Eighty seven percent of technology startups plan to hire new employees in 2013, according to an interactive report bySilicon Valley Bank, financial partner to technology, life science and cleantech companies and their investors worldwide.
In the US, this is up 14% from four years ago when the annual survey began. SVB’s Startup Outlook study, conducted in the US and the UK, also reveals that software companies plan to do the most hiring, with 90% planning to increase the size of their workforces this year.
The Startup Outlook report is based on a survey of more than 750 startup executives across the US and 125 in the UK.
The interactive report details the technology sectors and geographies in the US and the UK that are looking for employees with both STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and general business skills.
Job seekers will find locations with the greatest need and job types in particularly high demand. Eighty-two percent of startups in the US, and 77% in the UK, said that they are looking for people with STEM skills.
One place to hunt for these jobs is via the portfolio listings of Venture Capital firms, which generally include links to the startup websites.
A bright spot in the economy
“Tech companies are a bright spot in the economy worldwide, which is evident from the significant number of startups in the US and the UK that expect to grow and hire this year,” said Greg Becker, president and CEO of Silicon Valley Bank.
“There is a lot of opportunity to put people to work at startups, which is particularly welcome news since jobs in general are recovering slowly. Investments in STEM education and policies that support tech businesses will help people take advantage of jobs, and benefit economic growth overall.”
Yet nine in 10 reported difficulty finding workers with the skills they need. For more detail on the hiring challenges startups face, visit Startup Outlook: The Issue of Talent.
Tech hubs report talent search challenges
In the US, startups in major technology hubs nationwide reported challenges finding workers with the skills they need and those numbers were highest in Texas (94%), followed by Washington (91%). In the UK, 69% of startups reported trouble finding qualified engineers.
Silicon Valley Bank conducted its fourth annual Startup Outlook survey in the US and its first survey in the UK in December 2012.
For the purposes of this study, startups are primarily defined as companies in the innovation sector with less than $100 million in annual revenue and fewer than 500 employees (US) or less than £25 million in annual revenue and fewer than 100 employees (UK). Just over 40% of the startups that are hiring in both the US and the UK had fewer than 10 employees at the time of the survey.
Social networking is claiming a significant part of the time we spend online, according to a new report. Experian Marketing Services, a global provider of integrated consumer insight, targeting and cross channel marketing, reveals that if the time spent on the Internet for personal computers was distilled into an hour then 27 percent of it would be spent on social networking and forums across US, UK and Australia in 2012.
In the US, 16 minutes out of every hour online is spent on social networking and forums, nine minutes on entertainment sites and five minutes shopping.
Global comparison In the UK 13 minutes out of every hour online is spent on social networking and forums, nine minutes on entertainment sites and six minutes shopping. Australian Internet users spend 14 minutes on social sites, nine on entertainment and four minutes shopping online.
Across all three markets, time spent shopping online grew year-on-year, but the UK market emerged as having the most prolific online shoppers, spending proportionally more time on retail websites than online users in the US or Australia.
UK Internet users spent 10 percent of all time online shopping in 2012, compared to nine percent in the US and six percent in Australia. This was in part due to a bumper Christmas season in the UK where 370 million hours were spent shopping online, 24 percent higher than the monthly average.
Consumption of news content also increased across all three markets with Australian users emerging as the most voracious consumers of news online. Six percent of all time spent online in Australia in 2012 was on a news website, compared to five percent in the UK and four percent in the US.
Social media time declines
There are signs that some of us may be feeling social media fatigue. The time spent on social media proportionate to other online activities declined across all three regions.
The US, which has been the most dominant market for social media consumption in the last three years dropped from 30 percent of all time spent online to 27 percent. That doesn’t surprise us, since we’ve cut back on the time we spend on social media ourselves, but it may also mean people are becoming more effective at getting whatever results they seek with less time.
In Australia time spent on social dropped from 27 percent to 24 percent while in the UK it dipped from 25 percent to 22 percent year-over-year. This highlights the rise in access via 3G and 4G networks as consumers spend increasingly more time online while on the move.
Average time spent in 2012 by market
UK
US
AU
Category
% time 2012
% time 2011
% time 2012
% time 2011
% time 2012
% time 2011
Adult
4%
4%
4%
4%
4%
3%
Business
4%
4%
5%
5%
5%
5%
Email
3%
4%
5%
6%
2%
4%
Entertainment
15%
13%
15%
16%
15%
12%
Lifestyle
4%
3%
4%
4%
4%
4%
News
5%
4%
4%
3%
6%
5%
Shopping
10%
9%
9%
8%
6%
6%
Social
22%
25%
27%
30%
24%
27%
Travel
2%
2%
1%
1%
1%
1%
Other
31%
32%
27%
23%
33%
33%
Source: Experian Marketing Services
“Understanding consumer behavior across channels is more important than ever as more visits are being made on the move, particularly among social networking and email,” says Bill Tancer , general manager of global research for Experian Marketing Services.
“With smart phones and tablets becoming more powerful, our data clearly indicates the difference between mobile and traditional desktop usage further enabling the ‘always on’ consumer mentality. Marketers need to understand these differences, as well as regionally, to ensure campaigns can be tailored for better and more effective engagement.”
Mobile browsing
Average time spent on US mobile devices – Q1 2013
Category
Q1-2013
(h:m:s)
Percentage of time
for 1-hour
Email
0:06:24
23%
Social Networking
0:04:05
15%
Entertainment
0:03:34
13%
Shopping
0:02:59
11%
Travel
0:02:33
9%
Source: Experian Marketing Services
If we analyzed the US browsing data for mobile devices, email accounted for the largest time spent on average, among the same categories for Q1 2013. Email made up 23 percent of time spent on mobile devices for Q1 2013, while social networking accounted for 15 percent.
Entertainment had the third highest time spent with 13 percent, followed by shopping with 11 percent and travel with 9 percent. The mobile data does not include app usage, but does include mobile browsing within an app.
Should police be putting more effort into communicating with citizens via social media channels? Three-quarters of 1300 people surveyed in six countries by Accenture believe digital communication channels, including social media, can play a significant role in bridging the communication gap.
Almost three-fourths (71 percent) of those surveyed say police use of digital channels can help overcome the communication gap , but only 20 percent believe their local police use digital channels.
Most, though (84 percent) say they’re only minimally informed of police activities now.
Citizens – from Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom were surveyed.
Almost one-fourth (23 percent) of respondents believe police should use smartphone and mobile applications to communicate with citizens and 50 percent said they would like to see an increase in the use of police websites and portals. Only 22 percent of those surveyed, however, said their police force is currently using dedicated websites and portals.
The research found that police across all six countries continue to rely heavily on traditional media channels, including newspapers (69 percent) and radio or television news reports (45 percent), as their primary tools for one-way communication with citizens.
Despite citizens’ interest in the use of more digital channels, traditional community policing methods remain important. The majority (63 percent) of respondents still prefer to report a crime over the phone or in person to a police officer.
Tim Godwin, Accenture senior executive and retired U.K. Metropolitan Police Service deputy commissioner said, “The strong belief among citizens that digital technologies and social media channels can improve police services and prevent crime demonstrates the importance of police forces continuing to adopt new tools to foster two-way communication with citizens. By increasing the number of channels by which police communicate, they will gain valuable intelligence that can help prevent crime and secure prosecutions.”
U.S. Findings:
The U.S. had the highest rate of respondents who felt “well informed” of local police activities (21 percent).
More than three-fourths of U.S. respondents (78 percent) said they would like to see police use more digital channels to communicate with citizens.
Seventy-seven percent believe that social media can aid investigations and help catch criminals and 56 percent of U.S. citizens believe social media can improve police services.
Almost half of U.S. survey participants (47 percent) believe that social media use by police can prevent crime.
More than half (52 percent) of U.S. respondents said they would like to have a community police force contact.
Thirty-four percent of U.S. respondents believe police should make greater use of smartphone and mobile applications to communicate with citizens.
Internet TVs are among the tipping point technologies covered in the 2012 Gartner’s Hype Cycle report, but consumers in Western nations are not using connected TV functions as much as those in China, India and Brazil, says a GfK report.
Where do think TV viewers are more likely to use web-connected Smart TV functions, in western countries such as the US, UK, and Germany, or in China, India and Brazil? If you guessed the western nations, you would be wrong.
Research carried out across thirteen countries by GfK’s consumer research experts found that western consumers are stuck in an analog mindset, whereas viewers in emerging markets are more likely to embrace the digital capabilities of Connected TV.
GfK research shows that a far higher proportion of Chinese, Korean and Indian consumers have used the functionalities of Smart TV in the past months, compared to those in Western markets.
Connected TV usage:
China 44%
S. Korea 18%
India 17%
Brazil 14%
Turkey 13%
UK 11%
USA 11%
Mexico 11%
Spain 8%
Germany 8%
Belgium 6%
Russia 5%
Netherlands 5%
The GfK research also found that Social TV “has yet to fully take-off.” Globally, only 28 percent of viewers found programs they can interact with to be more interesting to watch. Just a quarter said tweeting or commenting on programs via social media “enhances the viewing experience.”
But once again, viewers in China, India and Brazil were more interested in interactive TV than those in western nations.
Richard Preedy, at GfK, said: “Our findings suggest that broadcasters need to integrate their social elements far more engagingly into the fabric of the program, in order to entice the viewer’s interaction.”
Personally, we find the use of social media on US TV to be generally lackluster. The Twitter streams news shows sometimes run at the bottom of the screen tend to repeat just a few selected tweets, for instance.
While a few entertainment programs are becoming more creative at adding social media elements to the viewing experience, many are not very intriguing.
A new report from analyst firm Juniper Research forecasts that revenue from mobile search & discovery will reach $15 billion by 2017, nearly three times the revenue it expects to be generated by these markets in 2012, with ad space in these markets representing prime real estate for advertisers.
Highest Rates in Mobile Advertising
The report found that clickthrough and cost-per-click rates for search & discovery, including web search, local search, augmented reality search and discovery apps, are some of the highest in mobile advertising due to the fact that users are in the market for a discrete group of products or services, and can therefore be accurately targeted by advertisers.
Local Search: Web versus Apps
Leading search engine providers, including Google and Microsoft, say a large percentage of web searches on mobile are localised, but the report highlights that local search apps arguably represent a greater opportunity for advertisers because of more relevant results and better UI (User Interface) optimisation.
According to report author Daniel Ashdown: “web search results, by their very nature, are more generalised, despite the local parameters search engines offer. Furthermore, the websites linked-to in search results are often not optimised for mobile devices.”
Juniper’s report notes that with local search apps like Poynt, Qype and Yelp, the search experience is mobile-optimised from end-to-end – which is crucial if the user is to be led through the whole process, to reaching a purchasing decision.
Other key findings from the report include:
Google’s domination of the mobile web search space means other players need to find ways to differentiate their products in a largely commoditised market.
Augmented reality search is increasingly being deployed as an add-on feature, rather than a stand-alone product.
Adoption of discovery services for apps is driven by the high number of applications on leading storefronts, but faces challenge from big brands (with Apple acquiring Chomp, and Facebook launching app centre).
Ever since the introduction of Apples’ first iPhone in 2007, US and global market demand for smartphones has grown at a tremendous pace, with demand for mobile data following right behind.
In 2009 Apple sought to repeat history in 2010 with the release of their iconic iPad. With premium market research from the world’s foremost publishers, Global Information, Inc. looks at how all of this change is shaping the markets for Smartphones and Tablets in the US, UK, and Australia across five important reports.
Smartphone Market Forecast & Opportunities to 2017
The demand for smartphones has increased exponentially all over the world, encouraging many vendors to enter this lucrative market. They have been followed by application developers.
The smartphone is arguably the most significant technological advancement of the last decade, as it has moved world to a place where everyone can be connected to everything, all the time. Smartphones will define an entire generation of opportunities and growth.
Understanding the growth curves of key markets is absolutely critical for players in this space. The United States leads the global adoption curve and represents the most mature market for smartphones. The state of the market in the US can be used to analyze likely endgame scenarios and outcomes as other markets around the globe mature.
TechSci Research’sUS smartphone market forecast to 2017 offers the insight companies, governments, and developers will need to stay ahead of this incredibly fast-moving industry.
The UK, in contrast, has lagged slightly behind the US market in smartphone uptake, which leads TechSci to forecast remarkable growth and penetration in their UK smartphone market forecast through 2017.
After an astounding 300% uptake over the past decade, the UK market is still projected to grow at a CAGR of over 20% through 2017, pushing smartphones from 50% up to 80% of all mobile phones, and driving the market value to over $4.3 billion.
Canada’s growth has been slower, but their market is experiencing some upheaval as native son RIM witnesses the end of its long history of dominance. Even so, the Canadian smartphone market forecast through 2017 predicts a healthy CAGR of 13%, with Apple outpacing both RIM and Samsung over that time period.
Australia, like the UK, has also witnessed tremendous growth tripling the size of the smartphone market over the last 4 years, and while the Australian smartphone market forecast through 2017 is the slowest of these four – at a CAGR of 10% over 5 years – the market is still expected to reach over $3.72 billion (US) in that period.
US – Tablet PC Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2016
Similar to the launch of its revolutionary iPhone product, Apple’s iPad completely reshaped the tablet PC market landscape on a global scale by selling tens of million units in just the first year after its launch.
This complete upending of the tablet PC market can be credited to the fact that consumers realized that a gadget handier than a laptop, more powerful than a netbook, and more comfortable to use than a smart phone could actually exist. In 2011, the global tablet PC market reached $35.3 billion, and is expected to continue to grow rapidly into 2016.
The tablet market in the US alone is anticipated to grow at the CAGR of around 10.8%, especially following wide acceptance and increased demand from the enterprise sector.
Current trends and market acceptance of the tablet is rising, which will lead to significant growth in the short term. Major drivers for the tablet market will be ease of use, increased battery life, improved mobility, enhanced multitasking, instant on/off capability, and the incredible and increasing breadth and scope of software applications for various platforms.
It might be assumed that not many people conduct online searches in more than one language. However, results from a global survey undertaken by leading independent digital marketing agency, Greenlight, suggest quite the opposite, that a significant 76% (globally) do.
Occupations one might most readily associate with the Internet – IT and Marketing – topped the list of those who are most likely to search in more than one language.
Greenlight’s global “Search & Social Survey (2011-2012)” asked 500 people – from students, law enforcement professionals, medical staff, accountants, lawyers to the unemployed, how they engage with online advertising, search engines, and social networks, in order to glean insight into how consumers engage with marketers today, and to formulate views on what the future might hold.
Italy and Spain top multi-lingual search
Some of the countries topping Greenlight’s chart are not entirely surprising - Belgium, for example, has three official languages. However, others, namely Italy and Spain, are not so obvious.
“The fact that Italy and Spain top the chart with 100% of respondents claiming to search in multiple languages, despite reasonably homogenised language use, is possibly a testament to the position of English as the quasi-official language of Europe and the relative prevalence of English language web pages,” says Adam Bunn, director of search engine optimisation (SEO), at Greenlight.
Bunn points to data compiled by Greenlight in 2010. It showed the UK produced the most web pages per head in Europe at 17 pages per person, compared to ten per person in Spain and just six per person in Italy.
“Presumably as well as there being more English spam on the web, this also means there is more high quality English content to be searched for by Europeans as well,” says Bunn.
So what if English is used to conduct an online search in Spain?
Caution required for multi-lingual sites
Search engines use the domain extension to help them determine the geographical relevance of a site, so while a .co.uk domain stands an increased chance of ranking within the search engine results pages (SERPs) in the UK, it will count against it when people are searching in another country.
Consequently, this behaviour may warrant the creation of multiple language sites for a brand or business.
This of course runs counter to traditional SEO logic which states that duplicate content is bad – which it is – so this would have to be undertaken with some caution, ensuring that all content is properly localised so that search engines know that one version is intended for region A, the other for region B.
Bunn concludes, ”The point here is that proper research, beyond just gathering a few keywords from the Google AdWords Keyword Tool, really does help to inform SEO strategy.
The first step to deciding whether to progress an opportunity is to define the size of that opportunity. This data does give some food for thought.”
As Facebook heads toward what may be the most anticipated initial public offering ever, Socialbakers, a social media analytics firm, says the 900-million-plus member Facebook platform helps big brands penetrate emerging global markets.
Socialbakers’ analysis not only highlights the social network’s exploding international reach but also how the world’s biggest brands are tapping into the social economy to build international momentum.
The data examines the Engagement Rate (ER) of brands—a clear measure of brand engagement—in the top 10 countries with the largest Facebook user base.
“Facebook is clearly giving social-savvy companies unprecedented access to build dynamic relationships and grow revenue in key markets,” said Socialbakers CEO Jan Rezab.
“It can be incredibly time-consuming and difficult to go to market in new regions with a localized website or microsite, even for some of the world’s biggest companies. And even then, you’ve still got a static presence that fails to truly engage your target audience. Facebook eliminates that barrier to entry by providing a well-entrenched and steadily-growing platform.”
Kraft Tops the List of Fastest Moving Brands Three of the top five Fastest Moving Global Brands come from the Kraft family. The company’s Halls, Trident and Chiclets lines made major gains over the past year, boosted by strong audience engagement in Brazil (the second-largest Facebook audience). L’Oreal Paris Brazil and AXE Indonesia (Unilever) round out the Top Five.
Consumer Goods Win Big Around the World Consumer Packaged Goods (CPGs) have emerged as industry leaders on the global scale, with half of the Top 10 Fastest Movers falling into this category.
CPGs also dominate in key growth markets. In Brazil, the most engaged brands are CPGs, and in the United Kingdom, Cadbury Creme Egg and Cadbury Wispa rank in the top two. In France, M&Ms boasts the highest engagement rate of any brand in the nation.
“CPGs have historically been early adopters of social media in well-saturated markets,” Rezab said. “So it only makes sense that they leverage this strategy to dominate in these high-growth markets as well.”
Mobile/Telecom Move the Needle in Emerging Markets Mobile brands have also made big moves among the top 10 Countries, as well as in some smaller, yet highly engaged markets.
As the proliferation of mobile devices continues to permeate virtually every corner of the globe, carriers and device manufacturers are leveraging this momentum to engage audiences and expand their reach.
BlackBerry, which has fallen behind the pack in the U.S. mobile market, is among the top three brands in Mexico and Indonesia. Samsung and Nokia top the leaderboard in Turkey and Mexico, while regional player Vodafone has by far more fans and higher engagement than any other brand in India.
Fan Engagement Highest Among Emerging Markets It’s no surprise that, among the top 10 brands, the overwhelming majority of Facebook fans hail from the U.S.
However, fans in emerging markets are much more actively engaged—a metric that proves to be very valuable in gaining international traction. Indonesia, Mexico and the Philippines rank in the top three in Engagement Rate.
Meanwhile, four of the top five Fastest Moving Brands saw their biggest gains in the booming market of Brazil.
“Engagement is the core of the social economy—people buy what their friends buy and recommend,” Rezab said.
“Simply having a lot of fans isn’t the answer to building a strong social economy presence—they must be active. Growing that engagement and viral reach is the key to success, especially in international markets.”
Is Apple TV going to be as disruptive to TV makers as the iPad was to PC makers and the iPhone to cell phone manufacturers? Maybe not, but it is poised to create new opportunities for developers by bringing the Apple operating system into more homes.
KAE a leading strategic marketing and research consultancy and Toluna, a global pioneer in online polls, surveys and opinions teamed to release a major new study illustrating how large manufacturers could lose out if Apple launches a physical TV set.
Overall, the study highlighted that 25% of consumers in the US find the idea appealing and would buy it once it becomes commercially available – compared to 30% in the UK.
Consumers that already own at least one Apple device are more likely to buy an Apple TV set, 2 in 5 (US 38% – UK 43%) find the idea appealing and would purchase should the product become available.
Lee Powney, chief commercial officer at KAE said: “The huge potential of an Apple TV set, although impressive, should not be seen in isolation. Such a move would be an incredibly powerful extension of the iOS platform, accessed via a more compelling device option than Apple’s current offering (Apple TV).
“It would create new monetisation opportunities for developers and accessory manufacturers by bringing the Apple experience further into the home.”
He added, “This would strengthen both the ecosystem and the benefits that consumers derive from owning many differing Apple devices. Will Apple do this?
“The pressure to maintain the lion’s share of preference from ecosystem members and create additional device-to-device interaction benefits for consumers means it should do this, and must do this.”
Who would hurt?
Sony, Samsung and LG are the market-leading brands most likely to suffer should Apple decide to launch its mooted Apple TV concept. In the UK, a sizeable 38% of current Sony TV owners and 36% of Samsung TV owners claimed they find the idea of an Apple TV appealing and would buy one. In the US, the brand most at risk from the concept is LG, where 3 in 10 (31%) of owners would be likely to convert should an Apple TV become available.
Approximately 3 in 5 US consumers questioned who were very likely to buy the TV said they trust Apple to produce a high quality TV set (59%), a sentiment echoed by UK consumers (62%).
Design also features highly in respondents’ reasons to purchase with over half of all those likely to buy claiming that Apple’s reputation in ground-breaking design would no doubt also be used in TV (52% in US and 58% in the UK).
KAE says, “Although this wave of research looked only at the USA and UK, we believe that the greatest revenue opportunities in 2013-15 for an Apple TV set are clustered in the ‘home territories’ of Apple’s TV competitors – i.e. Japan, Korea andChina. We’re excited at the prospect of measuring that potential and the impact that success will have on Apple’s share price.”
Consumers were asked which features they felt an Apple TV set would be equipped with: The top anticipated feature for potential customers of the unconfirmed Apple TV set is similar for both countries, which is the ability to connect to the internet (73% in the US & 75% in the UK).
The other top features selected by potential US customers were running apps on TV (44%) and the ability to synchronise automatically with other Apple devices (41%).
For the UK market the other two main features expected were the ability to synchronise automatically with other Apple devices (47%) and for the device to be 3D enabled (41%).
This survey is the latest in a series by KAE conducted to assess Apple’s potential to extend into new categories. To view previous research please visit http://tinyurl.com/84uozly
A significantly higher percentage of iPhones than Android phones connecting to the Internet via Wi-Fi networks, according to digital measurement firm comScore.
“With the rise in adoption of smartphones, tablets, and other connected devices, network operators have seen a surge in mobile web activity and face new challenges in keeping up with data demands while maintaining their quality of service,” saidSerge Matta, comScore President of Operator and Mobile Solutions.
“As bandwidth usage increases and the spectrum becomes more scarce, operators, OEMs, and others in the mobile ecosystem should understand the different dynamics between the use of mobile and Wi-Fi networks to develop strategies to optimize resources and provide their customers with continued high-quality network service.”
iPhone Users Significantly More Likely to Use Wi-Fi than Android Users A U.S. analysis of Wi-Fi and mobile Internet usage across unique smartphones on the iOS and Android platforms reveals that 71 percent of all unique iPhones used both mobile and Wi-Fi networks to connect to the Internet, while only 32 percent of unique Android mobile phones used both types of connections. A further analysis of this pattern of behavior in the U.K. shows consistent results, as 87 percent of unique iPhones used both mobile and Wi-Fi networks for web access compared to a lower 57 percent of Android phones.
Mobile and Wi-Fi Internet Connection Activity Across iOS and Android Smartphone Platforms
February 2012
United States and United Kingdom
Source: comScore Device Essentials
Smartphone
Platform
% of Smartphones that Browse Only
via Mobile Networks
% of Smartphones that Browse via
Both Mobile and Wi-Fi Networks
United States
iOS
29%
71%
Android
68%
32%
United Kingdom
iOS
13%
87%
Android
43%
57%
U.K. Smartphones Show Higher Incidence of Wi-Fi Use Compared to U.S. The comScore analysis also revealed that 69 percent of total unique smartphones in the U.K. browsed the Internet via both mobile and Wi-Fi network connections, compared to just 38 percent of U.S unique smartphones. U.S. smartphones on the AT&T network were more likely to use Wi-Fi than those on other major operator networks, likely due to AT&T having both a greater iPhone market share and the largest Wi-Fi hotspot network in America. In the U.K., smartphones on the Vodafone, Telefonica and Orange networks were more likely to use Wi-Fi than were others on other U.K. operators.
“The difference in mobile and Wi-Fi network usage across the U.S. and U.K. suggests that there are a few factors at play affecting Wi-Fi utilization rates,” said Matta.
“In the U.K., the scarcity of unlimited data plans and higher incidence of smartphone pre-paid contracts with a pay-as-you-go data model likely contributes to data offloading among users wanting to economize their mobile usage. In addition, the current lack of high-speed data networks in the U.K. might also lead users to seek out higher bandwidth capacity on Wi-Fi networks.
“In the U.S., the increased availability of LTE, 4G and other high-speed data networks currently make it less necessary for smartphone users to offload, but it’s also possible that the diminishing availability of unlimited cellular data plans will eventually push more usage to Wi-Fi.”
Mobile and Wi-Fi Internet Connection Activity Across Carriers
February 2012
Would you bank with Apple Inc.? Toluna, a global pioneer in online polls, surveys and opinions, has revealed the startling findings of a new research study into the opinions of consumers towards the potential of technology giant, Apple, breaking into the banking sector.
The survey, using Toluna’s global research panel community of 4 million consumers worldwide, collected data from over 5,000 respondents, across the US and UK, and revealed that one in ten people (10%) would consider banking with Apple. Of those who are already Apple customers, 43% would consider switching to Apple for their day to day banking needs.
The impressive levels of trust generated between Apple and their customers was the main reason given for a possible switch to an Apple Bank, with around two-thirds citing their trust in the brand (66%) as the primary reason, and just over half claiming they think Apple would make their account easy to access and manage, as well as providing a reliable service.
It comes as no surprise that the majority (81%) of people who would bank with Apple are technology savvy and currently do their banking online.
Of those surveyed in the UK, almost one in five currently bank with Lloyds Banking Group (18%) or Barclays (14%), while in the US almost a quarter (23%) are with Bank of America and around one in ten with JP Morgan Chase (11%).
In terms of overall attitudes towards banking, the study also found that these consumers display great interest in using their smartphone for personal banking (62%), and are even of the opinion that call centres may not exist in the future as everything will be done online (53%).
MD of KAE, David Rankin, commented: “Apple would face no capital constraints in building a deposits base. With a proven ability to cross-sell additional products, along with the highest sales per square foot of any retailer and an affluent customer base, it wouldn’t take long for Apple to become one of the most profitable consumer banks in recent times.
Power of the Apple brand
“Once the power of the Apple brand and its options for growth are understood, it tends to prompt one of three responses from financial institutions: accelerated invention, defensive benchmarking or blissful issue avoidance. We know that not everyone would be impressed by the arrival of an ‘iBank’; we also know that the boldness of the next big Apple move will inspire and terrify in equal measure”.
“The strength of Apple’s relationship with consumers is a result of its ability to redefine the terms of competition in an industry and design emotionally rich ‘human’ experiences”, said Lee Powney, Chief Commercial Officer at KAE.
“This research tells us Apple customers perceive a fit where at first glance we would assume the brand could not travel. To observe a ‘wrong’ and ‘make right’ is a core characteristic of this business. Apple’s ethos, its way of being and way of doing is instinctively understood by its customers. This makes it a truly dangerous animal to a startling array of sectors”
On the likelihood of Apple entering into this sector, Powney also added “When you look at the possible cross fertilisation effects on purchases of moving this amount of cash into the model, and the resulting increases in preference for its platform from developers and content owners, it would take a remarkable display of discipline to resist. However it would be very ‘un-Apple’ to simply enter into a market without changing the terms of competition”.
Smartphone shipments to emerging markets will drive growth in the worldwide smartphone market in the years ahead.
According to the latest smartphone forecast from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, China will become the leading country-level market for smartphone shipments in 2012, moving ahead of the current leader, the United States. Looking ahead to 2016, two additional emerging markets, India and Brazil, will enter the top 5 country markets for smartphone shipments.
“PRC smartphone shipments are expected to take a slim lead over the U.S. in 2012 before the gap widens in the coming years”
“Due to their sheer size, strong demand, and healthy replacement rates, emerging markets are quickly becoming the engines of the worldwide smartphone market,” said Ramon Llamas, senior research analyst with IDC’s Mobile Phone Technology and Trends team.
“Users in emerging markets seek more than simple voice telephony, and smartphones offer the ideal platform for mobile entertainment, social networking, and business usage as seen in developed markets.”
Meanwhile, mature markets, such as Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, will experience continued growth in smartphone adoption, but volumes will not keep up with those destined for emerging markets.
At the same time, smartphone growth within emerging markets presents its challenges. “The total cost of ownership remains a hurdle for potential smartphone buyers,” added Llamas.
“Smartphones still represent a significant investment for consumers in many countries. This fact was acknowledged by a number of industry executives at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, who stressed the need for low-cost devices – as low as sub-US$50 – to spur widespread adoption.
“Another notable barrier to adoption is the cost of a monthly data plan. To realize the full potential of emerging markets, smartphone vendors need to develop low-cost smartphones that provide a full, robust experience while mobile operators will need to creatively subsidize device cost and data plans.”
China Highlights
After surpassing smartphone shipments in the U.S. for two consecutive quarters in the second half of 2011, China will carry that momentum into 2012 and beyond.
“PRC smartphone shipments are expected to take a slim lead over the U.S. in 2012 before the gap widens in the coming years,” said Wong Teck Zhung, senior market analyst with IDC’s Asia/Pacific Client Devices team. “There will be no turning back this leadership changeover.”
Android smartphones priced below US$200 were a hot segment in 2011 and these low-cost smartphones are expected to remain a key driver for smartphone growth, with prices becoming even more affordable on falling chipset prices and increased competition.
“Emerging domestic vendors will be another important engine of smartphone growth as giants Huawei, ZTE, and Lenovo continue to ramp up with big carrier orders due to their willingness to produce customized handsets,” added Teck Zhung. “International players such as Samsung and Nokia are also expected to drive volume at the low end with cheaper smartphones.”
Country-Level Smartphone Market Share for 2011, 2012, and 2016 (based on shipments)
Country
2011 Market Share
2012 Market Share
2016 Market Share
PRC
18.2%
20.7%
20.2%
USA
21.3%
20.6%
15.3%
India
2.2%
2.9%
9.3%
Brazil
1.8%
2.3%
4.7%
United Kingdom
5.3%
4.5%
3.7%
Others
51.2%
48.9%
46.8%
Total
100.0%
100.0%
100.0%
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, March 2012
Country-Level Smartphone Rankings for 2011, 2012, and 2016 (based on shipments)
Country
2011 Ranking
2012 Ranking
2016 Ranking
PRC
2
1
1
USA
1
2
2
India
9
7
3
Brazil
11
10
4
United Kingdom
4
4
5
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, March 2012
Note: Vendor shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM sales for all vendors.
For more information about IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, please contact Kathy Nagamine at 650-350-6423 or knagamine@idc.com.
Having the website search engine optimized to be found in major search engines is crucial for most businesses in the 21st century. But how do you find out if a specific webpage has been created with search engines in mind?
SEO Specialist’s new SEO review tool will make it quick and easy to review if a website is well optimized, while also giving straightforward advice if a web page is not search engine friendly.
Markus Jalmerot, the founder of SEO Specialist, explains why it can be beneficial for both large and small businesses to review if their webpages are search engine friendly once in a while.
Doing a webpage review is a free and simple way to ensure that the webpage is targeted for the appropriate keywords. Many webpage optimization factors can be changed quickly, while having a huge impact on the bottom line. It’s a free tool, so why not try it?
What does the SEO review tool measure?
The website review tool has been created to quickly yet accurately review webpage titles, amount of indexed pages, text volume, text relevancy, headings, meta descriptions and image text. It also gives comments about risky top level domains that should be avoided, such as webpages that share IP address with other websites, or when relevant keywords are being used in the domain name or URL path.
SEO Specialist considers their webpage review tool to be unique by providing details about IP-address usage and comments about the chosen top level domain.
How is the SEO score calculated?
The maximum score in the automated webpage analysis is 100 points. Negative points are given for any factor considered to give a negative search engine ranking effect in Bing, Google or Yahoo.
Big issues such as missing to use the given keyword in a web page title gives over 10 points reduction, while smaller ranking elements such as sharing IP address with several other websites will give a smaller reduction. At the end, the amount of negative points is subtracted from the original total (100 points) and that is your final score.
Where is the limitation of this website review tool?
It’s usually more helpful to get a hands-on review from a SEO specialist, but this tool is currently being evaluated in beta testing.
Search engine optimization is complex and depends mainly on web page factors and link building. The results from the SEO review tool are based on a range of website factors, but link building factors are not taken into account.
The company says its SEO Specialists are constantly trying to improve this tool and would be keen to hear any kind of feedback or suggestions for improvement.
Want to learn more about what matters for search engine optimization?
Read SEO Specialist’s 50 page free guide to website optimisation, where all the most important steps in webpage optimisation are explained.
James Park, an economics commentator for the British website Newspanel, sees three reasons for optimism in aspects of US Economy. While not a robust rebound from global recession, Park still sees things to like in leading economic indicators. That’s the premise of his latest commentary, “3 Reasons Why the U.S. Economy is Doing Better Than you Think”
This includes increasing rates of employment growth, increasing use of consumer and corporate credit and a levelling off of energy prices.
“There have been already some signals showing that although the teeth of the global recession still bite deep into the nation, there’s hope for the future – significant improvements may not be so far off,” said Park.
Employment growth is accelerating
The rate at which new jobs have been created in 2011 has doubled, compared to 2010, points out Park. What’s more, job growth is concentrated in small businesses, the sector economists consider fundamental to the US Economy.
“Small businesses have been hiring more than 1 million people in the last 12 months. In other words…they are moving ahead despite the obstacles laid in their path by the global recession. And this can only be good for the U.S. Economy,” Park said.
Businesses and Consumers are Using Credit Again
During the recent global recession, credit markets completely dried up. So the marked expansion of credit markets evident in recent months is great news for the US Economy. “Things have improved in the last couple of months and short-term borrowing among corporations has been improving ever since the end of 2010,” said Park. “Consumers…havee begun borrowing money actively in the last seven months. In fact, between December and July, consumer credit has been continuously improving.”
This is not to say credit is rebounding to pre-global recession levels of availability. But any expansion can only be good news for the US Economy.
Energy Prices Have Finally Stopped Increasing
While steadily increasing energy prices in the first part of 2011 made economists fear a double dip recession was inevitable, prices have recently levelled off.
“There are signals that the much feared energy prices surge has stopped, at least for now,” said Park. “The issues that plague the Middle East could still lead to energy prices increases in the future, but more than likely these will be only short-lived.”
While recovery from global recession is still fragile, there may be finally reasons to hope.
“The U.S. economy, in the context of the global recession, shows clear signs that a recovery, perhaps even one as soon as the second half of this year, is not altogether improbable,” said Park.
Shades of John Henry: a Finnish company that makes machine vision, camera systems and optical measurement technology chose an unusual way to promote their products: They pit a human player against a robot equipped with their technology playing the popular Angry Birds game. Who won?
Watch the video below.
Here’s a video on how they made the robot and the video:
Farmville with Real Animals
The website Onearth says some real farmers in the UK” are planning on turning their farm into a real world FarmVille (the popular game on Facebook).
Web users took over the “large working farm” Wednesday, according to the report.
People who join the MyFarm experiment, which requires a substantial fee, will make decisions such as which bull to purchase, which crops to plant, except for “cannabis or bananas,” says Richard Morris, manager of Wimpole Estate Farm in Cambridgeshire, UK.
The online participants will make decisions after discussions through votes.
Farmville is Facebook’s second most poplar game and has 47 million players each month.
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ATLANTA - Fleetmatics, a software-as-a-service company selling GPS tracking applications for commercial fleets, has closed on $68 million in growth equity from Institutional Venture Partners, which joined Investcorp Technology Partners, its majority owner, and New World Ventures in the round.
The company has US offices in Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago and operations in the UK and Ireland.
Over 12,500 businesses globally use the FleetMatics tracking system, and the GPS fleet tracking provides customers with an arsenal of powerful tools that helps reduce operating expenses while increasing productivity and improving customer service. FleetMatics says it provides customers with an effective way to measurably save money and increase productivity on a daily basis.
In conjunction with the financing, IVP’s General Partner Sandy Miller has joined the FleetMatics board.
“This growth investment will be an important source of capital to help us accelerate our growth and drive key initiatives. FleetMatics will elevate our ability to expand our best-in-class products and services offerings to meet the needs of fleets of all sizes,” explained Jim Travers, CEO of FleetMatics.
Eighty seven percent of technology startups plan to hire new employees in 2013, according to an interactive report bySilicon Valley Bank, financial partner to technology, life science and cleantech companies and their investors worldwide.
Social networking is claiming a significant part of the time we spend online, according to a new report. 
UK Internet users spent 10 percent of all time online shopping in 2012, compared to nine percent in the US and six percent in Australia. This was in part due to a bumper Christmas season in the UK where 370 million hours were spent shopping online, 24 percent higher than the monthly average.
Should police be putting more effort into communicating with citizens via social media channels? Three-quarters of 1300 people surveyed in six countries by Accenture believe digital communication channels, including social media, can play a significant role in bridging the communication gap.
A 
It might be assumed that not many people conduct online searches in more than one language. However, results from a global survey undertaken by leading independent digital marketing agency, 
Is Apple TV going to be as disruptive to TV makers as the iPad was to PC makers and the iPhone to cell phone manufacturers? Maybe not, but it is poised to create new opportunities for developers by bringing the Apple operating system into more homes.
A significantly higher percentage of iPhones than Android phones connecting to the Internet via Wi-Fi networks, according to digital measurement firm comScore.
Bet you can’t name the first dot com domain. Or the most expensive.
Would you bank with Apple Inc.? Toluna, a global pioneer in online polls, surveys and opinions, has revealed the startling findings of a new research study into the opinions of consumers towards the potential of technology giant, Apple, breaking into the banking sector.
Smartphone shipments to emerging markets will drive growth in the worldwide smartphone market in the years ahead.
Having the website search engine optimized to be found in major search engines is crucial for most businesses in the 21st century. But how do you find out if a specific webpage has been created with search engines in mind?
James Park, an economics commentator for the British website 
Shades of John Henry: a Finnish company that makes machine vision, camera systems and optical measurement technology chose an unusual way to promote their products: They pit a human player against a robot equipped with their technology playing the popular Angry Birds game. Who won?
ATLANTA -
