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MUMBAI: Here‘s some food for thought. Even as Nokia is betting on its 1O5 $20 phone to ramp up its sales worldwide, IDC last week reported that sales of smartphones in Q1, raced ahead of sales of simple or feature phones for the first time in mobile phone history. According to market research firm, International Data Corp (IDC), vendors shipped a total of 418.6 million mobile phones in Q1 compared to 402.4 million units in the first quarter of 2012 and 483.2 million units in the fourth quarter of 2012. In the worldwide smartphone market, vendors shipped 216.2 million units in Q1 2013, which marked the first time more than half (51.6 per cent) the total phone shipments in a quarter were smartphones. The market grew 41.6 per cent compared to the 152.7 million units shipped in Q1 2012, but 5.1 per cent lower than the 227.8 million units shipped in Q2 2012. |
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The big trend in Q1 is the emergence of Chinese companies in the Top five smartphone vendors list. Huawei and ZTE hawked 9.9 million units and 9.1 million units each in Q1 2013. Top Five Smartphone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, 2013 Q1 (Units in Millions)
If one looks at the chart above, Samsung sold more smart handsets than the rest of the four in the top 5 combined. Samsung‘s reign in the top five overall mobile phone shipment chart got stronger in Q1 with its share of shipments rising to 27.5 per cent. Nokia, however, saw its share dropping a quarter to fall to 14.8 per cent. Apple too reported single digit growth rates during Q1.
Top Five Total Mobile Phone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, 2013 Q1 (Units in Millions)
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What does the surge in sales mean for those of us in entertainment? Clearly, that mobile phone users are seeking more and more out of their handsets. They have simply moved beyond being just devices to be used as a long-distance talking tool. Kantar Media‘s latest proprietary TGI Clickstream study, with data collated from October 2011 to September 2012, has revealed that the smartphone is the device that consumers prefer as their pocket companion, even though tablets sales have been climbing crazily worldwide .Says Kantar Media‘s TGI International head Geoff Wicked: “There‘s no denying that more and more people are purchasing tablets for both business and personal use, but the fact remains that there are a billion smartphones on the planet, and tablet sales are still in their millions. While tablets will continue to become both more accessible and more sophisticated, the smartphone is still considered the all-round communications device that stays with a user for nearly 24 hours a day.” Kantar Media has been running a showcase theatre session at the Festival of Media Global, which is ending today Montreux, Switzerland. According to the Kantar Media study, social networking is the most popular type of smartphone app, with 37 per cent of smartphone web users surveyed saying they had downloaded a social networking app in the past twelve months. While this was the second most popular kind of tablet app, just half that amount (18 per cent) of tablet web users surveyed had downloaded a social networking app in the past twelve months. The biggest gap was evident across health and diet apps, which were downloaded by 11 per cent of smartphone web users but just 3 per cent of tablet web users – a difference of more than triple. The smallest gap was for property apps – downloaded by 4 per cent of smartphone web users and 3 per cent of tablet web users. Music, the fourth most popular type of app across users of both devices, was downloaded by more than double the amount of smartphone web users compared with tablet web users (25 per cent vs 11 per cent). Obviously, who wants to carry a clunky tablet with her when she is jogging around Central Park in New York or taking a walk in Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi. Similar results were revealed for mapping apps, which are the fifth most popular across both user types, but are downloaded by 22 per cent of smartphone web users compared with 11 per cent of tablet users.
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Tag: Nokia
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Smartphone sales surge; Smartphone apps score over tablets
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Arvind Pal Singh joins ValueFirst Digital Media as head-creative and communication
MUMBAI: Arvind Pal Singh has been appointed ValueFirst Digital Media head- content, creative and communication.
Prior to this, Singh(who is fondly known as Candy in the industry) has worked with Purple Focus for three years and in Capital Advertising for eleven years. He is also the founder of an advertisement agency called Magic Mushroom which he started before joining Purple Focus.
In his 16 years of career Candy has been associated with brands like LG, Electrolux, Maruti Swift, Citifinancial, Nestle, Godfrey Phillips, Allan Soothers Bajaj RE, DLF, Nokia (BTL), Tata Indicom (BTL), Eicher motors and Reliance Big Magic.
Singh said, “After spending almost two decades in the advertising space, I have realised that what comes between ideas and the consumers is the client who wants to play safe. For every idea that sees the light of the day, there are hundreds of rejected ideas behind it. The digital world on the other hand provides an opportunity to directly interact with the consumers. Engaging consumers online to form meaningful long term communities is one of the most interesting challenges for me here at ValueFirst.”
ValueFirst Digital Media CEO Vishwadeep Bajaj added, “I am delighted to have Candy on board. I believe that he can leverage his industry experience and understanding of the consumer to attract, engage and retain consumers on ValueFirst digital properties.”
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Disney UTV launches four freemium apps
MUMBAI: Disney UTV Digital, the digital media arm of Disney UTV, has launched four freemium apps UTV, Disney, Comedy and Devotional, for Indian mobile subscribers. Nokia Asha series has pre-embedded the UTV App on more than 2.5 million devices.
Content in the UTV app includes movie trailers, full length movies (Bollywood and Regional), Bollywood gossip and more. The Disney App includes short form content featuring Mickey and Friends, other Disney classics such as Big Bad Wolf and Santa‘s Workshop and celebrated Pixar short form animation such as Reds Dream and Adventures of Andre and Wally B.
The Comedy App gives users access to humorous videos like MENtals, Baba Aur Baby, Chickipedia and more. The Devotional App includes stories of Indian deities like Maa Durga, Sai Baba, Sri Krishna, and it includes the mythological epic Ramayana as well.
These apps, which feature the breadth and depth of Disney UTV‘s content across movies, television, Hollywood and English content along with aggregated content, have already crossed the 15 million download mark in their test phase itself. The apps provide a superior streaming experience for users, even on low-bandwidth GPRS networks.
The apps support monetisation via both ads as well as paid subscriptions enabled through Digital Disney UTV‘s mobile operator billing platform. This allows regular mobile users to access both ad-supported content as well as premium content within the same app, through a seamless one-click transaction via their mobile operator.
Disney UTV director, celebrity and video Sameer Pitalwalla said, “Feature phones are currently the dominant data consumption devices in India. While we have a robust smartphone strategy, we wanted to provide feature phone users with an excellent video experience. We combined our great catalogue with best in breed technology and have seen both download and engagement numbers catching fire. 15 million downloads, 1.5 million active users, terabytes in streaming and millions of ad impressions prove the power of our content and experience.”
Nokia India director developer experience Gerard Rego said, “Engagement and innovation have emerged as one of the top deciding factors in the mobile phone industry with more and more youth accessing Apps that enhance their user experience. Our association with Disney UTV has been extremely successful and, together, we continue to add value to our consumers by offering superior on-the-go video streaming. The availability of Disney UTV Digital‘s new Freemium Apps is a great milestone as users can enjoy their favourite content through fast and seamless video streaming on their Nokia Asha devices.”
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Vserv.mobi to help US app developers monetise in emerging markets
MUMBAI: Vserv.mobi, a global mobile Ad network for app developers, publishers, advertisers and telecom providers, has announced the appointment of Lance Johnson as VP business development, US. This appointment comes at a time when the company plans to add over 100 employees this year across the globe.
Vserv.mobi CEO, co-founder Dippak Khurana said, “Apps and games of developers based in USA are increasingly being downloaded by users in emerging markets. With Lance coming on board, developers in North America will be able to leverage Vserv‘s extensive network in emerging markets to monetize such App users effectively. We are excited to have a mobile industry veteran like Lance join our company at this critical juncture and wish him a rewarding and successful stint.”
Lance has over 10 years of experience across US, Europe and Latin America in the Mobile Ecosystem and will establish Vserv‘s presence in the Silicon Valley. He will focus on forging and strengthening strategic partnerships with developers, publishers and advertisers across the US.
He started his career at Yahoo where he held several senior level positions across Munich and London. He subsequently led the advertising business for Nokia globally and his last assignment was with MIH group where he focused on group M&A activities and building portfolio-company relationships in the US.
Vserv.mobi VP business development US Lance Johnson said, “I am excited to be a part of the Vserv.mobi team, at a stage when the company is growing rapidly and expanding globally. I look forward to engaging with the mobile ecosystem stakeholders in North America to expand their horizons and help them tap the massive opportunity in emerging markets.”
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Video watching on mobile growing in India: Nokia
MUMBAI: Video watching on the mobile is growing in India. Social media reigns over the mobile landscape of the country.
Nokia India has released the first edition of ‘Nokia Mobisight‘ for July- December 2012. This bi-annual customer preference survey is one-of-a-kind report in India on how the nation is using the mobile Internet. Nokia powers a majority of mobile data consumption in India, and Nokia Mobisight reveals that Nokia powered data consumption of 1.67 PetaBytes for July-December 2012, and 12.7 billion total page views.
With the massive amount of data consumption on the Nokia Store and on the Nokia browser, Nokia Asha‘s goal of connecting the next billion to the Internet is coming to life with the Nokia Asha‘s pocket-friendly mobile internet experience. Nokia Mobisight has captured the behaviour of mobile internet users, and provides insights on preferences for games, apps, music and more.
The survey portrays a paradoxical picture of a country which loves music, gaming and social networking on one hand and also seeks privacy for its online and mobile presence. Nokia Mobisight also reveals how Nokia is connecting the next billion internet users, and facilitating data usage across India as consumers access a whole host of new services like Nokia Music, Nokia Store, Nokia Life, and Nokia Maps on-the-go.
According to the survey‘s findings, India is accessing internet after their school, college and office hours, with peak access times for Nokia Browser ranging from 7:30 PM to 10:30PM IST. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh lead in the number of active Nokia Browser users. South Indians are consuming more internet on-the-go, with all four states in the top 10 in terms of consumption.
The report also reveals rising Facebook frenzy, with consumers accessing Facebook more than searching on Google. Interestingly, watching videos on the move has seen prominence, with YouTube, Tubidy and VuClip featuring prominently in Top 10 sites accessed on the Nokia Browser.
Privacy: The report also highlights that while the young India is more social than ever, youngsters are equally more guarded about their privacy. During the survey period, the Nokia Store has witnessed downloading of more apps related to privacy than any other services, and phone security apps occupy four places in the Top 5 apps downloaded.
Nokia Life, a suite of personally relevant information services provides regular localized information related to Education, Health, Agriculture and Entertainment, reveals some interesting findings. People have subscribed to Agriculture, the most out of all other life enhancing services which depicts that more and more farmers are getting glued to Nokia Life. While Indians love their Cricket, it‘s the adrenaline-pumping car racing games that they play on their mobile devices. Super hero games are also favorites among the gamer community on the Nokia Store.
The report also reveals that the young India is crazy about over the ‘Student of the Year‘ soundtrack – major songs top the Bollywood downloads chart at the Nokia Music Store, and Justin Beiber‘s ‘Boyfriend‘ and Priyanka Chopra‘s debut single ‘In My City‘ rocking the Nokia Music Store download charts.
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Cricket SA launches lovecricket app on Mxit
MUMBAI: Cricket South Africa (CSA) has launched its first mobile-only community, lovecricket, on Mxit, South Africa‘s largest mobile social network.
The app gives fans match details, player profiles, match scores, news, polls and an opportunity to have their say.
CSA Acting CEO Naasei Appiah commented, “As a mobile app, lovecricket, expands on our social media success by giving more people the chance to become part of the conversation. Mxit™s natural inclusivity – because it works across feature and smart phones – made it the perfect platform for us to keep increasing awareness and growing our fan base.”
Mxit is a downloadable social chat application that works on over 3 000 mobile devices from a standard Nokia to a high-end Samsung.
Mxit CMO Vincent Maher commented, “The scoring functionality is an important part of this app. Getting background information on players or games is great but the real engagement and excitement will be built by giving fans the sense that they are right there at the stadium. Once the real time scoring is added I cant‘ imagine a better mobile way to stay close to a game.”
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Vuclip acquires assets of mobile video streaming firm Jigsee
MUMBAI: Vuclip, world‘s leading mobile video and media company, has acquired the core assets of Jigsee, a mobile video streaming company, for an undisclosed sum.
Vuclip‘s vision is to provide mobile video for consumers worldwide, regardless of device type or network quality, and by extension, deliver value to strategic business partners such as content providers, advertisers and carriers. To further this vision, these core assets will bring to Vuclip considerable mobile app development talent, as well as additional proprietary video streaming technologies.
Consumers will now benefit from more ways to discover and experience mobile video content. Vuclip plans to offer new apps to complement its browser strategy, particularly in India, the Middle East and South East Asia.
“Jigsee saw the same huge opportunity that we did. Consumers in emerging markets are more often than not using low-cost smartphones, such as the Asha Series from Nokia or Android devices from Samsung, on constrained networks. This is a huge audience for the mobile ecosystem to reach — but requires creative problem-solving to ensure a quality user experience,” said Vuclip CEO Nickhil Jakatdar.
“Vuclip tackles this problem with unique technology innovation on the browser side, while Jigsee approached it primarily with an application-based approach. The combination of these two will now deliver optimal value to consumers — on both feature phones and low-cost smartphones — as well as business partners in a way that no one else has done before and will accelerate our reach into new markets.”
“It is inspiring to see Vuclip deliver on its ‘All Things Video‘ strategy so aggressively and quickly,” said SingTel Innov8 MD Jeff Karras. “With more than 45 million monthly unique users, a viable monetization strategy and strong leadership, Vuclip is positioned to capitalize on the massive growth in mobile video.”
SingTel Innov8 is one of Vuclip‘s investors.
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Draftfcb Ulka Delhi gets Burma as group creative director
MUMBAI: Sachin Das Burma has joined the Delhi office of Draftfcb Ulka Advertising as group creative director. He comes in from JWT Delhi where he was the vice president, creative. He has also worked with agencies like Contract and Bates.
Draftfcb Ulka Advertising national creative director K S Chakravarthy (Chax) said, “Sachin is a natural-born big ideas guy who enjoys working on big, challenging brands as much as he enjoys doing fun creative stuff. I am confident he will effortlessly fit into our high quality team in Delhi, and help drive our creative agenda.”
Draftfcb Ulka Advertising, Delhi COO Sanjay Tandon said, “In Sachin, beyond the competence, I see values that are dear to us – stability, team work & desire for excellence. He joins the senior team to push us faster towards where we want to go…creating game changing ideas that Build BrandWealth.”
Burma said, “I have always liked the Draftfcb Ulka way of thinking and wanted to become a part of a team that cherishes common values.”
Referring to Arvind Wable, advisor to the Board, Burma stated: “Arvind‘s long term belief in a ‘happy people culture‘ and its effect in building a strong business for over 20 years, was a convincing factor in my decision. And being hired by Chax was indeed a high.”
He comes to the team having built his credentials across several marquee brands like Hero, Airtel, Nokia, Pepsi, Timex, GSK and Dabur and having earned recognition at all premiere advertising forums like Effies, Goafest and D&AD.
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Gaana.com pumps up music content via YRF, Magnasound and Unisys
MUMBAI: Gaana.com, Times Internet Limited‘s (TIL) digital music platform, has partnered Yash Raj Films, Magnasound, and Unisys Infosolutions to bolster its music library.
The three partnerships will together add over 50,000 songs across categories, from major blockbuster movies like Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Ek Tha Tiger, to a variety of Punjabi hits like Aak Chak, Gal Sun and Tusi Bewafa, to the best of 1990s Indipop like Daler Mehndi and Baba Sehgal.
Gaana.com head Avinash Mudaliar claimed that Gaana.com app has seen 200,000 downloads two weeks since it was launched on iOS, Android, Blackberry, and Nokia/Samsung phones.
“On iPhone, we had 58,153 downloads. On Android, 69,456 downloads. On Nokia and Samsung phones, we had 69,674 downloads. On Blackberry devices, we had 5,115 downloads,” he disclosed.
Mudaliar said that the company is working towards improving the stability of apps and adding new features.
“On iPhone, the latest version (awaiting approval) will have AirPlay enabled, so you can stream music from your phone to your home devices. And on Android, the latest release adds a lot of stability, and some other incremental features,” he added.
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Nokia remains the most trusted for third consecutive year
MUMBAI: Nokia, Samsung and Sony have emerged as India‘s three most trusted brands, according to The Brand Trust Report, India Study 2013.
Nokia leads for the third consecutive year, while Samsung and Sony have both moved up two ranks from last year to occupy the second and third slots.
BMW has climb twenty ranks to become India‘s fourth most trusted brand, as per the Brand Trust Report while Tata slips three positions as India‘s fifth most trusted brand after being in second slot in the previous two years.
Godrej is India‘s sixth most trusted brand and has moved up five ranks from last year and Reliance ranks seventh having gained three positions over 2012.
Meanwhile, Bajaj slips to eighth rank moving one down from the previous year, Airtel maintains its position at ninth and LG is India‘s tenth Most Trusted brand, losing seven ranks from last year.
The Brand Trust Report, India Study 2013 is the third in its series and this year the report lists India‘s 1100 Most Trusted Brands from 211 categories.
The report is a result of a primary research based on 61 attributes called the Brand Trust Matrix. The research conducted among 2505 influencer-respondents from 16 cities, generated more than 3 million data points from 13000 hours of research, the company said in a statement.
Trust Research Advisory CEO N. Chandramouli said, “Brand Trust has become an universal and vital proxy for all the different experiences that a brand generates, making it possible for brands to accurately allocate resources and measure results.”
After being ranked second in the aerated Soft Drinks Category for two years in a row, Coca-Cola has taken the first position, albeit with only a 2 per cent lead over the second ranked Pepsi.
Nano is the most trusted car brand and among consumer products category. Meanwhile, Tide has overtaken Surf Excel as the most trusted detergent brand while Nirma surges ahead of Hindustan Unilever as the latter slips significantly.
HCC is India‘s Most Trusted Infrastructure brand, DLF leads in Real Estate and, in education, IIT is more trusted than Oxford University and IIM. In F&B, Parle-G is the Most Trusted biscuit brand and Cadbury‘s Dairy Milk ranks highest among Chocolate Bars in which seven brands are listed.
World Health Organisation (WHO) leads in trust among Global Bodies followed by YMCA, UNICEF and Red Cross. Dabur, the Ayurveda leader, also leads the Healthcare Super Category of 36 brands. The mosquito repellent, All Out, has been a leader three consecutive years and has lead of 120 per cent over the next ranked, Good Knight.
The category of Internet has 25 brands this year and though Google leads Facebook this year also, it is only by a miniscule 3 per cent margin.
Anna Hazare is the Most Trusted Personality in India. In the same list, Aamir Khan ranks second (up from his fifth rank last year) and Salman Khan slips to third, within a small 2 per cent gap of each other.
Salman Khan‘s NGO Being Human maintains its rank as the Most Trusted NGO in India.
Most brands in the Technology Category have gained trust ranks this year with Apple being listed as the Most Trusted Technology brand.
Indigo Airlines is this year‘s Most Trusted Airline as Air India slips to second position.