Posts Tagged ‘blackberry’

RIM and Samsung Lead the Mobile Market

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010 by jrajani

comScore announced key trends in the U.S. mobile phone over three month average ending August 2010. The report ranks leading mobile equipment manufacturers and smartphone operating system platforms according to their share of mobile subscribers ages 13 and older. The report finds Samsung to be the top manufacturer for handsets and has 23.6% market share with RIM leading the smartphone platform with a 37.6% market share.



Top Mobile OEMs




3 Month Avg. Ending Aug. 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010




Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+




Source: comScore MobiLens



Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers


May-10


Aug-10


Point Change


Total Mobile Subscribers


100.0%


100.0%


N/A

Samsung

22.4%

23.6%

1.2

LG

21.5%

21.2%

-0.3

Motorola

21.2%

18.8%

-2.4

RIM

8.7%

9.0%

0.3

Nokia

8.1%

7.6%

-0.5


Smartphone Platform Market Share

55.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in August, up 14 percent from the May period. RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 37.6 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.2 percent share. Google continues to gain ground in the market, rising 6.6 percentage points to capture 19.6 percent of smartphone subscribers. Microsoft accounted for 10.8 percent of smartphone subscribers, while Palm rounded out the top five with 4.6 percent. Despite losing share to Google Android, most smartphone platforms continue to gain subscribers as the smartphone market overall continues to grow.



Top Smartphone Platforms




3 Month Avg. Ending Aug. 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010




Total U.S. Smartphone Subscribers Ages 13+




Source: comScore MobiLens



Share (%) of Smartphone Subscribers


May-10


Aug-10


Point Change


Total Smartphone Subscribers


100.0%


100.0%


N/A

RIM

41.7%

37.6%

-4.1

Apple

24.4%

24.2%

-0.2

Google

13.0%

19.6%

6.6

Microsoft

13.2%

10.8%

-2.4

Palm

4.8%

4.6%

-0.2


Mobile Content Usage

In August, nearly 67 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.4 percentage points versus the prior three month period, while browsers were used by 34.5 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 2.6 percentage points). Subscribers who used downloaded applications comprised 32.3 percent of the mobile audience, representing an increase of 2.3 percentage points from the previous period. Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 1.7 percentage points, representing 22.5 percent of mobile subscribers, while listening to music inched 0.4 percentage points, representing 14.7 percent of subscribers.



Mobile Content Usage




3 Month Avg. Ending Aug. 2010 vs. 3 Month Avg. Ending May 2010




Total U.S. Mobile Subscribers Ages 13+




Source: comScore MobiLens



Share (%) of Mobile Subscribers


May-10


Aug-10


Point Change


Total Mobile Subscribers




100.0%


100.0%


N/A

Sent text message to another phone

65.2%

66.6%

1.4

Used browser

31.9%

34.5%

2.6

Used downloaded apps

30.0%

32.3%

2.3

Played games

22.5%

23.0%

0.5

Accessed social networking site or blog

20.8%

22.5%

1.7

Listened to music on mobile phone

14.3%

14.7%

0.4


Source: comSocre

Blackberry Torch Isn’t Popular in the UK

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010 by jrajani

Research In Motion has been losing ground to Apple and Google in recent months and hoping to gain ground with their new BlackBerry Torch device. A recent survey of 1,000 respondents by a UK based survey firm Toulna PLC found some interesting results. They asked their UK respondents if they had heard of the Torch device and found that only 22% of the respondents have heard about the device: among them, 19% have a clear intention of buying one, while 36% feel uncertain and about 45% say they will not.

RIM has been trying to balance the feature set for corporate and the consumer audiences and has encouraged the use of their devices as a regular smartphone. The survey found that in terms of usage: almost 60% are interested in personal use and 33% say they will consider using BlackBerry for both business and personal use.

On the issue of hardware and software features the survey found the following:

42% like the overall design

47% like the combination of touch screen and keyboard

34% believe the OS6 software handles multi-tasking and social networking efficiently

The demographics with the intention of buying a BlackBerry Torch is between 16 and 34 which defys the existing belief that Blackberry users tend to be middle-aged business executives. While the results are discougaring for the manufacturer there is hope that their marketing campaign and user experience with the device will change user opinion for the product.

Source: Toulna PLC

Smartphone users okay with ads on their device

Thursday, July 1st, 2010 by jrajani

A recent study released by Knowledge networks found 40% of app owners turn to their smartphone when making shopping decisions. In addition, the report found 40% refer to apps at least “sometimes” when making decisions while shopping; and, with iAd poised to bring app advertising to a new level, 32% already say they are more inclined to buy from companies that advertise in apps which is much higher in proportion than for other emerging platforms such as Android and Blackberry.

Further, the report found the following about ads in smartphone apps:

40% say the ads are “usually relevant to my needs and interests,”

46% report that the ads generally fit well with the ad context, and

70% say ads are a fair price to pay for getting a free app – even though an equal proportion feel that ads interfere with their enjoyment of apps.

“The portability of apps means that they can travel with people as they shop, and the proportion of smartphone users – particularly iPhone users – already using them while shopping is eye-opening,” said David Tice, Vice President and Group Account Director at Knowledge Networks. “We also found that, even before iAd has launched, advertising in an app is an effective way to take advantage of this symbiosis. Taking the opportunity further by creating a custom app is another, potentially more powerful approach.”

In addition, the report found remarkable differences among users of different types of smartphones:

The new report also reveals significant differences among users of the different types of smartphones; for example, people with iPhones 29 apps on their phones – compared to 19 for Android users and 4 for Blackberry users, are about three times more likely to have paid apps compared with non-iPhone users, and are much more likely to be receptive to advertising in apps.

The study was conducted in April 2010 among 1,004 smartphone owners (ages 13 to 54) who are members of KnowledgePanel. The report is part of The Home Technology Monitor™, an ongoing program that tracks ownership and use of new and traditional media devices and services. The margin of error for questions asked of the full study sample is +/- 3%.

Let me know if you are okay with ads being targeted to you in-app or while surfing the web while using your phone.

Source: Knowledge Networks