03-06T11:19:00.000+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

March 6, 2009 Expanding population creates new opportunities for advertising and connected TV

See The Impact of Online Video in Europe,

Social media & user-generated content

25% of YouTube users watch five or more videos in one sitting

2009-03-04T11:22:00.000+01:00

Publ. by www.redviking.se

March 04 2009

The YouTube Report 2009 is the most in-depth analysis of YouTube user behaviour and patterns to date. The findings are based on a large-scale online survey of 1,758 USA resident respondents. In addition, 660 interviews were conducted in the UK among YouTube users.

The report strongly suggests that YouTube has grown to become an intrinsic part of online activity with 85% of the US population having watched a YouTube video, of whom 65% watch every week.

Peter Ruppert, Found of Entertainment Media Research: “YouTube is now a global entertainment channel, an explosive marketing platform and the most powerful data resource centre. Understanding how best to use it isn’t important, it’s absolutely essential for anyone interested in video marketing and viral marketing.”

The YouTube research suggests that the incidence of watching YouTube videos remains remarkably high with older consumers. Over 2 in 3 males and females aged 45-54 have watched a YouTube video. 55% of people aged 35 - 54 stated that they watch at least one YouTube video a week.

5 interesting YouTube statistics from YouTube Report 2009

* 70% of users said that the top factor that encourages a video to be viewed is user recommendation * 25% of YouTubers have used the site for work purposes - of these 16% have used the site to find a supplier * The great majority of videos watched are less than 5 minutes - nearly 9 in 10 (89%). Only around 1 in 10 videos watched are longer than 5 minutes * Just under 1 in 5 (19%) take advantage of YouTube’s educational capacity to learn more about how to do marketing online * 1 in 4 (23%) of YouTube users actively avoid online ads

YouTube Report 2009

IP PBX Adoption Rate Dependent Upon New Services, Software

2006-10-30T09:57:00.000+01:00

InStat:With the move to IP, the PBX is no longer a standalone system, but rather just one component of a larger unified corporate communication system that includes e-mail, IM/presence, dual-mode phones, video conferencing, etc.,. Full IP PBX deployments across the entire scope of the enterprise remain relatively rare, and smaller businesses are only now beginning to gain sufficient confidence to deploy IP-based systems. PBX suppliers realize the only way to speed the transition and increase revenues is to advance the obsolescence of traditional systems by changing the way employees communicate in ways that enhance productivity. But to accomplish such lofty goals, IP PBX players must radically change their historical business models in ways that replace hardware revenues with software and services. One leg of such strategies requires IP PBX players to walk the fine line between cooperation and competition with powerful players like Microsoft.

Most PBX players have some level of relationship with Microsoft, and many of these ties have been strengthened in recent months.
As dual-mode phones that operate on both cellular and 802.11 frequencies begin to hit the market, mobility is becoming an ever more important part of IP PBX player strategies.
Line shipments of IP PBX systems will increase from 19.1 million in 2006 to 37.8 million in 2010.

In-Depth Analysis: The Changing Face of IP PBXs: Mobility and Multimedia Publ 20061030

Alcatel for its Triple Play Leadership

2006-10-27T22:05:00.000+02:00

Frost: 2006 Market Leadership Award to Alcatel, in recognition of the company’s success in defining the network architecture for the deployment of Triple Play solutions in the fixed telecom market. One of the world’s largest telecommunications equipment vendors, Alcatel has developed a product portfolio and defined a network blueprint known as the Alcatel Triple Play Service Delivery Architecture (TPSDA), which has been widely accepted in the European marketplace and beyond.

Alcatel has emerged as the leader in the telecommunications market for Triple Play architecture, combining high-quality solutions, attention to customer requirements and superb marketing. The company is effectively leading a fundamental transformation in infrastructures needed to support new types of broadband services and television over IP (IPTV).

In 2005, it was clear that Triple Play was the right path for telecom operators to continue a road to recovery and success. Delivering such services, which include video and entertainment over the telecoms network, requires a re-definition of the network architecture. This new architecture needs to be flexible, scalable and resilient, able to carry not only voice and data for enterprises and consumers, but video and IPTV services as well,

Telecom equipment vendors have re-purposed or introduced many solutions in the market, addressing the requirements of this new paradigm. Some of these solutions and network architectures have become prevalent and adopted by a large number of operators in their plans to enter the Triple Play market.

With TPSDA, Alcatel has developed a purpose-built solution and blueprint, moving away from time division multiplexing (TDM) and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM)- based technologies and platforms, to address the access, aggregation and backhaul networks, as well as element, service and subscriber management in a non-legacy manner.

The TPSDA product portfolio effectively meets a comprehensive set of requirements for a new type of deployment. The company’s end-to-end portfolio has enabled it to expand its customer base, as well as increase its product share within the existing one.

The company’s efforts pioneering key deployments with its partners and developing unique Triple Play know-how and expertise have resulted in the definition of the Alcatel TPSDA. In doing so the company has focused on defining a blueprint that will solve the problems and concerns of operators transforming their networks to deliver the right suite of Triple Play services.

Several telecom operators, as well as alternative service providers have deployed Alcatel’s Triple Play solutions. Presently, this blueprint is being implemented, completely or partially, in over 40 service deployments around the world.

Alcatel is continuing to develop critical IPTV expertise and improve its portfolio and solution by introducing key product enhancements including additions to its services assurance and control framework.

Foreseeing a high level of Triple Play deployments in the near future, Alcatel plans to continue investing in, and evolving the blueprint and its components. Alcatel is also expected to expand its Service Assurance and Control Framework, to enable further fixed-mobile integration.

2006 Market Leadership Award to Alcatel Publ 20061027

Metro Ethernet equipment sales to triple to $15B between 2005 and 2009

2006-10-26T21:53:00.000+02:00

Infonetics: Led by strong growth in Ethernet over copper and cable products and carrier Ethernet switches and routers, worldwidel sales of metro Ethernet equipment are surging, from just under $5 billion in 2005 to over $15 billion in 2009.

Metro Ethernet equipment sales will accumulate $49.6 billion over the five-year period between 2005 and 2009.

Ethernet has almost universal appeal to carriers and their customers because it helps lower their telecom costs. Service providers increasingly deploy Ethernet solutions for a variety of uses, but mainly to offer new revenue-generating services. The two most popular types of Ethernet equipment are Ethernet over copper and cable and carrier-class Ethernet switches and routers, which together will make up over two-thirds of the overall metro Ethernet market by 2009. Ethernet access devices (EADs) are a particularly fast-growing segment, reaching about $685 million in 2009, as BT, BellSouth, COLT, Verizon, AT&T and other large providers increasingly use them to roll out Ethernet and mobile backhaul services.

worldwidel sales of carrier Ethernet switches and routers hit $2.1 billion in 2005 and will more than double to $4.6 billion in 2009
Metro Ethernet port shipments are projected to skyrocket in the next few years, increasing more than 700% between 2005 and 2009; the majority of ports sold will be VDSL copper ports and EPON ports
Every year Ethernet will account for a larger portion of metro capex
North America accounted for 34% of all metro Ethernet equipment revenue in 2005; Asia Pacific for 33%, EMEA for 30%, and CALA for 3%; through 2009, Asia Pacific will takes share from other regions due to the stronger concentration of fast-growing VDSL and EPON in the region

Metro Ethernet Equipment worldwidel Market Size and Forecasts, Publ 20061026

Surge in the Asia/Pacific (including Japan) Thin Client Market in 2005 is Only the Tip of the Iceberg

2006-10-26T14:53:00.000+02:00

IDC: Total sales of thin client in the Asia/Pacific (including Japan) (APJ) market reached 279,513 units in 2005, representing an increase of 64% over the previous year. Revenue likewise increased 65% over the same period. Although PC replacement cycles across APJ are already largely completed, the stage is being set by several thin client vendors, which recognize that the current PC life cycle ends in about two years and are expanding their presence in the region. These PCs will be due for replacement in 2009/2009, and this is when IT managers across APJ will consider a whole range of options, including thin clients, with which to swap the existing desktop.

Across the various verticals, the predominant role of thin clients around the region as server-based solutions for individuals leads to the fair share of deployments being used in the government/education, financial services, and healthcare industries in both 2004 and 2005.

From an operating system (OS) perspective, proprietary OS rollouts see high traction in countries where local thin client vendors employing their own applications have a strong , such as Korea and the PRC. The others OS category (including Sun’s embedded firmware) was the largest, at 34% share of the overall APJ market in 2005. Windows CE was installed in 24% of all APJ thin client deployments, Windows XP Embedded captured 22%, and Linux followed closely with a 21% share.

There is little correlation between existing thin client penetration and growth rates across countries. Certain countries with lower penetration are not necessarily ready for mass thin client adoption. Australia leads the APJ region’s shipments in 2005, garnering 23% of all sales. This was followed by India, with 19%, and PRC, with 15%.

Market share-wise, Wyse leads APJ sales with 35% share in 2005, followed by HP with 16%, VXL with 10%, and Changchun Xinyu and HCL both with 8% share - the latter two vendors garner most sales from the PRC and India in 2005 respectively.

Asia/Pacific (Including Japan) Thin Client Unit Shipments by Vendor, 2004 and 2005 Source: IDC, 2006

Future Outlook

The APJ thin client market is expected to perform strongly over the next five years at a CAGR of 34%. This growth in absolute terms will be driven primarily by India and the PRC, with Australia and Korea also showing decent growth despite higher installed bases than other APJ countries.

The government/education, healthcare, and financial services segments, which traditionally have been strong proponents of thin clients, will continue to see expansion over the forecast period.

Competition among thin client vendors will also lead to a variety of technological improvements, not just in the industrial design of the hardware, but also in the software layer, which holds the key to efficient management of a thin client deployment to attain maximum productivity. Once Citrix jumps on the bandwagon and starts to focus its efforts on the APJ region, growth will snowball, and vendors that have their strategies for the region sorted ahead of time will be able to ride on this growth wave.

thin client in the Asia/Pacific (including Japan) (APJ) market Publ 20061026

Demand for New SIMs Soars as Africa’s mobile Telecommunications Market Continues to Grow

2006-10-26T14:49:00.000+02:00

Frost: The African telecommunications market will continue to experience significant growth as new subscribers sign up and mobile operators introduce new services. Even as promising growth opportunities emerge, SIM suppliers will need to find ways of making their products more cost effective to register substantial growth in the subscribers markets. Moreover, they will need to work on developing reliable, high quality SIM cards.

Africa’s mobile telecommunications sector is booming as the demand for communications increases. In such a competitive industry, SIM suppliers need to maintain high standards of service and quality to ensure client retention.

The need for effective communication has pushed the African mobile telecommunications sector into high growth rates. A lack of fixed line infrastructure means that mobile telephony is the only alternative and the issuance of low denomination prepaid vouchers has made the service more affordable while also supporting wider accessibility.

Two pervasive problems across Africa – poverty and continuing conflict – are having a profoundly negative effect on overall economic growth in the region. These dual trends are affecting the telecommunications sector as well.

Operating in conflict areas is high risk and can be costly. It is essential to measure the risks of Africa against the potential gains.

African mobile operators have needs that are unique to the market in which they operate. For instance, there is an increased emphasis on the production of low cost handsets.

SIM manufacturers need to ensure that they can meet the requirements of operators and provide them with products that are reliable and cost-effective, advises Mc Donald. These are the two most important factors for African mobile users.

The African GSM End User Survey Publ 20061026

Handset Shipments from Taiwan to Reach 281 Million in 2009, with 79% Composed of ODM handsets

2006-10-26T09:51:00.000+02:00

The role of Taiwanese handset makers is becoming increasingly significant in the global handset industry. Cooperation with handset original design manufacturers (ODMs) has become an integral part of the handset strategies of some big original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Motorola and Sony Ericsson, especially in the low-end handset segment. Taiwan's ODMs gain cost advantages through setting up plants in mainland China, and their leading role in supplying handset components is helping them further improve their cost structure and complete their supply chain. Handset shipments from Taiwan will reach 281 million in 2009, 79% of which will be ODM handsets, and these shipments will account for 26% of total handset shipments globally. Currently, Motorola and Sony Ericsson are most active in cooperating with Taiwanese ODMs; Nokia and Samsung are still slow to move in this direction. ODM strategies are also popular in Japan, but shipments are still relatively low. There is also much less cooperation between Chinese mainland handset vendors and Taiwanese ODMs, primarily because of unstable demand and the low profit margins produced by intensive competition in the mainland Chinese market. In the mainland market, Chinese vendors lost market share last year, but their profit margin today is improved compared to 4Q 2005. The handset market structure in mainland China has changed during the past two years. The changes include the erosion of market share by illegally distributed handsets, the reforming of distribution channels by vendors on the mainland, and the further involvement of operators in the sales and supply chains. As a result of these changes, the big vendors will garner greater market share, and the proportion of operator-customized handsets will increase quickly, reaching 77% of total handset shipments on the mainland in 2011. Mainland China's Handset Market and Taiwan's Handset ODMs Publ 20061026

North American Households Rate broadband as Most Important Wireline Service

2006-10-25T09:58:00.000+02:00

InStat:New survey of US and Canadian consumers that segments households by demographics, all segments rated broadband the communication service they can least live without. Survey results also give clues about how next-generation consumer applications, such as personal telephone numbers and address books, individual mail boxes, and user profiles, may redefine how we communicate through the personalization of traditional shared services. Clearly, existing behavior plays a significant role in future household buying decisions. But the fact that consumers have embraced broadband in a very short period of time illustrates that consumer attitudes, regardless of age, income, or geography, can change.

There is significant diversity among BB households regarding lifestyle, interests, activities, and buying behavior.
72% of all leading-edge BB households in North America already have a cable service bundle. Me-Too type services will not be enough to win away these consumers.
85% of all broadband household segments favor the quadruple play.

In-Depth Analysis: A Study of broadband Households and IMS Consumer Markets Publ 20061025

Japanese and South Korean mobile handsets Leading the World in mobile TV, Digital Imaging, and Display Innovation

2006-10-25T09:52:00.000+02:00

Japanese and South Korean consumers are early adopters of new technologies, and today, nearly 14% of all mobile handsets in South Korea support Digital mobile Broadcast television. This high percentage is just one indicator of the continuing flow of innovation coming from Korean and Japanese handset designers, a trend explored in a new study from ABI Research on the topic of mobile phone R&D initiatives. Camera- and mobile TV-enabled phones are expected to drive new growth momentum over the next few years in both countries' handset markets. In 2006, approximately 75% of all handsets in Japan and 52% in South Korea include cameras. Two megapixel camera phones with autofocus and zoom functions have started to outpace 1.3 megapixel models in Japan and South Korea. Two and three megapixel phones will be mainstream by 2009. Five (and greater) megapixel models will dominate after 2010. Japan and South Korea have launched HSDPA and CDMA 1xEV-DO Rev. A services this year. This technologically advanced environment has spurred mobile vendors to develop premium and high-end handsets to support video call and music track download services. In Japan, the most popular new services are Chaku Uta music downloads to mobile handsets. HSPDA services, with their broadband data rates, provide customers with very satisfactory music download experiences. Accordingly, Japanese vendors have continuously expanded music phones lines with Bluetooth headphones, shuttle controls keys, and key pads. Common to both countries is the popularity of mobile TV-enabled handsets. In South Korea, vendors are focusing on development and marketing of T-DMB versus S-DMB phones, due to T-DMB's brighter future prospects. Displays are evolving as well. Japanese and South Korean manufacturers will incorporate cutting-edge display innovations such as 16:9 ratios, 2.5-inch AM OLED displays using system-on-panel, and LTPS TFT, the efficiency of which can decrease the number of circuits and components, and therefore, power consumption. mobile Phone Innovation in Japan and South Korea Publ 20061025

Wi-Fi in Consumer Electronics Devices: Embraced by Some, Shunned by Others

2006-10-24T09:59:00.000+02:00

InStat: With Wi-Fi appearing in mobile PCs, home routers, and phones, there has been much hype around Wi-Fi crossing over into the Consumer Electronics (CE) space. But the CE space is just warming up to Wi-Fi, with some device segments, such as gaming consoles and handheld games, welcoming Wi-Fi with open arms. In other device segments, such as digital video camcorders and standalone Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), the door has been kept shut on Wi-Fi. The beauty of Wi-Fi’s adoption into high-volume CE categories is that even single-digit attach rates can translate into millions of Wi-Fi shipments. For example, even with sub 10% attach rates expected for set top boxes and digital TVs in 2010, Wi-Fi-enabled shipments in these device segments are still expected to number in the millions.

Digital Rights Management, combined with a lack of consumer understanding around multimedia home networking, may continue to hinder Wi-Fi's uptake into CE devices designed to access and/or distribute online content.
Although Wi-Fi offers networking capabilities not provided by Wireless Personal Area Network (PAN) technologies, there are some device segments—such as digital video camcorders, digital still cameras and printers—where Wi-Fi faces technology competitors such as the emerging Wireless USB.
Handheld game shipments with embedded Wi-Fi are expected to reach 28 million units in 2006. gaming consoles with embedded Wi-Fi are expected to ramp up to approximately 5 million by the end of 2006, driven by the fourth quarter release of Sony’s PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s Wii.
802.11n is expected to drive Wi-Fi uptake into core digital living room devices such as digital TVs and set top boxes.
Major vendor moves in the CE space include Apple’s planned launch of a Wi-Fi media adapter in 2009, and Microsoft’s release of its Wi-Fi-enabled Zune portable digital music player in late 2006. Innovative Wi-Fi-enabled CE devices are available from a variety of vendors—musicGremlin, Slim Devices, Sonos, Sony, Nintendo, Sharp, Philips, Free, Sirius, Buffalo, D-Link, Linksys and many others. But, to really push Wi-Fi into specific CE segments, vendors will have to devote significant marketing resources, and, most importantly, provide a skillful implementation of Wi-Fi that really demonstrates the technology’s value-add.

In-Depth Analysis: Consumer Electronics Devices Warming Up to Wi-Fi Publ 20061024

MoCA, HPNA 3.0, and HomePlug Will Compete with Wi-Fi for Distribution of Triple-Play Services in the Home

2006-10-24T09:53:00.000+02:00

Triple-play service providers today are faced with choices when it comes to distributing content around the customer's premises. While Wi-Fi will play a large role in domestic triple-play distribution scenarios, it is not the whole story: Multimedia over Coax (MoCA), Home Phone Networking Alliance (HPNA 3.0), and HomePlug will collectively see 45 million total connections on STB and residential gateways shipped in 2011. Most large video service providers are evaluating one of these no-new-wires technologies to enable video distribution around the home, . The slow road towards finalization of 802.11n and the lack of comfort among many video service providers about Wireless have opened the doors for these alternatives. Verizon's choice of MoCA and AT&T's adoption of HPNA 3.0 show a market today split between various technologies. Each technology has perceived strengths and weaknesses, depending on who is delivering the services and where. While MoCA has the highest actual throughput for home networking, today the technology can operate only over coax. Many see HPNA 3.0's ability to run over either coax or copper phone wiring as its biggest advantage, but point to HPNA's frequency overlap with VDSL as a concern. HomePlug AV's selling point is that it uses the dwelling's existing powerline wiring to distribute high speed data, but the technology has yet to see a major rollout by a large video service provider for video services. Our research into this topic suggests that among the three technologies (MoCA, HPNA 3.0, and HomePlug AV), MoCA will lead in overall connections due to strong uptake in North America among IPTV and cable providers. HPNA 3.0 will see some adoption among IPTV providers and possibly cable providers, as some take advantage of the dual-medium capability (coax and phone line) of HPNA. HomePlug will see more limited deployment, but will have greater traction overall in Europe. Home Networking Triple Play Publ 20061024

Wireless Connectivity to Be the Future for Portable Navigation Devices

2006-10-23T09:54:00.000+02:00

Today's generation of navigation devices is the first to be connected to real-time information, but the services they offer provide little more than road incidents to be avoided. That won't suffice for long, however and soon motorists can expect to see a wide variety of useful data flowing into their cars in what is being termed connected navigation. This will open up a multitude of opportunities for service providers and data aggregators to exploit travelers' desires for contextual information about local services and points of interest. To differentiate themselves, navigation vendors will have to find other and better data to incorporate into their navigation schemes. That will involve a connection to the Internet. Companies such as TomTom and Dash Navigation are already blazing the trail here: TomTom uses Bluetooth to establish the pipeline to the extra data, while Dash is using a cellular modem and Wi-Fi. Next-generation devices, set to appear in the next few months, will offer traffic flow data, weather information, or instant messaging. Within two years, we may see navigation systems providing contextual answers to highly specific queries about local products and services. Navigation vendors should be partnering with various data suppliers in order to differentiate their offerings and incorporate the new data into their routing algorithms and applications. There are also many opportunities for data aggregators in niche areas. But it's not quite that simple. Not only are business models still poorly defined in this sector, but to realize this potential, providers must work to standardize the data so it is digestible by a wide variety of navigation devices. Paradoxically, handset-based devices, which have been inferior with regard to the navigation experience due to their small form-factor, will have an advantage in the era of connected navigation because they already have cellular connections. Make them work outside the vehicle, and they open up a whole new market: the urban pedestrian. Consumer Navigation Systems and Devices Publ 20061023

3Q 2006 mobile Device Shipments Top 245 Million, On Target for 1 Billion by Year End

2006-10-20T09:56:00.000+02:00

ABI: The second quarter of 2006 was a bit softer than expected in terms of handset shipments and prices, that 4Q 2006 will prove a bumper quarter for mobile operators and handset vendors. The market topped 245 million mobile devices shipped in 3Q 2006 and the global mobile devices marketplace is on target to reach one billion devices by the year's end. The handset vendors are pulling out all the stops to get their slickest, flattest, largest music memory, biggest mega-pixel camera phones onto the shelves in time for the 4Q-2006 holiday jamborees. The Gang of Five — Nokia (36%), Motorola (23.3%), Samsung (12.5%), Sony Ericsson (8.1%), and LG (6.7%) — all increased market share at the expense of the smaller handset vendors. Economies of scale, and marketing, it seems, are everything. Initiatives such as super thin phones have helped manufacturers such as Samsung and Motorola gain market share, but Nokia's ability to pump out phones for the emerging markets, cut handset average selling prices (ASPs), and exploit its brand image have served to maintain, and even boost, Nokia's market-share. The net result of this scramble for market share has been lower ASPs. The global weighted ASP dropped a steep -7.8% in 3Q 2006 compared to a 1.6% rise in 2Q 2006, 4Q 2006 is unlikely to fare any better. The competition is cut-throat. 3G handset shipment volumes proved to be a bit soft in 3Q 2006. 2.75G EDGE, which has been rolled out by a number of operators, has made the perceived performance gain of owning a 3G phone over a 2G GSM phone less distinct. Also, a number of vendors and operators are planning a big overhaul of their 3G phone line up for 4Q 2006. Recently Vodafone announced that it will be unveiling ten new phones for the festive season, six of which are 3.5G HSDPA-capable. HSDPA effectively turbo-charges the 3G experience. HSPDA will dramatically change the download experience for end users wishing to download music, games, etc. The question is, will the turbo-charge kick in quickly enough?

mobile Devices Research Service Publ 20061020

Wi-Fi and Active RFID Vying for Healthcare Asset Management Markets

2006-10-20T09:55:00.000+02:00

Wi-Fi and active radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies are locked in a long battle to capture the burgeoning market in health care asset tracking. With less than 5% of North American health care facilities currently equipped with asset-management systems, this market is up for grabs. Hospitals own lots of expensive equipment, from basic items such as wheelchairs to the most sophisticated medical machinery. At any given time, much of it is hard to find: either in use, or in storage. The result: over-inventory and under-utilization of assets. Both Wi-Fi and active RFID systems allow hospitals to know where their equipment is, nearly in real time. Wi-Fi location system vendors are focusing on healthcare because most hospitals have Wi-Fi networks in place and many medical devices are Wi-Fi-equipped for patient monitoring. The value proposition is that they can keep their existing infrastructure and add new elements. Wi-Fi location system vendors such as Aeroscout, Ekahau, and PanGo will also argue that their technology is standards-based and non-proprietary. On the other hand, RFID vendors such as RF Code and Radianse point to the wide application of RFID for asset tracking, and their longevity in the industry. Wi-Fi is a viable solution for hospitals but most hospitals will need to install extra access points because their networks weren't designed for this purpose. The integration process can also be more difficult than many seem to believe and requires extensive system configuration in order to determine accurate location. Active RFID and Wi-Fi in the RTLS Market Publ 2006102

mobile Messaging: Not Sexy, But Profitable

2006-10-18T21:43:00.000+02:00

eMarketer: Messaging is the least sexy but the most profitable part of the mobile data universe. Multimedia messaging is gaining in popularity, but short text messaging continues to bring home the mobile data revenues for the vast majority of the world's mobile carriers. This year, revenues for short messaging service (SMS) will hit $20 billion in Western Europe, $9 billion in the Asia-Pacific region and $7 billion in the US.

The continued, dogged and ubiquitous success of SMS in spite of every attempt to replace it with something more 'sexy' gives credence to the idea that mobility's primary value lies in the user's ability to get things done. Consumers like the convenience and speed of SMS.

Although not yet as popular in the US as in Europe and Asia, SMS grew 98.8% during the first half of 2006 (64.8 billion messages) compared to the same period in 2005 (32.6 billion messages).

SMS is particularly popular among young people. Nearly 70% of consumers between the ages of 18 and 30 polled by Harris Interactive stated that they used SMS. Focusing on teens only, the poll showed that 46% have a mobile phone and use text messaging. Hispanic Americans and African Americans are also more likely to be heavy users of text messaging.

Marketers are appealing to SMS users through television programs such as American Idol, in which viewers vote whether an Idol singer deserves to pass to the next round.

mobile Message Marketing: Cash Not Flash Publ 20061018

Cable TV Infrastructure Market Driven by Three-Screen Quest and Fixed mobile Convergence

2006-10-18T10:00:00.000+02:00

Cable TV Infrastructure Market Driven by Three-Screen Quest and Fixed mobile Convergence

InStat: The worldwidel cable TV industry is in a race to provision a three-screen service that starts with HDTV sets, maps over to broadband-connected PCs, and follows subscribers around during the day on cell phones or other portable devices. As a result, the high-tech market research firm expects strong, continued growth in cable TV infrastructure equipment with sales rising from about US$925.4 million during 2006 to more than US$2.1 billion in 2010. The cable TV industry is working diligently to connect all the infrastructure dots in the race to provision a three-screen telecommunications service. System operators are building out Super Headends and upgrading Local Headends to provide the economies of scale needed to provide the greatest number of services, over the greatest geographical reach, at the lowest possible cost. Fixed mobile Convergence, or FMC, will become a fast-growing market for cable operators, and they will disrupt the cell phone industry.

High Definition TV services and Video-on-Demand are expanding, driving plant upgrades for improved Gigabit Ethernet video switches, Switched Digital Video (SDV), more QAM channels, and widening deployments of 1 GHz Final Mile equipment.
Modular Cable Modem Termination Systems (Modular CMTS) and wide band cable modems are being brought into play to upgrade High Speed Data services to compete against telephone companies’ ADSL, VDSL, and Fiber-to-the-Home.
Comcast, Cox, Time-Warner and Advance/Newhouse have a joint venture with Sprint Nextel that will begin offering cable-branded cellular phone services later this year in the US. Later on, Fixed mobile Convergence will add innovative video services and Wireless extensions to the Cable TV infrastructure, and disrupt the cell phone market.
The cable TV industry is rapidly deploying Voice-over-IP services.

R Cable TV Head-Ends: Fixed mobile Convergence (FMC) Powers Cable TV Counterpunch to IPTV Publ 20061018

Ethernet displacing SONET/SDH in customer access networks

2006-10-17T21:55:00.000+02:00

Infonetics: A new study of 25 top tier service providers in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific provides further evidence that Ethernet continues to go mainstream and will eventually dominate the metro space, as SONET/SDH slowly but surely declines over the next 10 to 20 years.

Service Provider Plans for Metro Optical and Ethernet, the percentage of access or collector rings/mesh that are Ethernet jumps from 32% (among respondents that have adopted Ethernet adapter rings) in 2005 or earlier to 60% in 2009 and beyond.

The trend is clear: Ethernet is growing in the access space to the detriment and displacement of SONET/SDH, as service providers continue to look for ways to reduce operating expenditures and enable new revenue streams. And now that the number-one technical issue that was plaguing service providers rolling out metro Ethernet networks last year—QoS—is being addressed by manufacturers, the Ethernet adoption curve is speeding up. Manufacturers have added many new QoS features based on OAM standards, dramatically improving end-to-end QoS with carrier-class Ethernet products. As a result, QoS dropped from the top of the list of technical challenges last year to number seven this year.

All respondent service providers offer Ethernet services already, and most plan to offer Ethernet over a variety of technologies, including fiber, copper, WiFi, and Wimax
Ethernet over WDM increases from 80% in 2006 to 92% after 2009, while the number offering Ethernet over SONET/SDH decreases from 88% to 60%
48% of providers plan to deploy next gen hybrid Ethernet-WDM-SONET/SDH equipment
Incumbent providers are currently ahead of competitives in displacing SONET/SDH with Ethernet services; Europe is moving the fastest in displacing SONET/SDH, Asia Pacific the slowest
Respondents offer a variety of network-based services over Ethernet in 2006, led by packetized voice, private line over Ethernet, and a number of video, storage related, and security related services
By 2009, 52% of respondents have a strategy to deploy an all-Ethernet and/or an Ethernet/MPLS network that combines residential/Triple Play and business traffic
Most respondents use VPNs to offer Ethernet services, and all VPN service types grow in usage by 2009, with layer-2 point-to-point MPLS VPNs (pseudowire) and VPLS growing the most

Service Provider Plans for Metro Optical and Ethernet, Publ 20061017

Google Expected to Pocket 25% of Online Ad Revenue in 2006

2006-10-17T21:49:00.000+02:00

eMarketer: As Yahoo! and Google report their third-quarter earnings this week, US full-year advertising revenue, growth and market share for the two companies can help put their earnings in perspective.

Google's US ad revenue growth rate in 2006 will soar almost 65% over last year's. Yahoo! still shows a respectable 17.5% growth rate, an increase that would satisfy most companies. But not one competing against Google. Just a year ago, Google and Yahoo! both posted US ad revenues of more than $2.4 billion. For the full year 2006, though, Google at $4 billion in ad revenue will eclipse Yahoo!'s ad revenue of $2.9 billion.

These numbers are particularly dramatic when considering market share of total US ad revenues. In 2006, for the first time, Google is expected to pocket one-quarter of US Internet ad revenue, while Yahoo!'s share drops to 18%.

These growth numbers establish Google as the unrivaled king of the online advertising universe, and leave Yahoo!, with its greater advertising diversity and years of media experience, struggling in second place.

By gobbling up YouTube last week, Google acknowledged that even though paid search gives it a robust revenue stream, that alone won't be enough to compete against Yahoo!, MSN and other major players in the years to come. Google and Yahoo oct 2006 Publ 20061017

VOIP Market Shift Presents New Opportunities Around Support Service Spending

2006-10-17T14:59:00.000+02:00

IDC:

An evolutionary shift in the worldwidel VOIP equipment market will push network support services spending to $1.27 billion in 2010. The walls between telephony and IT will continue to erode as network equipment vendors move from proprietary hardware and software solutions and toward software running over dedicated servers. Traditionally, networking vendors have experienced very little competition for support services due to the proprietary nature of their products. But, as the market shifts toward software solutions running on general purpose servers, a slew of third-party support services providers and systems vendors have an opportunity to provide support services for the hardware.

As the IP PBX market shifts from proprietary systems to software applications running on a general purpose servers, the model for support services will begin to look more like the model for other mission-critical software applications. In this model, the VOIP vendors will be responsible for supporting the software in partnership with a systems vendor or a third party will be responsible for supporting the hardware.

To capitalize on emerging opportunities, server vendors should look to partner with network equipment vendors

As this market shift advances, VOIP equipment vendors will need to evolve from a hardware-centric support model to a software support model.

worldwidel VOIP Support Services 2006–2010 Forecast and Analysis Publ 20061017

Asia/Pacific mobile music Revenues Soaring

2006-10-17T10:02:00.000+02:00

InStat:From almost nothing five years ago, the mobile music market in Asia/Pacific grew to US$3.3 billion in 2005, and will reach US$9.3 billion by 2010. The breakthrough years for mobile music in Asia/Pacific will be 2009 and 2009. Growth drivers include large markets like China and India reaching a critical mass of mobile subscribers and 3G services becoming prevalent regionwide. Ringtones have been the primary driver for mobile music growth in the past, but this will change as new mobile phones equipped with digital music file playback capability create a new market. As consumer preferences change, the future growth of the mobile music industry rests on ringback tones and full music tracks.

The size of South Korea’s mobile music industry has already surpassed the country’s conventional music industry.
China will soon assume prominence in the mobile music market, recording US$2.8 billion in mobile music revenues by 2010, trailing only market leader Japan, which will have US$3.4 billion in revenues in 2010.
60% of respondents to an In-Stat consumer survey indicated that they had a phone capable of some form of music playback.

In-Depth Analysis: mobile music in Asia/Pacific: From a Ring to a Roar Publ 20061016

Booming Camera Phone Sales Drive Image Sensor Market

2006-10-17T10:01:00.000+02:00

InStat: In 2005, the image sensor market continued its strong growth, spurred by the booming camera phone market. Camera phones comprised over 70% of all digital cameras that shipped in 2005, and the vast majority of these devices used Complimentary Metal Oxide semiconductor (CMOS) sensors, with the remainder using Charge-Coupled Devices (CCDs). Because of the strength of the camera phone market, overall area CMOS image sensor shipments exceeded area CCD shipments by nearly a factor of three in 2005. This gap will continue to widen through 2010. CMOS will continue to flourish, due to its popularity in camera phones, web cameras, and toy cameras. CCDs will continue to thrive in markets such as digital still cameras, camcorders, and security cameras.

Digital still cameras continued as the second-largest market for image sensors, with over 70 million units shipped in 2005.
In 2005, embedded cameras in PCs hit the market, especially in notebook PCs.
Automotive rear view cameras continued to show strong growth in higher-end sedans, sport utility vehicles and minivans.

In-Depth Analysis: Image Sensors 2006: CMOS Sensors Outship CCDs Publ 20061017

Femtocell Shipments Will Reach 19 Million Per Annum in 2011, Thanks to Evolving Features

2006-10-17T09:56:00.000+02:00

ABI: By 2011 the worldwide market for femtocell products is expected to reach nearly 19 million units per annum. An interesting factor that is often overlooked when considering the femtocell market is that of functionality. Initial offerings are likely to be simple affairs that rely on Ethernet connections to existing ADSL gateways. The real challenge today is balancing price with functionality. In order to get an affordable product on the market as early as possible, it is likely that most designers will opt for a basic feature set. However manufacturers and carriers alike will need to evolve this feature-set rapidly to take advantage of the femtocell offering's full potential. The holy grail of implementations is likely to incorporate a Wi-Fi access point, an integrated ADSL gateway and an IPTV set-top box. One of the major determinants of this migration in feature sets will be the nature of a carrier's business. In order to maximize the femtocell's potential, the carrier must have its own broadband capability: incumbent DSL providers are likely to view the carrying of other companies' traffic over their broadband connections in a very poor light. Moves towards this capability are already visible in many markets; one example is Vodafone in the UK.

Femtocell Access Points: Fixed-mobile Convergence for Residential, SMB, and Enterprise Markets Publ 20061017

PON equipment sales surging to $3 billion by 2009

2006-10-16T22:03:00.000+02:00

Infonetics: worldwidel EPON, GPON, and BPON equipment sales are expected to surge to $3 billion in 2009, up 432% from $565 million in 2005.

After more than doubling between 2004 and 2005, the number of worldwidel PON subscribers is expected to continue to swell as well, from 4.1 million in 2005 to 38.0 million in 2009.

The big trend we’re seeing with PON is that service providers are really committed to FTTH (fiber-to-the-home), as reflected by the recent increase in longer-term contracts being initiated by larger RBOCs and PTT. Video via RF overlay and IPTV, gaming, and other high bandwidth applications continue to drive demand for PON and Ethernet FTTH equipment all over the world.

Mitsubishi, with their bulk shipments of EPON ONTs to Japan-based service provider NTT, takes over from Hitachi as the leader in 2005 worldwidel PON revenue and port market share; Tellabs is second in worldwidel revenue; Suminet is second in ports shipped and third in revenue
Tellabs leads PON revenue in North America, Mitsubishi in Asia Pacific, Motorola in EMEA, and Alcatel in CALA
2.2 million PON ports shipped worldwidel in 2005; that number is forecast to jump to 13.4 million by 2009
The burgeoning Ethernet Access Device (EAD) segment more than quadrupled between 2004 and 2005, and is forecast to jump from $91 million in 2005 to almost $685 million in 2009
PON and Ethernet FTTH subscribers topped 4 million worldwidel in 2005, and will grow to over 38 million in 2009, 85% of which will be PON-based, 15% Ethernet-based
58% of worldwidel PON revenue comes from Asia Pacific in 2005, but by 2009, EMEA and CALA will gain share, while Asia Pacific’s share drops to 46% and North America loses 1%

PON, FTTH, and EAD Equipment Publ 20061005

$3.4B mobile backhaul market begins migration to IP,

2006-10-16T22:00:00.001+02:00

Infonetics:There’s good news in store for mobile operators feeling the pain of expensive mobile backhaul costs.

IP, Ethernet, and next gen microwave technologies are allowing carriers to provide new mobile backhaul solutions to mobile operators that will help them reduce capex and opex and keep costs in line with subscriber ARPU and revenue—a problem that has been vexing mobile operators ever since e-mail, text messaging, calendar synching, video clips, Internet surfing, and other data-rich features hit the cellular airwaves.

In addition to mobile phone bandwidth usage skyrocketing, the number of subscribers is also skyrocketing. There were more than 2 billion mobile subscribers worldwidel in 2005, and that num

P mobile backhaul equipment will be Pseudowire enabled by 2009
worldwidel mobile bac
er will jump to over 3 billion by 2009.

And mobile operators are paying through the nose to handle all the voice, video, and data traffic created by those billions of subscribers.

mobile operators spent $16 billion on mobile backhaul link services in 2005, and will spend double that in 2009, . Although that’s a significant increase in charges, the good news is they’ll be getting a lot more for their money in coming years, because the average annual charge per connection goes up only 18% between 2005 and 2009—from $8,004 to $9,455—while the capacities grow from one to two T1/E1s per connection to 10s of megabits/sec to even 100Mbps.

The reason for this is that new technology and product options are becoming available now, especially in next gen microwave and IP/Ethernet products, where single products can efficiently handle 2G/3G voice simultaneously with 2.5G/3G/3.5G data and video traffic streams, Howard continued. These improvements will allow mobile operators to slowly increase their capital investment while rapidly adding more subscribers and higher capacity services.

Infonetics’ report shows that while the migration to IP-based backhaul is clearly underway, it will be a gradual process, because T1/T3 mobile backhaul provisioning is a multi-billion dollar business that carriers won’t give up readily. Carriers also need time to gain trust with the new IP/Ethernet equipment. But the pressure to offer affordable mobile backhaul service links to mobile operators will eventually force carriers to make the shift, likely ramping between 2009 and 2010.

worldwidel sales of mobile cell site backhaul equipment hit $3.4 billion in 2005, and will decline 39% to $2.4 billion in 2009; the decline in revenue is due mainly to microwave equipment becoming significantly cheaper with much higher capacities
Microwave radio made up 81% of total mobile backhaul equipment sales and 56% of total connections in 2005
IP mobile backhaul equipment comprised less than 1% of total mobile backhaul equipment sales in 2005; by 2009, it will comprise 45% of the total, or $1.1 billion
99% of all Ikhaul installed connections (base stations) reached just under 2 million in 2005 and will grow 69% to 3.3 million by 2009 due to growing numbers of subscribers, new 2.5G/3G/3.5G/4G base stations, and more dense coverage including micro base stations inside buildings

mobile Backhaul Equipment, Installed Base, & Services Market Outlook Publ 20061016

$3.4B mobile backhaul market begins migration to IP,

2006-10-16T22:00:00.000+02:00

Infonetics:There’s good news in store for mobile operators feeling the pain of expensive mobile backhaul costs.

In addition to mobile phone bandwidth usage skyrocketing, the number of subscribers is also skyrocketing. There were more than 2 billion mobile subscribers worldwidel in 2005, and that num

P mobile backhaul equipment will be Pseudowire enabled by 2009
worldwidel mobile bac
er will jump to over 3 billion by 2009.

And mobile operators are paying through the nose to handle all the voice, video, and data traffic created by those billions of subscribers.

worldwidel sales of mobile cell site backhaul equipment hit $3.4 billion in 2005, and will decline 39% to $2.4 billion in 2009; the decline in revenue is due mainly to microwave equipment becoming significantly cheaper with much higher capacities
Microwave radio made up 81% of total mobile backhaul equipment sales and 56% of total connections in 2005
IP mobile backhaul equipment comprised less than 1% of total mobile backhaul equipment sales in 2005; by 2009, it will comprise 45% of the total, or $1.1 billion
99% of all Ikhaul installed connections (base stations) reached just under 2 million in 2005 and will grow 69% to 3.3 million by 2009 due to growing numbers of subscribers, new 2.5G/3G/3.5G/4G base stations, and more dense coverage including micro base stations inside buildings

mobile Backhaul Equipment, Installed Base, & Services Market Outlook Publ 20061016

Increased Growth in European Enterprise wlan Deployment

2006-10-13T15:00:00.000+02:00

IDC:

The Western European wlan equipment market reached a value of $1.2 billion end-user revenue in the first half of 2006. As in previous years, the majority of revenue was generated in the consumer space, and although growth in the enterprise market has been minimal in the past, demand for enterprise equipment showed increased growth over the last 12 months.

The residential market continues to be the main driver of the European wlan market, accounting for 80% of the total market. During the first half of 2006 this segment experienced 22% growth over the second half of 2005. In the first six months, 6.6 million Wireless routers/gateways were sold to the consumer market. ZyXEL successfully improved its market position in the European residential market and now holds the number 1 position, followed by Thomson and Linksys.

Although growth rates in the enterprise (including the SMB segment) are much lower than in the residential market, demand for enterprise equipment continues to see positive growth. From 2H05 to 1H06, overall revenue for enterprise infrastructure equipment increased by 14%. Demand for centralized wlan architecture in particular continued to grow in popularity, and revenue for this kind of product rose 48%, whereas revenue for decentralized architecture products fell 16% from 2H05 to 1H06. Cisco continues to be the most important player, followed at a distance by 3Com. ZyXEL also became more active in the enterprise market and successfully improved its market position from fifth to third position with a revenue share of 13%.

Vendor positions in the residential and enterprise markets are influenced by different market characteristics, and while Cisco has been dominating the enterprise segment for years, vendor positions in the consumer market tend to vary much more. In this segment, vendors usually have agreements with service providers and success is often closely connected with the service providers' success in expanding the number of broadband connections.

Western European wlan Equipment Competitive Analysis, Publ 20061013

WLAN Unseats Dial-Up as Dominant Remote Connectivity Choice for Mobile Professionals

2006-10-13T10:43:00.000+02:00

Strategy Analytics: the humble dial-up connection is well on its way to obsolescence as a remote access mode for roving US workers. Wireless LAN, on the other hand, is confirmed as the dominant connectivity choice for mobile professionals - strongly buoying the case for a broader array of multi-radio/ multi-mode handheld devices, leveraging WiFi's ubiquity. In 2006, for the first time, WiFi outranked dial-up as the number one mode of remote access, and did so by a healthy margin. An impressive 35 percent of US business users identify WLAN as their primary means of remote connectivity, whereas at 11 percent of respondents, dial-up is now on par with its speedier tethered counterpart, fixed broadband.

Mobility, Ownership & Usage, found that WLAN is not only present in most notebook PC's, but unlike past surveys is actually being used in the vast majority of cases. Four out of every five notebooks in the US has WiFi, with 88 percent of business professionals actively using this feature. Catalyzed by notebook penetration and the proliferation of WLAN infrastructure (especially sharp in the US), WLAN adoption for remote access now prevails.

WiFi really hit its stride this year, fueled by an explosion of residential WLAN gear, a steep ramp up of corporate installations, and the steady spread of paid and free hotspots in the US. Our latest US survey registers a surge in worker mobility, half of which is on-premises and a third of which is metro-area. WiFi is the obvious remote connectivity choice for the majority of mobile professionals, given its vital role in the home and office, robust platform support from Intel and Microsoft, and the freedom of doing away with wires. At present, the price premium associated with 3G card connectivity remains unpalatable to the average user. Not only do these survey results confirm the demise of dial-up, but they also underscore the rising importance of smaller handheld multi-radio WLAN/WWAN devices - namely mobile phones. Today it may be difficult to get two service providers to agree on the impact of mobile convergence, but the reality is that convergence will take many forms. Whether it's selling lower quality, discounted wireless VOIP, marketing hot new converged services, or purely saving with least-cost-routing of existing services, having a range of multi-radio designs is an imperative for both device OEMs and mobile operators.

Wireless Enterprise Strategies survey Publ 20061011

25% of WCDMA Handsets Will Include GPS by 2008

2006-10-13T10:37:00.000+02:00

ABI:

GPS in the GSM mobile phone has always seemed to be a year away. But 2007 may be the year that it finally arrives, and 25% of WCDMA handsets will offer GPS by the end of 2008. There are four important reasons for this. The first factor inducing vendors to include GPS is regulatory, that is, the mandates for emergency calling in the various regions. The second is competition: the CDMA carriers who have had GPS integrated in their handsets since 2002 have been turning on Location Based Services over the past year. A third is economic: carriers continue to look for ways to increase data ARPU and recoup some of their high licensing costs for 3G spectrum. Finally, there is consumers' need for portable navigation and other applications driven by location awareness capabilities in the network. All these drivers—as well as increased accuracy requirements, and the fact that existing network-based positioning technologies do not work as well for upcoming 3G and WCDMA cellular standards—are pushing GPS ICs into the handset. ABI Research sees 2007 as the year the GSM carriers will issue RFQs, and vendor selection and IC integration for the handset OEMs will take place; but by the end of 2008 a quarter of all 3G handsets will have GPS ICs included, and the ASP of the chipset will have dropped to $2.70. SiRF has been the leader in the GPS IC space for the last several years, notes Varghese, but in the mobile phone segment, Atmel/u-blox, global Locate, GloNav, Nemerix, Texas Instruments, and u-Nav will soon be nipping at their heels. ABI Research's new study, GPS Semiconductors Publ 20061010

Dozens of Multichannel TV Markets Becoming Hyper-Competitive

2006-10-12T11:30:00.000+02:00

Kagan: the number of multichannel TV markets positioned to experience hyper-competition will grow from 22 in 2006 to 47 by 2011 as digital cable, IPTV and digital terrestrial (DTT) services gain ground. T

By adding IPTV and DTT to the competitive mix, multichannel competition transforms dramatically. These emerging platforms accelerate new service offerings while putting pressure on pricing, forcing cable and satellite operators to retool or die.

Once one operator in a market launches triple-play packages, all operators must follow or face significant churn
The introduction of DTT can dramatically reduce cable and satellite growth while fueling IPTV service options
Satellite operators face the toughest challenge in hyper-competitive markets as they must secure return paths and broadband infrastructure to maintain competitive viability
Hyper-competitive markets produce low-cost entry packages across all platforms which are often based on smaller video packages approaching a la carte models
Exclusive sports and movies license deals become crucial as platforms fight for clear competitive differentiation

global Multichannel Markets Publ 20061012

Revenues for the world’s IPTV Service Industry is Forecasted to Reach $12.8 billion by 2010

2006-10-11T11:26:00.000+02:00

Multimedia Research Group: updates the IPTV global Forecast for Asia, Europe, North America, and the Rest of the world.

This latest forecast is an update to the IPTV global Forecast – 2006 to 2009 published March 2006. It incorporates the most recent information on IPTV deployments, including:

- The current and planned deployments of IPTV services by large carriers in Europe.

- The current and planned IPTV deployments by competitive and smaller carriers in Europe.

- The current state of IPTV deployments at AT&T, BellSouth, and Verizon in the U.S.

- The initiation of IPTV trials in China and India that indicate very large future IPTV deployments.

- The success of a number of early IPTV deployments in Canada, Europe, and Asia.

- We are forecasting that the number of DSL subscribers will grow from 181 million in 2006 to 317 million in 2010, a compounded annual growth rate of 15 percent.

The number of global IPTV subscribers will grow from 8.0 million in 2006 to 50.7 million in 2010, a compound annual growth rate of 58 percent.

Europe is leading the market and has higher subscriber numbers than the previous forecast. Prospects for IPTV in Asia have improved and have resulted in a higher forecast. There has been a significant delay in AT&T's IPTV deployment in the U.S. that is pulling the North American forecast down significantly.

The global IPTV service revenue forecast is $1.7 billion in 2006 growing to $12.8 billion in 2010, a compound annual growth rate of 65 percent. Of the three the regions, Europe and North America are generating a significant amount of this revenue; Asia is generating a lower amount of revenue due to lower average prices.

IPTV global Forecast: 2006 to 2010 - October 2006 Publ 20061011

Automotive Multimedia Sales Underperforming in US and Europe. Increasing Availability Not Translating into Sales

2006-10-11T10:51:00.000+02:00

sTrategy Analytics: despite increasing availability and strong consumer demand for automotive and multimedia communications features in cars, sales are poor. Although navigation systems are available on over 160 vehicle models in production in North America and Europe, and Bluetooth connectivity on over 60 models, in most mainstream car brands, multimedia sales remain at less than 5 percent.

Some selected companies, however, are able to generate significant sales in some specific segments. BMW, Mercedes Benz, Continental Automotive, Becker, JCI and Siemens VDO are all significant leaders in certain automotive multimedia and communications segments. But, in general, many mainstream markets are still wide open. Strategic marketing issues - including pricing, promotion and positioning - remain significant challenges for most mainstream car brands.

There has been increasing vehicle model availability for many new multimedia and communications features, such as iPod interface, digital audio, Bluetooth and navigation. Apart from iPod connections, decent returns on these product investments are simply not being achieved by most car makers. Our surveys show consistent high consumer demand for and interest in a variety of automotive multimedia features in the vehicle. However, automotive companies just can't seem to get their marketing strategies right.

Estimated Multimedia and Communications Availability (Vehicle Models in Production in North America and Europe)

	Embedded Navigation	Bluetooth	eCall Telematics	iPod Connectivity
Number of Vehicle Models	165	63	106	68

Source: Strategy Analytics

Automotive Multimedia and Communications Systems Supply and Adoption Analysis Publ 20061011

The Notebook Untethered: Wireless Technologies are Competing for Space in Portable Computers

2006-10-11T10:34:00.000+02:00

ABI: A changing mix of communications protocols will compete for space in notebook computers as they take a growing share of the personal computer market over the next five years. Wireless-equipped notebooks will feature a gradual shift from 802.11g to 802.11n Wi-Fi, as well as significant growth in the number of notebooks with embedded UWB or cellular radios. There is limited room in a notebook computer for antennas and radios. We'll see a battle among competing technologies to reserve a place within the notebook, and number of chip manufacturers are very concerned about that. Notebooks will all (except perhaps the lowest tier of inexpensive Asian machines) have Wi-Fi: the question is, what else will they have? UWB? Cellular? WiMAX? Both notebook manufacturers and wireless IC vendors such as Intel, Atheros, and Marvell have a critical interest in how notebook connectivity is going to evolve. With the 802.11n standard still some way off, and the Wi-Fi Alliance aggressively promoting certification of pre-n products, the stage may be set for some market confusion. Some of the chip makers in particular are unrealistic about their expectations for pre-draft 802.11n. In our experience large enterprises are always very conservative about embracing non-standard solutions. As a result, what we're likely to see in the next couple of years is a solid majority of 'premium g' device sales in the consumer sector, but not much traction in the enterprise. The Evolution of the PC in a Wireless world Publ 20061011

Network PVR Will Fuel Growth in the Digital Video Recording Market, But Serious Challenges Remain

2006-10-11T10:31:00.000+02:00

ABI: Network-based personal video recording (nPVR) stands as a technology that could radically change pricing metrics, advertising, and content distribution on video networks. Once the technology is proven and content providers sign on —nPVR will help to fuel the overall digital video recording (DVR) market, which will grow from about 20 million subscribers last year to more than 250 million in 2011. nPVR offers substantial benefits to service providers in terms of cost.. But nPVR has to prove that its technology is as good as client-side DVR boxes, and it raises serious issues with some content providers, issues that they are willing to take to court. DVRs have been around for some time, in the form of hard-disk-equipped boxes in consumers' homes that allow them to record program content and replay it at will, in the same fashion as a VCR. The question in the coming years is how much of that function will shift to the operators' networks. The nPVR model allows any two-way digital set-top box (STB) with a proper software upgrade to act as a DVR: the content is stored on a server in the network. The lower per-user cost of this centralized storage for network operators, matched by the low cost of' thin client STBs means that nPVR should prove popular in markets such as India and China. In general, we see nPVR being adopted in areas where client-side DVRs aren't available. Some small nPVR deployments have been done in North America by video operators that save their self-produced content (mostly 24-hour news) on the network for later viewing. Particularly in the US, media companies do not want their properties stored on network servers, arguing that their royalties should be paid for each new viewing, not, as the operators claim, on a one-time broadcast basis. worldwide DVR Market Analysis

Publ 20061011

Surprising New 3G Killer App; Compatible Handsets Now the Key Ingredient

2006-10-11T10:29:00.000+02:00

InStat: After years of eagerly anticipating video would be the killer application for 3G, Eexisting and potential 3G customers are much more interested in high-quality mapping and navigation services. However, 3G carriers that want to capture that market will have to expand the availability of compatible handsets. Expanding the number of global Positioning Satellite (GPS) or Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) handsets from today’s levels will be an important step for 3G carriers to provide the applications their customers really want. Unfortunately, technology choices left over from the 1990s make this difficult but carriers and handset vendors are starting to provide an increasing flow of products that better meet the 3G customers’ needs.

Current 3G users are very enthusiastic about the service, which is in marked contrast with other customers who have expressed dissatisfaction with premium applications.
Customer awareness of 3G is not particularly strong, with over half the respondents indicating they don’t know whether their carrier offers 3G.
An unprecedented number of respondents—nearly half—indicated that they would consider changing carriers in order to get 3G.

In-Depth Analysis: 3G and Mobile Multimedia

Manufacturers global from abroad China’s Consumer Electronics Manufacturing Will More Than Double by 2010

2006-10-11T10:26:00.000+02:00

InStat: Low labor costs and a fast-growing domestic market will spur China’s consumer electronics manufacturing industry to more than double by 2010,. The industry will grow from $71.5 billion in 2006 to $167 billion in 2010. China’s mature supply chain, a skilled labor force, and convenient logistics are the key factors to attracting outsourcing manufacturers from abroad. About two-thirds of China’s electronics manufacturing revenue comes solely from foreign-funded or Sino-foreign joint ventures. The world’s top 10 electronics manufacturers have all invested in China and consider China to be a key region in their global manufacturing facility layout.

China-based electronics manufacturing companies contributed about 8% of China’s total US$425 billion electronics manufacturing industry revenue in 2005.
Compared to its mature manufacturing environment, China’s R&D ability, especially in chip design and solutions, is still weak: over 90% of chips for electronic manufacturing still depend on imports.
A few Chinese fabless IC companies have set up successful models to win in niche markets like the video/audio chip market in mobile communication and MP3.

In-Depth Analysis: Electronic Manufacturing in China

Publ 20061011

China’s Consumer Electronics Manufacturing Will More Than Double by 2010

2006-10-11T10:03:00.000+02:00

InStat: Low labor costs and a fast-growing domestic market will spur China’s consumer electronics manufacturing industry to more than double by 2010. The industry will grow from $71.5 billion in 2006 to $167 billion in 2010, . China’s mature supply chain, a skilled labor force, and convenient logistics are the key factors to attracting outsourcing manufacturers from abroad. About two-thirds of China’s electronics manufacturing revenue comes solely from foreign-funded or Sino-foreign joint ventures. The world’s top 10 electronics manufacturers have all invested in China and consider China to be a key region in their global manufacturing facility layout.

China-based electronics manufacturing companies contributed about 8% of China’s total US$425 billion electronics manufacturing industry revenue in 2005.
Compared to its mature manufacturing environment, China’s R&D ability, especially in chip design and solutions, is still weak: over 90% of chips for electronic manufacturing still depend on imports.
A few Chinese fabless IC companies have set up successful models to win in niche markets like the video/audio chip market in mobile communication and MP3.

In-Depth Analysis: Electronic Manufacturing in China Publ 20061011

Increasing Security Needs of Enterprises to Fuel Growth in the world Content Filtering Market

2006-10-10T11:13:00.000+02:00

Frost: The content filtering landscape is witnessing several changes. Traditionally, the web, e-mail and instant messaging (IM) filtering markets have evolved separately. The uptake of solutions, especially in the e-mail filtering market, has been successful. As a result, the content filtering market is maturing and existing vendors are expanding and diversifying their product and service portfolios.

The world Content Filtering Market earned revenues of $1.31 billion in 2005 and estimates to reach $4.86 billion by 2012.

Although the content filtering industry is maturing, there is growing demand from two areas, the first being security. Content filtering is increasingly overlapping with the broader security field. Malware attacks have increased in spread and potency. These attacks are increasingly motivated by financial gain. Phishing, botnets, denial-of-service and directory harvest attacks have become increasingly common over the last 18 months.

Whilst the traditional issues of spam and employee productivity are still driving the content filtering market, protection against malware is becoming a strong driver for market growth. With malware attacks becoming more sophisticated in nature, enterprises are eager to protect themselves. As a result, web and e-mail filtering are becoming useful tools in the security battle of enterprises.

The second factor driving market growth is compliance. Legislation such as Sarbanes Oxley and HIPAA in the United States and the Data Protection Directive in Europe increasingly regulate the content of emails that leave an organisation. This is resulting in the increased uptake of email filtering solutions as well.

The content filtering market is taking over the IM market as well, since most IM vendors have been bought by content filtering vendors and most content filtering vendors now possess IM filtering capabilities The diversification trend also applies to delivery modes. Earlier, vendors delivered solutions in the form of either software, appliances or managed services. This trend has changed and vendors are now offering two or three of the options of software, appliances and managed services.

Vendors that are competing in only web or e-mail filtering and rely on a single delivery mode are rightfully concerned about their competitive potential. In such a scenario, considering mergers and acquisitions, or partnering in order to diversify their product offerings will prove beneficial. Diversification strategies can include both web and e-mail filtering, strengthening outbound e-mail filtering capabilities, or adding hardware and/or hosted services to product portfolios.

Title: world Content Filtering Market Publ 20061010

Consumers to Buy Nearly 15% of Personal Care Items Online by 2010

2006-10-10T11:06:00.000+02:00

eMarketer: The fast-growing health and beauty sector. Health and beauty marketers are not the biggest spenders on Web advertising, but the personal care sector is among the fastest-growing online. The consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry will spend $470 million on online advertising this year, up from $390 million in 2005. By 2010, 13.8% of all health and beauty sales will be made online, up from 5.6% in 2005.

There is a vast, untapped audience at stake. It includes aging boomers struggling to hold on to their youth and Gen Y folks starting families and careers. More than 85% of these groups are online and waiting to be reached. But they are also sophisticated Internet users, not likely to respond to old-style online marketing.

Health and Beauty Marketing: Meet Your Online Customers. Publ 20061010

Despite Competing Technology, HDD Sales Expected to Remain Strong Through 2010

2006-10-10T11:04:00.000+02:00

InStat: The hard disk drive (HDD) will be a key component in more and more consumer electronics products through the rest of the decade. HDD worldwide shipments will increase from 380 million in 2005 to 748 million in 2010, with the Consumer Electronic (CE) segment continuing to be one of the fastest growing applications for HDDs. While hard drives have become small enough to embed in most portable CE devices, competitive storage solutions, such as increasing Flash capacities, continue to threaten this market. However, at multi-gigabyte capacities, Flash becomes cost-prohibitive. HDDs will more effectively address portable multimedia devices that offer a wide range of capabilities requiring higher storage capacities.

By 2010, approximately 38% of all HDDs shipped worldwide will go into CE devices.
Video-capable MP3 players and Portable Media Players are expected to drive continued demand for small form factor HDDs.
The Personal Video Recorder market is the largest CE application for HDDs today.

In-Depth Analysis: Hard Disk Drives in Consumer Electronics: Demand Remains Strong for Small Form Factor HDDs Publ 20061010